Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Innate Realm 4th-Tier, Flame-Wood Blade Art! Give The One Who Betrays You 10,000 Taels!

【Xiao Wei says you should just go enjoy yourself with them at the Intoxicating Fragrance House instead of training in martial arts. For dandies like you, as long as you stay away from martial arts and gambling, the family fortune will last 3 generations.】

【Your face darkens.】

【That makes it sound like all you ever do is visit pleasure houses and listen to music.】

【You speak with righteous indignation, declaring that you are a person of ideals and ambitions—even if it means spending the family to its last coin, you will master martial arts!】

【Xiao Wei shakes his head and leaves with a sigh.】

【He seems to think you've set yourself on a path of no return.】

【Martial arts is all well and good, but without natural talent, you're destined to smash your head against a wall.】

【Take him, Xiao Wei—his aptitude is poor too, but he knows his limits and rarely touches that sort of thing.】

【Being a wealthy gentleman is enough to satisfy him.】

【All this fuss you're making—when the Guardian King comes back, he'll probably beat your backside to pieces.】

【After Xiao Wei leaves, you continue cultivating.】

【A month later, the chat group suddenly notifies you that you've been a member for 2 years, and you receive a "Little Newbie" badge.】

【You only joined the chat group 6 months after transmigrating.】

【It suddenly dawns on you—you've already been here for 2 and a half years.】

【2 and a half years. That's a special occasion.】

【You deliberately hold a poetry gathering at the Guardian King's Manor, inviting a crowd of fair-weather friends and famous courtesans to attend.】

【Throughout the gathering, everyone drinks and makes merry, thoroughly enjoying themselves.】

【In the end, you claim the title of "Poetry King" with the verse: "One piece, two pieces, three and four pieces—flying into the sea of blossoms, vanished without a trace."】

【Everyone says that after more than a year of seclusion, your martial cultivation hasn't improved at all, but your poetry and verse have grown considerably.】

【Among these fair-weather friends of yours, hardly any of them cultivate seriously—you alone could beat all of them flat.】

【If they knew just how much progress you'd made, they'd be unable to laugh at all.】

【After the poetry gathering, you return to bitter cultivation.】

【You are already at the Innate Realm 3rd-Tier.】

【The next step—Innate Realm 4th-Tier—marks the Innate Realm Middle Stage.】

【To reach this step, one must refine energy into martial force, converting Innate True Energy into Inner Martial Force.】

【At that point, the Innate True Energy will be like water droplets turning into ice blocks, unleashing a far more terrifying destructive power.】

【Once the Major Acupoints are fully saturated, martial force arises on its own!】

【Your body is already generating martial force continuously and naturally.】

【However, this spontaneous process is extremely slow.】

【It would likely take at least 10 years before you could break through on your own.】

【You obviously can't wait that long.】

【You consume large quantities of Heavenly Martial Force Spirit Liquid to catalyze the generation of martial force.】

【This accelerates the process by more than 10 times.】

【Heavenly Martial Force Spirit Liquid is produced in Jade Wave City, the sacred cultivation site of water-attribute cultivators in the Wu Nation—1 bottle costs 6,000 taels.】

【You consume 1 bottle per day.】

【That's 180,000 taels per month.】

【Fortunately, the Guardian King's Manor has deep coffers and can sustain this for a while.】

【But after 5 months, things start to get strained.】

【You sell everything that can be sold.】

【The manor is practically stripped bare.】

【But you're not worried in the slightest—you still have the cultivation arts in the Scripture Pavilion.】

【Even an ordinary Mortal Grade cultivation art can easily fetch several thousand taels.】

【As for Spirit Grade cultivation arts, they can easily sell for tens of thousands—even over 100,000 taels.】

【Earth Grade cultivation arts are a different matter entirely—those are the family's closely guarded secrets, and you'd never dare sell them.】

【You're afraid the old man would come back and break your legs.】

【As your increasingly unusual behavior draws attention, the imperial family gradually grows suspicious of you and sends the Observatory's Star-Readers to the manor several times to investigate.】

【But every time, Guard Commander Dian Cheng-feng turns them away at the door.】

【As long as the Guardian King hasn't returned, the Great Qian imperial family cannot afford to turn against you.】

【You should be able to cultivate in peace for a while longer.】

【That said, the number of spies lurking around the manor keeps growing—enough to make it impossible to guard against every one of them.】

【In the 8th month, the Golden Crow True Energy within your body finally converts entirely into Inner Martial Force.】

【You break through to the Innate Realm 4th-Tier!】

【Your power surges dramatically!】

【At the same time, the future Female Emperor, Xiao Yue-huang, suddenly pays another visit.】

【Thinking she's come about the marriage arrangement, you tell her it's useless coming to you—she'd have to take that up with your old man.】

【Unexpectedly, she leaves behind only 4 words——"Take care of yourself"——and departs.】

【You're left thoroughly puzzled.】

What does that mean?

A threat? Or a warning?

【Regardless, you have every reason to increase your combat strength.】

【Breaking through to the Innate Realm 5th-Tier is not something achievable in a short time—you estimate it will take at least a year.】

【The fastest way to increase combat strength is still through martial arts.】

【While realm is the foundation of all power, without formidable martial arts, it's difficult to fully bring out the strength that your realm commands.】

【Up until now, you've only learned 3 martial arts: 【Wind-Cleaving Blade Art】, 【Luohan Fist】, and 【Embryonic Sun Devourment】.】

【The first 2 are Mortal Grade martial arts, used to build foundations for Postnatal Realm cultivators—they're inadequate for fully drawing out your strength.】

【The last is a finishing move that costs you dearly even as you destroy the enemy.】

【You need something far more powerful for regular combat.】

【You quickly begin browsing through the Scripture Pavilion of the Guardian King's Manor.】

【In the end, you select 1 Spirit Grade high-tier blade art and 1 Spirit Grade mid-tier finger art.】

【The blade art is called 【Flame-Wood Blade Art】—a fire-attribute rapid blade art that surpasses the Wind-Cleaving Blade Art in speed, and pairs exceptionally well with your Golden Crow Inner Martial Force.】

【Once cultivated to the 2nd layer, a single blade strike releases Crimson Serpent Blade Flames, producing terrifying destructive power.】

【The finger art is called 【Soul-Severing Finger】——fire-poison that erodes the bones, killing without a trace.】

【This finger art serves as a complement to the Flame-Wood Blade Art.】

【After all, the Flame-Wood Blade Art requires a blade to always be at hand.】

【But people, no matter who, always have moments of carelessness.】

【In those moments, the Soul-Severing Finger can come into play.】

【Afterward, you begin cultivating the Flame-Wood Blade Art.】

【At the same time, you send people to comb through the major merchant shops for fire-attribute spirit blades.】

【2 days later, you achieve entry level in the Flame-Wood Blade Art.】

【7 days later, your Flame-Wood Blade Art reaches the 2nd layer, enabling you to produce Crimson Serpent Blade Flames.】

【Flame-Wood Blade Art Lv2 (51/150), Special Effect: Blade Flames.】

【Unlike the Wind-Cleaving Blade Art, after breaking through to the 2nd layer, the Flame-Wood Blade Art has an additional special effect appended at the end.】

【This is perhaps unique to Spirit Grade martial arts.】

【You test it out—the Crimson Serpent Blade Flames are truly extraordinary.】

【Even a copper dummy can be melted into liquid copper.】

【Half a month later, the Guardian King's Manor's men purchase a Spirit Grade apex-tier divine weapon called the 【Blazing Flame Blade】 from the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce in Capital City for 320,000 silver notes.】

【The Blazing Flame Blade is covered in flame patterns—an ordinary Innate Realm martial artist would struggle to wield it.】

【But with your Golden Crow Martial Force, you handle it with ease.】

【You're extremely pleased. Even though the buyer bears the 【Treacherous Bones】 tag—most likely a spy for some other faction—you still reward him with 10,000 silver notes.】

【A person of true stature must have vision: for the one who betrays you, give them 10,000 taels.】