Li Miao looked Yun Zelin up and down, not rushing to act. He walked to the side and sat down, leaning against the armrest, and looked at Yun Zelin.
He genuinely wanted to hear what Yun Zelin had to say.
Although Yun Zelin currently looked like he was on his last legs, as if a kick would make him fall apart, Li Miao could feel the incredibly profound true qi surging within his body.
It was stronger than Lan Lechuan's.
It could be said that the current Yun Zelin was the strongest person Li Miao had heard of and seen since he came to Great Shuo.
Yun Zelin sat down, covered his mouth, coughed a few times, and looked at Li Miao.
“Lord Li, let’s start with you first.”
“If I’m not mistaken, your current situation is actually quite similar to mine.”
“Oh?” Li Miao replied noncommittally.
Yun Zelin continued, “I relied on the achievements of Jijiao zhu and took a shortcut.”
“I was born with extraordinary comprehension, and cultivating '"Jiezi"' came naturally.”
“But 'Vajra' and 'Sumeru' both require innate aptitude. I was born with a defect; others have the Eight Extraordinary Meridians plus the Twelve Main Meridians. I only have three main meridians that are open.”
“To be honest, even a cripple would be more suitable for martial arts than me.”
Yun Zelin gave a self-deprecating smile.
“Although the Ming Cult compensated for my aptitude, it still couldn’t reach the level of Lan Left Envoy. Therefore, I could only try an unorthodox path.”
Yun Zelin raised his hand to caress his chest, and slowly said,
“Jijiao zhu, with her heaven-sent talent, forged a new path, combining Miao Xinjiang Gushu to find this road that no one had ever walked before.”
“The five zang organs are where spirit, essence, blood, qi, soul, and ethereal soul are stored.”
“The heart is the foundation of life. Using the essence and blood of Master Zuo to cultivate a gu worm allowed me to attain 'Vajra'.”
“The kidney governs the intake of qi. Using the essence and blood of Lan Left Envoy to cultivate a gu worm allowed me to attain 'Sumeru'.”
“At this moment, I already possess three supreme attainments.”
Li Miao smiled, “And then you made yourself half-dead like this.”
Yun Zelin wasn’t annoyed; instead, he nodded in agreement.
“Yes, I naturally cannot be compared to you.”
“In my humble opinion, the number of people in this world who consider themselves heaven-blessed talents are as numerous as ox hair. Yet, they are all merely mediocre people, like frogs in a well or peeking at the sun through a window.”
“Including Jijiao zhu, including me, we are all just mediocre people who took shortcuts.”
“The only one truly walking the right path is Lord Li.”
“Only now can I barely see clearly, Lord Li, you have also simultaneously cultivated 'Vajra', 'Sumeru', and '"Jiezi"', right?”
“It’s just that, unlike mediocre talents like me who rush for quick success, you walked to the very end, and when you were only one step away, you stopped yourself.”
“You deliberately did not cultivate any of your three paths to perfection.”
Li Miao scoffed, “Nonsense. If I had cultivated them to perfection, I would have ended up looking like a ghost like you.”
Someone who could clearly discern Li Miao’s martial arts realm had finally appeared.
That’s right, the reason Li Miao called himself “half a martial arts legend” was because he had already integrated “Vajra,” “Sumeru,” and “"Jiezi"” into one, being only one step away from Sanfeng Zhenren’s realm.
Moreover, it wasn’t that he couldn’t take that step.
If he wanted to, he could complete all three simultaneously right now.
He actively stopped himself.
Because he vaguely felt that he was still missing something, something he hadn’t found yet.
Rashly taking that step would lead to the same fate as the heaven-blessed talents who previously tried to cross the chasm—Celestial Human Five Declines.
It was precisely for this reason that none of his three paths were cultivated to perfection. He deliberately left a step, not taking it.
Therefore, Lan Lechuan’s palm strike was able to leave a mark on him.
“Don’t talk about me, talk about yourself.”
“I’m quite curious to hear, what exactly were you aiming for by causing such a huge commotion, crippling the Ming Cult, and making yourself half-dead?”
Li Miao said.
Yun Zelin smiled, not speaking for a moment.
He raised his emaciated hand, like withered wood, and tapped his chest several times.
Instantly, a strong stench of decay emanated from him, accompanied by wisps of white smoke rising from his seven orifices, enveloping his entire being.
Whoosh—
Li Miao raised his hand and struck out with a palm.
True qi surged, dispersing the white smoke.
Looking at Yun Zelin again, Li Miao let out a surprised grunt.
“Interesting.”
At this moment, Yun Zelin no longer appeared as decrepit as before; many of the wrinkles on his face had disappeared. His skin and flesh were also not as loose as before.
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Even the wound on his forehead, which Li Miao had struck, originally revealed a pale white skull, but now it was a blood-red, with only a thin layer of flesh having grown, though still without skin.
“Everything I did was to catch up to you.”
Yun Zelin showed no intention of explaining his strange condition, continuing the previous topic as if nothing had happened.
“I still need some time. Would Lord Li be willing to listen to me say a few more words?”
Li Miao remained noncommittal, so Yun Zelin continued to speak on his own.
“My father was a direct disciple of a major sect.”
“I was born with extraordinary comprehension. When I was four years old, I merely watched him practice a few moves in the courtyard, and I was able to complete the sword technique myself, only slightly inferior to the sect’s inherited version.”
“That day, I held a branch and demonstrated the sword technique I had comprehended to my father. At that time, his expressions of shock and ecstasy are still vivid in my memory.”
“From that day on, all the elders within the sect frequently appeared before me. The sect leader celebrated my birthday, and the elders congratulated me. My father’s status also rose accordingly; everyone believed he would be the father of the next sect leader.”
“However, when I turned ten, the sect finally began preparing to lay the foundation for me. They discovered my innate bone structure was flawed.”
Li Miao, however, scoffed with disdain, “What a cliché plot. Was there no sect leader’s daughter to break off the engagement?”
Of course, Yun Zelin didn’t understand his words.
Li Miao twirled his fingers, indifferently saying to Yun Zelin, “I’m not interested in your childhood trauma.”
“In this world, there are countless unfortunate people and stories; I’m tired of hearing them. Get to the point.”
Yun Zelin chuckled, “Alright, alright.”
“In short, some things happened in between. So, when I was eighteen, I poisoned my father and secretly defected from the sect.”
“At first, I was not convinced.”
“There are many martial arts in this world, and beyond the borders of Great Shuo, there are even paths completely different from those in the Central Plains Martial World.”
“So I began to wander around, secretly learning various martial arts while trying to create a cultivation method that even I, with my bone structure, could practice.”
“I achieved some results, and when I was twenty-eight, I finally reached the second-rate level in the martial world.”
“It was also that year that I joined the Ming Cult and met you in Shuntian Prefecture.”
Saying this, Yun Zelin again raised his hand and tapped his chest a few times.
Instantly, his face seemed to have aged down by several years, now appearing as a middle-aged, effeminate man.
A nearly devout expression appeared on his face.
“So-called comprehension, to put it plainly, is eyesight and mental fortitude.”
“Others couldn’t see through it, only thinking your bone structure was exceptionally good. Only I, who have studied how to improve bone structure for over a decade, could clearly see that your bone structure is unprecedented.”
“That sword strike of yours awakened me from this boring world full of mediocre people.”