Chapter 1142: One Hundred Points

Seeing the state of the two Master Teachers, everyone around them frowned and quickly gathered. The passage door creaked open, revealing the scene inside. "This..." many Master Teachers gasped, recoiling as if they had seen a ghost.

After an unknown period, Xiao Bo swallowed, his voice slightly dry as he asked, "Just now... when you came out, are you sure... the passage was restored?"

"Yes, when I left, the passage was completely intact. Which means, it was him..." Shi Hao said with a wry smile.

The internal energy passage tested internal energy. The test itself was quite simple: stand in a fixed position, mobilize your true energy, and use all your strength to attack a stone tablet dozens of meters away. This tablet wasn't real; it was formed by a formation array, which greatly obstructed true energy. Without sufficiently profound true energy, it was impossible to penetrate.

Under normal circumstances, even a Centurion-level Master Teacher would need to exert their full strength to penetrate one. Shi Hao scored thirty-eight points, indicating extremely powerful true energy; he penetrated nearly four stone tablets before his energy was depleted. This was an undisputed record for a Saint 1-dan pinnacle practitioner in the Master Teacher Pavilion of Qingyuan Empire, since its establishment.

But now... all ten stone tablets in the room lay scattered on the ground, and the entire internal energy passage was shattered like a junkyard.

"Was this deliberate destruction?" a Master Teacher couldn't help but ask. The internal energy passage was the most crucial area of the Internal Energy Hall and a vital basis for assessing a Master Teacher's strength. Destroying it to this extent seemed excessive!

"Not destruction..." Xiao Bo took a few steps forward and reached the stone tablets, his pupils contracting to the size of a wheat awn. "The formation array within the passage was set up by an 8-star formation master sent by headquarters. Even if someone wanted to deliberately destroy it, they couldn't!" This place was designed to test the depth of true energy; any cultivator, even when attacking with full strength, couldn't destroy it. Deliberately causing such damage would be impossible!

"Then how..." The Master Teacher who had spoken earlier was puzzled.

"This was... created by a single palm strike!" This time, it was Shi Hao who spoke, his eyes narrowed, his expression incredibly solemn.

"A single palm?" The others were bewildered.

"It means the person underwent the test according to the rules, but... their true energy was simply too profound. With one palm strike, all ten stone tablets were instantly pierced, and the formation array couldn't withstand such violent force... resulting in this!" Shi Hao explained.

"The formation array... couldn't withstand it?" "Pierced all ten stone tablets simultaneously?" Everyone swallowed hard. Such a statement was too shocking, beyond the scope of imagination.

"Shi Hao is right. You are all experts; looking at the cross-sections of these stone tablets, you should be able to discern something!" Xiao Bo nodded and pointed forward.

Everyone simultaneously looked at the cross-sections of the tablets. With just one glance, their pupils suddenly contracted. At the point of fracture, a palm print was clearly visible, making the stone tablet seem as fragile as glass encountering a hammer.

"This is the first stone tablet. Look at the others one by one, and you'll understand why Shi Hao said what he did," Xiao Bo nodded.

The others looked again. They saw that the subsequent nine stone tablets all bore palm prints of the same size, one after another, forming a perfect straight line when viewed closely.

In other words... the ten stone tablets in the passage were all shattered simultaneously, and the person only used... a single move! Shi Hao, the only person in the Internal Energy Hall in tens of thousands of years to score thirty-eight points, had his true energy depleted after failing to penetrate even four stone tablets. Yet, the person just now pierced all ten with one palm strike, with such immense power that even the formation array couldn't withstand it... How was it done?

"I was just thinking that Master Teacher Shi's record would remain unbroken for at least three hundred years..."

"I thought so too. Who would've known... it didn't even last two minutes before someone broke it, and what's more, broke it so completely..." Everyone trembled slightly.

They had just been ridiculing the other person for merely being an enlightening master, thinking the Master Teacher assessment was incredibly difficult. They never dreamed that with a casual strike, the person would pass smoothly... and most importantly, with such overwhelming power that they ruined the testing area itself.

"How can someone at Saint 1-dan possess such profound true energy? I don't believe it. Do you think he might have used some powerful artifact?" a Master Teacher couldn't help but ask. They had all been through the internal energy passage and knew its difficulty. As Master Teachers, geniuses among geniuses, it was extremely challenging even for them to pass... How did this person do it?

"An artifact? You're overthinking it... Look over there!" Shi Hao shook his head and pointed in a direction. The Master Teacher frowned, looked, and then stiffened again. On the wall, a line of text was clearly visible: "One Hundred!"

The internal energy passage could display test scores both outside and inside, allowing the person undergoing the assessment to know their result.

"One Hundred..." The Master Teacher's throat felt dry. "If it's one hundred points, then why... didn't it show outside?" Everyone else also looked over simultaneously.

If it was a normal assessment, a score displayed internally should also appear externally. But outside, there had only been a tremor, nothing more, leading them to believe... the person hadn't passed.

"His power was too great; the formation array broke on the spot, and the information couldn't be transmitted..." Shi Hao said with a wry smile.

"This..." Looking at the ruins on the ground, everyone finally understood. No wonder there was a tremor outside but no numbers displayed... So that was it!

"To pierce all ten stone tablets with a single strike... just how profound is Master Sun's true energy?" Standing rooted to the spot, everyone was speechless.

***

"This is our library. While it has quite a gap compared to the Master Teacher Pavilion's, its advantage lies in its cultivation techniques being refined over thousands of trials, ensuring no issues in cultivation!" The two entered the library, and Hall Master Wei gestured to the vast array of books, saying.

Many of the Master Teacher Pavilion's books were self-created by previous generations of Master Teachers, often containing contradictions and inconsistencies. For this reason, Master Teachers most strictly avoided casually browsing cultivation techniques. The more one read, the more confused they would become, and without discernment, it would only lead to a disturbed Dao Heart, the growth of inner demons, and hinder progress in cultivation.

The Master Teacher Pavilion's library was different. The cultivation techniques within had been repeatedly tested, guaranteeing no issues. As long as one chose a single technique and cultivated it, their strength would rapidly improve, and their combat power would grow stronger and stronger!

Zhang Xuan nodded, looked forward, and couldn't help but feel a little disappointed after a glance. As the other person had said, there weren't many cultivation techniques here, only a few hundred, not even a thousand. However, while the techniques themselves were few, there were countless layers of dense, detailed insights describing them and how to cultivate them, totaling hundreds of thousands of volumes.

"These are insights from previous generations of Master Teachers... Of course, everyone has a different physique, and cultivation methods vary. If you read all of them, you might end up mentally confused!" Hall Master Wei pointed. "These few books here contain Hall Master Xing's insights. If you truly wish to read, you can study his."

Zhang Xuan acknowledged and looked towards the hundreds of secret manuals the other person mentioned. So-called insights and experiences were optional; the main priority was the cultivation techniques themselves. *Whoosh!* With just a glance, the few hundred books were all absorbed into his mind. "Correct!" a low murmur escaped him. In the blink of an eye, a book appeared, and with a touch of his finger, the knowledge it contained flowed into his mind.

"Hmm? Not bad. Although it formed a Heaven's Path cultivation technique, it... has three flaws!" After browsing the contents of the book, Zhang Xuan frowned. Despite only being a few hundred volumes, these secret manuals were of a high grade. When combined, they formed a Heaven's Path cultivation technique for Saint 2-dan, but it still contained three flaws.

"Too many flaws. I'll look for other secret manuals first," Zhang Xuan shook his head. For martial techniques, a few flaws were acceptable. But for cultivation techniques, he always practiced Heaven's Path level ones. Only his Conferred Saint solution had one or two flaws, which he had supplemented with treasures. Having so many flaws for Saint 2-dan was... hard to accept.

If necessary, he would find other Saint 2-dan cultivation techniques and merge them until there were no more flaws. He scanned through the numerous insights and experiences but found that they offered little help in eliminating the cultivation technique's flaws, so he stopped collecting them.

"Are there any Saint 3-dan cultivation techniques here?" Without overthinking, Zhang Xuan looked at Hall Master Wei beside him again.

"Yes, there are Saint 3-dan ones... follow me!" All Hall Masters of the Master Teacher Pavilion had reached the pinnacle of the Primordial Spirit realm, so they possessed not only Saint 3-dan but also Saint 4-dan cultivation techniques.

Soon, they arrived at the section housing Saint 3-dan techniques. As expected, the quantity was even smaller. Before long, he had recorded all of them into his mind. Zhang Xuan grew even more disappointed. The third-dan techniques didn't even form a Heaven's Path cultivation technique.

He had Hall Master Wei lead him to scan the Saint 4-dan techniques as well, but again, no secret manual was formed.

"Master Sun... have you found the books you were looking for, or gained any inspiration?" Seeing the young man follow him around the library without picking up or even looking at any books, Hall Master Wei couldn't help but ask.

"I haven't found anything suitable..." Zhang Xuan shook his head. Since he only scanned them with his mind, the other person wouldn't know what he was thinking. "By the way, do you have any other Saint 2-dan cultivation techniques here? I don't need them to be high-level; the more the better..." Zhang Xuan hesitated before asking.

For him, advanced cultivation techniques were no different from ordinary ones. He sought quantity, not quality. While high-quality ones had fewer flaws and were easier to integrate, if the quantity was insufficient, there would still be many flaws.

"Our Internal Energy Hall probably doesn't have any more... However, Hall Master Feng of the Martial Skills Hall comes from the Master Teacher Pavilion and is very knowledgeable. Not only does he know a lot about martial techniques, but he has also collected many different cultivation techniques. If anyone in the Master Teacher Pavilion has these things, it's probably him!" Hall Master Wei said.

"Oh? Would it be too much trouble for the Hall Master to take me to the Martial Skills Hall to have a look?" Zhang Xuan eagerly asked.

"That's easy!" With a smile, Hall Master Wei led Zhang Xuan out of the library. Just as they reached the entrance, his eyelid suddenly twitched, and he stopped.