The Queen Mother was sitting in the tent below the altar, wearing a golden phoenix crown and a coloured phoenix robe, looking up to twenty-eight or nine, beautiful and dignified, not as old as Zhang Ruochen imagined, but instead, she also gave people a noble temperament.
She said, “The Great King is in closed-door cultivation in the Hall of Life and Death, and this ‘Ritual Ceremony’ is presided over by this Empress. State Master, have you detected the grade of the Divine Martial Seal opened by His Highness the Ninth Prince?”
The State Master of the Yunwu County Kingdom, holding a volume of iron books in his hands, shook it and said, “The ‘Complete Album of Divine Martial Seals’ has recorded on it the patterns of all the martial arts seals that have ever appeared in the history of the Kunlun Realm, from the first-grade martial arts seal to the ninth-grade martial arts seal, all of them are recorded in the book. Yet not a single mark matches His Highness the Ninth Prince’s Divine Martial Seal.”
The Queen Mother glanced towards Zhang Ruochen with a hint of indifference, “Since the detection does not yield any results, it is probably a Divine Martial Seal that does not have a grade. In other counties, there have been some martial artists who opened unknown divine Martial Seals, and their ultimate achievements were all very limited.”
The eighth prince was also standing in the tent and immediately chimed in, saying, “Queen Mother is right, the ninth brother is already sixteen years old after all, missing the best age for cultivation, for him, even if he opens a fourth grade divine martial seal, or a fifth grade, he won’t be able to achieve much.”
The Queen Mother nodded, agreeing with the Eighth Prince’s words, and said, “Since the Ninth Prince has only opened a divine Martial Seal that has no grade, and, moreover, is already sixteen years old, in order to try to conserve the royal family’s cultivation resources, let’s just give the Ninth Prince a copy of the Marrow Cleansing Liquid!”
Concubine Lin’s face changed as she said, “Your Highness, the first year of opening the Divine Martial Seal is the most important year. Back then, after the Seventh Prince opened the Divine Martial Seal, he received a total of twelve copies of the Marrow Cleansing Liquid, and he was able to cleanse his marrow once every month. Duster, why can you only get one copy of the marrow cleansing liquid?”
The Queen Mother said in a cold voice, “The Seventh Prince opened the Seventh Grade Divine Martial Seal when he was three years old. How can the Ninth Prince be compared to the Seventh Prince?”
The Eighth Prince said in a pandering manner, “Seventh brother, but the Queen Mother’s first son, inherited the Queen Mother’s powerful bloodline, and possesses the Seventh Grade Divine Martial Seal, who in the entire Yunwu County Kingdom can be compared to Seventh brother? Whether or not the Yunwu County Kingdom can prosper and become more powerful in the future all depends on Seventh Brother alone.”
He added, “This prince said something he doesn’t like to hear, a finger of seventh brother is ten or a hundred times more important than ninth brother’s life, there is no comparison at all.”
Concubine Lin clenched her lips and teeth as she continued to fight for Zhang Ruochen, saying, “But when the Eighth Prince opened the Divine Martial Seal, he also obtained four copies of the Marrow Cleansing Liquid.”
The Queen Mother said with great displeasure, “The higher the talent, the more resources one receives. The Ninth Prince has the lowest talent, so naturally the fewer resources he gets.”
“But ……,” Consort Lin said.
Empress Dowager became even more impatient and said in a deep voice, “This Empress has already made a decision, Consort Lin, if you dare to say one more word, do you believe that this Empress will have someone drag you out to be caned again?”
“Once again ……,” Zhang Ruochen raised his head brightly when he heard the Queen Mother’s words.
Could it be that the Queen Mother had once caned her mother?
After hearing the Queen Mother’s words, Concubine Lin trembled slightly, as if recalling something terrible, and immediately closed her mouth.
At this moment, someone had already delivered a copy of the Marrow Cleansing Liquid and handed it to Zhang Ruochen.
When Zhang Ruochen received the Marrow Cleansing Liquid, he walked over to Concubine Lin’s side, turned around and stared Avray at the Queen Mother sitting above him, saying, “Mother, let’s go back!”
“Hmm!” Consort Lin gently pursed her lips and bitterly nodded.
The Queen Mother stared at Zhang Ruochen and Concubine Lin’s departing backs and said, “Three months from now, it will be the end of the year examination of the royal family, so the Ninth Prince can be sure to cultivate hard and strive to complete the ‘Marrow Cleansing and Pulse Flushing’ within three months to become a true martial artist. At that time, the Great King will also be out of the gate, so I hope you can bring him a surprise.”
Immediately after, the eighth prince’s disdainful voice resounded again and laughed, “Even if you have three copies of the Marrow Cleansing Liquid, it’s still impossible to complete the Marrow Cleansing and Vein Flushing within three months. It even took me half a year to do it, and with Ninth Brother’s qualifications, it would probably take more than a year to have a chance. Lol!”
Zhang Ruochen didn’t turn back and tightened his fists, the intention in his heart was very firm, “You guys just wait and see, I definitely won’t let you guys down!”
Returning to the Ziyi Partial Hall, Zhang Ruochen couldn’t wait to close the door to his room and immediately cultivate.
Although he didn’t know what Divine Martial Seal was opened, but since he possessed the Divine Martial Seal, he could definitely cultivate True Qi.
Firstly, the first step was to open up a “Qi Pool” underneath the Divine Martial Seal.
The so-called “pool of qi” was the pool that held the true qi.
The larger the pool, the more true qi it could hold. As one’s cultivation level increased, the “pool of qi” would gradually expand.
Generally speaking, in order to open a “Qi Pool”, one must be guided by elders.
For Zhang Ruochen, who had rich cultivation experience, opening a “Qi Pool” was not a difficult task, and it only took him half an hour to successfully open the “Qi Pool”.
For other cultivators, they would have to spend at least a few days trying before they could open up a “Qi Pool”.
Zhang Ruochen, however, only spent half an hour.
“This body is really weak, it’s surprising that it only opened up an egg-sized pool of Qi, the amount of True Qi it can hold is too small!”
Opening up a “Qi Pool” was not enough.
A qi pool was only a place to store true qi.
In order for true qi to run throughout the body, one must open up one’s own cultivation meridians.
Only after completing this step could one possess true qi and become a true martial artist.
The next step was the second step, cleansing the marrow and flushing the veins.
Zhang Ruochen took out the small jade bottle that contained the Marrow Cleansing Liquid, and after gently sniffing it with his nose to make sure that it was the real Marrow Cleansing Liquid, he directly poured the entire bottle into his mouth.
After the Marrow Cleansing Liquid entered his throat, it was very cold, but only a split second had passed before that coldness disappeared and was replaced by a boiling hot temperature.
It was like there was a flame that was burning inside the body!
A trace of flame drilled into every meridian in Zhang Ruochen’s entire body, and then, merged into the meridians.
It was at this time!
“Nine Heavenly Bright Emperor Scripture, first level, Tai Huang Realm Heaven.”
Cultivating different techniques naturally opened up different meridian routes.
The more profound the technique, the more meridian routes there were, the more complex and amazing they were.
The Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture had as many as thirty-six running meridians in total.
Of course, Zhang Ruochen didn’t need to open up all the meridians right now, he only needed to open up the first meridian, which was considered to be the completion of the Marrow Cleansing and Pulse Flushing.
“They said that I couldn’t complete the Marrow Cleansing and Pulse Flushing when I spent three months, but I will prove with practical actions that I can complete the Marrow Cleansing and Pulse Flushing tonight and become a true martial artist!”
Zhang Ruochen drew on his previous life’s cultivation experience and used the only strand of true qi he had to punch his veins with all his might, quickly opening up most of the first meridian.
A sharp pain came from within his body, as if the meridian was about to be ripped off, causing Zhang Ruochen to tremble.
If it was any other person who encountered such a situation, they would definitely have already failed to punch their veins.
However, Zhang Ruochen clenched his teeth and persevered with a strong willpower, never giving up as the beads of sweat kept falling to the ground.
“Only the …… last small section …… is missing.”
Hope was just around the corner, one must succeed in punching the vein!
It must succeed!
Zhang Ruochen made a huge effort to blast all of his few True Qi over.
“Boom!”
A loud bang came from within his body, emitting a deafening sound that almost shook Zhang Ruochen into a fainting spell.
After that wave of pain disappeared, it only felt like a cold stream of Qi flowed through the meridians, the pain gradually disappeared, and a wave of unprecedented relief spread throughout the body.
“Haha! Success! Successfully completed the Marrow Cleansing and Pulse Flushing, becoming a true martial artist!”
The Eighth Prince completed this step by taking four portions of the Marrow Cleansing Liquid, and it took him a whole half year to do so.
Zhang Ruochen had only spent one night and had only taken one copy of the Marrow Cleansing Liquid.
Completing the Marrow Cleansing and Pulse Flushing was the cultivation level of the ‘Early Yellow Extreme Realm’.
Martial cultivation was divided into the four major realms of ‘Yellow, Xuan, Earth, and Heaven’, namely: the Yellow Extreme Realm, Xuan Extreme Realm, Earth Extreme Realm, and Heaven Extreme Realm.
Each major realm was divided into seven minor realms, which were: early stage, middle stage, late stage, minor pole position, middle pole position, major pole position, and great perfection.
Four major and seven minor.
Zhang Ruochen was currently at the early stage of the Yellow Extreme Realm.
In the “early”, “middle”, and “late” stages of the Yellow Extreme Realm, the meridians were opened up, and the true qi was canned to make the physical body stronger and stronger, and with each minor realm, the power would increase by a Every time you ascend a small realm, your power will increase by a large margin.
The Eighth Prince was the late stage of the Yellow Extreme Realm, and could lift a three hundred jin stone disc with his bare hands and throw it ten feet away. The power of a punch he threw was comparable to that of a brute bull.
Most of the martial artists at the late stage of the Yellow Extreme Realm were able to cultivate the “power of a bull”.
Above the “Late Stage” were the “Small Pole Position”, “Medium Pole Position”, “Great Pole Position”, and “Great Completion”. The four realms of “Great Perfection”.
When one breaks through the late stage of the Yellow Extreme Realm, one can reach the Yellow Extreme Realm’s Small Extreme Position, and immediately possess the “strength of four oxen”, quadrupling one’s strength.
Therefore, a martial artist of the Yellow Extreme Realm Small Extreme Position, against a martial artist of the late Yellow Extreme Realm, is like an adult against a child, one against ten, no problem at all.
The “Middle Pole Position”, “Great Pole Position”, and “Great Perfection” were even more terrifying, possessing power that was unimaginable to ordinary people.
Those realms were still far away from Zhang Ruochen, and he didn’t need to think much about it now, steady cultivation was the key, one step at a time, in order to go farther.
The eighth prince had cultivated for eight years and had only reached the late stage of the Yellow Extreme Realm, which could only be considered ordinary talent.
“The Eighth Prince spent half a year to complete the Marrow Cleansing and Vein Flushing. I only used one night’s time.”
“The eighth prince spent eight years before cultivating to the late stage of the Yellow Extreme Realm. I have to complete that within three months. For me, it’s not like there’s no chance of doing it.”
Three months later, it would be the end of the year assessment of the royal clan, and all the young martial artists of the royal clan, including all the princes, county lords, and royal relatives, would all take part in the assessment to test the results of their cultivation over the course of a year.
In the royal clan, if you want to gain status, if you want to be respected, and if you want to obtain more cultivation resources, you have to prove your strength.
Three months!
Within three months, one must cultivate to the late stage of the Yellow Extreme Realm, even if not for oneself, one must fight for the dignity that belonged to her for the sake of that one mother who cared and loved her.
