When leaving the Azure Cloud Residence,

Li Yun was in a thoroughly wonderful mood.

Even Zhang Chu was chattering away beside him, excitedly declaring that at this rate, it wouldn't be long before Li Yun became the Outer Sect Head of the Ren Branch.

Regarding this Ren Head position, Li Yun actually found himself quite interested.

Gu Yunzheng being the head of Courtyard 95 of the Ren Branch was merely because Xu Qing had favored him early on and deliberately created the title to motivate the disciples of Courtyard 95 of the Ren Branch, without it actually being recognized by the Sect.

The Ren Head mentioned by Zhang Chu, however, was entirely different.

This was a title officially recognized by the Sect and endowed with certain privileges; there were only ten such Heads in the entire Outer Sect.

It was just that the Outer Sect Disciples of the Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui branches had all just joined the Sect this September and were all newcomers, so the four major Heads had not yet been determined.

Yet without a doubt, wanting to become one of these four major Heads required demonstrating substantial achievements or overwhelming dominance to convince everyone.

However, this was no easy feat.

Each branch of the Outer Sect had a hundred courtyards, and each courtyard had a hundred disciples, amounting to ten thousand disciples in total.

To stand out among ten thousand disciples and be genuinely appointed as Head, one could imagine the difficulty; the intense competition behind it was something ordinary people could never fathom.

Nonetheless, Li Yun remained very confident about becoming the Ren Head.

Blessed with the System, having joined the Sect for only a month or so, his strength had already far surpassed the others. If he couldn't even become the Head, how could he show his face?

Of course, nothing in the world was absolute.

As a Transmigrator, he also knew that competitions involving reputation and interest were rarely entirely fair.

He feared nothing based on strength alone, but if there were truly unseen hands pulling strings behind the scenes, there was nothing he could do—unless he threw caution to the wind, played dirty tricks himself, and blew things completely out of proportion.

Still, there was no rush regarding this matter for now.

There was no need for Li Yun to dwell on it further at the moment; for him, the truly pressing issue was how to make the most rational use of the one million cognition points he had just acquired.

In his view, the four Martial Techniques he had just learned definitely had to be upgraded first; all four Martial Techniques helped enhance his immediate hard power, and most importantly, raising them all to Perfection would hardly cost any cognition points.

What made him hesitate were 【Basic Stance Training】 and 【Reversing Fate Art】.

These two Martial Arts were currently the massive consumers of cognition points.

【Basic Stance Training】 still contained eleven true meanings left to sublime; sublimating all of them would require 50,000 for each, totaling 650,000 cognition points.

【Reversing Fate Art】 went without saying—Entry required 10,000, Initial Success required 100,000, and one could easily imagine that the subsequent stages would consume far more cognition points, reaching an astronomical figure.

Moreover, the fact that 【Reversing Fate Art】 could enhance Aptitude was of utmost importance.

Li Yun had already faintly realized that the stronger his Aptitude, the more cognition points he gained when observing, and conversely, the fewer cognition points he consumed when upgrading Martial Arts.

Perhaps upgrading from Grade Five Aptitude to Grade Five Mid-rank was not particularly noticeable right now, but from a long-term perspective, it made a world of difference.

"Damn it..."

"What a headache. I thought a million cognition points would be enough for me to run wild for a while, but it turns out it's still not enough..."

"Uh, Boss, what are you thinking about?"

"We're almost there!"

Suddenly, Zhang Chu waved a hand in front of his eyes and looked at Li Yun with a bewildered expression. "Boss, are you alright? Why do you seem so distracted the whole way?"

"Uh... nothing, I was just thinking about Basic Stance Training."

"Basic Stance Training? What's there to think about? Haven't you already comprehended the true meaning of the first stance? Then naturally you should keep comprehending and comprehend all twelve true meanings!"

"Heh, you're right. If given the chance, I definitely want to comprehend all the true meanings of Basic Stance Training, but I'm considering a question."

"Namely—is it worth it?"

"Is it worth it?"

Zhang Chu paused in surprise. "Boss, why do you ask that?"

Li Yun Said, "It's obvious. Basic Stance Training is, after all, merely the most basic Martial Arts with zero offensive capability. Whether you cultivation one true meaning or all of them, both allow you to reach Body Tempering Ninth Level with ease."

"But what about after that?"

"Once entering a higher Realm, this Stance Training is essentially useless. Wouldn't spending so much time and effort on Stance Training be a complete waste?"

Hearing this, Zhang Chu's expression turned rather peculiar.

"Boss, you're mistaken about that. The result of cultivating one true meaning versus twelve true meanings is completely different."

"Oh? Could there be some special secret to this?"

Zhang Chu quickly glanced around, his eyes turning guarded.

"Boss, there's no one around here, so I'll quietly tell you a secret. Don't tell anyone else."

"Actually, Basic Stance Training really does conceal a secret. As for what secret it is, I don't know either, but I heard my sister mention that when the Heavenly Martial Sect was first founded, during its first hundred years, the newly joined Outer Sect Disciples didn't cultivation Basic Stance Training at all."

"Instead, they practiced other Entry Martial Arts for Body Tempering. To some extent, those Martial Arts might have had an even stronger Body Tempering effect than Basic Stance Training."

"Yet back then, the higher-ups of the Heavenly Martial Sect abruptly changed the rules, mandating that all entry Martial Artists uniformly cultivation Basic Stance Training. Boss, think about it—how could there not be something behind this?"

"Putting it that way, it really does seem so..."

Li Yun mused thoughtfully.

"But what about the specifics..."

"I don't know the specifics, or rather, I don't have the clearance to know. But now that you've cultivated the first true meaning, why not cultivation all twelve true meanings?"

"Perhaps you might truly set a precedent in the Heavenly Martial Sect, Boss!"

"When that time comes, you might be qualified to learn the secret behind Basic Stance Training. Besides, Boss, I have immense faith in you!"

Hearing this, Li Yun rolled his eyes immediately.

"Get lost, you!"

"You make it sound so easy. Do you know how much effort it cost me to master Basic Stance Training..."

Zhang Chu: "..."

"Boss, saying that is really crossing the line!"

"I have full reason to suspect you're just showing off!"

"How long has it been since you joined? Barely a month or so, yet you've already mastered the first true meaning. At this rate, within a year... oh no, within half a year at most, you'll probably finish all of them."

"Given that, compared to everyone else, who's the one really having a hard time?"

Li Yun sighed helplessly.

He really wanted to say that what he spent wasn't effort, but Martial cognition points; just the thought of having to expend as much as 650,000 cognition points to fully master all twelve true meanings of Basic Stance Training filled him with heartache.

Still, after hearing Zhang Chu put it like that,

he made his decision. Since 【Reversing Fate Art】 was sufficient for now, he would cultivation the remaining eleven true meanings of 【Basic Stance Training】 first!