Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

"laugh."

Before the soft chuckle had even faded from the air, Shen Jue had already raised his right palm.

Unlike the initiation ceremony he gave to Commander Zuo in the meditation room earlier, this time he did not perform the ceremony one by one. Instead, he spread his five fingers, palm facing up, then flipped them over and placed his palm down.

The palm strike was silent.

The eighteen monks in the martial arts training ground simultaneously felt a weight on their heads.

It was as if an invisible mountain was slowly descending from the heavens and pressing down on their skulls.

The force was not violent; it even carried a touch of Buddhist compassion and gentleness, yet it completely prevented them from having any thought of resistance.

Shen Jue's palm strike appeared slow, but in reality, it was faster than they could imagine.

The eighteen monks groaned simultaneously, their knees slightly bent, and the rammed earth beneath their feet silently sank three inches, cracks spreading outwards from the soles of their feet.

Then, the great sun reappeared.

A blazing sun rose from Shen Jue's palm, hanging ten feet directly above the training ground.

It was an illusory sun woven from countless fine filaments of light, radiating a warm and scorching glow.

The branches and leaves of the ancient cypress trees were illuminated, making them appear lush and green, and the stone pillars at the four corners of the training ground cast long shadows in the light.

The eighteen monks, bathed in the sunlight, closed their eyes simultaneously.

Their bodies began to undergo dramatic changes.

The most obvious change is in body shape.

These eighteen monks started with the two external martial arts techniques of Golden Bell Cover and Iron Shirt, and their years of arduous training have made their bodies far exceed the limits of ordinary people.

His muscles were bulging and his bones were like iron; standing there, he was like an impregnable wall.

The power Shen Jue poured into their bodies was not satisfied with these rough fleshy shells.

That vast, ocean-like internal force surged, washed away, and reshaped along every meridian, and wherever it passed, the old skin, flesh, tendons, and bones were dissected, broken, and reassembled layer by layer.

Their muscles didn't get bigger; instead, they became more restrained, and their lines became more refined and smooth, like steel that had been forged through countless trials, with all impurities removed, leaving only the purest sharpness.

A pale golden sheen appeared on the surface of the skin.

It wasn't the rough, iron-colored hue of someone who had mastered the Golden Bell Shield external martial arts, but a warmer, more translucent gold, like the golden Buddha statue in an ancient temple that had been worshipped for a thousand years, emanating from deep within the skin, gentle yet solemn.

The golden light flashed by and quickly receded beneath their skin, restoring the eighteen people to their normal appearance. However, upon closer inspection, one could discern a faint radiance flowing beneath their skin.

At the same time, the true energy within their bodies is being replaced by another, purer power.

The internal energy that Shen Jue poured in was like an extremely domineering magma, which devoured all the true energy they had painstakingly cultivated over the years, transforming it into master-level internal energy, which then nourished their dantian.

The dantian of all eighteen people roared simultaneously.

The sound wasn't loud, but it seemed to resonate with the entire training ground.

The rammed earth surface trembled slightly, causing countless tiny particles of soil to jump up, hover in the air for a moment, and then fall back down.

Eighteen monks broke through at the same time.

A burst of pure energy shot out, and lotus flowers bloomed one after another. The entire training ground was illuminated by the three flowers of essence, energy, and spirit of the eighteen people, making it look like a dream, with flowing blue light.

Even the woodpecker on the ancient cypress tree forgot to peck at the tree, and stared blankly at this side with its head tilted to the side.

All eighteen people simultaneously reached the Grandmaster level.

The extraordinary phenomena that these eighteen people triggered when they broke through were just beginning to rise when an aura powerful enough to alarm the entire Jinshan Temple and even all the demons and monsters within a thousand miles was silently suppressed, obliterated, and returned to nothingness by an even more powerful force.

Shen Jue simply clenched the hand that was covering him.

The three flowers of essence, energy, and spirit that had just blossomed were extinguished at the same time, as if blown away by an invisible wind.

The pure energy disappeared, the radiance subsided, and the strange phenomena ceased.

The training ground returned to calm, with only the branches of the ancient cypress tree swaying slightly and a few new fine cracks appearing on the four corner stone pillars.

Shen Jue withdrew his hand, placed it behind his back, and scanned the eighteen people one by one with his gaze.

The eighteen monks then snapped out of their profound state of initiation and looked down at their hands.

"Abbot..." one of the eighteen Arhats said in a low voice.

In everyone's minds, the information about "Breathing Technique 2.0" and the seed of Yuan Magnetic Rotation also appeared.

Shen Jue saved them from this dilemma.

"I have blazed a new trail for warriors."

"Under my initiation, you have all reached the Grandmaster level."

He tilted his head slightly, his gaze falling on the eighteen Arhats, a meaningful smile appearing on his lips.

"Next, I will teach you the Vajra internal force characteristic in the 'Breathing Technique 2.0'."

The Vajra internal force possesses the characteristics of extreme cohesion and hardness in both internal force and physique, and can confine all destructive power to a single point without any leakage.

Shen Jue turned his head and looked in the direction of Lanruo Temple. His gaze seemed to pierce through the mountains and dense forests, and he saw the thousand-year-old tree demon that was entrenched in the center of the ancient temple ruins.

"Eighteen master martial artists with the characteristics of Vajra."

"Now you should be satisfied, right?"

"Depart tomorrow morning."

The eighteen Arhats did not ask any further questions.

They never need to understand what the abbot says; they only need to follow it.

Their greatest virtue is their loyalty.

With a smile, Shen Jue led the many Arhats to begin studying the Vajra internal energy characteristic.

Time passed quietly, and the next morning arrived.

Yesterday, all eighteen master martial artists under Shen Jue's command had grasped the master-level characteristics of internal energy under Shen Jue's tutelage.

When the Eighteen Arhats circulate their internal energy, they truly transform into eighteen large, gleaming golden figures.

In Shen Jue's perception, Zuo Qianhu was still immersed in the martial arts knowledge of "Breathing Technique 2.0" without sleep or rest.

To Shen Jue's surprise, the primordial magnetic seed inside Zuo Qianhu's body showed signs of growth and rotation.

Perhaps, Commander Zuo can give Shen Jue a surprise.

In front of Jinshan Temple.

A colossal figure was carried out by the eighteen Arhats of Jinshan Temple.

That was a Buddhist chariot.

The entire Buddha carriage was cast from metal.

The base is a single piece of black iron, twelve feet long, eight feet wide, and three inches thick, with four crouching mythical beasts cast at its four corners.

Above the base are three lotus pedestals, with petals layered upon each other. Each petal is as thin as a cicada's wing, yet harder than refined steel, with edges sharp enough to cut through the gale.

In the very center of the lotus platform was a large couch covered with a layer of dark leather.

The entire Buddha carriage weighs over 10,000 jin (approximately 5,000 kg).

When the eighteen Arhats carried the Buddha's palanquin to the gate of Jinshan Temple, many of the monks at Jinshan Temple felt a cold sweat drip down their backs.

"Which faction has offended the abbot this time?" a monk whispered.

"In the past, the abbot used this Buddha-shaped whip to smash people and demons. Didn't that teach those fools a lesson?"

Seemingly recalling a terrifying scene, the monks involuntarily shivered.