6 Martial Hall
During the whole week, Song Yang focused on cultivating, only stopping to wash, to eat, and to sleep.
He had almost reached the second level of the Eight Meridians Opening realm! He was extremely pleased by his cultivation speed and was very addicted to the feeling of getting stronger and stronger each day.
He was very close to breakthrough the second level but before doing that, he first wanted to visit the Martial Hall of the sect to borrow a Martial Art.
After eating his breakfast, he left his house and walked towards the Central Area. Tan Yanyan and Xia Zilin refused to accompany him because they wanted to continue focusing on their cultivation.
Once he was inside the Martial Hall, he noticed that a lot of disciples were lining up in front of an old man who was checking their Sect Token. It was only after his agreement that the disciples could access the bookshelves containing the Martial Art manuals.
This old man was an Outer Elder of the sect, his role was to protect the Martial Hall, to check the identity of the people entering it, to make sure they had the minimum cultivation level to enter, and to briefly explain to them the rules.
After lining up for ten minutes, it was finally Song Yang's turn to give his Sect Token to the elder.
The old man took Song Yang's token and nodded.
"You can only stay here for half an hour and can only choose one Mortal-grade or one Earth-grade Martial Art. If you attempt to stay longer or try to take more than one Martial Art, the Array Formation will kick you out of the Martial Hall and you will be punished according to the sect's rules. The first floor contains Mortal-grade Martial Arts while the second floor contains Earth-grade Martial Arts. After a month, you have to return the borrowed Martial Art." He explained.
"I understand." Said Song Yang before walking past the old man towards the many bookshelves behind him.
Although they were not as powerful as Earth-grade Martial Arts, Mortal-grade Martial Arts were easier to learn and perfect for beginners. A lot of disciples made the mistake to ignore them and would immediately borrow an Earth-grade Martial Arts. They ended up regretting it since they couldn't learn the technique in only a month.
Song Yang looked around him. As expected of a powerful sect, there were many shelves with many manuals sorted in a specific order. In total, there were probably a good hundred Martial Arts, just on this floor!
Above each shelf, there was a plaque indicating the category of Martial Arts it contained.
Martial Arts were divided into four categories: offensive, defensive, movement, and support. In addition, there were also weapon-based Martial Arts which counted as a separate category.
Song Yang wanted to find an offensive Martial Art of the Ice element. Since the method he was cultivating greatly increased the power of Martial Arts of this element, he supposed that even a weak Mortal-grade technique would become strong if it was used by him.
He walked towards the shelves containing the offensive Martial Arts and started searching for one of the Ice elements when a notification suddenly popped up.
[Mortal-grade Martial Arts detected. Do you wish to spend 5 Diamonds to instantly master it?]
'Oh my god! I didn't know that this functionality also worked with the Martial Arts that don't come from the system. That's amazing!' He thought, excited.
Of course, he would be shameless and would not hesitate to cheat the sect by learning as many Martial Arts as he could.
Since he only had half an hour, he quickly went through all the Martial Arts of the Ice element that he could find on both floors. Thankfully, the techniques were also sorted by elements so he didn't waste time searching them randomly.
While Song Yang was searching, a young man took notice of 'him' and was stunned by 'his' beauty.
The young man saw that the girl seemed to have a hard time choosing a Martial Art so he smiled and walked towards her.
"Hello Junior Sister, I noticed that you don't seem to know which Martial Art to choose. Do you need help?" He asked.
Song Yang stopped what he was doing and looked at the person who talked to him. He was a tall handsome young man a few years older than him with mid-long black hair tied into a bun attached by a silver accessory.
'Fuck, why didn't I transmigrated in the body of this guy... Wait, is he hitting on me? Tsk, I'm not and will never be interested in men so don't waste my time!' He thought, furious.
Song Yang was aware that his great beauty would inevitably attract many men so he couldn't help but think that every guy who approached him wanted to hit on him. After all, being a boy himself, he knew how they were thinking.
"No thanks, I'm fine." He said, ignoring the young man and walking towards another shelf.
The young man was momentarily stunned, he didn't expect to be rejected. Usually, girls either blushed or tried to seduce him when he talked to them. He couldn't help but faintly smile and think that this girl was definitely very interesting...
A few minutes later, Song Yang finally found everything he needed.
In total, he spent 40 Diamonds to master five Martial Arts of the Ice element. Mastering an Earth-grade Martial Art cost 10 Diamonds.
- Freezing Palm: a Mortal-grade offensive Martial Art consisting of channeling Ice Qi around the cultivator's palm(s) and striking the enemy.
- Crystallization: a Mortal-grade support Martial Art allowing a cultivator to use Ice Qi to heal superficial external wounds.
- Piercing Frost Ray: an Earth-grade offensive Martial Art consisting of creating a powerful piercing ray of Ice Qi from the cultivator's index finger. The range of the attack was twenty meters.
- Lesser Ice Shield: an Earth-grade defensive Martial Art consisting of creating a weak ice shield around the cultivator to block attacks.
- Rushing Frost Steps: an Earth-grade movement Martial Art allowing cultivators to use Ice Qi to momentarily boost their speed.
Song Yang was extremely satisfied and couldn't hide the large grin on his 'beautiful face'. In less than half an hour, he had mastered a full set of Martial Arts of the Ice element!
Time was almost up so he now had to leave the Martial Hall. Before leaving, he had to show the manual he had chosen to an elder.
Song Yang decided to borrow the Rushing Frost Steps technique even though he had already mastered it thanks to his system. That way, he could justify how he learned the technique when he would use it in the future.
He left the Martial Hall with a smile on his face and walked back to his house. However, he was suddenly interrupted by someone.
"You, stop!" Said a girl, blocking his way and pointing her finger at him.
The girl looked a few years older than him and was very beautiful but the angry look on her face gave her a hostile aura.
Song Yang had no idea who that girl was and why she was blocking him.
"Me?" He asked, pointing at himself.
"Yes, you, vixen! I saw you talk to Senior Brother Lei." The girl answered angrily.
"Senior who?" Asked Song Yang, surprised. He had never heard of this person...
"Don't try to act innocently, I saw you talk to him in the Martial Hall!"
Except for the elders, there was only one person with whom Song Yang talked in the Martial Hall... Actually, it couldn't even be considered talking since he just said four words...
"Oh, him... I just..."
"You better stay away from him or you will regret it!" Interrupted the girl, before stomping the ground and leaving.
Song Yang mentally sweatdropped. This girl had to be completely crazy to threaten him just because he talked to someone.
'So beautiful but so stupid, what a shame...' He thought, shaking his head.
In the end, he preferred to forget about this stupid girl and walked back to his house.
...
A few hours later, Song Yang opened his eyes after a long session of cultivation.
He had finally reached the second level of the Eight Meridians Opening realm!
[Host has reached the second level of the Eight Meridians Opening realm.]
[Host has earned 50 Diamonds.]
Now that he had reached his objective, he decided to not lose time and to immediately focus on refining his body with the Heavenly Ice.
Refining his body with the Heavenly Ice meant that Song Yang would have to endure the screeching pain of refining his skin, muscles, bones, blood, and internal organs to the point that they would become tough and thoroughly washed. But this refinement process was only the first phase. The second phase needed Song Yang to open the Eight Hidden Gates in his body: the Gate of Healing, the Gate of Limit, the Gate of Wonder, the Gate of Pain, the Gate of Opening, the Gate of View, the Gate of Life, and the Gate of Death.
But for now, the first step was to refine his skin so Song Yang removed his clothes and sat naked on the floor.
The process would be long and extremely painful. He knew that he couldn't refine his skin in just one go so he decided to do it for an hour for now.
Song Yang started chanting the mantra of the Heavenly Ice Scripture in his mind and surrounded his body with the Heavenly Ice. Then, he controlled the ice to keep it as close to his skin as possible.
As it was of the Pure Yin element, the Heavenly Ice was extremely cold. It started to freeze Song Yang's skin which almost made him scream in pain! Fortunately, he managed to hold back by gritting his teeth.
Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as he was trying to stay conscious while still chanting the mantra and controlling the ice. Never in his life he had felt so much pain, he felt like he was buried alive in an ice coffin while having his skin pierced by thousands of swords!
Slowly, the Heavenly Ice started to remove impurities from his skin as a stinky black substance could be seen leaving his body before crystallizing and disappearing.
Removing the impurities was only the beginning. After that, he would have to continuously temper his skin with the Heavenly Ice until it would become as tough as metal.
Finally, after what Song Yang estimated to be an hour, he immediately stopped everything and lay down on the floor with no strength left in his body.
Breathing heavily, he needed time to mentally and physically recover from so much pain.
'Holy shit, do I really have to suffer so much every day? I'm not a masochist!' He thought.
He was not someone with a lot of willpower in his previous life but for the sake of becoming stronger in this world, he was willing to suffer. After all, it wasn't until he got strong enough that he could live the adventurous life he always wanted.
Around an hour later, Song Yang recovered enough strength. He dressed back in his outer disciple outfit and lay down on his bed. It was already nighttime and he absolutely needed to sleep.
