Lin Ping admitted that his strength was still not enough. He was neither complacent nor too happy just because he killed the two devils, Black and White Impermanence.
It could only be said that Black and White Impermanence were just too weak. They had claimed that they could compete against a grade-9 great grandmaster when they joined forces. However, the fact was that they were merely frogs in a well, who were not aware of the true strength of a grade-9 great grandmaster.
Even among those in grade-9, there could be big differences between their strengths.
Between the strong and the weak, the difference in strength would be several times, even reaching up to ten times the difference!
It had been a full year-and-a-half since Lin Ping had broken through to grade-9.
Although it had been a long time, Lin Ping felt that he was only halfway through his journey before becoming a peak grade-9.
Inside a room.
Lin Ping sat cross-legged with his figure surrounded by wisps of smoke, making him seem illusory. However, his body was filled with vigor. This was the physical manifestation of Lin Ping's vigorous internal strength.
As Lin Ping's thoughts turned, these vigorous internal energies quickly changed and began to gradually turn into sword energy.
In his mind, the sutra of the "Return of the Ten Thousand Swords" was being repeated.
All Qi regenerates itself,
When the sword is out, it will kill,
Return to the origin of the martial arts,
Expansion of one's internal energy.
If an ordinary person cultivated the Return of the Ten Thousand Swords, the first step would be to pierce through one's acupuncture points and regenerate one's Qi. If one used a simpler term to describe it, it would be — to waste one's own cultivation!
This was because only by doing this could a martial arts practitioner have no more internal energy in their body and become fresh like a white sheet of paper. Only then could the body generate sword energy by itself.
But for Lin Ping, who had mastered countless peerless martial arts, it was not difficult to solve this problem.
One example would be the "Little Wuxiang Skill" that allowed him to achieve demanding cultivation conditions such as "reversing the universe and turning the softness to rigidness", which was required in the cultivation of the Return of the Ten Thousand Swords.
Weng Weng Weng!
As Lin Ping practiced his sword art, the surrounding sword energy began to evolve and increase again. Finally, after an hour, countless sharp swords stormed across the wide room.
With the swords flying all over the sky, the combined sword aura was fierce and unparalleled. It could be considered a spectacle.
Lin Ping opened his eyes and looked at the sword energy surrounding him. He then nodded and said to himself, "The first step in mastering the Return of the Ten Thousand Swords is considered to have been accomplished.
"However, it is still far from enough before I fully master it.
"At least, I would have to continuously practice hard for half a month's time!"
The real Return of the Ten Thousand Swords was not simply a matter of releasing an immense amount of sword aura. This was merely a fancy way to make the move look cooler.
The real Return of the Ten Thousand Swords would cause all swords to bow down and worship it like a slave when they were in front of it.
If a swordsman hadn't even reached grade-9, he wouldn't even have the qualifications to use his sword in front of Lin Ping!
If I were to cultivate the Return of the Ten Thousand Swords to perfection, my strength would gain a huge boost, and I would definitely have a greater understanding of the powers of the heaven and the earth. However, it would still be far from breaking past to reach a realm higher than that of grade-9, Lin Ping thought.
In the eyes of most martial arts practitioners, a grade-9 great grandmaster was already the strongest in the world and was naturally their goal. They felt that even though those so-called Mythical Pugilists possessed certain great supernatural powers, they were no different from a grade-9.
But after one had cultivated to the level that Lin Ping was at, one could clearly feel that there was another level above that of grade-9!
There were several rumors that had spread in the Jianghu, such as a martial artist splitting a river with a sword or a martial artist flattening a mountain with his bare palms. However, all of these were not something a grade-9 martial artist could do.
Lin Ping still had quite a journey to go before he reached such a stage.
However, Lin Ping already had some idea of how to break through the shackles of a grade-9 martial artist to become a Mythical Pugilist.
To break through to become a Mythical Pugilist, he had to achieve perfection in three aspects: Essence, Qi, and Spirit!
Only when the three had reached their peak and were united could he break the shackles of a grade-9 martial artist.
Among them, Essence referred to the body refinement of the martial artist through tempering of one's body; Qi referred to the cultivation of one's internal strength; Spirit referred to the study and understanding of martial arts!
The aspect that Lin Ping had walked the furthest was his "Essence"!
It also referred to the tempering of his body.
This was because he had learned a lot of body tempering peerless martial arts at the place where he had first checked in eight years ago, such as the Vajra Body Defending Divine skill and the Indestructible Golden Body skill.
However, the martial art that surprised Lin Ping the most was the "Tiangang Pure Boy Sutra"!
In the eyes of many people, this was not considered as one of the top-notch martial arts. It was estimated to be at the same level as the Golden Bell Iron Cloth skill and was much worse than martial arts like the Vajra Body Defending Divine skill and the Indestructible Golden Body skill.
But in fact, this martial art had a lot of knowledge in it!
This martial art not only required the practitioner to have a pure Yang Qi that couldn't be broken, but the deeper the internal strength one also had, the more powerful this martial art would be.
This was a bit similar to the Nine Yang Sutra. The more one cultivated it, the more powerful it became!
If a martial artist had a strong internal strength and had not broken his virginity, the power the skill had was comparable to the great power of the Vajra Body Defending Divine skill and the Indestructible Golden Body skill.
As a grade-9 great grandmaster, Lin Ping's internal energy was overwhelming because in the check-in rewards these years, there had been too many supplements that improved his internal energy. Now, Lin Ping's internal energy cultivation base had already broken through to a hundred years' worth!
Lin Ping's body had also been tempered and refined to the point that he himself was unsure of how strong he was.
This was because he had not tried fighting all out before.
Lin Ping didn't know if the other grade-9 great grandmasters could even hurt him.
But after experiencing the combined force and attack of Black and White Impermanence, he was sure that the other grade-9s' moves would definitely not break their defenses.
…
Because of his hundred years' worth of internal energy cultivation base, Lin Ping had also progressed far in terms of his Qi.
Essence. Qi. Spirit.
Out of the three, Lin Ping's shortcoming was in the Spirit aspect.
This referred to his proficiency and specialization in the study of martial arts.
There was no choice.
Compared with the other grade-9 great grandmasters who only broke through after decades of accumulation of experience, Lin Ping had merely cultivated for a few years. Even though Lin Ping had the check-in system, allowing there to be no bottlenecks in his practice of various martial arts, it still did not fully compensate for the experience he needed to have with martial arts.
After all, he had only cultivated for a relatively short period.
The current Lin Ping had too much of a difference between his defense techniques and his offense techniques, with his defensive power being way higher than his offensive power.
It was at a pretty extreme level too.
Therefore, Lin Ping felt that even though he had killed Black and White Impermanence within two moves, it was not much of a big deal at all. He was still a weak chicken in terms of offensive power.
When one day, his offensive techniques could catch up with his achievements in body refining, he could then barely be said to be a relatively powerful master among the grade-9s.
Only at that time would it be possible for him to try to break through to a higher realm above that of grade-9.
Of course, the "Return of the Ten Thousand Swords" that he had received after this check-in had helped Lin Ping fill up his shortcoming and improve his attack power.
If one day, I could check in and receive either the "Holy Spirit Sword Classic" or the "Cihang Sword Classic", it would be much better, Lin Ping thought to himself.
Whether it was the "Death Gate" after one achieved clarity in one's sword heart in the Cihang Sword Classic or the last sword in the Holy Spirit Sword Classic, their power was not weaker than the Return of the Ten Thousand Swords, or perhaps even better.
…
…
Three days passed by quickly.
The atmosphere of the Changmen Palace over the past three days had obviously become a lot weirder. Although the Emperor did not go to visit personally, he had sent people to bring a lot of good things to eat and use.
This was the first time Chun Fei had experienced this ever since she had come to the cold palace 10 years ago!
Such behavior had also made Chun Fei feel very confused. The Emperor had obviously abandoned her and chosen the Empress. Yet, why did he act like this again? Was it because of his conscience?
Or perhaps it was because of the deaths of Black and White Impermanence that night?
Chun Fei couldn't confirm her thoughts, so there were many doubts in her heart. She could only wait for the Emperor's next move.
Lin Ping didn't care about these things.
What he cared about was that the System had refreshed, and he had the opportunity to check in once more.
Unfortunately, this time, he didn't receive either of the two sword classics he had wanted from his check-in. However, what he received still piqued his interest.
[Ding! Congratulations to Host for successfully checking in. You have received the "Dragon Elephant Prajna Sutra".]
"Dragon Elephant Prajna Sutra? I have actually gotten such a martial art?"
Looking at the System's prompt, Lin Ping showed a smile on his face.
This martial art was not only famous in his past life, but he had even heard of it in this new fantasy world before!
It appeared to also be one of the most prestigious martial arts the northern barbarians practiced.
Unexpectedly, he had gotten it in the Grand Xia imperial compound instead.