Looking back, Xu Su couldn't help but give a knowing smile.
In the half year that Xu Su spent with Zhan Yue, because their personalities matched well with each other, the two had naturally become very close friends.
Xu Su slowly stood from his crossed-legged position and rubbed his calves. After sitting in the cross-legged position and meditating for so long, his legs had become numb, and even some of his bloodstreams felt clogged.
After kneading them for some time, his legs returned back to normal. Standing up, Xu Su dusted himself in his usual custom before exiting the stone chamber.
Turning his head back to look at the stone chamber where he was cultivating, Xu Su couldn't help but laugh to himself.
The entire chamber was made of solid granite while the doors were made of a giant piece of crocidolite. If a normal human wanted to break into this room, he or she would need to spend at least three hours hacking at the doors with an enormous axe.
In the Seven Clouds Sect, only the Sect Leader, Elders, and Division Heads were allowed to use this type of silent cultivation chamber. Not even Inner Disciples were allowed to use them as they pleased! This cultivation chamber was created for those practicing profound cultivation techniques to guard their practice against any external disruption and in order to prevent qigong deviation. Xu Su didn't know what methods Physician Wu had used, but the Sect somehow granted him the usage of his own personal cultivation stone chamber, built into the side of the cliff of Green Eye Valley.
After the cultivation chamber was built, Physician Wu had assigned it for Xu Su's sole usage. Seeing such a gift, Xu Su couldn't help but feel humbled by Physician Wu's benevolence.
Physician Wu's treatment of Xu Su was perhaps too good to be true. Ever since Xu Su had become his official apprentice, Physician Wu had personally dipped into his own supply of herbs for Xu Su to consume. Not only that, Physician Wu also created an unknown medicinal bath for him to soak his body in. Xu Su didn't know what types of herbs were being used, but as he watched Physician Wu carefully refine those herbs, his normally impassive face revealed a hint of reluctance. Even Xu Su could figure out that these herbs were extremely valuable.
Clearly, these benefits were extremely useful to him, causing Xu Su's cultivation speed to increase severalfold. Xu Su had recently succeeded in mastering the first layer of the mysterious chant imparted to him by Physician Wu.
During his process of breaking through, his meridians had nearly ruptured several times and he had suffered from some moderate internal injuries. But thanks to Physician Wu's expertise in the healing arts, the injuries to his meridians were easily repaired, and with the aid of the medicinal herbs, Xu Su did not suffer from any serious, permanent damage.
Every time Xu Su was even slightly injured, Physician Wu would become even more worried than Xu Su himself. This worry manifested itself the entire time he treated Xu Su, making Physician Wu very tense. It was only when Xu Su's injuries began recovering that he let out a sigh of relief.
Physician Wu's concern went far beyond that of a normal relationship between master and disciple and caused Xu Su to feel a little uneasy about the situation. If it weren't for his Third Uncle or the fact that no one ever walked out from these valleys, Xu Su would have thought that Physician Wu was actually his long-lost relative based on the attention that he had been showing to Xu Su.
Walking out of the cultivation chamber, Xu Su lazily stretched his body and walked away from the cliff. After he had become an official disciple, Xu Su and Zhan Yue moved from their original quarters into their own personal house.
As he passed by Zhan Yue's room, Xu Su shot a glance inside.
As it turns out, Zhan Yue wasn't inside. Xu Su thought that he was probably by the Silver Water Peak's waterfall, cultivating his new martial arts technique.
After the examination, Physician Wu instructed Xu Su to continue practicing the oracular chant and refused to teach him any martial arts. However, in an attempt to pacify Xu Su, Physician Wu personally instructed Xu Su in the art of healing without holding anything back. Whenever Xu Su had a question about medicine, Physician Wu would answer right away, even going as far as allowing Xu Su to look through the various books in Physician Wu's library to find an answer to his question.
As for Zhan Yue, Physician Wu fulfilled his previous promise and imparted a set of martial arts to him.
The martial arts Zhan Yue practiced was extremely peculiar. According to Physician Wu, it was an extremely obscure branch of martial arts named the "Way of the Armored Rhino". Even the name of this particular martial arts was rarely heard of, let alone the existence of practitioners who actually cultivated it.
It differed from the martial arts of regular practitioners in Jung Hu. Generally, the progression of cultivation for normal martial arts ranged from easy to difficult. As the level increased, so would the difficulty. Thus, the higher the level, the more effort it would take for one to achieve a breakthrough. Zhan Yue's particular martial art style was divided into nine layers, with the initial three layers being the easiest to cultivate, following the same principle as normal martial arts. However, starting from the fourth layer, the difficulty of breaking through was increased to a monstrous level in addition to suffering the excruciating backlash caused by practicing the Way of the Armored Rhino. Many cultivators of this set of martial arts could not bear such excruciating pain and would stop their progression at the fourth level. Not to mention the fifth level nor the sixth level, as the excruciating pain would only increase with each level!
After breaking through from the sixth layer into the seventh, there would be no further bottlenecks, and cultivation would be much smoother. The only drawback was that the cultivator would need to suffer from monthly bouts of intense pain.
This intimidated many people who desired to cultivate the Way of the Armored Rhino. As such, this particular branch of martial arts was slowly dying out.
This martial arts style was very peculiar. When it reached a high enough level, one's strength would become truly astounding. It was said that those who reached the ninth layer had bodies as tough as gemstones. They were impervious to all weapons, even fire and water! Even palms strike, fist techniques, and legendary swords and sabers wouldn't be able to injure them.
But what made people most envious was that after cultivating this branch of martial arts, practitioners would gain the tremendous strength of an Rhino. After reaching a high enough level, their strength would be limitless. They were capable of catching live wolves and ripping tigers apart, as well as other unparalleled feats.
Those who had heard of this style both feared and adored it. Other than the creator of this martial art, there was no other individual who had managed to cultivate it to the ninth layer. Legend has it that the creator of this martial art was born without a sense of pain! That was the reason why he was able to create such a perverse martial art and execute it to its greatest potential.
Although Physician Wu had explained the benefits and consequences in its entirety to Zhan Yue, Zhan Yue had no concerns about the harm it could bring to his body. He coveted the strength the Way of the Armored Rhino could bring him and promised right away to cultivate in this style of martial arts. Without even looking for another style suitable to him, Zhan Yue had already reached the peak of the first layer in two months.
In order to break through the first layer of the Way of the Armored Rhino , Physician Wu had suggested that every afternoon, Zhan Yue should go to the Silver Water Peak's waterfall and cultivate under the impact of the surging waters.
According to Zhan Yue, this method really did have a godly effect. The difference between the peak of the first layer to the second layer was only paper thin, and as long as he worked a little harder, he would break through the bottleneck with relative ease!