Chapter 194 - 114: The Grandmaster’s 3 Realms: Qi Sea, Leakless, and Dragon and Tiger! Ancestral Master, the Vast Sea Celestial Saber—’Wang Xuanyang

Chapter 194: Chapter 114: The Grandmaster’s 3 Realms: Qi Sea, Leakless, and Dragon and Tiger! Ancestral Master, the Vast Sea Celestial Saber—’Wang Xuanyang

"Demon Fiends... The Central Yellow Sect..."

Within the Ji Residence.

A large contingent of Martial Dao experts and Skill Dao masters had gathered, their combined Martial Arts Qi and Blood surging to the heavens.

Ji Xiu looked down at the body of Yang Daohan, bent over, and muttered to himself.

From this day forward.

The "Three Great Dragons," who had dominated the county for over a decade...

...had, by his hand, vanished like mist.

But although the masterminds were dead, the threat lingered. Because of these three, their backers still watched him like tigers stalking their prey.

He recalled how, after picking up the Divine Shrine of the "Spirit Summoning and Saint Manifesting General," he had been repeatedly threatened and enticed by the entity. It had threatened his very life if he refused to submit and pledge his loyalty.

This time, seeing the golden light sketch the phantom of a god in the Inner Street on this snowy night, and seeing Anning County—the place he called home—reduced to such a battered state...

In the past, Ji Xiu, who had only focused on his own cultivation and self-improvement, had not yet grasped the full picture of the era.

But after experiencing this upheaval...

He finally understood, for the first time, the meaning of "Celestial Calamities and human-wrought disasters," and the meaning of "the encroachment of the Outer Dao."

"Master Duan, this Dharma Guardian General of the Central Yellow Sect... what tier is it within the Outer Dao?"

He looked at Duan Chenzhou. The man had just ambushed and slain three Newborn Great Demons, his own Martial Stance and Qi Sea manifesting the vivid image of a full moon. He stood beneath it, his purple silk sleeves fluttering.

Seeing his hair and beard whipping about, his imposing heroic posture, and his piercing eyes, what arose in Ji Xiu’s heart was an overwhelming sense of security.

’What is a master?’

’This is a master! This is a pillar of support!’

’Back when he and Jiang Li were still on West Street, quelling the unrest at the headquarters of the Three Major Professions, he had known Yang Daohan was coming for him. He’d known Yang Daohan had thrown his lot in with Demons and colluded with the Central Yellow Sect, intending to destroy the foundation he had worked so hard to build. So why had he been able to remain so dismissive, so scornful, so utterly unfazed?’

’It was because he had this very Stabilizing Needle watching over his residence.’

Ji Xiu didn’t really know what Fan Nansong was capable of.

But he had seen Duan Chenzhou’s blade more than once.

No matter how dire the situation.

Even when Duan Chenzhou lost an arm and seemed to be at his lowest, when vicious rumors spread to the point that even instructors from backwater county Martial Arts Halls thought they could kick him while he was down...

His blade had never once failed!

When the full moon appears, lives are forfeit. Even this time, with three Newborn Great Demons from the Earth Dragon Cave arriving together—a predicament that spelled certain death for a small county like this...

Yet in his hands, it was like slicing melons and chopping vegetables, quelled in the blink of an eye!

"Let me put it this way."

"Back in his day, your Ancestral Master killed enemies on the level of a ’Dharma Guardian General’..."

"...more than he could count on both hands."

Hearing Ji Xiu’s question, Duan Chenzhou replied nonchalantly, leaving him stunned.

’Holy shit.’

’More than he could count on both hands?’

Recalling the memory of that mace-wielding divine general, blazing like a glorious sun, Ji Xiu could barely contain himself.

’The only reason I was so defiant toward that "Summoning Spirits and Manifesting Saints" General was because I was certain it was just a wisp of Divine Thought, that its true body wouldn’t even feel it.’

’But now, after hearing what Master Duan said...’

Ji Xiu suddenly felt...

’...that even if I saw the true body of that Divine Being, I would dare to point at its nose and curse it.’

’After all, our line was glorious once!’

’My Ancestral Master chopped down so many of your kind, so on what grounds should I bow to you?’

’Wouldn’t that be taking a step back for every step forward? Wouldn’t that bring shame upon my Ancestral Master?!’

"But Master, you’re always talking about the Ancestral Master..."

"What was his name, really? And what realm was he in?"

There are some people who, even if you only know their name and have never met them...

...their various deeds...

...are enough to conjure a mysterious and unfathomable image in your mind.

"The Martial Artist’s Three Steps begin with the Power Barrier, which is divided into Bone Marrow, Bone Tempering, and Skin Refining. These are known as the body’s three great refinements, the Three Great Limits of the human form."

"Then come the Three Steps of Qi: Qi Sea, Leakless, and Dragon and Tiger. Each step is a chasm. Reaching the Qi Sea makes you a Grandmaster. An expert at this level can preside over a Qi Cultivation Daoist School, warding off the covetous gazes of others and establishing a foundation."

"And if you can achieve the Leakless body, open the Mystic Gate Acupoint, achieve ’Red Dragon Subdues White Tiger,’ seal your gates so nothing leaks, use Qi to nourish Essence, and from then on, not age or decline for one hundred and twenty years..."

"...then you can be considered ’Sect Leader’ tier, a cut above a Grandmaster."

"As for the one above that,"

"that is ’One Breath Becomes Dragon and Tiger’. Below those with a Title, this is the absolute highest tier!"

"If you can achieve it..."

As Duan Chenzhou spoke of this, his eyes burned with fervor. He flexed his five fingers, each one tearing through the air with a series of loud POPS.

"In a vast Prefecture City, you could suppress it all with your power alone!"

"And that’s just the realm. If, with every step you take, you can break your shackles and climb to the very peak..."

"...then you would be worthy of comparison to your Ancestral Master, Wang Xuanyang, who opened all ’Six Great Limits’!"

Wang Xuanyang!

At the mention of this name, Qin Zhuo, the senior disciple from Jiangyin Prefecture’s Celestial Blade Style, revealed an expression of indescribable reverence.

"Junior Brother, when our lineage’s Ancestral Master Wang was still among us, he was known as the ’Vast Sea Celestial Saber’. You have to understand... to possess one’s own ’Legendary Title’ is an honor comparable to a giant of the Will Barrier!"

"Even if you gathered ten great experts who have achieved ’One Breath Becomes Dragon and Tiger’... in all the vast Jiangshui region, the only one to be crowned with such a revered title was our school’s Ancestral Master."

"He was a peerless Martial Artist who broke the ’Six Great Limits of the human body.’ In his quest for the most extreme advancement, he even entered the ’Corpse Release Tomb.’ And what kind of place is that?"

"It is a place where those with Titles once fought to the death with True Masters and Arhats, a place of endless legacies. It is a domain that only those seeking a supreme ’Title’ would ever dare to enter."