"Kill him! Kill this bastard!" Fang Hua scrambled up from the ground, roaring and pointing at Mo Qi. The sharp pain in his face had driven him mad.
The few Inner Sect Disciples exchanged a look, deciding to attack together.
But Mo Qi suddenly stomped his foot. A deafening BOOM resounded, as if the sky was falling and the earth splitting apart, making the ground tremble.
WHOOSH!
Mo Qi vanished. Moving like a bolt of lightning, he instantly reappeared beside Fang Hua, grabbing his neck and hoisting him into the air.
'So fast! Such incredible power!'
The Inner Sect Disciples were stunned. They hadn't been present for Mo Qi's entrance trial, so they had no idea what he was capable of.
Seeing how ferocious Mo Qi was now, they didn't dare to move recklessly.
"I told you, if I hear you insult Uncle Niu again, don't blame me for forgetting any old ties we had."
"I did insult him. I even smashed his memorial tablet. So what? In one month, Wang Hao will kill you for sure!" Fang Hua remained as arrogant as ever, refusing to believe Mo Qi would dare do anything to him.
"What are you all staring at? Hurry up and save me! Kill this good-for-nothing!" Fang Hua roared.
The Inner Sect Disciples rolled their eyes. 'He's just a Chief Steward of Miscellaneous Affairs, yet he really thinks he's somebody.'
'Good-for-nothing? If a man like that is a good-for-nothing, what does that make you? The king of good-for-nothings?'
They had indeed received Wang Hao's orders to teach Mo Qi a lesson and probe his abilities, but that didn't mean they had to obey Fang Hua.
"Annoying," Mo Qi muttered, tightening his grip slightly. Like a duck with its neck squeezed, Fang Hua couldn't make a sound.
Two more kicks shattered Fang Hua's kneecaps.
The pain was so intense Fang Hua's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, but with Mo Qi's hand gripping his neck, he couldn't even scream.
"You insulted Uncle Niu and smashed his memorial tablet. Go kneel before him in the underworld and repent!" Mo Qi's killing intent flared.
At these words, genuine fear gripped Fang Hua. Mo Qi actually dared to kill him!
Panic filled his face as he forced two words from his throat: "Spare... me..."
"Too late to beg for mercy now!"
CRACK!
Mo Qi crushed Fang Hua's neck and tore off his head.
This was the first time he had killed someone, and an old acquaintance at that.
'He closed his eyes, fighting down the churning in his stomach and pretending the stench of blood was just the smell of butchered livestock.'
The Inner Sect Disciples who had considered intervening immediately discarded the thought.
None of them could be sure that Mo Qi couldn't kill them too. It was a risk they weren't willing to take.
Mo Qi paid them no mind. He gathered the fragments of the memorial tablet, placed them in a box, and left.
"Let's go. We'll go back and report that we're no match for Mo Qi. With her father dead, Fang Min is probably going to lose it."
"It has nothing to do with us. That old fool brought it on himself with his actions and his filthy mouth. Forget Mo Qi, even I wanted to punch him after hearing that."
"Sigh... I just hope Wang Hao doesn't blame us."
...
Mo Qi went to the Outer Disciple Area, found an empty room, and settled in.
The Void Sect took a hands-off approach to managing its disciples. As long as you didn't kill fellow disciples or violate the sect's rules, no one bothered you.
Before officially taking a master, disciples had to acquire all their own resources. Since they weren't involved with the core of the Void Sect, there was no need to worry about spies.
After some time to adjust, Mo Qi finally overcame the unease from his first kill.
He knew the path of the Martial Dao was kill or be killed. Every expert had crawled their way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of bones. If he couldn't even adapt to something as fundamental as killing, he would be eliminated quickly.
After gluing Uncle Niu's memorial tablet back together and mounting it, Mo Qi headed to the Martial Hall. He wanted to select a Martial Technique and, while he was at it, learn the basics of the Martial Arts World.
Perhaps because Wang Hao wanted to see Mo Qi humiliated in front of everyone, news of their duel spread throughout the Void Sect. Combined with the minor fame he already had for his cooking, Mo Qi instantly became a household name within the sect.
When he arrived at the Martial Hall, everyone recognized him.
"So that's Mo Qi, the one fighting Wang Hao? He only scored an eighty on the entrance trial?! He doesn't look like much. He's not even at the Qi Refining Realm. How's he supposed to fight Wang Hao?"
"I don't know about his talent for Cultivation, but his cooking is out of this world. The flavor is unforgettable. You're new, so you haven't tasted it, or you'd agree it's a real shame. What a waste of a brilliant chef."
"I feel like the fight in a month will be completely one-sided. Wang Hao is at the Qi Refining Ninth Heaven, and the Third Elder has surely given him plenty of treasures. What's Mo Qi going to fight with?"
"Who knows. Hey, look, Mo Qi's going into the Martial Hall. I wonder what kind of Cultivation Technique he'll pick."
"It doesn't matter what Martial Technique he picks. The really good stuff costs contribution points. The free ones are all bargain-bin trash."
Mo Qi ignored the crowd's chatter. He didn't need a Cultivation Technique; what he wanted was one of the Basic Martial Techniques.
He believed the Martial Dao was just like cooking—the fundamentals were the most important part.
You have to master the first step to take the second, and the second to take the third.
Take a chef's Sword Skill, for example. He hadn't deliberately studied how to chop vegetables, do decorative carvings, or debone poultry and fish.
He simply practiced the basic motions—cleaving, slashing, flicking, and piercing—against a single strand of hair. By the time he could split one hair into ten threads, then a hundred, then a thousand or even ten thousand, he could already mold his ingredients into any shape he desired.
So, after a tour of the Martial Hall, he didn't choose any of the Martial Techniques that looked powerful or had impressive origins. Instead, he selected a manual titled *Basic Staff Technique*.
He didn't choose a Sword Technique, because the sword was his trump card. Besides, as they say, All Techniques Are Connected—once you master one, you understand them all.
With his level of mastery in Sword Skill, he was confident that once he learned the Basic Staff Technique, he could extrapolate his own Sword Technique without a problem.
He then browsed through some other books in the Martial Hall about the Martial Dao.
'So at the beginning of the Martial Dao are the Three Refinements: Refining Essence, Qi Refining, and Refining Divine Being.'
'Refining Essence means tempering the body. Once the meridians are cleared and the Dantian is opened, that's Qi Refining. Guiding qi into the mind to awaken one's Spiritual Power, transforming consciousness into a vast sea, is Refining Divine Being. And above Refining Divine Being is the even more powerful Purity Realm.'
'Wang Hao is at the Qi Refining Ninth Heaven, so he has True Essence Power, which I lack. But I have my own advantages. My physique is ten times stronger than his, and my reflexes and combat instincts are superior. If I can fight him up close, I can catch him completely by surprise.'
'One month. I have to master these Basic Martial Techniques in that time, or I'm sure to lose this fight.'
Having selected the *Basic Staff Technique*, Mo Qi was about to leave. But just before he did, his gaze fell upon an old book tucked away in a corner: the *Medicinal Cuisine Record*.
The *Medicinal Cuisine Record* was covered in a thick layer of dust, clearly untouched for a very long time.
If Mo Qi hadn't been so sensitive to the word "cuisine," he never would have noticed it.
'Medicinal Cuisine Record? What's this? Cooking with medicine?'
At the mere mention of cooking, Mo Qi's interest was piqued. He wiped the dust from the *Medicinal Cuisine Record* and held it like a priceless treasure, carefully turning the pages.
The *Medicinal Cuisine Record* had been written over six thousand years ago by an alchemy genius. On a whim, he'd had a wild idea and put it to paper.
He proposed the idea that "food is better than medicine." In the *Medicinal Cuisine Record*, he documented numerous Medicinal Cuisine recipes that he had adapted from Elixir Recipes.
However, since the process of creating Medicinal Cuisine was less precise than Alchemy, over seventy percent of the medicinal effects were lost, resulting in tremendous waste. The whole affair became a running joke in the Elixir Realm, and the "Medicinal Cuisine revolution" fizzled out.
This *Medicinal Cuisine Record*, however, had been preserved.
"Brilliant! Why didn't I think of this before?" Mo Qi slapped his thigh. In the past, when the wealthy disciples of the Void Sect brought him Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, he had just focused on making delicious meals out of them, letting his Chaos Scripture turn the Medicinal Power into Spiritual Energy. He had never once thought about something like Medicinal Cuisine.
If he could create the perfect Medicinal Cuisine, his Cultivation might become easier than anyone else's.
'As the saying goes, different fields, different rules. If I'm the one making the Medicinal Cuisine, maybe not so much of the medicinal effect will be lost.' At this thought, Mo Qi was overjoyed. He never expected to make such a find on his trip to the Martial Hall.
In the end, he brought the *Basic Staff Technique* and the *Medicinal Cuisine Record* to the registration desk.
When the crowd waiting there saw the two books he had chosen, they all broke into strange grins, followed by uproarious laughter.
"Hahaha, that's hilarious! He actually chose the *Basic Staff Technique*! What good is that going to do? Don't tell me he plans to beat Wang Hao with the Basic Staff Technique?"
"My little brother is five, and he can do the moves in the *Basic Staff Technique* backward and forward. Has this guy just given up?"
"I think the *Medicinal Cuisine Record* is the real kicker. Chef Mo lives up to his name—can't even pick a Cultivation Technique without thinking about food, hahaha."
"What do you guys know? That's called being a professional and never forgetting your roots. It's called... Pfft... I can't even keep a straight face, hahaha."
The steward at the registration desk was also baffled. He offered a kind reminder, "Disciple, are you sure about these two? You don't want to swap them? That *Asura Fist Technique* over there is quite good."
Mo Qi smiled and shook his head. "Thank you for the reminder, Steward, but there's no need. I'll take these two."
"Very well, then. Sign here. Remember to return them within a week, or the Punishment Hall won't be so courteous." Since Mo Qi was insistent, the steward didn't press the issue.
"Chef Mo, if you manage to cook up some Medicinal Cuisine, don't forget to call us brothers over for a feast!" someone couldn't resist teasing.
Anyone with a bit of common sense knew that despite its impressive title, the *Medicinal Cuisine Record* was useless. Even its author had abandoned it years ago.
The only reason it was kept in the Martial Hall was probably to pad the collection's numbers.
Mo Qi chuckled. "If you have Spirit Medicine and trust me to cook with it, I'd be happy to oblige."
With that, he left under the stares of the crowd, who all looked at him as if he were an idiot.
...
"Father, you died so horribly!"
In the main hall for the Void Sect's miscellaneous affairs, Fang Min wailed, cradling Fang Hua's headless corpse.
Nearby, Wang Hao's expression was grim as he listened to the report from the Inner Sect Disciples.
"Useless fools! You just stood by and watched?"
"Young Master Wang Hao, it wasn't that we didn't want to intervene," one of them said with a wry smile. "Mo Qi was just too fast. By the time we reacted, Fang Hua was already dead."
"Hmph. So many excuses for failure. Get out!" Wang Hao waved his hand dismissively, sending the Inner Sect Disciples away.
He recalled Mo Qi's terrifying reflexes during the entrance trial and knew it wasn't really their fault. If anyone was to blame, it was Fang Hua for being so arrogant.
"Mo Qi, I'll kill you!" Fang Min shrieked, her eyes bloodshot and her face a mask of rage.
Wang Hao walked over and patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry," he comforted her. "In one month, I will take his head and avenge your father."
"No! I don't want to wait a month. I want to kill him with my own two hands!" Fang Min said, her voice cold and dripping with venom.
Wang Hao frowned. "And how do you plan to do that? The entire Void Sect has its eyes on him right now."
Fang Min stood up and let her dress fall to the floor, revealing a delicate, alluring figure. She walked toward Wang Hao, one step at a time.
"I need your help. And don't worry, you won't be implicated. This will be all on me." Fang Min's smooth, pale arms wrapped around Wang Hao's neck. Her voice was a delicate whisper, but it was filled with deadly resolve.
Wang Hao raised an eyebrow. A fire ignited in his lower belly, and his breathing grew ragged.
With a wave of his hand, a surge of True Essence slammed the hall's doors and windows shut.
"Alright," he said. "I'll help you."
Two pale bodies tangled together, moving in the most primitive of rhythms. Their cries were high and passionate. Not far away lay Fang Hua's corpse, covered by a white sheet. Blood had soaked through the fabric, a glaring, scarlet stain.