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

Meanwhile, on the right side of the platform.

Two monks from Jinyang Temple sat side by side, each with a calm expression, yet their voices flowed between them in a way that was impossible for others to perceive.

Transmitting sound secretly.

The tall, thin monk's brow twitched slightly, and he spoke in a barely audible voice, reaching the ears of the sturdy, round-faced monk beside him: "Junior Brother Jingyuan, the selection this time is quite complete. That seventeen-year-old lad has excellent potential; if we recruit him into the temple, reaching the Inner Qi Realm within twenty years is not just a pipe dream."

Jingyuan didn't open his eyes, but the smile on his lips faded slightly.

"Senior brother, the quota for entering the temple is just a prelude, not the goal."

The tall, thin monk neither agreed nor disagreed.

Jingyuan's voice transmission was steady and slow, sending out each word one by one.

"The elder's decree clearly states that Wang Gongqin betrayed Jinyang Temple, stole the temple's treasured sword, and began cultivating the Nine Evils Blood Refining Technique. He is now a thorn in the temple's side. We failed to capture him during the last encirclement and suppression operation, and now that he has broken through to the fifth level of Qi and Blood, he is frequently appearing in the Yunlin County area. If this drags on any longer, and he either joins another powerful force or cultivates an even higher level of Blood Essence Evil Technique, it will be even more difficult for the temple to recover the treasured sword."

The tall, thin monk tapped his knee lightly with his finger.

"So this spot for entering the temple..."

"It's a reward."

Jingyuan's telepathic message carried a hint of shrewdness that couldn't be cultivated in a temple.

"Those who survive today's assessment will at least be at the peak of the third to fourth level of Qi and Blood cultivation. Releasing these people out as eyes and ears to find Wang Gongqin will prevent them from being silenced in a single encounter; at least they can track her down. Then the two of us can personally take action..."

He paused, his lips moved slightly, and the end of his telepathic message carried a hint of coldness.

"The credit will go to you and me, and the precious sword will also belong to you and me; take it back and hand it over. As for the disciple who was recruited, there are so many outer disciples in the temple; one more won't make a difference. Besides, the age limit is set at forty; contestants of that age are all in their prime, full of energy, and willing to risk their lives—perfect for being used."

Upon hearing this, the tall, thin monk finally opened his eyes. His gaze swept over the young martial artists sweating profusely on the stage, and the compassion in his eyes was as faint as if it had been rinsed with water.

"Junior brother, your considerations are thorough."

The two lost their telepathic communication, and their expressions returned to the solemn and dignified appearance of monks.

offstage.

Yi Yang spat the dried fruit shells to his feet, then turned his gaze away from Yi Zhanzhi and toward the west side of the wooden platform.

Huang Yushu went up.

The young man changed into a clean, short brown outfit, with his sword sheath hanging diagonally from his back, and his expression was solemn.

His chosen opponent was a patrol guard ranked 319th, from a branch of another town under the jurisdiction of Yunlin County. He was at the peak of the first level of Qi and Blood, five or six years older than his opponent, and also stronger.

"Isn't that the clueless guy who flips through the papers at the museum?"

Someone in the crowd muttered something.

Huang Yu ignored him completely. He drew his sword, stood at attention, and took a half-step forward with his left foot.

The fight begins.

The opponent's attack wasn't slow; he probed with three moves—a chop, a slash, and a sweep—his swordplay was disciplined but lacked variation. Huang Yu parried the first two strikes, but missed the third. He shifted half a step to the left to avoid the blade's edge, and then delivered a backhand slash, the belly of his blade striking the opponent's wrist.

Snapped.

The guard's hand was sore from the shock that his fingers almost came undone.

The rest of the fight was swift and decisive. Huang Yushu didn't linger, pressing his opponent back with four consecutive strikes, each strike more powerful than the last. By the sixth strike, the combined force of his second-level Qi and Blood cultivation completely overwhelmed the defense of a peak first-level cultivator. His opponent's blade was knocked away, and he was struck on the shoulder by the final blow from the back of the blade, falling off the edge of the table.

"I admit defeat." The guard rubbed his shoulder and got up, his face pale but not defiant.

Exchange of waist tags.

Huang Yushu walked off the stage with the bronze plaque engraved with 319. His ranking wasn't particularly impressive; it wouldn't even make a splash in a large group of hundreds of people.

However, the expressions on the faces of the several patrolmen from the Cloud Pattern Town Sky Patrol Division who were gathered together were rather strange.

"Huang Yushu? That troublemaker who was punished by being sent to patrol the archives?"

"When did he break through to the second level? I remember he was still at the first level last month."

"How many operations did he carry out to accumulate that much? That kid's lucky; he got caught in both the encirclement and suppression campaigns and the turmoil."

"Tch, just bullying the weak. A second-level fighter against a peak first-level fighter, what's so great about that?"

"You can't say that. Who ever gave him a second glance before? This guy who was just flipping through files in the archives quietly reached the second level—that's strange enough in itself."

Whispers filled the air among the formation, but Huang Yu ignored them and walked back to his original position with his knife in his arms.

Sun Hao gave him a wink from the next formation.

That kid had just gone up on stage and picked a patrolman from an outer town ranked 416th. Both of them were at the mid-stage of the first level of Qi and Blood, and their fight was quite a struggle. Sun Hao's victory was not impressive; he only managed to trip his opponent and pin him to the ground with a low sweeping motion on the fourteenth move.

The waist tag was changed from 416 to 393.

After changing the sign, Sun Hao slipped away, huddled in the formation and chugdled water. His lip was bruised, but he was grinning from ear to ear.

That's enough, I'm not greedy. Staying alive is more important than ranking.

Yi Yang stood behind the two of them, tapping his fingers twice inside his sleeve.

One won beautifully, the other won miserably, but both won.

Huang Yushu's foundation was more solid than he had imagined. The young man was willing to put in tremendous effort in his training, and the combat experience he had accumulated from the two battles of the encirclement and suppression operation and the town's unrest was not for nothing. Although the second level of Qi and Blood was not a very good position on this training ground, many people could not cross the hurdle from the first to the second level even after three to five years, but Huang Yushu crossed it in a few months.

And what did I do?

I didn't help him much, I didn't give him any special training or teach him any pills, but I did two things: I gave him a few pointers on swordsmanship during daily practice, and I didn't deduct a single penny from his reward or bonus from the mission.

And so, a piece of unpolished jade lies on the ground. Others either step on it or kick it into a ditch, but I simply didn't step on it, giving it the opportunity to be revealed.

Huang Yushu walked up to Yi Yang, cupped his hands in greeting, and said in a low voice, "My lord."

Yi Yang hummed in response, without lifting his eyelids, and started munching on a dried fruit again.

"After the quarterly exams, there will be a round of reassignments within the Sky Patrol Division," Yi Yang said, his voice muffled by the taste of fruit pulp, barely audible to those two steps in front of him. "You and Sun Hao have both put in a lot of effort, and the results speak for themselves. If you want to move, I can put in a word with the higher-ups. Whether you want to work in another hall or stay in the Archives, it's up to you."

Sun Hao leaned over and scratched the back of his head.

"Sir, I must first consult with Deputy Chief Steward Sun."

Yi Yang glanced at him sideways.

"Just ask your uncle; he's more reliable than me."

Sun Hao chuckled and didn't argue.

Huang Yushu stood still.

His Adam's apple bobbed, as if he were chewing something very hard, and he chewed it several times before swallowing.

"grown ups."

Yi Yang looked up.

Huang Yushu's back was even straighter than when he was wielding a knife on stage.

"I'm not leaving."

The three words were spoken softly, yet the tone was remarkably steady.

"I will follow you."

Yi Yang paused for a couple of beats while chewing dried fruit, and something flashed in his cloudy old eyes—it wasn't satisfaction, nor was it touching; it was more like someone who had walked sixty years of road looking back and finding a real person standing behind them.

He spat out the fruit shell and patted the crumbs off his hands.

"OK."

It's just a single word, as simple as issuing a note.

Huang Yushu's shoulders slumped slightly, a relaxation that came after being tense for too long. The fighting on the training ground continued. On the wooden platform, the glint of swords and the stench of blood mingled, and shouts, the clang of metal, and panting blended into a chaotic mess.

Yi Yang pulled his hands back into his sleeves, his gaze casually sweeping over the crowd.

That's about it. Next up is the Qi and Blood Triple Element.