The training grounds in the center of Feiyun Village.

The first rays of dawn cracked over the eastern horizon. A fresh breeze was blowing. A group of children looked incredibly serious as they diligently practiced the Marching Army Fist, their movements looking orderly and skilled.

The children were much more proficient in the Marching Army Fist compared to before. They had a great opening and closing stance and their punches had much greater force!

Supervising them on the sides, Lin Xun nodded approvingly.

In the past, the children’s Marching Army Fist was disorganized and confused, and they had neglected a lot of skills that allowed them to generate power. If they had continued to practice in that way, they, no doubt, would have gone astray.

It was completely different now. After Lin Xun had guided and corrected them one by one, the children began to grasp the mystery of the Marching Army Fist.

Lin Xun wondered if Lian Rufeng and other guards even properly taught the children martial arts.

Otherwise, how would they fail to spot the mistakes in the children’s Marching Army Fist?

Four children were sitting meditating in a cross-legged posture on the other side of the training grounds. Among them was Ying Hao's son, Ying Liu’er.

The four were around seven to eight years old, but they had demonstrated more aptitude for martial arts than the other children. Additionally, they had a good grasp and control of their qi and could draw qi into their bodies. With frequent training, they could soon join the ranks of true cultivators.

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Lin Xun wasn’t selfish and even taught them the [Yuan Holding Art] one by one. He also generously shared the meat of the snow spotted leopard and one-horned lizard with them to help strengthen their bodies and replenish their aeth power.

He did this in consideration of Feiyun VIllage’s future.

Lin Xun knew that there would be no guards left in Feiyun Village if Lian Rufeng and the others were gone.

Lin Xun couldn’t possibly stay in Feiyun Village forever and so he urgently needed to find some people to protect the village in replacement of Lian Rufeng and others.

Ying Liu’er and the other three were the seedlings that Lin Xun chose.

Lin Xun planned to impart all his cultivation knowledge to them before leaving the village. However, they had to rely on themselves in the future.

Lin Xun didn’t just stand there when he supervised the children’s martial arts practice. Wielding an azure wooden blade, he sharpened his skills of the Six Word Blade. He did this by not using any aeth power and relied on his physical strength alone

Shua!

A tiny willow leaf fluttered down and was sliced into two as the blade flashed.

The cutting of a leaf might seem ordinary and could be done by almost all cultivators, but upon a closer look, one would notice the willow leaf didn’t split in a simple manner.

The blade had slashed along a curved vein in the leaf. The split wasn’t straight!

In other words, not only was Lin Xun’s blade as fast as lightning, it accurately split a willow leaf along its vein.

The willow leaf was tiny but Li Xun was able to slice it at lightning speed and only by using the strength of his wrist. Other powerful cultivators would likely heap praises on him if they saw his performance.

This was because his skill was at the Elemental Realm!

Martial arts were divided into four realms: Inkling, Elemental, Precise, and Perfect.

For example, a cultivator who could perform each move of the Marching Army First was considered to be at the Inkling Realm.

Practice made perfect. When a practitioner began to comprehend the essence of each move, they had reached the Elemental Realm.

On that basis, only when a cultivator could precisely exhibit the move’s essence could they be said to be at the Precise Realm.

As for the Perfect Realm, it symbolized when a cultivator fully understood all mysteries of an art, such as the Marching Army Fist Art, and was able to fully exhibit its power.

Once someone reached that realm, their every motion and movement was as natural and effortless as flowing water.

These were the four great realms of all combat arts.

Lin Xun had refined the Marching Army Fist to the Precise Realm and was only one step away from the Perfect Realm.

This was normal. After all, the Marching Army Fist was a basic fist art and had few requirements for the cultivator. However, regardless of how simple the fist art was, it wasn’t easy to reach the Perfect Realm.

It required deep understanding.

After all, the cultivators in the world all had different personalities and different aeth powers and thus each would exhibit a different style of Marching Army Fist. The cultivator needed to figure out their own style in order to reach the Perfect Realm.

However, most cultivators in the world wouldn’t waste time on a basic cultivation art since it only had limited powers and wasn’t worth the effort.

However, the Marching Army Fist was the only fist art that Lin Xun had grasped and so he had no other choice but to spend more time in refining it.

In his opinion, even the most basic fist art could exhibit unimaginable power if refined to the Perfect Realm.

After all, advanced cultivation arts were like iron swords and basic cultivation arts were like wooden swords. Wooden swords undoubtedly weren’t as powerful as iron swords.

However, this depended on whose hand the weapon was in!

In the hands of a master, even a wooden sword could kill, whereas the sharpest iron sword would be useless in the hands of an ordinary person.

To reach the Perfect Realm of the Marching Army Fist required understanding and it couldn’t be rushed. Recently, Lin Xun had put most of his attention into practising the Six Word Blade.

The Six Word Blade was indeed a unique and unimaginably powerful art. However, it was more difficult to practice than other arts.

Even though Lin Xun managed to reach the Elemental Realm, he was still far from the Precise Realm, let alone Perfect.

The long battle with the blood red bats had helped Lin Xun reach the Elemental Realm in the Six Word Blade. Otherwise, without such an experience, it would have been impossible for Lin Xun to do so.

It made Lin Xun realize that it didn’t matter how much he practiced on his own. A cultivator could only comprehend the essence of an art through actual combat. After all, battle experience had to be earned and couldn’t be obtained from books alone; a true warrior was through blood and tears.

“I should find an opportunity to explore the mountains again. It would be great if I encounter some beasts to hone my blade skills…”

An idea flashed across Lin Xun’s mind.

Real-life combat not only allowed a cultivator to practice their martial arts, but also improved their perseverance, courage and experience. A cultivator without combat experience was unlikely to progress far on the cultivation path!

……

After seven days of hard work, all the aeth grains in Feiyun Village had been harvested. From a rough estimate, the grains weighed at least three hundred kilos in total.

Despite the harvest being smaller than that in previous years, the villagers were still very satisfied.

They knew that they were already very fortunate to harvest that much after the insect infestation.

Every household in the village gifted Lin Xun with many aeth grains to thank him for exterminating the worms. In total, he had received around fifty kilos.

In the past, the harvested aeth grains were transported thousands of miles away to the Qingyang tribe in exchange for living supplies.

However, no one planned to do so this time. The villagers understood that Village Chief Xiao Tianren had made a decision, and even if they were worried whether or not Lin Xun could succeed, they had no objection.

……

The quiet and peaceful days continued. Before they knew it, nearly a month had passed since the death of Lu Ting and Qian Qi.

Other than teaching the children martial arts, Lin Xun spent all his time on cultivation.

After a period of training, Lin Xun’s Organ Opening Stage had become extremely solid and his fighting strength had doubled to what it was before.

If he were to face Qian Qi again, he could easily kill him with one slash.

He also made significant progress in the Little Divine Meditation Art. His spirit had grown more and more powerful and he was only one step away from successfully lighting a star in his sea of consciousness.

Even if he hadn’t quite succeeded, he enjoyed great benefits from the growth of his spirit. At least, he didn’t feel any fatigue even if he had only slept for three hours that day. As a result, Lin Xun gained a lot of spare time.

Moreover, as his spirit grew, it became easier for him to comprehend the Six Word Blade. Lin Xun was overjoyed with these unexpected changes. He became even more aware that the Little Divine Meditation Art was out of the ordinary.

In addition to strengthening his cultivation base and refining his cultivation arts, he didn’t forget to set aside some time every day to practice the art of runes, such as improving his brush power and brush skills as well as the speed of engraving runes.

His only disappointment was that he still lacked a good rune brush after the dark gray brush had vanished with the ancient book.

Otherwise, given the amount of rune materials he had collected, he could easily extract quality rune ink from them and engrave true runes.

If he couldn’t engrave runes, he couldn’t deduce his level in the art of runes and how far away he was from becoming a true rune master.

However, Lin Xun was in no hurry because he knew it was impossible to complete the training in the art of runes overnight. It needed consistent practice and study. There was absolutely no shortcut.

Of course, Lin Xun was already very satisfied knowing that his cultivation base, martial arts, art of runes, and spirit cultivation were improving in a good way.

It was just that as time went by, the villagers felt increasingly worried. They couldn’t remain as calm as Lin Xun because they knew that Lian Rufeng and his people would soon return to Feiyun Village.

The villagers felt incredibly tense and uneasy. Although there was a miserable and gloomy atmosphere, it was nothing compared to what it was like in the past.

Lin Xun had no power to change anything. Whatever that was going to come would come and what they needed to do was think about how to deal with it when it did.

In the early morning, after washing up, Lin Xun carried a huge bone bow and a bag of arrows, strapped a sharp blade to his waist, and left the village.

In the past month, he had long consumed all the flesh and blood of the snow spotted leopard and one-horned lizard. It was difficult to satisfy his hunger with aeth grains alone.

Therefore, to fill his stomach and for his cultivation in the future, Lin Xun had decided to make another trip to the ancient forest in the mountains.

Lin Xun traveled alone and didn’t bring Zhou Zhong or the other hunters with him.

He did that for their safety because they had almost run into a lava wolf last time had it not been for Lin Xun’s sharp senses. The consequences would be dire if that had occurred.

Of course, Lin Xun had no way of knowing that a mysterious little girl had already killed the lava wolf that he saw as a huge threat…