Yang Jing's body jolted, as if a membrane had suddenly shattered within him.
The Mountain-Shattering Fist techniques, once intimately familiar, now felt subtly different.
When he threw a punch, it was no longer driven by brute force.
The qi and blood that had long been accumulating in his Dantian now flowed on their own, coursing through his meridians and gathering at the edge of his fist.
When he planted his feet, it felt as if they were sticking to the ground, giving him a more solid and stable foundation with every step.
He abruptly stopped punching, and the sounds around him became several times clearer in an instant.
The cries of merchants and peddlers from outside the courtyard, the shouts of Martial Arts Hall disciples practicing in the distance, and even the faint rustling of insects crawling near the wall—all of it reached his ears.
His vision, too, seemed to have been washed clean. The patterns on the bluestone slabs and the cracks on the wooden posts were exceptionally distinct.
What truly shook him to the core was the new power born within his body.
It wasn't searing hot like qi and blood, but it possessed a condensed, formidable strength that slowly roamed through his meridians.
Everywhere it passed, his entire body felt an unprecedented sense of fullness.
Yang Jing could clearly sense that if he threw a punch now, this power would erupt from his fist. An ordinary strongman, if hit, would likely suffer broken bones and torn tendons.
"Is... is this Mingjin?"
Yang Jing muttered to himself, his eyes erupting with incredulous joy.
He finally understood and was certain.
The panel hadn't lied; his cultivation truly had no bottlenecks.
The threshold that others had to struggle to cross, even risking damage to their meridians, was for him merely a natural breakthrough that came when the time was right.
He tried throwing another punch. Before his fist could even touch the post, that Mingjin power projected outward.
With a BANG, it left a shallow fist print on the wooden post.
Yang Jing stood there, staring at his fist, the excitement in his chest nearly bursting forth.
Half a year of grueling effort, countless beads of sweat, and the expectations of his family had finally paid off at this very moment!
Not only had he secured his place in the Martial Arts Hall, but he had also stepped into the Mingjin Realm—a state that countless disciples dreamed of achieving!
Yang Jing's breakthrough was like a stone tossed into a placid lake, instantly shattering the courtyard's usual rhythm.
Not far away, Hall Master Sun Yong, who was instructing Lin Yue, raised an eyebrow, his gaze locking precisely onto the center of the training grounds.
Having practiced the Martial Dao for decades, he was all too familiar with the aura of Mingjin.
The power that had just projected from Yang Jing's fist, though still raw, was unmistakably Mingjin!
A trace of astonishment flashed in Sun Yong's eyes, and the hand stroking his beard paused for a moment.
This Yang Jing... He remembered clearly. The boy's innate talent was quite average. Even among those with a Lower-Grade Root Bone, he could only be considered mediocre. Despite his diligent training since joining the hall half a year ago, he had remained stuck at the entry-level.
By his estimation, it would have been impressive enough for Yang Jing to even approach the threshold for a breakthrough within half a year. The hope of him actually reaching the Mingjin Realm was incredibly slim.
But now, this kid had somehow done it without a sound?
And on his first try?
'He's got some luck, I suppose.'
Sun Yong mused to himself.
Breaking through in the Martial Dao was three parts talent, six parts hard work, and one part fortune and luck.
Perhaps Yang Jing had simply stumbled upon that sliver of luck, allowing him to smoothly break through to the Mingjin Realm.
After the initial surprise, a hint of a smile appeared on his face.
In any case, having another Mingjin Disciple in the Martial Arts Hall was always a good thing.
Mingjin Disciples were the backbone of a Martial Arts Hall. They upheld its reputation and benefited both the hall and themselves.
"Yang Jing," Sun Yong called out. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly to every corner of the courtyard.
Hearing his name, Yang Jing looked up. Seeing the Hall Master looking at him, he quickly ceased his practice and bowed respectfully. "This disciple is here."
Sun Yong nodded, his eyes sizing Yang Jing up for a moment before he slowly said, "Since you have entered the Mingjin Realm, you will now be considered my formal disciple. From this day forward, your treatment and benefits will all be changed to the standard for formal disciples."
This announcement was like a boulder dropped into a crowd, which instantly erupted.
"What?"
"Yang Jing broke through?"
"He reached the Mingjin Realm?"
"How is that possible? With his Root Bone..."
The moment Sun Yong finished speaking, a tide of discussion washed over the courtyard. The thirty-some disciples present all turned to stare at Yang Jing in unison, their faces filled with disbelief.
If those words hadn't come from the Hall Master's own mouth, none of them would have believed it.
A young disciple who had just joined the Martial Arts Hall let his mouth hang open, the wooden saber in his hand falling to the ground with a CLATTER. "Senior Brother Yang... really did it? I heard reaching the Mingjin Realm is incredibly hard! Many senior brothers have better Root Bones than him, and even they haven't succeeded!"
Someone next to him swallowed hard, his tone dripping with envy. "Who knows what kind of dumb luck he stumbled into! With his aptitude, it would've been a feat just to touch the threshold in half a year, and he succeeded on his first try? Don't tell me he was possessed by a ghost during his breakthrough attempt!"
"He... he actually broke through."
At the back of the crowd, a disciple who had joined the Martial Arts Hall around the same time as Yang Jing had red-rimmed eyes. He had buried himself in bitter training for over five months and believed his own Root Bone was superior to Yang Jing's. He had attempted his own breakthrough last month, only to fail, injuring his vital energy in the process. He was still recuperating.
Zhou Lin and Zhang Kehan stood by the courtyard wall, their faces frozen as if they had just been slapped hard.
Zhou Lin's fists were clenched so tightly his nails nearly dug into his flesh.
They had been waiting to laugh at Yang Jing getting kicked out in half a month, but in the blink of an eye, he had broken through to the Mingjin Realm? He had become someone they might not achieve in their entire lives?
"This is impossible," Zhang Kehan muttered, his eyes glazed over. "He was clearly... clearly... inferior to us."
Even Qi Yun, who had been watching coldly from the sidelines, was stunned for a moment before her brow furrowed even deeper.
Her gaze toward Yang Jing now held a new complexity, mixed with her usual disdain.
'That guy I always thought was an idiot... did he really get that damn lucky?'
A few disciples whom Yang Jing had previously given some pointers to, however, now showed genuine admiration on their faces.
A man with a thick beard rubbed his hands together and said in a low voice, "I've only been in the Martial Arts Hall for two months, but honestly, we've all seen how hard he's worked these past two-plus months... Maybe it's not all just luck."
But his words were quickly drowned out by a more turbulent wave of doubt.
In the eyes of most, Yang Jing's success had to be the result of some incredible stroke of luck. Otherwise, with his Root Bone, how could he possibly surpass so many disciples with better talent and ascend to such heights in a single step?
Yang Jing stood in the center of the crowd, listening to the murmurs of shock and jealousy around him, but his expression remained calm.
He knew that whether they doubted him or were jealous, it couldn't change the fact that he had already entered the Mingjin Realm.
He simply straightened his back and bowed to Sun Yong again. "This disciple obeys."
Sun Yong gave a faint "Mm," and said, "This afternoon, I will personally instruct you on the lesser mastery stage of the Mountain-Shattering Fist."
Once a disciple of Sun's Martial Arts Hall broke through to the Mingjin Realm, they became a formal disciple of Hall Master Sun Yong and would naturally receive more of his guidance.
Yang Jing had just broken through and was about to begin cultivating the lesser mastery stage of the Mountain-Shattering Fist, so this was precisely when he needed instruction.
"Yes, Master!" Yang Jing said with a solemn expression.
Before breaking through to the Mingjin Realm, he would have called him Hall Master, but now, he could truly consider himself Sun Yong's disciple.