Chapter 152: The First Mission

Pan Fang stood opposite Yang Ze, a faint smile still lingering on his face as he dared not show the slightest hint of malice.

Standing beside Pan Fang were five or six disciples, all possessing cultivation at the First-Grade Bone-Tempering Realm, with none having reached the Second-Grade Blood-Condensing Realm. Although their gazes toward Yang Ze carried a certain eagerness, not a single one revealed any hostility.

Upon seeing these disciples, Yang Ze recognized them at a glance. They were all the ones who had performed rather poorly in the recent strength test.

Yang Ze knew full well what purpose these individuals could have in approaching him at this moment. Therefore, he was in no hurry to speak, merely watching them coldly.

The atmosphere instantly grew somewhat stiff. Seeing this, Pan Fang was ultimately the first to break the silence.

"Junior Brother Yang, my name is Pan Fang. I joined the Battle Hall six years ago, and these friends of mine are all elites within the hall. Today, we saw Junior Brother display such formidable might in the testing grounds, and we deeply admire your divine prowess. Therefore, we wish to host a banquet for you. I wonder if Junior Brother would grace us with your presence?"

Pan Fang spoke with utmost courtesy, extending an invitation to Yang Ze.

Yang Ze glanced at Pan Fang and replied indifferently, "Senior Brother, I have matters to attend to and cannot keep you company. Farewell!"

With that, Yang Ze completely ignored the group, turned on his heel, and walked away, leaving behind a heavily embarrassed Pan Fang and several companions whose expressions were less than pleasant.

One of them spoke angrily, "Pan Fang, this brat is far too arrogant! He's merely at the initial stage of the Bone-Tempering Realm. So what if he has a bit more strength? Does he really think he's somebody special now?"

"Exactly. Why bother being so polite to someone like this? We just wanted him to share some cultivation techniques, yet he puts on such a lofty facade. He clearly doesn't think much of us at all," another chimed in.

"Even if he doesn't think much of us, what can you do? Do not forget the martial academy's rules; private infighting among disciples is strictly forbidden. Do you dare violate the sect rules? If you don't dare, you'd better swallow your anger and drop it. Since he refuses to speak, let this matter rest. We can figure out other ways to increase our strength. Our power isn't the absolute lowest anyway, so there's no need to make such a big fuss over this," Pan Fang said with a hint of helplessness.

After saying this, he turned and left first. The remaining individuals watched the direction of Yang Ze's departure with bitter resentment, glared, and then dispersed as well.

As Yang Ze walked back, he glanced behind him and discovered that no one was following. He let out a cold snort, thinking to himself that these people still knew what was good for them and hadn't resorted to forceful tactics. Otherwise, he would have let them see whether a disciple at the initial stage of the Bone-Tempering Realm was truly so easy to bully.

Instead of hurrying right back, Yang Ze detoured halfway to collect his monthly disciple stipend before making his return trip.

He anticipated that after this strength test, his reputation would inevitably spread. Given that his current cultivation level was too low, showing his face too soon would likely attract the attention of interested parties with ulterior motives.

Consequently, he intended to enter closed-door cultivation for the foreseeable future and only emerge after the storm had blown over.

For this seclusion, he needed to prepare abundant resources to charge toward a higher realm of cultivation, including the several newly acquired martial arts techniques that also required practice. Otherwise, he would feel entirely lacking in a sense of security within this Battle Hall.

Upon returning, Yang Ze activated the protective barriers of his small courtyard, refusing all visitors. Afterward, he bathed, changed clothes, adjusted his state of mind, and enjoyed a sound sleep. The next day, he stepped into the training room and began a prolonged period of closed-door cultivation.

Medicine bottles were placed out before him, containing all the medicinal pills he had accumulated. Without hesitation, Yang Ze triggered the black stone in his mind, causing a gray vortex to manifest.

***

Picking up a pill, Yang Ze flicked it casually with his finger. The pill fell into the gray vortex, instantly disintegrating and transforming into pure energy that poured into his body.

Yang Ze felt the true essence in his Dantian rise. Only when it stopped did he pick up the next pill, continuing to use the gray vortex to convert it into energy and infuse it into his body.

A month passed in the blink of an eye. All the bottles before Yang Ze had been emptied, and the medicinal pills within were completely exhausted.

At this moment, Yang Ze sat with his eyes tightly closed, running his true essence according to the mental formula of the Primal Chaos Ethereal One-Qi Art to temper the bones of his lower limbs.

After a month of ingesting such a massive quantity of pills, the number of lower limb bones he had tempered was no longer merely sixteen.

It had doubled, reaching the realm of thirty-two. A faint golden light radiated from these thirty-two tempered lower limb bones, and an aura far more formidable than before emanated from Yang Ze's body.

Although his current cultivation level remained merely at the initial stage of the Bone-Tempering Realm, the momentum radiating from him was not the slightest bit weaker than that of a mid-stage Bone-Tempering expert.

To have tempered thirty-two lower limb bones in a mere two months—such a speed was truly terrifying.

However, this was also entirely due to the sheer volume of pills Yang Ze had consumed. If any other First-Grade martial artist had access to as many pills for consumption, their cultivation would have advanced with similar rapidity, perhaps even faster than his.

This was because Yang Ze required significantly more resources to temper a single lower limb bone; the same amount of resources invested in him yielded a slower cultivation progress compared to others.

For several hours, Yang Ze devoted himself entirely to practicing the Primal Chaos Ethereal One-Qi Art, attempting to temper the thirty-third lower limb bone.

Ultimately, however, he failed. Once the medicinal efficacy of the pills was exhausted, relying solely on his own cultivation made it impossible to advance the bone-tempering process even by a fraction over several hours. The thirty-third lower limb bone still fell short by a margin, remaining uncompleted.

Yang Ze could not help feeling somewhat distressed. Having grown accustomed to the rapid progression of relying on pills, reverting to the slow, grinding pace of self-cultivation left him deeply disappointed.

Although he understood that others relied on the accumulation of time to slowly complete the bone-tempering process, he truly did not wish to take it so slowly.

Realizing that a breakthrough in his cultivation realm was unattainable in the short term, Yang Ze shifted his focus to the three martial arts techniques.

Opening the first technique, which detailed saber skills, Yang Ze entered the black stone space. Within this space, a consummate master would instruct him in the martial arts and flawlessly replicate them for him—how could he not make use of such an advantage?

***

Time passes without calendar years in the mountains. This period of closed-door cultivation lasted a full three months for Yang Ze.

Not once in three months had he stepped outside his front door, spending all his time diligently cultivating in the training room. Yet today, Yang Ze found himself unable to continue practicing because his identity token began to emit a persistent rhythmic buzzing.

The identity tokens of outer disciples differed entirely from those of registered disciples; they were specially crafted tokens originating from Mount Hengyun.

They possessed two major additional functions: first, contribution points could be transferred independently through the token without needing to visit a specific location; second, when the hall had matters requiring contact with a specific disciple, it could directly resonate with that disciple's token to alert them.

***

Right now, the rhythmic buzzing of Yang Ze's identity token indicated that the Battle Hall was summoning him.

It was precisely for this reason that Yang Ze had not stowed his identity token away in his storage pouch during his seclusion; otherwise, failing to respond to a summons from the Battle Hall would lead to disciplinary action.

Listening to the persistent buzzing of the token nearby, Yang Ze put away the Blood-Searing Saber, reached out with his right hand, and summoned the token into his palm.

As he emanated true essence, the token ceased its buzzing. After tidying up his belongings, Yang Ze stepped out of the training room, changed into a fresh set of robes, and walked out.

The Battle Hall would not summon disciples lightly. Whenever a summons was issued, nine times out of ten it meant a task was being assigned.

Having joined the Battle Hall for four months, he had finally awaited his very first mission. Yang Ze felt a lingering curiosity as to what kind of task awaited him.

When Yang Ze arrived at the Battle Hall disciple main hall, quite a few people were already seated there. The moment he stepped inside, Yang Ze spotted an acquaintance.

He saw that Pan Fang was also present. In fact, aside from Pan Fang, he was the only other Battle Hall disciple here, while everyone else wore the robes of instructors and executive officers.

Yang Ze and Pan Fang exchanged glances, each seeing surprise in the other's eyes. However, neither of them had the opportunity to speak at the moment.

Upon seeing Yang Ze's arrival, an instructor seated in the main seat spoke in a resonant voice, "Instructor Li, the two Battle Hall disciples you requested for this mission have both arrived."

As soon as he finished speaking, the gaze of Instructor Li, seated on the left, swept across Yang Ze and Pan Fang. Yang Ze, who had felt nothing amiss moments before, instantly felt the hairs all over his body stand on end.

The status of these instructors in the outer courtyard of the Ethereal Martial Academy surpassed that of executive officers. Unlike executive officers whose cultivation ranged from the Third to Fourth Grade, these instructors were all solidly in the Fourth-Grade realm. With Instructor Li's level of cultivation, a single glance could pierce straight through the cultivation levels of Yang Ze and Pan Fang, exerting immense pressure upon them.

"Instructor Zhong, just these two?" Instructor Li withdrew his gaze, his tone somewhat unkind.

"Instructor Li, if this mission didn't involve the lives of disciples, there would be no need for our Battle Hall to intervene. Dispatching these two disciples is already quite sufficient. Furthermore, you shouldn't underestimate Battle Hall disciples; their true strength cannot be measured merely by their cultivation realm," Instructor Zhong replied slowly in the face of Instructor Li's questioning.

Instructor Li's expression shifted slightly before he spoke, "Since Instructor Zhong has put it that way, I will say no more. The two of you, come with me then."

With that, Instructor Li stood up and called for Yang Ze and the other to follow. Yet neither Yang Ze nor Pan Fang made a move until Instructor Zhong gave the order, after which the two of them followed closely behind Instructor Li.

Battle Hall disciples held a special status and needed only to obey the commands of Battle Hall instructors. Instructor Li glanced sideways at Instructor Zhong, let out a light snort, and led Yang Ze and his companion away.