Martial Saint with Passives

The stone stele was thirty feet tall, its design ancient and simple.

Its surface bore no words or carvings, standing there utterly bare.

It formed a stark contrast with the pure white world around it, exuding an indescribable sense of loneliness and antiquity.

A wordless stele.

Jiang Che walked slowly to the stele, reached out, and lightly touched its cold, rough surface.

The moment his fingertip made contact with the stone...

[True: All-Seeing Eye] activated on its own, attempting to perceive the secrets hidden within the stele.

BUZZ—

The instant he activated the Pupil Technique...

A vast, majestic, and magnificent will, one that seemed to span myriad ages, boomed without warning deep within his mind!

"Young man, you are impressive."

The voice was ancient and serene, yet it carried a supreme majesty that seemed in harmony with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.

Merely hearing it made Jiang Che's very soul tremble.

'Are you... True Master Bai Yi?' Jiang Che thought, startled, and hastily replied with his Divine Thought.

"Heh, I am but a lingering trace of will left behind," the voice replied with a hint of a chuckle. "The three trials test martial prowess, Comprehension, and Temperament. The martial prowess trial tests your ability to overcome all techniques when facing an opponent of the same Realm. The Comprehension trial tests your ability to synthesize and create from the myriad Martial Daos. And the Temperament Pass tests whether you can hold fast to your true self in the face of despair."

"Your performance in all three trials was exemplary. Especially in the final one. It is truly rare for one to be able to face their deepest fears and see through the illusions with a will to 'protect', rather than being consumed by power."

Jiang Che asked respectfully, "If I may ask, True Master, what is 'protection'?"

The voice fell silent for a moment, as if in thought, or perhaps in reflection.

"Do you know what True Mastery is?" True Master Bai Yi didn't answer directly, instead asking a seemingly unrelated question.

"I only know that True Mastery comes after achieving Thirteenth Layer Perfection in the True Master Realm," Jiang Che replied, recalling the records in his Cultivation Technique.

"That is so, yet not entirely," True Master Bai Yi's voice became somewhat distant. "Perfection of the physical body is but one aspect. The essence of True Mastery lies in the word 'True'. To see the truth of heaven and earth, the truth of all living beings, and the truth of oneself. Only when your Divine Soul can resonate with this world, bear a sliver of the aspirations of all living beings, and flawlessly reflect your own true heart can you be considered to have achieved 'True Mastery'."

"To blindly pursue power and sever all worldly ties is merely a lesser path. You must understand that the ultimate end of power is emptiness. Only by protecting something can you give your Dao an anchor, a home. At that time, why will you swing your sword? For what will you throw your fist? Your heart will decide. Only then will your power be 'alive'."

Jiang Che only half-understood what he was hearing, yet he felt as if a brand-new door had been opened for his heart of the Martial Dao.

He had always fought desperately to become stronger—at first for self-preservation, and later to protect his sister and the others he held dear.

But he had been lost when it came to the higher levels of the Martial Dao.

True Master Bai Yi's words had undoubtedly pointed him toward a path.

Just as Jiang Che was about to ask for more guidance, True Master Bai Yi's voice suddenly grew solemn.

"Wait... inside your body... you actually harbor a remnant will of an Outer Realm Evil God?!"

Jiang Che's heart pounded in his chest!

He never imagined that even the secret of the Heart of the Black Abyss couldn't be hidden from this mere wisp of consciousness from a Great Power of the True Mastery Realm!

"This thing... How utterly evil! How tyrannical! It actually seeks to pollute the very origin of this world with a pure path of destruction and consumption!" For the first time, a trace of dread entered True Master Bai Yi's voice.

"True Master, I..." Jiang Che began urgently.

"Say no more. I understand," True Master Bai Yi interrupted him. "The fact that you can suppress it and avoid being assimilated proves your willpower is exceptionally firm. Unfortunately, I am but a remnant consciousness and no longer have the power to expel it from you completely. However, I can still manage to Seal a portion of its malevolent nature so that it can no longer easily influence your mind."

Hearing this, Jiang Che was overjoyed!

The berserk rampages he suffered in his Black Armor Form had always been his greatest affliction.

If this problem could be solved, then in the truest sense, there would be nothing holding his power back!

"Thank you, True Master!" Jiang Che bowed deeply.

"As for how to eradicate it completely..." True Master Bai Yi's voice rang out again, "you will need to step into the Realm of True Mastery yourself. When that time comes, your Primordial Spirit will merge with heaven and earth, allowing you to call upon this world's Power of Origin and utterly obliterate it! Remember, this wisp of the Evil God's will is extremely cunning. It will constantly try to entice you with power. You must not believe a single word it says!"

"I will remember!"

"Good... My time is almost up. Young man, receive... my inheritance!"

The moment his voice faded, True Master Bai Yi's magnificent consciousness slowly dissipated, like a candle burning its last.

At the same time!

The massive, wordless stele before him trembled violently!

The entire stele instantly transformed into an incomparably brilliant golden light, a stream containing an endless torrent of information. Like a meteor, it slammed viciously into the space between Jiang Che's eyebrows!

"AGH!!"

Jiang Che felt as if his head were about to explode. A torrent of memories so vast it was unimaginable instantly overwhelmed his consciousness!

It was all the insights from True Master Bai Yi's entire life of cultivation!

From the ignorance of first stepping onto the Martial Dao, to the tempering of the Qi Blood Realm...

From the mysteries of breaking through to Force Integration, to the tenacity of the Bone Forging Realm...

From the Perfection of the Refining Organ Realm, to the hardship of every step taken to charge the Twelve Major Acupoints and nurture a Divine Thought...

And even further, to his final breakthrough, seeing through illusion, drawing the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Mechanism into his body to become a True Master, and cultivating all the way to the True Mastery Realm—every bottleneck, every epiphany!

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