Chapter 236

Liu Qingyu was momentarily speechless.

From Tianqing Sect to this upper sect.

Although this Elder Jiang occasionally makes daring moves beyond ordinary understanding, he has never once disappointed anyone.

But...

This time’s opponent is no ordinary foe.

The three sects stationed here are all led by Primordial Martialists.

To snatch primordial qi from under three Primordial Martialists...

The difficulty rivals snatching food from a tiger’s jaws.

She simply couldn’t fathom where Jiang Ye got such confidence.

Yet seeing his calm, composed demeanor, the anxiety and pressure she’d carried for days quietly melted away.

This Elder Jiang possessed an indescribable aura.

You can never tell how many cards he still holds, yet precisely because of that, you inexplicably find yourself willing to trust him.

When the pot of clear tea was empty, Liu Qingyu rose to take her leave.

After all, the sky had grown dark.

A lone man and a lone woman together—bad for reputation.

Her footsteps as she left were lighter than when she arrived, tapping the mountain ground like a mountain stream flowing, crisp and pleasant.

Jiang Ye’s lips curled into a faint smile.

Jiang Ye tidied the tea set, then walked slowly to the center of the courtyard, unwrapped the cloth, and gripped the entirely dark tungsten iron staff.

The staff felt cool, its heavy weight pressing into his palm, yet it drew a slow, satisfied curve to his lips.

“Finally, I can cultivate this peerless staff art.”

He had waited for this moment for many days.

Since the very first day he saw the spirit monkey’s staff posture in the diagram, this staff had already been swung countless times in his mind.

Tonight’s moonlight was perfect—ideal for practicing staff.

He pulled out the copied manuscript of the “Spirit Monkey Shakes Heaven Staff” and turned to the first diagram.

Under the moonlight, the spirit monkey on the paper, staff raised to strike, its stone-carved monkey eyes seemed to come alive, grinning at him through the thin paper.

Jiang Ye took a deep breath, etched the spirit monkey’s posture into his mind, and stood firm with the staff.

The staff is called the ancestor of all weapons.

Swords have dual edges and risk injuring oneself; knives follow eccentric paths and struggle to balance offense and defense.

Only the staff appears the most plain and unadorned.

Yet in truth, it unites attack and defense, blends hardness and softness, and channels a martialist’s full strength without reserve into the staff’s tip.

And this “Spirit Monkey Shakes Heaven Staff” pushes the staff’s essence to its utmost extreme.

It combines the nimble unpredictability of a spirit snake with the heavy, dominant force of a spirit ox—each strike fuses two utterly distinct martial wills.

He followed the scripture’s cultivation method to circulate true qi and began practicing the most basic staff techniques.

Slash! Sweep! Thrust! Lift! Crash! Twist! Block! Spin!

These most fundamental staff moves, in his hands, came effortlessly, naturally perfect.

Though this was his first time holding a staff, every motion carried the seasoned mastery of decades of practice.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The tungsten iron staff carved dark arcs through the night air, each swing producing muffled sonic booms—the sound of air being shattered by the staff’s passage.

As he practiced, Jiang Ye gradually entered a profoundly mysterious state.

The courtyard, the herb fields, the ancient pines, the moonlight.

All external things slowly faded from his perception.

The universe seemed to contain only him and the increasingly clear spirit monkey in his mind.

He clearly “saw” the spirit monkey’s posture in the diagram—staff raised, descending from above.

Not a slash, not a smash—but a “fall.”

Like a boulder tumbling from a mountain, like thunder striking the crown—seemingly ordinary, yet containing an ineffable, mystical trajectory.

In this technique, “Heaven-Striking Staff,” the staff’s momentum fused the fierce power of a slash with the shockwave of a crash.

“So that’s how it is...”

A flash of sudden insight pierced Jiang Ye’s mind.

Body followed heart.

His posture shifted abruptly under the moonlight.

No longer an old man in gray robes practicing staff—he became a wild, untamed spirit monkey leaping upward, both hands gripping the staff high above his head, his entire body merging with the eight-foot tungsten iron staff as he slammed it down toward the empty air before him.

The instant the tungsten iron staff struck the green stone ground, the terrifying force within it exploded like a flood finding its outlet—

Boom—!!!

A pit over a zhang wide was instantly shattered at the courtyard’s center; stones flew like torrential rain, and spiderweb cracks erupted outward from the impact point in every direction.

Immediately after, a visible shockwave spread from the center.

The ground trembled as if struck by an invisible giant hammer; the entire courtyard within hundreds of meters shuddered slightly.

Wen Yueyao, closest of all, was meditating in her room and jolted awake by the sudden tremor.

“What’s going on? An earthquake...?”

The girl’s beautiful eyes widened in shock; she forgot to put on her shoes and rushed to the courtyard gate to peek out.

What met her eyes was still the same green mountains.

“Strange—was it just my imagination?!”

The girl blinked in confusion.

“Hahahaha!!!!!!”

Jiang Ye gripped the tungsten iron staff, stared at the massive pit he’d shattered, and threw back his head in a joyous roar.

“Spirit Monkey Shakes Heaven Staff”—entered.

Not only that—he had also comprehended the staff momentum hidden within “Heaven-Striking Staff.”

This is the terrifying power of extraordinary insight.

Even in this upper sect, where geniuses abound, most disciples train their entire lives without ever touching the threshold of a peerless martial art.

He looked down at the still-smoking pit on the ground, his eyes filled with genuine awe.

No wonder it’s a peerless martial art.

If this strike landed on a person, let alone a Gangqijing martialist of the same realm—

Even a Primordial Martialist, if careless, could be shattered bone by bone.

Jiang Ye grew more eager with each practice, the tungsten iron staff whistling fiercely in his hands.

Slash—fierce as a mountain collapsing; sweep—sharp as autumn wind; thrust—precise as a snake’s tongue; spin—truth and illusion indistinguishable.

Only past midnight did Jiang Ye finally sheathe the tungsten iron staff.

A fine sheen of sweat glistened on his forehead—rare for him.

Yet he felt no fatigue; instead, his blood and qi flowed smoothly, and a wave of heated energy rose within him.

He glanced down, a knowing smile curling at his lips.

Hmm...

Now that I’ve grasped this staff momentum, the applications are endless.

It’s not just about this tungsten iron staff.

“The fire in me is burning hot right now—I’ll go find that girl and give her another lesson in staff technique.”

Jiang Ye’s mind instantly flashed to Xu Qinghuan’s alluring face.

That girl’s gotten bold lately.

She dares to sneak into my quarters at night.

It’s time to give her a proper stick-and-baton education.

Let her learn the consequences of sneaking up on this old man.