Chapter 38: True Martial Second
Ning Qi obtained some auxiliary medicines from Dragon Mountain Daoist and spent half a month, finally cultivating the Body Shifting and Bone Changing Art to the highest realm he had envisioned.
From then on.
His operations for disguise and shape shifting became much more flexible; he could easily switch between faces of the young, old, and middle-aged, and even his body type was the same. Thanks to his powerful body, Ning Qi could shrink to half his current height or grow to over two meters tall.
In the future, once his body became even stronger, he could achieve even more.
However.
The Body Shifting and Bone Changing Art was only for occasional use.
The Silent Art undoubtedly had greater use.
Normally, Ning Qi maintained his aura at the strength of the Tendon Refining Realm, occasionally leaking a trace, but only those who practiced perception-type martial arts could basically detect it.
Whether a martial artist was strong or weak could only be known after fighting.
Vitality and aura strength could only serve as reference.
With these two martial arts, Ning Qi felt much more at ease in his heart.
He continued to cultivate diligently as before.
Although his senior brothers and senior sisters occasionally returned from experience and spoke of the prosperity and liveliness down the mountain, which made Ning Qi slightly yearn for it, he could endure the solitude.
Of course, most importantly, Ning Qi could feel his own growth every day.
The joy of cultivation was plentiful.
This made him less eager for the outside world.
The peach blossoms outside Seeker’s Courtyard bloomed even more vibrantly, dazzlingly radiant.
Once, even a rough man like Second Senior Brother Xiong Shi couldn’t help but praise it upon arrival, saying that the feng shui here was nourishing; even the peach blossoms were better than those in other places on True Martial Mountain.
Ye Qinghe even smilingly picked some to take back, saying she wanted to make peach blossom wine.
Ning Qi smiled faintly.
He felt that Third Senior Sister was bound to fail.
Ye Qinghe liked to drink, but she was terrible at brewing; once she asked White Ape to teach her to brew monkey wine, resulting in something sour and foul-smelling that made White Ape shake its head repeatedly.
This time.
When White Ape saw Ye Qinghe wanting to make peach blossom wine, it hurriedly brewed a batch itself to avoid disaster later.
They all did not know.
Ning Qi had specially studied cultivation techniques; this batch of peach trees would become increasingly full of vitality, stronger year by year, and perhaps one day in the future, they might even bear spiritual fruits.
After the peach blossoms gradually withered.
One by one, peaches appeared on the peach branches, looking particularly delightful.
Ning Qi picked a peach and bit into it.
It made his mouth water, exceptionally sweet and fragrant.
He had White Ape send some to Master and all the senior brothers and senior sisters.
He received much praise.
Ning Qi’s state of mind became even more peaceful.
Dragon Mountain Daoist was astonished to discover that he could no longer see through this little disciple, which made him feel even more emotional.
And Ning Qi.
Had already welcomed his second feigned death.
With the experience of the first feigned death, this time was much smoother; Ning Qi prepared resources, instructed White Ape, then locked himself in the room and entered the state of silence.
White Ape had now also begun tendon refining; its movements were extremely agile as it practiced the Ape King Stance, progressing continuously.
This time, it did not panic, merely waiting silently for Ning Qi to wake.
Ten days later.
Ning Qi awoke.
His eyes held a bit more peace; he realized that the changes in his state of mind in recent days might be related to the two feigned deaths, but he was not alarmed and actually quite liked his current state.
“Promoted to the Third Realm of Stacked Strength, Inner Yuan minor accomplishment!”
“My body has improved by another fold, in other words, fully three times that of the flawless Body Tempering Realm perfection back then. I feel… my lifespan seems to have increased again?”
Ning Qi’s eyes lit up slightly.
This was an unexpected delight.
He had never heard of such changes with each realm breakthrough in the Inner Yuan Realm before; he guessed it might be related to his body reaching the limit through withering and rebirth each time.
Though he did not know how much his lifespan had increased, the subtle sensation could not be faked, and his mental spiritual insight had clearly amplified a bit more.
This was good.
Following this trend, perhaps when he reached Inner Yuan perfection, he could obtain a lifespan comparable to the Gang Yuan Realm.
“Apart from the body and lifespan, it’s the changes in inner strength. As expected, my inner strength has become ‘half solid,’ a state generally only reached after Inner Yuan major accomplishment, and probably not as good as mine.”
“Generally, martial artists who reach this major accomplishment realm can already cultivate the ‘strength transformation method’ in the Stacked Strength Technique, adding various powerful characteristics to their own inner strength.”
Ning Qi pondered.
He circulated the inner strength in his body and could clearly feel it was no longer as ‘illusory’ as before, now having a sense of ‘substance,’ with greatly increased power and stronger amplification to his body.
“Inner strength characteristics are numerous; for example, Ice Silkworm Strength can cultivate extreme ice inner strength, making it extremely cold. There are also other cultivation methods that can imbue inner strength with flames, deadly poison, baleful aura, and so on, even some special stacked strength techniques requiring corresponding resources to succeed.”
“But there are also other characteristics, like Earth Shaking Strength, which gives inner strength the ‘shock’ property; one palm strike shakes the lungs and viscera, reaching straight to the insides.”
“But none of these are what I want.”
In recent days, besides cultivating the Stacked Strength Technique, Ning Qi had been considering the latter half strength transformation method of Great Dream Nine Deaths Strength and now had some ideas.
He had ambitions, feeling that ordinary characteristics could not satisfy him.
If cultivating, then the strongest.
Strength transformation was not only a way to enhance the strength of powerful Inner Yuan Realm martial artists but also involved the later cultivation of Gang Yuan Strength.
“Wait a bit more; no rush for now. I can transform strength later anyway. Right now, I’m not fighting anyone, no need to rush.”
Ning Qi made up his mind.
Anyway, even without transforming strength, it would not delay continuing to cultivate and raise his realm.
He felt his current strength was not weak.
With a powerful body and vast solid inner strength, plus many martial arts easily cultivated to extremely high realms, his combat power was somewhat exaggerated.
“If there was still some uncertainty before, but now, Senior Disciple Brother and Fifth Senior Brother should not be my opponents.”
Ning Qi was not arrogant.
His body was too strong; following this trend, in the future he might perhaps wield a million jin with a swing of his arm, a height no one dared dream of.
No one knew that this Ninth True Disciple had quietly become the second strongest in True Martial Sect.
“As for Gang Yuan Realm, I don’t know if I can beat them.”
The Gang Yuan Three Realms—White Mist, Jade Liquid, and Core Elixir—each had vast gaps.
The only two Gang Yuan Realm experts Ning Qi had seen up close were Divine Sword Elder and his own Master, but both were in the Core Elixir Realm, with too great a gap; he did not think he could match them now.
However, Ning Qi did not waste time on this.
If he encountered them in the future, he would naturally know.
…
Summer gradually arrived.
One afternoon, Ye Qinghe was astonished to discover that all her sealed peach blossom wine had leaked gas and turned into sour water, which frustrated her greatly. She sighed that heaven envied talent, her brewing talent unable to shine.
Fortunately, White Ape timely brought out its own brewed peach blossom wine.
After Ye Qinghe tasted it, her eyes brightened, and she beamed with joy.
She pulled Yuan Tiansheng to find all the senior brothers one by one to taste the peach blossom wine, unflinchingly claiming it was jointly brewed by her and White Ape. Everyone praised it, chuckling inwardly.
This greatly satisfied her vanity.
“Hm… leave this jar for Eighth Junior Brother to taste.”
Perhaps Ye Qinghe’s words had a spiritual effect.
A few days later.
Eighth Junior Brother Qin Yun really returned to the mountain.
