124: Failed attempt to break through to the Grandmaster level?

Facing his son's confidence, Father Jiang said nothing and chose to trust him.

Jiang Yifeng returned to his backyard; the yard was overgrown with weeds, a dog lay on the ground basking in the sun, and several eagles circled in the sky.

Behind the trees of the thicket, a pair of fierce eyes loomed; their owner was actually a black bear.

A black bear significantly larger than an ordinary one.

The other animals were all small ones.

The entire backyard had essentially been converted into a safari park by Jiang Yifeng.

The Jiang Family members had originally disagreed, but Jiang Yifeng was the son of the Jiang Family Head.

Before Father Jiang stepped down from his position as Family Head, they had no choice but to compromise.

The once lively backyard had become desolate, with no more Jiang Family disciples playing and frolicking there.

Jiang Yifeng looked at the black bear and made a strange sound; the black bear retreated into its prepared cave.

At that moment, a pair of delicate hands rested on Jiang Yifeng's shoulders, covering his eyes, and a coquettish voice asked, "Guess who I am?"

"Yunwei!" Jiang Yifeng blurted out, turning around to move the delicate hands away.

The young girl before him, known as Yunwei, was beautiful, her slender figure wrapped in a pale yellow dress.

What a stunning beauty!

Deng Yunwei pouted her small lips and grumbled coquettishly, "How boring, you guessed it right away."

Deng Yunwei was not a member of the Jiang Family; as her surname suggested, she was a direct descendant of the Zhongzhou Deng Family.

Specifically, the Deng Family of the Four Great Hidden Families of Zhongzhou.

Of course, the Jiang Family only knew that the Deng Family was a Hidden Family, with no inkling of just how powerful they truly were.

It was simply because the Jiang Family and the Deng Family did not belong to the same circles.

The Jiang Family could only be considered a secular vassal family of the Deng Family.

However, due to internal turmoil within the Deng Family during Deng Yunwei's childhood, she had been raised in the Jiang Family for many years.

"Brother Yifeng, let's go out and play," Deng Yunwei said, pulling Jiang Yifeng's hand, her voice soft and sweet, a sugary smile on her face.

Her goal was simple: she wanted to help Jiang Yifeng move past the shadow of his lost cultivation.

But she didn't know that Jiang Yifeng's loss of cultivation was the result of his own deliberate actions.

"Go out?" Jiang Yifeng was stunned; he indeed hadn't left the house for a long time. Now that his Beast Taming Technique had reached mastery, he had a black bear with the strength of a Master, an exotic bird at the fourth rank, and a group of eagles at the third rank under his command.

It was also time to go out and see the world.

"Where to?"

Deng Yunwei thought for a moment and then remembered something. "I heard Elder Ling's grandson is coming back for his birthday; how about we go join the fun?"

"It's someone's birthday, is it... appropriate for us to go?" Jiang Yifeng hesitated, feeling a bit uncertain.

"What's inappropriate about it? My grandfather and Elder Ling have been friends for years; we're just crashing a meal," Deng Yunwei said dismissively, urging him on.

"I heard the tongxuan flowers are in bloom; they are heavenly treasures that enhance comprehension and are jointly cultivated by the great families," Deng Yunwei said, wanting to help Jiang Yifeng.

"Our Deng Family has a share as well; I'll ask Grandfather for one to give to you. It will surely restore your talent and help you reach the Master realm sooner."

Jiang Yifeng was moved upon hearing this, feeling more and more that befriending Deng Yunwei back then had been a wise move.

"How can that be? This is your Deng Family's share, and your peers in the family need it too; I can't accept it," Jiang Yifeng said, seemingly declining but actually playing on Deng Yunwei's feelings.

Sure enough, hearing this only made Deng Yunwei more determined to help Jiang Yifeng obtain one.

"Brother Yifeng, I've lived with the Jiang Family for so long; consider this tongxuan flower a gift to you," Deng Yunwei said generously. "If those people complain, I'll just make a scene with Grandfather to shut them up. I doubt they'd dare say anything."

A flash of joy crossed Jiang Yifeng's eyes, which he then masked with a look of concern. "This isn't good; I'm afraid it might damage Grandpa Deng's reputation."

"If you don't accept it, I'll be angry and never talk to you again!"

Seeing that things had reached this point, Jiang Yifeng agreed at just the right moment.

"Alright, then I'll thank you. Once I return to the Master realm, I will definitely propose to Grandpa Deng and marry you with all the pomp and ceremony of a grand wedding!"

These words were very pleasing to Deng Yunwei's ears, and a look of shyness and sweetness appeared on her face. "Stop it! Who says I want to marry you?"

...Meanwhile.

In a quiet courtyard prepared by the old man.

Unlike Jiang Yifeng's smug satisfaction, Ling Xian sat cross-legged in the center, surrounded by a large quantity of medicinal herbs, plus a tongxuan flower ripened by spending ten thousand villain points.

He was about to attempt to break through to the Seventh Rank, the Grandmaster realm!

Once successful, his ranking on the Heaven Ranking would surely reach the top hundred, and he might even have the strength to compete for the top fifty!

And he would be one of the few monstrous geniuses in the entire Dragon Country to step into the Grandmaster realm before the age of thirty.

"Whew~ Have I finally reached this step?"

This step was faster than Ling Xian had imagined; for most geniuses, the time it took to break through from Master to Grandmaster was longer than the time it took to go from an ordinary person to a Master.

But Ling Xian had only taken half a year. Unless one was a Child of Destiny who squeezed their foundation dry like Lin Feng, it was impossible to achieve such a dual explosion in cultivation speed and combat power.

"Cannot Be Queried - Cultivation Method, break for me!" Ling Xian circulated the Cannot Be Queried - Cultivation Method; the surrounding medicinal herbs were not used like pills or by ingestion.

Instead, they transformed into pure energy and flooded into Ling Xian's dantian. Then, pushing his cultivation to the limit, his dantian circulated the Cannot Be Queried - Cultivation Method, Five Beasts Stance Technique, and Golden Needle Technique, beginning to flush his meridians and acupoints.

Finally, those medicinal herbs turned into dregs, leaving only the tongxuan flower to begin burning, emitting a faint medicinal fragrance that nourished his body.

In the next moment, Ling Xian's mind cleared instantly, and he felt that not only was his Spiritual Power abundant, but it was also surging.

No, it wasn't just a surge in Spiritual Power; the spiritual sea that stored it had also expanded several times over.

The obvious and observable differences between a Master and a Grandmaster, besides the terrifying gap in combat power...

...was that a Master could only stay in the air for a brief moment, whereas a Grandmaster could truly walk on air, coming and going as they pleased.

The recovery speed of true qi could rival its consumption rate.

In ancient times, they could undoubtedly be called half-immortals.

"Not enough, not enough! Far from enough!" Ling Xian closed his eyes and felt the medicinal herbs being exhausted, somewhat surprised.

He had already prepared three times the medicinal herbs required for an ordinary Master to break through to Grandmaster, but it was still far from enough.

"Just one step away!" Ling Xian gritted his teeth, looking at the empty courtyard around him and sighing.

"What is this?" Ling Xian said helplessly, sitting back in his lounge chair with some disappointment.

"Next time, I must prepare more than ten times the amount!"

A lesson learned is a lesson earned.

Whether it was true qi, body tempering, or spirit, they were all too resource-intensive.

An ordinary martial artist who only needs to cultivate one path to reach the Master realm can be called a genius.

But Ling Xian was actually cultivating all of them.

Even a Child of Destiny like Jiang Yifeng had to switch to the Beast Taming path and lose his cultivation.

Advancing in two paths simultaneously multiplied the difficulty several times, and the difficulty of advancing in three paths simultaneously could only be imagined.