Jie Tiangong concealed his weary frame behind the dense foliage of the forest as he observed Niu Chang with a mix of intrigue and desperation. Time slipped through his trembling hands, each passing moment a painful reminder of his mortal limitations.

After observing Niu Chang for a while from his hidden position, Jie Tiangong concluded that this kid didn't show any strangeness except for his confident antics.

As Jie Tiangong prepared to make his move to prevent this ignorant boy, he noticed that the boy suddenly turned his head towards his hidden location.

‘Impossible,’ thought Jie Tiangong. ‘I’m clearly hiding my presence with Concealing Art. This must be one of his antics!’

As a martial master with deep cultivation, slightly less than reaching the martial grandmaster stage, Jie Tiangong believed his improved Concealing Art was enough to remain hidden from those below the master stage.

On Niu Chang's side, while anticipating any surprise attack with tense nerves, he suddenly heard the system notification, but it disappeared before he could see the content.

The Automatic System Answerer didn't disappoint Niu Chang's expectations for its function.

Knowing it was his own passive skill in action, Niu Chang shifted his gaze towards a certain direction. This was the connection he had with his hidden adversary. The system also gave Niu Chang an unhindered sense of direction with those who established karma with him.

Niu Chang was calm at first, but only a few moments later, he felt a huge amount of qi entering his body like a flood after a dam was broken.

Due to his low level of control over his qi, Niu Chang's body was surrounded by a raging wind. But this wind had the color of his Transformation Energy qi, which was dim white, proving that the quantities were too great and causing visual effects due to his low-level qi.

Feeling suffocated by the overwhelming qi in his body, Niu Chang helplessly let go of his control over his qi. He knew his limits; if he tried to forcefully control and contain them inside his body, he would explode before controlling even a quarter of them.

‘What cultivation level is this?’ Niu Chang marveled at this sense of being overpowered, intensifying his gaze.

This was no longer an ordinary enemy like the bandits from the previous day. This person's cultivation was beyond anything he could understand.

‘Master stage? Grandmaster stage? Or something higher?’ Niu Chang furrowed his eyebrows, unable to help but complain. ‘What is a big shot doing in this poor backwater village?’

While he was confused by the turn of events, Niu Chang saw an elderly man walking out from behind the trees.

An aged cultivator, carried the weight of time upon his weathered face and silver hair. His piercing eyes held the wisdom of countless battles, while his graceful movements revealed hidden strength. Clad in flowing robes, he wielded a staff and wore a pendant that symbolized his spiritual enlightenment. In his presence, one could feel the indomitable spirit of a martial artist who had journeyed through the realms of cultivation.

After pondering for a while, Jie Tiangong decided to take a closer look at this weird boy. ‘I'm pretty sure he is just an ordinary third-rate martial artist, but then he suddenly becomes a grandmaster stage martial artist based on the quantity of his qi alone. Unreasonable!’

The main difference between the master stage and the grandmaster stage still lay in quantity and quality, but when it came to utilization, grandmasters could prevent the weakening of their qi after leaving their body. This could be seen from the color of the qi.

The more vibrant the color, the stronger the grandmaster.

Regarding texture and other qualities, it mainly depended on the cultivation method that the grandmaster practiced.

Standing on guard while formulating a plan, Niu Chang watched the old man walking with no less caution than himself.

Both were scrutinizing and probing each other's depths.

“Who are you?” Niu Chang emotionlessly said, without adding any additional movement, he was like an untouchable expert.

Jie Tiangong frowned when seeing this; he could feel something was amiss but didn’t dare to jump to conclusions.

No matter how sloppy Niu Chang's acting skills were, the fact that he had qi comparable to the grandmaster stage was enough for Jie Tiangong to be more doubtful.

‘Is he playing with me?’ Living for a long time and almost reaching his end, Jie Tiangong had already seen many things. One common occurrence was encountering individuals with a high cultivation level but an eccentric mind.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

There was a probability that Niu Chang was just teasing him at the moment. Acting with deliberate small mistakes might be a skill he had honed all his life to lower his opponent’s guard.

After reaching a certain distance, Jie Tiangong was finally able to see more clearly the condition of Niu Chang.

The raging qi that flowed from Niu Chang’s body was somewhat weak, indicating a low-level cultivation method. Moreover, more importantly, the qi was exiting his small body freely.

‘Is this still an act? How can a grandmaster be unable to control his own qi?’

With a condescending look, Niu Chang snorted. “A mere junior dares to cast his gaze upon the great me? Have you had enough of your life?!”

His tone was harsh, just like how a person of great power reprimanded those with low status. At this point, Niu Chang didn’t even need to act since he had always wanted to do this for a long time.

It was ingrained in his bones to act more pretentious than an emperor and more sanctimonious than a god.

While on the inside, he was busy conducting various tests that he couldn't do primarily due to his lack of qi and low qi cultivation level.

‘Oh, so this is how you split the qi into two parts and control them independently.’

‘Oh, this is the correct method of seamlessly transforming my normal qi into a different type of qi.’

‘Oh, oh, this is how…’

In just a short amount of time, Niu Chang learned many things about qi and how to control it.

Slowly but surely, his control over his qi slightly increased. However, compared to the quantity that compared to the grandmaster stage, his control was as slow as a moving snail.

Jie Tiangong also didn't do anything; the more he observed Niu Chang, the more he discovered many mistakes that were impossible for a grandmaster.

‘It's simple to let the qi flow unhindered from leaving the body; even a first-stage martial artist could do it without any problem. But the micro mistakes he made were simply impossible.’

Instead of controlling his qi by dividing it into branches to gain more precise and powerful control, Niu Chang could only control his qi entirely with singular control.

There was also the uneven qi distribution when circulating the qi, which was one of the basics for those who wanted to reach the peak stage.

There were too many small yet crucial mistakes in Niu Chang. Jie Tiangong narrowed his eyes, closely observing Niu Chang's foundation.

The reason why a master was called a master was because of their overall control over their qi. Those unaffiliated martial artists might think it was about the martial master's control over the qi outside their body, but for those with a teacher and sect, they knew it was about the qi inside the body.

Jie Tiangong's eyes brightened as he noticed the missing foundation inside Niu Chang's body. The qi inside his body, which was obstructed by the raging flow of qi, was seen through by the experienced Jie Tiangong.

‘There was no proper path and construct inside his body at all! How can this be?’ Jie Tiangong was more shocked than angry at being deceived.

‘Impossible! With this amount of qi, it is impossible for him to stay alive. Only by letting those overflowing qi in his body could he delay the immense pressure inside.’

Arriving at this conjecture, Jie Tiangong once again looked at Niu Chang's eyes. His gaze was sharp, and without even realizing it, he had entered a death battle with the little boy.

“This boy is just pretending! How hateful.” Jie Tiangong cursed under his breath.

Increasing the strength of his grip on the staff, Jie Tiangong circulated the qi in his body. “Boy, how dare you play with me. It seems that your elder didn’t teach you how to live properly.”

Filled with anger, Jie Tiangong raised his staff slightly and knocked it on the ground with a momentum not too fast nor too slow.

The previous grievances, the poem of rat, and the pretentious actions, Jie Tiangong was now taking his time to collect his interest.

With a blunt sound, the energy channeled inside the staff lets out an invisible sound wave that travels at great speed reaching Niu Chang.

Without lowering his guard at all, Niu Chang urged up the qi in his body to solidify to protect him from any attack that he couldn’t see or hear.

The dim white qi that flowed out from Niu Chang’s body stirred but not entirely. They began to change direction to linger around Niu Chang like a coiling snake or a circumstanced armor.

Bang. A loud sound suddenly exploded from Niu Chang’s body. The qi that protects his body was destroyed in an instant and returned to their uncontrollable behavior while the person himself was sent flying backward.

Niu Chang’s vision was rolling; he was unable to follow what just happened, and the next moment he realized he was sent flying, and a tree stopped him from flying farther.

‘The qi protects me from direct confrontation, but my physical body plays a more important role. Without the enhancement of the Impossible Idea first level, I’m afraid I will be half-dead at best.’

While Niu Chang tried his best to observe his surroundings and plan a counter-attack, his sharp senses captured the changes of wind pressure in front of him.

His eyes widened, and he clenched his teeth for the incoming impact.

Jie Tiangong was giving his all but still maintained some caution against Niu Chang. In the end, Niu Chang still has qi quantity that is higher than him, comparable to those martial grandmasters.

But also because of this, Jie Tiangong’s attacks were fierce. If it were ordinary first-rate martial artists, they would die from the first attack at best, hanging for their life.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

Jie Tiangong continuously tapped his staff onto the ground and watched how Niu Chang would react.

Receiving the painful beating from Jie Tiangong, Niu Chang was hurt, not his body, but his pride.

“Damn old man!” Niu Chang roared loudly, but before he could say something more provocative, he received more sonic attacks from Jie Tiangong.