“Realm—
Refining Essence to Qi, Alchemy: 62%
Cultivation Technique—
Inner Core Skill (Refining Essence to Qi): Breakthrough +4 (50%)
Ba Duan Jin: Breakthrough +4 (67%)—Blood Qi like Dragon: 2%
Five Elements Fist: Breakthrough +3 (70%)—Five Internal Organs Containing God Newly Emerged: 36%
Yijin Scripture: Breakthrough +3 (55%)—True Body: 38%
Life—
Herb Recognition: Breakthrough +3 (68%) Planting Skill: Breakthrough +5 (70%)
Forging: 9 (98%) Mechanical Techniques: 8 (95%)
Hidden Star Skill: 4 (12%) Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill Making: Breakthrough +4 (8%)
Reading: 6 (58%) Golden Sore Medicine Making: 6 (26%)
Martial Skills—
Eight Extremes Fist: Breakthrough +3 (38%) Plum Flower Step: Breakthrough +3 (29%)
Six Harmonies Spear: Breakthrough +3 (25%) Qiankun: 8 (10%)
Sword Flight: 6 (25%) Ritual Refining: 7 (16%) God-slaying Sword: 1 (25%)”
(Complete skill list)
The greatest progress is in “Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill Making,” successfully achieving Breakthrough four times from three times.
However, the effect did not undergo a qualitative change, similar to other skills that had broken through three times, which merely intensify the original effects; a fourth Breakthrough was not the time for a third qualitative change.
Most of the other skill enhancements were regular, mainly because he had been lax in many skills due to refining flying swords recently, practicing martial skills slightly just to maintain the feel, which resulted in minimal overall progress in the progress bar.
Then there were a few new skills, all of which required accumulation, so significant enhancements in a short time were unlikely.
Next came the most important realm.
“Refining Essence to Qi, Alchemy” is a grueling process, taking a long time.
About this, Wang Sheng had anticipated early on.
Though a long time passed, the progression had finally surpassed halfway.
Only over thirty percent left to complete the alchemy process.
What was initially just a flicker of “medicine” under the state of internal observation, had become increasingly radiant.
Countless divine thoughts combined with the power of Qi Blood surged into this spirited flicker, continuously refining and sublimating it, a flying sword emitting a faint blue light hovered nearby, intensified by the ritual of the two forces.
With the prior emergence of True Body and Five Internal Organs Containing God.
The flicker’s glow grew even stronger.
The flicker would eventually become an unmatched great medicine, True Body, and Five Internal Organs Containing God could elevate the “great medicine’s” quality, making it more robust.
This great medicine could replace the Golden Core; following only the Inner Core Skill pathway would result in the most ordinary Golden Core, but with the True Body and Five Internal Organs Containing God, it would transform into the so-called Nine-Transformation Golden Pill.
Of course, great medicine and Golden Core were not equivalent; great medicine was more profound, more than a simple combination of powers.
But to draw a comparison, it would suffice.
True Body and Five Internal Organs Containing God made Wang Sheng’s great medicine extremely potent; once completed, it would possess terrifying power.
Yet, now he needed to navigate the final thirty-something percent of the path.
His current strength had already surpassed an ordinary Great Grandmaster; what level his strength would reach once the great medicine was formed, even Wang Sheng could not predict.
“Could it reach the strength of a Master of Destiny?”
Honestly, Wang Sheng had no confidence inside.
Imperial City and Shuzhou were thousands of kilometers apart, and somehow the Human Emperor’s Decree had managed to travel all the way from Imperial City.
He was far from achieving such power.
It could be someone carried the Human Emperor’s Decree to Shuzhou and then released it.
But another example was the Jade Scroll of the Valley Master of Stargazing Valley, who died in Tai Mountain near Imperial City, and yet the jade scroll was delivered back exactly.
Honestly, even if alchemy were completed, moving to the final step of Refining Essence to Qi to formulate the great medicine, Wang Sheng still lacked the confidence for such feats.
That level of power was beyond imagination.
Regardless of his ability to accomplish those feats, these were tasks that needed to be undertaken.
Only by truly reaching that realm would one understand its formidable nature.
Moreover, he wasn’t particularly clear how the Valley Master of Stargazing Valley achieved it, but he had some guesses as to why the Master of Destiny could.
He even suspected that after the Valley Master peered into a higher level, he still couldn’t produce something like the Human Emperor’s Decree.
The two were fundamentally not of the same system.
“Indeed, one must never underestimate any system!”
Ever since Yue reminded him last time, Wang Sheng had been paying attention to the world’s Cultivation methods.
He knew he must never underestimate them.
He also felt fortunate; he had stumbled onto a path that combined Inner Core Skill with the world’s method of cultivation, reaping mostly benefits so far.
“Keep cultivating then!”
There was a saying Wang Sheng always believed in.
How does one resolve worries? Only with strength!
Cultivation is the ultimate way.
But since the matter of refining the flying sword was resolved, he could return his time to the original state.
That is, he had time to enhance his martial skills.
Especially the martial skill “Unlimited Qiankun.”
Ever since he had learned that “Unlimited Qiankun” was based on fundamental space manipulation, he had taken it very seriously.
Now, Unlimited Qiankun had reached level 8.
Initially, the external manifestation of Unlimited Qiankun was merely a space-binding skill.
Before a Breakthrough occurred, it remained just a space-binding skill, and it wasn’t very effective against opponents of the same level, somewhat underwhelming.
However, after learning more, Wang Sheng became even more focused on it, constantly studying the space knowledge he gained from three Breakthroughs of Plum Flower Step.
Thus, he also gained a deeper understanding of space.
He knew that if he didn’t thoroughly study Unlimited Qiankun, then after the Breakthrough, Unlimited Qiankun would escape its original framework and revert to its essence.
But if he could thoroughly research Unlimited Qiankun and remove the limitations of it merely being a space-binding skill, then Unlimited Qiankun would immediately become a skill of one Breakthrough.
The results in both cases would be the same, and the gains wouldn’t differ much.
A progress indicator doesn’t just let you use a skill; it helps you gradually understand the principles behind it.
So there was no difference from his own comprehension.
But his own insight breaking through did have one advantage, saving time.
Because the growth of his progress indicator and his own comprehension didn’t conflict.
“If I were to cultivate Unlimited Qiankun step by step, it would take about a month to achieve a Breakthrough, but if I could have a sudden insight, it might only take a day.”
Wang Sheng didn’t mean anything else; he just wanted to see if he could understand Unlimited Qiankun and break its original framework before the progress indicator.
“Getting fired up, huh!”
Unfortunately, being fired up sometimes didn’t help at all; studying spatial knowledge was harder than he had anticipated.
Wang Sheng had overestimated himself.
He had cultivated for just a few years, and that too with the help of the progress indicator.
Unlimited Qiankun was the first and only space-based martial skill he had encountered, and his only understanding of space had come from three Breakthroughs of Plum Flower Step.
Under these circumstances, how could he possibly thoroughly study, integrate, and simultaneously break the original framework of “Unlimited Qiankun” within a month by himself?
Ultimately, he still relied on the help of the progress indicator to successfully achieve a Breakthrough of “Unlimited Qiankun” after one month.
“Unlimited Qiankun: Breakthrough +1 (1%)”
The progress indicator, the eternal god!
Wang Sheng could only lament; he was still too green.
But after such thoughts, Wang Sheng dedicated his time to deep research.
Whether it was refining or Unlimited Qiankun, both proved the importance of knowledge.
If you’re an academic slacker with no cheat, you don’t deserve to cultivate.
Luckily, he was one with a cheat.
But having a cheat didn’t mean he did nothing, so Wang Sheng was very interested in studying how to utilize Unlimited Qiankun in his cultivation.
After the Breakthrough, Unlimited Qiankun had given Wang Sheng much more knowledge about space.
Among them, space-binding foundational knowledge was the most abundant; Wang Sheng was not particularly surprised since Unlimited Qiankun was essentially a space-binding skill.
He had expected this aspect of post-Breakthrough to lean in this direction.
And his knowledge in this area was also the most complete.
Wang Sheng didn’t aim too high; he didn’t start exploring other uses of space but reviewed the space-binding knowledge in his mind.
With the presence of the progress indicator, his control over this knowledge was nearly perfect.
Wang Sheng wanted to attempt a completely new application of this knowledge-based skill.
Now, “Unlimited Qiankun” was no longer the “Unlimited Qiankun” of before; the relation between the two was that “the current Unlimited Qiankun” encompassed “the former Unlimited Qiankun,” with the space-binding effect becoming just one branch.
The space-binding effect remained, but to Wang Sheng, it seemed “full of loopholes.”
“Unlimited Qiankun” was considered underwhelming for a reason.
For combat at the same level, Unlimited Qiankun hardly made a significant impact.
Thus, Wang Sheng planned to modify the content of Unlimited Qiankun regarding space-binding to make its effect much more powerful.
Originally, this would have been impossible, but with the acquired knowledge, it was not an unreachable goal if he put some thought into it.
So, Wang Sheng spent about a week creating a completely different martial skill from the original “Unlimited Qiankun.”
However, Wang Sheng also renamed it.
Space Binding!
This was a derived ability of Unlimited Qiankun, distinct from the original, and Space Binding had only the effect of space binding, not the original basic space knowledge.
As a specialization of space binding, the binding effect of Space Binding was much stronger than that of the original Unlimited Qiankun.
The original Unlimited Qiankun might be underwhelming for most people, only those with an extremely exceptional talent for space could realize its value.
The potential of Space Binding might be lower, but its effect would definitely be much more powerful for the absolute majority of martial artists.
Because not everyone could delve into deeper research, for them, the best thing was something that could be directly utilised and made effective.
Wang Sheng wrote down the cultivation methods for Space Binding.
The practice method remained as simple as the original Unlimited Qiankun.
The only challenge might be that the apparent difficulty of Space Binding could be higher than Unlimited Qiankun.
So ordinary people might not be able to cultivate it.
But Wang Sheng wanted to see the effect of Space Binding.
He was not the right candidate, because en even if he used the original space-binding effect, it would be exceedingly powerful.
In the end, he thought to himself, “Yue’s talent should be quite good, right?”
(Just two chapters left, will definitely update before 4 PM, otherwise I’ll crossdress, dammit, realized I have to push myself a bit!!)