An endless stretch of mountains seemingly rose and fell like waves.

As his horse galloped across the road, Lin Xun thought about his gains from the trip to the Qingyang Tribe. His heart tumbled with complex feelings.

He felt at ease but also somewhat uneasy.

However, what happened was in the past. He had decided to leave Feiyun Village with Xia Zhi once he had everything settled.

He knew that there would be a broader world in the cities of the Ziyao Empire and that the move would be beneficial to them both!

He couldn’t stay in Feiyun Village his entire life; he had to move for his cultivation path and to find the enemy who stole his Origin Aeth Artery.

“Early this morning, I heard that Little Sword Lord, Xie Yutang, had killed the Golden Flame Beast and took its Life Aeth Crystal inside its body.”

“Life Aeth Crystals are extremely valuable and rare. It is said to be a core treasured material in making rune armaments.”

“Rune armament? What is that?”

“It’s a kind of powerful equipment required in battle and can only be made by a rune master. But unfortunately, the construction of such a powerful and peerless armament also has a strict requirement of rune materials. Also, the process is extremely complex and difficult, so the rate of failure is very high. Even rune masters will require ample luck and opportunity to successfully construct one.”

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t a rune armament be extremely powerful once successfully refined?”

“Of course, it's a rune armament! Its power is undoubtedly earth-shattering and unfathomable!”

Suddenly, a conversation caught Lin Xun’s attention and made his heart flutter.

The conversation was between the two guards who were escorting Lin Xun to Feiyun Village. They were from Stone Cauldron Alms and were both at the fourth-layer True Martial Stage. One was called Gao Guiyong and the other was called Zhou Quan.

“Little Sword Lord killed the golden flame beast?” asked Lin Xun.

He had heard stories about the golden flame beast when he was in the Qingyang Tribe and had long deduced that the so-called golden flame beast was the giant golden beast he had seen a few days ago.

“That’s right.” Gao Guiyong quickly answered.

Naturally, he didn’t dare to treat Lin Xun with any disrespect given Lin Xun’s relationship with Yan Zhen.

Zhou Quan added, “Although the golden flame beast has been slaughtered, Liu Yukun couldn’t be saved.”

Lin Xun’s eyes narrowed imperceptibly. Then, he exclaimed, “Liu Yukun?”

“Yes, the eldest son of Liu Wujun, the governor of the southwestern province of the empire. It is said that Liu Yukun and his people all met their death at the jaws of the golden flame beast. I heard that Liu Yukun’s corpse was burned to charcoal. He suffered such a tragic end.”

Zhou Quan sighed. “This matter will likely spread to Governor Liu Wujun within the next few days. I wonder how many storms it will stir up.”

Only then did Lin Xun learn about the remarkable background of Liu Yukun who had died in his hands. He couldn’t help but feel a little strange and in disbelief that he killed the son of a governor.

However, Lin Xun wasn’t particularly worried. At least no one knew that he was the one who killed Liu Yukun.

As night quickly descended, Lin Xun and the two guards found a cave to rest for the night.

Gao Guiyong and Zhou Quan ate some rations and then acted according to their plan. They had decided to take turns to guard the cave. One of them was responsible for the first half of the night and the other took care of the other half. Many beasts were found in the barren mountains so they had to be vigilant.

Seeing that the two had such an arrangement, Lin Xun was able to relax and concentrate on his training.

First, he practiced the Yuan Holding Art and guided his aeth power seventy two times around his body. Once he completed the cycles, he immediately moved on to practice the Little Divine Meditation Art.

He meditated until it became late at night. He opened his eyes and scanned the surroundings for danger. Only then did he gather his perception and enter the Omega Secret Realm. He wanted to challenge the Thousand Heavy Wave Sea for the fourth time.

In the end, Lin Xun failed without any suspense.

Lin Xun had already predicted such an outcome, and so compared to that, he was more concerned about the improvements to his physical strength.

As expected, after a careful examination, he found that his skin, flesh, blood, muscles and bones had been tempered once again. In addition, his strength had tripled.

All his improvements were attributed to the rune battle realm—Thousand Heavy Wave Sea. Although he had failed every time, it still had a tremendous body-tempering effect.

However, Lin Xun found that his physical strength had reached its limit. His body strength had to undergo a complete transformation if he wanted to increase it further.

“It seems that I have to start from my cultivation base.”

Lin Xun fell into deep thought. Despite his little knowledge in body tempering, he speculated that a cultivator’s physical strength was closely linked to their cultivation base.

A cultivation breakthrough was an internal transformation, while a physical breakthrough was an external transformation. Now that his physical strength had reached a plateau, he had to target it from the internal to the external in order to initiate another breakthrough.

Lin Xun’s aeth power had reached the Orifice Unlocking layer, the fourth layer True Martial Stage, and he was one step away from reaching the pinnacle to break through to the Essence Refining layer, the fifth layer True Martial Stage.

However, Lin Xun wasn’t too worried. He estimated that he likely could smoothly break through to the fifth-layer True Martial Stage with the help of the power from the Blood Essence Sand and the Four Seasons Brew.

At that time, his internal cultivation base would undergo a breakthrough, and subsequently break the limit of his physical strength. As a result, his physical strength would reach a new height.

He had little worry about his physical strength and cultivation base, but he was concerned about his cultivation of runes and spirit.

He had been relying on the Star Cycle of the Little Divine Meditation Art for the cultivation of his spirit but the progress wasn’t as fast as he had hoped. He still hadn’t illuminated the second star in his mind-sea.

He had only touched upon the door of the Star Cycle, one of the three great stages of the Little Divine Meditation Art.

Moreover, his cultivation in runes had stagnated for several months due to the lack of rune ink.

Fortunately, he had purchased many different varieties of rune inks from the Qingyang Tribe to solve that problem.

In addition to body tempering, cultivation base, spirit cultivation and the art of runes, there was also martial arts training.

His grasp of the Marching Army Fist had stilled at the Precise Realm, and despite him being only one step away from the Perfect Realm, he had repeatedly failed to break through.

Additionally, his grasp of the Six Word Blade had only reached the Elemental Realm.

A cultivator could only fully master a combat art after the art progressed through the four realms, Inkling, Elemental, Precise and Perfect.

Lin Xun had to admit that he still hadn’t fully mastered the two arts, Marching Army Fist and the Six Word Blade, to the Perfect Realm.

What Lin Xun didn’t know was that although the Marching Army Fist seemed to be a basic art, only very few people in the world could grasp it to the point of precise, let alone perfect.

Similarly, Lin Xun didn’t know about the Six Word Blade’s origin, but Mister Lu would be deeply astonished if he knew he had learned the blade art to the Precise Realm.

In short, Lin Xun thought this was due to his lack of knowledge and martial arts experience.

After all, he grew up in a dark mine prison and had almost solely focused on the art of runes his entire life. Mister Lu had never taught him any martial arts, and even if he imparted him with the Marching Army Fist and the Six Word Blade, it was with the intention of tempering Lin Xun’s body and improving the flexibility of his wrist to better engrave runes.

Moreover, Lin Xun had little chance to learn more about martial arts ever since he moved to Feiyun Village as he had only encountered ordinary people there.

All that contributed to his misunderstanding in martial arts training.

After Lin Xun had truly set foot into the Ziyao Empire and entered the vast world where cultivators were as many as clouds and where powers stand in great numbers, his misunderstandings would be swept away.

Experience and insight couldn’t be taught, imparted or learned. A cultivator had to explore and comprehend them on their own.

As the saying goes: those who travel ten thousand miles know more than those who read ten thousand books.

……

When Lin Xun opened his eyes, dawn was breaking and a morning breeze whistled into the cave, bringing a refreshing feeling to the spirit.

After the night-long practice, Lin Xun felt energetic and refreshed. As he walked out of the cave, he saw Gao Guiyong and Zhou Quan were all packed and sitting on the horse waiting for him.

Lin Xun didn’t dither. He immediately leaped onto the scaled horse and continued the journey.

It was just that Gao Guiyong and Zhou Quan wore puzzled expressions mixed with a hint of awe when they looked at Lin Xun.

Perplexed, Lin Xun found an opportunity to ask them. “Guys, did something happen last night?”

Gao Guiyong shook his head, but Zhou Quan hesitated for a moment and replied, “Young master, during your training last night, you suddenly stopped breathing and we couldn’t detect your existence. We were so frightened that we thought an enemy had come to attack. It turned out to be just a false alarm.”

Gao Guiyong interrupted, “Yes, it was indeed a false alarm. It seemed that the young master was practicing some extremely unique art that has the mysterious effect of concealing his breathing.”

His voice was filled with amazement and admiration. No ordinary person could possess a cultivation art that could cover up one’s breathing!

Lin Xun’s eyes were suddenly filled with a realization of what happened. He was challenging the Omega Secret Realm then. However, he didn’t explain much to the two guards.

What Zhou Quan said made Lin Xun realize something—If he encountered an enemy he couldn’t defeat, he could find a hiding spot and enter the Omega Secret Realm to prevent the enemy from detecting his presence.

The only drawback was that he would also lose his perception of the outside world, and even if he was discovered, he could die without himself knowing.

Therefore, it was best to avoid resorting to such a method.

While Lin Xun and his people hurried on with their journey, in a secret chamber of Stone Cauldron Alms in Qingyang Tribe, Shi Xuan set down the tea cup in his hand and said with a smile, “As soon as I came back, I heard that Lin Xun single-handedly took down four subordinates of the Wu Corporate and caused a sensation. Is that right?”