Having trump cards doesn’t mean you can stop improving your strength.
Ling Xiao was well aware that he still faced many challenges ahead.
His current status had been earned through sheer power.
To solidify and elevate it, he had to keep pushing forward!
Forward!
He closed his eyes and began cultivating the Snow Lotus Qi Technique.
Mastering a top-tier internal energy method was incredibly difficult. Even with Cold Pool Golden Liquid, Golden Snow Lotus, and Gang Qi Pills, progress wasn’t guaranteed.
After all, his Snow Lotus Qi Technique had reached the fifth layer, entering the mastery realm, each step beyond this was a steep climb.
But difficulty didn’t mean he could quit.
Give up just because it’s hard?
He swallowed three Gang Qi Pills in one gulp.
At his current level, a single pill barely made a difference.
With the pills ingested, his gang qi flowed faster, stronger, repeatedly expanding his fifth martial vein.
A martial vein forged through relentless tempering was the strongest kind.
Even if a martial artist opened all nine veins, the job wasn’t finished.
Martial veins were the storage and conduit for internal energy, whether true qi or gang qi, they held and channeled it all.
The stronger the vein, the higher the quality and volume of gang qi.
Cultivating martial veins was a lifelong endeavor, opening them was merely the first step.
The Gang Qi Pills turned into pure gang qi energy, flooding his fifth vein. Ling Xiao didn’t slack, swiftly activating the Snow Lotus Qi Technique to absorb it.
At the same time, his Mountain River Martial Soul kicked in. A wisp of cold energy from the Cold Pool Golden Liquid stored in the Mountain River World seeped out, merging with his body and blending with the gang qi.
Since his gang qi volume already matched a seventh-layer martial vein warrior’s, breaking through to the fifth-layer peak was relatively easy.
He’d started after dinner.
In just one hour, he fully absorbed the three pills’ effects, completely opening his fifth vein and advancing to the fifth-layer peak.
Gang qi volume was just a numbers game.
But reaching the fifth-layer peak? That was a real leap in strength.
If he fought Ling Feifan now, he’d win even more effortlessly.
Ling Feifan was also at the fifth-layer peak, but in power, technique, and gang qi volume, he couldn’t hold a candle to Ling Xiao, no competition.
Hitting this peak, though, brought him to a bottleneck. Breaking into the sixth layer wasn’t something he could rush.
So he decided to switch gears.
That blue-clad woman from the Fulong Mountains, her single finger strike kept haunting him, disrupting his focus on cultivation.
He resolved to study that move first.
Even if he couldn’t grasp its full essence, mastering just ten percent could become a killer trump card.
With that thought, he gave a slight shake, and an identical figure appeared before him.
His martial soul clone.
It held thirty percent of his strength.
But its real strength wasn’t power, it was mimicry.
The clone could replicate any move it had seen.
Ling Xiao adjusted his strength to roughly match the clone’s, then ordered it to mimic the blue-clad woman’s attack.
“Come at me, full force!”
Golden light erupted from him as he pushed the Nine-Turn Golden Body Technique to its sixth turn.
He didn’t dare take it lightly.
That woman’s move was terrifying, killing a peak eighth-grade beast, the Mighty Ape, with one finger. Sure, the clone’s lower realm would weaken it, but he’d suppressed his own strength too. He couldn’t afford carelessness.
Getting killed by his own clone would be a laughingstock.
He didn’t tell the clone to hold back.
Only through life-and-death trials could true combat skills be forged.
Suddenly, Ling Xiao charged with Soaring Cloud Steps, a golden blur, fists like meteors smashing toward the clone.
He wasn’t holding back either.
The clone could be remade if destroyed, with enough mental energy and gang qi, he’d never run out.
The clone stood still, then abruptly raised its right hand, pointing lightly.
A near-colorless gang qi flashed into Ling Xiao’s view, blending with the world. Without his Mountain River Martial Soul, he’d never have seen it.
“Trouble!”
Instinct screamed danger. He shifted his fists to block.
The next moment, his body shuddered, sharp, bone-deep pain stabbed through his arms and chest.
“Stop!”
Terrifying.
Ling Xiao halted the clone.
One move, and his arms and body were pierced clean through.
Good thing he’d dodged vitals at the last second, or he’d have died in the training room, a ridiculous end.
What kind of move was this? So horrifying, could it be the legendary mortal martial art?
He shook his head.
No one could answer that.
Not now, at least.
Master this move, and he’d be invincible at his level.
“That blue-clad woman, who is she? If she wanted to wipe out Tianfeng City, no one could stop her.”
The thought made Ling Xiao suck in a cold breath.
As a kid, he’d often heard his grandpa Hong Qi tell roadside tales.
The world beyond Tianfeng City wasn’t as calm as it seemed. No one knew when war might erupt.
No one knew when a city might vanish overnight.
Humans were the lowliest race in this world, one of over ten thousand species.
Every other race outclassed them.
The reason?
Humans had lost the martial souls they once dominated with!
Now, human martial artists who could awaken martial souls were rare, humanity’s greatest weakness.
He’d brushed it off as stories back then.
But after meeting that blue-clad woman, he couldn’t anymore.
She looked human, but Ling Xiao sensed she wasn’t, her aura was too alien.
His Mountain River Martial Soul agreed.
What race she was, he didn’t know.
His strength was too low, limiting the martial soul’s insight.
“Keep going! For survival! For family!”
Ling Xiao didn’t harbor grand ideals yet, he wouldn’t claim to strive for all humanity.
He wasn’t worthy.
At his current level, plenty could kill him.
He had to get stronger, and that woman’s terrifying finger strike became the move he most wanted to master.
“Again!”
