As late autumn settled, the courtyard was carpeted with drifting, withered leaves. Despite daily sweepings, the fall was relentless.

"Winter is almost here!" Ye Wen murmured. He had always preferred autumn. Since his transmigration, perhaps influenced by the previous occupant, his appreciation had slightly waned, but it didn't stop him from sitting there now, nursing a cup of hot tea and admiring the spectacle of dying foliage.

"Master, may I begin practicing calligraphy yet?"

Lui Mu-yan had endured severe hardship recently, yet through it, his previously fragile body had recovered by seven or eight tenths. Coupled with the progress in the foundational internal arts he was learning, he was no longer the sort to sway precariously after just a moment in the horse stance.

The end of a writing brush was currently weighted with a stone the size of a fist, yet he held the handle steadily, parallel to the ground. His sheer grip strength was incomparable to what it had been before.

Ye Wen glanced over, nodding slightly. "Start practicing calligraphy with me tomorrow! Your grip strength has achieved a small success now. How is your progress with the Taizu Changquan?"

Hearing that he could finally begin formal calligraphy training, Liu Mu-yan was overjoyed. His words poured out almost involuntarily; Ye Wen asked one question, and he immediately responded with seven or eight sentences.

"Senior Brother Yue said the Taizu Changquan isn't hard to learn, just requiring hard work. After learning it, I sought advice from others, and now when I perform it, it looks quite proper! However, when it comes to actual combat, I’m still no match. I can’t even beat Guo Ah-niu, who is known as the clumsiest disciple in our sect..."

Ye Wen paid it no mind. "You study martial arts only to strengthen your body, not to fight. Whether you win or lose is irrelevant. While the Changquan is rudimentary, it's enough for conditioning the muscles and bones. If you are interested, you can also study some swordplay or palm techniques." Liu Mu-yan felt he had little interest. Moreover, since he couldn't even withstand two or three strikes from Guo Ah-niu, he assumed he possessed no talent for martial arts. After all, Guo Ah-niu's dullness was already notorious within the Shu Shan Sect. When the sect was small and he was the last to join, it was understandable, but after recruiting many new disciples in the past two months, Guo Ah-niu was still practicing the introductory Taizu Changquan, which inevitably drew scorn.

Even among the newer initiates, those with better aptitude had already mastered the Taizu Changquan and were beginning to consider whether to focus on saber, sword, or continue honing their empty-hand skills.

Most disciples chose the long sword, with a small minority opting for saber techniques. It wasn't that no one wanted to learn fist or footwork; however, the Shu Shan Sect currently offered no dedicated fist or footwork training for Outer Gate disciples. Although Ye Wen possessed several palm styles, they weren't suitable for the Outer Gate. He considered offering the Mian Zhang (Pliancy Palm), but due to a current lack of instructors, this matter had been delayed.

In truth, he had already taught a few moves of the Mian Zhang to some Outer Gate disciples who wished to learn footwork some time ago. However, those who received the Mian Zhang were from the earliest batch of Outer Gate disciples—and they were currently off the mountain. Those seeking footwork instruction couldn't find a teacher immediately, so they all opted for weapons.

This change kept Blacksmith Yu exceptionally busy. He had been planning to leisurely forge a fine sword for the Sect Master as an entry gift, never expecting to first take on a massive project: equipping every disciple in the sect with a weapon.

The previous batch of weapons used by the Shu Shan Sect had long been melted down by Blacksmith Yu, leaving only a few long swords and broad sabers on the mountain. Even those had been taken by departing disciples, leaving the Shu Shan Sect desperately short of weaponry. Disciples were currently practicing with simple wooden practice swords.

This situation was untenable, so Blacksmith Yu gathered his apprentices and worked day and night, just barely managing to provide every member of the Shu Shan Sect with their own implement.

Considering these were his own products, he engraved the characters "Shu Shan" on every weapon, and in certain inconspicuous spots, he also carved a single character "Yu" to mark his handiwork.

Ye Wen didn't care much about the engraving, but he was delighted to receive a new long sword. Especially after testing the sword's resilience with his Rao Zhi Rou Jian (Finger-Bending Tenderness Sword), he was extremely satisfied. At least now he wouldn't scrap a long sword every time he practiced the Rao Zhi Rou Jian.

The weapon issue was finally resolved, and the cultivation progress gradually moved onto a steadier track. Xu Xian's Chunyang Wuji Gong had nearly reached the stage of Great Accomplishment, seemingly stalled, and it would likely take a while before he could cross this threshold. Meanwhile, Ning Ru-xue's Xiao Wu Xiang Gong continued its slow advancement; although it was beginning to show its power, achieving the so-called Great Accomplishment would probably take ten or twenty years of dedicated practice.

Ye Wen, finally having some free time, decided to present the complete Mian Zhang set to the Outer Gate. His own repertoire of skills was varied, and deeply influenced by the theory of "not being hindered by external objects," he wielded sword, saber, or fist techniques casually, unconcerned whether he possessed the corresponding weapon.

In a sense, Ye Wen was developing toward the state where any casual movement became a technique. However, this wasn't due to an elevation in his own core realm, but rather because he already knew the theory, coupled with his naturally active mind.

He considered this normal, unaware that when sparring with Ning Ru-xue and Xu Xian, they were deeply impressed by his ability to effortlessly translate saber and sword moves into fist and footwork, inadvertently making him the center of attention.

But he felt this wasn't enough. Over the past two months, he had continued to summon secret manuals punctually, obtaining a set of Jue Jian Jian Fa (Supreme Sword Style). After practicing it casually, he passed it to Zhou Zhi-ruo, finally completing the two sword styles required for the Mie Jian (Extinguishing Sword) set.

On another occasion, he obtained something truly valuable. When the manual appeared in his hands, he was stunned for quite some time.

"Shao Ze Jian..."

Flipping open the book, the first page that met his eyes was the opening inscription: Six Meridian Divine Sword Style: Shao Ze Sword. After reading through it, confirming it was indeed that Shao Ze Sword, Ye Wen cursed immediately, "They can't be serious! Taking a divine art and splitting it up like this!"

Regrettably, no matter how much he cursed, the ring remained motionless, completely ignoring Ye Wen. Only the Shao Ze Sword manual in his hand trembled incessantly.

"Tsk! I don't believe it. Can I not grasp the other five sword styles from just the Shao Ze Sword manual?" With Qi Jian Zhi (Air Sword Finger) as his foundation, Ye Wen already had a preliminary understanding of condensing zhenqi into a pillar and releasing it. His arm meridians were now comparable to those of a high monk from Tianlong Temple who had perfected the Yi Yang Zhi.

Therefore, learning this path of the Shao Ze Sword presented no fundamental difficulty. However, there were numerous subtle intricacies in the circulation of zhenqi for its final release as sword energy from the fingertip—this part was far more complex than the Qi Jian Zhi.

Ye Wen had already been researching the method for the Qi Jian Zhi to form sword energy with zhenqi, but his progress was limited by time. Obtaining the Shao Ze Sword manual now provided him with a perfect reference object. "As long as I have the method to condense sword energy, I can use whichever style I wish! Even if I can't acquire the corresponding sword moves for the other five lines, I can release the sword energy freely!" However, reality was not as simple as Ye Wen imagined. Although he learned from the Shao Ze Sword manual how to transform zhenqi into sword energy internally, and even how to maintain the sword energy's form upon release, the sheer requirement on internal energy to unleash torrents of sword energy and drown an opponent was utterly disheartening.

Even with Ye Wen's current power level, sustaining the use of this Shao Ze Sword style was difficult. He feared his internal energy would be depleted before he could complete one full sequence of sword moves.

"Monstrous... No wonder they were released one meridian at a time!" This sword energy art consumed internal energy not just upon release, but even the process of transforming zhenqi into sword energy internally was incredibly taxing. If the zhenqi supply was insufficient, the sword energy couldn't even be condensed, let alone released externally to kill an enemy. Furthermore, the Six Meridian Divine Sword required the sword energy to coalesce on the finger before executing sword movements—meaning maneuvers involving horizontal slashes demanded that the sword energy remain condensed on the finger without scattering—a requirement for internal energy that was terrifyingly high.

Thus, after obtaining the Shao Ze Sword manual, Ye Wen focused on researching the sword energy conversion method while simultaneously accumulating internal energy, practicing slowly. At the very least, mastering this Shao Ze Sword meant that in a fight, a sudden point of his finger would unleash sudden sword energy, which would have a greater destructive force than the energy pillar from the Qi Jian Zhi.

This gave him an additional deadly skill. However, the Shao Ze Sword required the left little finger, which felt awkward to him. He considered using other fingers instead. Fortunately, the method for sword energy conversion was already clear. Although he needed to figure out the specific xingqi (energy circulation) incantations, it wasn't overly troublesome because the Qi Jian Zhi already provided methods for channeling energy along the fingers. By combining the two, devising a new approach wouldn't be difficult.

Days passed in this manner. Ye Wen wrestled with creating a new sword energy technique while occasionally going to the Outer Gate to teach the Mian Zhang.

Zhou Ding, after fully learning the Hui Feng Luo Yan Jian (Returning Wind and Falling Wild Goose Sword), also learned several Mian Zhang moves from Ye Wen, further increasing his combat power and establishing him as the undisputed leader of the Outer Gate. Xu Ping, however, had fallen somewhat behind in his training because he was frequently out on errands.

As for Li Sen, this young man was even busier than Xu Ping; his time for practice had been squeezed down to a mere sliver. Ye Wen mused that since he was an Inner Gate disciple, he would need to find him some assistants in the future, otherwise his cultivation would never advance, which would truly be a disgrace to the Shu Shan Sect.

Unfortunately, there were no suitable candidates at the moment. Zhou Ding would have been a good helper, but with the recent influx of Outer Gate disciples, he couldn't spare the time. Although Ye Wen and Ning Ru-xue had started personally instructing the Outer Gate disciples again, the daily management duties kept the Outer Gate Steward swamped.

"Still not enough manpower! I have to rely on someone emerging as a talent from these Outer Gate disciples!"

He visited a few times and while many showed promise, their aptitude wasn't excellent; at best, they stood out slightly among the ordinary crowd. If Ye Wen were to choose, he felt they were still lacking. Perhaps the final achievement for this batch of disciples would only be managing some affairs within the Outer Gate. Advancement to the Inner Gate would only be possible if they continuously served the Shu Shan Sect and earned meritorious service.

At the same time, he casually observed Guo Ah-niu for a couple of moments. The lad was indeed as rumored: his Taizu Changquan was performed rigidly correctly, but it lacked a certain agility. Yet, the more rigid it was, the more Ye Wen felt that the Taizu Changquan was perhaps meant to be performed exactly like this—excessive pursuit of variation might actually run counter to the essence of this set of punches.

"Could this fellow truly be an eccentric genius?"

He couldn't draw a hasty conclusion. Ye Wen simply instructed Zhou Ding, "Take special care of that Guo Ah-niu..." and dropped the matter. He planned to hold a large competition for these Outer Gate disciples in a while, to gauge their overall skill level. Whether Guo Ah-niu was a genius or a simpleton would become clear then! After all, only actual combat was the best test for a martial artist, even if the competition wasn't a life-or-death struggle.

Upon returning, he resumed tinkering with that sword energy technique. Ye Wen increasingly felt that relying solely on the ring was unreliable. He couldn't depend too much on the item; he couldn't just wait for the ring to grant him martial arts whenever he needed a breakthrough. Working harder himself was the safer bet.

Yet, just as he was thinking this and considering whether to continue studying that sword energy technique, entirely by chance, he summoned a valuable internal art manual.

"Heavens! Why now?" Holding the book, Xiantian Gong (Innate Skill), Ye Wen was on the verge of tears. He never expected this internal art to appear at this particular moment.

This technique, reputed to be the ultimate secret art of the greatest master of its era, was perpetually shrouded in mystery. Countless fans knew of it but didn't understand its essence, and many even speculated wildly about its characteristics without ever confirming them.

Now that Ye Wen possessed the manual, he suppressed his excitement and immediately flipped the booklet open. He first scanned the introduction to gain a detailed understanding of this divine art. He glossed over the specific cultivation sections, only glancing through them briefly.

Xiantian Gong! The name itself suggested its nature. After reading the introduction, Ye Wen finally understood what made the Xiantian Gong so potent and so perverse.

The most fatal aspect of this divine art was its incredibly high entry barrier! It was leagues above his Zixia Shengong (Violet Mist Divine Skill). Zixia Shengong only required a foundation in internal arts before it could be practiced, but the Xiantian Gong was more demanding, requiring the practitioner to possess a breath of pure Innate True Qi (Xiantian Zhenqi) just to begin training. This single threshold blocked ninety-nine percent of martial artists in the world.

Innate Qi was said to be the breath present before human respiration—the breath that could only exist in the fetal stage. Once one breathed the air of the world, that breath of Innate Qi either dissipated or mixed with external forces to become Acquired Qi (Houtian Qi).

Wang Chong-yang might have been able to practice it due to a natural anomaly, possessing a trace of Innate True Qi that hadn't dispersed, thus allowing him entry. Of course, it wasn't strictly limited to those with natural anomalies. If a martial artist cultivated to a certain level, unblocked their internal circulation, and managed to transform Acquired Qi back into Innate Qi, they could also cultivate this divine art. The final criterion was maintaining the body of a virgin, allowing the pure Yang energy within the body to transform into Innate True Qi.

"No wonder Wang Chong-yang never passed this divine art to his disciples who could never cross that hurdle, and instead taught it to Yi Deng, who hadn't mastered his martial arts and had broken his vow of celibacy! So that's why!" The first requirement, Ye Wen clearly couldn't meet; upon his transmigration, no Innate Qi existed in his body. As for the second, luckily his Zixia Shengong was Great Accomplished, and the True Qi within him could be considered Innate Qi, barely satisfying the condition for this art.

Furthermore, the power of the Xiantian Gong lay in the fact that achieving the unblocking of the Ren and Du Meridians was not its highest achievement. The goal was to unblock all the vital gateways throughout the body, reaching the Innate Realm, as the standard for Great Accomplishment.

From this, it could be deduced that the Xiantian Gong not only had perverse requirements but also terrifying power. No wonder in the original story, Zhou Bo-tong said that if his senior brother were still alive, defeating the other four masters wouldn't have taken nearly as long. This was because the later stages of the Xiantian Gong cultivated a level of power that transcended the martial arts paradigm of that era.

However, one could also conclude that Wang Chong-yang never brought the Xiantian Gong to Great Accomplishment before his death, indicating how troublesome this art's cultivation truly was.

Having gained a rough understanding of the divine art, Ye Wen flipped back to the beginning and examined the entry section. He found that the initial stage of this divine art shared some common ground with the final stage of his Zixia Shengong when attempting to break through to Great Accomplishment.

"The gap is huge..." Noticing this, Ye Wen couldn't help but feel a tinge of pity for the Zixia Shengong. Although this technique could rightfully be called a divine art—as it could indeed open the gateways between Heaven and Earth—when compared to this art that even the world's greatest master had not fully mastered, it was clearly operating on a different tier.

However, this discrepancy greatly benefited Ye Wen. He had been worrying about lacking a suitable technique for continuous advancement, and now he had the Xiantian Gong. As long as he brought this art to Great Accomplishment, he could step into the ranks of the world's top masters. Though only touching the threshold, having a detailed textbook was infinitely better than figuring things out blindly.

With this thought, he immediately circulated his energy throughout his body, following the entry steps described in the Xiantian Gong.

The first step of the Xiantian Gong required the practitioner to mobilize the pure energy within their body, slowly transforming it into Innate True Qi, and then using this Innate True Qi as a foundation to cultivate further, while either discarding the remaining mass of impure Acquired Internal Energy or slowly purifying and transforming it.

Ye Wen had just completely exhausted his internal energy, leaving only a trace of the purest True Qi in his body. Cultivating the Xiantian Gong now saved him a lot of trouble. After this final trace of pure True Qi was fully converted into Innate True Qi, Ye Wen began to follow the manual's instructions: gently nourishing this trace of Innate True Qi while using it as the basis to restore his entire internal energy.

If anyone were present in the room now, they would see that when Ye Wen first circulated his energy, faint purple mist enveloped his body. But as the technique progressed, the purple mist gradually faded, seemingly turning into wisps of white smoke a moment later, with a faint white glow briefly appearing on his face—a sign that the Xiantian Gong had reached the minor accomplishment stage of entry.

The manual described all these phenomena in detail, only failing to mention the swirling white clouds, likely due to differences between this world and the manual's origin.

Ye Wen paid no mind to such trivial details and continued to circulate his energy. With his Zixia Shengong perfected and the gateways of Heaven and Earth opened, the initial stages of the Xiantian Gong, which stumped so many, posed no obstacle to him. After only half a night of circulation, he had completed the preliminary stages. Henceforth, he only needed to follow the instructions, successively opening the vital gateways throughout his body until the divine art reached Great Accomplishment.

Ye Wen felt happy at this realization, but a moment of distraction—for reasons unknown—caused the white smoke formed by the Xiantian Gong to slowly regain a faint purple hue. After a few more cycles, the white light on his face receded, leaving no change, and the mist surrounding his body turned back to purple.

"What is happening?"...

PS: Sorry for the delay, posted late! Speaking of which, it’s the first day of June, hope to start off well. If you have any guaranteed monthly tickets, please leave them! (To be continued)