Three days later, Shen Zhi was executed. After confirming that it was neither a fake death, nor a body double, nor any other trick, the last matter weighing on Zhuang Xun's mind was finally resolved. He devoted all his energy to cultivation.
Time flew by during his cultivation, and in the blink of an eye, a month had passed.
—Character Creation Panel—
[Character 1: Yan Pingsheng]
[Age: 15]
[Realm: Six Stones of strength]
[Skeletal Structure: 50 (Average Skeletal Structure)]
[Comprehension: 54.7 (Average Comprehension)]
[Charm: 50 (Ordinary)]
————
[Character 2: Bai Yujing]
[Age: 15]
[Realm: Sixth Rank]
[Martial Arts: Formless Phaseless Sublime Method]
[Skeletal Structure: 100 (Supreme Skeletal Structure)]
[Comprehension: 100 (Supreme Comprehension)]
[Charm: 100 (Celestial Grace)]
————
[Character 3 (To Be Created)]
【Current Points: 100】
Yan Pingsheng's strength was approaching Seven Stones.
Bai Yujing had broken through to the Sixth Rank, and his mental cultivation had reached the level of being able to multitask three things at once as his baseline.
The panel points had also slowly accumulated to one hundred.
Looking at the fruits of his month-long seclusion, Zhuang Xun smiled with satisfaction.
Just as he was about to start creating his third permanent clone, the smile on his face suddenly froze.
“Crap, how am I supposed to become a disciple of the Posuo Courtyard Head?”
Before this, he had only been focused on reaching the level of multitasking three thoughts at once and gathering one hundred points, completely forgetting this most critical factor.
How could he get his third clone accepted as a disciple by the Posuo Courtyard Head?
Should he follow the standard procedure? First, pass the entrance assessment to join the Wanxing Martial Academy, then pass the promotion assessment to enter the Posuo Courtyard, and gradually work his way into the Posuo Courtyard Head's line of sight?
No, that would take way too long.
This year's entrance assessment had already passed. If he wanted to join the Wanxing Martial Academy, he would have to wait until next March, and waiting for the promotion assessment would take even longer.
At this rate, he would have to wait at least a year.
Should he use Bai Yujing to recommend his third clone to the Posuo Courtyard Head as a disciple?
How would he even bring that up?
He wasn't close to the Posuo Courtyard Head at all; they hadn't even met. Suddenly recommending a disciple out of the blue would seem too bizarre.
After thinking it over, Zhuang Xun ultimately decided to use Yan Pingsheng as his breakthrough point.
Every batch of Outer Court disciples had two opportunities for promotion. The first was six months after joining the academy, and the second was one year after joining.
To promote to the Upper Two Courts, only disciples who passed the first promotion assessment were eligible.
Right now, there were still a little over three months until the first promotion assessment.
With Zhuang Xun's abilities, it wouldn't be difficult to get Yan Pingsheng through the first promotion assessment.
Once he promoted to the Posuo Courtyard, he could slowly dig up the Posuo Courtyard Head's preferences. Then, he could craft a clone tailored to those preferences, orchestrate a chance encounter, and smoothly get accepted as a disciple.
Yes, that was the plan.
Zhuang Xun controlled Bai Yujing to step out of his room, intending to test the wondrous power of his minor accomplishment in the Formless Phaseless martial physique.
Cultivating the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method at the Seventh Rank involved weaving a neural network onto one's bones to further enhance control over the body.
Only by taking this step could the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method truly unleash its power to “adapt others' techniques as one's own.”
Before achieving minor accomplishment in the Formless Phaseless martial physique, although the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method could also mimic others' martial arts, those were only low-tier martial arts.
In Mount Dazhou, low-tier martial arts were generally not considered true martial arts because they could not shape a martial physique.
Therefore, in the eyes of most people, low-tier martial arts were no different from flailing wildly; at best, the movements looked a bit prettier.
The power of a martial art backed by a matching martial physique was on a completely different level compared to one without.
The wonder of the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method lay precisely in its supreme control over the body, allowing one to stretch skin, alter muscle, shift acupoints, and move bones to mimic the martial physique of other martial arts!
Zhuang Xun raised his hand. His fingers gradually lengthened as if growing an extra joint, the webbing between his fingers became more elastic, and he could easily stretch his fingers into a wide semi-circle.
This was the martial art of the Pianqian Courtyard—the Pianqian Finger.
Channeling his Six Harmonies Force, Zhuang Xun lightly tapped a protruding rock on the cliffside.
Bang!
The rock exploded, sending countless stone shards flying in all directions.
Zhuang Xun raised his right hand, which had transformed into the Pianqian martial physique. Each finger seemed to come alive, dancing in the air like butterflies in a dazzling display, intercepting every single flying stone shard with absolute precision.
By the time he stopped, his fingers were tightly packed with countless stone shards.
He had blocked every single exploded fragment without missing a single one.
But he was not done yet.
Zhuang Xun's fingers slowly shrank back to their original length. Then, the flesh on his fingers squirmed, and a layer of colorless, scale-like keratin grew over them.
With a slight squeeze, the stone shards were instantly crushed into powder, drifting down from his fingertips.
This was the martial art of the Linjia Courtyard—the Linjia Vest.
The academy had three other martial arts: the Formless Method of the Formless Courtyard, the Posuo Sword of the Posuo Courtyard, and the Jixin Art of the Jixin Courtyard.
The Formless Method was simply a simplified version of the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method, so there was no need to mimic it.
The Posuo Sword was a high-tier martial art. Having only achieved minor accomplishment in his martial physique, he could not mimic it yet.
As for the Jixin Art, it was a very peculiar mid-tier martial art. Shaping its martial physique involved the internal organs, and since Zhuang Xun could currently only control his flesh and bones, he could not mimic it either.
This Jixin Art was quite extraordinary; it was adapted from the high-tier martial art of the City Lord's Manor, the Wrathful Resolve.
Had it not been missing the mental cultivation portion, Zhuang Xun felt that the Jixin Art could also be ranked as a high-tier martial art.
Furthermore, it was worth mentioning that the Jixin Courtyard Head who had modified the Wrathful Resolve was the City Lord's younger sister.
When he first learned of this, all sorts of melodramatic family drama plots had immediately popped into his head.
Maybe a “Never underestimate a poor young girl...” story. His imagination ran wild.
“Heh, heh. Clinging to the Chen family's thigh sure is amazing. You're so eager to cut ties with us, as if we were never friends.”
“I don't think that way at all, but if you insist on interpreting it like that, there's nothing I can do.”
Back on Yan Pingsheng's side.
Just as Zhuang Xun was about to enter the dorm, he heard Zhang Tie and Li Zigeng arguing inside, causing him to stop in his tracks.
Oh, they're fighting. Although he was curious, he did not hesitate to turn around and walk away, planning to return after they finished arguing.
After taking a stroll outside, he finally returned to the dorm.
By this time, Li Zigeng was no longer there. Only Zhang Tie sat on his bed with a dark expression.
Zhuang Xun didn't ask any questions either. Pretending to know nothing, he lay down on his bed and read a storybook.
Zhang Tie glanced at Yan Pingsheng a few times. Ultimately unable to hold it in, he initiated a conversation: “Sigh, damn it. Pingsheng, Zigeng is really something else now. Playing the dog for Chen Jinzhu has made him so high and mighty, he doesn't even look at us anymore.”
“Hmm? What happened?”
Zhuang Xun put down his storybook, sat up, and asked.
He actually had always been quite curious, but had held back from asking to avoid trouble. Now that Zhang Tie wanted to talk about it himself, he might as well listen.
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