Chapter 123: Spiritual Manifestation
Chapter 123: Chapter 123: Spiritual Manifestation
Having visited the Library Pavilion once before, he already knew his way around. Fang Chen went straight to the room where he had found Cultivation Techniques last time.
The High Martial Realm Combat Skills he couldn’t practice previously were no longer an issue. Although the grades recorded in these books were a bit low, it didn’t matter. He had more than enough time here anyway. Learning them was better than nothing.
"Mountain-Opening Palm," "Eight Extremes Shock," "Armor-Breaking Finger"...
"Cloud Crane Finger"
"Grasshopper"
"Turtle Breathing Technique"
"Blood Soul Leg"
...
From Fist Techniques and Leg Techniques to Body Techniques and Finger Techniques, he read everything that could be useful to him. As for those with obvious, strong elemental affinities—like the "Fierce Sun Palm"—he kept Chen Pu’s warning in mind, merely skimming their frameworks before setting them down.
Fang Chen even felt a bit fortunate. He had found this very "Fierce Sun Palm" at the Martial Arts Association in Jinchuan City before. Thank goodness he wasn’t qualified to learn it back then, or it would have ruined his grand plans. Right now, his foundation was like a blank sheet of paper, perfectly suited to depict the Great Dao of Yin and Yang without the interference of early-stage elemental biases.
Soon, a wave of hunger hit his stomach, and Fang Chen got up to head to the cafeteria.
To his delight, he noticed a significant change. In the past, his range of movement within the Time Stop Domain was only about a one-kilometer radius. Beyond that range, his figure would start to blur, and his connection with the world would become extremely unstable, as if he could be rejected at any moment. Because of that, he had never dared to venture deeper. But now, he realized the boundary of the domain seemed to have expanded immensely.
"Is this a comprehensive upgrade from advancing to the High Martial Realm, or the result of my Spiritual Power growing after the recent breakthrough in the Spirit Platform Purifying Light Technique?" he wondered. Perhaps it was a combination of both.
Without hesitating, he picked a direction and kept walking. One kilometer, two kilometers, five kilometers, ten kilometers... It wasn’t until he was far from the academy’s core area, nearing the market district near the city walls, that Fang Chen felt that faint sense of blurring and rejection begin to surface.
"At least ten kilometers!" he thought, his mind settling.
The range had expanded by more than tenfold, which meant the area he could explore and harvest resources from during a single Time Stop had grown exponentially. More importantly, he had more options for finding food. Previously, he was limited to the school and nearby small shops, which he quickly emptied out. Now, the food reserves of nearly half the city district were open to him.
"Now, staying for decades in a single Time Stop... probably wouldn’t be an issue anymore," Fang Chen mused, looking at the frozen streets and houses before him with an unprecedented sense of wealth.
Of course, he didn’t actually need to stay for decades. To him, time was the most luxurious yet controllable resource. He first visited the back kitchens of several sizable restaurants. After eating and drinking his fill, he was brimming with energy and began to digest what he had learned today.
"Iron Wall Strike."
Originally, it was just a simple technique of channeling True Qi to strengthen the arms for blocking. Baptized by a massive amount of knowledge on High Martial Realm Combat Skills, it quickly surged to the Transcendence Level. The concept of an "iron wall" had transcended from a "partial block" into a "Fine Iron Body" covering his entire body. Its strength and resilience far surpassed what they were during his True Martial Realm days.
Next was the "Profound Tiger Wind-Breaking Sword."
This Swordsmanship was famous for being swift and fierce. At Perfection, each strike would roar like a tiger summoning the wind—fast and powerful. Holding the Cyan Blade, Fang Chen willed it. Without deliberately executing any Sword Techniques, he simply poured his intent and True Essence into the blade.
BUZZ!
On the edge of the blade, a faint, semi-translucent white light—about half a foot long and as thin as a cicada’s wing, slightly distorting the air—quietly extended outward! The light had a yellowish tint, carrying an invisible, piercing sharpness that felt as though it could cut through one’s very gaze.
"This is the Sword Aura of the... Profound Tiger Wind-Breaking Sword!" Fang Chen was shaken.
This was the hallmark of an outward manifestation of sharpness, something that could usually only be unleashed after cultivating a High Martial Realm Swordsmanship to the Great Success level. Yet, relying on his Transcendence Level comprehension of Swordsmanship, he had actually achieved it ahead of time!
He tried swinging it.
SWISH!
As he swung it, the Cyan Blade seemed to transform into a Light Saber, and its power far exceeded that of Sword Qi.
Finally, there was the "Phantom Illusion Step."
At the Transcendence Level, the Phantom Illusion Step was even faster. The footwork naturally generated afterimages, making his movements exceptionally ghostly and elusive.
With this foundation of Transcendence, learning High Martial Realm Martial Skills suddenly felt much easier. Many Power Generation Techniques and intricacies of True Essence circulation could be grasped by analogy. A single glance was often enough for him to vaguely understand the key mechanics.
Fang Chen selected five High Martial Realm Martial Skills as his core focus:
"Clear Radiance Swordsmanship"
"Heaven-Cutting Finger Sword"
"Eight Extremes Sky-Splitting Fist"
"Wind-Stepping Step"
"Dragon-Subduing Divine Leg"
As for the remaining dozens of rudimentary Cultivation Techniques, he dismantled and absorbed their beneficial concepts and techniques. They served as nourishment to further perfect and consolidate his Martial Dao foundation, even acting in reverse to support those five main Martial Skills in hopes that they too could reach the Transcendence Level in the future.
With the near-infinite time within the Time Stop Domain, he threw himself into cultivation without any distractions.
Thanks to his profound foundation from transcending True Martial Skills, learning these High Martial Combat Skills was indeed much faster. Once he understood one principle, he mastered the rest. Oftentimes, he only needed to read through a High Martial Combat Skill a few times and practice it briefly before grasping the basics and reaching the Minor Achievement level in just a few short months. After pouring a few more years of bitter cultivation into refining it, he could steadily push it to Great Success.
After Great Success, progress would suddenly slow down to a crawl, as if he had hit an invisible barrier. That was a bottleneck that required deeper True Essence or even a profound comprehension of the world’s principles to break through. Fang Chen didn’t force it. Being able to train a High Martial Combat Skill to Great Success already gave it astonishing power.
With the "Clear Radiance Swordsmanship" at Great Success, clear radiance would flow whenever he executed a move. Fang Chen circulated his True Essence, pushing it to its absolute limits. The arc of light swept past silently. Yet, on the thick brick-and-stone wall of a distant warehouse, a smooth cut—several inches deep and over ten meters long—appeared out of thin air!
With the "Eight Extremes Sky-Splitting Fist" at Great Success, a single punch would cause overlapping waves of True Essence to vibrate, enough to shatter a solid rock from several meters away. It had an extremely strong Piercing effect against Protective True Essence.
With the "Wind-Stepping Step" at Great Success, he moved like a gentle breeze brushing against willow branches, making him impossible to track, and stood still as if rooted to the earth, incredibly steady.
As for the "Heaven-Cutting Finger Sword," it was an upgraded version of the "Finger-Tapping Divine Techniques." Fang Chen found a classmate wearing a Combat Suit and activated his Spiritual Crystal Stone. With a single finger strike, he pierced right through the Combat Suit and shattered the Spiritual Crystal Stone.
Alright, that was about enough!
Fang Chen’s next goal was to pop some pills. Although there were pharmacies in the school, their variety was incomplete. Exiting Time Stop, he submitted an application for a one-day leave from school and headed straight to the Jade Dew Hall.
"Time for some zero-dollar shopping again!"
...
He stayed in the Time Stop Domain for about ten days, consuming pretty much every pill suitable for his current stage.
His resistances across various attributes had reached a staggering 61 points. If Fang Chen were to place his hand over a fire right now, not a single hair would be singed. And his Spiritual Power—the stat he cared about the most—had shot up to 153!
This massive increase in Spiritual Power also brought about a Qualitative Change. Now, when Fang Chen released a strand of Spiritual Power onto his hand, he could actually feel what seemed like an invisible wooden stick poking his palm! Previously, he could only sense it, but now, it was tangible!
"Did my Spiritual Power materialize?" he thought. Although it wasn’t strong enough to be used for a sneak attack in actual combat, it was a breakthrough from zero to one. "Then what if... I release my Spiritual Power like how Xia Chu controls water? Could I lift myself up?"
...
Ten seconds later.
"I’m overthinking it..." he muttered.