Martial Saint with Passives

But his wasn’t even thirty percent!

Even with the "cheat" that was the Erosion Sun Scripture’s Dissipating Skill.

But in the face of such a massive, innate disparity, his cultivation speed was still dragged down, becoming slower and slower!

In the blink of an eye, half a year passed.

During these six months, by pouring in resources without a second thought and cultivating with frenzied dedication, Jiang Che had finally managed to slowly push his own cultivation to the peak of the Early Stage of the Refining Organ Realm.

He was just one step away from the Mid-stage of the Refining Organ Realm.

Yet that single step seemed to be separated by an insurmountable chasm.

No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to cross it.

"Sigh..."

In his private chamber, Jiang Che withdrew from his cultivation and let out a long sigh.

He knew he had hit a bottleneck once again.

The disadvantage of a poor Root Bone became more and more pronounced at higher Realms!

’It seems my master and the others had good reason not to think highly of me back then. If not for the Skill Proficiency Panel, I’m afraid I would have struggled to even reach Force Integration...’

However, although he hadn’t broken through in his cultivation, his strength had continued to grow steadily over the past six months by constantly using the Dissipating Skill and activating new Two-Character Talents to "feed" his four Core Talents.

His实力依旧在稳步增长.

This was especially true for his True: All-Seeing Eye. After absorbing a massive number of Perception- and Spirit-type Talents, its Active Skill, Pupil Seal, finally received a minor upgrade!

The number of targets he could control simultaneously had increased from one to two!

Although he still couldn’t control any creature more powerful than a crow.

But this had undoubtedly doubled his reconnaissance and surveillance abilities!

Without hesitation, Jiang Che immediately went to the back mountain, caught another crow, and imprinted it with a second Pupil Seal.

From then on, he had two absolutely loyal "crow underlings."

One continued its duty of monitoring Vice Sect Leader Xie Songnian’s every move, day and night.

He dispatched the other to monitor the area around his own residence, guarding against potential threats from any other direction.

With these two pairs of eyes in the sky, Jiang Che felt a greater sense of security.

One day, Jiang Che was in the private chamber of his residence, cultivating and once again attempting to break through his bottleneck.

Suddenly, a series of urgent knocks sounded from the courtyard gate.

The crow on guard duty immediately relayed the visual feed to him.

Jiang Che recognized the person. It was a servant from the Chen Mansion whom he had seen before at a gathering there.

A thought struck him. ’Could there be news about that matter?’

He immediately stopped his cultivation, rose, and opened the door.

"Chief Jiang!" The servant from the Chen Mansion bowed respectfully upon seeing Jiang Che. "My Young Master requests your presence! He said there’s a clue regarding the matter you entrusted to him!"

"There’s news about the Bone-Eroding Orchid?!" Jiang Che was instantly energized.

Not daring to delay, he immediately followed the servant and hurried to the Chen Mansion.

When he arrived at the Chen Mansion, Jiang Che discovered that in addition to Chen Jiayu, Xiao Qingge and Lin Qingyun were also there. Even Qing Ling, that arrogant genius from the Heaven-Sundering Sect, was present.

"Brother Jiang, you’re finally here!" Chen Jiayu greeted him with a smile. "I have a lead on the matter you asked me to look into. The Abyss of Ten Thousand Poisons... has finally reappeared!"

He then briefly explained the situation.

Apparently, a small team of disciples from the Taiyuan Sect was out on an expedition. While hunting a Black Beast in an ancient mountain range on the border between Cangzhou Prefecture and Taizhou Prefecture, they had accidentally stumbled into an area shrouded in miasma.

After barely escaping with their lives, they realized the place was none other than the legendary Abyss of Ten Thousand Poisons, which was said to have vanished for hundreds of years!

"The Abyss of Ten Thousand Poisons contains all sorts of rare poisonous herbs and exotic fruits that have long since vanished from the outside world. More importantly, it has a medicinal ingredient I desperately need," Chen Jiayu continued. "However, the place is also fraught with danger. There are not only powerful Black Beasts, but also natural Exotic Beasts that have mutated from them! These Exotic Beasts are even stronger, and some have even developed sentience! On top of that, there are countless deadly poisonous insects and toxic miasmas. The risk is too great for just the two of us to venture deep inside. So, I invited Brother Lin, Miss Xiao, and Brother Qing to come along, so we can all watch each other’s backs."

He looked at the others. "Brother Lin needs a Dragon Scale Fruit to temper his Sword Intent, Miss Xiao is looking for a Fire Phoenix Feather to enhance her Cultivation Technique, and Brother Qing is searching for a Tyrant Flower to break through a bottleneck in his Spear Technique. We can all get what we need, so it’s a convenient arrangement."

Jiang Che nodded.

He understood. Although he disliked teaming up with others, having a few more powerful companions would undoubtedly make a trip to a treacherous place like the Abyss of Ten Thousand Poisons much safer.

Besides, these people were all renowned prodigies on the Hidden Dragon List. Building a good relationship with them would be greatly beneficial in the future.

"Alright, I’m in," Jiang Che agreed at once.

A look of delight appeared on Chen Jiayu’s face upon hearing this.

"Excellent! It’s settled then! We’ll meet in three days, at dawn, at the Wangjiang Pavilion east of the city and set out together!"