Chapter 138: Chapter 2: Peak of Early Jade Bone Realm
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“Mo Yanxue’s strength, according to my observation, is almost reaching 2 horsepower. Among the new students, if she is not the first, she is certainly not far off. How could she possibly lose?”
The Third Elder, He Qin, couldn’t help but speak up.
All the formations in the School were managed by her, and she was also responsible for the annual assessment of student basics, so for ordinary cultivators, she could tell what kind of strength they possessed without them having to make a move—eight or nine times out of ten, she would be correct.
She had observed Mo Yanxue’s previous matches and seen that she had at least 2 horsepower of extraordinary strength. And now you’re telling me that she lost to a little fellow from a Ninth-grade Source Pool…
Knowing that the other party would not lie, Lu Mingrong asked in shock, “How many moves did it take? What skills did Hong Yi use to defeat her?”
Teacher Zhou Xu said, “He didn’t use any skills, but knocked Miss Mo flying with a punch…”
Elder He Qin was at a loss for words, and Lu Mingrong fell silent.
To defeat Mo Yanxue, who had two horsepower, with a single move indicated that this Hong Yi’s strength was feared to be not only similarly powerful but far surpassing hers!
My own cultivation, just broke through to the pinnacle of the Viscera Realm in just a few days, and a student who I casually took on, who had 0.2 horsepower, was taught to exceed 2 horsepower…
I used to think that Yu Longqing was the epitome of genius, an insurmountable barrier, but only after seeing this person did I realize, compared to him, what I thought of as a barrier simply faded into insignificance…
“Oh, right, I have a feeling, of course, it’s just a feeling, I’m not sure if it’s correct…”
Seeing the silence around him, shocked by the news they had just learned, Chen Jinlin remembered something and couldn’t help but speak out, “When we were testing Teacher Zhang’s strength just now, he casually exhibited 60 horsepower, and I feel… he might not have been using his full strength!”
Lu Mingrong frowned, “You mean, it’s possible that he might have… already surpassed the Viscera Realm, reaching a higher level?”
“It’s just a feeling, with no evidence…” Chen Jinlin said.
“Teacher Zhang has always been low-key; it’s not impossible that he would do such a thing!” After a moment of silence, Lu Mingrong speculated.
Zhang Xuan was good in every aspect, but he was just too low-profile, always putting them in a somewhat passive position.
He Qin said, “In fact, it’s very simple to prove whether he used his full strength or not!”
Everyone looked at her with puzzled expressions.
He Qin said, “Every classroom has a Strength Measuring Formation. If Teacher Zhang has made any breakthrough in cultivation these days, he would definitely go and test it. Just find the formation and check the record, and we will be able to see his true cultivation!”
“That’s right…”
Everyone nodded their heads.
After finishing practice, the formation was right there; no one could resist the temptation to probe, just like putting a scale in front of a person dieting.
Once probed, there would be records.
“He just happens to be not in the classroom, let’s go take a look…”
Lu Mingrong nodded.
Everyone hurriedly made their way to Zhang Xuan’s classroom, and shortly after reaching it, they opened the door. The shattered formation immediately appeared before their eyes.
Elder He Qin’s face turned white, “This is… shattered by an overwhelming strength!”
“Shattered? Over 99 horsepower?”
Lu Mingrong’s pupils contracted, “Spirit Soul Realm, Eightfold Realm of Source Pool? Or even higher?”
The Source Pool’s cultivation had set a limit, the Jade Bone Realm could only have up to 99 horsepower, and it was impossible to go beyond.
Not only did the other party exceed it, but also shattered the formation with this power… It indicated that his cultivation may very well be the same as mine, reaching the Divine Soul Realm, or even higher!
No wonder he could guide my breakthrough; it turns out… the other person has this cultivation already!
How laughable it is that I thought recruiting him as a teacher was doing him a favor; after all this time, if he really wanted to show his strength, I might have to respectfully become his disciple.
“Let’s go back to the training ground and see what kind of progress Yu Xiaoyu and the others have made!”
Knowing that these things were just speculation, and before it was confirmed, it would not be believed even if said, School Head Lu did not continue to dwell on this issue and waved his hand.
Everyone nodded and hurriedly headed towards the training ground.
…
Unaware that his punch, when he unleashed Burning New World, had been witnessed by Lu Mingrong and others, Zhang Xuan was now quietly sitting in a room on the third floor of the Book Collection Vault.
He had nearly collected all the books on the Sevenfold Jade Bone Realm of the Source Pool, and with sufficient Heavenly Mandate Vitality inside the Library, it was time to form the Heaven’s Path Divine Art.
With a thought, thousands of books floated in the air, and as Heavenly Mandate Vitality burned, a book with no words on its cover shone with a faint glow, appearing before him.
“Jade Bone Realm, tempering the entire bones like jade…”
The contents of the book flowed into his mind.
Bones are the hardest and slowest part of the human body to cultivate. To refine them into jade, the task is not to use Origin qi to temper the bones but to polish the bone marrow.
The bone marrow has the effect of producing blood and bones. As long as one controls the Origin qi to enter it, and nurtures it slowly, it can improve bone density and slowly increase one’s strength once again.
Knowing that everyone had gone to the training ground and that there would be no disturbances, Zhang Xuan’s spirit stirred, and the refined Origin qi in the Suspended Realm surged into his bone marrow, continuously nourishing it.
Having been refined by the Mystic Yellow Qi Furnace, the Origin qi within the Suspended Realm was extremely pure and very easy to absorb.
To polish the bone marrow, one needs refined Origin qi to continuously scour it over time, achieving a qualitative transformation through persistence, similar to the process of water wearing away stone. For other people, the greatest difficulty in cultivation is finding enough Origin qi.
For example, taking the Peak of Pinnacle Furnace that can absorb 200 Origin qi per day, to have 180 Origin qi nurturing the bone marrow daily is already very diligent, considering that nourishing the muscles and practicing skills also require strength… Even with such calculations, one can use at most about 60,000-plus Origin qi for tempering in a year.
It may seem a lot, but when distributed to the bone marrow throughout the body, the amount per area is not much after averaging it out.
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Therefore, practicing at the Jade Bone Realm is extremely difficult, and many experts are trapped in this realm, unable to make a breakthrough even after ten or twenty years.
Unlike these people, Zhang Xuan’s Origin World within him contains pure and inexhaustible Origin qi. In less than two hours, he had used no less than thirty thousand pathways!
After so much refinement by the Origin qi, his entire skeleton had undergone changes. Although it was still some distance away from being as smooth and lustrous as jade, the toughness of his bones had greatly improved.
“Jade Bone Realm, Peak of the Early Stage!”
Feeling his cultivation, Zhang Xuan exhaled slowly, got up, and threw a punch, only to furrow his brow again.
His cultivation had improved, but he was certain that his strength remained at 99 horsepower, not increasing by the slightest amount.
It was as if his power had been forcibly constrained at this level, with no chance of further breakthrough.
“Is this the restriction of destiny?”
According to what Elder Su Qiao had said, the power before the Eightfold Realm of the Source Pool is limited to 99 horsepower, a stipulation from the Heaven Mandate Hall, just like the laws of the Empyrean. As long as your fate lies within the Source World, it is impossible to break through.
This is akin to the speed of light being 300,000 kilometers per second in the past; if you’re still within the universe where Earth resides, no matter how advanced technology becomes, surpassing it is impossible.
If this is still difficult to understand, one could imagine this world as a game where the strength of NPCs at each level has a set value. Even if they developed their own consciousness and wanted to break the programming to rewrite the code, it would be impossible.
Because they themselves are part of the program’s codes, it is not possible to jump out of it; even if they managed to do so, they certainly wouldn’t be able to survive.
“It seems that before stepping into the Divine Soul Realm, my strength will not be able to make any breakthroughs…”
Understanding this, Zhang Xuan shook his head helplessly.
He had thought that by practicing the Heaven’s Path Divine Art, he would be able to fight above his level like on the Master Teacher Continent. Now it seemed that without the ability to break through in strength, fighting above one’s level would be extremely difficult.
“If normal fist arts can’t break the shackles of destiny and surpass 99 horsepower, how about the Pathos of Heaven sword art?”
A thought suddenly emerged in his mind.
The Pathos of Heaven sword art was a skill that transcended the Heavenly Dao; back in the Empyrean, it was with this sword art that he had become the emperor of the nine heavens, unparalleled.
If the cultivation methods and skills formed from books in the Source World couldn’t help him break through his power limit, perhaps the Pathos of Heaven sword qi could.
Very likely!
With this thought, Zhang Xuan didn’t hesitate and swiftly reached a Strength Measuring Formation in the Book Collection Vault.
Taking a deep breath, he threw a punch.
The formation emitted a light hum, and a line of text appeared on a stone tablet not far away.
99 horsepower!
Just as he had felt before, his cultivation had broken through, but his strength had not increased at all, as if soldered to these two digits.
Knowing that this was the strength laid down by destiny, Zhang Xuan didn’t hesitate and, with a sword-finger gesture, thrust the Pathos of Heaven sword technique fiercely forward.
Whoosh!
The sword qi, like a breathtaking beauty, instantly tore through space, leaving behind a distinct trace. The powerful, splendid strength, upon contact with the Strength Measuring Formation, immediately caused it to wobble.
Boom!
Like the punch he had thrown when using the Breathtaking Verisimilitude, the Strength Measuring Formation could no longer withstand it and collapsed thunderously.
“More than 99 horsepower!”
Zhang Xuan let out a sigh of relief.
Before breaking through to the Divine Soul Realm, he couldn’t surpass the shackles left by the Heaven Mandate Hall, but with the Pathos of Heaven sword technique, he could do so effortlessly.
The Pathos of Heaven sword art, which he created, could be executed through the sword, naturally also through fists and arms, or even every part of the body. In this way, if he truly encountered a Divine Soul Realm expert and caught them off guard, he would still be able to vanquish them.
Of course, in ordinary times, he would treat this sword technique as his ace in the hole and not use it lightly.
“I wonder how Xiaoyu and the others are doing in their competition!”
Knowing that it would take at least two or three days to train from the early to the intermediate stage of the Jade Bone Realm, Zhang Xuan decided not to continue staying there and walked out.
While there were a few Divine Soul Realm cultivation methods here, they were no longer sufficient to form a Heaven’s Path Divine Art. Staying in the Book Collection Vault was now pointless.
At the current training ground, all the students had gathered around a central competition stage, creating an extraordinarily lively scene, while all the other nine stages had come to a halt.
“What’s going on? Why such a commotion?”
Since it was too crowded to squeeze in, Zhang Xuan asked a nearby student out of curiosity.
Logically speaking, with tens of thousands of students in the school, the preliminary matches wouldn’t even be finished in three or four hours. Why did it seem like the finals were being held now?
“It’s because several new students this year are too strong. They’ve directly challenged the school’s veteran students. With such exciting events, other matches are naturally devoid of interest and no one cares to watch them anymore. Some even don’t want to compete…”
The student didn’t recognize Zhang Xuan and thought he was just another student, so he casually explained.
“New students challenging veteran students? Who are they, and why are they so bold?” Zhang Xuan was shocked.
Veteran students have all practiced for at least a year or more, some in higher grades have even broken through the Accumulative Realm into the Physique Realm. For new students who had just entered the door less than three days ago to challenge them… were they insane?
“It’s the city lord’s daughter Yu Xiaoyu, and the Liu Clan’s Patriarch Liu’s daughter Liu Mingyue, as well as a guy named Hong Yi…”
The student paused and added, “They are said to be taught by a teacher named Zhang Xuan… you think this teacher is sick or something? He’s only taught for three days and let his students challenge the veteran students. Isn’t that just asking for trouble? Oh right, brother, you look kind of unfamiliar, which class are you from?”
Zhang Xuan nodded slightly with a sense of resignation, “I am the ‘sick’ teacher you mentioned, Zhang Xuan!”