Chapter 346: Saint Tier Battle Skill
Jian Chen was a Radiant Saint Master and not a Radiant Warrior in that regard. A Radiant Saint Master succeeded in using their spirit to augment and strengthen their control over the Radiant Saint Force in the world to heal those that needed it. A Radiant Warrior cultivated like any other cultivator in order to fight and improve their own strength. Spirit was secondary to them since it was absolutely unrelated to improving their strength. Thus, the light attribute cave would not be extremely effective for him since he wasn’t a light attributed cultivator.
A Radiant Saint Master and Radiant Warrior had only a slight difference in name, but they walked two different paths of cultivation. One focused on the spirit and the other focused on Saint Force.
He quickly left the light attributed cave. Jian Chen knew that the light attributed element inside was meant for people to comprehend, but it would not serve him any use. Not only that, but he couldn’t handle the painful stinging sensation.
Afterward, Jian Chen visited the other caves. Aside from some small increase in his understanding, since his inner Saint Force had no attribute, he felt no connection to any of the caves.
Quickly, Jian Chen arrived at the third area which was a single huge mountain wall. There were eight abnormally large caverns positioned on the cave walls. While most of the caves were located very high up on the wall, the lowest cave was only thirty meters high. The highest one was over a hundred meters up, reaching almost to the top of the cave. The entire wall was as smooth as a shiny mirror with no footholds, meaning that those without strength would find it impossible to climb.
Above the entrances’ to these caverns were a few words; the very first cavern had the words, “Second Heavenly Layer Saint King Yunyang Wudi’s remnants.”
The top three caves had the words, “Ninth Heavenly Layer Saint King Tian Qinyu’s remnants!” “Ninth Heavenly Layer Saint King Xue Wuya’s remnants!” “Ninth Heavenly Layer Saint King Langsi Xiexun!”
Jian Chen’s eyes swept across the caves with awestruck fascination. These eight caves all held the remnants of Saint Kings! The top most three caves had even housed Saint Kings at the Ninth Heavenly Layer!”
“Could it be that all of these Saint Kings were from Mercenary City?” Jian Chen muttered. It was only now that he realized the power he had seen in Mercenary City was the tip of the iceberg.
Mercenary City towered over the Tian Yuan Continent for countless of years as the pinnacle city. Not only did they have several Saint Ruler experts, but they also had some Saint King overseers. This type of colossal power was akin to a ferocious warbeast that no one had the possibility of killing.
Suddenly, Jian Chen couldn’t help but think back to when he was in that isolated space collecting tokens for the competition. When he had been in the shrine, Ming Dong’s uncle Tian had been a Saint Ruler 5000 years ago. Could it be possible for him to have made a breakthrough to become a Saint King after so long? Or maybe even a Saint Emperor? Since he had been residing within the isolated space along with the place used for the competition, could he too be a member of Mercenary City?
Sucking in a deep breath, he slowly started to try and calm himself down. With a single leap, he landed within the lowest cavern.
The passageway within the cavern was quite long and curvacious. After walking about 300 meters, Jian Chen finally arrived at a dead end which was a single spacious cave around fifty meters in width. There wasn’t any sources of light, but what should have been a dark cave somehow was bright. Similar to the light outside. But the source of this light could not be found, giving this cave another sense of mystery.
All around the cave were various paintings of men. Each painting was almost lifelike, and in each painting, the person drawn within seemed to be performing some sort of graceful movement.
Within the center of the cave, three men were sitting idly while staring at the paintings with a stiffness similar to that of a statue. Not a single hair could be seen moving, and within the three of them, Jian Chen recognized the Thirteenth Elder.
“Could it be this painting portrays one of the legendary Saint Tier Battle Skills?” Jian Chen thought. Walking toward the three men, he followed suit and began to stare fixedly at the painting. But after half a day, he had failed to understand anything from the painting.
“Jian Chen, how did you come to be here? Did the Eighth Elder not tell you to stay at the first area to cultivate?” Suddenly, Jian Chen could hear the wizened voice of the Thirteenth Elder who spoke with shock.
“Thirteenth Elder, I was only taking a look around. I heard from the Eighth Elder that the third area had a Saint Tier Battle Skill. Could this painting be it?” Jian Chen asked. Since he was afraid of disturbing the other two men, Jian Chen spoke in a quiet voice.
“Correct, this is indeed a Saint Tier Battle Skill. Since you are here, I presume that you have seen the other caverns. This is one of the riches of Mercenary City. In total, there are eight Saint Tier Battle Skills; the equivalent to the Eight Senior Elders of Mercenary City. Each one of them reached the Saint King realm and these Saint Tier Battle Skills were created by them.” The Thirteenth Elder spoke.
“Thirteenth Elder, with these paintings all depicting a Saint Tier Battle Skill, I don’t see anything for cultivation methods, just why is that?” Jian Chen asked with confusion.
“A Saint Tier Battle Skill is different from a Heaven Tier Battle Skill. There are no Cultivation Methods, each advancement from this point on is dependent on oneself. The use of a Saint Tier Battle Skill is to draw upon the energy of the world. So to comprehend and understand a Saint Tier Battle Skill, one must be a Saint Ruler at the very least. That is because once one makes the breakthrough to become a Saint Ruler, they will begin to understand the profound mysteries of the world and grasp the energy of the world. Jian Chen, a Saint Tier Battle Skill isn’t something that you can understand right now. You are merely wasting your time here, hurry on back to the first area and cultivate. You are the King of Mercenaries for this time’s Gathering of the Mercenaries. Wait until you become a Saint Ruler and come back for the next Gathering of the Mercenaries to enter the holy land once again.” The Thirteenth Elder spoke.
“I thank the Thirteenth Elder for his kind intentions. I had only wished to see this Saint Tier Battle Skill, and even though I was unable to understand it, I was still able to further my insights.” Jian Chen smiled.
“It is up to you. You only have half a year’s time, I hope you treasure it wisely.” The elder said before turning away.
Jian Chen kept calm and looked back toward the first painting. Now that he knew that these paintings were Saint Tier Battle Skills, his attitude toward them changed completely. He no longer looked at them with a simple gaze and instead began to look at them intently so that not even the expressions were neglected.
As he looked at each and every movement within the diagrams, Jian Chen would occasionally feel a small revelation appear within his mind. It was as if he were on the verge of understanding something but was unable to grasp the final step and grew confused once more. Seeing just how each one of these movements and forms had some sort of secret, Jian Chen was unable to completely understand just what was the purpose, leaving him quite vexed.
With each observation, Jian Chen could feel his thoughts grow more and more chaotic as he felt his mind expand. It was almost as if his head had become a constantly expanding balloon, and since he couldn’t bear the “air” expanding within, his head was hurting badly.
Jian Chen knew that this Saint Tier Battle Skill was the cause, therefore he immediately turned away and sat on the ground. He tried to think of nothing, emptying his mind of everything as he fell into a deep meditation.
After an unknown amount of time, Jian Chen had finally regained control of his mind, allowing him to open his eyes and stare at the painting once more.
Now Jian Chen had a better understanding of the first painting. Slowly, he could understand that the people within the painting were like the heavens. They were representatives of the world, their movements were fused together with the world. Each move contained a profound mystery of the world, and each strike contained a profound theory, but that was something Jian Chen didn’t understand.
However, when Jian Chen had understood the first part, he could suddenly feel that this one strike displayed on the picture was quite simple and he could work it out. In one moment, he could feel that this move embodied many things; a simple strike that could have countless of variations. In another moment, he could feel that this move was akin to nature and harmonized the body with the world before shaping it. In the next moment, he could feel that it contained a terrifying amount of power that could scare demons and shatter the world…
With such a simple looking painting, Jian Chen was able to understand so many pieces of information. If the other Saint Rulers were to figure out that Jian Chen was able to grasp this much, their eyes would pop open in shock, and the would look at him with inconceivable looks.
For an Earth Saint Master to gain so many insights after looking at a Saint Tier Battle Skill, was an impossible task. If Jian Chen were to later have a grasp on the profound mysteries of the world, then understanding this Saint Tier Battle Skill was not too far out of his reach. In fact, establishing his own Saint Tier Battle Skill wouldn’t be impossible either.
As soon as this bit of information had traveled to Jian Chen’s mind, his mind instantly grew chaotic once more as it swelled up, threatening to fracture at any moment.
Jian Chen immediately closed his eyes once more and forced himself to calm down.
After calming down, Jian Chen methodically inspected the paintings over and over again. However, the only information he could gather from them was the fact that these simple paintings seemed to be filled with many mysteries. No matter how much he looked at them, he was unable to progress. Thus, he could only stop here. If he tried to push on, he would get a splitting headache, his thoughts would go berserk, and his thought processes would slow down.
“It seems that being unable to grasp the mysteries of the world causes one to be unable to understand the Saint Tier Battle Skill. I can sense that this move is filled with many things, but I cannot understand the concepts. Could it be that the profound mysteries of the world are not enough?” Jian Chen thought to himself. With one of the legendary Saint Tier Battle Skills right in front of him but he himself unable to comprehend the meaning behind it, left Jian Chen feeling unwell.