"There are things this poor Daoist refrains from—not because he cannot, but because he chooses not to."
"Number One Under Heaven, Supreme of the Martial World—if this poor Daoist had wanted those titles, he'd have claimed them long ago."
His words fell like thunder. Everyone felt their eardrums ring, the terror in their hearts finally erupting beyond containment.
Now, not a shred of greed for the Dragon Slaying Saber remained—or rather, they no longer had the nerve to demand that Zhang Sanfeng hand over Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu.
Too powerful.
Zhang Sanfeng was simply too powerful.
In their eyes, he was practically indistinguishable from an immortal—utterly beyond the reach of mortals like them.
"Yuanqiao. See the guests out."
Zhang Sanfeng waved his hand and spoke lightly.
"Yes, Master."
Song Yuanqiao, still somewhat dazed, snapped to attention at Zhang Sanfeng's words. He responded respectfully, then descended the steps of the True Martial Hall and gestured courteously toward the assembled sects.
None dared linger. Those still able to walk hurriedly propped up their unconscious sect members and stumbled down the mountain.
Before long, the True Martial Hall was empty of outsiders.
What followed was Wudang's private hundredth birthday celebration. Song Yuanqiao, Zhang Cuishan, and the others couldn't wait to ask what divine realm Zhang Sanfeng's strength had entered.
Zhang Cuishan in particular could barely contain his shock.
In his heart, his master had always been invincible. But imagination had its limits. No matter how he thought about it, the radiance that had burst from Zhang Sanfeng's body, the pressure that rendered entire sects helpless—with the weakest members fainting outright—none of it resembled martial arts.
How could martial arts achieve something like that?
Martial arts at that level might as well be immortal arts.
Zhang Sanfeng only chuckled lightly and revealed nothing more. Instead, he produced a martial arts manual from seemingly nowhere.
The Pure Yang Boundless Art!
The Pure Yang Boundless Art was the Wudang Sect's supreme internal cultivation method—training both internal and external, combining movement and stillness, refining the five organs and six viscera internally, tempering sinews and bones externally, reaching the pinnacle of firmness and yang energy.
Whether it was stronger or weaker than the Nine Yang Divine Art was a matter of personal opinion, but without question, both stood at the absolute peak of this world's internal cultivation arts.
As Wudang disciples, Song Yuanqiao and the others were familiar with the technique—even if their constitutions and aptitudes prevented them from cultivating it. They looked at Zhang Sanfeng with puzzlement as he brought it out.
"This old Daoist has re-optimized the Pure Yang Boundless Art. It no longer requires specific physical conditions, but the aptitude threshold has risen even higher."
"However, through the process, this old Daoist gained considerable insight and created a simplified version. While it can't compare to the optimized form, it far surpasses the original Pure Yang Boundless Art."
"The Wudang Nine Yang Art is decent enough, but in the end, it falls quite short."
Zhang Sanfeng sighed faintly as he spoke.
The Wudang Nine Yang Art was his derivation from one-third of the Nine Yang Divine Art. It qualified as a first-rate internal art, but compared to the truly top-tier methods, it fell far behind.
Later, he had created the Pure Yang Boundless Art, but it demanded both physical constitution and aptitude—high ceiling paired with an equally high barrier to entry.
That was precisely why Song Yuanqiao and the others had never cultivated it.
After joining the chat group, the dazzling array of things from various worlds had opened his eyes—cultivation systems entirely different from martial arts, miraculous natural treasures with extraordinary properties. All of it fascinated him.
He had even considered whether to pursue an entirely new path. But ultimately, he realized that martial arts suited him best.
The chat group seemed to agree. On his very first attempt, the notification came: the Pure Yang Boundless Art had been successfully enhanced.
The enhanced version not only eliminated the virgin body requirement but was significantly more powerful than the original.
The trade-off was that while the virgin body condition was gone, the aptitude requirement had increased substantially.
So he extracted the most refined elements from the enhanced version and, drawing on his own martial understanding, created a simplified edition of the once-enhanced Pure Yang Boundless Art.
It preserved the removal of the virgin body requirement while lowering the aptitude demands.
At least Song Yuanqiao, Zhang Cuishan, and the others now qualified to cultivate it.
Meanwhile, the chat group had erupted into activity.
Ordinary Group Leader: "Master Zhang is still too merciful. If it were me, I'd just reveal the secret of the Dragon Slaying Saber and Heavenly Sword outright."
Ordinary Group Leader: "You want to fight over it? Want to be Supreme of the Martial World?"
Ordinary Group Leader: "Here's your chance. Can't find the Dragon Slaying Saber? The Heavenly Sword is right there in plain sight. The Wumu Remnant Manual inside the Dragon Slaying Saber is useless to you, but the Nine Yin Manual and the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms? Those are two of the martial world's absolute peak arts—aside from Shaolin, who wouldn't want them?"
Ordinary Group Leader: "Even Shaolin couldn't resist."
Ordinary Group Leader: "Sure, on the surface, the 'righteous orthodox sects' can't just steal them without a proper excuse. But what about behind the scenes?"
Ordinary Group Leader: "Black clothes and a hood—as long as you have no evidence, even if I used recognizable techniques I could pin it on someone else and claim the sect's secret manual was leaked ages ago."
Roxie had no sympathy for these people whatsoever.
Guo Xiang hadn't founded Emei to turn it into some sprawling empire. Why couldn't they just be a proper, respectable orthodox sect?
Was the secret inside the Dragon Slaying Saber and Heavenly Sword really that important to Emei?
Guo Jing and Huang Rong hadn't forged those weapons so people could chase some martial world overlord title.
Cook Daigu Into Soup: "By the way, can't other weapons besides the Dragon Slaying Saber cut open the Heavenly Sword?"
Cook Daigu Into Soup: "There are quite a few divine weapons from wuxia worlds in the shop."
Ordinary Group Leader: "It's not that they can't—it's that it might destroy the manuals inside."
Ordinary Group Leader: "And while there are plenty of divine weapons, those are from other eras. Finding weapons that match the Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber from the same period is pretty rare."
After all, both weapons were forged from Dugu Qiubai's Dark Iron Heavy Sword. The material was extremely hard.
Richest Man: "I just thought of something."
Richest Man: "Why doesn't Zhang Sanfeng just get his hands on the Heavenly Sword and reclaim the manuals inside?"
Richest Man: "Those two techniques are worth a good chunk of points, right?"
Richest Man: "The reclamation function doesn't care whether something's inside a sword or outside it."
Richest Man: "And even if he wants to keep the originals, the reclamation function can make a copy and reclaim that instead."
Richest Man: "We're talking tens of thousands of points here. That's not cheap."
For cultivation systems, the chat group's reclamation feature offered two options: first, reclaim the physical book and all; second, the chat group duplicates the text content and reclaims that—same price either way.
He'd been given those same two options when reclaiming the blueprints for the Mark armor.
(End of Chapter)