Martial Saint with Passives

"Huh? This guy seems to be... in the Refining Organ Realm! So young? Which courtyard is he from?"

"Not sure... I’ll ask around later!"

Some new disciples who saw this couldn’t help but be surprised.

...

Back at his residence, Jiang Che shut the door and immediately began his research.

The first thing he opened was the third layer of the *Nine Heavens Azure Cloud Technique*.

After reading just a few pages, his expression turned incredibly grave.

This layer of the Cultivation Technique was completely different from the previous two!

Besides continuing to temper one’s Strength and making one’s internal organs more resilient and condensed,

this layer’s more important function was revealing the key to breaking through to the True Master Realm!

It turned out that when a Martial Artist’s Strength cultivation reached Perfection, upon reaching the Peak of the Refining Organ Realm, they didn’t just stop there.

Instead, they had to start breaking through the Twelve Major Acupoints hidden within the human body!

These Twelve Major Acupoints were: Tianshu, Yaoguang, Yuheng, Kaiyang, Tianquan, Tianxuan, Tianji, Shencang, Lingxu, Qi Sea, Mingmen, and Baihui!

When these Twelve Major Acupoints were opened one by one, especially upon opening the final, crucial Baihui Acupoint,

a Martial Artist’s Divine Thought would be greatly nourished and strengthened!

This process was known as "Refining Spirit"!

During the Refining Spirit stage, a Martial Artist’s Strength cultivation was no different from that of an ordinary Peak Refining Organ Realm, as their Strength had already reached its limit.

Therefore, it wasn’t classified as a separate Great Realm.

But even among those at the Peak of the Refining Organ Realm, there could be a world of difference in strength!

Some had just reached Perfection in their Strength and had yet to begin opening their acupoints.

Others had already opened most of their acupoints, their Divine Thought already exceedingly powerful!

Those with powerful Divine Thought could not only find an opponent’s weaknesses more easily,

they could even suppress their opponents with their sheer aura!

And once the Refining Spirit process was complete, the Primordial Spirit could leave the body—a Divine Patrol. At that point, one would become a true "True Master"!

Of course, for a low-level True Master, the Primordial Spirit was fragile and could only travel a dozen or so meters from the body. Furthermore, it was extremely vulnerable to harm after leaving, so they rarely let their Primordial Spirit wander.

Only a Great Cultivator at the Seventh Layer of the True Master Realm or higher could have their Primordial Spirit travel slightly farther.

And only by reaching the True Mastery Realm could one achieve a true Divine Patrol!

Of course, the true purpose of Refining Spirit wasn’t for the Primordial Spirit to leave the body.

That was just a side benefit.

The real key, as written in the Secret Manual, was that only after the Primordial Spirit was strengthened could one sense a more fundamental, more powerful mysterious energy in the world—the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Mechanism!

Before the Primordial Spirit was strengthened, this Heaven and Earth Spiritual Mechanism was invisible, intangible, and imperceptible to a Martial Artist.

But once it could be sensed, it could be drawn into the body.

When this energy combined with one’s own Strength, it would trigger a qualitative transformation!

The power after this transformation was no longer "Strength."

It was named "True Qi"!

True Qi was superior to Strength in every aspect!

Compared to the Strength of the Refining Organ Realm,

True Qi was not only tougher, denser, and more corrosive.

What made it truly powerful was that it possessed a certain degree of independent consciousness!

It could automatically find an opponent’s weakest point and attack!

Jiang Che had a sudden moment of understanding.

If the Strength of an ordinary Qi Blood Realm Martial Artist was a wooden saber, and the Strength of a Bone Forging Realm Martial Artist was a steel saber,

then True Qi was a fully automatic machine gun!

The gap between the True Master Realm and the non-True Master Realm was unimaginably vast!

No matter how strong a Peak Refining Organ Realm expert was, they could never be a match for a True Master Realm expert!

"So that’s how it is..."

Jiang Che slowly set down the Secret Manual, letting out a long breath, filled with awe.

The secrets of the True Master Realm were written so clearly in the Cultivation Technique, completely resolving the doubts he had held for so long!

He immediately made up his mind. ’From now on, I will never clash head-on with a True Master Realm expert! I’ll avoid them if at all possible!’

Even though he had many trump cards right now,

the risk of facing that kind of dimension-crushing power was still too great!

Afterwards, he began to try cultivating the third layer of the *Nine Heavens Azure Cloud Technique*.

The Passive Effect of his True: All-Seeing Eye allowed him to memorize it in a single read-through.

As he circulated the Cultivation Technique, familiar small characters appeared in his vision.

[Nine Heavens Azure Cloud Technique Third Layer Entry Level (1/1000)]

Next, Jiang Che picked up the first volume of the *Heaven Mending Technique*.

He began to read it carefully, his alarm growing with every word.

This Cultivation Technique was simply fantastical!

Its core concept was to introduce a Highly Poisonous substance into the body, using an extreme toxin to penetrate the bone marrow. It would first completely destroy all bones and marrow, then use some kind of mysterious medicinal catalyst to stimulate life force, promoting a nirvanic rebirth from destruction, thereby reshaping the Root Bone and achieving a leap in one’s aptitude!

’It can even be done like this...’ Jiang Che was utterly stunned.

This method was tantamount to courting death, with only a slim chance of survival!

Most people would die from the poison long before their Root Bone could be improved!

This was also why methods for improving one’s Root Bone were rarely heard of in the Jianghu!

But Jiang Che was delighted.

He was immune to all poisons in his Black Armor Form; this Cultivation Technique was practically tailor-made for him!

Unfortunately, only the first volume was in the Scripture Pavilion, so the degree of improvement was very limited.

However, for Jiang Che, this was already enough!

His Root Bone was currently only middle-lower.

As long as he could raise it to middle, or even Middle Upper,

combined with his bottleneck-free Skill Proficiency Panel,

his cultivation speed would far surpass that of an ordinary person!

However, to cultivate this technique, aside from the Yinghuo Stone he had obtained from the Demon Sect assassin,

he still needed another key medicinal catalyst: the Bone-Eroding Orchid.

This was a bizarre plant said to grow in places of extreme yin and poison, absorbing the netherworld sha-qi and the essence of a hundred poisons from deep underground.

It was said to exist only within a Secret Realm called the Abyss of Ten Thousand Poisons.

But that Secret Realm had been lost for far too long, and no one in the world knew where its entrance was.

’I’m still missing one thing...’ Jiang Che frowned. ’Where am I supposed to find this?’

He felt a bit helpless. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to practice the *Heaven Mending Technique* for now and could only look for an opportunity later.

Finally, he picked up the few books on ancient script, then took out the mysterious Beast Hide Secret Manual he had gotten from Liu Cang’s corpse, and began to decipher it by cross-referencing.

It was an extremely tedious and mentally draining task.

After half a day of effort, he had only managed to identify a few vague phrases.

"Breaking Illusion..."

"...Key of Returning to Truth..."

They didn’t form a coherent sentence, and he had no idea what they meant.

Resigned, Jiang Che could only put the matter aside for now, planning to study it slowly when he had time.

...

There was still some time before the Cloud Tier Inquiry Conference.

Jiang Che didn’t rest. He directly rented a Level A Cultivation Room and began a new round of short-term seclusion.

Although the Jade Token his master had given him only had two days of free usage left,

he could totally pay for it himself afterward!

Because he was now a Refining Organ Realm disciple.

According to the Sect’s rules, disciples at the Refining Organ Realm and above didn’t need points and had the right to pay to use Level A Cultivation Rooms.

It was just that the price was exorbitant, and ordinary disciples couldn’t afford it at all.

But for Jiang Che, who had just come into a windfall, this was no problem at all!

Time passed day by day.

With the double blessing of the Level A Cultivation Room and a large amount of resources,

Jiang Che quickly consolidated the third layer of his *Nine Heavens Azure Cloud Technique*, and his cultivation improved steadily.

During this time, he specifically found a deserted grove in the mountains behind the Sect to test his current strength.

It could be said that he was now more than just one level stronger than when he was in the Late-stage Bone Forging Realm!

The fifteen-fold strike of his True: Infinite Battle Armor was greatly enhanced thanks to the vast amount of Strength and astonishing recovery speed of the Refining Organ Realm!

After testing, he found he could now unleash it five times in a row!

Moreover, because his own base power and the quality of his Strength had both increased dramatically, the true power of this strike now far exceeded what it was before!

However, Jiang Che didn’t let this go to his head.

He recalled the description of the True Master Realm in the third layer of the *Nine Heavens Azure Cloud Technique*.

He couldn’t help but warn himself inwardly, ’My current strength is still far from enough. I absolutely cannot let my guard down!’

Just as Jiang Che was engrossed in his cultivation,

the news that he had been chosen as the new Chief Disciple of Yunhai Courtyard swept through the entire Cangyun Sect like a storm!