“How could Ling Xiao become so powerful!”
Everybody knew his past.
People who had once mocked and disdained him were embarrassed, surprised, and terrified.
They couldn’t believe that Ling Xiao had actually won against the Elite Hall’s fourth-ranked Ling Tieshou!
How was this possible!
Ling Chong was so frightened that he directly kowtowed on the ground. He was afraid that Ling Xiao would come seek trouble with him. At that time, no one here would help him.
“Relax. I don’t have an interest in bullying a waste!”
Ling Xiao looked at Long Chong in disdain. This person who had once humiliated him almost every day now bowed before him.
His heart brimmed with pride.
Sure enough, with sufficient strength, he had recovered his dignity.
“Waste?”
Ling Chong barely stifled his bitterness. In the past, he had called Ling Xiao this word, but now, their positions had reversed.
“Big Brother Feng, what should we do? He won! He actually won against Ling Tieshou! He will definitely come seek revenge on me…”
Ling Yu had long lost her haughty princess airs. Her eyes full of fear, she trembled while clutching Ling Feng’s arm.
Although Ling Xiao hadn’t even looked her way, she was still terrified.
This was because guilty villains judged others to have similarly black hearts.
“Humph, this was only due to Ling Tieshou’s own stupidity.”
Ling Feng nervously consoled her in addition to himself. Until the day he truly lost, he would always find a way to comfort himself.
“If it weren’t for Ling Tieshou forcibly using the secret technique Instant Hit and depleting his true qi, Ling Xiao would surely have lost in the end. Sister Yu, you don’t need to be afraid. I will soon comprehend the trick of converting true qi into gang qi. After I condense gang qi, I can kill him in one move!”
“Yea! Big Brother Feng, you’re right. He just has a powerful movement technique and almost no attacking methods.”
Hearing Ling Feng’s words, Ling Yu was relieved, and she tightly hugged Ling Feng’s arm.
Now, she could only rely on him.
If Ling Feng were also not Ling Xiao’s opponent, she truly wouldn’t have any backing.
Ling Yihang, who had been meditating with closed eyes, suddenly opened them. A hint of a smile appeared on his face as he commented, “Yixue, you and I might meet a real challenger soon!”
In his opinion, in the entire Elite Hall, only Ling Yixue was qualified to challenge him.
Now, another person, Ling Xiao, might be qualified to challenge him.
“Senior apprentice brother is too polite. I am still far worse than you, but this Ling Xiao is truly progressing rapidly. If he can truly grasp the method of converting true qi into gang qi, he might truly pose a threat to you.”
Ling Yixue’s eyes glimmered.
She already knew that Ling Yihang was the only disciple in the entire Elite Hall who had grasped gang qi.
……
“The Venerable Sir Ling is coming out!”
Just as everyone was theorizing and commenting on Ling Xiao’s strength, a loud voice interrupted them.
Then, the noise abruptly ceased.
Everybody’s attention focused on a small building.
This was where the Venerable Sir Ling had entered seclusion.
Boom!
A powerful aura burst from behind the stone door before a sturdy old man wearing coarse clothes emerged from the stone structure.
He looked sixty or seventy years, but each step of his was vigorous and mighty, simply not resembling an old man’s.
“He is the Venerable Sir Ling, one of the four big experts of Heavenly Peak City! Ling Clan’s Patriarch!”
Ling Xiao was also a little excited.
As he examined this mysterious figure, the Landscape Martial Soul suddenly activated, attempting to see through the Venerable’s cultivation.
However, before anything concrete could be displayed, a blade-like powerful aura disrupted it.
The difference between their strengths was too big, his Landscape Martial Soul was unable to analyze the Venerable’s information.
The Venerable Sir Ling’s original name was Ling Xiaotian.
In the past, he had charged into the Black Scarf Thieves’ lair by himself and killed several hundred bandits, including one of their leades.
This story still circulated in Heavenly Peak City.
The Black Scarf Thieves hated Ling Xiaotian, but they didn’t dare make a move against the Ling Clan because of his existence.
Ling Xiaotian examined the audience below him.
His momentum forced many disciples to kneel; they couldn’t control their own bodies. This invisible pressure was too terrifying.
Naturally, several people remained standing.
The two from the Genius Hall maintained their smiles. They had already previously experienced this pressure. As long as they had any gang qi reserves in their bodies, they wouldn’t be affected.
The Venerable Sir Ling was testing the disciples’ strengths.
There were four others standing.
One was Ling Yihang who stood with an indifferent expression.
One was Ling Yixue bearing a slight frown.
One was Ling Feng leaning against his sword, which he had stabbed into the ground to support his body.
The final one was Ling Xiao. When his body was almost unable to bear the pressure, his Landscape Martial Soul unexpectedly easily resolved it.
Therefore, he seemed even more relaxed than Ling Yixue.
“Amazing!”
“Is this the strength of the strongest in Heavenly Peak City? When will we reach his level?”
“Don’t even think about it! The Venerable Sir Ling’s strength is not so easy to achieve.”
“Condensing gang qi is only the first step.”
Although they had been forced to kneel, the disciples weren’t dissatisfied. They were full of longing and expectation.
They were also full of admiration and worship.
Rank Four Martial Vein, gang qi stage, the Martial Disciple title, this was the realm that countless martial artists of Northern Han Country and even the entire world earnestly longed for.
In the past, such a hope had only been a good dream for Ling Xiao.
However, after learning that above Rank Nine Martial Vein there were nine further transcendent ranks, his mindset had dramatically shifted with his widening horizons.
Rank Four Martial Vein was little more than a springboard for him, a short-term goal.
His current dream was to enter the Transcendent Realm.
“You all are the worst disciples this old man has ever seen!”
Ling Xiaotian suddenly raged.
“Heh heh. It looks like the Venerable Sir is at it again.”
The two Genius Hall disciples couldn’t help but quietly chuckle.
“Yeah, he also said this at our time. In fact, this generation is really quite good. There are actually four people who managed to withstand the old man’s pressure.”
“That’s right. Venerable Sir is actually very happy.”
While they conversed, they suddenly felt Ling Xiaotian’s warning gaze and hastily closed their mouths.
Ling Xiaotian continued speaking, “As everyone knows, the nine martial vein ranks are divided into three stages——awakening stage, gang qi stage, and explosion qi stage! Each stage has its own title: Martial Pupil, Martial Disciple and Martial Master!”
Although his voice was loud, its penetration power was even stronger. It could be clearly heard from several hundred meters away.
The Venerable Sir Ling’s words were merely common knowledge. All the disciples of the Ling Clan would learn it as long as they practiced martial arts.
[Awakening Stage]: It was mainly to build a strong physique, condense true qi, and lay a solid foundation to cultivate stronger martial arts.
[Gang Qi Stage]: After condensing true qi until the body’s limits were reached, it was necessary to condense true qi and convert it into gang qi. Gang qi was purer and could inflict injuries from a distance. In addition, its might far surpassed true qi’s.
[Explosion Qi Stage]: Although there were no fundamental changes in one’s internal energy, and it remained gang qi, one’s gang qi reserves were incomparable to before. In this stage, the focus of one’s cultivation would be on the might of one’s martial arts and the instant eruption of gang qi. With one person’s power, you could easily resist ten thousand people. It was possible to destroy a village with one punch.
Many books recorded Peak Rank Nine Martial Vein Martial Masters single-handedly massacring enemy armies without much difficulty. It was very normal.
Once you reached this realm, in the eyes of secular martial artists, you were basically an invincible existence.
