If there were onlookers present, they would have seen smoke rising from the top of Qin Yuesheng’s head, his whole body shrouded in mist, as if he might soar into the sky at any moment.

His face was flushed red, and beads of sweat the size of beans dripped down in streams.

The Youjing Acupoint is the foundation of Inner Strength, the first major point for absorbing energy. When a martial artist breaks through it, it means their inner power erupts like a fountain.

The Earth Gate Acupoint is where Inner Strength sweeps; all the body’s meridians require the flow of inner power, and some places, clogged over years by impurities, must be broken open like doors, so that Inner Strength can circulate through the entire body and reach the Great Success Realm.

The Congtai Acupoint stabilizes the Dantian, enabling it to contain even more Inner Strength.

The Ningshui Acupoint makes Inner Strength more solid and substantial.

The Huishan Acupoint increases the absorption speed of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

Qin Yuesheng had long since broken through these five acupoints. At this moment, what he faced was the sixth major energy-absorbing acupoint of the human body—the Zhongdu Acupoint.

Break through this acupoint, and a martial artist may truly ’exhale air like a sword’—even a casual breath can pierce through an iron plate several inches thick.

Behind Qin Yuesheng, five halos suddenly emerged, madly absorbing all the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi like dragons drinking from a river, pouring it into his body.

He channeled the Profound Celestial Scripture, swiftly converting this Spiritual Qi into his own Inner Strength, using it to bombard the Zhongdu Acupoint over and over, until the breakthrough was achieved.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

With each failure, a muffled drum-like sound would boom from where Qin Yuesheng sat, stones rolling and clods of earth splitting.

A visible vortex of wind swirled above Qin Yuesheng’s head, carrying up large amounts of green leaves.

It was truly a mystical spectacle.

Suddenly, a streak of white energy shot from Qin Yuesheng’s back and struck a small dirt mound not far away, leveling off its top in an instant.

Upon the five halos, a sixth slowly appeared.

This signified that Qin Yuesheng had broken through his bottleneck and officially reached the Sixth Layer of the Internal Power Realm.

Such a strength, even among the Nine Provinces, would be considered outstanding—a true elite.

"Phew!"

He exhaled, and instantly a long scar appeared on the ground, as if slashed by a sword, several feet deep.

Qin Yuesheng nodded with satisfaction. "With my current strength, I can finally pay a visit to Steward Wang of the Gold and Silver Pavilion."

The Twelve Linked Rings had suddenly acquired a heap of government soldiers as prisoners. Although Liu Ming was helping to take over, digesting this haul and converting all these soldiers into Twelve Linked Rings people would take time.

With Du Xiaoqing and others, as well as the controlled Liu Ming, such trivial matters no longer needed Qin Yuesheng’s attention.

He summoned Sanhuang, taught him the stance work and Primordial Yang Skill, sternly admonished him to practice swordsmanship diligently and with no slack, then directly used Carefree Heavenly Travel Skill to depart the Twelve Linked Rings and return to Cyan Yang City.

...

On the streets of Cyan Yang City, outside a bun shop, lay an old beggar dressed in rags.

To bystanders, he simply hugged a metal staff, basking lazily in the sun, eyes virtually closed in comfort, perfectly at ease.

But no one knew just how tense the old beggar’s heart was at this moment. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Duan Huahe had lately been troubled; ever since that night he escaped after his battle with Qin Yuesheng at the Cyan Yang Inn, something had felt wrong in various spots across his body.

Whenever he channeled Inner Strength, coldness flooded inside him, sending him shivering nonstop.

Duan Huahe immediately recalled Qin Yuesheng shouting something at him as he fled.

Could it be that the other had done something to him?

As an expert in Inner Strength, Duan Huahe always had his pride. He didn’t believe he couldn’t counter whatever trick Qin Yuesheng had left in him, so he lay under the searing sun each day, using both sunlight and Inner Strength to heal himself.

But for some reason, using both methods only made things worse—the coldness grew, even freezing many of his internal meridians.

At this rate, even if Duan Huahe hadn’t died that night at Qin Yuesheng’s hands, in a few more days he’d be killed by this inexplicable cold force.

"Forget it, forget it, I must go see him. Worst case, I’ll just kneel and beg for forgiveness." Supporting himself with his metal staff, Duan Huahe stood and staggered toward the Qin Mansion, shivering as he walked.

Qin Yuesheng himself hadn’t realized that when too many Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talismans accumulated inside the body, even an Inner Strength master could not dispel the freezing energy for a time.

...

When he rushed to the Twelve Linked Rings, Qin Yuesheng had been in a hurry; but on his return, he wasn’t as anxious, so when he landed outside Qin Mansion, he did so in perfect balance, not leaving a giant crater in the courtyard.

Entering his living quarters, Qin Yuesheng poured himself a cup of tea and summoned the super auxiliary system, ready to spend the All-Purpose Essence he’d gathered while roaming outside these days.

A total of 73,400 points—a considerable haul.

Most of it still came from the Flood Dragon Blood Marrow, Mountain Ghost Pill, and Elder Huai of Antong County.

"Now that I’ve reached the Sixth Layer of the Internal Power Realm, my Profound Celestial Scripture hasn’t been upgraded in quite a while. I should strengthen this internal cultivation method first," Qin Yuesheng thought to himself.

As 9,500 points of All-Purpose Essence were deducted—

Profound Celestial Scripture (Sixth Layer) (0/2000)

[Inner Strength possesses power to expel evil; Inner Strength can condense into Profound Celestial True Flame]

Qin Yuesheng extended his hand, and at once, white Inner Strength surfaced there. As he kept condensing it into a single point, the white energy shrank and shrank, until, with a pop, it vanished in his palm and erupted as a white flame the size of a red date.

"Hmm!" Qin Yuesheng started, for though this white flame looked unimpressive, he could clearly sense its terrifying power.

Profound Celestial Scripture—it seemed it was not merely a standard internal cultivation method.

Qin Yuesheng had never heard of any school’s internal cultivation technique that could condense Inner Strength into true flame.

Dispersing the True Flame in his palm, Qin Yuesheng selected ’Five Character True Words’—acquired from disassembling the giant skull—for enhancement.

These Five Character True Words weren’t martial arts, but rather a spell, similar to Lady Ten Thousand Flowers’ Seven Elements Creation Spell, Wen Tianci’s Thunder Control True Spell, and Zeng Jinchao’s Cyan Lotus Sword Song.

This spell was of the sound-type: Wei, Sha, Beng, Mie, Yan—five words.

Each word held immense power; spoken, they could crush Inner Power experts with ease.

That giant skull originally slew many experts of the Sword and Saber Sect, Thunder Fist Sect, and Treasure Bottle Temple with just ’Wei’ and ’Sha’. If not for Qin Yuesheng’s Undying War Body—his orange talent—he’d have perished that very night.

That night, the giant skull only uttered two words—not out of contempt for Qin Yuesheng and the rest, but because it was only capable of two, while the remaining three were sealed by an unseen rule, making it unable to speak them aloud.

Qin Yuesheng didn’t bother with all that—he directly began pouring All-Purpose Essence into the Five Character True Words.

All-Purpose Essence -10,000

Five Character True Words, ’Wei’ unlocked.

All-Purpose Essence -30,000

Five Character True Words, ’Sha’ unlocked.

Qin Yuesheng paused—unlocking the third character already cost a staggering 70,000 All-Purpose Essence. Even when he’d just exited the Sword Tomb with over 120,000 Essence, he couldn’t afford to unlock the fourth word.

This alone showed how fearsome the Five Character True Words truly were.

"The remaining 23,900 points of Essence—I’ll use them for talent draws," Qin Yuesheng thought.

So far, three of his Five Stats talents were orange; Charm and Spirit still had not reached the top tier. Every time Qin Yuesheng checked, it bothered him, so he began drawing for Spirit Talent.

Previously, his Spirit Talent had been resistance to Illusion Technique—a useful talent, but only blue-rank, not strong enough for him to fuse with his stat.

After all, even if not orange, purple would be the bare minimum.

One blue, two whites.

Three greens.

One white, one blue, one green.

...

21,000 All-Purpose Essence spent—not to mention orange, he didn’t even see a purple once.

When sweat began to bead on Qin Yuesheng’s face, and he was gnashing his teeth in frustration, at last a trace of orange appeared in front of his eyes.

(Orange) Twisting Labyrinth (Your Sea of Spirit has become a labyrinth; any who dare to peer into it will become eternally trapped within)

"Sea of Spirit?" Qin Yuesheng had never heard of this before. Although this orange talent’s description was a little confusing, as an orange talent, its power couldn’t be weak, so Qin Yuesheng went ahead and fused it with his Spirit stat.

Thus, his Five Stats were now four orange and one purple—just one more step, and he would be complete.

Bang bang bang!

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"What is it?" Qin Yuesheng called out.

"Young Master, that old beggar is here again—he says he wants to see you and apologize," said Cao Zhengchun.

Qin Yuesheng rose, pulled open the door, and headed for the Qin Mansion’s gate.

Duan Huahe stood at the door clutching his chilly chest, both anxious and nervous. When he saw Qin Yuesheng stride out, he instantly put on a smile, hurried forward, and cupped his hands, "Young Master Qin, Master Qin! This old beggar is sorry—today I’ve come to your home to apologize."

Qin Yuesheng looked at him with a half-smile. "So, shall we find a place to have a proper talk?"

"Good, good, that’d be wonderful," Duan Huahe reflexively replied, about to walk into the Qin Mansion.

But Qin Yuesheng blocked him with a hand. "Eh, that’s not what I meant. Let’s just go to the Cyan Yang Inn—lively place."

Duan Huahe, helpless—since his problem was caused by Qin Yuesheng—could only nod. "Whatever you say, Master Qin. Wherever you wish to go, I’ll go."

The two of them walked away together, one after the other, soon melting into the crowd on the bustling street.