Chapter 135: Chapter 125: The Three Grandmasters_1
When Lu Yan took out the finger bone, the Dao Book radiated a powerful urge.
"With such a hunger, it means the power contained within the bone is astonishing. Could it elevate my Nine Divine Lightning Slash to the Unity of Man and Martial Arts directly?"
At this thought, Lu Yan began to hesitate.
He was now at the Martial Marquis Level Two, and naturally started contemplating about the title of Inner Strength Master.
Like Limit Breaking Warriors and Martial Marquises, an Inner Strength Master awakens their hidden personal potential.
However, Inner Strength Masters focus on their internal organs.
To advance to an Inner Strength Master, the first step is to infuse bone strength into the organs, and the first organ to target is the heart.
The heart is the source of life. It’s miraculous but also fragile.
Bone strength is both aggressive and domineering.
Once bone strength enters the heart, it can easily injure the organ. A slight misstep can destroy the heart and lead to death.
Lu Yan’s bone strength surpasses the norm. If he continues to cultivate the Acquired Martial Body, will his bone strength increase, making the breakthrough into the master level more dangerous and challenging?
This is where Lu Yan’s hesitation lies.
"Getting stuck in one’s thoughts, wavering, how can you practice martial arts? The ancient books record that there were rare individuals with Innate Martial Bodies who had extremely abundant Qi-blood, ten times or more than average people. They still managed to reach the Master Level, dominating the world. If those people could reach the Master Level, what am I afraid of?"
Lu Yan’s eyes gradually became firm.
He reminiscenced how the feudal clans valued Innate Martial Bodies and spared no effort to cultivate them.
The Gao Family of NanYi City even proposed conditions such as matrilocal marriage or siring a child, aiming to acquire an Innate Martial Body.
Of course, the strength of an Innate Martial Body is a reason. Once an Innate Martial Body breaks into the Martial Marquis realm, its minor levels can’t hinder them. Given enough resources and time, almost all Innate Martial Bodies could cultivate to the peak of the Martial Marquis.
An Innate Martial Body at the peak of Martial Marquis is regarded as the strongest under the Grandmaster.
But how many Grandmasters are there?
However, Lu Yan didn’t believe that this was the only reason. If Innate Martial Bodies could only reach the Martial Marquis and go no further, the clans wouldn’t go to such lengths to cultivate them.
There should be a method to break through.
Without further hesitation, Lu Yan began to communicate with his Dao Book and swallowed the finger bone.
Upon swallowing, the Dao Book glowed, shining brilliantly.
Simultaneously, the Nine Divine Lightning Slash Avatar also glowed and started cultivating, visibly improving at a rapid pace.
In Lu Yan’s mind, he constantly gained insights and inspiration about the Nine Divine Lightning Slash.
"Let’s head back to the Blood Land Vein first."
Before returning, Lu Yan dug a hole and buried the iron box. He returned to his residence, sat cross-legged on his bed, and observed the Dao Book and the Nine Divine Lightning Slash Avatar.
This time, the Dao Book didn’t enter a ’dormant’ state, only shining brightly.
The Nine Divine Lightning Slash was rapidly progressing.
By dawn, the Nine Divine Lightning Slash reached a transcendent level but kept on cultivating.
During the day, Lu Yan behaved as if nothing had happened, and continued to exchange ideas with Wang Dao.
By noon, the Nine Divine Lightning Slash was gradually approaching the realm of unity between man and martial arts.
Lu Yan found an excuse so as not to interrupt. He stated that he had gained some insights and retired to the practice room.
Shortly after, the Nine Divine Lightning Slash formally broke through to achieve Unity of Man and Martial Arts.
Swish Swish Swish!
Lu Yan wielded his blade, as heavy as a mountain.
A copious, unseen energy from the universe, converged onto Lu Yan’s body.
"I’ve missed this feeling."
Lu Yan’s eyes shone brightly; he showed a smile.
As expected, cultivating superior martial arts to achieve Unity of Man and Martial Arts would still allow him to create an Acquired Martial Body.
A few hours later, the universal reward ended.
Lu Yan observed the changes in himself.
His bone strength stayed constant at six strands. However, each strand was several times thicker. This progress resulted in a giant leap forward in Lu Yan’s cultivation level, pushing him to the peak of Martial Marquis Level Two. It saved him a lot of Martial Food and time.
In addition to this, his physical body also got honed — tendons, muscles, and bones all improved considerably.
Even the internal organs received a certain amount of tempering.
Lastly, there was his total amount of Qi-blood. Lu Yan felt an increase in his Qi-blood total, but found it hard to measure the precise increase.
After all, the realms of Martial Marquis and Limit Breaking Warrior are entirely different, not as straightforward.
His ’water tank’ of a body has certainly expanded, capable of holding more ’water’, but he can only measure how much it expanded when it’s filled to the top.
Although the Nine Divine Lightning Slash reached the realm of Unity of Man and Martial Arts, the energy from the finger bone was evidently yet to be fully consumed.
The Dao Book still glowed.
With a thought, Lu Yan linked the Dao Book’s energy with the ’two-star Yinuo Lizard Meat’.
The progress of the ’two-star Yinuo Lizard Meat’ began to surge.
"This finger bone contains such rich energy."
Lu Yan grinned.
If he could maximize the progress of the ’two-star Yinuo Lizard Meat’ as well, it would be fantastic.
The Dao Book did not let Lu Yan’s expectations down.
By late-night, the ’two-star Yinuo Lizard Meat’ had also reached the realm of ’Unity of Man and Food’.
Various experiences related to cooking ’two-star Yinuo Lizard Meat’ surfaced in Lu Yan’s mind.
Lu Yan felt that if he cooked ’two-star Yinuo Lizard Meat’ now, not only could he cook a significantly greater quantity at once, but the success rate would also be one hundred percent.
If the realm of Unity of Man and Food couldn’t reach a success rate of a hundred percent, then there’s no point in practicing.
Even amongst Martial Chef masters, when it comes to cooking a certain type of Martial Food, not all can reach the Unity of Man and Food realm.
"It seems like there’s still energy left."
Lu Yan gazed at the glowing Dao Book, feeling regretful and a sense of loss.
That’s because there are no other martial arts avatars or martial food avatars he can use to upgrade.
Although he still has two types of archery martial arts, previously he had been narrowly focused on the Nine Divine Lightning Slash, and hadn’t taken the time to understand these archery skills, so no avatars had been formed yet.
Such a waste.
What a waste.
Lu Yan vowed to himself.
Once he acquires martial arts in the future, he plans to understand and master the basics and then consolidate his avatar.
Who knows when he will come across such a rare Dao Food again?
He left his room, washed himself thoroughly, and changed into a fresh set of clothes.
The next day, Lu Yan bid farewell to Wang Dao.
After many days of sparring, Wang Dao had already gained insights and was close to a breakthrough, so he didn’t insist on keeping Lu Yan any longer.
Returning to the Sanjue Martial Arts Hall, Lu Yan started to consume a significant amount of Martial Food.
The Qi-blood in his body kept thickening and filling his body.
This process was different from the limit-breaking stage, the growth was extremely rapid. In merely ten days or so, his body’s Qi-blood was restored to its full capacity.
When Qi-blood reaches saturation, a part of it surged into his skeletal system, blending with a cluster of starlight to create a new Bone Strength.
Immediately afterward, another wave of Qi-blood flowed into his skeletal system, forming the second Bone Strength.
Only after the generation of two Bone Strengths did it come to a stop.
The Bone Strength within Lu Yan’s skeletal system now consisted of eight pathways.
However, the newly formed Bone Strengths was rather weak, they were far from being comparable to the previous six, which were equivalent to just breaking through to the Martial Marquis level.
"Ordinary people double their Qi-blood and generate one Bone Strength. Now that I have generated two Bone Strengths, it’s equivalent to having twice the Qi-blood of ordinary people. The Qi-blood volume of my Acquired Martial Body has increased by more than thirty percent this time."
Lu Yan judged inwardly.
It was a bit less than expected.
Nevertheless, it was normal considering his robust foundation having six times the Qi-blood of an ordinary person. Moreover, being a Martial Marquis, he was continuously refined by Bone Strengths, making his root even stronger so the degree of improvement was naturally limited.
But even though the increase was just over thirty percent, Lu Yan’s Qi-blood had risen from six times to eight times when compared to an average human.
"It seems there has been a new change in the Martial Arts Avatar, I need to find a place to test it."
Lu Yan contemplated.
Eight days ago, the Dao Book had already absorbed all the energy from his skeletal system, but Lu Yan was fully focused on accumulating Qi-blood, so he didn’t pay attention to it.
He moved towards a forest outside the city, his mind summoned a Martial Arts Avatar which charged out from his brow and landed on the ground.
It was the avatar of Vajra Indestructible Skill.
It then rushed into the distance.
Five hundred meters.
From Lu Yan himself as the centre, it could move to a distance of five hundred meters.
Once it exceeded five hundred meters, Lu Yan would lose control over the avatar.
Unfortunately, it could still only be one avatar at a time.
Next, he withdrew the Vajra Indestructible Skill’s Avatar and tested the Nine Heavenly Blade’s Avatar and Nine Divine Lightning Slash’s Avatar. All of them could only go to a distance of five hundred meters.
The duration, however, had no limit and could stay out for as long as required.
...
During these days, Li Wenxuan was extremely irritated.
The experts sent to Dingxing City seemed to have sunk into the ocean, there was no news at all.
Earlier they had sent him a message indicating that they were about to succeed, why suddenly there was no news?
At this moment, a confidant came to report.
"Sir, I have secretly been in contact with Wu Qi. He informed me that Liu Wan and his team had already dug up the item and left the blood land vein of Dingxing City more than ten days ago. As for Liu Wan’s whereabouts afterwards, he is not aware."
The confidant reported.
"They left the blood land vein of Dingxing City more than ten days ago, where are they now? Did they abscond with the treasure? Or were they killed on their journey?"
Li Wenxuan’s eyebrows furrowed. After a while, he asked, "During that time, how many martial marquises were in that area of Dingxing City?"
"During that period, apart from the two martial marquises guarding the blood land vein, there was also the dean of the Sanjue Martial Arts Hall, Lu Shanchuan, who was practicing knife techniques with Wang Dao."
The confidant reported.
"Lu Shanchuan."
A glint of coldness flashed across Li Wenxuan’s eyes.
Because of the incident with Li Cangxin, the suspicion was once cast on Lu Shanchuan, but after sending someone to probe, it was found that Lu Shanchuan was only a Martial Marquis Level One, there was no evidence, so the matter was suppressed.
However, he had no goodwill towards Lu Shanchuan.
"Send people to investigate the essential routes between Dingxing City and Baicao City, and also intensify the investigation into people like Lu Shanchuan and Wang Dao."
Li Wenxuan ordered.
Just at this moment, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in."
Li Wenxuan said.
An old man came in and said, "Sir, the Ancestor would like to see you. He has an important matter to discuss with you."
"An important matter?"
Li Wenxuan was suspicious, but he didn’t dare to delay and set off immediately.
When he arrived at the Li Family’s main hall, he found that in addition to the Ancestor Li Xingyuan, there were two people sitting on either side of him.
A white-haired old woman.
A tall and sturdy bald old man.
Li Wenxuan was taken aback.
Because these two were not just anyone, they were both elders of the Li Family with the status of Inner Strength Masters.
There were a total of three Inner Strength Masters in the Li Family, all of whom were present today.
"Could it be that news of my cultivation of Martial Spirit has been exposed?"
This was the first thought that came to Li Wenxuan’s mind.
However, he had seen it all before, he was cunning and resourceful and quickly calmed down.
This was because another person entered from outside the door, it was Li Wenxin.
Upon seeing the three Grandmasters, Li Wenxin also showed a puzzled look.
Then, a few more people came in, all of them high-ranking members of the Li Family.
A moment later.
"Everyone is here. Now, I will share a piece of news. Not long ago, we received information that a great change has happened in Dongshan County. A monster king emerged from Moling Mountain and battled with five Grandmasters of Dongshan County. In the end, the five Grandmasters suffered a huge defeat, with one dead and four injured."
Li Xingyuan spoke slowly.
