Grandmaster

Chihe Residence. Yaoguang was just about to turn on the TV... "Power's out again," he murmured. The blackouts were becoming abnormally frequent. Related to demons? The outages had grown more frequent over the past year or two. Did that mean demons weren't around since ancient times, but had only arisen recently? Yet why had Xia Li been famous for a whole decade? He couldn't make sense of it. Still... Pondering it served no purpose. A year ago, the original owner of this body had bumped into a demon by chance and reported it, only to be attacked and killed by demons a single day later—which was how Yaoguang ended up transmigrating here. This showed just how deeply demons had penetrated human society. He only needed to take care of his own affairs. If demons killed "him," he would kill demons. "Nations aren't the same. Dayu isn't Daxia." Yaoguang sat down on the sofa and closed his eyes to rest. In his spiritual realm: A mysterious ancient tree nearly four meters tall was slowly growing. This was the source behind his transmigration. Its principles were unknown. At present, three branches grew from the trunk, representing three career paths: [Martial Dao], [Demon Hunter], [Merchant]. Cultivating martial arts, slaying demons, or profiting from trade—the ancient tree could absorb nutrients, or experience points, from all of them to make the branches grow. Yet that was not the key. The key was that he could control the tree's nutrients and channel them into whichever branch he wished to focus on cultivating. Right now, Yaoguang focused his mind on the [Demon Hunter] branch. [Slain: Rank 3 Superior Horned Demon. The Rank 1 Demon Hunter branch has obtained growth nutrients... Because the main trunk absorbed all nutrients, growth has halted.] He then glanced at the [Martial Dao] branch. [Nutrients from main trunk infused; growing rapidly.] Looking closely, there was more detailed information on the [Martial Dao] branch: Rank: Rank 3 Grandmaster. Dao Fruits: Formless, Perception. As the branch representing the Martial Dao grew rapidly, Yaoguang felt as though it pierced through the void, absorbing all knowledge regarding the "Martial Dao" from some mysterious, unknowable realm, which he then digested piece by piece. In an instant, every scrap of knowledge regarding a Grandmaster's viscera refining became completely clear to him. He thoroughly mastered all the experience related to refining the internal organs. Forget other Grandmasters—when it came to understanding the viscera refining realm, probably not even a Martial Saint could match a tenth of his mastery. After a long while, Yaoguang opened his eyes. The branch representing the third rank of the Martial Dao had already blossomed, only ten or twenty percent away from bearing fruit. "Although progress in the third rank of the Martial Dao isn't yet complete, I have a feeling that I can now reach perfection in internal training with absolute certainty, all the way to blood cleansing and marrow washing. It'll just take three to five years." Yaoguang paused, then continued, "No! I can be much more aggressive. Using my experience, I can temper my five viscera and six bowels in ways ordinary people would consider extreme, drastically shortening the time to perfect internal training. If I'm even more aggressive and stimulate the process with medicinal herbs, I can cut it down to under a year." A Grandmaster in one year. A Martial Saint in two. "Besides..." Yaoguang took a soft breath. His lungs and viscera vibrated, and the force within his body seemed to coalesce into a tight mass in an instant. In the next moment, it surged through his arm, his muscles and bones thrumming in unison as he punched forward with a boom. *Bang!* A dull, heavy roar exploded within the room. The air in front of his punch detonated, generating a visible shockwave that blasted out in all directions. Several small ornaments in the living room were swept clean off their surfaces and clattered to the floor, and even the curtains billowed wildly. "Dan jin," Yaoguang murmured. External body conditioning, stretching sinews and pulling bones, internal strengthening of the viscera, and blood cleansing and marrow washing—these were the four training methods of the Martial Dao, focused on strengthening the physique and evolving the flesh. Meanwhile, ming jin, an jin, hua jin, and dan jin were the four combat arts of the Martial Dao. Only those who mastered dan jin could condense their qi into a core, thereby proceeding to blood cleansing and marrow washing. "So this is dan jin." Yaoguang calmed his qi and blood. Condensing qi into a core, followed by blood cleansing and marrow washing, allowed one to break through the limits of the human body, stepping into an entirely new realm, transcending the mundane to achieve sainthood. Thus, this realm was honored as Martial Saint. Such figures were so rare that Tiannan Province might not possess a single one. Furthermore... "A Martial Saint can already break through the limits of the human body. What comes next!?" Martial God!? Heavenly Being!? Subduing mountains and rivers with a fist? Shattering the void? Can one soar among the clouds? Can one attain immortality? He did not know. Still... Since demons existed, surely it wasn't too much to hope to cultivate into a Human Immortal? His awareness lingered briefly on the blossom blooming on the [Martial Dao] branch. "The Dao flower for the third rank of the Martial Dao has opened. With another ten or twenty percent of progress, Rank 3 Grandmaster will be perfected. I wonder what kind of Dao Fruit it will bear then." Whenever a rank reached perfection, the branch would blossom and bear fruit. Every Dao Fruit nurtured a secret art for him. The [Formless] of the Martial Artist stage and the [Perception] of the Martial Master stage had both originated this way. *Ring, ring, ring.* Just then, his phone rang. Yaoguang glanced at the caller ID on the screen. Su Anping. In fact, anyone checking his call log would see that this number called once every day. As for his identity... The original owner's father. In theory, having reincarnated into this body, he ought to shoulder this karmic tie. Yet this family... How to put it? They were quite the piece of work. Every last one of them was a character. What was more, the "parents" had been divorced for over two years, and the relationships were a tangled mess. He simply followed the original owner's approach: shelve it and ignore them. The phone rang for a while, then went quiet. Just as Yaoguang thought this was merely the daily routine call, the phone rang again. Over the next few minutes, it rang six times in a row, as if whoever was calling would never stop until he picked up. During this barrage, not only did Su Anping call, but someone named Zhang Ya called as well. And that person... was the original owner's mother. Seeing the phone ring for the eighth time, suggesting something truly serious might have happened, he finally answered. "Ah Guang, hurry and hide..." The moment the call connected, Su Anping's anxious voice came through. Before he could finish, the phone seemed to be snatched away by Zhang Ya. "Su Yaoguang, what is wrong with you? I called you so many times and you didn't answer a single one? Think your wings are fully grown now? You—" Yaoguang hung up, cutting short the scolding voice. Ten seconds later, when the phone began to ring again, he simply powered it off. "Pointless." Yaoguang tossed the phone onto the bed. Hide? No need to guess—it was surely more trivial drama from the Su family. Though by "Su family," this didn't mean Su Anping's family, but the Su family of his biological father, Su Huaifeng. He paid it no mind and headed straight into the training room. Using the Tiger-Leopard Thunder Sound Technique, he tempered his viscera and vibrated his bone marrow, aiming to cleanse his blood and wash his marrow as quickly as possible to transcend the mundane and become a Martial Saint. Only this time... things were a little different. After training for less than an hour, Yaoguang keenly sensed that a small tripwire mechanism in the hallway had been triggered. He raised his head. Pushing off the balls of his feet, force surged, and in an instant he darted out of the training room, stopping by an open laptop in the adjacent study. The screen was divided into an eight-grid display. In one of the small frames, three agile figures were approaching rapidly. "Demons?" Yaoguang was slightly surprised. Activating his [Perception] secret art, his surroundings projected into his mind like a map, but no red light appeared. Not demons, yet people were coming to his door... He recalled the phone call from earlier. The Su family was really making a move? ... Among the three, someone was clearly skilled at picking locks. The door to Yaoguang's rented apartment offered virtually no resistance and was easily opened. Stepping inside, the man in the trench coat leading them said in a low voice, "Make it quick and clean. Let Young Master Su go painlessly." "Young Master Su? He never formally returned to the family clan, so how is he any Young Master Su?" The other man, with short hair, clicked his tongue. "Family infighting to this degree—what an eye-opener. These Su family folks are truly ruthless." "Just foolishness from the younger generation. Why care so much? As long as we get paid. We've taken too many jobs lately, so we can't stay in Dayu much longer anyway. Once this is done, we're flying far away immediately." The three exchanged brief, rapid words. Just then, however, a voice cut in. "Then could you tell me which member of the younger generation it is?" "Who else could it be? His half-brother, of course..." The short-haired man answered instinctively. Midway through the sentence, his voice snapped off, his gaze darting abruptly toward the study doorway. Yaoguang flicked on the light. Incandescent light washed over them, instantly illuminating the apartment. Almost the very instant he turned on the light, the trench-coated leader drove off the balls of his feet and lunged forward like a pouncing leopard, bridging the four-meter gap between them in a flash. A gleaming dagger traced a swift, fluid arc, darting straight for Yaoguang's throat. Yaoguang didn't even look at the dagger. He simply raised a hand, formed his fingers into a sword-finger, and thrust directly at the trench-coated man's throat. *Thump!* No variations, no flourishes. Fast. So fast that before the man's dagger could reach him, Yaoguang's sword-finger had already crushed the man's laryngeal cartilage. After shattering his throat bone, the fierce finger force jolted the nerves in his cervical spine, causing him to instantly lose control of his body. In the end, that lethal slash swept past barely three centimeters from Yaoguang's throat. The man's body staggered past him and collapsed to the floor. Throughout the entire encounter, aside from flicking his fingers, Yaoguang had not shifted his footing by half an inch.