5: Chapter 5 Heading to the Cultivation Techniques Pavilion!

In front of the thatched hut, the eyes of the two lackeys moved back and forth between Wang Meng, who was unconscious in a pool of blood in the distance, and Chu Xiao, who was slowly withdrawing his fist at the doorway.

Their eyes were bulging so much they almost fell out of their sockets.

What happened?

Brother Wang Meng... Wang Meng, who was at the Sixth Heaven of Qi Refining, was taken down by... just one punch?

That trash... the Qi Refining Fourth Heaven trash they could step on whenever they wanted, steal pills from, and insult at will, had sent Brother Wang Meng flying dozens of meters with a single punch, leaving his life or death unknown?

Their brains had completely stalled.

The scene unfolding before them had completely exceeded the scope of their understanding.

This was simply not the power a Qi Refining Fourth Heaven should possess!

Even... even someone at the Seventh Heaven of Qi Refining could never have done it so effortlessly!

Could it be... the Eighth Heaven of Qi Refining? Or even... the Ninth Heaven?!

This thought exploded in their minds like a thunderclap, making their entire bodies shiver.

A chill rushed from the soles of their feet straight to the top of their heads.

"Wa... Brother Wang Meng!"

The Disciple with the sharp chin and monkey-like features finally found his voice and scrambled toward the distant boulder, while the tall, sturdy one followed with trembling legs.

When they saw the miserable state Wang Meng was in, they both gasped in unison.

Wang Meng's right arm was twisted at a bizarre angle, hanging limply at his side.

It was clear that the bone inside was completely shattered into dust.

A terrifying fist print was sunken into his chest, and the blood leaking from his mouth and nose was mixed with fragments of internal organs; his breath was so weak it was almost imperceptible.

What horrified them even more was what they could clearly perceive.

The Spiritual Qi within Wang Meng's body, which had been quite robust, had now completely dissipated; his Meridians were snapped, and his Dantian was shattered.

He was ruined!

Wang Meng had completely fallen into being a waste, worse than even a Mortal!

This discovery terrified them even more than seeing Wang Meng being sent flying.

This was no longer a simple lesson; it was the most cruel form of destruction!

"You... you actually crippled Brother Wang Meng!"

The monkey-faced Disciple snapped his head back and pointed at Chu Xiao, his voice shrill with fear, "You're finished! You're dead! Brother Wang Meng's elder brother is Senior Brother Wang Xuan! The number one Disciple of the Outer Sect, Senior Brother Wang Xuan!"

At the mention of the name Wang Xuan, the other tall Disciple also seemed to grasp at a straw, shouting with false bravado, "That's right! Senior Brother Wang Xuan is a powerhouse at the Great Perfection of the Qi Refining Realm, with half a foot already in the Foundation Establishment Realm! If he finds out you've injured Brother Wang Meng like this, he will definitely skin you alive and scatter your ashes!"

"Chu Xiao! Your only way out now is to come with us and kowtow in apology before Senior Brother Wang Xuan! Perhaps if Senior Brother shows mercy, he might leave you with an intact corpse!"

They thought that bringing up Wang Xuan, this great deity of the Outer Sect, would be enough to make the Chu Xiao before them have his Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering.

After all, in the Outer Sect, Wang Xuan's name represented absolute authority and was not to be provoked.

However, Chu Xiao's reaction once again defied their expectations.

"Wang Xuan?"

Chu Xiao's eyebrows twitched slightly; he had of course heard this name, it was like thunder to his ears.

But he merely repeated it calmly, and instead of fear, a flash of disgust appeared on his face.

"Noisy."

He no longer had any interest in wasting words with these two ants.

Just as the two lackeys were about to continue their threats, a terrifying Aura...

Suddenly erupted from within Chu Xiao's body!

Boom!

That was no longer the Aura of the Sixth, Seventh, or even Eighth Heaven of Qi Refining!

It was a pressure as heavy as a mountain and as vast as the sea, instantly enveloping the entire small courtyard!

The Peak of the Ninth Heaven of Qi Refining!

The air in the courtyard seemed to freeze at this moment.

The vegetation stopped swaying, and flying insects froze mid-air.

The two lackeys felt as if they were being pinned down by a massive mountain, and even breathing became incredibly difficult.

As their legs gave way...

They immediately fell to their knees with a "thud," trembling like sifters, and the area around their crotches quickly became wet.

How... how is this possible!

The Peak of the Ninth Heaven of Qi Refining!

This trash... no!

This fiend is actually a terrifying existence at the Peak of the Ninth Heaven of Qi Refining!

For these eight years, he has actually been hiding his strength?!

In an instant, fear flooded their minds, and the so-called threats and Senior Brother Wang Xuan became a joke at this moment.

In the next second, Chu Xiao moved.

His figure left a faint afterimage on the spot, and in almost an instant, he crossed the distance of several meters, appearing before the monkey-faced Disciple like a ghost.

"You..."

The Disciple looked up in horror, just as he managed to utter a single word.

"Slap!"

A crisp and loud slap rang out.

Chu Xiao simply waved his hand casually, as if swatting a fly.

Half of the Disciple's cheek instantly collapsed, his facial bones shattered, and teeth sprayed out mixed with blood.

His whole body spun like a top as he flew out, crashing heavily against the courtyard wall before sliding down. He twitched twice and then went still.

He didn't kill him; he only crippled the other party's cultivation and left him severely injured and unconscious.

Because he felt that sometimes, making a person who was used to being a bully spend their life as a waste who couldn't Cultivate was a more painful punishment than killing them outright.

"Spare... spare my life! Senior Brother Chu, spare my life!"

The remaining tall Disciple was completely scared out of his wits.

Looking at the miserable state of his companion, he no longer cared for any dignity, desperately kowtowing on the ground and crying out for mercy: "I was wrong! I was truly wrong! We were blind to your greatness, we are animals! I beg Senior Brother Chu to spare my dog life for the sake of being fellow Disciples!"

Chu Xiao walked up to him expressionlessly, looking down at him from above.

"Fellow Disciples?"

Chu Xiao smiled faintly: "When you broke both my arms and stole my pills, did you ever consider that we were fellow Disciples?"

The tall Disciple's body stiffened, his face ashen like death.

Chu Xiao didn't bother listening to his pleas for mercy anymore; with an equally unremarkable punch, he lightly pressed it against the man's chest.

"Crack..."

A sickening sound of bone cracking echoed, and the tall Disciple's cries came to an abrupt halt.

He looked down in disbelief at his sunken chest, the light in his eyes rapidly fading, and then he collapsed onto the ground like a pile of mud.

His Meridians were likewise crippled, and he fainted.

After dealing with all this, Chu Xiao slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.

He looked at the three people lying scattered in the courtyard, his heart without the slightest ripple.

The world is like this: the weak are prey to the strong.

Either you step on others to climb up, or others use you as a stepping stone.

He had been a stepping stone for eight years and had had enough.

Since heaven had given him the chance to become the hunter, he would no longer show any mercy.

If a man does not look out for himself, heaven and earth will destroy him.

He stepped forward and unceremoniously began searching the three of them.

Soon, he pulled three small porcelain bottles from their robes. Opening them, he saw they were all Small Yuan Pills uniformly distributed by the Sect, totaling exactly twenty-two pills.

"They certainly delivered a nice gift."

Chu Xiao put away the pills, his gaze becoming fervent.

He was now at the Peak of the Ninth Heaven of Qi Refining, only a single step away from the Great Perfection of Qi Refining.

These twenty-two Small Yuan Pills might not be enough for him to Breakthrough directly.

But they would definitely make his Foundation more robust and his strength progress further.

In half a month, it would be the Inner Sect Assessment.

Not only was he going, but he would go in his strongest state!

Thinking of this, he delayed no longer, turned back into the dilapidated thatched hut, blocked the door with a stone, and sat down cross-legged once more.

...

The night passed in silence.

When the first ray of morning sunlight shone through the hole in the roof onto Chu Xiao's face the next day, he slowly opened his eyes.

Those eyes were deeper and brighter than yesterday, as if stars were circulating within them.

In one night, he had refined a full twenty of those twenty-two Small Yuan Pills!

The residual medicinal power was still flowing slowly through his broad and tough Meridians, nourishing his entire body.

His cultivation still remained at the Peak of the Ninth Heaven of Qi Refining.

He had not been able to break through to the Great Perfection Realm in one go.

But instead of being disappointed, Chu Xiao was overjoyed.

This precisely showed how deep and solid his Foundation was after being transformed by the Spirit-Nurturing Golden Core!

An ordinary Disciple might only need a dozen Small Yuan Pills to Breakthrough a minor Realm.

Yet he had consumed twenty pills just to consolidate his cultivation at the Peak of the Ninth Heaven, which meant the total amount of Spiritual Qi his body could hold far exceeded those of the same rank!

This kind of cultivation speed and Foundation were things he wouldn't have dared to imagine eight years ago.

"The Bottleneck of the Great Perfection of Qi Refining cannot be surpassed by pills alone. It also requires an opportunity..."

Chu Xiao stood up, feeling the strength in his body that was even more powerful than yesterday, and had a new plan in mind.

Possessing only brute force is, in the end, inferior.

To exert this power to its limit and even challenge those of higher ranks, one must Cultivate a powerful Cultivation Technique!

"Wang Xuan, is it..."

The corner of Chu Xiao's mouth curled into a cold arc, "Number one in the Outer Sect? I'd like to see just how many moves you, the 'number one,' can last in my hands!"

He no longer hesitated, pushed away the stone blocking the door, and walked out of the small courtyard that had been in ruins for eight years, facing the morning sun.

His goal was clear—

The Technique Pavilion!