Silence filled the great hall.
Everyone stared blankly toward the young girl in the final row.
The Six-Cycle Heavenly Flow claimed to be the number one technique beneath the Jieqing Spiritual Methods, nearly rivaling a true Spiritual Method. Setting everything else aside, the threshold and difficulty of practicing it alone were already comparable to a genuine Spiritual Method.
The Jieqing Sect had been established for ten thousand years, and countless Disciples had wasted their years away before this Cultivation Technique.
But what was the scene before them now?
Although the Disciples had never truly practiced this method, who among them hadn't gone to the Library Pavilion to flip through that famous rubbing?
The descriptions of the phenomena for each Realm in the technique's scrolls were written with absolute clarity.
At the Entry stage, one's Qi would transform into a trickling stream, with a faint mist of water vapor surrounding the body.
At the Minor Achievement stage, streams would converge, undercurrents would surge, and the sound of waves crashing against the shore could be heard.
Upon reaching Major Achievement, the vision would manifest: a long river under a setting sun, with starlight faintly appearing amidst the flowing waves.
If one could reach the one-in-a-million stage of Perfection... the galaxy would hang upside down, the heavenly flow would circulate, and myriad grand visions would appear.
But the phenomena surrounding this girl now...
Was far more than just a galaxy hanging upside down.
The vast starlight was nearly physical, piercing a line through the hall's ceiling. A brilliant galaxy transformed into a magnificent torrent, roaring as it coiled around the white-robed girl.
Every single droplet of water was a brilliant, massive star.
The vast and profound Dao charm pressed down so heavily that the hundreds of Inner Sect Disciples present could barely breathe.
This kind of power, this kind of vision...
How did it feel even more sensational than the Perfection stage recorded in the ancient texts?!
It wasn't that they were ignorant.
The Six-Cycle Heavenly Flow had been passed down since ancient times, and the successive generations of great experts in the Jieqing Sect had, at most, deduced it to the stage of Perfection.
Who could have imagined?
The girl before them had actually practiced it directly to the supreme Realm!
But what truly made them feel absurd and terrified wasn't that she had succeeded.
It was—how long had this girl been sitting here listening?
Half an hour? Or just the time it takes for an incense stick to burn?
How could she possibly Cultivate so fast!
With such speed... even if the Sect Master himself came, it would be impossible to deduce this technique from zero to such a profound state in such a short time.
This was completely unscientific!
The young Disciple who had kindly spoken up to advise Jiang Yuechu earlier was now pale-faced, his expression full of disbelief.
He stared blankly at Jiang Yuechu and blurted out, "The Six-Cycle Heavenly Flow is so hard to practice. We Inner Sect Disciples have Cultivated bitterly for decades, and we're lucky if we can even touch the threshold of Entry..."
"You... how could you possibly..."
Jiang Yuechu casually stretched her body, and the vast galaxy phenomena around her instantly retracted, vanishing into her body.
Hearing those words, she turned her head, looked seriously at the Disciple, and nodded in agreement.
"Mm... it really is quite difficult."
Deducing this technique to the supreme level had actually cost her over six million years of Dao Cultivation.
Lowering her eyes slightly, she checked the sharply reduced balance on her system panel with a thought.
[Current Remaining Dao Cultivation: 1,767,048 years]
Looking at this string of numbers,
Jiang Yuechu fell into a long silence.
Of her original fifteen million plus years of Dao Cultivation, eight million had been used to condense her Demon Body.
And now another large sum had been consumed.
There was only a little over a million left.
A long-lost sense of poverty quietly welled up in her heart... suddenly, she experienced the same feeling she had back in the Longyou Region.
"My Dao Cultivation isn't enough..."
Upon the high platform,
Elder Taizhen had already stood up, his breathing gradually becoming rapid as he stared at the girl.
He had been lecturing for so long and had encouraged countless Disciples to practice this method, but he had never expected anyone to truly succeed.
It was merely a way to polish the Disciples' Heart-Nature.
But who would have thought that today, a random Guest Elder who had come to listen in...
Actually succeeded?
How was it possible?
Could it be... she had practiced it before?!
Thinking of her status as a Guest Elder, he felt increasingly uncertain.
He suddenly flicked his sleeves and strode down from the high platform.
He couldn't even bother with the refined demeanor he usually maintained.
He quickly walked through the hundreds of dumbfounded Disciples, heading straight for the last row of the hall.
That hurried appearance was very much like the embarrassment and urgency of a child in a schoolhouse who couldn't recite his lessons and was being chased by a teacher with a ruler.
He arrived in front of Jiang Yuechu and was just about to speak.
Right at that moment,
A figure appeared at the entrance.
Seeing that he was the center of everyone's attention as soon as he entered,
True Lord Linghan felt a bit apprehensive.
The lecture was going fine... entering twice had indeed disturbed Junior Martial Uncle Taizhen's teaching.
He then waved his hand sheepishly, a dry smile forced onto his face. "Haha... continue, continue... This Lord is just taking a casual look, don't mind me..."
The hall remained silent.
The hundreds of Inner Sect Disciples had extremely strange expressions.
Sensing the wrong atmosphere,
True Lord Linghan looked ahead in confusion.
He saw Elder Taizhen standing before the white-robed girl, his body trembling slightly.
His usually calm and unruffled face was now flushed bright red.
A thought suddenly surfaced in his mind... Oh no, did this girl cause trouble?!
Although Junior Martial Uncle Taizhen usually acted calm and collected, valuing quietude and non-action, if he were truly provoked, his anger wouldn't be so easily appeased.
This girl acted without any restraint; there was no telling what shocking or absurd thing she had just done.
Thinking of this,
He hurriedly walked to Elder Taizhen and said with forced courage, "Junior Martial Uncle, please calm your anger... This girl is a newcomer, a Loose Cultivator from the wilderness, and doesn't know the rules of our Jieqing Sect... If she has offended you in any way, I hope you can show some forbearance."
Then, he turned to Jiang Yuechu and winked frantically. "Junior Friend Jiang, your residence has already been arranged... You've heard enough, right? Why don't you come with this Lord to take a look now?"
True Lord Linghan just wanted to take this troublemaker away first.
As for what exactly had happened, he could ask later. At worst, he would bring up that Old Thing Wuxiang.
As he spoke, he reached out, intending to grab the girl's wrist and lead her away.
But his hand had only reached halfway when it had to stop.
True Lord Linghan was stunned and looked at his hand in a daze.
He saw a thin, withered hand tightly gripping his wrist.
The force was so great that it made the wrist bone of this great Chess Player cultivator ache... It was hard to imagine just how much Elder Taizhen had lost his composure.
The old man's body trembled slightly, his breathing became more rapid, and even his face showed a rare flush.
It was no wonder he had lost his composure so.
Earlier, he had secretly speculated whether this girl had already read this method, which was why she could deduce the Six-Cycle Heavenly Flow to the supreme Realm so quickly.
After all, she held the status of a Guest Elder of the Sect.
The Jieqing Sect hadn't had a Guest Elder in many years.
If some Sect Elder had a descendant from a mortal karmic connection and had been secretly pouring resources into their cultivation before finding an excuse to bring them back to the Sect...
Thinking of it that way, it wasn't impossible.
But hearing True Lord Linghan personally say she was a Loose Cultivator from the wilderness...
This...
Didn't this mean that this girl truly had no prior contact with this technique?!
If that were the case,
"Hiss..."
Elder Taizhen suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air.
He turned his head abruptly, his eyes bloodshot, looking at Jiang Yuechu with near-fanaticism.
If she truly had such unreasonable, terrifying talent...
Was the Jieqing Sect's brain broken?!
What Guest Elder status!
A Prodigy like this—why the hell haven't they quickly taken her in as a Personal Disciple?!