Inside the side room.

Mu Honglian stood in a daze.

She had taken the Body Sculpting Pill and Soul Tempering Pill, and her physical strength and spiritual energy had been enhanced. Her mood was beyond words.

So the pills sold in Huyang City were this miraculous! Even someone like herself who had already reached Wuzong could gain tremendous improvements after taking them!

And then there was the Soul Tempering Pill.

This type of pill wasn’t even sold by the Ai Family. How could the Eternal Sect possess it?

Could it be that there was a pill dao grandmaster here?

“Father.”

Mu Honglian gradually calmed down and murmured: “It seems I came too late.”

Not late, not late.

Joining the Eternal Sect at this time was just right!

There were still many things that shocked Mu Honglian, because she hadn’t yet experienced the various facilities for enhancing martial dao.

As the princess that she was, she was destined to remain in a state of shock for quite a long period of time.

Over these three months, quite a few peak Wuzong disciples had appeared in the Eternal Sect, and Dragon Ziyang and other later-entering inner disciples had successively broken through to Wuwang.

The number of Wuwang-level individuals on the epic mission had already increased to 22.

There were 21 inner disciples, so how was there one extra?

That’s right.

The closed-door disciple He Wudi had also broken through to Wuwang, with a speed that left people gasping in admiration.

After Sect Master Jun used his Radiance Sunglasses to peek at his true strength, he wished he could take a scalpel and dissect him on the spot to see exactly how this guy’s body was constructed!

The system said: “Host should dissect yourself first.”

He Wudi’s rapid leveling was built upon his super-divine-grade spiritual roots.

Sect Master Jun going from low-grade to his current nine-grade Sword-Martial Dual Wuwang—that was the most shockingly cheat-like progression.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!”

On this day, a heavy imposing aura suddenly surged forth in the dining hall.

“Hm?”

Jun Changxiao said: “Someone is about to break through?”

His spiritual awareness spread out and instantly locked onto Ma Yongning.

At this moment, he had his eyes closed, his hands still instinctively washing bowls and chopsticks, while that heavy aura continued to spread wildly.

Sensing that qi, Ye Xingchen said: “Blade King?”

A smile appeared at the corners of Zhou Hong’s mouth.

The King Among Blades and himself, the King Among Swords—they were simply natural rivals. Now that Ma Yongning showed signs of breaking through, his battle intent immediately surged.

“Wow!”

Liu Wanshi exclaimed in delight: “Uncle Ma is about to break through!”

“Whoosh—”

Just then, an even heavier imposing aura spread from the dining hall. Ma Yongning opened his eyes, and his entire person seemed to have become more weathered than before.

Zhou Hong had this same flavor.

Indeed, unconventional existences like the Sword King and Blade King—only by appearing more weathered and older would they feel they had style.

“Blade, come!”

Ma Yongning gave a long shout!

Whoosh!

The kitchen cleaver on the cutting board flew out and was caught in his hand.

This was the blade that had been cut off by Jun Changxiao back in the day. Later, he had repurposed it into a kitchen knife, solely to help that girl Liu Wanshi chop vegetables every day.

A bladesman reduced to a cook—how lamentable.

However.

Ma Yongning hadn’t forgotten his original intention. Instead, in the midst of chopping on the block, he gradually comprehended the profound mysteries of the blade, his cultivation not declining but increasing, allowing him to smoothly step into the Blade King realm!

This was what a bladesman was.

Like swordsmen, they pursued not step-by-step cultivation, but emphasized enlightenment.

Once enlightened, it was achieved.

Without enlightenment, one would forever pace in place.

“Swish!”

Ma Yongning leaped upward, the kitchen knife in his hand flashing with radiance. Blade qi carrying heavy imposing aura came slashing down in waves.

If one slowed down his blade-wielding movements dozens of times, one could see that these were completely vegetable-chopping motions!

Blade King.

Using the blade to prove the dao.

Ma Yongning could reach this level entirely through insights gained from chopping vegetables, so please call him—the Vegetable Cleaver King!

Boom!

Boom!

The blade qi came crashing down, leaving deep blade marks on the training grounds. The heavy imposing aura spread out, causing distant disciples to feel nothing but solemn respect!

Those of the sword—sharp and fully exposed.

Those of the blade—forceful and weighty.

“Tap!”

Ma Yongning descended gracefully, spinning the kitchen knife on his thumb. It nearly sliced off the other four fingers before he inserted it into the sheath at his waist.

One word: cool!

“Good!”

Jun Changxiao walked out from the main hall, applauding.

Clap clap clap!

The disciples also began applauding one after another.

“However.”

Jun Changxiao pointed at the training grounds: “You’ve shattered so many floor tiles. Three months of martial dao resources will all be deducted.”

“Thud!”

Ma Yongning collapsed to the ground.

Why the hell did I come out to show off, why!

……

With Ma Yongning’s breakthrough to Blade King, the epic mission’s Wuwang-level count had reached 23, which Jun Changxiao hadn’t anticipated.

However, he soon became troubled.

All the inner disciples with decent talent had broken through to Wuwang. Who would fill the remaining 27 spots?

Actually, Li Shangtian and other outer disciples had already reached peak Wuzong, but limited by their aptitude, breaking through to Wuwang would take quite a bit of time.

“There are still quite a few Supreme-Grade Aptitude Transformation Liquids given as rewards. Let’s have the outer disciples take them first.”

Sect Master Jun took out all the aptitude liquids.

As for how many there were, even the author didn’t count them—in any case, quite a lot!

For outer disciples like Li Shangtian and Sima Zhongda, whose appearance rate was decent enough but whose aptitude wasn’t outstanding, transformation would have to start from High-Grade Aptitude.

Sect Master Jun spent another 2,000 contribution points to buy 40 bottles of High-Grade Aptitude, elevating them all to Supreme Grade.

“Thank you, Sect Master!”

Li Shangtian, Lin Jianghang, and the others were immensely moved, and now had greater confidence in charging toward Wuwang.

“Elder Wei.”

Jun Changxiao came to the medicine garden and inquired: “When will that batch of medicinal ingredients mature?”

“Probably needs another two months or so,” Elder Wei said.

“That’ll work.”

Even with aptitude increased, they might not necessarily advance to Wuwang in a short time, so the Wuwang Pills had to be refined one step earlier. Only then could they meet the target within half a year.

Disciple advancement wasn’t that difficult. What was most difficult were the elders.

He went to inquire with Jiang Xie and the Ning brothers, and the answer he received was that they had all improved by three grades from their original realms.

With tens of thousands of natural spirit stones to draw upon.

If they couldn’t pile up their levels with this, there truly would be no saving them!

“After half a year, I should be able to complete Epic Mission Five.” Jun Changxiao was full of confidence.

Of course.

Simply completing it definitely wasn’t the goal.

He had to exceed completion to obtain even more rewards!

“After completion, I should be able to step into the Huangji level, right?”

Jun Changxiao rubbed his hands together, then in the next second suddenly remembered something and exclaimed in shock: “There’s still an Epic Mission Six waiting. Even if I complete Epic Five, I might not be able to advance a major realm, right?”

“Smart person,” the system said.

“I’ll be damned!”

Jun Changxiao broke down: “Isn’t this double-yolk egg a total trap!”

The system said: “The epic missions give abundant rewards. If the host completes them all, you’ll definitely profit handsomely.”

Jun Changxiao fell silent.

That was indeed the case, but having two epic missions was equivalent to creating two barriers to breaking through major realms. The difficulty level was definitely much higher than a single one!

This was still at Wuwang level.

Later, when reaching peak Huangji level, wouldn’t there still be two!

“Sigh.”

Jun Changxiao said helplessly: “If I’d known earlier, I would have just taken a single path and not played with this Sword-Martial Dual Cultivation.”

Another month passed.

The Eternal Sect’s peak Wuzong disciples reached over 800. At the Wuwang level, only Zhong Yi and Jing Wugou broke through first, raising the count to 25.

“There are still two months. It should be doable,” Jun Changxiao murmured.

Shangguan Xinyao walked into the main hall and placed a pile of researched cultivation techniques on the table, saying: “Sect Master, I’ve researched several hundred more. Please provide guidance!”

“Good, good!”

Jun Changxiao hurriedly crushed the Insight Talisman, then spent an entire day improving all the half-finished cultivation techniques to completion. Then he opened the Technique Pavilion—the count for the Five Elements Heaven-Surveying Formula was 1090/988, and the exchange button had also lit up!

“Ding! Consumed 998 secret manuals, successfully exchanged for Five Elements Heaven-Surveying Formula×1, delivered to spatial ring.”

After purchasing this cultivation technique manual, the system automatically matched it to the sect’s techniques, and Sect Master Jun unhesitatingly copied 10,000 copies of it directly.

“Qingyang!”

“Present!”

“Tomorrow morning, after finishing morning exercises, don’t disperse. This seat has something to say!”

“Yes!”