61: Chapter 61 The Master Teacher, Yin He

Li Yuan listened to the complaints of the others and glanced at the Senior Brother beside him, Liang Duqiu.

Generally speaking, the eldest Disciple should uphold the Master's authority and speak on their behalf.

But when his Senior Brother heard these things, he remained silent, essentially agreeing by default.

"Our backgrounds might not be bad in the Da Shun Dynasty, but on Meifeng Mountain, they aren't enough to look at."

"Others are descendants of Eighth-Grade Experts or clansmen of Ninth-Grade Supremes."

"Junior Brother Li Yuan, you're probably like us, without a noble enough status, right?"

"Only people like us get assigned under Master Yin He."

Li Yuan nodded, neither staying silent nor intentionally hiding anything.

From what they said, Yin He was the type of Master who was extremely irresponsible.

He was lazy and wouldn't take the initiative to spend energy on the Disciples under him.

At the same time, he preferred it if his Disciples didn't come looking for him.

Given the time, he would rather have a good rest.

After lunch, Li Yuan followed his Senior Brothers back to the Northwest Courtyard.

This training area was called the Yin Court, named after Yin He's surname.

Li Yuan stood to the side and watched them practice first, using their performance to determine what level of strength he should display to the outside world.

After looking around, the excellent ones like Liang Duqiu already had the strength of the Fourth-Grade Perfection.

They were slightly inferior to young core Disciples of the Sect like Ruan Xingqiao.

The ordinary ones were at the Fourth-Grade Initial Realm.

After observing, Li Yuan decided that he would also display the strength of the Fourth-Grade Initial Realm.

While he was observing, a sloppy-looking middle-aged man lazily walked onto the training grounds.

Seeing Yin He arrive, everyone who was practicing stopped and bowed to him in unison: "Revered Master."

He was, after all, an Instructor of Meifeng Mountain and a Seventh-Grade Great Perfection Martial Artist.

The respect he was due had to be given.

Yin He's gaze swept across the surroundings before landing on Li Yuan.

"You must be the new Disciple."

"Disciple Li..."

Before Li Yuan could finish, Yin He waved his hand, interrupting him.

He didn't even have the interest to hear Li Yuan finish his self-introduction.

"Show me your best Martial Skill; let me take a look," Yin He instructed.

Hearing this, Li Yuan took a longsword from the weapon rack.

Li Yuan knew many Martial Skill Moves.

At the front lines of Yingyang Pass, he had obtained them through the Corpse Looting Technique while collecting bodies.

Displaying a common set would suffice.

After a moment's thought, Li Yuan began to demonstrate the "Lotus Sword."

The sword strikes like a lotus, wounding the enemy like falling petals.

The name of this sword technique was decent, but its foundation was limited and it had obvious flaws.

As Li Yuan practiced it now, he incorporated a bit of a Ninth-Grade Martial Artist's understanding.

Under this understanding, the "Lotus Sword" avoided many of its glaring weaknesses.

But seeing this, Yin He just shook his head repeatedly from the side.

"I won't even mention how messy your strikes are; there is neither sword intent nor Sword Qi."

"You're already at the Fourth-Grade Realm, so how can your understanding of sword techniques be so low?"

Li Yuan was quite surprised to hear this.

The "Lotus Sword" was never meant to injure enemies with Sword Qi.

It was a set of Martial Skills used to deliver surprise Moves in actual combat.

Only by catching the opponent off guard could the essence of this sword technique be fully realized.

Furthermore, these sword Moves already contained the understanding of the Ninth-Grade Realm.

Yin He hadn't noticed it at all.

Li Yuan was somewhat disappointed in this Instructor.

But it didn't matter; he hadn't come here seeking guidance.

In this world, there were few people who could actually give him pointers.

"Alright, I've seen exactly how much talent and potential you have."

"The Fifth-Grade Realm will be the limit of your life."

"Practice with your Senior Brothers; ask them if there's anything you don't understand."

"If you come to ask me, you probably won't even understand what I'm saying."

Yin He tossed out these words and turned to leave.

His visit, lasting barely fifteen minutes, counted as giving guidance to the Disciples.

Next time, he probably wouldn't return for several days.

While Yin He was testing Li Yuan's potential, Li Yuan had also seen exactly what Yin He was worth through this interaction.

At Meifengshan Martial Arts Academy, there were many poor Martial Artists even among the Instructors.

It seemed the greatest advantage of this academy was the numerous Secret Realms it controlled.

For people like Liang Duqiu, even if Yin He provided little help, being able to participate in Secret Realm trials frequently was indeed good.

After Yin He left, Li Yuan began to wander around the Yin Court.

His Senior Brothers needed to cultivate and train, and Li Yuan didn't want to waste their time, so he went exploring on his own.

Soon, in the main hall deep within the Yin Court, Li Yuan found some rewards.

The remains of a sage, likely preserved through some special means.

It was currently enshrined in the center of the hall.

The information he had received was indeed correct; Meifengshan Martial Arts Academy had this tradition.

Powerful ancestors would be enshrined after their passing for future generations to admire and worship.

Li Yuan bowed to this sage and then used the Corpse Looting Technique.

[Corpse Looting Technique (Level 5): Obtained Zhou Linyuan's martial arts experience, forty years of Internal Energy, "Throat-Cutting Strike," and "Purple Cloud Seal."]

This Senior Zhou Linyuan had also been a Ninth-Grade Supreme during his lifetime.

His abilities were transcendent, specializing in the Dao of slaughter and assassination.

One could say his martial path was a path of carnage.

The Dashun Imperial Court had a black hand and a white hand; back then, Zhou Linyuan was the black hand of Da Shun.

Many matters that couldn't be brought to light and had to be resolved in the shadows were handled by people like him.

Speaking of which, the things Zhou Linyuan did during his life were actually similar to the Langhe Martial Artists of the Jin Kingdom.

However, the current generation did not know this.

Seeing Zhou Linyuan enshrined here, they only regarded him as a powerhouse nurtured by Meifengshan Martial Arts Academy.

He checked his gains in his Sea of Consciousness.

Instead of looking at the two Cultivation Techniques first, Li Yuan's primary focus was his Internal Energy.

Looting a Ninth-Grade Supreme indeed yielded much greater rewards.

If it weren't for the Tai Xuan Divine Art, he would likely have stepped into the Ninth Grade Middle Stage after taking more Internal Energy from two Ninth-Grade sages.

But now, he might need to loot six Ninth-Grade Supremes to take another step forward.

Li Yuan wasn't too worried; the Tai Xuan Divine Art was a top-tier technique that significantly raised a Martial Artist's strength ceiling.

It was only natural that advancing would require more resources.

Besides, in this Meifengshan Martial Arts Academy, finding six Ninth-Grade Supremes to use the Corpse Looting Technique on shouldn't be too difficult.

Having thought this through, Li Yuan finally turned his gaze to the "Throat-Cutting Strike."

This wasn't a conventional Martial Skill, but more of an assassination technique.

Senior Zhou Linyuan had summarized this Martial Skill through his experiences in assassination.

It could be combined with any other Cultivation Technique to deliver a fatal strike to an enemy's vital points during close combat.