No one truly knew the depths of Yang Kai's cultivation.
Only Xia Ning Chang did.
For the past few days, she had secretly followed Yang Kai, watching from the shadows as he challenged opponents one after another. Each time, she used her profound spiritual perception to observe his true strength.
And what she saw terrified her.
When he had defeated Li Yun Tian, he was only at the Tempered Body Fifth Stage.
Yet, in just four days, he had risen to the Tempered Body Sixth Stage.
How was he cultivating so fast? Even she, a prodigy with a special physique, had required countless precious medicinal pellets to advance through these stages. Compared to him, her progress seemed… ordinary.
Xia Ning Chang couldn't ignore this mystery.
Driven by curiosity, she had followed him, trying to uncover his secret. But no matter how closely she observed him, she found nothing unusual.
He only punched, kicked, and trained relentlessly, wearing himself out to the point of exhaustion. His movements weren't particularly profound. In fact, they were basic High Heaven techniques, nothing extraordinary.
And yet, his strength soared.
At the end of her investigation, she was left clueless.
Her instincts told her that Yang Kai was hiding something, but she was too reserved to continue peeking.
Not to mention—
Every time she watched him train, he would take off his shirt.
The first time, she had been startled by his thin, bony frame. But as the days passed, she noticed a change. His once frail body was gaining muscle, subtly but surely becoming more defined.
Without realizing it, she found herself comparing his current self to when she first saw him.
And once she caught herself doing so—
Her face turned beet red.
"What am I thinking?!"
From that day forward, she tried to avoid looking at him for too long—but it was easier said than done.
.........
Meanwhile, Yang Kai was fully aware that someone had been watching him these past few days.
But since whoever it was didn't seem hostile, he chose to ignore it. He had more important matters to focus on.
His herb supply was running out.
The Dead Jedi Tree Grass was completely depleted. The Three-Leaved Chaos Spirit Flower, despite being used sparingly, was almost finished as well.
Without these herbs, his unique training method would be stalled.
With no alternative, he headed to the Contribution Hall, using up all of his remaining contribution points to purchase more herbs.
The days blurred together in a cycle of fighting, training, and recovery.
Slowly, his Tempered Body Sixth Stage cultivation began to stabilize.
And then—
He took another step forward.
Yang Kai reached the Tempered Body Seventh Stage.
The moment it happened, his heart pounded with excitement. Without hesitation, he rushed back to his wooden hut, eager to confirm something.
Inside his hut, Yang Kai sat cross-legged and pulled out the black book.
This mysterious book had been with him since the beginning. He had long since discovered that each time he broke through, a new page would unlock.
So far, he had successfully activated three pages.
But for days now, the fourth page had remained sealed.
Until now.
As soon as he reached the Seventh Stage, the page began to glow.
Yang Kai's breath hitched.
His guess was correct!
The page shimmered, golden light swirling across the surface. The glowing letters morphed and rearranged as if they had a life of their own.
Then—
A burst of golden beams shot out from the page and entered his mind.
Yang Kai's body trembled.
A flood of new knowledge surged into his consciousness.
Techniques. Concepts. Insights.
And above all—
A name burned itself into his mind.
"True Yang Tactics."
This was the reward that the black book had bestowed upon Yang Kai for breaking through. Going over the information, his expression became distorted.
This True Yang Tactics was slightly different from common martial skills. Normal martials skills had set paths of sequences, and although they could change, they were only superficial changes; they didn't change the base of the skill. They didn't stray from their base, if they did, then it would a completely different skill altogether.
But this True Yang Tactics didn't. It didn't have set activation sequences and changed constantly. It could be described as arbitrary or you could say that it actually didn't have any singular form.
This was the first difference.
The cultivation method for the True Yang Tactics was also quite simple, but there were conditions to cultivate it.
You must cultivate in an environment with plenty of yang energy to cultivate the True Yang Tactics.
But through this secret method, once the cultivated yang vitality reached a certain point, it could be condendensed into a liquid form and stored within the dantian.
This was something no martial skill or secret art could achieve. Because there will always be a moment when one's body would be filled. Once a martial practitioner was filled with vitality, there was no way to increase the amount, unless you broke your limit.
But the True Yang Tactics were different. When you cultivated your Yang World Qi to the limit, your World Qi would condense into a liquid form and merge with your dantian. This would cause your meridians to empty, thereby allowing you to continue to cultivate World Qi. In other words, if you practised this secret art, there would be no limit to the amount you could cultivate, however you needed Yang qi to be able to practise it without any limit.
This was the second difference. With these differences and the origin of the True Yang Tactics, it clearly displayed how this skill was far from ordinary.
When he started to cultivate his Yang qi, he would be able to use his liquified Yang qi to attack.
Contemplating for a while, Yang Kai decided to cultivate the True Yang Tactics.
As for the training environment, it wasn't anything to be concerned about. The sun also had a Yang attribute, so as long as there was sunlight, he would be able to cultivate the True Yang Tactics. It was just that the efficiency would be quite low.
"Even if it's slow, progress is progress."
With that thought, he stepped outside his wooden hut, finding a patch of direct sunlight.
He sat down, closed his eyes, and focused.
The thin strand of World Qi within his dantian stirred as he guided it along the prescribed path of the True Yang Tactics.
☀ But the first step was always the hardest.
The Qi responded to his command, but forcing it to flow through his meridians was like trying to push a massive boulder up a mountain. Agonizingly slow.
He trained from sunrise to sunset, and by the end of the day, his reward was pitiful—the World Qi within him had increased only a fraction, and its flow remained as sluggish as a crawling turtle.
Yet, despite the difficulty—
🔥 Yang Kai was pleased. 🔥
"This path is slow, but it's steady. As long as I persist, I will succeed."
For three days, he repeated this process without rest.
And finally—
⚡ Breakthrough! ⚡
The World Qi flowed into his chest meridian for the first time.
Yang Kai exhaled sharply, feeling a weak but distinct pulse of energy radiating from his chest. With a single thought, the strand of Qi surged forth, moving more smoothly than before.
Now, it was time for the next step—
🔴 Establishing the Origin of Yang! 🔴
According to the black book, forming the Origin of Yang was the first and most crucial step in mastering the True Yang Tactics.
☀ Its Purpose?
It had no direct combat function. Instead, it would allow him to sense Yang Qi in the environment—an ability he desperately needed since he lacked divine sense at his current level.
"With this, I'll be able to locate areas rich in Yang energy."
But forming it required absolute precision.
If he messed up, all his effort would go to waste.
🔥 Yang Kai refused to fail. 🔥
For hours, he sat beneath the blazing sun.
His body was drenched in sweat, dehydrated and exhausted, but his mind remained firm.
His lips had turned pale.
His limbs felt like lead.
Yet—
His will did not waver.
He continued to circulate his World Qi, directing it around his chestal acupoint with painstaking care.
Minutes turned to hours.
His mind blurred.
Then—
⚡ A sudden, excruciating pain! ⚡
"Argh!"
It felt as though a red-hot iron had been seared onto his chest, the pain so intense that his vision nearly blacked out.
Yang Kai's eyes snapped open, his teeth clenched tight to stop himself from crying out.
Then, just as quickly as it came—
💨 The pain vanished.
His chest felt oddly refreshed, yet his mind still reeled from the shock.
Something was… different.
He placed a trembling hand over his chest, but there was nothing physical there.
❓ Was it done? ❓
Was the Origin of Yang successfully formed?
Yang Kai frowned.
"If my Origin of Yang has truly formed, I should be able to sense Yang Qi around me…"
But as he sat in place, he felt nothing.
His heart sank.
"Did I fail…?"
No—there was another possibility.
Maybe the problem wasn't his Origin. Maybe…
☀ There simply wasn't enough Yang Qi in this area!
🔥 Then, I'll just have to find a place where the Yang Qi is denser! 🔥
Determined, Yang Kai stood up and began walking toward the center of High Heaven .
After walking for a short while, an enormous; it literally stretched across the heavens and earth, mountain stream appeared. A powerful gale blew towards him as if it was greeting him, nearly knocking him over in the process.
Turning around and lifting up his head Yang Kai stared blankly ahead.
How could it be here? The channel in front of him was a thousand foot wide and appeared almost bottomless it was one of the most mysterious and dangerous places in High Heaven -🐉 Coiling Dragon Stream. 🐉