Elderly Martial Saint: Sixty Times the Cultivation Speed ​​at the Start

Yi Yang climbed over the gap in the broken wall of the abandoned neighborhood, his feet landing on the rubble. His Cloud-Stepping and Wind-Chasing Boots made the sound of his landing almost imperceptible.

He did not walk on the wide road. The fire in the east of Hengyue Town had already spread to half the sky, and the air was filled with the smell of burning and blood. In the distance, the experts at the Tongxuan Perfection stage were still fighting, and the ground beneath his feet would tremble slightly every few breaths.

Yi Yang walked close to the alley wall, calculating the fastest route back to his residence in his mind.

Three streets, two corners, and then through a side alley—that's it.

He has just taken his third step.

A sword light slashed down from the roof ridge to his left, at a tricky angle, heading straight for his neck.

fast.

But it's not fast enough.

Yi Yang raised his right fist faster than his brain could react. After mastering the Martial Dragon Elephant Body, his body's instinctive reaction to danger had reached an unbelievable level.

His fist was coated with a layer of true energy, and he met the sword light head-on.

clang!

The sound of fist and sword colliding was dull and short, and a shockwave exploded between the two, sending rubble flying and crashing against the walls on both sides.

The metallic clang of teeth echoed here. The high-grade magic weapon-level longsword left a white mark on Yi Yang's fist, but the blade was bent into an exaggerated arc by the recoil.

The swordsman was thrown back seven or eight steps by the force, his feet carving two furrows in the bluestone slab before finally coming to a stop by crashing into a broken stone pillar.

Yi Yang recognized the person who had come.

Elder of Zhuxi Sect, Xie Tinglan.

She was dressed in a dark purple martial arts outfit, holding a long sword in her right hand. The blade still bore the aftershocks of their clash, and her wrist was trembling slightly from the force of his punch.

Xie Tinglan was also looking at Yi Yang, her face pale and her eyes filled with shock.

Her cultivation level was at the peak of the True Qi Realm. She didn't hold back with that sword strike just now; she was aiming to kill her opponent.

But this guy, ranked fifty-eighth on the list of heroes, actually took the sword strike with his bare body.

Not only did she catch it, but the force of the return almost broke her wrist.

"You..." Xie Tinglan gritted her teeth, her voice changing, filled with disbelief: "When did you...?"

She didn't finish her sentence.

Because Yi Yang's aura changed.

When I met him at the inn, the aura he exuded was that of a late-stage True Qi Realm cultivator, unremarkable, the kind of person who wouldn't even make a splash in a crowd in Hengyue Town.

But now, that aura is rising rapidly.

Late stage of True Qi, Perfection of True Qi—then, a qualitative change she had never felt in this person swept over her.

The Realm of Profound Understanding.

Xie Tinglan's breath hitched.

"Transcendent Realm..." she uttered, her voice trembling, "You've broken through to the Transcendent Realm?"

Yi Yang stood still, saying nothing. He shook off the lingering tingling sensation in his right hand and calmly focused his gaze on Xie Tinglan.

There's no need to hide it anymore.

When I killed Helian Zhu just now, I already revealed my Transcendent Realm cultivation. Given the chaos in the city tonight, revealing Xie Tinglan wouldn't cause any more trouble.

But what he cared about wasn't Xie Tinglan.

It's something else entirely.

How did this woman happen to be here?

You should know that after he came out of Tianyun Yage, he walked through secluded alleys. The route was chosen on the spot and had no pattern. It was impossible for Xie Tinglan to have accurately ambushed this location by herself.

Unless she wasn't alone, and someone was using their divine sense to lock onto her and also shielding her from Xie Tinglan and his presence.

As he thought this, a golden light flashed deep within Yi Yang's pupils, and his divine sense, at the "Breaking Illusion" realm, spread out in all directions.

Sure enough, an aura at the Dharma Body level was right ahead, on Yi Yang's only path.

It was Han Ji, an elder of the Tianxin Sect.

Yi Yang placed his hand on the Xuan Yuan Blade on his back and said, "Have you had enough of the show?"

Xie Tinglan also came to her senses. The impact of reaching the Tongxuan Realm was indeed significant, but having spent over a hundred years in the martial arts world and seen a lot, she quickly regained her composure after a brief moment of loss of composure.

She didn't make another move because her confidence never came from herself.

Footsteps came from the alleyway on the right ahead.

Han Ji emerged from the shadows, his dark blue brocade robe gleaming with subtle patterns in the moonlight, and his gold and jade belt tied neatly at the waist.

He walked over to Xie Tinglan and stood down, his gaze falling on Yi Yang.

Han Ji frowned slightly, then relaxed, a knowing smile appearing on his lips as he said:

"I see."

His tone carried a hint of meaning.

"I'm wondering how a mere peasant from the Sky Patrol Division, ranked fifty-eighth on the Heroes List, could pull out six hundred and eighty spirit crystals at an auction."

He sized up Yi Yang, his gaze sweeping from top to bottom and then from bottom to top.

"So you're at the first level of the Profound Realm." Han Ji nodded, his tone carrying an air of superior confidence: "Everyone on the Hero Ranking is still at the True Qi Realm, but you've already made it to the front. You've got some skill."

After saying the words "You have some skill," he opened his palm and commanded Yi Yang:

"Hand over the storage ring."

Yi Yang stared at the outstretched palm, his expression unchanged.

Han Ji continued, "The city is in chaos tonight. No one will hold anyone accountable for the deaths of a few people. You are a smart man, and a smart man should know what the first level of the Profound Realm means in front of the Dharma Body Realm."

He tilted his head slightly, as if considering a trivial matter, and said:

"Leave your things behind and you can leave. I'll give you a way out, after all, the Heavenly Heart Sect does things according to the rules."

Yi Yang finally spoke: "Your rules are quite interesting."

Han Ji's brow twitched slightly upon hearing this.

Yi Yang didn't give him a chance to respond.

The Xuan Yuan Blade was drawn.

There was no probing, no idle chatter.

The jet-black blade did not reflect the moonlight, swallowing all the light that shone upon it. A wisp of extremely faint ink-colored true energy circulated along the blade, a reaction that only occurs when a spiritual weapon is activated.

Yi Yang took a step forward, and his Cloud-Stepping and Wind-Chasing Boots made this step faster than a normal first-stage Profound Realm cultivator. His figure left a trail of afterimages in the moonlight.

The first move of the Four Symbols and Six Harmonies Knife – Azure Dragon Emerges from the Abyss.

A jet-black dragon-shaped blade aura roared out from the Xuan Yuan Blade, carrying the true energy of the Tong Xuan Realm and the enhancement of the spiritual weapon, heading straight for Han Ji's face.

Han Ji's expression darkened slightly. He hadn't expected that someone who had just broken through to the first level of the Profound Realm would dare to attack him first, and the power of this strike exceeded his expectations. A first level of the Profound Realm shouldn't have this level of attack power. The true energy attached to the black blade caused goosebumps to rise on the surface of his skin.

"Hanxiao" is unsheathed.

The broken spirit weapon's blade gleamed with a cold, dark blue light. Han Ji held the sword horizontally in front of him, channeling his true energy from the Dharma Body Realm into the blade.

boom.

The two weapons collided in mid-air.

A surge of air caused a section of the blue brick beneath Han Ji's feet to shatter, and he was pushed back three steps, his hands and feet going numb.

Xie Tinglan was thrown away by the aftershock, her back slammed against the wall, and she slid to the ground with a muffled groan.

Han Ji steadied himself, glanced at his sword-wielding hand, and exclaimed in disbelief:

"impossible."

"A mere cultivator at the first level of the Profound Realm forced him, a cultivator at the Dharma Body Realm, back three steps with a single strike?"

Yi Yang didn't stop; the second strike followed immediately.

The second move of the Four Symbols and Six Harmonies Knife: Vermilion Bird Burning Flames.

The blade tip vibrated rapidly in the air, producing a piercing buzzing sound. Yi Yang's wrist trembled repeatedly, and thirty-six crimson blade marks intertwined and overlapped in the void, weaving into a blazing lotus flower of fire.

The lotus flower takes shape.

"burst."

boom!

A crimson shockwave exploded from the center of the lotus flower, sweeping in all directions. Sections of the broken walls on both sides of the alley were flattened, and rubble flew everywhere.

Han Ji swung his sword, unleashing a dark blue sword curtain in front of him, barely managing to block the shockwave from the explosion. However, he was pushed back five steps, his brocade robe being lifted by the scorching airflow, and a patch of his sleeve was scorched.

His face finally darkened:

"Okay, very good."

Han Ji's voice deepened, and the sense of superiority that had seeped from his bones was gone.

"Since you insist on courting death—"

He loosened the hilt of "Hanxiao" and formed a hand seal.

The way the true qi circulates suddenly changes.

A certain sealed power within Han Ji's body was being released, causing his body to swell. His armor was torn apart from the inside, revealing a layer of dark green skin patterns underneath. Those patterns were expanding and spreading, reshaping his body into another form.

A three-zhang-tall blue-faced divine general "grew" out of Han Ji's body.

The divine general had a ferocious face, with three eyes that glowed with a ghostly green light. He was clad in black armor, and his right hand held a twelve-foot-long halberd, the true energy on the blade condensing into a tangible, dark green sharpness.

Legal body.

This is the Dharma Body that can only be condensed at the third level of the Profound Realm. The oppressive feeling emanating from this blue-faced divine general is more than one level stronger than that of Han Ji just now.

"I'll show you today."

Han Ji's voice came from the divine general's mouth, causing the surrounding air to explode: "Why is the Dharma Body Realm the true watershed of the Profound Realm?"

The halberd came crashing down.

Yi Yang's body reacted before his consciousness.

He activated his Cloud-Stepping and Wind-Chasing Boots at full power, his figure flashing to the right. The sharp edge of the halberd slashed past him half a foot away from his left shoulder, the shockwave sweeping over him and pushing him sideways by two zhang.

Before he could even steady himself, the second halberd had already caught up.

Sweep.

Yi Yang crouched down, the halberd blade swept past his head, shaving off a few strands of hair. The wind pressure tore apart his hair tie, and his black hair fell down.

The third strike, an upward thrust.

Yi Yang raised his sword to parry, but the blade of Xuan Yuan's sword collided with the halberd's edge, sending him flying. He tumbled twice in the air before landing, leaving two deep gashes on the ground with his feet.

The pressure is too great.

The power level of the Dharma Body is completely different from before. Every halberd strike of Han Ji is reinforced by the true energy of the Dharma Body after it has solidified. That kind of power cannot be resisted by the physical body alone.

Yi Yang's arm went numb from the opponent's attacks, and after blocking three blows, blood seeped from the mouth of his hand.

We can't keep dragging this on.

Yi Yang made a judgment in his mind: the sustained combat power of the Dharma Body Realm far exceeds that of the Enlightenment Realm, and the longer the battle drags on, the more disadvantageous it will be for him. He must find an opening and strike a fatal blow.

However, when Han Ji transformed into his Dharma body, the black armor of the blue-faced divine general protected his true form completely. Yi Yang's sword energy only left shallow white marks on the surface of the Dharma body, and could not seriously injure the opponent at all.

The halberd swung down for the fourth time.

Yi Yang dodged to the side, while simultaneously raising his head.

A golden light flashed deep within his pupils.

The second move of "The Mind Monkey Guards the Will: The Movement of Images": The Mind Mirror Shatters the Image.

Yi Yang's divine sense transformed into an invisible sharp knife, which pierced directly through the outer shell of the Dharma body, drilled into Han Ji's sea of ​​consciousness, and struck the connection between Han Ji's divine platform and his five senses.

Just as the god was about to attack, its movement froze.

Han Ji's vision was forcibly severed. In his eyes, Yi Yang became two, one on the left and one on the right, both identical, and the surroundings were upside down, making it impossible for him to distinguish which one was real. He also could not hear any sound, and his senses were completely cut off.

The connection between the blue-faced general's mind and body was severed, and his divine sense could no longer maintain his perception of the surroundings, causing Han Ji to fall into chaos.

The halberd swung down and missed its mark. The halberd, which was supposed to strike Yi Yang's right shoulder, missed by half a foot and crashed into the ground, creating a large crater.

Yi Yang got this only chance to catch his breath.

Right now.

Yi Yang poured most of his remaining true energy into the Xuan Yuan Blade.

The black longsword emitted a low hiss, its eerie light intensified, and a thick, dark vapor surged forth, enveloping the blade and turning the entire sword into a flowing black mass.

That is the true power of the spirit weapon.

Yi Yang closed his eyes briefly.

When he opened his eyes again, all the killing intent he had accumulated in his two lifetimes poured out of his body and into the blade.

The third move of the Four Symbols and Six Harmonies Knife: White Tiger Roars at the Moon.

Before the knife was drawn, the momentum had already arrived.

An invisible pressure emanated from Yi Yang, the air stagnated, pebbles floated, and even the ashes drifting from afar were frozen in mid-air.

Then, he drew his knife.

He slashed out with a horizontal thrust.

There was no blade aura, no air currents.

Only a giant, jet-black tiger leaped from the blade, silently tearing through the sky, and pounced towards the three-zhang-tall, blue-faced divine general.

Han Ji's senses had not yet recovered from the interference of the "Heart Mirror Shattering Shadows." He saw two black tigers, one on the left and one on the right, and could not tell which one was real.

He chose to swing his halberd to block on the left, but he made the wrong choice.

The black tiger on the right bit into the blue-faced general's breastplate, its jaws tearing through the armor and piercing through with unstoppable force.

The blade sliced ​​through the heavy blue armor.

The resistance lasted only half a breath before the three-zhang-tall blue-faced deity began to disintegrate from its chest, with fragments of dark green true energy flying in all directions.

Han Ji's figure fell out of the shattered Dharma body.

He landed on the ground, staggered back seven or eight steps before regaining his balance, and looked down at his abdomen.

A huge wound stretched across his left rib to his right waist, its edges tinged with ink. The power of the spirit weapon Xuan Yuan was preventing the wound from healing, and blood gushed from it, soaking through his dark blue brocade robe embroidered with the dark patterns of the Heavenly Heart Sect.

He clutched his stomach, his arrogance vanished, replaced by horror.

Yi Yang stood still, his hand holding the knife hanging at his side, the Xuan Yuan sword planted in the ground to support his body.

His breathing was heavy, and his chest heaved violently. The Martial Dragon Elephant Body technique helped him withstand the backlash, but the true energy in his dantian was almost depleted.

The three killing moves, combined with the full power of the spiritual weapon, consumed a huge amount of true energy. Ninety percent of the true energy in his dantian had been depleted, and his meridians were aching and sore from the short-term overload.

The two people stared at each other from ten feet apart.