“Xiao Er, keep the change as a tip.”
In Flying Horse Village, Longtian found a restaurant.
After eating and drinking to his heart’s content, he tossed down a ten-tael silver banknote and left.
“Thank you, Sixth Master!
Take care, Sixth Master, and please come again!”
Even though Longtian had already walked out, Xiao Er’s voice still rang out loud and clear, brimming with excitement.
Longtian was not well-received in the He family, but in the eyes of ordinary people, despite his somewhat playboy-like aura, he was a decent person.
Most importantly, he was generous with his money, allowing many people to afford basic meals and clothing because of him.
“I should go back to my doghouse and get some sleep,” Longtian thought.
“I’ve been cultivating for a day and a night.
Although my body doesn’t feel tired, my mind is slightly exhausted.”
Cultivating a Martial Skill was mentally taxing.
“Damn, there isn’t a single light on in the house,” he thought.
“Those two bastards, Ah Wang and Ah Cai, definitely went to the Yihong Courtyard again.
Even Ah Fu is missing.
Did they take him along too?
Forget it, let them be.”
Longtian had taken in three underlings, a trio of brothers collectively named Fu Wangcai.
They had followed Longtian for a full five years and were around the same age as him.
Back then, they were sold as slaves by their own father.
Fortunately, they met Longtian; otherwise, they never would have lived such a carefree life.
Returning to his bedroom, Longtian lay on his bed, ready to sleep.
Suddenly, he heard the faint sound of footsteps.
His drowsiness vanished in an instant.
“Ah Fu and the others wouldn’t come back without lighting a candle,” he thought.
“Who else would visit my courtyard in the middle of the night?”
Now a Cultivator, Longtian’s skills gave him courage.
He simply stayed in bed and pretended to be asleep without getting up.
Finally, he heard the door open.
Squinting, he saw two men in black holding sabers quietly tiptoe into his bedroom.
Under the moonlight, he could clearly see their faces.
Surprisingly, the two assassins weren’t wearing masks, suggesting they had absolute confidence in their success today.
The two men approached Longtian, nodded to each other, and raised their sabers simultaneously, intent on chopping him into three pieces.
“They really are here to kill me!” he thought.
“Son of a bitch, who holds such a massive grudge against me?”
Longtian could no longer keep up the act.
If he didn’t move now, he would kick the bucket.
The auras suddenly released by the two men clearly belonged to Cultivators, specifically those at the Second Level of Mortal Realm.
Pushing down fiercely with his left hand, Longtian leaped high into the air, dodging one of the sabers before letting out a cold shout.
“Stone-Splitting Fist!”
His right fist suddenly released a radiant light that illuminated the darkness.
In his haste, Longtian could only use his fist to block the other saber.
CLANG!
The glowing fist collided with the chopping saber, kicking up a whistling gale.
The immense recoil instantly shattered the bed beneath him.
Longtian felt a sharp pain in his fist as blood began to flow.
Although he had snapped his opponent’s saber in half with a single punch, his fist had also been slashed, leaving behind a deep, hideous crimson wound.
“Damn you, die!” he roared.
Despite his injury, Longtian’s assault didn’t stop.
While the assassin was still stunned, a palm radiating golden light rapidly magnified in the man’s bewildered eyes.
“Vajra Palm!”
BANG!
It felt like striking cotton.
The man in black didn’t appear to have suffered much damage, but his companion watched in horror as he froze completely motionless.
The struck man’s pupils dilated, unable to focus ever again, and his life force vanished without a trace!
He was dead.
Fear instantly gripped the surviving assassin.
The young man before him had not only blocked his companion’s sure-kill strike with a bare fist but had also effortlessly ended the man’s life with a single palm.
How could he possibly be a match for someone like that?
Without a shred of hesitation, the man threw his saber at Longtian and dove out the window, choosing to flee at the first opportunity.
Longtian dodged the incoming blade and was about to capture the man, only to find he had already escaped through the window.
He hurriedly gave chase for several miles but ultimately lost sight of the assassin.
“Son of a bitch, he ran fast,” Longtian cursed under his breath, his brows furrowing tightly.
“Who exactly wants to kill me?” he wondered.
Although the members of the He family frequently bullied him, they wouldn’t resort to such underhanded methods.
If they wanted to kill him, they would do it openly and without any scruples.
“Could it be Zhang Dashan?
Impossible.
He’s just a dog at He Qingfeng’s side.
Even if he wanted to vent his anger on me, he wouldn’t dare hire assassins.
When he gets hurt, he just wags his tail and complains to He Qingfeng.
“Forget it.
I’ll face whatever comes my way.”
Shaking his head, Longtian turned around and headed home.
“Now I’ve completely lost my desire to sleep,” he thought.
“It seems I can’t slack off in the slightest on the path of Cultivation.
I finally understand why my brother worked so hard.
Once you become a Cultivator, slacking off only leads to death.
If I hadn’t learned a Martial Skill today, the one who died wouldn’t be this assassin, but me.
“The law of the jungle—this is the world of Cultivators!
“Get stronger, become stronger!
I must continuously grow stronger.
Only when I am powerful enough can I protect myself and the people I want to safeguard!
“Brother, was this your mindset back then?”
After becoming a Cultivator, Longtian finally realized that he was drawing closer to his brother.
Everything he hadn’t understood before made perfect sense now.
Become stronger, or die—or live in humiliation.
It was obvious that both Longtian and his brother had resolutely chosen to become stronger!
Strength, strength, strength!
Only by becoming stronger could he be the Sovereign of his own life.
“I’ve only just grasped the Vajra Palm and Stone-Splitting Fist,” he thought.
“It’s not enough.
This is far from enough.
If I run into someone at the Mortal Realm Third Level, I will definitely die.
Unless I completely master these two Martial Skills—Vajra Palm in the left hand and Stone-Splitting Fist in the right, balancing hardness and softness—only then might I be able to fight above my realm and challenge a Cultivator at the Mortal Realm Third Level.”
Through this battle, Longtian understood the importance of a Martial Skill.
It was like a knife—even a child wielding one could threaten an adult’s life.
Therefore, he had to master this weapon.
“Vajra Palm!
Stone-Splitting Fist!” he shouted.
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
The winds howled as he spent the entire night familiarizing himself with these two strikes.
“Too difficult,” he pondered.
“Trying to divide my focus and execute two different Martial Skills simultaneously is as hard as scaling the heavens.
Even with my body remodeled by the Stone Stele, I can’t do it.
It seems I have to settle for the next best thing: I’ll strike with the Stone-Splitting Fist first, and then immediately follow up with the Vajra Palm.
This might work, and it’ll catch my opponent off guard.”
“Stone-Splitting Fist!”
“Vajra Palm!”
He practiced time and time again.
By the time the sun rose, he was already drenched in sweat, yet a smile touched the corners of his mouth.
He had done it!
After a night of sheer perseverance, he could finally execute the Vajra Palm a mere second after using the Stone-Splitting Fist.
This also meant that he was already proficient in using these two Martial Skills!
Longtian’s two days of Cultivation were comparable to half a year, or even a full year, for others!
Such talent was truly terrifying, and it was all brought to him by the Stone Stele and that mysterious cluster of light.
“Time to recover,” he murmured.
Sitting cross-legged, Longtian absorbed the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy to restore his exhausted body.
An hour later, he finally opened his eyes, feeling completely refreshed.
Looking at the empty house, Longtian furrowed his brows slightly.
“Strange,” he thought.
“Why haven’t those three scoundrels returned yet?
Did they exhaust themselves last night?
Damn it, it seems I can’t treat my subordinates too well.
Those three bastards chose skirts over their bro.
They know I’ve been in a bad mood these past two days, yet they haven’t even come to comfort me.
“Forget it.
It’s fine if no one disturbs me.
I can cultivate in peace and strive to enter the Third Level of the Mortal Realm as soon as possible.
I have a feeling I’ll break through very soon, as if there’s extra Spiritual Energy inside my body supplying me.”
Longtian had to race against time.
He needed to stop his father’s wedding and find his brother’s murderer, but all of this required him to raise his strength first.
Otherwise, it would all be empty talk.
Closing his eyes, Longtian focused on absorbing the ambient Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy.
He could feel his Cultivation steadily rising.
Once the Spiritual Energy in his two Hidden Veins reached full capacity, he could use that massive volume of energy to break through the third Hidden Vein.
“I’m close, getting closer.
The Third Layer is close,” he thought.
Longtian could clearly feel the frantic Spiritual Energy contained within his Hidden Veins.
“I should try to breach the third Hidden Vein right now,” he decided.
He resolved to give it a try.
If he succeeded, great; if not, he would just let it go.
“Charge!”
The Spiritual Energy residing in his two Hidden Veins suddenly turned violent.
Along with the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy he had absorbed into his body, it surged against the entry point of the third Hidden Vein!
It was an invisible barrier, but Longtian knew the third Hidden Vein was right there.
The reason he hadn’t broken through was that the sheer volume of his Spiritual Energy wasn’t enough to pierce this membrane.
“Break!
Break!
Hold on!
Persevere!” he urged himself inwardly.
The impact brought immense pain, but Longtian’s willpower was resolute; he wouldn’t be easily defeated.
“Break!
It has to break!”
The Spiritual Energy surged forward in endless waves, relentlessly crashing against the unseen membrane.
However, no matter how hard he pushed, he always fell just a little bit short.
“No, I can’t give up.
Again!
Again!”
Channeling the Spiritual Energy from his Hidden Veins once more while frantically absorbing the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, Longtian launched his one hundred and ninety-eighth assault.
The pain from the collisions had long since drenched his entire body in sweat, but he gritted his teeth and persevered.
Two hundred times.
Three hundred times.
Five hundred times!
Longtian’s tenacious willpower didn’t waver in the slightest.
Finally, on exactly his eight-hundredth attempt, a soft POP sounded out.
An intense wave of comfort washed over him—the sensation was akin to finally passing a painfully stubborn stool.
Longtian felt an unparalleled lightness throughout his entire body.
He knew the membrane had broken.
He had successfully broken through to the Third Level of Mortal Realm.
Inside his body, as the Spiritual Energy poured in, the third Hidden Vein began to emit a faint glow.
Longtian exhaled deeply and started wildly absorbing the ambient Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy.
At the same time, streams of Spiritual Energy from an unknown source seeped out from within his own body, quickly filling the third Hidden Vein to the brim.
Within him, the three Hidden Veins resembled three small streams, radiating a dazzling, milky-white light.
“It’s done.
Third Level of Mortal Realm!” he cheered internally.
Longtian never expected to successfully advance to the Third Level of Mortal Realm in just three short days.
In other words, within three days, he had gone from an ordinary person to an expert at the Third Level of Mortal Realm.
However, he knew that entering the Fourth Layer would be much more difficult.