Within the Jie Sect, at a quiet yard on Golden Turtle Island, the Grandmaster of Heaven stared impassively at Jiang He for up to seven seconds before slowly speaking, “Don’t you think it’s rather unprecedented for you come to me with such a question, Jiang He?”

Offering a fist-palm salute, Jiang He said reverently, “I earnestly request your teaching, Your Holiness.”

Earnest, my foot!

The Grandmaster of Heaven was speechless.

Do you really think it’s appropriate to come to me—a Saint—with such a question?

A hundred catties of a Saint’s flesh?

Do you take Saints for pigs?

Moreover, one must have the ability to fight or overwhelm a Saint directly to do something like that.

Don’t you know the extent of your own abilities, Jiang He?

“Eh?”

Despite his inward retort, there was a twinkle in the eyes of the Grandmaster of Heaven, and he asked in surprise, “Your cultivation… has ascended?”

“I gained some enlightenment after several days of seclusion.”

The Grandmaster of Heaven’s mouth twitched at that.

Do you think I am blind?

Some enlightenment? You jumped from full-fledged Grand Luo to full-fledged Demi-Saint!

“The kid must have profound providence to reach this level after cultivating for just a few years… the recoil I suffered when trying to divine him meant that he is protected by some transcendent elite or treasure.”

Nonetheless, the Grandmaster of Heaven’s attitude towards Jiang He changed slightly even as that thought crossed his mind.

He had merely taken him for a young one with inestimably bright future before.

Now, however, he treated him as an equal.

Soon, laughter could be heard from that quiet yard. Zhao Gongming, who happened to be passing by the entrance, was left puzzled, and so poked his head in from the gate.

“Begone!”

The Grandmaster of Heaven snapped. “I’m talking to Jiang He—your martial uncle. Don’t disturb us.”

Zhao Gongming promptly ran away.

“Hold on…”

Having fled thousands of meters away, he suddenly came to his senses and muttered, “Martial Uncle… Jiang He?”

????

“Martial Uncle Jiang He???”

His voice was a hundred decibels louder then.

Jiang He, who happened to be leaving the quiet yard appeared puzzled and exclaimed in surprise, “What’s wrong?”

Zhao Gongming’s eyes were widened in disbelief, and he exclaimed in shock, “What is actually going on, Jiang He?”

“You wretch!”

The Grandmaster of Heaven barked, fuming at his words.

He had been walking behind Jiang He, and roared, “Jiang He is my godbrother. How dare you call your own master’s godbrother by his name, Zhao Gongming?!”

Zhao Gongming was left thunderstruck and utterly in a mess.

I was calling Jiang He ‘brother’ all the while when we met days ago… how did his seniority shoot up in the blink of an eye?

Nonetheless, that piece of news quickly spread throughout the Jie Sect, with their third and fourth-generation disciples now being more interested in Jiang He.

On the other hand, the second-generation disciples who had been close to Jiang He before were left with an inexpressible irritation. Even the Daoist of Many Treasures who constantly shut himself in his hole excused himself, saying that he needed to leave the Biyou Palace for a change of pace…

After all, they would all have to address Jiang He as martial uncle now.

Even if Jiang He insisted that he was fine with being addressed variably, the Grandmaster of Heaven decreed that anyone disregarding it would be hanged off a tree and beaten…

Clearly, it was hard to get accustomed to switching from ‘brother’ to ‘martial uncle’ so quickly.

Jiang He was not concerned, however, since both were mere titles.

Still, the one and only benefit from having the Grandmaster of Heaven addressing him as brother was that the man had told him about the other Saints’ methods and abilities, as well as a simple ‘ranking’ of the Saints.

It was universally acknowledged that the greatest Saint was the True Lord of Morality and Pure Nothingness, otherwise known as Taishang Laojun.

The patriarchs of the Gods and Demons were equal in power, and ranked just beneath True Lord of Morality and Pure Nothingness.

There was also an ancient cosmic behemoth. However, he headed to the depths of chaos several hundred thousand years ago, and had never been seen or heard of since, and he ranked just below those two patriarchs.

After the beast came the Grandmaster of Heaven himself.

At that point, he boasted about himself a lot, saying stuff like he would dare to fight both patriarchs of the Gods and Demons at once should his Immortal Killing Sword Array be released.

He also ranked the Primeval Lord of Heaven behind himself, saying that he would not fear his fellow Saint even if he wielded Pan Gu’s Banner or the Chaos Pearl…

At that point, Jiang He doubted the ranking.

Pan Gu’s Banner was a paragon treasure, equally famous as the Eight Trigrams Canvas and the Chaos Bell.

Those three Paragon Treasures were the three greatest items across worlds, symbolizing the greatness mystic treasures across worlds. Even if the Grandmaster of Heaven’s Immortal Killing Sword Array was impressive, it would still lose out to Pan Gu’s Banner.

Nonetheless, it was clear that there were thirty-seven Saints across all worlds, some of whom had not been seen for over several hundred thousand years after having ventured deep into the Chaos.

And right now, in all the observed worlds, the weakest Saints were the Lesser Saint of the Western Sect, as well as the insectoids’ Nine-Heads Saint.

***

“We’ll skip the Lesser Saint since I have no argument against him, and taking his flesh is certainly inappropriate.”

Jiang He thought for a long while in his farm and eventually decided to target the insectoids’ Nine-Heads Saint.

“But he is a Saint and not to be underestimated!”

Even if the Grandmaster of Heaven has said that Nine-Heads was the weakest, that was in comparison to other Saints.

For beings beneath Saints, none could really afford to provoke insectoid elites, for each of them represented an army.

In fact, an Insectoid Saint could create swarms of Demi-Saint and Grand Luo insectoids by themselves.

An average Demi-Saint bothering Nine-Heads would drown in his swarms by insectoids.

Still, Jiang He was not afraid.

With Jiang He’s current abilities, swarms of Grand Luo would not do Nine-Heads any good, and he could even gather them to plant at his farm… which would prove devastating when used as bombs in subsequent battles.

As for Demi-Saint insectoids…

Since Nine-Heads was the weakest Saint, he would not be able to create that many Demi-Saint insectoids, or make them powerful for that matter.

“Average Demi-Saints wouldn’t be much of a threat to me, but it would be a problem if they came in numbers…”

“My cultivation tier is at its limit right now, and I would either need innate paragon treasures or a cultivation method that strengthens my combat ability at the moment.”

“Let’s set innate paragon treasures aside for the moment—there are only that many of those despite the countless worlds in the universe, and almost all are owned.”

“As for cultivation method…”

Jiang He already had a general idea.

Leaving aside immortal arts, the Scripture of the Chaos Thundersword as well as the Secret Art of the Chaos Thundersword would do. He also had two slots left for planting cultivation manuals.

His idea was therefore to create a martial technique and another cultivation method used specifically to strengthen combat ability.

“Martial arts are superior to immortal arts in melee attacks…”

“My physique is now equal to a superior-grade acquired soul treasure. With Eternium strengthening me, my limbs would not lose out to premium-grade acquired soul treasure in attacking force… which is why I need to create a fist-style for my melee technique.”

Jiang He whipped out his phone to Baidu it…

But then remembered that there was no network in the celestial battlefield.

As such, he had to rely on memory to search and copy the fist-styles he had read about in novels or seen in films, which he would improve and strengthen after.

“There are many fist styles in novels and film, but those are too low level… wait, I remember one in a novel, known as the Fist of the Six Paths of Reincarnation.”

“Hmmm…”

“The Fist of the Six Paths of Reincarnation sounds too weak for Demi-Saints or Saints, and I don’t know the mnemonic chant for it…”

“Still, the name is quite awesome. I could make up the mnemonic chant and strengthen the force of the fist technique anyway.”

“Moreover, that novel also has that Esoteric Nine or something that strengthens combat strength… which I could improve on as well. That secret technique would buff me beyond full-fledged Demi-Saint and the fourteenth-tier of martial arts!”

Beneath the Old Tea Tree of Enlightenment, Jiang He had a few sips of Old Tea of Enlightenment. He felt ideas streaming like a fountain right then as inspiration surged in his mind, and so promptly told Hu Mei to get him pen and paper, then went to work on making stuff up…