Gu Yan, an outer-sect servant of the Azure Nether Sect, had a mixed five-element spiritual root and had been stuck at the second level of Qi Refining for three years. It wasn't because he hadn't worked hard: the Qi Gathering Pills they handed out were adulterated with sand, and the breathing technique in the Scripture Pavilion was missing three pages.
Then one night, after exhausting himself chopping wood, he fell into an old opera stage. A comedy sketch was halfway through, but it was missing a character. The audience below sat packed in the darkness, waiting for someone to pick up the next line.
He did. The punchline landed, the whole hall burst into applause, and a wisp of spiritual energy poured down his throat into his dantian. When the show ended, the stage manager even gave him a foxtail grass: Keep it in your mouth, and don't speak.
From then on, Gu Yan took up an unorthodox path of cultivation. While others meditated, he collected jokes; while others comprehended the intent of the sword, he sought to grasp the punchline. Gradually, he saw that the flaws in all things under heaven were like the setup to a joke: strike the right spot, and even the deepest cultivation would collapse with a poke.
The manager was skimming his wages? At a public hearing, Gu Yan rang a bell and asked three questions, leaving him pale as a sheet. The Enforcement Hall came down on him? At the final tournament, he gathered the whole arena's jeers into a single rumbling blast:
The punchline landed, and his Golden Core formed.
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
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