3: Nine levels of Body Tempering! Mastery of the Five Great Techniques of the Overlord Blade!

"Phew! I'm a bit tired!"

Zhang Yang rubbed his somewhat sore arms.

Swinging his saber and hacking continuously for the whole morning was indeed quite tiring.

After resting for a while and eating lunch, Zhang Yang returned to the courtyard to continue cultivating.

While taking deep breaths and hacking with his saber, both his cultivation and his proficiency in the Hegemon Blade Five Absolutes were slowly rising.

For four consecutive days, Zhang Yang maintained this lifestyle.

Finally, on the morning of the fifth day.

Zhang Yang picked up his saber and headed out.

By this time, Zhang Yang's temperament had changed significantly, and his cultivation had reached the Body Tempering Ninth Level.

The blood qi within his body had been refined to the extreme, almost to the point of surfacing on his skin!

Zhang Yang was now just one step away from the Meridian Opening Realm.

The progress of his Hegemon Blade Five Absolutes was even more exaggerated; it had already reached Major Achievement, and he possessed fifteen strands of Saber Qi within his body.

According to Zhang Yang's current estimation, if the fifteen strands of Saber Qi were combined into one,

he could likely slay Martial Artists below the sixth level of the Meridian Opening Realm.

Zhang Yang was heading out this time to go to the back mountain of the Clear Wind Sect.

Many Yao Beasts lived there, and some Materials from these Yao Beasts could be exchanged for contribution points.

Now that Zhang Yang's cultivation had reached the Body Tempering Ninth Level, his next goal was to break through to the Meridian Opening Realm.

To break through to the Meridian Opening Realm, he needed enough contribution points to exchange for Medicinal Pills.

meridian access pills and Meridian Protection Pills!

The human body has nine main Meridians!

And to break through from the Body Tempering Realm to the Meridian Opening Realm,

one needs to use highly condensed blood qi to open one of the main Meridians in the body.

However, blood qi is violent, and the slightest lapse in attention could damage the main meridian.

The meridian access pill can make the power of blood qi more docile and easier to manipulate.

The Meridian Protection Pill is the key to protecting the main meridian from injury.

But for Outer Sect Disciples, both of these Medicinal Pills require contribution points to exchange.

Only Geniuses of the inner sect can receive one of each for free.

Naturally, Zhang Yang wanted a foolproof Breakthrough, so these two Medicinal Pills were indispensable.

Fortunately, these two Medicinal Pills only need to be used once.

After breaking through to the Meridian Opening Realm, True Qi will flow through the Meridians.

Afterward, one can directly use True Qi to open the remaining main Meridians without needing these two Medicinal Pills again.

Zhang Yang was very fast and arrived at the back mountain before long.

Looking at the dense forest before him, Zhang Yang smiled confidently, then put on his backpack and stepped in with his saber.

"Perfect!"

"Let's see just how strong my combat power is now!"

Tier-1 Yao Beasts lived on the outskirts of the Clear Wind Sect's back mountain, equivalent to human Martial Artists in the Body Tempering Realm.

They posed no threat to the current Zhang Yang.

Not long after entering the outskirts of the back mountain, Zhang Yang saw four wolves appear before him.

"Moon Wolves!"

Zhang Yang recognized the species of these four wolves at a glance.

Moon Wolves were named for their pure white fur that resembled moonlight.

"Hmm, let me think. I remember Moon Wolf pelts seem to be worth some contribution points!"

"I'll have to be a bit careful and not damage the integrity of the pelts."

Zhang Yang smiled as he watched the four Moon Wolves gradually surround him.

The cultivation of these four Moon Wolves was only at Tier-1 Medium Grade, equivalent to the human Body Tempering Fourth to Sixth Level.

"Hegemon Blade First Form!"

Zhang Yang slightly raised his hand, and four strands of Hegemon Blade Saber Qi appeared out of thin air, slicing through the Void Realm and slashing straight toward the necks of the four Moon Wolves.

The Saber Qi was incredibly fast, slicing across the necks of the four Moon Wolves in an instant.

The Saber Qi's momentum remained undiminished, splitting distant trees in half.

Then, the heads of the four Moon Wolves rolled onto the ground, their bodies collapsing.

A large amount of blood flowed from the wounds, staining the pure white fur red.

Seeing this, Zhang Yang nodded in satisfaction.

This Hegemon Blade Saber Qi was indeed powerful; using it on these four Moon Wolves felt a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

As for the blood staining the fur, it didn't matter much to Zhang Yang.

As long as the integrity of the pelt was sufficient, mere bloodstains were easy to clean.

After neatly skinning the four Moon Wolves and packing the pelts, Zhang Yang continued deeper into the mountain... "Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Amidst the dense forest, saber light flickered, and Saber Qi crisscrossed in all directions.

A strong smell of blood wafted through the air, and the ground was littered with the corpses of countless Yao Beasts.

The blood had even gathered into a small pool.

Zhang Yang stood holding his saber, panting heavily.

The power of the Hegemon Blade Five Absolutes was indeed great, but its consumption was also significant.

This continuous slaughter made it difficult even for Zhang Yang to keep up.

Among the scattered Yao Beast corpses, there was even a Tier-2 Low Grade Yao Beast.

This was equivalent to a Martial Artist at the first to third levels of the Meridian Opening Realm.

Yet, it still couldn't withstand a single strand of Zhang Yang's Hegemon Blade Saber Qi.

Zhang Yang approached the Yao Beast corpses with his saber, preparing to harvest Materials.

The group of Yao Beasts Zhang Yang had killed was a pride of Elephant-Toothed Lions,

a type of Yao Beast similar to the saber-toothed tigers of his previous life.

They lived in groups, characterized by two sharp teeth on either side of their mouths that were slightly smaller than elephant tusks.

Both the teeth and the fur of these Elephant-Toothed Lions were worth some contribution points.

Soon, Zhang Yang stripped off all the teeth and fur and placed them in his backpack.

"This won't do! The backpack seems a bit too small."

Zhang Yang frowned slightly as he looked at the nearly full backpack.

This full backpack of Materials wasn't even enough for him to exchange for a single meridian access pill.

The value of these Tier-1 Materials was too low.

The most valuable among them was still the teeth of that Tier-2 Low Grade saber-toothed tiger.

"It seems I need to go a bit deeper! Otherwise, after all this work, these few items just won't be enough."

Zhang Yang looked toward the depths of the back mountain.

In the inner parts of the back mountain lived Tier-2 and Tier-3 Yao Beasts, equivalent to Martial Artists in the Meridian Opening Realm and Spirit Aperture Realm.

As long as he was careful, with Zhang Yang's current combat power, killing some Tier-2 Medium Grade Yao Beasts shouldn't be a problem.

If he could kill a few Tier-2 Yao Beasts, Zhang Yang should be able to gather enough contribution points to exchange for two Medicinal Pills.

Zhang Yang took a deep breath and continued toward the inner back mountain... In a small courtyard of the Clear Wind Sect's outer sect.

The two people who had slipped away from Zhang Yang's place were now looking excitedly at the person in the center of the courtyard.

"Congratulations, Big Brother Kong, on breaking through to the Meridian Opening Realm!"

Dozens of people in the courtyard all clasped their hands and bowed to congratulate Kong Hanyu in the center.

Kong Hanyu looked around, scanning his lackeys.

Now that he had broken through to the Meridian Opening Realm, he only needed to go to the inner sect to verify his cultivation,

and he would become an Inner Sect Disciple of the Clear Wind Sect, with high status!

"Hmm! Why don't I see Zhang Yang? Didn't I tell you to recruit him before I went into seclusion?"

Kong Hanyu frowned, not finding Zhang Yang among them.

He had some impression of Zhang Yang; his talent was decent, and he should be able to enter the inner sect later.

That was why he had told his lackeys to recruit him before his seclusion,

so that he would have someone useful after entering the inner sect.

Since he wasn't here now, had something happened?

"You, come here! Tell me what's going on!"

Kong Hanyu looked at a lackey and waved him over.

The two men hurried to Kong Hanyu and said, "Big Brother Kong! That Zhang Yang is not to be trifled with!"

Then, the two of them told Kong Hanyu everything that had happened when they went to Zhang Yang's courtyard that day.

"Minor Achievement Hegemon Blade Five Absolutes?"

Kong Hanyu frowned slightly, surprised that Zhang Yang had actually cultivated this Martial Skill to Minor Achievement!

When he broke through to the Body Tempering Seventh Level and went to choose a Martial Skill, he had actually wanted to pick this one too.

But after careful consideration, he had chosen a Human Grade Low Grade Martial Skill instead.

After all, the difficulty of cultivating the Hegemon Blade Five Absolutes was quite famous,

and while Human Grade Low Grade Martial Skills were less powerful, their cultivation difficulty was lower.

More importantly, after entering the inner sect, one could Cultivate Profound-Rank Martial Skill.

It wasn't worth wasting time on Human-Rank Martial Skills.

"Good! In that case, this Zhang Yang is even more worth recruiting!"

Kong Hanyu smiled confidently.

If he were still at the Body Tempering Ninth Level, he might not be Zhang Yang's match.

But now he had broken through to the Meridian Opening Realm and possessed True Qi within his body!

And the power of Martial Skills driven by True Qi in the Meridian Opening Realm

would be on a whole different level compared to Martial Skills driven by blood qi in the Body Tempering Realm!

A mere Zhang Yang! Not worth mentioning!

"Tell me! Where is Zhang Yang now!"