Elderly Martial Saint: Sixty Times the Cultivation Speed ​​at the Start

As the sun sets, the "Qinghuai Inn," situated beside the official road, reveals its silhouette in the twilight.

The inn looks very simple from the outside, with only three wooden floors. The front yard is for parking horses, and the back yard is for accommodation. It is not large in scale, but it is clean and can provide a place for travelers to rest temporarily.

Upon arriving at their destination, Song Tiecheng dismounted. He was quite familiar with this inn, having visited it several times before, and said:

"This stretch of road is relatively safe. This inn is the only place to rest nearby. Let's get some rest tonight and set off at dawn tomorrow. It's still quite a distance from here to the prefectural city."

As soon as he finished speaking, Song Tiecheng tossed the reins to the groom, picked up the long black iron staff, and went upstairs.

Yi Yang didn't take the other party's attitude to heart, after all, the two of them weren't very familiar with each other. According to people from the Sky Patrol Division, this deputy director was just like that.

After checking Jiang Yuexin in, Yi Yang escorted her to the room on the second floor, which was further inside. He checked the door and window latches and patted her head, saying, "Go to sleep early. We have to travel tomorrow. Grandpa is next door. Call me if you need anything."

"You too, sir." Jiang Yuexin smiled at him after making the bed.

Yi Yang hummed in agreement, looked around to make sure everything was alright, then closed the door, stepped out, and went into his room next door.

After arriving in the room, Yi Yang did not turn on the lights. He took off his coat and draped it over the back of the chair, then sat cross-legged on the hard bed by the window and began to cultivate with his eyes closed.

The internal energy circulates within the body, and the internal energy senses silently spread, covering the entire inn.

Song Tiecheng was in the innermost room on the third floor, his breathing was steady, he must be meditating.

Jiang Yuexin's breathing had become long and even; she had fallen asleep. Downstairs in the lobby, there were three or five casual diners having a late-night drink. Their steps were unsteady; they were all ordinary people and martial artists at the Qi and Blood Realm.

Everything appears to be normal at the moment.

But the cautious Yi Yang did not withdraw his senses.

He never truly let his guard down when spending the night away from home, and so Yi Yang cultivated while observing his surroundings.

Late at night.

One by one, the lights in the inn went out, the patrons in the lobby dispersed, and even the stove fire in the kitchen went out. The chirping of insects poured in from all directions, mingling with the sound of the wind in the distance, making it rather noisy.

Midnight (11 PM - 1 AM).

Yi Yang, who was cultivating with his eyes closed, twitched his eyelids and sensed that something was wrong.

Deep in the woods to the northeast of the inn, two faint auras could be heard.

It was so faint that it was mixed in with the night wind and the chirping of insects that it would be hard to spot without careful observation.

However, Yi Yang had been using his first-level internal energy perception to fully explore and investigate, combined with the internal energy cultivation of his five internal organs to capture subtle fluctuations, and thus the two auras were revealed to him.

Two auras were slowly approaching each other.

Suddenly, after noticing something amiss, Yi Yang began to carefully sense the other party's strength level, and suddenly his pupils contracted sharply.

not good!!!

Both of these auras are very powerful.

The Qi Sea is as deep and profound as an abyss, and the internal Qi circulates smoothly and effortlessly. Such a skillful way of regulating Qi is something that cannot be achieved by someone at the first level of internal Qi.

There's only one possibility: those two are both experts at the second level of internal energy, the stage of "Purifying and Turbidifying Returning to Origin".

Thinking of this, Yi Yang felt a chill run down his spine; these two were stronger than everyone else in the inn.

Who exactly is it?

What are their intentions?

As one question after another arose, Yi Yang's brain worked at lightning speed.

He carefully sensed that the two figures were from the direction of Yunlin County, just like them. Who were the two experts at the second level of internal energy from the direction of Yunlin County?

Qi Shujian wouldn't attack me, and Chen Wuyai is also out of the question; neither of them is at this level of strength.

That leaves only one possibility.

Jinyang Temple.

Pure and distant, pure and bright.

Those two bald monks who came here to track down "Black Knife"!

After guessing the true identity of the two, Yi Yang breathed a sigh of relief, but the thought that the two were watching him made him uneasy again.

Yi Yang forced himself to calm down and went over the situation in his mind.

The two internal energies are at two levels, while my own internal energy is at one level.

But the fact that they were suppressing their aura and moving stealthily indicated one thing—they didn't want to alert Song Tiecheng, and neither did they, since Song Tiecheng was no match for them.

Song Tiecheng was also at the first level of internal energy, and since they were still on the territory of the Sky Patrol Division, the two monks from Jinyang Temple were unwilling to make a big fuss.

Their plan was to complete the task quietly and take the knife away without anyone noticing. If pushed too far, the other party might wipe out all three of them.

So, what if you take the initiative to approach them?

Move the battlefield away from the inn, far away, far enough that Song Tiecheng and Jiang Yuexin won't be affected.

If the enemy intends to launch a surprise attack, you should choose the terrain in advance and wait for them to attack.

A level one internal energy cultivator fighting two level two cultivators seems like a death trap, but that's someone else.

Yi Yang felt that he was different from other people at the first level of internal energy; he was stronger!

After making up his mind, Yi Yang opened the hidden compartment under the bed board and took out the black-patterned longsword that he had never used since he acquired it.

The moment the blade touched my hand, a chill ran from my palm straight up my arm.

Shen.

It was unusually heavy, weighing at least forty pounds.

Moonlight streamed through the window cracks, falling on the blade. The crisscrossing dark patterns seemed to come alive, slowly flowing in the silvery glow.

Yi Yang had never used it in actual combat. But at this moment, he needed it.

The toes touched the window frame.

With the "Crossing the River by Touching Water" technique pushed to its limit, Yi Yang's figure silently darted out of the window and leaped onto the roof without even the tiles beneath his feet moving, making not a sound.

He deliberately circled halfway in the opposite direction of the two auras, and landed in a grove of withered trees three hundred paces southeast of the inn.

Leaning against an old locust tree that is as thick as a person's embrace.

He held the knife across his lap, waiting for the enemy to arrive.

This is one of his little strategies: not to fight unprepared battles, and not to engage in combat where others have chosen the best locations.

At the same time, he released half of his internal energy outward.

Just that little bit. Like a slip-up that was "accidentally" exposed.

This is bait to lure people in.

The forest was so quiet that only the whistling of the wind whistling through the branches could be heard.

Yi Yang counted her breaths.

Thirty breaths.

Sixty breaths.

Sure enough, the two auras sensed his departure from the inn.

Their stealth speed suddenly increased, and their route changed; instead of heading towards the inn, they went straight for the dead forest.

"Here it comes."

As Yi Yang thought to himself, his five fingers tightened around the knife handle, and all the muscles in his body tensed up at the same time, like a tiger or leopard gathering its strength.

Suddenly, a murderous intent descended from above!

The one who came was none other than Jingming, the wrathful Vajra.

The Vajra-like figure swooped down from the treetops, his golden robes billowing in the night wind, revealing his thick, bronze arms beneath. He held nothing back.

A powerful and heavy Vajra Palm strike, carrying the full force of a second-level internal energy, struck directly at Yi Yang's crown chakra.

Before the person even arrived, a chilling palm strike came first.

The dead branches within five steps snapped off in unison, sending debris flying. The fallen leaves on the ground were pressed flat by the force of the palm strike, and the air in the entire area became thin.

If this palm strike lands squarely, the head of a martial artist below the sixth level of Qi and Blood will be shattered.

But Yi Yang, who had been waiting for a long time, did not dodge.

He filled his arms with internal energy, crossed them, and directly met the attack.

Internal energy flowed into the skin, muscles, and bones of the entire body, and the physical defenses of the body, having achieved minor success in the "Horizontal Martial Body Refinement," were at their maximum at this moment.

boom!

A loud, muffled thud echoed through the withered forest.

The immense force caused Yi Yang's feet to sink three inches into the mud, and the ground beneath him cracked open, with the cracks spreading outwards for two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters).

But his seemingly frail body remained completely still.

This scene, witnessed by Jingming, caused his eyelids, which were usually half-closed, to open completely for the first time.

Jingming looked at Yiyang with some surprise. He hadn't expected that his full-force palm strike wouldn't have been enough to defeat him.

An old man at the sixth level of Qi and Blood took a full-force blow from a man at the second level of Internal Qi, and he's still standing?

"you--"

But Yi Yang didn't give him time to react. He flung away the other's hand with both arms, his internal energy surging, and he no longer concealed himself.

The internal energy reaches its first level, and the Qi Sea begins to transform. It is then fully released.

The moment the energy spread out, Jingming's expression changed slightly.

He is not at the sixth level of Qi and Blood!

He's at the Inner Qi Realm!

Seeing that the other party was somewhat distracted, Yi Yang grasped the hilt of the black-patterned longsword with his right hand and slowly drew the sword out.

The long sword was drawn.

A strange chill emanated from the blade; it wasn't the kind of cold that comes with winter, but a deeper, more penetrating cold that seeped into the very bones.

The moonlight shone on the pitch-black blade, but the light was not reflected back; it was all swallowed up by the dark patterns.

"The monks of Jinyang Temple," Yi Yang said in a hoarse but calm voice, "you actually tracked them all the way here?"

Seeing that the situation was unexpected and somewhat amiss, Jingming suddenly took a half step back, spread out his body, and assumed a defensive stance.

Almost at the same time, another figure emerged from the bushes on the flank.

It is Jingyuan.

The other person was also dressed in a golden robe and had shiny Buddhist prayer beads.

But the ever-present kind smile on his face was gone, replaced by a pair of cold, sinister eyes.

The two men, positioned on the left and right, had formed a pincer movement.

"I didn't expect you to actually be at the Inner Qi Realm." Jingyuan's voice was no longer as gentle as before, each word pronounced crisply: "No wonder you were able to kill Wang Gongqin."

He clasped his hands together, but his palms were already surging with internal energy.

"Hand over the Xuan Yuan Blade."

Jingyuan's calm tone sent chills down one's spine.

"This humble monk will leave you a complete corpse."

Yi Yang did not respond to these threats.

What nonsense are you spouting?

With a light touch of his toes, Yi Yang moved closer like a ghost. He was going to take the initiative, and his target was not Jing Yuan, who had just spoken, but Jing Ming, who had just suffered a loss and was gathering his strength!

The ninth move of the Nine Peaks Saber: Absolute Peak.

This was the strongest strike he had ever delivered.

The superior swordsmanship of the Perfect Realm reached a whole new level with the infusion of internal energy.

The black-patterned longsword sliced ​​through the air with a strange "hum," not the usual whooshing sound of a slash, but a low, suppressed "hum," as if the blade itself was vibrating.

Then, something strange happened.

Yi Yang's expression suddenly changed.

He sensed the black blade in his hand "absorbing" his internal energy!

It wasn't a passive consumption, but an active absorption, like a sleeping beast suddenly awakening and taking a bite out of his dantian.

The internal energy surged into the blade along the hilt at a speed far exceeding his control.

The dark patterns lit up.

All the crisscrossing patterns simultaneously emitted a dark light—no, it couldn't be called light; it was something closer to an "abyss."

Black blade energy burst forth from the edge, excessively solid, sharper than any of his previous internal energy attacks.

The black blade energy tore through the night sky, heading straight for Jingming's face!

Jingming's first reaction to this attack was to take it head-on.

The "Golden Arhat Body" he cultivated was the top-tier hard skill of Jinyang Temple. Combined with his cultivation of internal energy at the second level, ordinary attacks simply could not break through his defenses.

But Jingyuan's voice suddenly exploded in his ears not far away, shouting anxiously:

"Idiots! Scatter now!"

Reminded by his senior brother, Jingming had no time to think and retreated rapidly, rushing to the side.

The black blade energy swept past where he had been standing, but instead of hitting anyone, it struck a huge blue stone three steps behind him.

The bluestone, larger than a water vat, cracked under the attack.

It wasn't broken or collapsed; it was neatly split in two from the middle, with a cut surface so smooth it could be used as a mirror. Then, due to gravity, the two halves of the stone slowly tilted to either side, crashing to the ground and raising clouds of dust.

Upon seeing this, Jingming froze on the spot, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpoints.

Having lived for over forty years and cultivated for thirty, this was the first time he had felt a real threat of death in front of someone a realm weaker than himself.

Xuan Yuan Blade.

The most prized possession of Jinyang Temple.

He had only seen descriptions of this knife in the temple's scriptures, and had never witnessed its power firsthand.

Tonight, he saw it.

The dust in the withered forest had not yet settled, and moonlight shone through the flying debris onto the three people.

Yi Yang stood still, holding the black knife with flowing dark patterns in his hand, but his brows were furrowed.

That last strike drained nearly 30% of his internal energy from his dantian.

The power of the Xuan Yuan Blade is undeniable, but this kind of consumption...

Yi Yang gripped the hilt of the knife tightly, feeling its power.

Jingyuan and Jingming stood together again, their expressions now completely different.

Jingyuan's face turned ashen.

For the first time, fear appeared in Jingming's eyes.

But Yi Yang knew better than they did that this battle had only just begun.