Half a month later.

“Pop, pop, pop...”

In Qingfeng Valley, a young man in a cyan long gown was on a huge boulder. Holding a branch about one - meter long and the size of an index finger, he kept thrusting forward, slanting, splitting vertically, and cutting horizontally on the boulder. Every time the young man waved the branch, a slight sound of breaking wind was produced. As the young man accelerated, for a while, the slight sounds of breaking wind were like the cracking of firecrackers on the boulder.

At a certain moment, the young man's eyes focused. He threw the branch in his hand towards a big tree in the distance. The branch was extremely fast. Wherever it passed, continuous slight sounds of breaking wind rang out. For a distance of more than ten meters, the branch reached the front of the big tree in almost two breaths.

“Bang...”

The branch penetrated through the root of a big tree that needed three people to hug. Then, it passed through a second big tree. When it continuously penetrated five big trees, the branch stopped on the sixth big tree.

Looking at the small holes in the middle of those big trees, the young man said in a low voice, “With the energy stones and Meridian - Protecting Pills given by Elder Qian, and with my light - golden Profound Qi constantly tempering my body, my physical strength has become many times stronger than before! It's a pity that the ten energy stones and Meridian - Protecting Pills have all been used up.”

The young man was naturally Yang Ye. In the past half - month, out of twelve hours a day, he practiced for almost ten hours. With such efforts, he not only raised his cultivation realm to the sixth rank of Profound Practitioner but also cultivated the basic swordsmanship of the Sword Sect to the state of great perfection.

The basic swordsmanship of the Sword Sect was not a rare thing. As long as one was an outer - sect disciple, they would have a copy. This kind of common thing, except for Yang Ye, was basically not practiced by the outer - sect disciples of the Sword Sect. After all, no matter how powerful the basic swordsmanship was, how could it be stronger than those sword skills with ranks?

Yang Ye also had this idea before. But after being demoted to a servant disciple, he had no choice but to practice this basic swordsmanship. After two years of practice, as his cultivation realm and physical strength became stronger and stronger, and he became more and more proficient in the basic swordsmanship, Yang Ye felt that this swordsmanship might not be as useless as everyone thought.

This set of swordsmanship consisted of simple moves such as splitting, thrusting, parrying, sweeping, chopping, and pointing. But after two years of continuous practice, these simple moves had become no longer so simple. Just like just now, every sword he swung could produce a slight sound of breaking wind. This effect couldn't even be achieved by some Yellow - rank sword skills of the Sword Sect.

So, Yang Ye decided to continue practicing hard. He wanted to see where the limit of this basic swordsmanship was!

Looking up at the sky, he found it was noon. Yang Ye clapped his hands and said in a low voice, “Today, I must make a Power - Boosting Talisman!”

Among the “Five - Element Rune Art” given to him by Bao'er, the method of making the Power - Boosting Talisman was not very complicated. After all, it was just a basic talisman. But for Yang Ye, a novice who had just come into contact with it and had no guidance, it was already very complicated. In the past half - month, he hadn't succeeded in making it once. The main reason was that he was too hasty at the beginning.

With the failure experience of the previous half - month, Yang Ye learned to be smart this time. In the previous week, he didn't start drawing the Power - Boosting Talisman. Instead, he studied the Power - Boosting Talisman for a week, forcefully memorizing all the routes of the Power - Boosting Talisman and some particularly important points.

Recalling all the details of the Power - Boosting Talisman, after a while, Yang Ye sat cross - legged on the boulder, took out the talisman paper and rune - marking pen that Bao'er gave him from his bosom. Then he took out the spiritual grass juice and mysterious beast blood that Bao'er gave him. After getting everything ready, Yang Ye changed from sitting to crawling, calmed his mind, and after a while, the light - golden Profound Qi in his body slowly poured into the rune - marking pen. Then, according to the method of making the Power - Boosting Talisman in his mind, he started to draw.

Holding the rune - marking pen, Yang Ye carefully moved it on the talisman paper. The strands of light - golden Profound Qi in his body flowed into the talisman paper along the rune - marking pen. Once the light - golden Profound Qi, which was like lines, entered the talisman paper, they immediately moved around like little earthworms. Seeing this, Yang Ye quickly used the rune - marking pen to guide them into various strange shapes.

During this process, Yang Ye didn't even dare to breathe heavily. He was fully focused on slowly guiding the rune - marking pen on the talisman paper. In this way, after about a quarter of an hour, a light - golden flame - like shape gradually appeared on the talisman paper. After another quarter of an hour, Yang Ye stopped writing. A light - golden flame appeared on the talisman paper.

Seeing the flame take shape, Yang Ye took a deep breath and his expression relaxed. Of course, things were not over yet. He had only completed the first step. There was still one more step, which was also a crucial step, that is, infusing spirit!

Infusing spirit meant injecting the juice of the spiritual grass and the blood of the mysterious beast onto the talisman paper, using the two and the energy of heaven and earth to make the talisman have spirituality. This step was the most difficult. He had failed in this step in the previous half - month. Because he had to redraw that flame at the same time with the blood of the mysterious beast, the juice of the spiritual grass, and his light - golden energy!

During this process, if he failed, the whole talisman would fail!

Taking a deep breath, Yang Ye tried to calm himself down. After a while, he picked up a white jade bottle, poured a drop of juice onto the talisman, and then quickly picked up another white jade bottle and poured a drop of mysterious beast blood. The two drops of liquid fell onto the talisman. Yang Ye quickly circulated the Profound Qi in his body and forced the two drops of liquid to blend together.

Under Yang Ye's light - golden Profound Qi, the two drops of liquid blended together without much difficulty. Then, Yang Ye quickly picked up the pen and guided the two blended new drops of liquid along the route of the flame.

It was said that this process was the most difficult because during this process, Yang Ye had to wrap the two drops of liquid with Profound Qi. This was very strict in terms of the control of soul power and Profound Qi. During this process, as long as he was slightly inattentive or couldn't complete the infusion of spirit in one go, this talisman would fail!

Because once the blood of the mysterious beast and the juice of the spiritual grass were not wrapped by Profound Qi, they would separate instantly. Once the two separated, the flame on the whole talisman would surely be disrupted. At that time, all the previous efforts would be in vain.

Drop by drop of cold sweat continuously emerged on his forehead. Yang Ye didn't even dare to blink, for fear that if he blinked, the route would go wrong.

In this way, after about two quarters of an hour of being extremely careful, a smile gradually appeared on Yang Ye's face, and the excitement in his eyes was hard to hide. After another quarter of an hour, Yang Ye suddenly stopped writing. As soon as the pen left the talisman paper, immediately, the flame on the talisman paper seemed to come alive, emitting a slight light - golden flame. The whole flame was vivid on the talisman paper, almost like a living thing!

“Finally, I've succeeded. Finally, I've succeeded. I, Yang Ye, am also a first - rank rune master now. Haha...” Seeing the flame on the talisman paper, Yang Ye couldn't help but laugh excitedly.

From the basic rune art given to him by Bao'er, Yang Ye learned some basic information about rune masters. Like Profound Practitioners, rune masters also had different realms. Ranks one to five were for inscribing talismans, that is, making basic talismans. After rank five were spiritual talisman masters, earth - talisman masters, heaven - talisman masters, immortal - talisman masters, and god - talisman masters.

Ranks one to five were for inscribing talismans. If one could successfully make one of the talismans, they could be regarded as a first - rank rune master. If one could make five basic talismans and integrate the five attributes, they would reach rank five. Now that Yang Ye had successfully made a Power - Boosting Talisman, he could be considered a first - rank rune master!

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Yang Ye picked up the Power - Boosting Talisman on the stone, observed it for a while, and a look of surprise appeared in his eyes. He said in a low voice, “Talismans are divided into defective, low - grade, middle - grade, high - grade, and top - grade. My Power - Boosting Talisman makes the flame seem like a living thing. It should be high - grade. But didn't the scroll say that the probability of high - grade talismans is very low? Could it be because of my light - golden Profound Qi?”

Yang Ye learned from the introduction of the basic rune art that talismans also had different qualities, and the effects of talismans of different qualities were also different. A low - grade Power - Boosting Talisman could increase the user's strength by at most 50%. A middle - grade one could increase it by about one - fold, while a high - grade one could increase it by three - fold. As for a top - grade one, it could increase it by six or seven times or more.

Although the effects of high - grade and top - grade talismans were astonishing, the difficulty of making them was also extremely high. The success rate of high - grade talismans was very, very low. But he didn't expect that his talisman was high - grade. Was he really a peerless genius? Yang Ye was a bit confused.

“It seems I have to ask Bao'er later!” Yang Ye stopped thinking about this question. Looking at the Power - Boosting Talisman in his hand, the corner of his mouth curled up, showing a strange smile. In the future, if he fought with others and their strengths were similar, if he suddenly slapped a talisman on himself, it would surely make his opponent extremely frustrated.

Thinking of this, the smile on Yang Ye's face widened, and he looked a bit complacent. After a while, he carefully put away the Power - Boosting Talisman and then quickly walked towards the entrance of Qingfeng Valley.

After leaving Qingfeng Valley, Yang Ye came to the Martial Arts Field. As soon as he arrived at the Martial Arts Field, he was stopped by a young man in green clothes. The young man in green clothes was about seventeen or eighteen years old. On the left shoulder of the young man in green clothes was engraved a small “Outer” character, which was the symbol of an outer - sect disciple!

Looking at the young man in green clothes who showed killing intent towards him, Yang Ye knew that this person in front of him should be Du Xiu's cousin, Duan Jun, whose strength had reached the eighth rank of Profound Practitioner.

Seeing Yang Ye being blocked by Du Xiu and those people, some servant disciples beside him couldn't help but shake their heads and sigh. Because of Yang Ye, the servant disciples on the Servant Peak were no longer bullied by Du Xiu and those people. So these servant disciples had a good impression of Yang Ye.

Now, Du Xiu's cousin had returned from the secular world, and Yang Ye's end could be imagined.

Duan Jun was also looking at Yang Ye, with cold killing intent flickering in his eyes. After he returned from the secular world today, he found that both Du Xiu and Steward Xu had been sent to the Xingkuang Mine. And the culprit was actually this servant disciple in front of him. You know, the servant disciples and some outer - sect disciples of the Sword Sect all knew that Du Xiu was his cousin and Steward Xu was his man. Beating a dog depends on the owner. The person in front of him was blatantly slapping him in the face!

Moreover, the most important thing was that Du Xiu and Steward Xu had to hand over tens of thousands of gold coins to him every year. With this money, he could buy more cultivation resources. But now, this source of income was gone because of the person in front of him! Tens of thousands of gold coins, this was his main source of income. His heart was bleeding.

Thinking of this, Duan Jun's eyes narrowed, and he said, “Useless thing, is my cousin someone you can bully? Die!” After saying that, his figure moved, and his palm slapped towards Yang Ye's face.

Seeing that Duan Jun directly attacked and was going for the kill, Yang Ye's face darkened. With a low shout, his fist blasted towards Duan Jun's palm.

“Bang!”

The fist and the palm collided. Yang Ye stepped back three steps, and Duan Jun also stepped back three steps.

In the first confrontation, the two were evenly matched.

Seeing that he was repelled by Yang Ye, a flash of surprise passed through Duan Jun's eyes. He sized up Yang Ye for a while and said, “You've already become a Profound Practitioner? But so what? I only used 10% of my strength just now. Now, die!” As he spoke, the Profound Qi in his body surged, and he was about to make a move again to kill Yang Ye.

“Wait!” Yang Ye took a step forward, looked at Duan Jun in front of him, and killing intent also flickered in his eyes. This person knew that Du Xiu and those people were demoted by Elder Qian, but he didn't dare to go after Elder Qian. Instead, he came to find him, and as soon as he made a move, it was a killing move. He was also angry this time.

“What? Want to beg for mercy?” Duan Jun sneered. “If you knew this would happen, why did you do it in the first place? Although my cousin is just a servant disciple, he's not someone you, a useless thing, can bully. Now, kneel down and kowtow a thousand times, shout that I was wrong, and then get out of the Sword Sect. I might consider not killing you!”

“I challenge you to a duel on the Life - and - Death Platform!” Yang Ye stared straight at Duan Jun, his tone firm.

Silence, a deathly silence. Both the servant disciples beside and Duan Jun himself were stunned.

A servant disciple challenging an outer - sect disciple? And on the Life - and - Death Platform?