Chapter 18: Is Reaching the Seventh-Grade Meridian Difficult?

“Master, may I see the cultivation method? Humans should only practice demon cultivation methods when absolutely necessary; this is not the path of the human race.”

Putting aside the teasing, Li Qier’s tone gradually turned serious.

“No need. I already know whether the cultivation method is suitable.”

What Li Qier did not expect was that Yang Le waved his hand and then took out the Clear Breeze Footwork manual. “Clear Breeze Footwork—this is a human cultivation technique.”

“How do you know that...?” Li Qier fixed her gaze on him, realizing that Yang Le truly knew how to identify human cultivation methods, even able to explain their origins.

Instantly, Li Qier was filled with astonishment.

A century ago, the demon race established the Great Qian dynasty, overthrowing the previous regime and severing the human race’s martial path by destroying nearly all human cultivation manuals across the land, preserving only demon cultivation methods.

Though a small number of human cultivation techniques survived, after a hundred years of fusion with demon methods, pure human cultivation techniques had become exceedingly rare.

Therefore, within Great Qian, 99% of the cultivation methods practiced by human martial artists were either demon techniques or hybrids of human and demon methods.

In such a distorted environment, only a handful of people from the Demon Celestial Bureau, responsible for destroying human cultivation texts, knew how to recognize them.

Li Qier’s knowledge of the differences between cultivation methods did not come from the Bureau but from having seen too many manuals, allowing her to draw conclusions from their content.

But Yang Le before her...

Li Qier knew his talent in swordsmanship was so exceptional that no one else in Great Qian could match him.

That was why Li Qier had taken him as her master and even risked forcibly activating his bloodline, risking discovery by the Celestial Bureau, just to protect Yang Le’s foundation.

She genuinely wished to learn swordsmanship from him.

But being born in Cangzhou, a human exile land, how could he possibly know how to distinguish human cultivation methods?

“This really is a pure human cultivation method, you...” Li Qier carefully examined the Clear Breeze Footwork and found Yang Le’s assessment was correct.

He even knew more details than she did—not only that the footwork was a pure human method but also its origin.

“Master, you have many secrets yourself.”

Seeing the confident expression on Yang Le’s face, Li Qier understood.

Yang Le was not guessing blindly or lucky; he truly knew how to identify cultivation methods.

“Master, this footwork is quite good.”

Closing the manual, Li Qier returned the Clear Breeze Footwork to Yang Le without saying more.

Though she knew he harbored many secrets, she herself was no different.

“How could I be your master if I didn’t even know how to tell cultivation methods apart?”

Yang Le gave no explanation about how he knew the origins of the techniques.

Packing up, his gaze quickly shifted to the city gates. With Chang Sun Ji dead, Yang Le’s task was simple: cut through Chang Sun Ji’s remaining subordinates and servants, then leave Qinghe County.

At once, Yang Le drew his sword and packed his belongings.

Leaving Qinghe, heading to Cizhou!

“Master, this is the most precious thing of all.”

Just as Yang Le set off, Li Qier suddenly drew a dagger she had hidden without him noticing and leapt into the carcass of Chang Sun Ji’s ox.

She plunged the blade directly into the abdomen at the position of the dantian, then pulled out a pale cyan demon core.

“A demon inner core. Humans use these to cultivate. Such a high-grade demon core can substitute for months of hard training.”

“I didn’t know that. You can use it yourself.”

(page 2)

“I only seek the way of the sword. Other martial cultivation methods are useless to me.”

“Understood.”

Accepting the inner core from Li Qier, Yang Le nodded.

[Grade Seven Pure-Blood Blue Ox Inner Core: An essential item for human martial cultivators. When swallowed and refined, it replenishes cultivation with no side effects.]

Exactly as Li Qier had said.

A truly valuable item.

“You need to refine it, right?”

Thinking of the upcoming battles, Yang Le knew that resources spent in combat were the true resources.

Without hesitation, he swallowed it instantly.

Then...

A surge of potent vitality flowed into Yang Le’s body, nourishing his meridians and flesh until his entire body was fully activated to its peak.

Unexpectedly, the normally still dantian sword suddenly stirred violently, beginning to voraciously absorb the vitality.

In an instant, the vitality provided by the inner core was completely consumed.

Yet the sword seemed insatiable.

Crack.

Yang Le noticed a strange change in his dantian.

Looking inward, he saw that the dantian sword had grown noticeably larger and more solid, and beneath it, a cluster of energy had formed.

It seemed the energy, realizing its territory was being invaded—and that the vitality it expected had been absorbed by the sword—became furious.

The energy charged directly at the dantian sword, as if trying to drive it out completely.

But the sword barely moved, and the energy seemed to sense a terrifying aura, instantly becoming alert and retreating to a corner of the dantian, trembling.

The dantian has ten layers of energy; the sword occupied nine and nine-tenths of them, while the newly condensed energy curled up in a small ball.

“The energy vortex is the source of the formidable qi generated at Grade Seven Tongmai stage, while the sword bone is innate. My Grade Seven seems different from others’...”

Yang Le had reached Grade Seven.

The supposed necessity to refine and absorb the inner core’s source to break into Grade Seven was utterly unnecessary for him.

In just a moment, he had directly entered Grade Seven.

“Before Tongmai, I could already release sword qi. After Tongmai, this sword qi...”

Realizing he had reached Grade Seven, Yang Le immediately raised his sword, releasing his formidable qi.

With a single slash, sword qi streaked across the green rock ground, carving a trench over ten meters long and half a meter deep in an instant.

The sword qi only dissipated after striking a large tree and cutting it cleanly in half.

But Grade Seven’s enhancement to Yang Le went beyond that.

In terms of strength,

The lower three grades of cultivation were all about a thousand pounds of force, regardless of rank. Grade Seven was stronger only in terms of internal breath; pure physical strength was only slightly different.

However, stamina recovery was much faster due to the presence of formidable qi, which could even be used to repel attacks.

The greatest boost to Yang Le’s combat power was actually...

(page 3)

A prompt appeared from the Sword Disciple system.

[Sword Bone Improved, Sword Technique: Sword of Seven upgraded to Mastery level...]

[Sword Technique: Qingyun Sword Style proficiency increased: Beginner...]

Two notifications made Yang Le instantly realize the purpose of the sword’s absorption of the inner core’s vitality.

It enhanced the Sword of Seven within his body, granted by the Sword Disciple system.

Since the Sword of Seven rank was higher than the Qingyun Sword Style, it could drive the proficiency of the Qingyun Sword Style.

At this point, Yang Le understood the gains from this battle.

Grade Seven cultivation achieved, Sword of Seven mastered, Qingyun Sword Style at beginner level, and greatly enhanced sword qi.

Glancing at the Sword Disciple system on his attribute panel, it was clearly only a white-tier entry, but it felt extraordinary.

“Having Li Qier with me isn’t bad. Without her, I definitely wouldn’t have discovered this inner core.”

Looking at Li Qier beside him, Yang Le thought it was good to have someone along on the journey.

“Thus, the White Lotus Sect is not invincible...”

Yang Le prepared to set off, his gaze fixed outside the city.

Before reaching Grade Seven, he might have had some worries about leaving the city.

But now at Grade Seven,

Yang Le was confident he could use his sword to cut through all worries.

“Already Grade Seven?”

“One grade a day, advancing in martial cultivation like drinking water?”

“Master, are you still human?!”

Meanwhile, seeing Yang Le so effortlessly reach Grade Seven, Li Qier was stunned.

Recalling that Yang Le had reached Grade Eight just a day before, Li Qier knew she had seen many prodigies, but compared to Yang Le…

Truly, those prodigies were nothing.

“Reaching Grade Seven is as easy as drinking water.”

Yang Le, walking ahead, paid no mind to Li Qier’s surprise and said seriously once more, “I, Yang Le, am truly human.”

“...”

Li Qier was speechless at this moment.

Because Yang Le’s words were truly accurate.

For others, reaching Grade Seven might be as difficult as scaling the heavens.

But for her master,

It was really like drinking water.

One grade a day.

He was truly a monster...