Li Mengyao was overjoyed. ’So this is the surprise!’ During Yu Fei’s recovery, she had lost her supply of Vitality Elixirs, and her cultivation speed had inevitably slowed down.

Everyone’s eyes lit up. The guidance of a renowned teacher was invaluable on the martial path. As a genius Martial Artist, Yu Fei had already perfected two foundational Cultivation Techniques. Coupled with his Super Speed Reaction talent, it was no exaggeration to say that when it came to guiding first-realm Martial Artists, he was even more capable than Yan Sea had been in his early days. Of course, that wasn’t the case now; the insight of a Grandmaster was far beyond what a mere second-realm Cultivator could compare to.

After settling this matter, Yu Fei made a brief appearance at the class reunion over the weekend before leaving. Although they were all classmates, after witnessing the battle in the auditorium, it was hard for everyone to see him in the same old light.

During the gathering, that kid Jiang Yifan made a special point to come and thank Yu Fei. If Yu Fei hadn’t intervened in time, Jiang Yifan would have been "sent to the palace." In the face of such a huge debt of gratitude, their previous minor squabbles were not worth mentioning at all.

As he left, he gave a Vitality Elixir to every classmate still practicing martial arts, even those from the regular class. Of course, those who didn’t show up missed out.

One shouldn’t underestimate this single elixir. In the early stages, it could save some people from taking a much longer path.

With everything taken care of, Yu Fei put on his Holographic Mirror Helmet to study the basic swordsmanship technique gifted to him by Mr. Kong. A gift from a Grandmaster was naturally no ordinary thing.

Yu Fei didn’t have any strong feelings about it. He had never practiced any swordsmanship before, so he naturally couldn’t tell if it was good or bad.

This swordsmanship technique had a total of thirteen forms. Yu Fei grasped the basics on his first run-through and achieved minor success after the third. By the time he had practiced for an afternoon, the movements of his blade were chillingly sharp and brimming with killing intent. He had clearly reached the Great Success Realm.

Practicing swordsmanship gave Yu Fei an indescribable feeling of comfort, as if he were wandering in a free-blowing wind. As the wooden sword in his hand turned and twisted, empowered by his Qi Blood, it felt as though there was nowhere in the world he couldn’t go and nothing he couldn’t cut.

This training session only stopped when his Qi Blood dropped to a critical level.

He recalled the battle against the cultists in early September. The sword in his hand then had been nothing more than a prop. He could only rely on his superhuman reaction speed to land surprise decapitations, with no artistry to speak of.

His ability to master swordsmanship so quickly was inseparable from the support of his various talents.

His red-level talent, [Void Martial Body], had already greatly enhanced his martial comprehension, giving him a strong aptitude for any Cultivation Technique. In addition, he had [Phaseless Sword Lord], a talent specifically for the Sword Dao. This orange-level talent, unexpectedly formed when he established his Tribulation Sword Dao Foundation, drastically boosted his understanding of the sword, its effect surpassing even most red-level talents.

Following the conventional method to establish a Tribulation Sword Dao Foundation would only grant the ability of Phaseless Sword Qi, not form a Sword Dao talent. This was a point that likely even Mr. Lanren hadn’t anticipated.

Furthermore, even before practicing swordsmanship, Yu Fei had already grasped the three Sword Intent characteristics of Sharpness, Solidity, and Illusion. This had invisibly raised his sensitivity to the Sword Dao to a terrifying level.

That evening, after finishing his tutoring session with the three, Yu Fei went home for dinner.

Since his family’s living conditions had drastically improved, Mr. Yu had paradoxically become the busiest person in the house. He sometimes worked late at the company, which came as a surprise to Yu Fei.

Previously, during casual family chats, his mother had said that even if their circumstances improved, she would keep herself busy, as people shouldn’t be idle. His father, on the other hand, had said he would just "lie flat" and enjoy a leisurely retired life of fishing, playing chess, and drinking tea.

But when it all actually happened, their roles reversed. His mom now spent her days shopping, going from store to store. Aside from her three meals a day, she filled her schedule with facials, beauty treatments, hair appointments, and so on... you could barely catch a glimpse of her.

His dad was busy with his career, single-mindedly focused on growing the business and proving that even though he got his position through connections, he was more than capable of handling the responsibility.

Yu Wei... that sister of his was a lost cause, not even worth mentioning. She had recently become obsessed with cooking and wasn’t focusing on her studies, and their parents weren’t as strict with her as they used to be.

Yu Fei spent his days holed up in the martial arts hall, training relentlessly. The huge villa, in contrast, felt empty and deserted.

Lately, he had taken to browsing [Ping Tianxia] before bed. It was worth noting that after he had fully completed his registration using his own phone, he discovered he actually had 310 merit points. His personal page had a description for this credit.

[September 1, Year 837 of the New Calendar: Eliminated 21 third-realm Illuminati cultists and 1 Inner Qi Realm cultist. Participated in a cultist-purging mission. Merit Points Awarded: 155]

[Combined Mission Difficulty Multiplier: 2.0. Final Merit Points Settled: 310]

He didn’t know what merit points were used for, but it was still a pleasant surprise.

After admiring it for a moment, Yu Fei opened the "Budding Celestials" section. This was where the nation’s top martial arts prodigies gathered. Currently, he could see the total number was over six hundred.

Every time he saw this number, Yu Fei couldn’t help but get excited. ’If I could copy the talents of all six hundred of these people, how strong would I become?’

But the Fate-Defying Pearl’s talent-copying ability only recovered once a month. That meant it would take fifty years to copy the talents of everyone on this list, and this was just a single generation of genius Martial Artists. Given the size of the Yu Kingdom, how many genius Martial Artists would accumulate over a hundred years? The number was unimaginable.

This showed that the current Yu Fei was still far from being at the top. It was a terrifying thought.

Within this section, users could start discussion circles or post threads. Every night, Yu Fei lurked silently, observing.

One feature he paid particular attention to was the Celestial Pride List. This list ranked genius Martial Artists based on the time it took them to break through to major realms. Yu Fei checked it and saw that the top three hundred were all already third-realm Treasure Body Realm Martial Artists. His own rank was beyond six hundred—dead last for his cohort.

As he was browsing, he suddenly came across a ridiculously showy post.

[Heaven did not bear me, Zhang Xunyi; the Sword Dao of ages was as an endless night.]

[Autumn 837, I attained enlightenment in Sword Intent on Changsong Mountain and shattered a thirty-foot greenstone to commemorate the occasion!]

Attached to the post was a picture: a young Swordsman in simple, white, ancient-style robes, his back to the camera. The longsword in his right hand glinted with a cold light, its tip angled toward the ground. In front of him, a pile of huge, shattered stone blocks lay scattered. The image was also captioned with a short, two-line poem.

[My green-tipped blade, unsheathed, gleams in the night; it shatters the October frost before the stairs!]

Seeing the two words "Sword Intent," Yu Fei immediately stopped and began carefully scrolling through the comments below.

The top-voted comments were listed in order.

"No class at all. Destruction of the natural environment. Fifty-dollar fine and seven days’ detention!"

"Every time I see someone show off this hard, I get so fucking jealous. Why can’t that be me?"

"Changsong Mountain Greenstone: ’Fam, get me some popcorn! I swear, that guy started it!’"

"King of Swag Xuan Yi must be close to the Inner Qi realm, right? What a beast!!!"

"Sword Intent? I’m so f******..."

...

Reading the messages energized Yu Fei. He went back to the Celestial Pride List and saw that Zhang Xunyi was ranked seventeenth. This meant there were sixteen other beasts who had broken through to the third realm before him. It was hard to say if any of them had already become Inner Qi Martial Artists.

Although the character information on [Ping Tianxia] couldn’t be faked, it could be hidden.

Seeing this, he suddenly felt immense pressure. Among the six hundred-plus prodigies, there were bound to be some who were cautious and lay low, not revealing their true strength.

’Doesn’t that mean breaking through to the Inner Qi realm in just over a year is the average standard for the Yu Kingdom’s top prodigies? And then you have the once-in-a-decade, once-in-a-century, and even once-in-a-millennium geniuses on top of that. My talents don’t even seem to rank.’

This post completely shattered his recently growing complacency. Although he had remained diligent, how should he put it? After successfully forming his Tribulation Sword Dao Foundation and fighting his way out of a desperate situation to kill over twenty third-realm enemies and one fourth-realm Inner Qi bandit leader, he had, in fact, been feeling a little proud of himself.

But looking at this post, he seemed to feel again that sense of powerlessness from when he had first encountered martial arts and couldn’t even get his foot in the door.

’Geniuses in this world are as numerous as crucian carp crossing a river. Do I have any right to be proud just because I killed a few rats who couldn’t even make it onto the big stage?’

"No, I have to train harder!"

’It would be ridiculous if, one day, a silver or gold-level prodigy appeared before me and I didn’t have the ability to defeat them.’

Yu Fei absentmindedly scrolled through the posts when a request for help suddenly caught his eye.

[Hey bosses, does anyone know how to get merit points? I want to go to the Scripture Pavilion to redeem some Cultivation Techniques in advance, but I can’t accept any missions, so I don’t have a single damn point!]

Shen Tuli had also mentioned this inability to accept missions. Since they hadn’t entered a Martial Arts University yet, their current permissions were restricted.

’But... the Scripture Pavilion? You can exchange for Cultivation Techniques?’

Merit points—he had those! Right now, aside from his daily routine of the [Taiwei Profound Origin Pillar] and basic swordsmanship, he had nothing else to practice. He wanted to improve but couldn’t find a direction.

Yu Fei eagerly searched for information on the Hidden Treasures Pavilion. In a short while, he found the section.

The moment he clicked on it, his eyes were dazzled by the dense catalog of Cultivation Techniques.

Overwhelmed, he backed out and sent a message to his esteemed teacher, Yan Sea, asking for guidance. At the same time, he also started searching for posts with suggestions on second-realm cultivation techniques.