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

Ten days later.

At the well platform in the early morning, Yi Yang finished the last round of the stake-setting exercise, his arms hanging down, his blood and qi slowly returning to normal.

Small characters appeared before my eyes.

[Yi Wood Health Preservation Exercise, Level 4: (18200/30000)]

[Nine Peaks Blade Mastery: (3800/18000)]

[Internal Strength Cultivation of the Five Organs: Minor Success (8700/15000)]

Ten days.

Three tasks were being carried out simultaneously: taking medicine, eating meat, practicing stances, and practicing swordsmanship, all scheduled more tightly than livestock pulling a millstone.

During those ten days, Yi Yang went to the butcher shop in town every few days, carrying back whole racks of lean meat. He even managed to get a few pounds of the rare exotic beast meat, which he sliced ​​thinly and stewed into soup. The aroma made the three people in the courtyard drool.

The amount of pills, blood-nourishing powders, and blood-strengthening soups that the body could absorb increased with the daily practice of stance training and swordsmanship, and the number of training sessions that the body could endure each day also climbed higher.

Yi Yang mentally calculated the numbers.

At the current pace, the fourth level of the Yi Wood Health Preservation Exercise should be completed in about half a month.

The threshold of the fifth level of Qi and Blood Refinement Realm is right in front of me.

He clenched his fist, his knuckles making a deep, metallic sound, crisp and clean, which even pleased himself.

But the next moment, Yi Yang loosened his fist and put his fingers back into his sleeve.

Someone passed by outside the courtyard wall, their cloth shoes dragging on the ground; it was Old Zhou, the tofu vendor across the street, setting up his stall.

No one should hear this.

The sound of a sixty-year-old man's bones cracking like hammering iron was enough to keep the tea stalls in town talking for three days.

Yi Yang picked up the bowl of water, took a sip, wiped his mouth, and went back to his room to change into his official robes from the Heavenly Patrol Bureau.

Time to go report for duty.

……

Same day. noon.

Yunlin County, South Gate.

A hundred paces away from the city gate, a large crowd stood on both sides of the official road.

Flags, carriages, armor, and silk umbrellas, all in a riot of colors, were crammed together, almost like a temple fair.

But no one laughed.

Nobody can laugh.

Patrol Director.

A great figure in the Inner Qi Realm.

This level of figure hasn't appeared in the entire Yunlin County for the past ten years. Their sudden arrival has caused a stir, with everyone from the biggest powerful families to the smallest gangs in the city unable to contain themselves.

It's less of a welcome and more of a probe.

The open space in front of the city gate was naturally divided into several sections by various forces.

The three great families stood closest to each other and had the largest entourage.

The Zhang family's Second Elder, Zhang Fengxian, arrived. He was in his early fifties, with a square face and broad ears, his temples were gray, but his back was ramrod straight. A veteran expert at the sixth level of Qi and Blood, he stood there, with more than ten elite soldiers in full armor behind him, their scabbards gleaming in the light.

The Wang family sent Wang Kun, a powerful figure from a collateral branch. He was in his thirties, with a fair complexion and a perpetual smile. His qi and blood were at their peak, and he wore fine silk. This gentleman didn't carry a sword at his waist, but rather a folding fan. He was accompanied by two bodyguards and a clerk-looking attendant, all of whom were so refined they didn't seem like they belonged in the martial arts world.

The Li family is the most interesting.

The head of the family, Li Chenyan, came in person.

The fact that the head of the most low-profile of the three families personally came shows that the old man had carefully considered the current situation.

Li Chenyan was over sixty years old, thin and short, wearing a faded gray long gown, accompanied only by two guards. He didn't greet or exchange pleasantries with anyone, standing in the outermost corner with his eyes half-closed, looking no different from a retired old man sunbathing at the city gate.

The three major gangs have all arrived.

Representatives from the Red Tiger Gang, the Black Knife Gang, and the Three Elements Society stood on either side, each with their own men. They didn't exchange a word, but the tension between their gazes was more palpable than someone pointing a knife at another and cursing.

In addition, there were scattered leaders of small and medium-sized forces, as well as a few disciples of martial arts schools.

Everyone was dressed smartly.

No one felt confident.

When the patrol director makes a move, all the pieces below have to be rearranged. Who can build connections, who will be purged, whose interests will be cut—all the answers lie with the person who is about to arrive.

No one dared to speak loudly.

Occasionally, whispers would emerge from the crowd, barely audible, like the buzzing of mosquitoes, disappearing after a couple of buzzes.

Yunwen Town section of the road.

Yi Yang stood under an old elm tree by the roadside, arms crossed and eyes closed.

Today, he was assigned to guard the roadside. Zhang Li was five steps to his left, and Zhu Yuanshan was to his right. Sun Hao, Huang Yushu, and Li Tong were also pulled out and lined up further away.

The entire staff of the museum was mobilized, a first for the entire museum.

Yi Yang closed his eyes, opened his five senses, and his hearing covered a radius of hundreds of steps.

The sounds of wind, insects chirping, the patrol guards crunching dry branches underfoot, and the distant breathing of townspeople peeking from behind doors.

Then, I felt a very subtle vibration under my feet.

It wasn't made by people stepping on it.

It is an animal hoof.

Hearing the sound, Yi Yang opened his eyes.

At the southern end of the main road, a line of dust rose.

It wasn't dust kicked up by loess, but a very low, grayish-white mist that moved at a steady pace along the ground, like the back of a knife grazing the surface of water.

The sound of hooves followed. Deep, steady, and heavy. The rhythm was like war drums.

Each blow struck the bluestone pavement, and even from hundreds of steps away, the guards standing by the roadside could feel their feet go numb.

This is no ordinary horse.

The sound of ordinary horseshoes is sharp and rapid, but this sound has a metallic quality, like the sound of a hammer hitting an anvil.

Zhang Li's expression changed, and his voice tightened: "They're here."

Zhu Yuanshan subconsciously straightened his back, and his hand unconsciously went to the hilt of the knife.

Sun Hao opened his mouth, but didn't dare to say a word. Huang Yushu's pupils constricted, and Li Tong stood at the back, his fists clenched so tightly that his fingers turned white.

All the guards along the route immediately went silent.

Their gazes all turned south.

At the end of the dust trail, the three riders appeared.

Ride first.

The rider wore a long, gray-blue robe, but no armor; the robe fluttered in the wind.

He was around fifty years old, with a thin face, slightly high cheekbones, and frighteningly deep-set eyes. His temples were gray, his hair was tied up neatly, and there was a vertical line between his eyebrows, like an old mark made by something hard.

The horse he sat upon was jet black, nearly ten feet tall at the shoulders, with gray scales covering its hooves, its mane as fine as iron wire, and its eyes gleaming with a faint blue light. Each breath it exhaled released a cloud of white mist. Shallow cracks were left on the bluestone beneath its hooves.

Mythical Horse.

The man carried no knife or sword, nor did he carry any weapons on his back. Only a black rope was tied around his waist, with a dark red jade pendant about the size of a thumb hanging from the end of the rope.

Patrol Director.

Qi Shujian.

The two riders behind him were also of the same kind of exotic horse, slightly smaller in size, but with the same scales, hooves, and iron mane.

On the left, a rider, a man in his thirties with a thick beard, carried a long sword on his shoulder. The sword sheath was black iron, and the handguard was shaped like a tiger's head. Although he concealed his murderous aura, the air felt heavy and oppressive.

Song Tiecheng.

On the right is a rider, a thin man in his forties, with an iron staff across his saddle. His face is sharp and his eyes are cold and piercing.

Chen Wuyai.

The three riders moved at a leisurely pace.

There was no deliberate pressure.

But the aura of an Inner Qi Realm cultivator naturally overflows outwards, like a mountain slowly moving towards you; you can neither stop it nor dodge it. The grass by the roadside is pressed to the ground by the invisible airflow, and even the cicadas that have been chirping all day in the old elm tree fall silent for a moment.

When the three riders passed through the Yunwen Town section of the road, they were less than thirty paces from Yiyang.

That oppressive aura swept over indiscriminately. It wasn't directed at anyone, nor was it intentionally released. It was simply the presence of a powerful figure passing by.

Yi Yang's internal organs in his chest and abdomen circulate internally on their own.

The five internal organs—heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—simultaneously felt slightly warm, and a very thin layer of internal energy seeped out from the walls of the organs, buffering and dissolving the invisible pressure layer by layer.

On the surface, he bowed slightly like everyone else around him, his face showing the restraint of an elderly person intimidated by the grand occasion.

My breathing was steady. My hands didn't tremble. My back bent only the proper amount, not too much and not too little.

Qi Shujian's gaze slowly swept over the patrolling guards by the roadside, no different from inspecting the bricks and stones of his own courtyard wall.

When the scan reached Yiyang, it did not stop.

With gray hair and a hunched back, he was an old patrol chief.

It looks no different from a roadside bollard.

After the three riders passed, the sound of hooves gradually faded into the distance.

But what Yi Yang felt in that instant was etched into his very bones.

The aura of the Inner Qi Realm is not found in the skin and flesh, nor in the bones and muscles. It radiates outward from the core of the dantian, from the depths of the blood and marrow. Like a fire suppressed to its extreme, it usually remains unseen, but when it is truly unleashed—

That's something beyond the comprehension of someone in the Qi and Blood Realm.

This was the first time he had ever felt the world beyond the Qi and Blood Realm so closely.

That world is not far from him, and he will eventually reach it.

More than a quarter of an hour after the three riders passed, the roadside guards dared to straighten their backs.

Sun Hao realized his back was completely soaked, and his lips trembled so much he couldn't utter a complete sentence.

Zhang Li, supporting himself on his knees, nearly collapsed to the ground, cursing under his breath: "Damn it... this is the Inner Qi Realm? I feel like kneeling before he even gets close."

Zhu Yuanshan's face was pale, but he was still holding on. He said in a low voice, "It's not that I want to kneel. It's that my body wants to kneel. My blood and qi are suppressed, and my legs won't obey me."

Zhao Gang returned from the outpost and jogged all the way to Yi Yang.

His face still trembled from the shock, and as he wiped away sweat, he lowered his voice and poured out his thoughts like beans.

"Old man, Qi Shujian, this man has a terrifying background."

Zhao Gang's voice was hoarse but he was excited, recounting the details as if they were his own.

"He was 47 years old and came from the northern border army. He joined the army at the age of 19 and reached the sixth level of Qi and Blood on the battlefield at the age of 25. When he was 31, the northern barbarians launched a large-scale invasion, and he was ordered to lead an eight-man team to infiltrate the barbarian king's tent."

Zhao Gang swallowed hard and said, "There were three barbarian guards at the sixth level of Qi and Blood in the royal tent, and a priest who appeared to be at the Inner Qi Realm. He single-handedly killed all three sixth-level guards. When his sword broke, he used his spear; when his spear broke, he used his fists. With the last blow, he severed the head of the barbarian vice-king."

Zhang Li, who was listening nearby, couldn't stop smiling.

Zhao Gang continued to spill the news he knew: "When he survived, he had seventy-two knife wounds all over his body, eleven broken bones, and his left eye was almost ruined. He endured for three days until reinforcements arrived, and was bedridden for half a year before he could get out of bed. After this battle, the Sky Patrol Division was promoted to the position of candidate for Chief Patrol Officer. He rose three ranks in ten years and is now the Chief Patrol Officer, at the second level of the Inner Qi Realm, the Pure and Turbid Return to Origin."

He then gestured with his lip in the direction where the three riders had disappeared.

"It is said that internal energy can travel thirty paces beyond the body. A single strike can shatter the bricks and stones of a city wall."

Zhang Li swallowed hard: "What about the two next to him?"

"They're no pushovers either. The one with the bushy beard is Song Tiecheng, and the one with the iron staff is Chen Wuyai. They're both at the first level of the Inner Qi Realm, in the early stages of Qi Sea formation. They've fought alongside Qi Shujian for over a decade, and their lives are countless."

Zhao Gang rubbed his fingers together and continued, "It is said that Song Tiecheng once chased down a leader of the Nine Evil Sect alone, from the north end of Suining Prefecture to the south end, a distance of three hundred miles. He literally exhausted the man to death before beheading him. Chen Wuyai was even more ruthless; he used his iron staff to strike people on the head, and no cult member he targeted ever survived past the next day."

After listening, Yi Yang simply nodded.

"sharp."

The word "hoarse" is no different from praising someone for cooking a good porridge for breakfast.

Zhao Gang stared at him for a couple of seconds, feeling that the old man's composure was a bit excessive.

Yi Yang offered no explanation.

He had already gone through several twists and turns in his mind.

The second level of the Inner Qi Realm, the Inner Qi leaves the body by thirty steps.

This means that if Qi Shujian stands still, all living things within thirty steps are within his killing range.

Even someone at the Bone Forging Realm wouldn't be qualified to withstand a single blow in a direct confrontation with someone of this level.

But Yi Yang felt no fear.

It's not arrogance, it's clear-headedness.

He knew his own limitations all too well. Compared to the entire Yunlin County, the Suining Prefecture, or the Great Yu Empire—he was but a drop in the ocean, not even a ripple.

But Qi Shujian's arrival brought not only pressure, but also a signal.

The Sky Patrol Division is about to make a major move.

A large-scale purge of the nine cults will definitely require manpower.

Completing missions earns merit, and merit can be exchanged for resources. As resource circulation accelerates, the prices of pills on both the black and white markets will inevitably fluctuate.

Where there are fluctuations, there are loopholes to exploit.

For an old man like him who relies on resources to accelerate progress, large-scale operations in chaotic times are often the best opportunity to pick up bargains.

Yi Yang rolled up his sleeves and followed the crowd back.

The wind blew from the official road, scattering the dust and hoofprints left by the strange beast horse.

In the distance, before the city gates, representatives of various factions were retreating. Some were pale-faced, some kept their heads down in silence, and some were already whispering to those around them, plotting their next allegiance.