[Deducted four years of power!]

[Four years of power, your Golden Bell Shield didn’t break through, still lacking the necessary momentum!]

[Five years of power, your Golden Bell Shield achieved some success and broke through to the Sixth Layer!]

[Six years of power, your Golden Bell Shield broke through to the Seventh Layer!]

[Seven years of power, your Golden Bell Shield remained in place!]

[Golden Bell Shield (Seventh Layer)]

[Current Power Level: 106 years]

The wildly expanding True Qi and iron-like physique made Darius frown slightly. The latter three layers required far more power than the initial six. With this in mind, he didn’t hesitate.

He added another year of power!

[Deducted one year of power!]

[Eight years of power, the Eighth Layer bottleneck of the Golden Bell Shield loosened slightly!]

[Nine years of power, the Eighth Layer bottleneck of the Golden Bell Shield broke, and you advanced to the Eighth Layer. With ample power still remaining, you attempted to break through to the Ninth Layer, but the bottleneck only loosened slightly!]

Still not enough. Darius added another year!

[Deducted one year of power!]

[Ten years of power, your Golden Bell Shield broke through to the Ninth Layer. Copper Skin and Iron Bones, Golden Bell Body Protection!]

[Golden Bell Shield (Ninth Layer)]

[Current Power Level: 104 years]

Upon breaking through to the Ninth Layer, the most drastic transformation occurred. This change even exceeded the combined changes of the previous eight layers.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The strengthening of his skin, flesh, and bones created internal explosions. Under introspection, his bones exhibited a cold metallic shine. Originally tall, his body further increased in size during the fierce transformation.

Swollen muscles and fine golden skin made it appear as though he were draped in golden armor.

The Ninth Layer, Copper Skin and Iron Bones of the Golden Bell Shield, had been achieved! Meanwhile, perfect and overflowing True Qi seeped from his pores, forming an inverted golden bell around his body that slowly rotated in the void.

"Is this really the martial art Golden Bell Shield? Why does it feel more like a high-grade martial art?" Darius charged forward with the golden bell surrounding him, immediately shattering a portion of the Pavilion’s wall, while his arm freely passed through the bell. "It truly is a body-protecting martial art. Just the recoil force alone would have killed my previous self!"

The Pavilion allowed him to test portions of his strength after breakthroughs, and this alone made him shudder. With this level of power, the Darius of earlier would have died from a single charge.

With a thought, he recalled the True Qi bell back into his body, returning to normal.

"Still have four years of power left!"

The Golden Bell Shield could still be enhanced, but Darius didn’t attempt it further. Reaching the highest Ninth Layer already represented perfection. Further enhancement would mean creating a self-made technique, something that couldn’t be achieved with merely a few years of power.

Not only that, Wolf Fang Guild would most likely send someone from his realm to target him. If they sent anyone stronger than the True Qi Realm, they would become a laughingstock throughout Dragon City. Such unspoken rules couldn’t be broken, so if he wanted to save his Pavilion from collapsing, remaining at the peak of the True Qi Realm was the best decision.

As for assassins? They would surely come sooner or later. By then, he would be inside his Pavilion, and he feared no one below the Third Realm.

The minor success-level Nine Sword Technique was inadequate for his abundant True Qi, so he decided to apply his remaining power to that technique.

"Add one year of power to the Nine Sword Technique!"

The predecessor possessed great talent for sword techniques, reaching the Minor Success Realm after a short period of cultivation, while most people training alongside him had only reached the Entry Level after years of effort, and only a handful managed to reach Minor Success. This alone showed that this body’s talent for swordsmanship was by no means ordinary.

Darius was worried about wasting too much power, so he decided to add it year by year.

[Deduct one year of power!]

[Your talent is remarkable. After practicing the sword for one year and three months, the Nine Sword Technique reaches Master Level!]

[After one year and six months of sword practice, the Nine Sword Technique attains Great Success!]

[After two years of sword practice, the Nine Sword Technique achieves Perfection!]

[Nine Sword Technique (Perfection)]

[Current Power Level: 103 years]

The talent was indeed impressive. Just a single year of power had brought the Nine Sword Technique all the way to Perfection.

Of course, this kind of "krypton-life" sword technique wasn’t particularly profound. It was meant for ordinary cultivators to risk their lives with; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to obtain it from the Demon Suppression Office so easily.

Immediately afterward, massive insights regarding swordsmanship flooded his mind. His hands felt as though they had truly practiced the sword for two years. Calluses thickened, and his arms became noticeably stronger.

"Let’s test the power of the perfected Nine Sword Technique! System, isolate the sound and damage from the first floor!"

Darius drew the ordinary sword he had purchased cheaply from a roadside stall and slashed outward. Instantly, the ceiling was filled with silver light, as though seven terrifying stars were about to descend and obliterate everything in their path.

Boom!

Half the ground exploded. The sword qi extended two to three meters before gradually dissipating. When the dust settled, a half-meter-deep gash had been carved into the floor, but in mere moments, everything was back to normal as though all the damage he had done here never occurred in the first place.

’Terrifying as usual!’ Darius muttered under his breath, amazed by the system’s means once again, before focusing on the attack he just used and deducing his true power.

"If I were in a life-and-death battle and used Blood Qi as well, the power of this slash would be even greater!" Darius had only used True Qi to activate it and had not yet unleashed the Nine Sword Technique’s full power. This krypton-life sword technique displayed its greatest might only when one’s life was truly on the line.

It should be known that while cultivators absorbed Spiritual Energy to cultivate, those in the True Qi Realm also focused heavily on strengthening their bodies and Blood Qi. Blood Qi was the energy produced by the body itself and could be unleashed to generate even more terrifying power. While it sounded complicated, it was actually very simple—just different names used to describe different forms of energy.

For warriors, it was True Qi and Blood Qi. For mages, it was Mana and Core Energy. While getting used to all these different names might seem troublesome at first, with enough time, one naturally became accustomed to them.