Chapter 298: Chapter 56: Fame Shakes the Heavenly Machine (Fourth Update)_2
Lu Chunsheng watched, stunned, his pupils contract slightly.
He knew more about Li Hao and had hoped that Li Hao could leave an image after watching the stele twice, thereby preserving Li Hao’s reputation as a genius and also obtaining Li Hao’s Retaining Image Stele. However, to his surprise, the other party left an image after just one viewing.
Moreover, the swordsmanship Li Hao had just performed was full of extraordinary phenomena, clearly indicating his Cultivation Technique had reached the level of True State.
From perfect, skipping directly to sublime, and straight to True State in one step!
Could he really achieve this after just one observation?
Lu Chunsheng suddenly felt that he understood too little about this young man, not even glimpsing the tip of the iceberg.
He even wondered if Li Hao had practiced this swordsmanship in advance.
Otherwise, even when those three Sword Saints were young, being able to practice an upper-level swordsmanship to perfection after just one glance was already shocking enough, but compared to Li Hao, they were like fireflies to the bright moon!
The sword dao talent of this young man was even more terrifying than that of the Sword Saints!
Lu Chunsheng’s thoughts were racing, his eyes flickering with light.
Meanwhile, the other disciples of Tianji Tower were frozen on the spot.
They had anticipated three times, five times, but had never considered that Li Hao would leave an image after just one viewing.
Moreover, the level of swordsmanship he showed, with its resulting phenomena, exceeded many of their understandings, with only a very few aware of the highest level of Cultivation Technique: the True State.
“A glance of True State…”
Among the disciples, a few murmured to themselves, their eyes somewhat vacant.
At this moment, Li Hao, holding a withered branch, turned back to the edge of the Taoist training ground where the Heavenly Shadow Stele was located. According to the previous sequence, this should be the 100th in the series, the last of the Heavenly Shadow Steles.
This ranking is mostly decided by the Chief Tower Master based on the difficulty of the techniques within the steles.
Once unfamiliar and now experienced, Li Hao raised his hand and wiped it on the stele, quickly activating an image.
But this time, the image was of a knife technique.
Seeing this, Li Hao skipped it directly and turned toward the 99th in the series of Heavenly Shadow Steles.
Although with his level of swordsmanship, he could also simulate that knife technique and leave an image on the stele, there was no need for that.
This 99th stele depicted a boxing technique.
Li Hao revealed a slight smile and quickly, the panel recorded his form.
As the image disappeared, Li Hao then threw the same punch, with phenomena abounding.
The True State level.
His figure was quickly imprinted on the Heavenly Shadow Stele.
Li Hao continued towards other Heavenly Shadow Steles.
Along the way, he activated more than a dozen Heavenly Shadow Steles in succession, including the recently successful and still warm 93rd stele of Tang Zhixi.
The image of the woman that had been on it was wiped clean—it was an upper-level sword technique, also at perfect level, but this sword technique was easier to practice and master.
As the True State level sword technique was performed, the image was directly replaced.
When Li Hao went to activate a stele in the 70s series, Lu Chunsheng finally reacted, froze for a moment, and hurriedly said to Li Hao, “Young General, what are you doing?”
“I’m trying to see what I can comprehend,” Li Hao smiled.
Lu Chunsheng was stunned, watching the steles that were replaced in succession, with only a portion directly skipped by Li Hao.
He suddenly had a bad premonition.
Among the crowd, Tang Zhixi stood dumbfounded, watching the figure of the young man—her recently created image, which she had spent half a year researching to master at perfect level, was replaced by a mere glance from the other party.
And moreover, the gap between True State and perfect was too vast, too vast.
Could this really be something the Human Race could accomplish?
She also noticed a detail: while she was performing her sword technique to create her image, that young man even looked around, seemingly a bit impatient…
At this moment, her brain was just buzzing, many of her thoughts jumbled.
On the training ground, the mood of the other Tianji Tower disciples was much like Tang Zhixi’s. At first, they were shocked, and later, all were like having a duck egg stuffed in their mouths, gaping open-mouthed, unable to utter a word.
Such a terrifying spectacle, they hadn’t even dared to imagine.
Many Heavenly Shadow Steles, some barely revealing an image, were skipped by Li Hao, and any he stopped to observe were left with an image in just one try, and always in True State!
They didn’t dare to dream such audacious dreams even when well-fed and satisfied.
It was too exaggerated.
Was this still a human?!
As Li Hao continued to advance, soon, he entered the series of the top thirty Heavenly Shadow Steles.
Lu Chunsheng’s face was filled with shock, such an unheard-of event, in his thousands of years, he had never seen, nor dared to imagine.
But soon, he suddenly realized a serious problem and came fully awake.
Li Hao, by continuously leaving his image on so many Heavenly Shadow Steles, had pushed the techniques on them all to the level of True State.
Who will be able to continue leaving their image in the future?
Viewing the stele ten times? The True Form?
They’re likely to be cursed by everyone!
Let’s not talk about ten times, even a hundred times would be impossible.
The True Form, many people have never even heard of this level of Cultivation Technique.
Those from noble families only understand up to the Extreme Perfection, which is already considered the pinnacle of their skill.
For someone with extreme talent, the True Form would still require focused cultivation for decades to achieve.
For someone of average talents, it might take hundreds of years to achieve such a state!
“Young General, Young General!”
Lu Chunsheng watched Li Hao continue to activate the Heavenly Shadow Steles with a sense of trepidation, fearing that if Li Hao were to activate them all, the future of these steles would be doomed!
This is one of the important legacies of the Tianji Tower for a thousand years!
“Hmm?”
Li Hao was interrupted and looked towards Lu Chunsheng.
Lu Chunsheng hurriedly said, “Young General, I know your comprehension is unparalleled, but these Heavenly Shadow Steles, should we not leave some untouched?”
As he spoke, a slight embarrassment flashed across his eyes, but he was already filled with immense regret inside.
If he had known it would be like this, he would have kept playing the zither with Li Hao.
Previously, he had hoped that Li Hao would leave his image, and indeed Li Hao did.
But Li Hao left far too many!
“Leave some untouched?”
Li Hao frowned but quickly understood what the other was implying.
Seeing Li Hao frown, Lu Chunsheng quickly said, “You could try the first stele in the sequence, the one at the very top. Leave your image there, and that would be enough to prove your comprehension.”
Li Hao felt somewhat helpless; he was not doing this to prove his comprehension but to record the Cultivation Techniques.
“Alright then.”
Li Hao agreed, saying, “But I would like to activate and see these, is that okay?”
“If it’s only activation, then there’s no problem.” Lu Chunsheng, seeing that Li Hao agreed, let out a sigh of relief and quickly gave his permission.
Upon seeing this, Li Hao immediately activated the steles once more.
Suddenly, more than thirty Heavenly Shadow Steles were activated by Li Hao, and he was able to record one-third of the Cultivation Techniques.
In the end, Li Hao approached the largest stele standing at the top of the mountain.
While other steles were only two to three Zhang tall, this stele was a colossal dozen or so Zhang high, and even against the backdrop of a majestic waterfall with a tremendous presence like the Milky Way, the stele was extremely conspicuous.
Li Hao raised his hand to activate it, and an image of a figure holding a sword appeared on it.
Li Hao glanced at it and slightly raised his eyebrows. This person seemed somewhat familiar to him; it was the Sword Saint from the Sword Hut, Jian Wudao.
However, the image depicted was of his middle age.
With jet-black hair, cropped short, unlike his current flowing white locks.
But his facial features had not changed much, given that Jian Wudao today had ruddy skin and hardly any wrinkles.
“When that Jian Wudao came to challenge me back then, he had me agree to a request of his to try the Heavenly Shadow Stele. I lost and had no choice but to agree.”
Lu Chunsheng came next to Li Hao, sighing as he said, “Back then, we were all young. Although he exceeded the age limit, I still allowed it.”
“He viewed the stele seven times, altogether meditating on it for three years, and cultivated this sword technique to the Extreme Perfection level. For over a hundred years now, no one has been able to break that record.”
Li Hao’s gaze stirred slightly.
Cultivating the sword technique to the level of Extreme Perfection in three years truly demonstrated a very high level of comprehension.
No wonder he became a Sword Saint.
Moreover, the Jian Wudao of that time was not yet a Sword Saint, only in his middle age, with his sword realm far from what it is today.
“Do you wish to overwrite it? I can assist you.”
Li Hao, listening to Lu Chunsheng’s words, could vaguely sense the emotion he was trying to convey, as if there was some unresolved historical resentment.
Although he was unaware of the exact events from the past, it seemed that they were not too pleasant.
Lu Chunsheng, hearing Li Hao’s offer, was slightly taken aback:
“Are you confident? This is an ancient and incomplete sword technique, and just one-and-a-half moves already represent the pinnacle of swordsmanship!”
“Oh?”
Li Hao’s eyes lit up with interest instantly.