Having powered up his war beasts, Yue Yang turned to cultivating himself.

According to Ming Rihao’s intelligence, the war in Tianhua Domain had all along been secretly manipulated by certain people within the Central Divine Hall. Among those puppet-masters behind the scenes were formidable enemies on the level of Ji Wuri — beings whose power approached that of gods — and they were all eyeing the Divine Codex hidden away in Tianhua Domain like tigers watching their prey. With opponents like these, Yue Yang felt he had to grow stronger; otherwise, even if he truly located the Divine Codex, he’d have no way to claim it. Whether in the Sky Tower or the Heavenly Realm, one truth was brutally simple: strength above all.

Without strength, you were nothing.

Everything was built upon overwhelming strength — and only then could the rest follow.

“Besides that mass of healing-attribute divine power, I discovered another secret in the Wild Bull Brothers’ bodies. It may not do much for us, but for other martial artists it could be a fine boon.” Before beginning his cultivation, Yue Yang first explained the situation to Princess Qianqian and the others.

“A secret? What kind of change is it?” Princess Qianqian asked.

“It’s a special method of breaking through the acupoints surrounding the body’s meridians. I’d guess the Wild Bull Brothers aren’t even aware of it themselves — someone else worked it upon them. This way of breaking through acupoints resembles a fragmentary cultivation art left over from before the Sky Tower’s era, yet it’s different too; it’s also unlike our dual cultivation. And though breaking through point by point can’t compare to how we drive the whole body’s cultivation through the meridians, for martial artists who’ve hit a bottleneck in their growth and can’t push any higher — or who’ve never had access to such a method at all — it’s a rather excellent means of breakthrough.” Yue Yang explained the principle of the acupoints, then went on to list the special energies certain points stored and the special ways they existed.

Take Baihui, for instance, located at the very crown of the body — the crucial junction where all the body’s hundred meridians converge.

If it wasn’t opened through, cultivation was bound to stagnate.

Or take Yongquan, located at the soles of the feet — once opened, it made it far easier to absorb energy from heaven and earth and restore oneself, and it also lent the body greater balance and stronger legs. Then there was Laogong, in the center of the palms — once opened, releasing or absorbing energy became effortless, done entirely at will.

Of course, the mysteries of the acupoints were by no means limited to this. It was a profoundly deep field of study, and the deeper one delved, the more one discovered.

Yue Yang’s Innate Body-Piercing Invisible Sword Qi had, in its early stages, involved this kind of cultivation.

But once he reached the higher tiers, his body’s hundred meridians and hundred points fused into one, and such obstacles no longer existed for him.

Even Princess Qianqian and the others had, through dual cultivation, achieved a full opening and merging of the body’s hundred meridians — otherwise, how could they possibly have progressed at such miraculous speed? Ordinary martial artists, lacking the kind of aid Yue Yang provided and relying on their own power alone, would often be blocked by obstacles of spirit or body, forming bottlenecks; the truly unlucky ones could never break through, never improve, for the rest of their lives. And so the path of cultivation was a thing both terribly difficult and terribly grueling… Even our transmigrator classmate Yue Yang — had he not first received the Innate Body-Piercing Invisible Sword Art bestowed upon him by the Sword Spirit, he could never have reached his accomplishments today.

“So you mean to have Ye Kong, Sea Fatty, and the rest cultivate the same way as the Wild Bull Brothers?” The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady still didn’t quite follow.

“No, that’s a clumsy method.” Yue Yang shook his head.

“Then what do you mean?” Yue Yu was baffled too.

“What I’m wondering is whether I can use this method, combine it with the concepts of those who came before, and create a whole new approach to cultivation — one that’s both effective and fast!” The moment Yue Yang said this, Princess Qianqian, who’d been sipping tea, sprayed it right out, while Yue Yu and the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady couldn’t stop coughing. Good grief, the sheer nerve of him — to create an entirely new cultivation method! Just how much audacity did a man need to dare say such a thing?

Seeing the skeptical looks Princess Qianqian and the others were giving him, Yue Yang bristled. “You think I’m joking?”

It wasn’t as though Yue Yang had never tried creating brand-new cultivation methods before.

Yue Bing’s cultivation, for one, had been entirely handled by her big brother from start to finish — a complete innovation, one might even say unprecedented in all of history. And Inan, Luohua, even Fengxian the Beauty and others — their later cultivation had all taken Yue Yang’s advice, undergoing changes and reforms to varying degrees. Princess Qianqian, Yue Yu, and the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady knew perfectly well that, had it not been for Yue Yang, they’d be at most Innate ranks by now following their original cultivation methods — if that — let alone reaching the level where they could one-shot even Sky-rank experts.

Yue Yang had created no small number of cultivation methods, and effective ones at that.

And even more battle techniques.

All manner of them.

Ye Kong, Sea Fatty, the Liqie brothers, and also Snow-Hungry Wolf, Tianra Prince, and so on — which of them hadn’t received his guidance?

Even that pack of martial-arts fanatics from the Heaven Devil Hall would often come to seek Yue Yang’s counsel — including their boss, Tianzhu, who every few days would find some excuse to have a little “spar” with Yue Yang, stealing techniques off him in the process to improve himself.

But no matter how you looked at it, creating an effective cultivation method was extraordinarily difficult.

You need only recall how the Yue Yang of old had racked his brains and agonized over improving his little sister Yue Bing’s cultivation to understand — that was cultivation, not munching on beans; it was neither that easy nor that simple! What’s more, how long had Yue Yang even been in contact with the Wild Bull Brothers? A single day. However many secrets he’d gleaned from those two blockheads, there was no way he could immediately create a whole cultivation art out of it.

Seeing that their Yue Yang was getting a little angry, Princess Qianqian felt it wouldn’t do to keep knocking him down. “Of course we support you. Tell us — how would you like us to help?”

Yue Yang cheered up, his anger turning to delight.

Now that was more like it!

He produced a sheet of white paper as large as a map, gestured for the three women to sit close, and then began drawing rapidly upon it, translating his concepts stroke by stroke through the tip of his brush. How the acupoints along the arm should be forced open, and by what method or force; the feet, the shins, the knees, the abdomen, the chest, the shoulders, the neck, and the head as well — he ceaselessly turned everything his inspiration touched into diagrams and words.

By presenting it in this most intuitive way, he let Princess Qianqian, Yue Yu, and the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady look it over and judge whether it was feasible or in need of refinement.

At first, Yue Yang himself hadn’t realized just how much there was to lay out.

As his brush moved across the paper.

He found that more and more emerged upon the page.

And the inspiration welling up in his mind was as inexhaustible as a spring.

A single sheet of paper couldn’t hold it all — two, three, four… a full nine map-sized sheets of white paper, every one packed to the margins with everything Yue Yang gained in his ceaseless eruption of inspiration.

Some methods, perhaps, needed refinement, or could only be decided once the truth had been felt out — for instance, the points on the human skull, which, being directly connected to the brain, included many that were extremely critical, where a single wrong move could mean death. They couldn’t be forced open carelessly, or the consequences would be impossible to gauge. Still, apart from the all-important head and a very few other spots, Yue Yang mapped out nearly every acupoint breakthrough point on the limbs and body, setting down both the ideas he’d originally conceived and the insights he gained as inspiration surged.

By the time Yue Yang had finished drawing it all, two hours had passed.

“It seems feasible.” Beyond agreeing with it in principle, Princess Qianqian also had an intuition, born of her gift, that it could succeed.

“The problem is, how do we put it into practice? Our meridians are all fully open, so this cultivation method wouldn’t do much for us. Are we supposed to find an outsider to experiment on?” the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady raised the question.

“I’ll do it!” Yue Yang felt that when it came to anything, it was still best to do it himself — at the very least, he’d get firsthand data through his own senses.

“That’s far too dangerous — none of it has been verified. I… I object.” Yue Yu, worried her little brother might damage his body over this, cast her vote against it.

“How about we experiment on Xiao Nu’s body instead? Even if it gets left all battered and torn, Pandora can just repair it.” Xiao Nu came in carrying a platter of fruit, volunteering to be the first test subject. What she said was true, but how could Yue Yang bear to turn his sweet, obedient maidservant into an experiment? He refused flatly, brooking no argument.

“Why not start from the easy and work toward the hard? The moment there’s danger, we stop and don’t go on.” Princess Qianqian offered a compromise: Yue Yang would still be the one to run the trials, since his control was the best and the risk the smallest.

“I’ll help too!” The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady looked at Yue Yu — she’d certainly lend a hand, and saying it this way gave Yue Yu a graceful way to step in.

“…” Yue Yu knew as well that if they really were to experiment, it would, at the very least, require lovers’ dual cultivation. When her little brother cultivated with Qianqian and the others, the ribbons of soul energy linking them meant she would sense everything without reserve — and that would be quite awkward. It wasn’t that she was unwilling to help; on the contrary, she was more than glad to help him succeed, feeling that such support was the very worth of her life. Lovers’ dual cultivation would be fine, but should her little brother and Lady Ye be swept up in the moment and, as nature took its course, begin the more intimate husband-and-wife dual cultivation — commencing the way of man and wife right before her — then she’d have nowhere to hide her face. The odds of that were slim, but she dreaded the off chance.

Princess Qianqian, however, did not look at Yue Yu.

She knew that the more she looked at Yue Yu, the more awkward Yue Yu would feel.

The very considerate tiger-girl simply took Yue Yang by the hand and went ahead to start the experiment first… She knew Yue Yu would come along, no question.

The long night gradually wore on.

This freshly-created cultivation art, still too new to be complete, was verified bit by bit from theory, corrected piece by piece through repeated failed attempts, until the correct portions were forged and, at last, gradually took shape as a whole and effective cultivation method.

First Princess Qianqian assisted, and when the tiger-girl grew tired, the cat-girl took over.

The hardest part, though, was Yue Yu accompanying Yue Yang as they searched through failure after failure for the very best method of breakthrough. When the piecemeal cultivation techniques were finally organized into one complete cultivation system, all three women leapt up in excitement. Princess Qianqian, carried away, kissed this rascal who worked miracle after miracle; from beginning to end she had never once doubted him, yet even she had never imagined that a single night would be enough to achieve such a grand success.

The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady, her spirit and energy overdrawn, was so worn out her hands and feet had gone limp, but she still struggled to squeeze into his embrace, sharing his kisses in the gaps left by Princess Qianqian, sharing in the joy of his success.

At first Yue Yu, too, held him rapturously, quite forgetting that the four of them had, through the cultivation trials, long since had their clothing reduced to ash.

The sensation of skin pressed against skin jolted her awake amid her excitement.

And the passionate kisses that both Princess Qianqian and the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady were sharing with him — which she could sense with perfect clarity — sent wave after wave of weakness through her body. What embarrassed her most was that this wicked little brother, out of pure ingrained habit, went and let his hands roam all over Lady Ye and Qianqian’s bodies… Terrified those hands of his would come reaching back toward her, she hastily let go and fled out the door in a rush.

Only after pressing down her wildly pounding heart did she feel that her face was burning like fire.

This fellow, really was just…

Still, she’d long known what kind of person her little brother was — and besides, this wasn’t necessarily any wolfish wickedness on his part, but rather a habit, or you might say his very nature. If this little brother didn’t like girls, if he showed no reaction at all — now that would be something to worry about!

Once she’d changed into fresh clothes, Yue Yu found Xiao Nu humming a lovely little tune, bustling away happily in the kitchen.

Looking at this cheerful little maidservant, Yue Yu couldn’t help but smile.

Ah, if only everyone were like her, there’d be no suffering or sorrow left in the world. Sometimes she really did envy her!

Our classmate Yue Yang rested only briefly — half an hour — before rising to wash up. First he gave Princess Qianqian’s little bottom a light pat, drawing an unhappy roll from her as she caught up on sleep. “Stop it, you rascal — careful, or I’ll bite you!” The words were murmured, and in a blink she’d sunk back into deep, sound slumber. With Xiao Nu waiting on him, Yue Yang dressed, hurriedly stuffed a few pastries into his mouth, and then gave Xiao Nu a light peck on the lips.

Then, taking up a whole night’s research — the newborn secret technique christened “Meridian Detonation” — he dashed out.

In the rear courtyard of the inn, Gray Wolf lay lazily gnawing on a chicken leg.

The newly-upgraded Taotie, meanwhile, went on doing hard labor, battling the Dragon Emperor within Ming Rihao’s energy field, while Tianzhu, the Underworld Emperor, and the others both controlled the energy scattering around them — keeping it from leaking out and wrecking the surroundings — and secretly observed Taotie’s new changes.

Faster than the Star Scorpion, the instant Gray Wolf saw Yue Yang come out, he didn’t even spit out the chicken bone before leaping up and bounding over in a flash to welcome his master — all he lacked was flattering him with, “Master, today you’re so handsome you woke me right up!” The Star Scorpion wanted to sidle up and toss out some flattery of its own too, only to get kicked flying by Gray Wolf: Damn it, I, the boss, haven’t even won any favor yet, and you dare come snatch the glory? Sure, Taotie’s gotten a bit impressive, but I’m still the absolute boss!

The Star Scorpion clung on shamelessly and refused to give up — Boss, you can be the boss, but the fight for favor still has to be fought; you can’t hog it all for yourself.

Fengji and Keen-Eye Jinyun nearly fainted from the sheer absurdity.

Weren’t these pets a little too clever by half?

“Huh? What’s this?” Ming Rihao spotted the little booklet in Yue Yang’s hand, compiled into a neat volume.

“This young master spent a whole night researching it — a secret cultivation art that can let martial artists below the third level of Sky-rank rapidly break through their own limits.” Our classmate Yue Yang was thoroughly pleased with himself, and Ming Rihao nearly dropped dead of fright. No way — he’d researched such a monstrous secret art in a single night? Was he trying to leave the rest of them any room to live?

“Oh no, this is bad!” His mind and spirit trembled, his control over the energy field slipped, and most of the energy from the Dragon Emperor and Taotie’s clash leaked out.

If it were to escape, then never mind this luxurious inn — even a third of Greenvalley City would be reduced to ruins.

Yue Yang tossed the little booklet to Tianzhu.

He pressed down with both palms.

The Creation Domain rose up, and in an instant all the energy was drawn in and absorbed by him, condensing into a terrifying mass of energy in his palm — so extremely compressed it was like a black hole.

Watching this, Ming Rihao’s aged face flushed with embarrassment. Damn — this kid’s control was even more monstrous than his own. No wonder even the Sky Tower’s Tianzhu called him a freak genius! But he had no time to examine Yue Yang’s domain in detail; he rushed over to look through, together with Tianzhu, that manual of “a secret cultivation art that lets those below the third level of Sky-rank rapidly break through.” He’d have been better off not looking — one glance and he immediately cried out, “You really researched this in one night? Your sister, you — you freak, you’re not pulling one over on your old man Hao, are you?”

“Your sister!” Yue Yang bristled. “Watch your mouth — this young master is a genius, all right? Apologize, quick, or your sister’s going to have to pay me compensation!”

“Then I won’t apologize — my sister’s already been set in the sights of a lecher like you anyway.” Ming Rihao figured he’d only lose out if he apologized further.

“Your sister — what kind of big brother are you, honestly?” Our classmate Yue Yang was left speechless.

He decided that the moment he saw Ming Yueguang, he’d go tattle to that girl.

He’d get that girl Ming Yueguang so furious she’d stamp her feet, and in the end give this conscienceless big brother Ming Rihao a good thrashing — it seemed this hard-luck uncle was rather afraid of his little sister. Perfect!

Our classmate Yue Yang broke into a smug, sinister chuckle, one so sinister it sent chills down everyone’s spine. Fengji and Keen-Eye Jinyun, that new couple, were so frightened they clung to each other, trembling all over in a bundle — so scary!

Tianzhu suddenly asked, “This thing’s good for other people, but what use is it to you?”

Yue Yang lifted his head, gazing up at the starry sky from a pure forty-five-degree angle, and answered in the swaggering tone of a full-marks college-entrance essay: “As a peerless genius like me, must I really announce to the whole world the great discovery of adapting this secret art onto my shadow, so it can erupt with the destructive power of runes? I can be very low-key, you know!”

Realization dawned on the Heaven Devil Hall crowd. Ah — right, we almost forgot: this kid’s very first life-guardian war beast is “Phantom”!

If the shadow could wield this secret technique too, then that really would be…

Ming Rihao roared, “You’re driving me up the wall — kid, do you dare get even one bit more freakish?!”

(End of Chapter 943)