“Martial Vein Fifth Layer realm? And with Sword Intent, he easily killed a peak Martial Vein Fifth Layer black scarf bandit?”
Sitting cross-legged in the training room, Ling Xiao’s face showed a hint of surprise.
The tale of Ling Yun slaying a peak Martial Vein Fifth Layer black scarf bandit in the Fulong Mountain Range had quickly spread throughout the entire Ling family.
Naturally, he couldn’t be unaware of it.
“It seems I need to work harder, those top four are all peak Martial Vein Fourth Layer martial artists, any of them could break through, once they do, with my current strength, winning will really be tough!”
Thinking this, Ling Xiao didn’t hesitate, he temporarily set aside the pain of his loved ones’ deaths, turning that pain into strength.
Get stronger!
He had to get stronger!
Under immense pressure, Ling Xiao’s training became even more intense.
This frenzied training naturally yielded massive results.
The “Bull Demon Technique: Hundred Steps Killing Sword” actually advanced from the Great Completion realm to the Transformation Realm.
The Hundred Steps Killing Sword, upon reaching the Transformation Realm, underwent some very interesting changes.
Not only did its power become more terrifying and its speed even faster, but it could now be controlled with qi, allowing the flying sword to make subtle trajectory shifts.
A straight line, no matter how fast, could be intercepted if the opponent judged it accurately and prepared in advance.
But with these changes, the opponent would be caught off guard.
Naturally, during this training, his cultivation was also slowly improving, and his gang qi kept increasing.
Without any modesty, if he entered the previous elimination round now, aside from Ling Yihang, no one would be his match in a single move.
Even against Ling Yihang, he could easily win within ten moves.
Of course, that’s assuming no one else had improved their strength.
His current power was far greater than before, three of the old Ling Xiaos combined wouldn’t match the current one.
But he wasn’t satisfied, what he lacked most now was an internal cultivation technique and defensive martial arts.
The “Red Sun Technique” was clearly falling behind his pace of improvement, though it gave him some special attack effects, it just wasn’t enough anymore.
His martial veins were at least twice as wide as others’, so naturally, advancing his strength was twice as difficult.
Add to that the need to nurture his martial soul, the consumption of gang qi was downright terrifying.
A mere high-level internal cultivation technique wasn’t cutting it anymore, he needed a top-tier internal cultivation technique to match his potential.
As for defensive martial arts, no explanation was needed, no one would complain about having too strong a defence.
Shaking his head, Ling Xiao stepped out of the training room.
Suddenly, he saw his grandfather Hong Qi standing outside.
“Grandfather, were you waiting for me?”
“Yes, Little Potato will live with us from now on, he’s very happy, don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him.”
Hong Qi said with a smile.
“Yeah, Little Potato’s even more pitiful than me, he saw his family die with his own eyes.”
Though Ling Xiao had killed Li Xingyun, the hatred in his heart still couldn’t be fully resolved, but he didn’t think that was a bad thing.
With hatred, a person had the drive to move forward.
“There’s one more thing, take this, Little Potato asked me to give it to you, said they found it by chance on the road once.”
Hong Qi lied, handing over the tattered book he’d kept with him all this time to Ling Xiao.
Of course, it was a well-intentioned lie.
There were some things he didn’t want Ling Xiao to know yet.
“Nine Turns Golden Body Technique!”
Ling Xiao was astonished to find that, though the book was worn, the writing wasn’t damaged, even the title was perfectly clear.
He’d heard of the “Nine Turns Golden Body Technique,” it was created by a legendary general of the Northern Han Kingdom, a top-tier defensive martial art.
Rumour had it that after nine turns, when fully unleashed, the body’s skin would gleam like gold, with astonishing defensive power.
Not only that, each turn of this defensive martial art could boost internal energy, whether it was true qi, gang qi, or anything else, it could greatly enhance it.
If paired with an internal cultivation technique, the improvement would be even more terrifying.
This defensive martial art was renowned throughout the Northern Han Kingdom, but it seemed no one in the Ling family practised it, perhaps they simply didn’t have it.
This was a royal martial art, after all.
“Is this useful to you?”
Hong Qi asked with a smile.
“Of course it’s useful, it’s like sending charcoal in the snow!”
Ling Xiao said excitedly, “Grandfather, thank you, I’ll go train now, you rest well, if you’re free, invite some old folks over to chat, my status is higher now, so yours naturally is too.”
“No need to worry about that, the old gentleman from the Medicine Hall often comes by to chat with me, I’m not lonely.”
Hong Qi laughed.
“That’s good, my biggest fear was neglecting you because of training.”
Ling Xiao grinned, then hurried back to the training room.
Defensive martial arts generally didn’t require much comprehension, they relied on perseverance and hard training.
Of course, some special defensive martial arts needed assistance from certain items to speed up the process.
Take this “Nine Turns Golden Body Technique,” for instance, the trickiest part of training it was that it consumed gold!
Luckily, when Ling Xiao killed Li Xingyun, he found over a hundred taels of gold and a golden inner armour in Li Xingyun’s storage ring.
These would be enough for him to train for a while.
If he ran out, he planned to exchange silver for gold or hunt beasts in the Fulong Mountain Range to trade for more.
Comprehending the “Nine Turns Golden Body Technique” wasn’t too hard, but that was only relative to top-tier internal cultivation techniques, martial skills, or secret arts.
For the average person to grasp and train in it, a few days, even ten days or more, would be tough.
But that wasn’t an issue for Ling Xiao.
The analysis and simulation abilities of his Mountain and River Martial Soul were downright terrifying.
As it analysed, it projected images demonstrating the entire training process for Ling Xiao, and they were absolutely perfect.
If he still couldn’t grasp it quickly with this, he’d be a bit too dim.
Body-refining martial arts were generally straightforward and easy to understand.
In just half an hour, Ling Xiao fully mastered the “Nine Turns Golden Body Technique.”
Once mastered, training it became much simpler.
As the name suggested, the “Nine Turns Golden Body Technique” had nine turns.
The first five turns were mainly about quantitative accumulation.
This included strengthening the flesh and boosting internal energy.
The first turn strengthened the skin, boosting internal energy;
The second turn strengthened the tendons and bones, boosting internal energy;
The third turn strengthened the qi and blood, boosting internal energy;
The fourth turn strengthened the organs, boosting internal energy;
The fifth turn strengthened the entire body, skin, tendons, bones, organs, and qi and blood all became as tough as iron, impervious to blades and spears, while the boost to internal energy reached a new level.
He estimated that if he trained to the fifth turn, he could at least jump from early Martial Vein Fourth Layer to mid-tier Fourth Layer.
And that was without deliberately training an internal cultivation technique.
Compared to other defensive martial arts, the “Nine Turns Golden Body Technique” had a clear advantage, it comprehensively strengthened the body.
Unlike some external techniques that required condensing internal energy to achieve defensive effects.
After the fifth turn, it was considered a minor achievement.
The sixth turn, besides further strengthening the body and boosting internal energy, also massively increased physical strength, even offering some defence against special moves like “Striking the Ox Across the Mountain.”
