Ordinary Group Leader: "Maybe he just didn't think they were worth it?"
Ordinary Group Leader: "The Nine Yin Manual inside isn't even the complete version. It's worth some points, sure, but compared to the original, it falls way short."
Richest Man: "It's practically effortless—who cares about high value versus low value?"
Richest Man: "Incomplete or not, points are points."
Kasumi Shiko: "That scene just now—Master Zhang was like an immortal descending to the mortal world, suppressing everyone without lifting a finger. If he'd actually gone and done something, wouldn't that ruin the whole vibe?"
Cook Daigu Into Soup: "Hurt his cool factor?"
Kasumi Shiko: "More or less."
Kasumi Shiko: "He couldn't have just... forgotten, right?"
Zhang Sanfeng: "Uh—"
Watching the chat group's discussion, Zhang Sanfeng felt a moment of genuine awkwardness.
Honestly, if they hadn't brought it up, he really had forgotten about the Nine Yin Manual and Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms hidden inside the Heavenly Sword.
Well, not quite.
More accurately, he remembered—he just hadn't thought about reclaiming them.
Ordinary Group Leader: "You didn't actually forget, did you?"
Ordinary Group Leader: "."
Ordinary Group Leader: "Damn it, even though Zhang Sanfeng getting those points has nothing to do with me, watching points that were right there for the taking just slip away—why does my heart ache?"
Richest Man: "In Chinese terms, that's called 'empathy.'"
Invincible East: "@Zhang Sanfeng, what you used against the five major sects was the Pure Yang Boundless Art, wasn't it?"
Invincible East: "Though it seemed different from the recorded version."
Since Zhang Sanfeng had closed the livestream after the sects departed, the others knew nothing about the enhancement to the Pure Yang Boundless Art.
Dongfang Bai had recognized Zhang Sanfeng's technique as the Pure Yang Boundless Art because her Sun Moon Holy Cult possessed a complete copy—and even the Taiji Boxing Manual was in their collection.
Not just Wudang's arts. Shaolin's, Huashan's, Mount Tai's—the ultimate techniques of every sect were in the Sun Moon Holy Cult's possession.
After all, the only things from her world that the chat group deemed worth exchanging for points were these martial arts manuals. How could she possibly let other sects' collections go untouched?
Forget the Pure Yang Boundless Art—even the True Martial Sword had originally been in the Sun Moon Holy Cult's hands. But since it was worth a considerable sum, she'd sold it.
This world's Zhang Sanfeng had nothing to do with her. She naturally felt no obligation to look after his interests.
Anything the chat group recognized as redeemable for points was the property of the Sun Moon Holy Cult—her property, Dongfang Bai's property!
The Sun Moon Holy Cult now dominated the jianghu absolutely. After the last time every major sect had gathered at Blackwood Cliff only to be slaughtered to the last, no other voice remained in the martial world. Dongfang Bai's word was the only word.
Of course, as the Sun Moon Holy Cult's reach expanded, the imperial court had grown uneasy.
According to her intelligence, the court intended to move against the Sun Moon Holy Cult soon. As its leader, she was naturally on the kill list.
Dongfang Bai welcomed it.
This martial world could no longer contain the Sun Moon Holy Cult's ambitions. Her gaze had already turned to far greater horizons.
The current dynasty was already in decline. Historical collapse was less than a century away. Rather than follow history's script, she would reshape this land herself.
She would forge a new, more glorious Ming Dynasty.
A dynasty that belonged to her.
The history that followed would be different because of her. That era of humiliation would never come to pass.
With the chat group behind her, she had the power to make it real.
"Wherever the sun and moon shine, wherever mountains and rivers extend—all shall be my domain!"
"Should any dare invade, no matter how strong—they shall be destroyed!"
Meanwhile, Zhang Sanfeng responded to Dongfang Bai's question in the chat group.
Zhang Sanfeng: "You could call it good fortune on this old Daoist's part. A single attempt, and the enhancement succeeded."
Zhang Sanfeng: "Image.jpg"
[Pure Yang Boundless Art · Enhanced +1]
[Effect: Draws upon heaven and earth's righteous qi, absorbs the essence of sun and moon; dual cultivation of body and spirit, the Golden Core Great Dao]
[Note: One spiritual elixir swallowed into the belly, and you learn your fate is not heaven's to decide; when the resplendent Golden Core forms in a single day, the words of ancient immortals ring truly worth heeding]
Ordinary Group Leader: "Hssss~~~"
Ordinary Group Leader: "It literally became a cultivation technique?"
If the pre-enhancement Pure Yang Boundless Art could be considered a beginner's gateway to immortal cultivation, then the post-enhancement version was a legitimate—and even upper-tier—cultivation method in the world of immortal arts.
Why else would the chat group's description explicitly include the eight characters "dual cultivation of body and spirit, the Golden Core Great Dao"?
Though she had already witnessed this kind of leap when Dongfang Bai enhanced the Star-Absorbing Art into the enhanced Essence-Draining Art, Zhang Sanfeng's Pure Yang Boundless Art still drew a gasp of admiration from Roxie.
Lin Fengjiao: "Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Zhang."
Ordinary Mortal Zhang Zhiwei: "Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Zhang."
Uncle Jiu and Zhang Zhiwei were the first to offer their felicitations.
For any Daoist practitioner, attaining the Dao was the ultimate aspiration and pursuit of a lifetime.
Zhang Sanfeng had already set foot on that path. They, however, still lingered outside the gate. Beneath the congratulations, they couldn't help feeling a pang of wistfulness.
Uncle Jiu was in a better position. Though his era was approaching the Age of Dharma Decline, with spiritual energy in the air nearly depleted, that didn't mean the Maoshan lineage had lost its complete traditions—only that cultivation speed had slowed to a crawl.
Now that he'd joined the chat group, he could exchange points for spiritual energy.
His cultivation speed had naturally skyrocketed.
Combined with his lifelong commitment to good deeds, demon-slaying, and righteous conduct—brimming with positive energy and karmic merit—he had no need to worry about inner demons.
And the points required for cultivation weren't cheap, but was he short on points?
He had the entire Maoshan Sect behind him, with who knew how many ancestral patriarchs watching over him from above. With that many secret manuals, how could he possibly lack points?
Zhang Zhiwei's situation was different. Due to the nature of his world, although the Longhu Mountain techniques could also be cultivated, the chat group's appraisal rated them as relatively low in value—as though something was missing.
His strength was already considerable, but the Golden Core Great Dao remained a distant dream.
Richest Man: "Just one try and it succeeded?"
Richest Man: "That luck..."
Cook Daigu Into Soup: "So jealous!"
Cook Daigu Into Soup: "My fifty-percent enhancement chance failed!"
Holy Lord: "."
The Most Ancient Godslayer: "."
Ordinary Group Leader: "Wait, you all failed?"
Ordinary Group Leader: "Fifty percent! One in two!"
Ordinary Group Leader: "How is your luck this bad?!"
Uchiha Dance King: "Did you succeed?"
Ordinary Group Leader: "No, I failed too."
Ordinary Group Leader: "All I wanted was to add one enhancement to my Angel Fruit, and it failed!"
Ordinary Group Leader: "It's a Mythical Zoan, sure, but it's still a Devil Fruit! Devil Fruits aren't exactly rare! What kind of enhancement baseline could it possibly have?"
(End of Chapter)