Ye Zhen casually played with a stone lock weighing 1500 jin.
After lifting a stone lock of 1800 jin more than a dozen times, Ye Zhen showed no signs of blushing or breathlessness.
It was a 2000 jin stone lock that made Ye Zhen slightly out of breath.
A 2300 jin stone lock had still not reached Ye Zhen's limit.
Overnight, Ye Zhen's strength soared to 2400 jin.
Under the moonlight, at the Hundred Pine Peak martial arts training ground, Ye Zhen looked at his hands, full of surprise and delight.
In the Qiyun Sect, a servant disciple's cultivation breaking into the Second Stage of Blood Training had two signs.
The first was the breakthrough of Blood Qi Technique to the second layer, where the Blood Qi surges throughout the body, reaching the organs, and second, the strength breaking through to 2000 jin.
In other words, based purely on strength, Ye Zhen's cultivation had already broken into the Second Stage of Blood Training.
But what was bizarre was this exact point, on the strength alone, Ye Zhen's cultivation had broken into the Second Stage of Blood Training, but if based on Blood Qi Technique, Ye Zhen's cultivation, not only had it not broken into the Second Stage, but it had regressed to the Mid-Stage of the First Stage of Blood Training.
The cultivation of Mid-Stage of First Stage Blood Training paired with the strength of Second Stage Blood Training, this bizarre situation made Ye Zhen somewhat confused.
Having been in the Qiyun Sect for nearly a year, Ye Zhen had heard of many strange occurrences, but like his situation, it was unheard of.
"Or maybe, this strange situation, is what is referred to as defying the natural order by the Mirage Dragon Pearl?"
Thinking about the strange occurrences when the Mirage Dragon Pearl merged with him, including the layer of foul-smelling muck oozing from his body, Ye Zhen grew more certain of this point.
He didn't know the specifics of its function, but Ye Zhen believed, over time, day by day, month by month, he would eventually uncover the secret of the Mirage Dragon Pearl.
However, what surprised Ye Zhen was that it didn't take long. Over the next five or six days, Ye Zhen had essentially figured out the function of the Mirage Dragon Pearl.
An observant Ye Zhen discovered that during these days, whenever he practiced the Blood Qi Technique, the Blood Qi stimulated by the technique would pass through the Danzhong Acupoint, as if the Mirage Dragon Pearl and his Danzhong Acupoint merged into one.
A bizarre thing happened; the surging Blood Qi that passed through the pearl shrank by one-third or even more.
However, Ye Zhen carefully sensed that the condensed Blood Qi coming out of the Mirage Dragon Pearl had become very refined, even the color of the Blood Qi turned a deep red.
Not only that, Ye Zhen also found that after the reduction of the Blood Qi, the speed of the Blood Qi circulating in the meridians had become faster and more powerful.
This change was very directly reflected on the physical attributes of Ye Zhen.
Almost after practicing for one night, Ye Zhen's strength and speed saw an extremely clear increase.
With the intake of Stone Marrow Spiritual Liquid, overnight, Ye Zhen's strength could increase by fifty or sixty jin, in just four or five days, when Ye Zhen's cultivation had recovered to the state of Blood Qi Filling Veins, his strength had reached 2600 jin.
You should know, even Sha Fei, who shared the same room and whose cultivation had reached the Peak of the Second Stage Blood Training, only had a strength of 2700 jin.
In other words, Ye Zhen, with the Blood Qi of the First Stage of Blood Training, possessed the capabilities of the Second Stage.
Not only that, after several days of research, Ye Zhen also found that the effect of taking Blood Essence Soup was exactly the same as before he had the Mirage Dragon Pearl, but the increase in Blood Qi volume had reduced by one-third.
These various results from research and observations finally confirmed one thing to Ye Zhen—confirmed the so-called defying natural order of the Mirage Dragon Pearl.
That is refinement!
During his cultivation, it automatically helped him refine his Blood Qi cultivation, making his Blood Qi cultivation much more refined.
To put it plainly, if the Blood Qi cultivated under normal circumstances was iron, then the Mirage Dragon Pearl refined his Blood Qi into steel.
Under the same cultivation, it allowed his Blood Qi cultivation to make greater enhancements to his body.
Now, his First Stage cultivation possessing the strength of the Second Stage, was the best proof.
Unfortunately, although Ye Zhen had confirmed the defying natural order function of the Mirage Dragon Pearl as refinement, he had tried to study the First Spatial Stage of the unlocked Mirage Dragon Pearl for quite a while, but had failed to find the slightest clue.
This left Ye Zhen always feeling a bit of doubt and anticipation for the Mirage Dragon Pearl.
.....
In the blink of an eye, more than twenty days had passed, and there were only three days left until the Qiyun Sect's annual assessment.
During these twenty-plus days, after finishing his duties, Ye Zhen spent almost all his time on cultivation.
Because his cultivation had skyrocketed, chores that previously took five hours a day to complete could now be finished in just four hours.
The time he saved was spent in a secluded spot in the pine forest, practicing the only Fist Skill taught to servant disciples by the Qiyun Sect — Bear King Mountain Carrying Fist.
A set of beginner-level fist techniques, designed to build strength and toughen muscles and bones for servant disciples.
It is strange, before, when Ye Zhen practiced the three moves and nine forms of the Bear King Mountain Carrying Fist, although he could complete them smoothly, each move and form always seemed very stiff.
But after that night, the night when a foul-smelling layer of muck oozed from Ye Zhen's body, his skill in the Bear King Mountain Carrying Fist had greatly progressed, his punches fierce, flowing smoothly and continuously without the slightest hesitation.
After over twenty days of grueling practice, Ye Zhen's Bear King Mountain Carrying Fist had even surpassed that of Sha Fei, who had started learning it two years earlier.
Besides that, every midnight, Ye Zhen would make a trip to a secret cave on the cliff.
Every midnight, two drops of Stone Marrow Spirit Liquid would drip from the stone bamboo inside the secret cave.
These two drops of Stone Marrow Spirit Liquid, which could even cause an ordinary gray mouse to mutate, had an extremely significant effect; each time he consumed them, they caused Ye Zhen's cultivation to soar impressively.
In just over twenty days, with the tempering from the Mirage Dragon Pearl, Ye Zhen's cultivation had not only broken through to the Second Stage of Blood Training, but he had also reached the Late Second Stage.
And thus, Ye Zhen's strength had reached a terrifying four thousand catties.
However, Ye Zhen feared someone might discover the secret realm, so he had been concealing his dramatically increasing cultivation, which had yet to be noticed.
"Ye Zhen, there are only three days left until the yearly assessment; time to get up and start with the morning class," Sha Fei, who woke up a bit earlier at the break of dawn, pushed Ye Zhen.
Ye Zhen quickly got out of bed, hurriedly washed up, and then found an open space at the edge of the training field with Sha Fei to start their morning class.
The morning class for servant disciples at the Qiyun Sect included practicing Bear King Mountain Carrying Fist, which strengthened their power, sinews, and bones.
At the starting position, Ye Zhen shouted lowly, stretched his waist forcefully, and threw a punch that caused his bones to crackle loudly.
Lazy Bear Stretching!
Bear King Emerging from the Cave!
Slap!
With a single palm strike, it was like Ye Zhen harshly whipped the air, making it crackle and hiss.
With each move, the fist wind brought by Ye Zhen became fiercer, and when he reached the last move of Bear King Mountain Carrying, his fists even brought forth a faint golden wind.
The faint golden wind from Ye Zhen's fists startled Sha Fei, who was practicing nearby.
"Impressive, Ye Zhen. Your fists bring golden wind. I've practiced for so long and haven't achieved that. How did you manage it?" Sha Fei exclaimed in surprise.
"It's all out of necessity. The annual sect assessment is nearly upon us, and if I don't qualify, I'll be expelled from the sect. If I get kicked out of the Qiyun Sect, my parents will be deeply disappointed and heartbroken. Not only that, I'd endure endless ridicule and scorn within the clan. My life would be essentially over," Ye Zhen replied.
"So, I have to fight with all my might!"
Ye Zhen stood and retracted his fists, showing no signs of exertion. Since his cultivation had reached the Second Stage of Blood Training, his robust Blood Qi could deeply nourish his internal organs, making them strong and his breath long and steady.
If it were before, just performing Bear King Mountain Carrying Fist once during morning class would leave Ye Zhen gasping and sweating heavily. But now, even if he did it three times in a row, his breath would remain steady.
This was the benefit of having strong internal organs and a long breath.
Sha Fei nodded vigorously in agreement, "Yes, to avoid being expelled from the sect, we must fight with all our might! I've been stuck at the peak of the Second Stage Blood Training for nearly a month and haven't broken through. If I give it my all, I can advance to the Third Stage of Blood Training and condense my Qi into pearls!"
After saying this, Sha Fei stopped looking at Ye Zhen and focused wholeheartedly on practicing Bear King Mountain Carrying Fist, his fists moving briskly through the air.
"Dang!"
A gong sounded, signaling the end of the daily morning class.
"Everyone gather around; I have something to say," the voice of Manager Zhao of Hundred Pine Peak rang out as all the cultivating servant disciples immediately stopped what they were doing and gathered around Zhao, who was holding the gong.
"Three days, a mere three more days until the yearly sect assessment. I want to say that, even if some of you will be expelled from the mountain gate in three days, the chores for these three days cannot be diminished in the slightest," Zhao said, his gaze casually sweeping over Ye Zhen and others with a warning tone.
Clearly, in Zhao's view, Ye Zhen was definitely on this year's list of people to be expelled.
Instead of looking down as he usually did when under scrutiny, Ye Zhen's gaze was intense as he stared back at Manager Zhao, standing his ground without retreating.
His sudden increase in cultivation had given Ye Zhen enough confidence.
Not pleased, Manager Zhao snorted coldly and continued, "The second thing I want to talk about is this peak's seed candidate issue."
Manager Zhao gestured towards the highest Qiyun Peak of the sect and said, "Following the sect's imperial edict, after the sect assessment, the Fish-Dragon Path will be opened once. Any servant disciple who can get through the Fish-Dragon Path, regardless of cultivation, can directly become an Outer Disciple."
He paused, then added, "However, with hundreds of thousands of servant disciples in our Qiyun Sect, when the time comes, only the seed candidates from the various peaks will qualify to attempt the Fish-Dragon Path."
Looking at Ma Yuanwu among the crowd, Zhao said, "This year's seed candidate from our peak is Ma Yuanwu. Those among you who object, can challenge Ma Yuanwu during the morning class or after the imperial edict holder arrives to oversee the assessment in three days.
The victor, if not defeated by anyone else, can become this peak's seed candidate."
After finishing his announcement, Manager Zhao, carrying the gong, left.
"Whoever wants to challenge me, just bring it on! See if I don't beat them till they're searching for their teeth on the ground!"
In the crowd, Ma Yuanwu, who was the strongest in Hundred Pine Peak last year, rolled up his sleeves, thumped his chest, and glared at everyone with a fierce look, full of warning!

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