After Charles Bolton left, Evelyn Spencer spent every day practicing qi cultivation and martial arts together with his senior brother Clifford Bolton. Although Clifford Bolton was diligent as well, he had never seen someone “from the modern era who works themselves to the bone”—while there are only twelve hours in a day, Evelyn Spencer wished he could spend thirteen of them cultivating, blaming only the heavens for not allowing it.

At first, Clifford Bolton thought his junior brother would need his supervision, but little did he expect that, once this junior got serious, he was simply inhuman!

In addition to his own cultivation, Evelyn Spencer also wrote down from memory the Hu family’s thirty-six forms of Hunyuan Stance and seventy-two moves of Demon-Banishing Sword. Edward Miller had only given him cursory guidance, so he compared them with the sect’s Ziwu Classic, marking out the meridians trained by each of the thirty-six stances, and added many of his own cultivation insights.

Comparing the Songyang Sect’s Ziwu Classic, he found that the Hunyuan Stance only trained thirty-six meridians, but included extraordinary, regular, and hidden meridians, which, when combined, produced a certain mysterious effect that seemed quite advanced. After pondering this for several days, he couldn’t help but seek out his senior brother for advice.

After hearing Evelyn Spencer’s doubts, Clifford Bolton couldn’t help but laugh and said, “Junior brother, have you ever heard of the saying ‘Three Supreme Masters, Five Grandmasters’?”

Evelyn Spencer shook his head and replied, “I haven’t!”

Clifford Bolton said, “The three supreme masters in the world are the old master of Sword Mountain Manor, Samuel Moore, the great withered Chan master of Shaochan Temple, and the ancestor of the Daliang royal family.”

“As for the five grandmasters, besides our teacher, there’s also Monk Coleman of Shaochan Temple, the Demon Sect leader Isaac Young, the number one expert of the demonic path Norman Gray, and the Sword God Quentin Henry!”

“Quentin Henry, you see, is the ancestor of the Hu family, the head of the family two generations ago.”

At this point, Clifford Bolton smiled slightly and said, “He’s also Frank Henry’s grand-uncle!”

Evelyn Spencer felt his heart tremble slightly, and for a moment, he was speechless...

Chapter 12: Youth Always Has a Heroic Spirit

Clifford Bolton’s few sentences contained so much information that Evelyn Spencer didn’t even know where to start. After thinking for a moment, he asked the most uncertain question first: “Isn’t our founder Feng also a supreme master?”

Clifford Bolton laughed and said, “Our founder has already passed away!”

“There’s no reason for someone who’s gone to still hold a spot!”

“When founder Feng was still alive, there were five supreme masters and four grandmasters in the world.”

“Later, after our founder and another supreme master passed away, and some among the five grandmasters also died, our teacher and Monk Coleman of Shaochan Temple emerged and filled the two grandmaster positions, which is how things stand now.”

“Of the current five grandmasters, Quentin Henry is already from two generations ago and has retired from the martial world for many years. Norman Gray is of the same generation as our founder, also an expert of the older generation. The Demon Sect leader Isaac Young is of the same generation as our teacher, but more than ten years older. Monk Coleman of Shaochan Temple is the youngest, seven or eight years younger than our master, and is hailed as the greatest martial arts genius in Shaochan Temple in two hundred years. It’s said that he will surely become the temple’s second supreme master in the future.”

“Below the supreme masters and grandmasters, there are far too many master-level experts—dozens at least. It’s impossible to name them all at once. Anyway, every major sect and clan has a master in residence, each with their own extraordinary skills.”

Upon hearing this, Evelyn Spencer suddenly felt a strong sense of gratitude toward Edward Miller, his first-generation master. He had originally thought that Edward Miller was unable to teach him martial arts and had just found him a random master, but who would have thought that Mr. Miller had found him such a powerful sect?

Master Miller is truly a good person!

Although Charles Bolton didn’t get along with the chief senior brother of the Songyang Sect, they hadn’t truly fallen out—he had simply branched off to found a new sect. The Songyang Sect really did have a supreme master ancestor and was the top of the ten sword sects. His master had received the true teachings and was a grandmaster of the current age. In the future, when traveling the martial world, if he ever encountered danger, whether he invoked his sect or his master’s name, who would dare not show him some respect?

Clifford Bolton said with a smile, “The Hu family was able to produce a grandmaster because their family’s Hunyuan Stance is truly a first-class internal art. Especially these thirty-six stances, which train from the outside in—once you’ve cultivated internal strength, every movement naturally carries inner power, making it most suitable for combat.”

“You think the Hunyuan Stance is extraordinary, and it truly is.”

“However, Evelyn junior brother, I must warn you.”

“The martial arts of the Hu and Miao families are family secrets, never taught to outsiders. It’s fine for you to practice them in secret, but when you travel the martial world in the future, you must never use them carelessly.”

“Our Taiyi Temple is not without martial arts that shake the world. Why cling to the Hu family’s techniques?”

Evelyn Spencer gave an embarrassed smile and said, “Senior brother, you’re right.”

It wasn’t that he couldn’t let go of the Hu family’s martial arts, but rather that he had recently discovered during cultivation that practicing both the Ziwu Classic and the Hunyuan Stance seemed to be complementary. The Ziwu Classic strengthened meridians that the Hunyuan Stance neglected, and vice versa; for meridians that were hard to open with the Hunyuan Stance, the Ziwu Classic had marvelous methods to unblock them. Since practicing both was more efficient, there was no reason to give one up.

However, Clifford Bolton’s words also made him secretly cautious—not to use the Hu family’s martial arts in front of others in the future. Edward Miller had also vaguely mentioned when teaching him the Hunyuan Stance that he mustn’t tell anyone what techniques he was practicing.

In the blink of an eye, seven or eight days passed, and Charles Bolton had still not returned.

That morning, Evelyn Spencer remembered the Daoist robe he had ordered, so after telling his senior brother, he went alone to the nearby town.