Chapter 211: Killing Him Is Effortless

Time is like a winding river, flowing ever forward, neither fast nor slow, never pausing for anyone.

And when a person is completely absorbed in a task, they can hardly feel time passing at all. This was precisely the case for Chen Yue.

His courtyard, the dining hall, and the Hundred Herbs Pavilion—these three places formed the circuit of his daily life. It was like a repeatedly traced drawing, each day astonishingly similar to the last.

He would wake at dawn, push open his courtyard gate, and walk along the bluestone steps to the dining hall. After breakfast, he would head to Dan Peak. There, at his usual Pill Furnace in the Hundred Herbs Pavilion, he would refine two or three batches of Nourishing Spirit Pill Yang Pills to replenish the stock he consumed during his cultivation.

Afterward, he would return to his courtyard to continue practicing his Cultivation Technique and refining his Pill Formula.

Chen Yue didn’t return to the Hidden Skills Pavilion. Although there were certainly Secret Manuals there he had yet to read, they were not his concern at the moment.

He didn’t even visit the Prefecture City. For fourteen days, Chen Yue was completely immersed in his training regimen, his mind free from all distractions.

At midnight on the fourteenth day, he cultivated the Pan Yuan Infinite Skill to the realm of complete Perfection.

The moment this new Cultivation Technique reached Perfection, Chen Yue sensed a difference.

The Vast Heart Rock Skill’s original quality of Central Justice and Peace had been largely supplanted by the conceptual state of Mixed Element Infinite.

In practice, this manifested as another significant increase in the circulation speed of his Inner Strength.

With the complete Perfection of this Cultivation Technique, Chen Yue also mastered a brand-new Secret Technique: Mixed Element Infinite.

The core of Mixed Element Infinite lay in instantly splitting his single stream of Inner Strength into two. While each stream traveled along a different meridian path, they maintained a synchronous, twin-like resonance.

When he used this Secret Technique, Chen Yue could make the two streams of Inner Strength converge and stack at the very instant his attack struck a target.

Simply put, after executing a technique, an attack that would normally have a single impact would instead produce a Stacking Force effect, like overlapping waves, due to the convergence of the two Inner Strength streams.

One wave followed another, subjecting his opponent to damage far greater than any single attack.

This Stacking Force was a resonance generated by the very circulation paths of the two Inner Strength streams; it had nothing to do with the form of the Technique itself.

Thus, it could be applied to any Technique, be it a Palm Technique or a Saber Technique. The enhancement was complete the very moment he launched his attack.

Chen Yue’s attacks were already immense and powerful. The Physique Tempered by the Ten Thousand Forms Tiger Roar Golden Bell granted him strength far surpassing others of the same realm, and every move he made carried a crushing sense of oppression.

With the addition of this Stacking Force, Chen Yue’s offense rose to another level.

Even his defense improved. When he circulated his Inner Strength using the Stacking Force method to block an attack, the impact he sustained was significantly reduced.

Furthermore, unlike other Life-or-Death Secret Techniques, Mixed Element Infinite had no side effects—no period of weakness after use, and no risk of meridian damage.

It was simply a sublimely ingenious method of circulating Inner Strength, one that could be used at will.

The only drawback, if one could call it that, was the massive consumption of Inner Strength during combat.

Fortunately, thanks to the Celestial Demon Burning Technique, Chen Yue could fuse Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi into his regular Inner Strength cultivation. Compared to other Martial Artists in the Refining Organ Realm, his Inner Strength was not only more abundant but also far purer.

It was on par with, if not superior to, that of cultivators who had spent years at the peak of the Refining Organ Realm.

The complete Perfection of the Pan Yuan Infinite Skill also allowed Chen Yue to increase his daily intake of Nourishing Spirit Pill Yang Pills by one.

The increase seemed minor, but it meant that under the tempering of the Perfect Technique, his meridians had grown wider and tougher, raising the upper limit of the Medicinal Power he could withstand.

Fifteen Nourishing Spirit Pill Yang Pills a day. This amount would have seemed like an impossible fantasy before he entered the Refining Organ Realm, but it was now his daily dosage.

If it weren’t for the Celestial Demon Burning Technique, which allowed him to break down and absorb Medicinal Power with an efficiency far exceeding normal refinement, and if it weren’t for his Immune to Hundred Poisons talent…

…with the sheer number of elixirs he took each day, Chen Yue estimated his meridians would have long since been clogged to death by Erysipelas.

Yet now, not only were his meridians unharmed, but they had actually grown even more resilient than before, thanks to the constant nourishment of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi and the daily tempering from his Cultivation Technique.

At the same time, the daily increase to his Cultivation rose from just over 500 points to around 570, further shortening the time he needed to break through to the Innate Realm.

While Chen Yue cultivated with single-minded focus, the entire Panshi Sect was abuzz with discussion about one thing: in eight days, he was scheduled to face Guan Duhai, eighth on the Sword Heart Ranking, in a Life and Death Decision.

If before, this news had been nothing more than baseless speculation—an unconfirmed rumor—then as the date drew near, the matter had been fully confirmed.

The Panshi Sect had officially confirmed that Chen Yue would depart for the Liuyun Sword Sect in eight days, and the Martial Arts Arena there was already being prepared for the duel.

With this confirmation, many of the Panshi Sect’s Inner Sect Disciples found the situation difficult to comprehend.

Why would a disciple who had just broken through to the Refining Organ Realm go up against a man who had been at the peak of that same realm for years, not to mention ranked eighth on the Sword Heart Ranking?

As some of the inside details were gradually revealed, they learned the full story. It was purely a case of Guan Duhai’s aggression; in the Cloud-Gazing Hall, in front of the Elders from both sects, he had directly blamed Chen Yue for Guan Duzhou’s death.

With a demeanor that cared nothing for the truth and sought only revenge, he had forced Chen Yue to accept this Life and Death Decision.

His tyrannical attitude, that posture of “you will accept this, whether you want to or not,” stoked the anger of many Panshi Sect disciples.

But that anger was followed by a deeper worry. Anger was one thing, but what would be the actual outcome of the duel?

Could Chen Yue truly defeat Guan Duhai?

Looking back at Chen Yue’s various battles in the Panshi Sect, he had never once been defeated. In fact, he had always fought and won against those of higher cultivation, often defeating opponents from a higher realm with considerable ease.

Every one of his opponents had their own impressive records and reputations before facing him, but after their battles, those reputations became mere entries in Chen Yue’s list of victories.

Following that logic, Chen Yue was now also in the Refining Organ Realm. Although he had only just broken through, he was facing Guan Duhai, who was at the very peak of the Refining Organ Realm.

Judging by his track record, a victory for Chen Yue was entirely possible.

After repeatedly comparing the two fighters’ strengths, the disciples who had been worried gradually shifted from their initial pessimism to a cautious hope that perhaps he could actually win.

And yet, the gap between two Martial Artists, even those of the same realm, could sometimes be absurdly vast.

For example, if a top expert on the Cyan Cloud Ranking wanted to kill an ordinary Inner Sect disciple at the Refining Organ Realm, it would likely take only two or three techniques—perhaps even just one—to decide the outcome.

It was a complete rout, a total suppression in foundation, Cultivation Technique, and combat rhythm. Sometimes, in a duel between masters, a slight edge in level translated to an insurmountable advantage.

And Guan Duhai was eighth on the Sword Heart Ranking. Furthermore, recent news said that he had just spent several days in closed-door cultivation within the Liuyun Sword Sect’s Sword Grinding Pool.

The Sword Grinding Pool was well-known among the neighboring sects. It was the Liuyun Sword Sect’s core resource for tempering Sword Intent. By using Heaven and Earth Evil Qi to scour one’s Heart Spirit and hone the edge of one’s Sword Intent, it could grant a Sword Cultivator a massive boost in a short time.

After Guan Duhai emerged from the Sword Grinding Pool, his Sword Intent was said to be soaring, and his strength had surged once more. He likely no longer possessed only the strength of the eighth-ranked on the Sword Heart Ranking.

Within the Liuyun Sword Sect, some were even starting to discuss him in the same breath as the top five on the Sword Heart Ranking.

And Chen Yue? He was still ranked eighty-ninth on the Cyan Cloud Ranking.

Of course, no one believed Chen Yue’s strength was truly at that level. After all, he had already broken through to the Refining Organ Realm, and even before that, he had effortlessly crushed Hua Guanzhi.

Now, with the Cultivation of the Refining Organ Realm under his belt, his true strength had surely leaped up by a huge margin.

But no one could say for sure where his true strength now lay. He had scarcely made a public move in over twenty days. What level had his Sword Intent reached? Had his Body Technique seen any new breakthroughs?

Everything remained a mystery.