Seven Layered Sky

Shi clan, Shi Xingwan's room.

Shi Xingwan's mouth was agape after looking at the silver force that covered both of his son's hands, which seemed to be stuck by glue as this silver force did not move away from his son's hands as his son did basic yet swift movements.

Standing in front of his father, Shi Li dispelled the silver force that covered both of his hands before saying, "Father, I have broken to the Martial Adept stage now. As you can see, I also have inner force hehe."

"U...Un..." As Shi Xingwan experienced extreme shock from his son's show of inner force, Shi Xingwan could only stiffly nod his head and let out a stiff grunt of confirmation.

It took Shi Xingwan a few minutes of blinking and looking at the ceiling before being able to calm down. At the next instant, he looked at his son as if he was a monstrous genius and asked, "You...you broke through to the Martial Adept stage within a week?"

"I did say that, right Father?" Shi Li chuckled as he replied. "I came here to tell you Father that I'm going to the clan library to grab cultivation techniques for the Martial Adept stage, is that okay with you Father?"

"Well it's fine with me but..." Shi Xingwan nodded to his son's question, only for him to follow up with, "Aren't you going to attend the rewarding ceremony for the Novice tournament?"

"Eh?" Shi Li tilted his head in confusion for a second before screaming out "Ah!" in realization. "That's right! I forgot about the rewarding ceremony!"

Of course, Shi Li could still remember the words of Shi Xingtai at the end of the Novice Tournament, which stated that the rewards of the top 10 would be given the week after the tournament. Coincidentally, the day that Shi Li showed his father his breakthrough was the day when the rewarding ceremony was held.

"So...are you still going to attend?" Seeing Shi Li's shocked expression, Shi Xingwan asked once more.

Shi Li pondered over this matter for a bit before shaking his head. "I will not, Father. Please tell Uncle that I will be in the clan library, looking for cultivation techniques suited for a Martial Adept cultivator."

"Alright then." Shi Xingwan nodded and released a strand of qi, muttering a few words into it before flicking it towards the place where the rewarding ceremony was held. Around half a minute later, a strand of qi was absorbed by Shi Xingwan, which was seen by Shi Li. He knew that his uncle, Shi Xingtai, sent his father a message.

"Your Uncle wants me to tell you that he congratulates you on breaking through the Martial Adept stage," Shi Xingwan said after confirming the message on the qi strand.

"He also wants me to ask you on which Elder would you like to learn from."

After hearing these words come out of his father's mouth, he remembered that one of the rewards that the champion would get was that they would be able to learn under one of the six Elders of the clan, as a sort of disciple.

Since Shi Li did not know any of the elders extremely well other than Elder Yan who was slightly familiar to him, Shi Li asked his father, "Who do you think would be suitable for me, Father?"

"Well..." Shi Xingwan rubbed his chin for a while and replied, "My child, that will be up to you to decide. There is still a week's worth of time for you to decide on which Elder you're going to learn from."

Seeing that his father did not give him any suggestions, Shi Li did not pursue the matter any further.

Noticing that the conversation was done, Shi Li gradually turned around to face the door and said, "Well then, Father. If you may excuse me, I shall now go to the clan library and choose cultivation techniques that are suitable for me."

Step. Step. Step.

"Wait a second." Before Shi Li could truly leave the room, Shi Xingwan stopped him.

"Yes, Father?" Shi Li turned his head around to look at Shi Xingwan.

"After you choose your cultivation techniques, come back here so I can talk with you about the Shi Trial Tower you're going to attempt a month later."

"Alright, Father." Sensing that his father had nothing else to say, Shi Li respectfully bid his farewells to his father before moving towards the clan library at quite a fast speed thanks to his [Flame Bursting Step] being infused with inner force.

After looking at his son's back disappearing from the room, Shi Xingwan took a few deep breaths before returning to work on the matters of the clan. Around ten minutes later, an attendant appeared in front of Shi Xingwan's desk, which prompted Shi Xingwan to ask, "Are the prices of the Seal Breaker Pill low enough for our stored assets to buy?"

"Our stored assets are more than enough to buy a standard Seal Breaker Pill, Patriarch." The attendant kneeled down on one knee as he replied.

"Standard?" Shi Xingwan could not help but raise an eyebrow as he looked at the attendant in front of him. "Are there any other types of Seal Breaker Pills being sold?"

"That is correct, Patriarch." The attendant nodded his head. "Other than the standard Seal Breaker Pills, there are also the Substandard grade Seal Breaker Pills which are cheaper at the cost of lesser efficacy, and Refined grade Seal Breaker Pills, which are more expensive, yet their efficacy is truly greater than a standard one!"

Hearing the word 'Refined' come out of the attendant's mouth, Shi Xingwan then asked, "Then, will the amount of stored assets we have be enough to buy a Refined grade pill?"

It took a few seconds for the attendant to calculate the price before muttering out a single word that made Shi Xingwan happy.

"Yes."

...

While traversing the clan's walkways towards the clan library, Shi Li decided to look at Tian Zhenfei's memories, wanting to see if he could obtain an auxiliary cultivation technique for the Martial Adept stage, just like the one he obtained for the Martial Novice stage.

Whoosh!

Although Shi Li was still running, Shi Li closed his eyes to peer into Tian Zhenfei's memories, maintaining a part of his consciousness open to head towards the clan library.

In an instant, Shi Li was able to notice that the amount of memories he was able to look at had increased by a lot. From Tian Zhenfei's cultivation experiences to the techniques he learned, Shi Li was able to peer into each and every one of them, the only limit being Tian Zhenfei's cultivation realm of the peak of the Martial Adept stage in these memories.

He scoured through each and every unlocked memory with high interest, only for him to end up looking in front of an extremely vivid memory that called him to come closer.

The aura this memory gave out was greatly beyond the other memories, to which the reason was unknown.

Nonetheless, Shi Li did come close to it and opened it, only for the rare voice of Tian Zhenfei to pop up.

"Oh? Congratulations on breaking through the Martial Adept...you know what, let's face it. Martial Adept is not the universally known name of this cultivation stage."

"Congratulations on breaking through to the Bone Tempering stage, Shi Li. Since you've broken through, then it means you have access to inner force, right?"

"I knew you'd be looking for an auxiliary cultivation technique for the Bone Tempering stage after knowing the effects of having an auxiliary cultivation technique as a Martial—Skin Tempering stage cultivator."

"This is why I gave this memory a greater aura, in order for you to find it more easily. This is also the memory where I will give you the best auxiliary cultivation technique for a Bone Tempering cultivator."

"The [Seven Layered Sky Force Manual]."