Sword Among Us

Even though only half a level was required before he could reach max level, Happy still used a full day before he finally pushed Tendon Changing Classic to Grandmaster Realm.

It was pretty decent, and Happy experienced the profound state of the three flowers gathering above his head once more.

This time, Happy quickly woke up from his daze. He could sense each change within him truly, and when the first lotus to the third lotus bloomed, they gave off a sacred presence.

It was just as he expected.

Once his Tendon Changing Classic reached Grandmaster Realm, his body swiftly grew stronger and improved by leaps and bounds. The quality of his body once again surpassed the other side.

‘I wonder if the Prophet saw this… Let’s hope that this ability won’t be noticed so soon by outsiders.’ While Happy thought about this, he tried to use his true origin aura.

The situation was very delightful!

Even though his qi in this world was not high and could not compare to the other world at all—it was only at nine hundred—with Nine Yang Divine Skill and Tendon Changing Classic, he had no problem in using this skill, since Tendon Changing Classic had widened his meridian system and cleared his eight extra meridians, while the former could restore his qi at a rapid pace.

Even if he removed all his equipment and activated the normal Golden Bell Cocoon, Happy could still easily remain still while he was attacked by martial artists at the peak of Inaction Realm.

‘I knew it. It’s completely different with Nine Yang Divine Skill.’

At the same time Happy was delighted by the fact that his Tendon Changing Classic had reached Grandmaster Realm, he could not help but want to test out his real strength at the moment. Even though he was already very familiar with using Tendon Changing Classic and Nine Yang Divine Skill together, he was not very sure of the effects of using both together. To Happy, who had his entire focus on increasing his abilities and chasing after the path of martial arts, this was just as addicting as crack.

Since he was lacking Myth Realm criminals and his current training environment was sorely lacking, Happy managed to easily defeat those ten martial artists at the peak of Inaction Realm without using any weapons, and then, he lost interest in continuing to fight against them. He left the prison and the branch resolutely before he quickly headed to Shaolin Temple.

*****

He used a human skin mask to hide his identity, and within just half a day, Happy entered Shaolin Temple and arrived at Punishment Mount once more.

In this world, Punishment Mount was still as deserted as ever.

Happy activated his true origin aura and walked over the iron chains as if he was walking on common ground.

The mountain breeze that blew at him from all directions did not affect Happy in the least. He just used his true origin aura to quickly reduce the damage.

But Happy noticed something from this.

The continuous invasion from the mountain breeze into the aura was continuously weakening and reducing his true origin aura.

He increased his speed in circulating his qi using Tendon Changing Classic and Nine Yang Divine Skill.

‘I see, so the mountain breeze is actually an attack, and it seems to be a very special attack.’ Happy was surprised.

Very soon, Happy thought about how he saw multiple Shaolin Temple disciples using this place to train their Affinity. He could not help but have a thought bloom in his head, and he immediately sent this piece of news to Silver Wolf, asking him to mention this to some of the Mu Clan members at the appropriate time. Increasing Affinity rapidly after entering stabilizing their qi at Moksha Realm could allow them to develop swiftly, especially to those who knew how to use their attributes to their advantage.

Thud!

His feet landed lightly and steadily at the cliff on Punishment Mount. Happy then turned his head around to cast a glance at the path he took to come here. He could not help but remember the pathetic state he was in when he first came here.

At that time, when he faced the bottomless abyss and the iron chains that swayed irregularly in the mountain breeze, he felt as if he was facing a violent beast with its mouth wide open. Even when he held the chain tightly, he still felt his heart pounding in fear when he walked on the chains.

However, later on, his courage grew as his strength grew, and he gradually understood how to maintain his image. He relied on his ability to fly through the chains by landing on the chains with each step he took.

Right now, he could easily walk through the chains.

Happy said nothing. He could not help but sigh and become sentimental over this. He turned around slowly and headed to the foggy area where Mad Monk was.

When he arrived before the foggy area, Mad Monk’s voice traveled into his ears at the perfect moment. “You’re here.”

Happy said nothing for a moment. He stopped moving before he said, “I have come to meet you, senior!”

The situation was progressing smoother than he expected. Since Mad Monk had taken the initiative to speak, it allowed him to save the time required for him to think.

“Not bad. You have already mastered your Tendon Changing Classic.” Mad Monk did not hold back on his praise when he sent a private message to Happy. “Once you have three flowers gather above your head, the next step you must do is to train all five qis so that all can return to the origin. Then, you can reach my current state.”

Happy thought of something, and he could not help but ask, “Senior, are you talking about the state of five qis returning to the origin?”

“That’s right.”

Mad Monk’s voice traveled clearly into his ears from the fog. He continued speaking, “But martial artists can only understand the world once all five of their qis return to the origin. They will be able to do everything easily, and you can do everything. You can learn every martial art in the world even without a master teaching you, and you can even reach the stage where you can win against someone using a skill even when you are not using any skill. However, having the five qis return to the origin is not easy.”

“Senior, I was thinking about asking you for advice in this regard,” Happy said excitedly.

Mad Monk did not have any intention to hide his knowledge, but the information he revealed caused Happy to feel a little stricken.

“I cannot give you more advice regarding how to have your five qis return to the origin. At that time, I was lucky enough to reach this stage because of Marrow Cleansing Classic. It completely changed by body constitution, and I was able to reach a breakthrough during the battle thirty years ago and enter One with the World, which is the stage where you have five qis return to their origin.”

“Senior, are you saying that you only had your five qis return to the origin and reached One with the World Realm during the battle thirty years ago?”

“That’s right.” Mad Monk said nothing for a while before he answered with a slightly sentimental tone, “I know that you came for Marrow Cleansing Classic. But I already told you that even if you have mastered Tendon Changing Classic, you will still need three years before you can practice Marrow Cleansing Classic, because this classic isn’t like other classics.”

“I am willing to listen.”

“Marrow Cleansing Classic is as its name entails. It will cleanse the marrows in the body and further strengthen the body and the mind. Hence, it is unlike normal martial arts. You will need to rely on your own willpower. You can’t practice it as you did with Tendon Changing Classic either. You cannot improve it through training your physical body. You can only understand everything about Marrow Cleansing Classic when you are in the throes of death, and the higher your qi realm is, the more of its profound nature will you understand.”

“In the throes of life and death?” Happy was in a daze.

Mad Monk explained patiently, “I had you wait for three years because you cannot understand the essence of being caught between life and death with your current qi realm. It will be difficult for you to notice the potential changes in the body when you are caught between life and death.”

Happy said nothing. He still could not understand it, and he could not help but take a few steps into the fog. “Potential… Related to qi realms…”

“Allow me to put it in simpler terms. I mean that the higher your qi realm is, the higher the possibility of you experiencing the profound nature in Marrow Changing Classic during life and death. Then, you will naturally understand even more.” Mad Monk’s explanation this time finally allowed Happy to obtain something important.

He thought of something, and he asked, “Qi realm is related to Marrow Cleansing Classic, so are you saying that only when a person has reached One with the World would I be able to push Marrow Cleansing Classic to a higher realm?”

“Yes, that’s about right. You will only be able to gain some enlightenment when you are caught in the throes of death at Moksha Realm. In fact, you will only gain a superficial knowledge of it. When you reach Inaction Realm, you will have the right to understand the second level. You can form your own analogies based on this.

“Also, the higher your qi realm is, the possibility of you obtaining an understanding of everything after you escape from death will be higher.” Mad Monk’s explanation finally allowed Happy to have a rather deep understanding toward Marrow Cleansing Classic.

Mad Monk should be implying that he should only come here when his qi realm was higher, because by then, the possibility of him understanding Marrow Cleansing Classic during life and death would be higher.

Just as he expected, Mad Monk’s voice came to him once more, “I had you come three years later because I wanted you to have accumulated enough strength. Three years later, when you have reached Inaction Realm or even higher, you will have an easier time trying to understand Marrow Cleansing Classic.”

“I understand now…” Happy knew that he had already obtained his answer.

Being caught between life and death could allow Marrow Cleansing Classic to improve, but being attacked by three martial artists at the beginning stage of Myth Realm in a sect prison was far from enough to fulfill that requirement. Just as expected, the difficulty in training Marrow Cleansing Classic was very high.

Besides, it seemed like the understanding he could gain, even if he could, was very limited because of his qi realm.

This caused Happy to be slightly disappointed.

Happy bade farewell to Mad Monk and used half a day to hastily return to Beijing. He threw himself back into the sect prison, and Happy returned to the world three years later.

When he returned to this side, the first thing Happy did was to give up on continuing with isolated training in Wind Assault Tower’s headquarters. He asked for Shi Zhixuan’s whereabouts from Wandering Know-it-all, since he was a powerful martial artist at the peak of Myth Realm. There were already not many people in the entire Chinese server who could threaten him. Now, aside from martial artists at the peak of Myth Realm, those normal Myth Realm martial artists already had a hard time making him experience the feeling of being caught between life and death.

However, before he left Wind Assault Tower’s headquarters, Happy still spent some time understanding the world outside.

The situation was very bad.

Ever since One Emperor massacred the dozens of top-class elites scattered outside Beijing and Class One Hall had six of its branches destroyed under Wind Assault Tower’s offense, Class One Hall worked together with Blood Alliance, Assassin Hall, Heaven’s Music Sect, and Heavenly Heroes Sect, which had publicly announced that they would join Class One Hall’s alliance recently, to destroy more than twenty of Wind Assault Tower’s branches. Wind Assault Tower lost nearly fifty thousand people, and they suffered devastating losses.

Besides, this was the number of casualties suffered when Class One Hall and Wind Assault Tower both held back.

If it were not because both sides had different thoughts in their minds, the Chinese server would have been bathed in blood since a long time ago. There was no way that only this number of casualties would appear after four days had passed since the battle.

However, while both major sects were rather cautious with the big operations from their branches, the fights and conflicts held in secret waged madly. Over the past few days, the people from the two sects did not dare spend too much time training in one place, much less in Ghost’s Domain, which was a high-grade training spot.

As long as they left the city, everyone would be in a state of great alarm, because they might be ambushed at any moment!

‘Shi Zhixuan is at the ruins of Dafo Temple. That place can be considered to be a rather popular training ground. I might not be able to last through this trip peacefully.’ After Happy left Wind Assault Tower’s headquarters, he immediately noticed that someone had begun tailing him, and he could not help but quirk an eyebrow.