Grinding Cultivation Toward Martial Saint

In the time that followed,

The weather took a sudden turn for the worse, with relentless heavy snow.

With the snow sealing the mountains, and blocking the roads, common folk could not travel far.

Likewise, ordinary martial artists dared not venture out on their own.

The harsh natural environment was enough to freeze or starve an ordinary martial artist to death in the wilderness.

This also resulted in an unusual calm throughout Luoshui County.

The only place with some activity was the Xie family.

During these days, Jiang Ning practiced his skills and cultivated daily.

As time went on, his progress with the Five Animals Fist continued to grow, and the bones in his body gradually became completely jade-like, turning into jade bones.

In the blink of an eye,

Half a month had passed.

The moon hung high.

After completing the weekly cycle of Bone Forging, Jiang Ning slowly brought his boxing posture to an end.

[Five Animals Fist Experience Value +2]

Seeing the prompt before his eyes,

"Phew—"

He exhaled a breath of impure energy, then opened his status panel for a glance.

[Source Energy]: 173.66

[Skill]: Five Animals Fist (Third Break Limit 4000/4000) (Trait: Five Internal Organs Store Essence, Five Elements Spirit, Master of Fist Skill)

After seeing the panel, he shook his head and closed it.

Several days ago, he had already accumulated enough Experience Value needed for the fourth Break Limit,

So these past few days, no matter how much his Five Animals Fist Experience Value increased, there were no changes on his panel.

And to achieve the fourth Break Limit, he required 500 Source Energy Points, but he currently had only a little over a hundred, a significant shortfall.

After closing his panel, he couldn't help but look towards Luoshui Lake outside the wall.

"Should I go to Luoshui now, to search for Heavenly Materials and accumulate Source Energy Points, or should I wait until later when my efficiency is higher?"

He pondered this question for only a moment before shaking his head.

Luoshui Lake was far too vast.

With his current strength, his efficiency in the lake was still too low.

If he could further transform his spiritual power and enhance his area of perception under water, then coupled with the improvement of his Swimming Skill, it would be cost-effective to search Luoshui Lake for Heavenly Materials.

Otherwise, with his current efficiency, what good would it do to spend several days finding more than ten types of Heavenly Materials?

Together, those might not even be worth ten thousand taels of silver.

The increase in Source Energy Points he could gain from them would be limited.

It would be better to continue practicing his boxing and Bone Forging to increase his martial arts strength.

After all, the Heavenly Materials in Luoshui Lake weren't going to sprout legs and run away, but as his skills improved and his spiritual power transformed, his efficiency in searching for Heavenly Materials under water would increase significantly.

By doing so, he would not be blunting his axe by forgetting to sharpen it before chopping wood.

He then turned inward to examine the state of his body.

In an instant,

He saw that the progress of the jade bones in his body had reached ninety percent.

"Give me a few more days, and I should be able to complete the forging of the jade bones!"

Jiang Ning opened his eyes, showing a hint of joy.

Then he looked up at the sky, where the bright moon was suspended above the treetops, clearly indicating the night was deep, and the hour was late.

Seeing this, he immediately dismissed the idea of continuing his training.

"It's time to sleep, tomorrow is the first day back at work, and I need to make a trip to the Inspection Office to see if Granny Bai has arrived."

Thinking this, he was filled with anticipation.

As long as the old woman from the Internal Affairs Office was there, the two martial artists from the God Worship Sect that he had killed earlier could be exchanged for Contribution Points.

Those were two martial artists of the Fifth Grade Internal Strength Realm from the God Worship Sect.

According to the rules previously issued by the Inspection Office, killing a Sixth Grade martial artist from the God Worship Sect could earn fifty thousand Contribution Points.

Not to mention that he had slain beings from the Fifth Grade Internal Strength Realm, which would earn him even more.

Additionally, tomorrow he would be promoted, which would increase his authority within the Inspection Office and grant him access to knowledge on the Martial Arts Fifth Grade and even higher.

Understanding more about the martial arts was crucial for planning his future path.

Whether it was He Jinyun's death, the affairs of the God Worship Sect, or the future descent of the Blood and Flesh God who might seek him out, all of these gave him a slight sense of crisis.

Any one of these three matters was not something he could face with his current strength.

The death of He Jinyun, given He Jinseng's attitude, would surely mean that upon his report, He Jinyun's mother would almost certainly target him.

And He Jinyun's mother was also the sister of the Palace Master of Water Moon Sword Palace in Dongling County.

The blood relationship implied that he would soon have to confront the Palace Master, who was known as the person most likely to become a Grandmaster in Dongling County.

Women were not easy to deal with, especially those who were obviously of an older age and tended not to be reasonable.

The second matter was even more troublesome.

The God venerated by the God Worship Sect was the Blood and Flesh God.

Now, whether because of authority or previous conflicts, he had caused a significant strife with the God Worship Sect, and even more so, he had a clash of authority with that Blood and Flesh God.

Authority being the same, from what he had read about the Ancient Era, in such a case, only one of the two gods would likely survive.

Hence, in this matter, he and that Blood and Flesh God were natural enemies.

It was a struggle for authority, and only one could exist.

The only consolation for him now was that he remained hidden, while the Blood and Flesh God was exposed.

Moreover, according to what Black Lotus Mother had said, he knew that currently, due to environmental reasons, the gods could not descend into the world.

But the most troublesome issue was the third one.

On New Year's Eve, he had bluffed Black Lotus Mother.

But this also meant that as soon as Black Lotus Mother could descend, she would seek him out to settle scores.