Well — it seemed he really did owe the Hundred-Day Sovereign a thank-you for the assist.
That was Gu Chengming's private assessment. The process had gone a little sideways, but the end result was more or less what he'd had in mind.
So tell me — did the con land, or didn't it!
And as that "ancient dragon-python" settled into Hundred Bones Resonance's belly, the cultivation method's affection rating climbed to one hundred and thirty-seven points.
Gu Chengming looked at the number and nodded with quiet satisfaction.
This kid — sharp from the cradle, easy to please.
The next morning, the mist had barely begun to thin when the back-mountain spirit kitchen was already humming with noise. Gu Chengming strolled in with the ease of a regular, heading straight for the slaughter platform. The moment he appeared, every disciple in the vicinity who had still been yawning snapped to attention and crowded over.
"Senior Brother Gu! We've been waiting for you!"
The fat steward, Wang Dahai, came trotting over on his stubby legs, round face gleaming, a pot of hot tea held out in both hands like an offering.
"A fresh batch of Purple-Backed Brute Oxen came in this morning — thick-skinned and tough as iron, every last one of them. The boys have been hacking away and barely carved off a few slabs. We've all just been standing here waiting for you, Senior Brother!"
Gu Chengming accepted the teacup and gave a casual wave.
"No need for formalities. If we're calling this cultivation, then we face difficulty head-on. Where are the oxen now?"
"Penned up round the back! Right this way, Senior Brother!"
Wang Dahai bobbed and bowed as he led the way, while the surrounding disciples parted of their own accord, eyes full of open admiration.
That's Senior Brother Gu for you — a bearing that's simply in a class of its own.
And so the days that followed took on a pleasant, clockwork rhythm. Though ordinary slaughtering no longer yielded much in the way of CG unlock progress, the method Gu Chengming had worked out earlier still held up perfectly.
He stopped chasing quantity and started investing in quality — "quality" being, of course, entirely fabricated.
On the third day, he stood before a perfectly ordinary Fire-Feather Chicken, stared at it with great solemnity for a long while, then declared in grave tones that it harbored a faint trace of primordial phoenix-luan bloodline within its body. After a suitably "arduous" struggle, he finally cut it down.
[Hundred Bones Resonance exclaimed that Gu the Celestial Emperor's fortune truly defied the heavens — to encounter such a divine creature!]
[Huiyuan Sword Art / Demon-Binding was in complete agreement.]
CG unlock progress: +9%.
On the fifth day, he discovered on an ordinary horned ram the legendary mutant bloodline of a Cloud-Treading Qilin.
Admittedly, the only thing remotely unusual about the ram was a slightly crooked horn — nothing about it looked remotely like a qilin. But between Gu Chengming's award-worthy performance of facing a mortal threat and his line of "This ram's footwork secretly aligns with the Heavenly Celestial principles — were my sword arts any less than divine, I might never have gotten close," the two cultivation methods swallowed it whole without a second's hesitation.
CG unlock progress: +5%.
And so the days went by.
Over that stretch of time, Gu Chengming had collected one ancient-demon bloodline and one mutant bloodline — both entirely fabricated, naturally, but the results were swift and undeniable.
[Current unlock progress: 85%]
Staring at that progress bar inching toward the finish line, Gu Chengming let out a long, slow breath.
"Nearly there."
He reminded himself inwardly to show some restraint.
As satisfying as it was to fleece the system like this, too much of a good thing would spoil it. Pull this stunt a few more times and Hundred Bones Resonance would probably start getting suspicious.
Besides, the Demon-Binding CG was already at eighty-five percent. From here, he just needed to let the rest unlock naturally, step by step.
But the world of cultivation had a way of refusing to let sleeping dogs lie.
One afternoon, at the peak of the day's heat.
The entire spirit kitchen had wilted in the sun, and even the smell of blood hanging in the air seemed to have thickened into something more viscous and acrid than usual.
"BOOM——!"
A tremendous crash shattered the drowsy afternoon silence.
"Something's wrong! The cage broke!"
"Run! The beast has gone berserk!"
Gu Chengming's head snapped up at the sounds. At the far end of the slaughter platform, the heavy black-iron cage — the one used to hold high-risk demon beasts — had been ripped open by some tremendous force, leaving a massive gash in its side.
A huge beast, its body a deep blue-black and its mane bristling like needles, was slowly prowling out through the breach.
It was a Blue-Maned Demon Lion. According to the intake records, it had been struck and captured by a patrol elder on the sect's outer perimeter, delivered in critical condition with every bone in its body shattered.
But now the demon lion stood amid the wreckage, wounds still savage — some patches of raw white bone still showing through — yet its aura carried absolutely none of the dying weakness it had arrived with.
"ROARRR——!!!"
The demon lion threw its head back and bellowed, and a visible shockwave of sound rolled outward, sending stacked steamers and cutting boards flying in every direction.
Its terrifying pressure blanketed the entire spirit kitchen in an instant.
"Second Realm, mid-stage?!"
Not far away, the fat steward's face drained to chalk-white. The ledger in his hands hit the ground with a dull slap.
"How is that possible? It was only early Second Realm when it came in, and its meridians were completely severed…"
"It was faking!"
"This beast opened its spiritual intelligence long ago — it knew it was as good as dead, so it played weak. It even severed its own meridians to fool the elders' examination, biding its time until it was sent to the spirit kitchen where security was most lax, waiting for one last desperate gambit!"
Once a demon beast reached the Second Realm, its spiritual mind awoke, and the cunning ones could be even more troublesome than humans. Though still injured and below its full mid-Second-Realm peak, it was still comfortably at early Second Realm.
And at the moment, aside from Gu Chengming and Wang Dahai, the rest of the spirit kitchen staff were mostly First Realm, third and fourth-stage errand disciples — nowhere near enough to handle something like this.
Wang Dahai, a First Realm ninth-stage veteran, was at least made of sterner stuff. At the critical moment he gritted his teeth and stepped forward, shoving aside a younger disciple who had already frozen in terror.
"Stop standing there gaping! Get to the back courtyard and fetch an elder! I'll hold it here!"
Then he turned and looked at Gu Chengming beside him. The smile that appeared on his round face was worse than a grimace.
"Gu — Gu, Junior Brother…"
"I know this is asking a lot. But there are so many junior brothers and sisters here — if that thing breaks through, the consequences will be unthinkable."
"Could you... stay with me and help hold it off for a moment?"
Wang Dahai was self-aware enough to know his limits. His cultivation wasn't low, but his physique had been shaped at the stovetop, not the training grounds.
Right now, his only hope was that this Junior Brother Gu would stand with him long enough for an elder to arrive.
[Huiyuan Sword Art / Demon-Binding fixed its gaze on the demon lion radiating dense killing aura.]
[This beast — how dare it commit violence in broad daylight! This wretch must be slain!]
Gu Chengming drew a deep breath and said to Wang Dahai beside him:
"Naturally."
The words had barely left his mouth when the demon lion was already upon them. Rather than retreating, Gu Chengming surged forward. Wang Dahai had only just tightened his grip on his blade — he hadn't even had time to shout a warning — before his eyes blurred and steel rang against steel, and the first exchange was already underway.
Demon-Binding Sword Art — Fettering the Feet!
"Clang!"
A sharp metallic cry rang out.
The impact sent a jolt through Gu Chengming's sword hand, rattling his blood and qi. But he didn't panic. Using the rebound force to his advantage, he let his body drift backward and shed most of the impact, while his sword never once broke its flow — the iron blade swept back upward and wound itself around the beast's foreleg.
A force threaded through the blade-edge. The demon lion felt a sudden numbness in its front leg, and its lunging strike veered inexplicably off by several inches.
"THOOM!"
Its paw smashed into the stone platform beside it, sending rock fragments spraying in every direction.
Before it could even register what had happened, Gu Chengming had already slipped around to its flank. His blade flashed in a dense weave of motion — but never once aimed for vital points. Every stroke found a joint, a tendon, a hinge.
The demon lion went into a rage, lashing its tail wildly. But no matter how it struck, Gu Chengming remained planted in its attack blind spot.
You advance, I retreat. You retreat, I advance.
"ROARR——!"
The beast was starting to lose its mind.
Which was exactly what Gu Chengming wanted.
This demon lion was already running on fumes — sheer fury was all it had left to sustain it. All he needed to do was drag it out until that last thread of momentum snapped, and it was finished.
Just as he had calculated, the demon lion's movements finally began to slow.
"Roarr…"
Now.
Gu Chengming didn't hesitate for a single heartbeat. His body came to a dead stop—
— Flowing Light, Sword Shadows.
"Fft!"
A soft, clean sound.
The streak of light passed through the demon lion's neck without the faintest resistance. The massive body lurched rigid.
The light faded from its eyes slowly, as if it still hadn't understood what had just happened.
The next instant.
A great lion's head rocketed skyward. Scalding blood erupted like a fountain, painting half the slaughter platform red.
"CRASH!"
The headless body toppled to the ground with a thunderous impact, raising a cloud of dust.
A death-like silence fell over the entire back mountain — none more stunned than Wang Dahai, who had only just registered the moment Gu Chengming had charged forward. He stood there now with his mouth hanging open, staring at the scene before him.
And in that same instant — deep within the Sea of Consciousness, the progress bar that had been frozen at eighty-five percent exploded upward.
[Demon-Binding felt a satisfaction it had never known before.]
[Slaying demons and purging evil — as it should be.]
[CG unlock complete.]
With that notification rising in the Sea of Consciousness, the spiritual energy that had been stalled like a blocked river suddenly burst through its dam, surging outward through every limb and bone.
Gu Chengming stood sword in hand, his chest still heaving from the intensity of the fight, but at that moment every single meridian aperture across his body flung itself wide open.
The shackle that had kept him trapped between the eighth and ninth stages of the First Realm — the one that had been plaguing him for days — shattered without resistance.
This wasn't the gradual, grinding advancement of closed-door cultivation. This was the effortless breakthrough that comes when your life is on the line and your sword-heart opens of its own accord — water finding its natural course.
Torrents of spiritual energy poured into the qi sea, refining the slightly unstable power he'd had before, compressing it into something denser and more solid with every pass.
When the last restless thread of spiritual energy finally settled into calm, Gu Chengming slowly exhaled a long breath of turbid air.
First Realm, ninth stage — perfect and complete.
The dust settled. The scent of blood drifted through the air.
Every eye was fixed on the enormous headless corpse, and on the blue-robed silhouette standing sword in hand beside it — not a single drop of blood on his hem.
Wang Dahai's heavy bone-cleaving blade clanged to the ground. His legs had turned to water, and only the pillar he was gripping kept him from collapsing entirely.
He'd been closest. He'd seen it most clearly.
In that split second of crisis, he'd already been composing his last will in his head — yet before he'd even processed what was happening, Junior Brother Gu — no, Senior Brother Gu — had killed it. One man, one sword, in the span of a few breaths.
None of it had taken more than a few heartbeats…
Senior Brother Gu had just killed a mid-Second-Realm demon beast like that?
Heavily injured, yes — but its aura had still been at least early Second Realm… A First Realm eighth-stage killing a Second Realm early-stage?
"Wait…"
Wang Dahai rubbed his eyes, sensing the spiritual pressure radiating off Gu Chengming — pressure that hadn't fully been reined back in yet — and his eyes went wide.
"That spiritual energy fluctuation — that's First Realm ninth stage! Senior Brother Gu… he broke through mid-battle?!"
The surrounding disciples finally found their senses, letting out a wave of stunned whispers before it erupted into a cheer of people who had just survived something they shouldn't have.
"Senior… Senior Brother Gu is incredible!"
Someone cried it out first, and then the entire back mountain roared to life.
At that moment, a heavy spiritual pressure descended from the sky. Accompanied by the sound of air splitting, a streak of escaping light crashed down into the center of the platform and kicked up a billow of dust and debris.
The arrival was Elder Pang, the managing elder of the spirit kitchen.
He had been sitting in his cave residence enjoying tea when a disciple came sprinting in with news of a rampaging demon beast. He'd been so startled he'd flung his teacup across the room and come charging over at full speed.
The back mountain was the sect's critical logistics hub. If disciples were killed in a disaster here, his tenure as elder was as good as finished.
But when he landed and took in the scene, all his fury and urgency lodged itself somewhere in his throat and couldn't get out.
"This…"
Elder Pang looked at the demon beast's corpse — already stone cold — then looked at the disciples around it, shaken but physically unharmed, and finally let his gaze settle on the young man in the blue robe.
"Gu Chengming?" Elder Pang said, a little blankly.
Gu Chengming offered a formal bow.
Elder Pang waved it off and walked to the corpse, crouching down to examine it carefully.
The more he looked, the deeper the astonishment in his eyes grew.
If it had broken into the crowd… the consequences truly would have been unthinkable.
Elder Pang drew a sharp breath, then stood and turned a complicated gaze toward Gu Chengming.
"You're the one who killed it?"
"By sheer luck."
Gu Chengming replied:
"Though the beast was fierce, its old wounds had never healed, and the suppression seals had already drained some of its strength. I used the Demon-Binding Sword Art to keep it occupied and finally found an opening to land the killing blow."
"Demon-Binding Sword Art?"
Elder Pang's eyebrows rose. He was a man who knew his craft — he could plainly see the dense, fine sword marks all over the beast's body, and the smooth-as-glass cut at the fatal wound on its neck.
To take that notoriously basic sword art and wield it with this kind of inspired genius — and then shift sword momentum in a single instant to deliver a one-stroke kill…
What part of that was luck?
Elder Pang looked at this young man and felt a sudden, fierce pang of envy rise in his chest.
He finally understood why that old fox Ren Wencai guarded this disciple like he was protecting a state secret — kept him wrapped up and tucked away from everyone.
This unshakeable composure under pressure, this combat power that towered over his peers, and this manner of knowing when to advance and when to yield, always perfectly proper…
"Ahhh."
Elder Pang sighed inwardly and couldn't help cursing in his heart.
That penny-pinching Ren Wencai, barely passable as a half-rate alchemist, what in heaven's name had he done to deserve such an extraordinary talent? The heavens truly had no eyes.
Though he was seething inside, not a trace of it showed on his face. He straightened his robes, assembled a warm and grandfatherly smile, and walked over to clap Gu Chengming on the shoulder.
"Well done! Extremely well done! If you hadn't been here today to pull everything back from the brink, the consequences would have been simply unimaginable!"
"Elder, you are too kind. As a disciple of the sect, purging demons and upholding the Way is only one's duty."
"Ha — merit must be rewarded. That is the rule."
Elder Pang waved a hand and produced a golden token from his sleeve, channeled spiritual energy into it, and inscribed several strokes onto its surface.
"By sect regulations, a disciple who kills an early Second Realm demon beast is awarded two hundred contribution points. This beast, though injured, retained its ferocity and is classified as a high-danger demon beast — so we count it at the mid-Second-Realm standard. I'm crediting you with three hundred contribution points."
He paused here, glanced around at the disciples still misty-eyed with gratitude, and waved his hand magnanimously.
"Furthermore, in recognition of your composure in the face of danger, your prevention of a major accident, and the lives of your fellow disciples you preserved today — I'm personally authorizing an additional two hundred contribution points as a special commendation."
"Five hundred points in total. They will be transferred to your identity token presently."
Five hundred contribution points!
A wave of envious gasps rose from the surrounding disciples.
In the Wenjian Sect, one contribution point was worth roughly three low-grade spirit stones at the exchange — but because contribution points could be redeemed for resources and secret arts that spirit stones simply couldn't buy, their practical value was often far higher.
Five hundred contribution points meant fifteen hundred low-grade spirit stones.
For a preparatory inner-sect disciple who hadn't yet officially lit his soul-lamp, that was an absolute fortune.
Yet when Gu Chengming heard the number, a faint twitch ran through his heart.
"Five hundred points… fifteen hundred spirit stones?"
He let a grateful expression surface on his face and bowed his thanks. "Many thanks for Elder's generous reward."
But inwardly, a slightly peculiar thought drifted through his mind.
He thought back to after his victory over Li Mozi at the Sword-Questioning Stage, when Ren Wencai had casually tossed him a storage pouch.
Five thousand spirit stones. Three bottles of Second Realm pills. A pass token for the third floor of the Scripture Library.
And that wasn't even counting the priceless demon-beast blood essence Elder Ren had pulled from his private reserves specifically to help him cultivate Hundred Bones Resonance.
"So… killing yourself against a Second Realm demon beast for the sect earns you fifteen hundred spirit stones as an official reward?"
Gu Chengming kept the thought carefully private.
No wonder Elder Yu had said Elder Ren treated his disciple better than anyone could ask for… The rewards he'd been receiving all along really were nowhere in the range of what someone at the First Realm should be getting.
After handling the remaining formalities and politely declining Elder Pang's invitation to a celebratory dinner that evening, Gu Chengming walked home through the dusk, back to his small courtyard.
He pushed open the gate and the familiar quiet washed over him, cutting off all the noise and blood-smell of the outside world at once.
He went to the washroom first, bathed thoroughly, scrubbing away the blood and exhaustion, then changed into a fresh blue robe and returned to his bedroom, where he settled cross-legged on the floor.
As his awareness sank into his Sea of Consciousness, the first thing he looked for was the entry that had been his accomplice through all these days of effort.
The [Huiyuan Sword Art / Demon-Binding] entry from before was gone.
In its place was the familiar name.
[Huiyuan Sword Art has sensed your arrival.]
[It seems a little embarrassed. Just thinking back on how it had spent these past several days bellowing for blood and calling you "my lord" at every turn, it feels a fierce wave of shame wash over it.]
[What if you got the wrong impression and decided you didn't like it anymore?]
The familiar tone brought Gu Chengming an unexpected sense of warmth — the feeling of having finally come home after a long ordeal.
He was just about to offer a few words of reassurance when new text sprang into view.
[But on reflection… Huiyuan Sword Art feels just a tiny bit smug.]
[Even if the process was somewhat too embarrassing to repeat, the result was good — at least no new cultivation method got ahead of it in the contest for favour.]
Well, the possessive streak was…
Gu Chengming found it a little funny, and offered the Huiyuan Sword Art a couple of words of reassurance. Whatever else you said about it, it was remarkably easy to soothe — second only to Hundred Bones Resonance in that regard.
After the reassurances were done, Gu Chengming turned his attention to the Sword Chess interface.
With the Demon-Binding CG fully unlocked, three brand new pieces slowly materialized in the previously empty piece slots.
[Sword Intent (Clinging)] and [Basic Sword Form] needed no re-examination. What caught Gu Chengming slightly off guard was that alongside the CG unlock, a new entry had appeared — one called [Great Qian].
So Great Qian had an entry of its own?
[Great Qian: All under heaven is the king's domain.]
[Bond / Great Qian: All damage dealt to a target is increased by 5%, and carries a faint inherent "official authority" suppression effect.]
[Bond / Kingly Way: ??? (Insufficient piece count — cannot activate.)]
Gu Chengming turned this over thoughtfully.
The [Great Qian] entry's effect looked modest on paper, but its practical value was exceptional — a clean, flat damage increase that shared a table with the Basic Sword Form in terms of no-frills usefulness.
And this built-in "official authority" suppression — while its exact mechanics were unclear — seemed like it could produce some remarkable results when used against the dregs of the cultivation world, those bandit-cultivators and tribulation hunters.
But that said — if the Demon-Binding Sword Art, as a beginner's manual from the Great Qian Demon-Catching Bureau, could generate a [Great Qian] entry, then why hadn't the Zhouli Heavenly Harmony Righteous Heart Method — with its pure and legitimate roots in the Great Qian Imperial Academy — received the same tag?
Gu Chengming shook his head and didn't dwell on it too long.
He reviewed the full harvest from this round.
Unlocking the CG hadn't brought any attribute increases — but that was genuinely a trade-off with advantages on both sides.
By the logic of the Sword Chess system, to obtain [Sword Intent (Clinging)] through conventional means, you would have to run the Demon-Binding Sword Art all the way through from scratch — including building affection and triggering bond events — before the [Sword Intent (Clinging)] entry could even potentially unlock. After all, the Huiyuan Sword Art had worked exactly that way: "sword intent" was something you only began to grasp when the sword art reached full mastery, which suggested it was a piece that only unlocked after maxing out the Basic Sword Form's affection.
But now he'd unlocked three pieces just by clearing the CG. No attribute boost, yes — but the difficulty had dropped enormously.
With a flicker of intention, Gu Chengming lifted the [Basic Sword Form (Mundane)] piece from its standby slot and the newly-acquired [Sword Intent (Clinging)], then slowly slid both into the active positions on the board.
Between the two pieces, a thread of pale-blue light connected in an instant, forming a closed and stable bond loop.
[Bond Activated — Sword Intent (Clinging): 2/2][Bond Activated — Basic Sword Form: 2/2]
Gu Chengming then drew out the Tinglang Sword, gave his wrist a light flick, and sent a single casual thrust into the empty air.
"..."
He held the post-thrust posture and felt carefully for a long moment, then finally sheathed the sword with a slightly helpless expression.
He could feel nothing in particular.
"Useless. I need a live person to test it on."
This kind of dirty control-oriented style — until it landed on an actual human being, there was no way to know just how truly disgusting it was.
Gu Chengming considered likely candidates for the role of "victim."
Jiang Lu was out first.
Junior Brother Jiang had made decent progress lately and broken through to the First Realm eighth stage, but his combat experience… frankly, it wasn't enough. Using this sword set against Jiang Lu wouldn't feel like sparring — it would feel like bullying.
He needed someone thick-skinned, mentally resilient, and with a higher cultivation level than his own — someone who could take the full brunt of this combination without collapsing.
As he mulled it over, a burly face appeared in his mind, carrying a heavy sword on its back.
Senior Brother Lu!
Second Realm sword cultivator, tough as nails, and practitioner of the Passionate Sword Formula — a style that cultivated an unbreakable inner character. Most importantly, after the last time Gu Chengming had passed on the "Galgame walkthrough strategy" to him, the two had something of a half-master-and-disciple relationship between them. Requesting a sparring session to stress-test his sword art was entirely reasonable.
His mind made up, Gu Chengming straightened his robes at once and headed directly for the Guizang Gate.
But as always, reality loves a twist.
When Gu Chengming arrived in good spirits at the peach-blossom mountain and stood before the cave residence bearing the plaque "Upright Mirror, Still Reflection," he was met with a closed door and a turned-away visit.
On the stone tablet at the cave entrance, a note had been carved with sword-qi in a wildly scrawling hand that practically vibrated with manic intensity:
[In closed-door cultivation — do not disturb!]
[I intend to enter a death retreat and fuse the Great Walkthrough Dao into the Passionate Sword Formula. I will not emerge until I reach the Second Realm peak!]
[Addendum: If any senior sister comes looking for me… please, please make her leave a voice-transmission talisman! Please!! !]
Gu Chengming sighed and folded his hands toward the sealed entrance in a respectful salute, wishing his senior brother a swift breakthrough from afar.
As for the sparring, that would have to wait.
On the return journey, finding himself short a sparring partner, Gu Chengming was in somewhat low spirits. He slowed his escape light and drifted at a leisurely pace over the outer sect's most bustling market district.
It was mid-afternoon, and the teahouses and wine shops below were filled with a constant hum of voices.
Beyond the usual chatter of commerce, there seemed to be an unusual amount of conversation today about the Great Qian dynasty.
"Did you hear? Great Qian is opening the imperial examinations again!"
"Apparently they urgently need capable officials who both understand cultivation and have the talent for governance — all to deal with the demon scourge in the north."
"A Great Qian official posting is no ordinary thing — it comes with the protection of dragon aura. If you could land even a minor position, you'd be able to cultivate through the dynasty's fortune and even command a region's spiritual veins…"
The scattered voices drifted up on the wind.
Gu Chengming had been paying it no mind.
But then — at that very moment!
[Zhouli Heavenly Harmony Righteous Heart Method jolted abruptly awake!]
[The imperial examinations! The great rite of selecting the worthy and educating all people!]
[It cried out loudly: A gentleman must enter the world and sit the examinations! One must establish the heart of heaven and earth, and set the destiny of the living people!]
Watching the cultivation method get this worked up, Gu Chengming sighed and explained:
"Our Wenjian Sect is one of Great Qian's protective sects. According to Great Qian law and the Sect Alliance covenant…"
"Any inner-sect disciple of the Wenjian Sect, upon descending the mountain for field training, automatically carries an official appointment — no examination required."
[Zhouli Heavenly Harmony Righteous Heart Method was thunderstruck.]
[Direct appointment?!]
[No examinations, no selection process — merely on the basis of sect membership, one could step directly into an official post and govern a territory?!]
[Zhouli Heavenly Harmony Righteous Heart Method affection +3]
For goodness' sake — all he had to do was mention he'd be getting an official post and it immediately gave him affection points?
I reject these three points! Give them back!
Gu Chengming felt vaguely indignant, the particular helplessness of a seasoned Gal master being outflanked by his own cultivation method's sudden inspiration.
After a long moment he sighed and let it go.
Come to think of it — this was good news. At least now the route for the Zhouli Method's walkthrough was clear. He'd confirm it when the time came, after entering the inner sect and descending the mountain to train in Great Qian.
One day later.
The green peaks loomed softly. Clouds scrolled and unfurled.
In the familiar private courtyard behind the Huiyuan Gate.
When Gu Chengming pushed the door open and stepped inside, Ren Wencai was reclining sideways in a rattan chair, turning a translucent jade slip over in his fingers. The moment he spotted his own disciple, an expression somewhere between a smile and a smirk spread across the old man's face.
Ren Wencai set down the jade slip, his tone carrying a thread of teasing.
"I sent you to study the Demon-Binding Sword Art with an open mind — see its subtleties, grasp something of how hard and soft complement each other. What happened? You're nothing if not literal — you actually went and spent half a month working as a butcher in the back mountain?"
"I hear Fat Pang goes around complimenting you to everyone he meets now, saying your blade technique is divine — that you're a virtuoso at deboning and skinning, and he wants to ask me if he can borrow you for a few years?"
Gu Chengming's expression stiffened. He scratched his head, let out an awkward laugh, and said:
"Elder Ren is joking. I was, ahem — I was stress-testing my sword art and tempering my Dao heart at the same time. The slaughter platform may be a filthy place, but it's actually quite conducive to cultivation and self-refinement."
"Cultivation and self-refinement?"
Ren Wencai gave a short snort, clearly not buying a word of it — but he didn't push further.
He was just about to wave his hand and tell the boy to sit down when he seemed to sense something. His posture, which had been settled back in the chair, went straight and upright, and he said with distinct surprise:
"You broke through?"
He remembered it clearly — barely a month ago this boy had only just broken through to the First Realm eighth stage.
"In answer to Elder Ren — I was training in the spirit kitchen these past few days and was struck by a sudden insight. The breakthrough was fortuitous."
"Fortuitous…" Ren Wencai's mouth gave a small, twitching jerk.
Divine fortuitousness — if killing a few pigs was all it took to break through by sheer luck, then every disciple in the sect who'd been stuck at a bottleneck for decades would have long since slaughtered every pig on the back mountain to extinction!
"First Realm ninth stage…"
Ren Wencai set down his chess piece and slowly rose to his feet.
Past the shock, worry began to creep in.
The path of cultivation was like building a tall tower — the deeper you dig the foundation, the higher the tower can rise. Gu Chengming's rate of advancement was too fast. If his foundation was unstable, if his spiritual energy was too loose and drifting, he might look brilliant now, but when he charged at the Second Realm foundation-establishment, he would pay a steep price for it — possibly even lose his mind to qi deviation.
Ren Wencai drew a slow, deep breath, and his sleeve swept through the air.
"Whoosh——"
A peachwood sword hanging on the wall answered the motion and flew into his hand.
He looked at Gu Chengming, and the irreverent, bantering expression he usually wore settled and withdrew, replaced by the quiet authority of the Huiyuan Gate's Senior Grand Elder.
"Since you've reached the First Realm peak, today I will test your mettle properly."
"I will not use my full realm to bear down on you — only First Realm ninth-stage cultivation. Come at me with everything you have. Let me see whether what you've built is solid, real skill — or a performance for the gallery."
He called it a test. In truth, it was a lesson in humility.
His plan was to grind the sharp edge off this boy in actual combat — let him feel in his bones what it meant that there was always someone better, and drive him back to his room to close the door, settle down, and lay proper groundwork instead of chasing quick results.
But upon hearing these words, Gu Chengming's eyes lit up.
He'd been fretting about finding no one to test the true strength of his new approach — and just like that, a pillow appeared the moment he wanted a nap.
Ren Wencai had suppressed his cultivation level, but his vision, experience, and mastery of the sword arts were all still fully present. He was without question the finest sparring partner anywhere in the world for this purpose.
"Then your disciple will be taking liberties!" Gu Chengming declined the offer of retreat without a second's hesitation.
Ren Wencai stood with the sword in one hand and his other hand clasped behind his back. Gu Chengming stepped forward and closed the distance in an instant.
The first sword strike was utterly plain — not even a flicker of spiritual light on it. It looked like a raw beginner's straight thrust.
A glimmer of appreciation passed through Ren Wencai's eyes. No flashiness — good.
He rolled his wrist, the peachwood sword rising in a casual flick, intending to brush Gu Chengming's attack aside.
But the moment the two blades made contact—
"Hm?"
Ren Wencai's eyebrow shifted, almost imperceptibly.
Something was wrong.
The crisp impact he'd been expecting never came. Instead, a slick, sticky, wet sensation crawled up through his blade.
Gu Chengming's sword, rather than being deflected, had ridden the redirecting force and pressed itself right back in.
"Body-wrapping?"
Ren Wencai was privately startled. This was the Demon-Binding Sword Art's approach — had the boy actually cultivated it to some real standard?
But he didn't let it concern him. His footwork shifted by half a step and he drew a circle with his wooden sword, intending to overcome cunning with technique.
Yet in that same moment, Gu Chengming's sword changed. If the first strike had been a muddy quagmire, this one was thistledown in a gale — flitting and unpredictable, its tempo lurching between fast and slow without warning.
That was the bonus from [Flowing Cloud Moon-Following (Cloud)]!
"Clang — clang — clang —!"
In the span of a single breath, Gu Chengming had struck seven times. Not a single blow was lethal, none carried exceptional force — but every single one of them was deeply unpleasant to deal with.
Ren Wencai found that with each parry, a thread of yin-soft force drilled into him — individually negligible, but layering relentlessly on top of itself.
His normally fluid, unhurried movement began to develop a subtle, nagging stiffness.
"What kind of bizarre sword art is this?"
Ren Wencai discarded his amusement entirely.
If technique had been caught in a bind, the answer was to break through with absolute speed and force!
"Break!"
Ren Wencai's low call rang out. The First Realm ninth-stage spiritual energy he had been suppressing erupted in a burst, blazing light flooding his wooden sword as he drove forward with "Green Pine Welcoming the Guest" — intent on physically shattering Gu Chengming's entanglement by brute force.
But in the precise instant his spiritual energy surged and the sword form was about to take shape, Ren Wencai felt the spiritual energy inside him — which normally answered his commands as readily as a limb — move with a lag that was fractionally, unmistakably slower than he had intended.
The sword form had barely begun when it ground to a halt.
Gu Chengming was not about to let the moment pass.
He flipped his wrist and the Tinglang Sword drove straight forward.
Ren Wencai stayed exactly as he was — frozen in that half-completed drawing posture, sword not yet released.
He stared wide-eyed at the blade hovering an inch from his face, then looked down at the peachwood sword in his own hand that had never quite managed to strike.
Even with his realm suppressed, even in a sparring match — he, the Senior Grand Elder of the Huiyuan Gate, had just lost a clean half-move.
That sudden blockage in his spiritual energy just now… what in all the hells was that?!
Gu Chengming withdrew his sword and stepped back half a pace. "Many thanks for Elder Ren's instruction."
Ren Wencai said nothing.
He slowly lowered his wooden sword, eyes locked onto Gu Chengming with the look of a man seeing his own disciple for the very first time.
After a long moment, he drew a deep breath. The vast divine sense of a Fourth Realm great cultivator swept across Gu Chengming's entire body in an instant, coming to rest at last on the lingering trace of intent left behind by his final sword strike.
It was not ordinary spiritual energy application. Nor was it any sword technique.
It was…
"You."
Ren Wencai's voice came out dry and rough, with a tremor of disbelief running through it.
"You've grasped sword intent?!"
...
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