Chapter 33: Boundless Ocean Divine Art, A Soaring Surge in Power

In the subterranean chamber, Lin Heng sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, eyes closed in cultivation. Nearly a year had passed since he achieved the breakthrough to the Grandmaster realm. Aside from a brief appearance during his Grandmaster ceremony to acknowledge the congratulations of the martial arts world, he had spent every moment in this space, refining and perfecting the martial art he had created himself.

Building upon the legacy of the Cloud Sword Palace and synthesizing the essence of a hundred schools of martial arts, Lin Heng had used his formidable insight to forge them into one. Now, this peerless divine art, which Lin Heng had named "The Boundless Ocean," had finally reached the threshold of perfection.

At this moment, Lin Heng’s meridians were void, without a trace of internal energy flowing through them. All his internal power was concentrated within the 1,296 acupuncture points throughout his body, where it swirled like countless vast, oceanic vortices. These vortices were spinning at high speed. Driven by this rotation, a tremendous suction force formed, centered on his body, dragging in the vital energy of heaven and earth from the surrounding atmosphere.

Like a vengeful tide, the vital energy surged toward Lin Heng with violent speed. It poured through his vast, empty meridians, gathering rapidly within his acupuncture points, where the internal vortices crushed and refined the raw energy, transforming it into pure internal power that was then expelled to become part of his own strength. Every second, Lin Heng’s cultivation base grew.

This was the essence of the Boundless Ocean Divine Art: to transform the human body into an ocean, acting as a low-pressure zone for the sparse energy of the world. By using the vortices to create attraction, it drew in the infinite vital energy of the world to be refined within the body, achieving an effect similar to a breakthrough in intent, where the energy of heaven and earth nourishes the self. In this way, one could borrow the power of nature to nurture the self and rapidly ascend in cultivation.

Soon, the acupuncture points that had been expanded during his initial Grandmaster breakthrough were filled to the brim with the surging energy, reaching the limit of the first heaven of the Grandmaster realm. But this was not the end. Having spent the past year contemplating the intents left behind by the sages and merging the essences of various martial arts, Lin Heng had elevated his own intent to an extraordinary level; he was now merely cashing in that potential.

Even now, the vital energy of heaven and earth continued to surge into him with relentless intensity. Lin Heng began to channel the overflowing internal energy from his meridians and points back to its source, using it to nourish his physical body and spirit, shattering human limitations to allow his physique to contain even greater power. Throughout this process, his cultivation rose rapidly: second heaven, third heaven, fifth heaven...

Xiao Rang had paused his meeting with the elders and come to the underground space, only to be met with this very scene. His disciple, Lin Heng, was seated not far away, shrouded in surging vital energy. The energy had condensed into visible, multicolored motes of light, enveloping his form completely. His aura was skyrocketing with every passing moment, already surpassing the fourth heaven of the Grandmaster realm—the level at which Xiao Rang himself stood—and climbing toward a realm that Xiao Rang found increasingly unfathomable.

"This level of intent... it is no less than that of Ancestor Lingyun, perhaps even a step further," Xiao Rang whispered in shock.

Their Cloud Sword Palace’s founder, Lingyun, was a master of the seventh heaven of the Grandmaster realm, the greatest expert of his time, hailed by the martial world as the Supreme Grandmaster. In his twilight years, he had secluded himself in this very underground library, eventually dying of old age after a failed breakthrough. He was buried in a stone chamber where he had left behind sword marks from his final attempts at martial deduction, imbuing them with an undying sword intent born of his lingering resentment—an aura that had not fully dissipated even after hundreds of years.

Thus, Xiao Rang knew exactly what the intent of the seventh heaven of the Grandmaster realm looked like. Yet, the intent radiating from Lin Heng now was not inferior to that, and perhaps even surpassed it. It was not just the depth of his intent; his level of power was also climbing toward that "Supreme Grandmaster" status at a pace that left one dumbfounded.

This performance defied common sense. Typically, for a martial artist to break through to the Grandmaster realm, one had to polish their spirit, body, and internal energy to the absolute limit before they could gain the mental strength required to perceive a higher intent and reach the next level. After each breakthrough, they would need to spend a long time accumulating energy before their combat power could truly match their new realm.

But here, Lin Heng was breaking not just the laws of perceiving intent, but also the laws of accumulating power, as if he were whale-gulping the very essence of nature.

Just as Xiao Rang stood in shock, the tangible aura of heaven and earth swirling around Lin Heng began to dissipate. Lin Heng slowly opened his eyes, and two rays of white sword light, as solid as steel, flashed from his gaze, piercing two small holes into the stone floor before him.

"Grandmaster, eighth heaven," Lin Heng murmured.

He had now fully realized the potential accumulated from his year of meditation, becoming a Grandmaster of the eighth heaven—a figure who had surpassed even the legendary Ancestor Lingyun.

Lin Heng’s rate of growth would not slow down from here. The Boundless Ocean Divine Art provided him with constant vital energy to nourish his spirit, allowing him to push his insight to the extreme, perceiving the nature of the world and the chaos of the mortal realm to convert them into further accumulations of intent. While he might not be able to jump seven heavens in a single day again, he would certainly exceed the pace of ordinary Grandmasters, who often took decades to rise a single level. This was the purpose for which he had created the Boundless Ocean Divine Art: to maximize the speed of his cultivation and bridge the path toward the Heavenly Human realm.

"Master, is there something you need?" Lin Heng noticed Xiao Rang standing nearby and asked.

He had only finished the internal arts portion of his project; he had initially planned to create a matching external martial art as well, which was not yet complete. Although creating a compatible external art would not take long once the internal foundation was set, it would still require at least a month, and he could not keep Xiao Rang waiting here indefinitely.

"No... nothing at all," Xiao Rang replied, snapping out of his shock. He handed over a food box he had brought with him and smiled. "I merely came to bring you a meal and to mention that some petty scoundrels may be eyeing our Cloud Sword Palace lately. I thought you might need to step in to quell the unrest."

Xiao Rang had long since discarded his original reasons for coming. Had he not just heard his brilliant disciple say it himself? He was now a Grandmaster of the eighth heaven! A Supreme Grandmaster! In the face of absolute power, all schemes and plots were nothing but vanity. Let the Heavenly Star Valley, Frost City, and all those other rats hiding in the shadows come—they were merely walking to their deaths.