With the hall established and informants spread throughout the eight cities of Qingyang Commandery, Jun Changxiao began devoting his energy to cultivation.

Don’t be fooled by how busy he’d been these past few days recruiting disciples and destroying the Drizzle Tower—he hadn’t neglected his martial cultivation at all. Whenever he had a spare moment, he would consume Qi-Gathering Pills while circulating the Muscle-Tendon Transformation Scripture to strengthen the qi spiral in his dantian.

The Spirit Array could only be used by disciples. With his superior-grade spiritual root and pill assistance, his cultivation speed was still quite fast.

After delegating sect affairs and cultivating peacefully for two days, he successfully advanced from Eighth-Rank Wutu to Ninth-Rank Wutu.

“Bang!”

Arriving at the training room, he threw a punch at the testing machine, which displayed a value of 25,000 jin.

“Bang!”

Jun Changxiao condensed his Explosive Fist to test again, displaying a power value of 30,000 jin.

“Not bad,” Jun Changxiao said.

Not bad?

If the Longblade Sect’s sect master, who had only 14,000 jin of strength as a fellow Ninth-Rank Wutu, heard this, he would definitely die of shame by suicide.

Jun Changxiao’s strength was so formidable because of his spiritual root aptitude, Body Tempering Pills, Body Tempering Room, and various other factors—naturally far surpassing ordinary Wutu.

After breaking through to Ninth-Rank Wutu, his next goal was to reach Peak Wutu, and then advance to the even higher level of Wushi!

Jun Changxiao was absolutely not satisfied with the status quo. He had to make himself and his disciples stronger within one year, then go to the Holy Spring Sect for an exchange and discussion of the Dao.

“Oh right.”

“There’s still the Mighty Qi Sect too.”

“I’ll let Qingyang and the others cultivate for a month first, then go challenge that sect.”

In Jun Changxiao’s view, although challenging a fifth-rate sect would be extremely difficult, it was also a great opportunity to spread the fame of the Tiegu Sect.

As for the Mighty Qi Sect, it was just an insignificant small monster on the road to challenging the big boss.

Mm.

He couldn’t look down on them so much.

Give them some respect—consider them a small elite monster instead.

“Creak.”

The Body Tempering Room’s door opened, and Ye Xingchen slid out from inside.

Jun Changxiao said, “This seat heard from Qingyang a couple days ago that you’ve already broken through to Wutu?”

“Mm.” Ye Xingchen nodded.

“Have you cultivated Execution Slash?”

“I have.”

“How does it feel?”

Ye Xingchen was silent for a moment, then said, “Very strong.”

For a Wudi to give an evaluation of “very strong” with those two words definitely meant it wasn’t just ordinarily strong.

Jun Changxiao patted his shoulder and said, “As long as you cultivate well and treat the Tiegu Sect as your own home, there will only be more, not fewer, martial techniques this strong in the future.”

Whether he could refresh more martial techniques in a short time was uncertain for now, but he had to boast first.

Ye Xingchen’s eyes brightened.

Execution Slash was the most special spiritual-type martial technique he’d seen since he began cultivating the martial way. If there were many more martial techniques this strong, that made him very much look forward to it!

“Sect Master.”

Ye Xingchen said, “Zhou Hong is a genius with extremely high aptitude in the sword dao. If you don’t want to waste his aptitude, it would be better to let him go to a sect that specializes in the sword dao for cultivation.”

Jun Changxiao stroked his chin and smiled, “You’re saying that my Tiegu Sect can’t accommodate a sword cultivation genius like this?”

Ye Xingchen said, “Sword cultivators are one in ten thousand. Although our Tiegu Sect has Explosive Fist and Execution Slash, we have no sword techniques. Staying here will only hold him back.”

Jun Changxiao folded his arms and smiled, “You seem to know quite a lot.”

“…” Ye Xingchen fell silent.

He suddenly realized that he should just cultivate himself—why was he worrying unnecessarily about Zhou Hong? If he accidentally exposed his reborn identity, that would be troublesome.

“Swish!”

While he was thinking, a secret manual flew over.

“Take this sword technique and cultivate it first. Whether you can comprehend it depends on your own fortune,” Jun Changxiao said.

A sword technique?

Ye Xingchen looked at the manual in his hand with “Soaring Sword Divine Art” written on it, a disdainful expression floating across his face. “Naming it with ‘Divine’—how arrogant.”

Opening the first page and seeing the words left behind, he sneered even more coldly, “When has the Xingyun Continent ever had anyone called the Solitary Sword Emperor? This is obviously fabricated nonsense at first glance.”

It was perfectly normal that he hadn’t heard of it, because the product description stated it was from “a certain plane,” and that word “certain” meant it wasn’t from the Xingyun Continent.

Ye Xingchen turned to the second page. When he saw the content of the Single-Character Swift Art and saw the sword moves, the disdain on his face gradually dissipated, replaced by shock.

“This is…”

He could barely maintain his composure as he said, “A Divine-grade sword technique!”

Though Emperor Ye no longer had his cultivation, he could still roughly judge the quality of martial techniques—after all, he’d cultivated many in his previous life.

Continuing to study it in depth, the expression on his face changed repeatedly as he said, “This sword technique is probably no weaker than the Nine Heavens Cloud-Breaking Sword Method I once cultivated!”

Returning to his dwelling.

Ye Xingchen didn’t go to comprehend the Supreme Mystery Scripture or the Muscle-Tendon Transformation Scripture, putting all his mental energy into the Soaring Sword Divine Art.

After comprehending it through the night, although he’d memorized the Single-Character Swift Art in his heart, he also deeply understood that even if one learned this kind of sword method, without extremely high attainment in the sword dao, it would be difficult to unleash its true might.

Jun Changxiao agreed with this point.

Although he’d learned the Single-Character Swift Art in the mountain cave, because his aptitude was limited, the power he could unleash was actually not even as good as the Nine-Style Wave-Stacking Sword.

Divine-grade martial techniques were certainly powerful, but to truly unleash their might, one still needed to meet the right person at the right time.

Looking at Zhou Hong standing with sword in hand on the training field outside the window, Ye Xingchen murmured, “This boy has comprehended the Swift Realm. Cultivating the Single-Character Swift Art, he can not only unleash its power but will also benefit in terms of the sword dao.”

Emperor Ye had thought that a sword dao seedling cultivating at the Tiegu Sect was a waste, but then Sect Master Jun produced a Divine-grade sword technique—slapping his face resoundingly.

…

The next day.

After the Ai Family finished auctioning the Healing Pills, members of the Drizzle Hall stationed in the city immediately delivered the latest intelligence.

“What?” Jun Changxiao shot up with a “whoosh,” his eyes wide as he said, “How much did they auction for?”

Li Luoqiu said, “Ten pills were auctioned for a total of six million taels, averaging sixty thousand taels per pill.”

After confirming he’d heard correctly, Jun Changxiao’s mouth twitched violently. “A single pill can actually sell for such a high price—truly, poverty limits my imagination.”

Li Luoqiu said, “The major sects definitely aren’t fools. If they’re willing to spend such a high price to buy Healing Pills, they must have miraculous effects.”

“Oh, right.” She said, “The intelligence also says that after the auction ended, Family Head Ai left the Ai residence and came in the direction of our Tiegu Sect.”

“Sect Master.” Just then, Li Qingyang came to report, “The Ai Family’s family head has come to visit again.”

Li Luoqiu’s expression froze. “Again?”

“Show him in.”

“Yes.”

Li Luoqiu said, “The Ai Family deals in pills and has extensive connections. They have quite a reputation in Qingyang Commandery. Isn’t the Sect Master going out personally to welcome him?”

“No need,” Jun Changxiao said.

Li Luoqiu muttered, “My Sect Master sure has grand airs.”

Before long, Family Head Ai strode into the great hall, cupping his hands with a smile and exchanging pleasantries. “Sect Master Jun, it’s been many days since we met, and your cultivation has advanced again.”

“Hm?” He looked toward Li Luoqiu. “And this is?”

“Li Luoqiu, a hall master of my Tiegu Sect,” Jun Changxiao introduced.

They even have hall masters now? Their development is really fast!

Ai Shangni hurriedly cupped his hands. “So it’s Hall Master Li. My apologies, my apologies.”

Li Luoqiu was astonished.

Even when visiting sixth or seventh-rate sects, the bigwigs had to receive Family Head Ai well, so why was he so humble when coming to the Tiegu Sect?

Suddenly, she remembered that the Sect Master had previously said he had a good relationship with Family Head Ai—it seemed to be true. As for that bottle of Healing Pills, could it be…

Li Luoqiu’s facial expression froze. After a moment, she thought in shock, “The Healing Pills are real too?”