Invincible

In the backyard of Qinghui Garden, artificial rockeries and flowing streams lay amidst the faint fragrance of blooming flowers and trees. A scene invisible to ordinary men floated before Huang Tian's eyes. Several figures were gathered within it—Zhang Yu and his cohort, conspiratorially discussing their assassination strategy. "It would have been fine if you hadn't mentioned my name. But the moment you spoke it, how could you possibly remain hidden in the shadows...?" Huang Tian shook his head slightly. Taking five Blood Condensation Pills from a porcelain bottle set beside him, he threw them into his mouth all at once. Boom! The medicinal pills melted instantly on his tongue. A surging tide of medicinal power drove his blood-qi forward. What had once circulated gently suddenly turned into scalding, boiling magma, violently ramming through every single meridian and acupoint across his body like a raging bull. Inhale... exhale... inhale... exhale... With each steady breath, the veins beneath his skin bulged outward like contorted, coiling dragons. Their color was no longer dark green, but an alarming, fierce crimson, as if molten lava flowed beneath his flesh. A long-absent agony surged through his four limbs and hundred bones. It felt as though his meridians were on the verge of being torn apart by the berserk blood-qi, and his bones creaked under the overwhelming strain. His sinews stretched taut; his muscles and skin membrane tore apart only to knit back together. It felt as if a volcano were awakening within him, roaring and fighting to shatter the shackles of his physical shell to erupt into the world! Every breath he expelled carried a pungent scent of blood and searing heat, condensing into a small cloud of crimson mist in the empty air before him. Yet at the very instant he seemed poised to burst and die, a low "heng" and "ha" rumbled from his throat. In a flash, spiritual qi from heaven and earth surged toward him in a frantic rush. Upon entering his body, this spiritual qi blended with his feverishly boiling blood-qi, swiftly transforming into fine threads of cool true qi. Nearly transparent, like colored glaze, it gleamed with a faint golden halo. Threads of true qi circulated through his heavenly cycles. Wherever they passed, the flesh and bones that had just been scorched and torn by the blood-qi were rapidly nourished and restored, growing even more resilient, glowing with the lustrous sheen of fine jade. After completing a full circuit, the true qi coalesced, gradually forming a swirling vortex that resembled a cosmic nebula. Pop! At a certain moment, a crack of thunder exploded in Huang Tian's mind. His boiling blood-qi breached the dam that held it back, surging and roiling forward. Yet it no longer rampaged destructively without restraint as it had moments ago; instead, it gently nourished every corner of his body, bathing him in waves of soothing warmth. "Martial sixth rank—accomplished!" Whoosh— Huang Tian's body shuddered slightly. His eyes snapped open, blazing with sharp light. His expelled breath shot forward like a sword, and true qi erupted from all over him. Roar— With a clear, lingering dragon roar, the dense true qi melded with the surrounding spiritual qi of heaven and earth, astonishingly manifesting into five dragon silhouettes enveloped in billowing clouds! In midair, five colored cloud dragons—each only about a zhang in size, yet sporting distinct scales and claws, cloaked in solemn majesty—leaped and soared with wild abandon. The crimson cloud dragon was radiant as a sunset glow, like a roaring furnace fire, warping the air with its scorching heat. The black cloud dragon was dark as ink, accompanied by the faint rumble of churning waves, like a savage black dragon ravaging great rivers, capable of whipping up towering tsunamis with the slightest movement. The white cloud dragon gleamed silver-white, its scales chillingly sharp, like a peerless divine sword that could effortlessly cleave stone and sever metal, leaving a resonant metallic hum in its wake! The green cloud dragon carried an elegant bearing, its jade-green body resembling the fresh leaves of early spring, radiating vigorous life. The yellow cloud dragon coiled in the center, warm and smooth as ancient jade, poised like a steadfast mountain, radiating an unshakeable might that suppressed all before it! Huang Tian bent his knees slightly. Reaching out with both hands, he crossed them as if embracing a Taiji sphere. With a gentle motion, the five cloud dragons moved in tandem. They drifted and coiled nimbly above him, head to tail, forming a perfect and harmonious circle. The currents of air rotated slowly in rhythm with their movement, kicking up a gentle breeze that rustled Huang Tian's sleeves and long black hair. After a long while. He slowly drew back his stance. With a low growl, the five cloud dragons overhead plunged into his body, sending an overwhelmingly vast surge of power coursing through him. "After breaking through to the middle three ranks, the power of the Five Phases Five Forms Cloud Dragon Free Hand has grown considerably..." Previously, his Cloud Dragon Free Hand could only produce a single red-gold dragon, yet its power was so immense that even a fourth-rank martial artist would not dare take it head-on. Over this past period, he had perused countless exquisite martial arts techniques as well as several pinnacle-tier manuals on the second and third floors of the Martial Restraint Guard's Book Pavilion, supplemented by more than twenty martial handbooks. His foundation had grown immensely deeper, bringing his Cloud Dragon Free Hand closer to perfection. Now, unleashing his full power, he could manifest five true qi cloud dragons, each one far more formidable than the original red-gold dragon! If the five dragons merged into one, they would unleash a destructive force no weaker than that of a Dao Foundation realm, third-rank Grandmaster! Though unleashing this move would drain more than half of Huang Tian's true qi, meaning it could not be used as an ordinary technique, handling fourth-rank martial artists with it was effortless, and he could even hold his own against a Grandmaster for a short span. "A pity I cannot acquire more martial arts techniques for now. Otherwise, my Cloud Dragon Free Hand could be refined even further..." The earliest version of the Cloud Dragon Free Hand had fused the branch intents of the Five Phases with hundreds of different 'forms' into a single whole. Now, he intended to delve deeper into the Five Phases, deriving a dedicated form exclusive to each element. Once he worked out the five distinct forms representing the Five Phases, he would fuse them once more. When that time came, the overall power of the free hand would experience a monumental leap! Perhaps it might even give birth to an unprecedented great divine ability! This great divine ability did not merely refer to the Celestial Being divine abilities of the Five Directions Realm, but the transcendent divine abilities of immortals and gods found in myth and legend! "I need martial techniques! More martial techniques! An endless supply of them!" Lost in thought, he suddenly fell into deep contemplation. He was weighing a question: having developed quietly for so long, and having now reached the sixth rank—possessing the strength to briefly contend with a Grandmaster and standing virtually invincible within Kunyun Commandery—did he still need to keep laying low and developing in obscurity? "By my estimation, if I consume several Blood Condensation Pills daily, it will take about a month and a half to bring my blood-qi and true qi to full saturation again. My previous breakthroughs were swift because I was essentially re-cultivating, possessed high comprehension, and encountered virtually no bottlenecks, all while successfully absorbing spiritual qi back at the eighth rank, which allowed me to effortlessly cross into the middle three ranks. "Yet once in the sixth rank, my cultivation speed will inevitably slow down. Accumulating true qi will require quite a bit of time..." To Huang Tian, having to wait a month and a half for a breakthrough felt rather sluggish. Yet if anyone else heard such a complaint, they would surely spit on him in disgust, cursing him for being as insatiable as a snake trying to swallow an elephant! "Should I keep laying low the whole way? Staying in the shadows until I reach the fifth rank, the fourth rank, Grandmaster, or even until I become a Celestial Being?" Soon, he shook his head. "Others lie low because the tree that stands out in the forest gets felled by the wind; they fear being murdered. But with my anomaly, hardly anyone can assassinate me. Since there is no threat to my life, keeping a low profile serves little purpose. I should be bolder and more enterprising to obtain more martial techniques. "In the eyes of others, I am currently just a genius blessed with extraordinary potential. "Yet potential does not equal strength. Or rather, a genius with immense potential is still very different from a powerhouse who has already translated potential into actual might. "This impending assassination from the Feihong Sect presents the perfect opportunity to reveal a fraction of my strength. That way, my words will carry far more weight, and I will have much more leverage to borrow martial techniques from the book pavilions of the Six Doors, the Commandery Yamen, and the Black Armor Army!" His quiet development was practically complete. It was time to step onto the invincible path of sweeping across a million li of mountains and rivers!