Tsukahara Bokuden had already gone mad with rage, his reason completely clouded by hatred. Watching his beautiful disciple Aoki Yuxue being “abducted” by Qinglong right before his eyes, he felt his life had lost all meaning. If he couldn’t get Aoki Yuxue back, there was no point in living.
In that state, how could he possibly dodge or retreat?
He threw everything into charging forward, abandoning all defense and converting it into raw attacking power, single-mindedly determined to blast Jiang Fei out of his way. Unfortunately, while his attack power had indeed increased to some degree, he was already injured and his strength had been affected. Even with the boost, he couldn’t overwhelm Jiang Fei or force him to dodge.
Instead, his extreme recklessness caused the flawless, fully-realized swordsmanship he had created for his own school to quietly develop an opening—giving Jiang Fei the perfect opportunity. The Beiming Divine Art activated immediately.
“Aaah—”
Feeling his inner energy cultivation being drained away like water, his body trembling uncontrollably, Tsukahara Bokuden finally came back to his senses.
This person blocking his path was no ordinary opponent. He was a master whose strength was completely on par with his own—someone who could even suppress him through strange “sorcery”!
Feeling that awful sensation of having his inner energy absorbed once again, Tsukahara Bokuden instinctively reacted correctly—just as before, gathering all his inner energy into one point and violently ramming it toward Jiang Fei’s arm. In an instant, it formed a powerful force that forced Jiang Fei to break off and get knocked back.
Except this time, after breaking free of Jiang Fei, he didn’t choose to flee. Instead, roaring and snarling, he continued forward, determined to chase down Qinglong and Aoki Yuxue. Seeing this, Jiang Fei couldn’t have been happier.
This was practically experience being delivered to his doorstep—who in their right mind would refuse?
Intercept, break the swordsmanship, absorb the inner energy.
Repeat, repeat, repeat. The inner energy in Jiang Fei’s body was increasing at a nearly visible rate, while Tsukahara Bokuden’s attacks grew weaker and weaker, more and more feeble. After chasing a few hundred meters in the direction Qinglong and Aoki Yuxue had disappeared, he finally couldn’t chase anymore.
Because at that moment, Jiang Fei grabbed his shoulder with one palm, and Beiming true qi poured out in an endless stream. Tsukahara Bokuden was like a man under a immobilizing spell—he couldn’t break free no matter how hard he struggled.
By now, most of the inner energy in his body had already been absorbed by Jiang Fei. Even if he mobilized every last bit of inner energy to ram against him, it was no longer enough to violently knock Jiang Fei away. He could only glare at Jiang Fei with a hideous expression, unwilling to accept it.
“Get lost!”
Even so, with his inner energy still draining away like a flowing stream, Tsukahara Bokuden didn’t stop roaring. He still stared at Jiang Fei with murderous intensity, wishing he could flay him alive and pull out his bones.
Jiang Fei simply ignored the old man’s killing intent. Toward someone who posed no threat to him, no matter how heavy the killing intent or how unwilling they were, Jiang Fei chose to ignore it entirely.
Right now, his eyes were shining, fixed intently on the other man—while also keeping constant watch on the growth of his inner energy in his character attribute panel.
“Seems… a bit unexpected,” Jiang Fei thought.
Absorbing Tsukahara Bokuden’s inner energy this time was different from what he’d imagined—noticeably different from all the inner energy masters he’d absorbed before.
But this difference wasn’t a bad thing. It was a good thing!
He hadn’t even fully absorbed Tsukahara Bokuden’s inner energy yet, but how much had his own inner energy grown?
It had already increased by a full eleven years of inner energy cultivation!
Eleven years of inner energy cultivation! If you calculated using the previous ratio of one to five between inner energy and inner power, then Jiang Fei had already absorbed fifty-five years of Tsukahara Bokuden’s inner energy!
That was an unimaginable number.
You have to understand—inner energy isn’t something you’re born with, nor something teenagers can cultivate. Even for heaven-favored geniuses and martial prodigies, most only start cultivating the first traces of inner energy around the age of twenty.
Even if Tsukahara Bokuden, this generation’s Sword Saint, had cultivated inner energy starting at age twenty, and he was now eighty, that would only make his inner energy about sixty years’ worth.
“This old guy still looks pretty lively—not drained at all. His inner energy has probably only decreased by half, right? At most it couldn’t have dropped more than two-thirds… but how has my inner power already grown by eleven years?” Jiang Fei was puzzled.
If he fully absorbed Tsukahara Bokuden’s inner energy, his inner power would probably increase by nearly twenty years!
Twenty years of inner power, converted to inner energy, would be a full hundred years!
There was no way that old beast Tsukahara Bokuden could be a hundred and twenty years old, right?
Though he was bewildered, for Jiang Fei this was ultimately beneficial with no drawbacks—a tremendous stroke of good fortune. It would save him a long stretch of cultivation time. Reaching great perfection in the Beiming Divine Art would no longer be just a dream!
So Jiang Fei secretly increased the circulation of his Beiming true qi, speeding up the absorption rate even more.
Bzzt, bzzt, bzzt~
Large surges of inner energy transferred from Tsukahara Bokuden’s body into Jiang Fei’s, then flowed along his meridians into his qi sea. After one full circulation, it became his own inner power, increasing his cultivation.
Because of this powerful inner energy output, strong air currents formed around both their bodies, puffing out their robes until they billowed. Tsukahara Bokuden’s white hair flew wildly in the air.
Qinglong and Aoki Yuxue had left, and Brahma was dead—but there weren’t just those few people nearby. There were still three danjin-level masters present.
The Lion King, Yagyū Munenori, and the gravely wounded Vatican elder Olivia.
Watching the battle between Jiang Fei and Tsukahara Bokuden, the shock in their hearts was truly beyond words. They had never seen anyone fight the way Jiang Fei did.
If they wanted to kill the severely weakened Tsukahara Bokuden, any of them could have done it. Why was Jiang Fei dragging it out so long?
And the state they were in was strange too—just like in martial arts movies, where masters compete with their inner energy!
This was completely unscientific!
They were all martial arts masters with deep understanding of martial arts. Although they had all cultivated inner energy and could compete over whose inner energy was deeper, that was always done with real weapons—pouring inner energy into fists, feet, blades, and swords to wound the enemy.
Who ever heard of bodies touching and then just… not moving?
Inner energy was even more fierce and powerful than fists and feet. How could it unleash its power without movement?
Take a fist, for example—if it’s pressed against your body and doesn’t move, how does it hurt you?
No matter how exquisite or powerful your boxing technique, it’s useless!
The so-called one-inch punch and one-inch power still require some distance to generate force. You can’t just press right against someone with zero distance!
The Lion King and Olivia watched wide-eyed with curiosity, not understanding what was going on.
But Yagyū Munenori—now thoroughly a heartbroken, despondent man with little will left to live—had guessed what Jiang Fei was up to.
The last time they’d dueled at the summit of Mount Emei, he’d ultimately been defeated by Jiang Fei and left with no strength to fight. He’d once experienced, for a brief moment, exactly what Tsukahara Bokuden was experiencing now.
His own inner energy being absorbed by Jiang Fei!
Though it had felt strange and quite uncomfortable at the time, when he’d embraced his core and guarded his heart, sinking all his inner energy deep into his dantian, Jiang Fei’s strange technique had become useless—he couldn’t move his inner energy at all.
Now… it seemed Jiang Fei could absorb Tsukahara Bokuden’s inner energy?
Tsukahara Bokuden was a Sword Saint, a great master at the innate gangqi level. Jiang Fei hadn’t even been able to absorb his energy back then, but now he could absorb Tsukahara Bokuden’s. The only explanation was that Jiang Fei’s strength had grown even more profound.
But that was only natural. Back at the summit of Mount Emei, Jiang Fei had needed to expend tremendous effort just to defeat him. Now he could suppress Tsukahara Bokuden—the progress in his strength was obvious.
A full three minutes passed before Jiang Fei’s hand on Tsukahara Bokuden’s shoulder suddenly released. He quickly circulated his qi to regulate it, getting the inner energy rampaging through his body under control, guiding it into his qi sea to slowly convert.
As for Tsukahara Bokuden—the moment Jiang Fei let go, his aged body slumped softly to the ground, without even the strength to stand. He who had once looked like an old monster with white hair and a youthful face now had the wrinkles of an old man returning to his features, no longer rosy and full.
Though his face was still hideous and the fury in his eyes had only grown stronger, there was clearly despair deep in his gaze—as if he had lost all meaning in life.
He knew he had truly fallen this time. He would never get Aoki Yuxue back to stay by his side.
No one paid him any attention. After another long moment, Jiang Fei raised both hands and then pressed them down, letting out a heavy breath.
At this point, he had completely absorbed Tsukahara Bokuden’s lifetime cultivation and converted it into his own inner power cultivation.
Character: Jiang Fei
Level: 6
Experience: 10697/11000
Stamina: 4.2
Spirit: 5.3
Agility: 6.2
Strength: 5.4
Unallocated Points: 0
Martial Arts Skills: Qinggong “Threefold Cloud,” Level 3 (Great Perfection); Incomplete Taiji Quan, Level 1 (0/200); Qimen Dunjia Art, Level 3 (Great Perfection); Dugu Nine Swords, Level 3 (Great Perfection); Beiming Divine Art, Level 2 (19.8/45); Tiyun Zong, Level 2 (0/700); Nine Yin Manual’s Soul-Shifting Technique (1/260). Available Skill Points: 109
Sub-Professions: Weapon Forging (Level 9), Plant Cultivation (Level 9), Cooking (Level 9), Gardening (Level 9), Zither Art (Level 9), Brewing (Level 9), Summoned Beast Taming (Level 9), Medicine (Level 9)…
Looking at his character attribute panel, Jiang Fei felt the urge to throw his head back and howl with joy.
That’s right—his Beiming Divine Art inner energy had really increased by almost twenty years!
His previous Beiming Divine Art cultivation had only just crossed into the second layer two months ago. Now it was at 19.8 years—which was 19.6 years, basically twenty years.
Twenty years of bitter cultivation!
This wasn’t experience points. If no inner energy masters came for him to absorb, Jiang Fei’s Beiming Divine Art would truly have required twenty years of cultivation to achieve this result. Today’s events were simply a pie falling from the sky!
“There’s absolutely no way Tsukahara Bokuden’s inner energy could be a hundred years—sixty years, one full cycle, would already be impressive. But sixty years converted into twenty years of inner power—that ratio isn’t one to five, it’s almost one to three!”
“Could it be that innate masters’ inner energy is fundamentally different from ordinary martial artists’ inner energy? That their inner energy is already closer to the inner power in wuxia novels? So when you absorb their inner energy and convert it to inner power, the conversion rate is higher?”
Jiang Fei speculated in his mind.
This theory was actually quite plausible.
After all, innate masters—even danjin masters—couldn’t compare to them. Their inner energy could already be converted into gangqi. In a sense, innate masters’ inner energy was indeed more compatible with Jiang Fei’s inner power.
Smiling, Jiang Fei casually looked over his character attributes once more and felt even more satisfied.
“Mm, not bad. My character level is about to go up too. Given the current scale of Jiang’s Medical Clinic, a few hundred experience points is just a matter of the next couple days.”
This time, Jiang Fei hadn’t saved up all his skill points. Whenever he could use them, he’d spent them on the martial arts manuals he’d already learned, raising their levels.
For example, the first martial arts manual Jiang Fei had ever drawn—the signature qinggong of “Wandering Lone Ranger” Tian Boguang, Threefold Cloud—had already been raised to Level 3 Great Perfection. The Qimen Dunjia book had also been raised a level, reaching Great Perfection. And Wudang’s Tiyun Zong hadn’t been neglected either—raised to the second layer.
So over these past few months, Jiang Fei had earned more than ten thousand experience points, which converted to over a thousand skill points—but he only had a hundred or so left.
Still, those skill points hadn’t been wasted.
It was precisely because Jiang Fei had raised the martial arts skills he’d already learned that he had the strength today to go head-to-head with innate masters.
If Jiang Fei hadn’t raised those skills, he might not have been qualified to suppress Tsukahara Bokuden today—and wouldn’t have been able to absorb his inner energy.
Satisfied, Jiang Fei closed the character attribute panel and thought happily: “With twenty extra years of inner energy, my strength should have grown by another large margin, right? After all, with inner power, the deeper it is, the stronger you are. Even if I haven’t reached the third layer of Beiming Divine Art at great perfection, there should still be a difference between early second layer and mid second layer.”
He clenched his fist, feeling the surging power within his body, and his confidence doubled.
Now he could absolutely suppress innate masters of Tsukahara Bokuden and Brahma’s caliber. Even against Qinglong’s miraculous spear, Jiang Fei felt he had the ability to block it.
“Not bad at all.”
Jiang Fei nodded, then came back to himself and looked at Tsukahara Bokuden lying limp and powerless on the ground. The old man was thoroughly finished now. Even if Jiang Fei didn’t kill him, without his inner energy, he probably wouldn’t live much longer.
Toward him, Jiang Fei felt not the slightest sympathy.
But just as Jiang Fei was about to say something, Tsukahara Bokuden—gazing at the sky—suddenly burst into hysterical laughter. Though his voice lacked strength now that his inner energy was gone, it was utterly deranged.
He laughed for a long while before muttering in a low voice: “I’m not resigned to this… not resigned! Yuxue, Yuxue…”
With that, he gathered the last bit of his strength and brought his right hand down hard on top of his own head.
Boom!
Eyes wide open, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, dying with his eyes open…
