[Congratulations! You have completed the mission to kill the four Apprentice Rank Cultivators.

You have received five extra points.

Continue completing the mission and you will receive an abundance of rewards!]

Lu Zheng heard another announcement from the system, which moved him.

Furthermore, when he heard encouragement from the system, he finally snapped back to reality.

He glanced at the headless corpse and the horrified face of Yu Long before indifferently leaving his gaze from them.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, inhaling the rusty smell of the blood on his nostrils, before exhaling with a loud shout.

He stood up and opened his eyes.

It was oceanic, gleaming with dangerous intent underneath.

It appeared like a calm surface of the ocean, hiding a leviathan behind it.

Now that Lu Zheng cleared his mind, he glanced at the sword, filled with blood once again, before normally swinging it downward to remove the blood.

He swept his eyes, seeing corpses and no living being, and then decided to sheath the sword since there was no one to kill.

If he came across another Scorching Blade Clan member, he would surely kill them.

Unless, they would become a hindrance of him leaving a city so they could not kill him.

When he sheathed his sword, he called the system to display his current status.

[Name: Lu Zheng

Rank: Apprentice

Internal Technique: Ocean’s Heart Qi Technique.

External Technique: Azure Tide Sword Technique.

Strength: 8.6 (7)

Durability: 4

Speed: 5.4 (8)

Agility: 7.4 (10)

Stamina: 3 (7)

Intelligence: 4

Qi: 1

Extra Points: 7.]

When he saw his strength surpassed the other physical capabilities, he looked at his hand, opening and closing them, analyzing his current strength.

“I feel like I have become more stronger than I was agile. It’s alright, I guess.” Lu Zheng mumbled.

He knew the Scorching Blade Clan was known for their explosive strength while the Azure Tide Clan was known for the impenetrable defense: through agile movements or attack speed.

Hence, he was not surprised to receive more strength points when killing the Scorching Blade Clan than other physical abilities.

Lu Zhen focused on his Qi Points and Extra Points.

If he put all the Extra Points into his Qi Points, he would have eight Qi Points, and with two Qi Gathering Pills, reaching the Intermediate Rank would be possible tonight.

He was now in a dilemma of whether he should break through to Intermediate Rank first or leave the city first.

He assessed the pros and cons.

As he was choosing, he had a question to which he asked Ravyn, “Ravyn, if I suddenly raised my Qi Points to eight points, will I suffer again?”

Lu Zheng could still vividly remember the sufferings he received when he obtained the Awakening Stone and the Internal Technique.

Of course, he remembered the refreshing feeling washing all over his body everytime he received points on his physical abilities.

However, when it comes to Qi points, it involves Qi though, about his meridians and dantians.

If he raised the Qi points with eight extra points all at once, it might have overwhelmed him.

Hence, he was anxious by overthinking.

Ravyn replied, “You will not suffer. If it is the system, then he can create the Qi balls at once, without the need to proceed with the usual gathering of Qi and then flowing them into meridians and into dantian. This is another big advantage.”

His eyes sparkled.

He could not believe to receive such an overpowered cheat.

So, without hesitation, not doubting Ravyn at all, he put all the Extra Points to Qi Points, causing him to receive such a powerful refreshing feeling all over his body.

At the same time, the powerful gathering of Qi in a single place caught some individual’s eyes.

***

In the manor of the Clan Head of the Scorching Blade Clan, there was a secret meeting being held.

There were only two individuals on a round table, sitting beside the opened window, providing beautiful scenery of lights and buildings.

It was the city of Ebonshade, prosperous and lively, as though no war occurred three days ago.

The two individuals were enjoying the breeze, as well as the sound of lively music played by the musician a bit far from them, near the corner of the wide open place.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The place reflected the design of red and fire, with a bit of Chinese culture being depicted, even the jars and other ceramics were not exempted.

The smell of red wine intoxicated them, suffusing from their cup and an opened bottle of wine atop the table.

The individual on the left, wearing only the beast skin of a white tiger, covering his head, back, and legs, while exposing his bare, well-toned body, grabbed the cup and drank the wine with an ugly expression.

His chiseled face with striking eyebrows radiated a dangerous aura, seemingly containing his displeasure at what he saw in a particular place.

It was not only him, the other individual also grabbed the cup and drank the contents while frowning.

Compared to his company, he was a bit-older – middle aged – while the latter was in his late teens, nearing twenty.

Yet, it was not visible on his face, with how matured he appeared, even with the dangerous aura he was radiating, being boosted by the white tiger skin he was wearing.

The middle-aged individual had a scar of sharp weapon on his face, tracing from his forehead sliding to the left side of his cheeks.

He was fortunate enough to avoid the fatal strike from affecting his eyes.

He was wearing the dark-red robe with a distinct logo of five swords raging with flames.

Five of the swords glimmered with fire, reflecting his status.

Obviously, the identity of the two individuals was not ordinary.

The white tiger individual said, a hint of teen voice mixed within, “It is located on the underground of the Azure Tide Clan. Do you think it was found?”

“Probably,” replied the other individual in a somber tone. “We have no clues for the past few days. Then, suddenly, there is that strange gathering of Qi. It seems a rat managed to sneak inside and steal the treasures.”

***

Outside of the Ebondshade City, near the river, kilometers away from the city, there was an elder and a gorgeous female youth, sleeping in the ground, covered with a sleeping bag.

The quality of the sleeping bag was no leather but appeared to be made with an expensive silk.

If it was to be sold in the Ebonshade City, or even the White Tiger City, it would be sold at a hefty price.

Furthermore, the beauty of the sleeping youth was otherworldly, maintaining its impeccable, milky white skin, as though he was not in the wilderness.

Under the gleam of the moonlight, it revealed her pretty face.

Meanwhile, the elder has long white hair, with no wrinkles, but there was a clear sign of aging on his face.

His eyes abruptly opened, revealing scarlet pupils.

He sat up, turning his head on the right side slightly above, as though he was staring at something.

Suddenly, there was a shaking in the crown of trees, and birds flew out of their nest, feeling disturbed suddenly.

Yet, the elder appeared not bothered by them as he continued to stare in a single direction blankly.

Dozens of seconds passed and he slowly lowered his head, contemplating.

“What was that?” He mumbled. “I suddenly felt a dangerous aura. To whom it belonged? It was clearly not in this world.”

He shook his head, tossing those absurd ideas at the back of his mind, and returned to lie down on the ground with his sleeping bag.

He closed his eyes and mumbled, “There was no way an existence of that stronger to appear here. No way…”

His words drifted in the cold breeze as he continued to sleep, as though nothing happened…

***

After Lu Zheng enjoyed the refreshing feeling coursing through his whole being, he heard the system’s announcement.

[You have sent all your Extra Points to Qi Points.

1 Qi Points > 8 Qi Points.

Continue to amass Extra Points to exchange them in increasing your physical capabilities and Qi points.]

Lu Zheng soon perceived the refreshing feeling dwindling until it completely vanished as he woke up to reality.

He hastily checked his dantian and was delighted to see yellow eight Qi balls floating inside his dantian.

Simultaneously, he discerned his Qi Circulation has greatly improved, as well as his sensitivity to Qi in the world.

He was elated he could have such a cheat power backing him.

However, he could not help but wonder if it was really that generous to him.

He asked Ravyn, “Will there be limitations again?”

“Of course. Just like I said the system is not that generous,” Ravyn instantly replied, causing Lu Zheng to fall into deep contemplation.

Ravyn continued, “If you ascend to the rank, the system can’t help you. So, internal techniques matter, too. Even your comprehension about your current rank to another. Back in my world, we don’t have internal techniques but my external techniques can act the same. As long as my comprehension about my external technique, which had the potential to bring me to the peak, equaled the Rank I was about to attain, then internal techniques won’t matter to us.”

“Eh? How does that work?” Lu Zheng was curious.

After all, in his world, Internal Techniques were cultivated when it came to cultivating Qi while External Techniques were cultivated for weapon techniques.

It was advised that the two techniques must be compatible to bring out their full efficiency.

If Ravyn only cultivated External Techniques, how would they be able to acquire their Qi?

How did he attain the peak?

“Your thinking is wrong. If we obtain an External Technique that aids us to attain higher rank, if we practiced it, then forming mana– or what you called Qi balls would come naturally. If you have dantian, we have mana core. If you have meridians, we have mana veins.

Furthermore from what I have observed in your External Technique and Internal Technique, it appeared it was separated. Why not turn it into one?

My Technique could be considered the unity of External and Internal Technique.”

Lu Zheng was flabbergasted.

He mumbled absent-mindedly, “Unity of External and Internal Technique… How is that possible?”

“It is.”

Ravyn felt amused by Lu Zheng’s reaction.

Earlier, he was just messing around with Lu Zheng, stating that his technique was an external technique that could act like an internal technique, which was half-false.

After all, his technique was the unity of external technique and internal technique, so it could only be called technique.

He was trying to assess the intelligence of Lu Zheng, to which it could not just be guessed by his Intelligence Points.

When he was successful, he casually dropped the bomb, flabbergasting Lu Zheng.

Now, he was completely intrigued by how Lu Zheng digested the shocking information.

“That’s right. Although, back in my world, not all have the same luck as me. They only have external technique while their system can only bring them to a particular realm. However, I heard others managed to overcome the problem, and it appeared it was due to internal technique.

Nevertheless, such a thing is outdated. I guess, I gotta be thankful because I obtained such a technique. Remember, it’s not an external technique or internal technique, but a Technique. After all, it was a unity of both.”

“Unity of both…” Lu Zheng’s heart raced.

It was a really troubling matter to find compatible internal and external techniques.

Furthermore, there was also the problem of their grade, too.

Obtaining techniques was so difficult.

He was already lucky to obtain the Ocean’s Heart Qi Technique and the Azure Sword Technique, which has almost perfect compatibility, increasing their effectiveness to the cultivator.

If Lu Zheng could obtain such a technique…

“Don’t ever try it. If you are not suitable to cultivate my technique, then don’t even try.”

“Why?” Lu Zheng asked in a dispirited tone.

“Because it is too powerful. I obtained it when I was way more powerful than you and had chosen to learn it. If you badly want to cultivate it, you better raise your rank first.”

“Which rank?”

“I don’t know. But even with the aid of the system, it will take you years.”

Lu Zheng was depressed.

Ravyn said, “It would have been better if you cultivate it earlier, but with how overbearing it is, it will overwhelm you. If you still have your luck and obtain an internal technique on the same level of my Technique, it will counter its tyrannical power that could corrupt an individual’s mind, I would give it to you.”