Two white lights collided with each other and then slowly faded away in the space. Chu Ming's eyes flickered, and with the help of the rebounding force, he moved much faster. In a blink of an eye, he surpassed Li An and reached the finish line!
After that, Li An, Fang Jie...
"Alright, now that the top ten are out, you ten, come with me!"
Once ten disciples reached the finish line, the Inner Sect Elder stepped forward and said, leading the way towards the Inner Sect area, with Chu Ming and the others closely following.
"Chu Ming, I won't lose to you!" Li An looked at Chu Ming with an unpleasant expression. Although Chu Ming had blocked one of his attacks at the end, he only thought that Chu Ming's body technique was good. In terms of strength, Chu Ming was far behind him!
"Then you better give it your all, or you won't even see my shadow!" Chu Ming responded calmly.
Arrogant!
This was the first reaction of the surrounding disciples. Chu Ming didn't care about their expressions; only he knew how heaven-defying the light fragment within his body was!
In terms of actual cultivation, it took him only four months to catch up with them. In the future, it would be even harder for them to match up with him!
Soon, the few of them arrived at the Inner Sect area. Compared to the Outer Sect, the area and size of the Inner Sect were almost the same, but because there were fewer people in the Inner Sect, each Inner Sect disciple had their own independent courtyard.
The Elder entered a pavilion and took out ten iron tokens. Then, his fingers constantly slid over the tokens, causing iron filings to fly and fall to the ground.
After a while, the Elder stopped, "These are your Inner Sect tokens. Remember not to lose them, or you will lose your status as Inner Sect disciples. Also, here are your Inner Sect uniforms, three sets per person!"
With a wave of the Elder's right hand, dozens of white robes appeared in front of the few of them. Their faces immediately showed envy; this was a storage ring.
Withdrawing their envious expressions, each person took three sets of clothes and stood respectfully aside.
"Except for you three, the rest of you may leave!"
The Elder said, and the other seven bowed and left the pavilion. At this moment, only Chu Ming, Li An, Fang Jie, and the Elder remained inside.
"These are your rewards this time. As for martial techniques, you need to go to the Martial Arts Pavilion to choose for yourselves!"
The Elder said calmly. Li An and Fang Jie looked at Chu Ming with envy. Only Chu Ming, having taken the first place, could now choose a Profound Level low-tier martial technique. Although Li An and Fang Jie could get a discount, the required contribution points were still astronomical. Gathering them would take a long time!
After speaking, the Elder closed his eyes, implying that there was no need to say more. Chu Ming and the others bowed and left.
After leaving the pavilion, the three of them parted ways. Their tokens not only had their names but also the numbers of their courtyards. Chu Ming returned to his own courtyard.
Inside, it was extremely tidy, evidently cleaned often, and he felt very satisfied.
Then, Chu Ming took out all his rewards for taking first place this time!
One hundred lower grade spirit stones, one Golden Cicada Pill, and a Profound Level lower tier martial technique, which he had to choose for himself at the Martial Arts Pavilion!
Returning to his room, Chu Ming immediately put the Golden Cicada Pill into his mouth. Instantly, the powerful spiritual power within the elixir surged through his body. Chu Ming quickly started operating his Cyan Yuan Technique!
Rumble
Cyan Yuan Technique, Fourth Layer!
The spiritual power within Chu Ming increased by thirty percent. But it didn't end there; the spiritual power contained in the Golden Cicada Pill was so vast that it took him half an hour to fully absorb its energy.
When Chu Ming opened his eyes, a bright light shot out from them. At this moment, he was already a Postnatal Eighth Layer Late Stage Martial Artist. The Golden Cicada Pill had directly advanced him past the Postnatal Eighth Layer Middle Stage!
Next, Chu Ming did not come out of seclusion but continued cultivating with lower grade spirit stones. One hundred lower grade spirit stones were enough for him to cultivate for a month.
An Inner Sect disciple could receive twenty lower grade spirit stones per month, much more than the Outer Sect disciples. In the Great Yan Kingdom, the circulating spirit stones were primarily lower grade spirit stones. As for middle grade spirit stones, they were rare.
A month passed by unknowingly. Just after becoming an Inner Sect disciple, Chu Ming could avoid tasks for two months, but after that, he had to go to the Task Hall to take a task every month!
During this month, Li An advanced and became a Transcendence Realm Martial Artist. He often did tasks and frequently returned covered in blood, gaining some fame among the Inner Sect disciples. After all, there were not many disciples who did tasks as crazily as he did!
When Chu Ming emerged from seclusion, a month had already passed. After a month of seclusion, his cultivation reached the peak of the Postnatal Eighth Layer, and the spirit stones in his hand were completely used up, even the twenty spirit stones given to Inner Sect disciples!
After coming out of seclusion, he immediately headed to the Martial Arts Pavilion. The Inner Sect Martial Arts Pavilion was grander than the Outer Sect one. The people coming in and out were all hard to assess in terms of cultivation, clearly, they were all Transcendence Realm Martial Artists.
The first floor of the Martial Arts Pavilion housed some top-tier Yellow Level martial techniques. To access Profound Level martial techniques, one had to go to the second floor! It was said that the highest-grade martial technique in the entire Cyan Yang Sect was a top-tier Profound Level technique!
"Elder, I'm here to choose a martial technique. Here is my token!"
At the staircase to the second floor, an Elder was dozing off. After glancing at Chu Ming's token, he spoke indifferently.
"You have one incense stick's worth of time, make the best use of it!"
Chu Ming nodded and proceeded to the second floor, which was smaller than the first and had fewer martial techniques.
Similarly, there were many young men and women choosing martial techniques on the second floor. Seeing Chu Ming, many showed surprise but soon returned their attention to the martial techniques!
"Postnatal Martial Artist? Oh right, it seems like the Wooden Puppets Alley challenge just ended a month ago. This person should be in the top ten!"
A young man muttered and continued searching for his martial technique.
Before coming to the Martial Arts Pavilion, Chu Ming had already decided on the martial technique he wanted. He had already mastered the Rainfall Swordsmanship to a level of mastery and could no longer improve it.
To enhance his attack power, he had to choose a sword technique.
Thousand Yuan Swordsmanship, Earth Ghost Swordsmanship, Fire Cloud Swordsmanship, Starfire Swordsmanship...
There were more than twenty Profound Level lower-tier sword techniques. After consideration, Chu Ming chose the Starfire Swordsmanship.
Starfire Swordsmanship focused on attack power and explosiveness. Once Chu Ming mastered this technique, his attack power could be increased two to three times!
Unlike Yellow Level techniques, the original copies of the Profound Level techniques couldn't be taken away. Instead, they had to be imprinted personally.
However, after cultivating, one had to destroy the copy. If the sect found out that the technique had been taught selfishly, the punishment would range from having one's cultivation crippled to being executed.
Chu Ming took out his token from the Elder and returned to his courtyard to start practicing the Starfire Swordsmanship.
As a Profound Level technique, despite being lower-tier, it was still profoundly intricate. However, due to the presence of the white light fragment, Chu Ming's comprehension of the Starfire Swordsmanship came like an endless river in his mind.
Unlike the Rainfall Swordsmanship and Cyan Yang Swordsmanship, Starfire Swordsmanship had only one move: Starfire Extinction! With one strike, the air would be annihilated!
Just like this, a month unknowingly passed as Chu Ming practiced the Starfire Swordsmanship.
"Starfire Extinction!"
A red, destructive sword aura cut through the sky like a raging fire, spreading high temperatures through the space, evaporating water droplets in the air. The leaves falling nearby turned to ashes instantly.
"How powerful!"
Chu Ming's eyes narrowed. This strike could probably match a Second Layer Transcendence Realm Martial Artist, proving the worth of a Profound Level technique! At this moment, Starfire Swordsmanship had been cultivated to the level of mastery. Although it was impossible for most disciples, for Chu Ming, it posed no problem!
"It's time to take on tasks!" Chu Ming thought to himself as he headed to the Task Hall. Every Inner Sect disciple had to complete tasks every month; otherwise, they would be stripped of their Inner Sect status!
"Hurry, make way, quickly rescue Senior Brother Lu!"
As Chu Ming approached the Task Hall, a group of disciples passed by him, carrying a blood-soaked, barely conscious disciple!
"Isn't that Senior Brother Lu Feng? What happened to him?" A disciple asked with a face full of suspicion.
"It happened while he was doing a task and had a conflict with disciples from Cyan Nether Mountain. They beat him severely!" A disciple who knew the details spoke with some resentment on his face.
Chu Ming listened quietly and made comparisons in his heart. In the Great Yan Kingdom, the various sects were not united but instead competed with each other, each wanting to surpass the others.
Conflicts and serious injuries among disciples from different sects while on tasks were common. Even the Cyan Yang Sect had disciples who severely injured disciples from other sects.
The Cyan Yang Sect would not intervene in these matters. After all, being seriously injured simply meant that one's skills were inferior!
Chu Ming slowly entered the Task Hall. On the walls of the task hall were many iron tokens, and many disciples were choosing tasks carefully as picking the wrong task could cost them their lives.
Tasks in the Task Hall were divided into three levels based on difficulty: Gold, Silver, and Copper, with each level further divided into three sub-levels.
Copper Level First lowest, Gold Level Third highest.
Chu Ming began looking from the lowest level.
"Obtain the teeth of a Wind Leopard, reward: 100 contribution points, 20 lower grade spirit stones. Suggested: a First Layer Transcendence Realm Martial Artist!"
Wind Leopards were top-tier Second Level demon beasts and could even match Transcendence Realm Martial Artists.
However, the contribution points were too few, so Chu Ming immediately dismissed this task. To exchange for a Profound Level martial technique would require at least ten to twenty thousand contribution points. If he took on such tasks, who knew how long it would take!