CHAPTER 332: CHAPTER 003: STUDYING AND CULTIVATION (FIRST UPDATE)

A year into cultivation, he directly entered the Innate Realm, using only two of the most basic and ordinary martial arts to break through. Such an achievement, if known to the outside world, would certainly cause a huge stir in the martial arts community.

Not to mention anything else, just Li Hu entering the Innate Realm at the young age of thirteen or fourteen would be enough to astonish a vast number of people in the martial world.

You should know that the youngest among the current martial artists to reach the Innate Realm is Celestial Sword Manor’s successor, Dao Yuange, who is twenty years old.

This age for the Innate Realm has already broken the record for the youngest ever innate powerhouse in martial arts history.

However, Li Hu entered the Innate Realm completely quietly.

After entering the Innate Realm, life remained much as usual.

He ate when he needed to, slept when he needed to, worked as he needed to, showing nothing out of the ordinary.

Among the thousands of people in the Celestial Essence Sect, no one was aware that their sect now had an additional Innate master.

Within the library, there were many disciples coming and going, but Li Hu, who often appeared in a corner of the library sweeping and organizing books, was like an invisible person, not attracting anyone’s attention.

"Have you heard? That servant-born Zhang Feng won first place in the outer sect competition and, after a year of cultivation, has already broken through to the Postnatal Fourth Layer!"

"I heard, Fang Pingqing has lost a lot of face this time."

"Hmph, that damn servant brat, really don’t know why the Elder accepted him into the sect, making it so there are always some lowly servants with delusions of grandeur..."

One day, while returning to the library after eating, several voices talking idly came from afar.

Some Celestial Essence Sect disciples were gossiping during their cultivation break.

The subject was the ambitious Zhang Feng, a servant-born disciple in the same group as Li Hu, who was later noticed by an Elder and exceptionably accepted into the Celestial Essence Sect.

Then a series of events unfolded, starting with Zhang Feng’s background clashing with some henchman, after winning, he was challenged by a more powerful underling’s relative, and following that, he provoked Fang Pingqing, the top of the outer sect...

Zhang Feng’s name and cultivation soared with each successive conflict.

It is said that Fang Pingqing has connections in the inner sect too; it seems likely that once Zhang Feng enters the inner sect, others will come looking for trouble with him.

Li Hu had no interest in paying attention to anyone; his mind was set, determined to shatter the void and return to the Main World, but the past year’s dramatic antics involving that guy were so noteworthy and frequently discussed by others that even Li Hu, who was focusing on quiet cultivation, had become familiar with that individual’s rise to prominence.

Calmly, Li Hu left without drawing the attention of those gossiping disciples.

For Li Hu, this was nothing he cared much about.

Even though Zhang Feng’s path seemed reminiscent of protagonists from novels Li Hu had read in his past life, Li Hu had little intention of ingratiating himself or participating in such ’plots’.

What situation awaited in the Main World was a complete unknown to him; he also didn’t understand why he came to this world or what his status here was.

Under such circumstances, Li Hu couldn’t afford to spend time on participating in various ’stories’.

He needed to forge a path quickly, shatter the void, and rely on the Gate of Truth within his soul to return to the Main World.

Back in the Book Pavilion, sweeping, dusting, organizing books, taking on one task at a time, moving slowly, occasionally the outer sect disciples coming to borrow books would pass by him as if he didn’t exist.

Yet if one were to observe carefully,

they would find that in Li Hu’s every movement, even his breathing seemed to resonate with a certain rhythm.

Walking, breathing, sweeping—they were all aligned with a sort of pattern.

This was a technique Li Hu developed by combining the Nourishing Essence Technique with the Body Strengthening Skill, as well as referencing numerous Basic Martial Arts Secret Manuals, allowing him to cultivate at any time and place.

He practiced while walking, practiced while going about his day, even while lying down and sleeping.

All the time engaged in cultivation, integrating techniques into everyday life.

Li Hu was able to step into the Innate Realm within a year, largely thanks to this martial art.

Meanwhile, during the process of sweeping and wiping, Li Hu was using his Spiritual Power in three ways, mentally browsing the books on the shelves.

After stepping into the Innate Realm, his Spiritual Power had further expanded, now able to cover the entire library, penetrating the books, and extracting information from them.

Despite the vastness of the library, containing tens of thousands of books, and Li Hu’s powerful Spiritual Power granting him almost photographic memory, understanding and fully comprehending a Basic Martial Arts Technique took no less than a day’s work for each book.

Even as his Spiritual Power quickly grew, and his reading capacity simultaneously increased, over the past year, Li Hu had only thoroughly read around two to three thousand books.

Moreover, these included various travel journals, disciple adventure tales, memoirs of sect elders, and other assorted topics.

Compared to the entirety of the library, this was merely one percent.

Trying to integrate the entire world’s path, to reach the shattering void, without reading and understanding the basics of the whole world, is completely impossible.

Time passed slowly as Li Hu continued to read and cultivate.

Another year went by,

Within this year, the once widely known Zhang Feng broke through to the Postnatal Seventh Layer and further boosted his reputation in the Celestial Essence Sect’s large competition and sparring duels with other sects, entering the inner sect.

Zhang Feng’s name had nearly become synonymous with fame in the Celestial Essence Sect.

In the entire Celestial Essence Sect, no disciple didn’t know Zhang Feng, who learned martial arts two years ago, maintained a pace of breaking three realms annually, shocking people—a rising star.

However, he also attracted much more powerful enemies because of this, even offending several elders.

The whole Celestial Essence Sect was bustling because of him.

But none of this had anything to do with Li Hu.

In the second year in this world, Li Hu maintained his previous year’s lifestyle, staying mostly secluded.

Sweeping, cultivating, reading.

No face-slapping incidents, living peacefully and quietly day by day.

While cultivating, he continued to comprehend the true meaning of martial arts.

Over the course of the year, Li Hu’s cultivation reached the pinnacle of the Innate Realm, just one step away from Grandmaster.

In the Celestial Essence Sect, apart from the Grandmaster-level Grand Elder who stood as the sect’s pillar, no one else had strength surpassing Li Hu.

With Li Hu’s strength, he was comparable to the Sect Leader of Celestial Essence, ranking among the top and leading experts in this martial world, possessing a prowess akin to a martial elder, yet the entire sect remained unaware.

Li Hu also did not boast.

The outer sect disciples who frequently borrowed books from the library also did not realize that the young man sweeping and dusting beside them possessed power magnitudes beyond theirs.

Another fellow library worker dubbed ’Second Fool’ wouldn’t think to worry about unrelated matters either.

Watering, sweeping, organizing books.

No one paid attention to such an insignificant person.

Over a year of deep cultivation in the Book Pavilion, Li Hu had already read through one-third of the books.

His strength growing, his Spiritual Power even more powerful, increasing the speed of his reading as well.

However, the smooth path of cultivation also met a bottleneck.

The books and martial arts in the library were only basic. The Martial Arts Techniques, when involving the Innate Realm, reached their limit, and barely touched on anything at the Grandmaster threshold.

Even in the memoirs of the Celestial Essence progenitors and elders, there’s no content related to Grandmaster.

Li Hu speculated, the Grandmaster threshold is likely a sect-orchestrated secret tradition.