“Ling Xiao!”
Ming Tian was incomparably furious.
Originally, he had thought to use his power to confront all eleven geniuses and completely awe them.
He would have achieved a complete victory!
However, there was an anomaly like Ling Xiao.
Not only did he not win, but he was also injured on his neck.
It was not just a wound, but a humiliation!
Since he had started studying martial arts, he had never lost to a martial artist at the same realm. Even skipping a rank to battle had long since become ordinary for him.
After becoming a true disciple of White Cloud Great Master, he had become the leader of the younger generation, a true absolute genius.
Originally, he had thought that only Zuo Leng might be his opponent. As long as he suppressed Zuo Leng, he would become the number one among the younger generation.
However, Ling Xiao’s appearance made him go truly crazy.
The other party first defeated him when he had suppressed his cultivation base to Initial Rank Eight Martial Vein while fighting with a cultivation base of Late Rank Seven Martial Vein.
Then, in this battle, the other party had left a sword wound on his neck.
Although this wound was not worth mentioning, the blow to his self-esteem was more painful than any physical injury.
In the True Spirit Hall
Wan Ben seemed even angrier than Ming Tian.
“Shameless person, making a sneak attack!”
Lin Ze, however, chuckled: “Hehe, Ming Tian clearly asked the other eleven to attack him together, so why should Ling Xiao be blamed now? Moreover, that’s not shamelessness, but strategy.”
The corners of White Cloud Great Master’s mouth twitched, but he said nothing.
Then, his figure gradually faded away as if disappearing into thin air.
After a long time, his voice resounded in Lin Ze’s ears: “The disciple you taught is truly not bad. Rest assured, since this old man lost the bet, he will never intervene in the matter between you and Wan Ben. If this kid is in trouble, this old man will save him once.”
At this moment, White Cloud Great Master no longer called himself “this Master.”
It could be seen that he was not happy at all.
After all, Ling Xiao injuring Ming Tian was tantamount to slapping his face.
After White Cloud Great Master left the True Spirit Hall, he appeared in the Training Hall.
“The assessment is over. To be honest, your performance has disappointed this Master; therefore, the reward will be canceled.”
“Cancelled?”
White Cloud Temple Master Yiran Zhenren was stunned and couldn’t help but say: “Teacher, Ling Xiao’s performance was unexpectedly good. How can you say that you were disappointed?”
“What this Teacher truly wanted to see was strength and talent, not plots and schemes!’
White Cloud Great Master said indifferently, “In front of strength, all schemes are meaningless. You will understand this point when you advance to the Transcendent Realm. Therefore, Ling Xiao, remember: don’t play around with little thoughts. Concentrate on improving your cultivation.”
After speaking, he looked at Ming Tian and said, “Ming Tian, you don’t have to be too discouraged. It’s not a big deal to lose to a plot. Merely, you were still injured, so you will not be rewarded.”
He said this on the surface, but he secretly transmitted to Ming Tian: “Later, come to this Master’s place with Zuo Leng. This Master will impart to you two even stronger martial techniques. In addition, don’t care about these rewards. In any case, if this Master has something, he will give it to you two first.”
White Cloud Great Master thought that no one heard his words, but he was wrong. Although Ling Xiao couldn’t hear what he had said, his Landscape Martial Soul was able to analyze his words based on the fluctuations of his true essence.
“Humph, I never thought that a dignified transcendent martial artist would be so partial.”
Ling Xiao snorted in his heart without saying nothing.
After all, the other party was too strong. If the other party wanted to kill him, a palm would be enough. He wouldn’t have any chance of survival.
Ling Xiao wouldn’t do such meaningless things.
The assessment ended in a hurry.
Although Ling Xiao didn’t get a reward from White Cloud Great Master, he still got the excellent grade “Floating Snow Sword,” a top-grade True Essence Pill, and ten low-grade True Essence Pills.
In addition, Lin Ze also compensated him by giving him one hundred low-grade spirit stones and ten low-grade True Essence Pills.
Lin Ze’s words were very simple. “Don’t mind Teacher’s words. He is old and somewhat muddleheaded. Unlike you youngsters, he cannot see many things.”
Ling Xiao naturally wouldn’t care about what White Cloud Great Master said.
Cultivation was important, but fighting skills were equally important.
Regardless of the situation, if you could completely control everything about your opponent, you could use strategies to reduce your opponent’s strength and create advantages for yourself. That was absolutely a good thing.
Skills and cultivation were complementary.
Martial artists who trained following White Cloud Great Master’s words would be all brawn and no brains no matter how strong they became.
Once they ran into a smart person, they would be tricked no matter how strong they were.
After returning to his residence, Ling Xiao forgot about this matter. Since White Cloud Great Master was obviously partial, he wouldn’t pin his hopes on that old fellow.
In fact, he had never planned to do that from the beginning.
Via his fights with Ming Tian, he realized that Transcendent Martial Arts also had grades like Peak Martial Arts.
Entry, Rare, and Superior.
Merely, there was one more grade after superior——Top!
The grades of his <Heavenly Dragon Golden Body> and <Snow Lotus Sword Art> were relatively high, but he still didn’t know their exact grades since his current understanding of Transcendent Martial Arts was too lacking.
As for <Cloud Dragon Divine Walk>, it should be an Entry-level Transcendent Martial Art. After all, according to the evolution rules of <Soaring Cloud Steps>, it would basically upgrade itself by only one grade at a time..
……
After returning to his residence, Ling Xiao began to cultivate again.
He had benefited a lot from this battle against Ming Tian.
Eating ten True Essence Pills, he began to attack the bottleneck of Peak Rank Seven Martial Vein.
One clone also began to cultivate <Shadow Transformation Thirteen Swords>.
After all, it was easier to cultivate Quasi-Transcendent Martial Arts, and he would gain more moves.
His other clone began to consolidate the realm of <Snow Lotus Sword Art>’s First Style——Flying Snow.
The difficulty of comprehending <Snow Lotus Sword Art> truly gave him a headache. This time, he had finally comprehended a bit of its transcendent profound meaning from battle, and he wanted to take advantage of this time to perfect “Flying Snow”.
Ling Xiao didn’t come out for the next ten days.
Ten days later, Ling Xiao’s one sword move actually transformed into thirteen clones. Not only was the scene magnificent, but the key point was that his power had increased by several times.
In addition, the might of his two certain kill skills, Giant Spirit Kill and Blood Blade Shadow King Kill, had substantially increased.
In the past, their power had been on the level of a Superior Peak Martial Art.
But now, their power was comparable to a Quasi-Transcendent Martial Art. Naturally, there was no comparison between their past and present.
Moreover, the thirteen clones were not mere clones, but each would make Ling Xiao’s sword move 70% stronger.
Now that there were more than ten, his attack power could become more than seven times stronger.
If he had cultivated <Shadow Transformation Thirteen Swords> before his fight with Ming Tian, dealing with him after he suppressed his cultivation base to Initial Rank Eight Martial Vein would have been much easier.
In just ten days, he had cultivated this sword technique to the ninth layer, the perfection realm. This was only because he had the foundation of <Duplicate Shadow Sword Technique>. Moreover, in the previous battle, his comprehension of its transcendent profound meaning had become deeper.
