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Boom!
With a blast erupting from within Gu Chen's body, his whole frame shuddered as countless droplets of fresh blood spattered from his skin, staining his clothes red.
Yet there was not the slightest trace of pain on Gu Chen's face; his expression remained eerily calm.
At this moment, the number of meridians inside his body had reached seventy-nine.
Like a long river, his internal energy surged through his body. Gu Chen composed his mind and, with a burst of effort, once again charged toward the next meridian.
Without the passage-opening pill, it was extremely difficult to forge new meridians at Gu Chen's level, but fortunately, the panel helped him improve his cultivation. The robust internal energy coursed through the seventy-nine meridians. Under Gu Chen's command, it seemed to transform into a drill bit, striking toward the eightieth meridian.
Boom!
The eightieth meridian was penetrated, and once again, blood erupted from all over Gu Chen's body. His flesh, comparable to a low-grade magic weapon, was turned to such a state, which indicates the ferocity of the internal impact.
If it had not been for the Horizontal Training technique reaching perfection, sounding like the roar of dragons and the cry of tigers, Gu Chen would never have dared to act so recklessly.
Although he had unblocked eighty meridians, as the internal energy circulated within, he still felt a vague sense of heaviness—the result of excessively thick internal energy stretching the meridians to bulge.
Gu Chen's brow furrowed slightly. In the next second, rather than giving up, he maneuvered his internal energy and once more charged at another meridian.
Boom!
It was like being struck by a thunderbolt, and for an instant, Gu Chen lost his senses, his mind went completely blank, a void.
He didn't know how much time had passed before Gu Chen's consciousness slowly returned. He felt the flow of his internal energy and no longer encountered any prior sense of blockage or heaviness. A slight smile appeared on his face.
At this moment, a total of eighty-one meridians had been unblocked within Gu Chen's body. These eighty-one meridians were like a series of expressways, allowing his mighty internal energy to run wild within him.
The more meridians unblocked in the Through-Meridian Stage, the more the cultivator's physical body is nourished in return. Gu Chen felt that his body, which had become comparable to a magic weapon after reaching perfection in the Horizontal Training technique, seemed to have grown slightly stronger.
Gu Chen could feel it—eighty-one meridians were his limit in the Through-Meridian Stage. He could not continue to forge ahead. His internal energy was brimming, threatening to break through his body.
Immediately afterward, Gu Chen had a thought and opened the panel.
Name: Gu Chen
Martial arts: Horizontal Training (perfection), Red Flame Palm (perfection), Seal Meridian Finger (major achievement), Phantom Traceless Step (minor achievement), Astonishing Swan Swordsmanship Skills (perfection)
Internal technique: Pure Yang Technique
Cultivation age: 240 years
Realm: Complete Through-Meridian Stage
Skill points: 91
"I've finally reached the complete Through-Meridian Stage..." Gu Chen exhaled softly. Eighty-one meridians—it can be said that this was a number unprecedented in the Nine Provinces, and very likely unsurpassed by future generations.
No one could unblock so many meridians at the Through-Meridian Stage, surpassing the recorded limit of the Through-Meridian Stage by a full twenty-five meridians.
Should this news spread, the entire Nine Provinces would be shaken, and Gu Chen's fame would even overshadow the Six Union God Sect's return to the martial world, becoming the foremost person in the Through-Meridian Stage throughout the history of the Nine Provinces.
Even the vast majority of Outer Qi Stage martial artists couldn't match the number of meridians Gu Chen had unblocked.
At this moment, Gu Chen's foundation in the Through-Meridian Stage was incredibly solid. In fact, his internal energy inside was so full that it seemed to be leaking out of his body. With just a thought, Gu Chen's internal energy could break out of his skin and push through to the Outer Qi Stage.
This new martial art, named Burning Vein Finger, is a mid-grade martial art that inherits the benefits of the Red Flame Palm and Seal Meridian Finger. With a single press, the fiery force of the finger can seal meridians and scorch the body, causing the one struck to feel as if all five viscera are burning.
Looking at the remaining sixty-three points of merit, Gu Chen had a thought and thirty-five points disappeared as Burning Vein Finger was immediately brought by Gu Chen to perfection.
A large amount of martial experience poured into him in an instant, causing Gu Chen to furrow his brows slightly, feeling a bit of swelling in his mind, which took a good while before easing.
Subsequently, Gu Chen spent another twenty-four points of merit to bring the Phantom Traceless Step to the perfection realm.
As this step technique reached perfection, Gu Chen felt his legs become even more agile, and his entire being seemed to have the sensation of soaring into the air.
With every step on the ground, his body felt incredibly light, as if stepping on tufts of cotton, as though a light leap could send him soaring into the sky.
At this moment, there were only four points of merit left on Gu Chen's panel.
With a thought, these four points of merit were added to his cultivation level.
The reason he did not choose to allocate all the points to his cultivation was that, with Gu Chen's current prowess, his martial realm was struggling to keep up; thus, this time, he chose to enhance several martial arts first.
After all, no matter how profound one's internal power is, without corresponding martial arts to unleash it, its full potential cannot be realized.
Name: Gu Chen
Martial Arts: Dragon Roar Tiger Shout Horizontal Training (perfection), Burning Vein Finger (perfection), Phantom Traceless Step (perfection), Astonishing Swan Swordsmanship Skills (perfection)
Internal Skill: Pure Yang Technique
Cultivation Age: 244 years
Realm: Early External Energy Stage
Merit Points: 0
Thus, one hundred and ten points of merit were used up, and looking at the panel with several martial arts reaching the realm of perfection, Gu Chen nodded in satisfaction.
Once the mission is over and he returns to the Jing Tian Department, Chen Yu had promised him a private reward, which Gu Chen was also looking forward to.
Given that Chen Yu is a commander of the Jing Tian Department, he is sure not to be stingy, and at the very least, it will be a high-grade martial art.
With this thought, Gu Chen was filled with even more anticipation.
The next day, Gu Chen went to the Drunken Phoenix Tower to have a meal, and afterward, he would leave Phoenix Sun City to return to Tiandu.
By today, who doesn't recognize the number one on the Star Ranking, Gu Chen? His dining at the Drunken Phoenix Tower naturally attracted a lot of attention, but no one dared to come up and disturb him, instead they watched stealthily from a distance.
Even some women with beautiful and delicate appearances frequently cast admiring, shy glances toward Gu Chen.
All this Gu Chen was naturally aware of, but he didn't pay any attention to it; he just felt that once famous, it can be rather troublesome, and now he understood why those celebrities from his previous life would wrap themselves up so tightly when they went out, finding the feeling of being constantly under scrutiny quite unfavorable.
Gu Chen sat by the window, looking out at the view while eating the local delicacies of Phoenix Sun City, when he suddenly remembered the Luo Feng he had met in Huaiyang City.
At that moment, a servant of the Drunken Phoenix Tower approached with a smile and respectfully said, "Sir, this is a dish that our owner has specially added for you, one of the specialties of the Drunken Wind Tower. Please have a taste, sir."
Not far away, the owner of the Drunken Wind Tower stood with a smile, bowing to Gu Chen when he saw him looking over.
Gu Chen nodded in acknowledgement, then picked up his chopsticks and tasted the dish, but the moment he did, his expression changed abruptly and he spat it out immediately.
Seeing this, the servant of the Drunken Wind Tower, puzzled, said, "Sir, what's wrong? Is the dish not to your liking?"
Gu Chen said gravely, "There's poison in this dish."
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