Chapter 123 – Three Kinds of Martial Skills
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In fact, in a sense, an inscription master was also one kind of array master. An inscription symbol could be called an array formation, except that the inscription symbol was on a much smaller scale and the total amount of true essence needed was also correspondingly low. However, for a large-scale array formation, one needed to be at least a Houtian stage master in order to begin studying it.
Lin Ming took a cursory glance at these array formations in his mind; it seemed that not even a Xiantian master would have any hope in arranging these.
“If I want to learn array formations, I don’t know in what year or what month I’ll be able to do so…” Lin Ming shook his head and completely sealed up all the memories. In the space of the Magic Cube, there were tens of thousands of souls; it was simply impossible to always choose one that was useful. It all came down to his own luck.
After he placed away the array-related memories for the time being, Lin Ming endured further headaches and continued to read the memories of the soul fragment.
“’True Solar Fire Law’, it requires godly strength to practice, and it is also incomplete, useless…
“’Collapsing Moon Sinking Star’, this is a top-tier martial skill, but my cultivation is far from being able to use it, useless…
“’Valiant Dragon’s Roar’, this is also a top-tier martial skill, but I still can’t learn it…”
Lin Ming kept searching. The soul fragment’s memories were very rich; however, there were very few things that were useful. The majority of cultivation methods and martial skills required a very high level of cultivation or power in order to begin practicing them.
“These are… mm? Woman, feelings, sects, conspiracies… these are the life memories of a great person within the Realm of the Gods. But these things are also useless.” Lin Ming had sealed away the memories of the array formations. As for these life memories of the Realm of the Gods, Lin Ming simply discarded them all.
“Well… this is…” Lin Ming’s heart jumped, and his spirit immediately rose and the headache he was feeling calmed down a little. “Heretical God Force?”
“Is this a martial skill? Cultivation method?” Lin Ming sunk his mind into this memory, and to his surprise, the ‘Heretical God Force’ memory was fairly complete. Most importantly, if he wanted to cultivate the ‘Heretical God Force’, it did not have any mandatory requirement for cultivation; even someone at the Body Transformation stage would be able to practice it.
The secret legacy manuals of the Sky Spill Continent, were divided into three different kinds.
The first kind was a cultivation method manual. This was used for martial artists to accumulate true essence and enhance their cultivation. The cultivation method manual was the foundation of all, and was also the rarest of all the secret manuals. A sect didn’t need to have good martial skills, but they must have a good cultivation method manual.
The second kind were martial skills. Different martial skills would utilize the true essence and strength of human body in various ways in order to attack an enemy.
The third kind were movement skills. These movement skills were similarly a utilization method to coordinate true essence with the strength of the human body, and thus enhance one’s speed.
But Lin Ming saw that this ‘Heretical God Force’ actually didn’t fit any of those three categories.
Using ‘Heretical God Force’s’ mystical ability, it was possible to greatly enhance one’s strength for a short time, and true essence would also increase. ‘Heretical God Force’ was not a cultivation method, but it also wasn’t a martial skill or movement ability; it was actually able to make a martial artist’s martial skills stronger, and their movement abilities quicker.
“In that elder’s memories of the Realm of the Gods, this ‘Heretical God Force’ was one of the rare auxiliary secret techniques. In all of those secret techniques, this ‘Heretical God Force’ is one of the most precious!”
Lin Ming was pleasantly surprised. Although most of the memories weren’t useful, but if there was actually one that was incomparably precious, then it was worth it!
Lin Ming continued to examine the ‘Heretical God Force’. This secret technique was divided into six different stages. The first stage was able to enhance a human’s strength and true essence by 50%, and the second stage could enhance one’s abilities by 100%, the third 150%, and so on, until the final sixth stage, which could enhance one’s original strength and true essence force by three times.
Of course, three times the strength and true essence force also corresponded to three times the consumption rate of strength and true essence. But to Lin Ming, this wasn’t an overly major problem. With the ‘True Primal Chaos Formula’ and a solid foundation of basic skills, his endurance had always been extraordinary.
“Although this ‘Heretical God Force’ is not a martial skill, in terms of its actual combat efficiency, it is much stronger than any martial skill. Even if I can only cultivate it to the first stage, I can increase my strength and true essence force by 50%. If I used my ‘Foundation Spear Technique’ with this, and also coordinated my momentum, then if I met Zhu Yan again I would easily be able to defeat him!”
“And what is most abnormal is that this ‘Heretical God Force’ does not conflict with martial skills. If I opened this ‘Heretical God Force’ state, then I would still be able to use a martial skill, and the martial skill’s power would be increased!”
“Solely with this ‘Heretical God Force’, there was value in me choosing this soul fragment.” Excited, Lin Ming began to sift through the rest of the memories, even though there weren’t many left. Although there were still many cultivation methods and martial skills left, there weren’t any that were complete or that were suitable for a martial artist at the Body Transformation stage. Lin Ming didn’t keep his hopes up that he would find something.
But just as he was about to finish skimming through all the memories, Lin Ming’s eyes brightened. –
“Top movement ability – ‘Golden Roc Shattering the Void’.”
This movement skill originated from ancient times, when a mighty and powerful being of the Realm of the Gods happened upon a cataclysmic battle between a Golden-Winged Roc and a True Dragon. That Golden-Winged Roc had a height of several tens of thousands of miles, and its wings were like endless hanging clouds that hid the sun, moon, and stars.
That mighty and powerful being had bore witness to the entire battle between the Golden-Winged Roc and the True Dragon. Afterwards, the Golden-Winged Roc had shattered the void, and disappeared out of sight.
According to these images, that mighty one had retreated into meditation for 60 years, and finally created the movement ability known as ‘Golden Roc Shattering the Void’.
To cultivate this set of movements, one had to start from the most basic stage of Body Transformation, and go step by step until they reached the highest level. After one reached the Perfect stage of this ability, they could travel a thousand miles in the blink of an eye, and roam through the endless void as if they were taking a leisurely stroll in the yard.
To start practicing from the most basic Body Transformation stage was Lin Ming’s good tidings. At his current stage, this was exactly the right time to start practicing ‘Golden Rock Shattering the Void’.
However, it was a pity. The ‘Golden Roc Shattering the Void’ movement ability was ultimately incomplete. The ‘Golden Roc Shattering the Void’ consisted of 12 stages, but in the memories of the elder’s soul fragment, there were only 8 remaining.
Losing four sections of the stages was by no means soul crushing, as that mighty one originally didn’t have the complete manual of the ‘Golden Roc Shattering the Void’ movement ability. Otherwise, Lin Ming knew that the most precious secret skill would not be the ‘Heretical God Force’, but the ‘Golden Roc Shattering the Void’.
But still, Lin Ming did not feel any regret. Although it was incomplete, that wouldn’t affect Lin Ming at the moment. Because his cultivation was too far off to even think about practicing those later stages, he would only need to wait until he reached that realm before looking again.
After he obtained the ‘Golden Roc Shattering the Void’, Lin Ming kept looking through the few remaining memories. Lin Ming didn’t think that he would find anything of value, but to his surprise there was actually a minor martial skill that he was able to practice.
This martial skill was called the ‘Pulse Cutting Palm’. It did not require an extremely high cultivation, and it was also quite simple and easy to learn, but the corresponding power was not that high.
‘Pulse Cutting Palm’ would only be used when an opponent had consumed most of their true essence, and their strength was severely weakened. This was because in order to display the function of the ‘Pulse Cutting Palm’, one had to use a certain concealed energy to infiltrate true essence into an opponent’s body using a special method. If the opponent’s total remaining amount of true essence in their body was more than what was sent into their body, then that true essence would be consumed by the opponent.
Just on this attribute alone, the ‘Pulse Cutting Palm’ was far too tasteless. It could only be used to deal with a far weaker opponent, or someone that had already consumed too much of their strength and had lost the power to resist their enemy.
But, it stood to reason that in order for that mighty elder to retain such a weak and cowardly martial skill, the ‘Pulse Cutting Palm’ had to have a certain special function.
This function was that the infiltrating true essence could cut off an enemy’s meridians and dry up their acupuncture points. This kind of destructive damage was virtually irreparable. The only possible method was using certain special and exceedingly rare materials that were in the memories of the mighty elder. But these valuable materials were only found within the Realm of the Gods.
After a martial artist reached the Bone Forging stage, they would begin to open up the meridians. Once all of the meridians were opened, they would be connected to the pores of their body, and true essence would be able to access the meridians and flow through them unimpeded. This was the Pulse Condensation Period.
However, if one’s meridians were severed, then it was impossible to step into the Pulse Condensation Period for one’s entire life. Not only that, but their cultivation would gradually reverse, becoming worse with each day, until it was completely lost.
Even a man’s virility was closely related to their meridians and acupuncture points. For instance, conditions such as impotency were closely related to the meridians that passed near the kidney.
If these meridians and body points were ruined, then it would greatly affect a man’s virility, and they might even become sterile as a result.
Even martial artists above the Pulse Condensation Period, whose bodies’ meridians had been completely connected, would not be spared from the power of the ‘Pulse Cutting Palm’. Their cultivation would fall below the Pulse Condensation Period, and suffer the same fate as anyone else.
This ‘Pulse Cutting Palm’ could only be described as extremely insidious and ruthless.
Without a doubt, the special aim of this martial skill was to maliciously harm others, because when dealing with an enemy that had already lost all their strength to resist, killing them would be simple. But in using this ‘Pulse Cutting Palm’, it would utterly destroy their martial arts. And what was even more ruthless was that it would cause a man to lose all of their functions as a man; it was simply better to die than live in this pathetic state.
“This ‘Pulse Cutting Palm’ is damaging enough. Although it cannot increase strength, it is an incomparably ruthless and sinister move to deal with others. Not only will it sever a person’s meridians, it will also sever all their future descendants. To cause a martial artist to lose all their cultivation and their manhood; it is worse than killing them. If I have the time then I’ll study this. It will be useful for dealing with some enemies that I can’t publicly go against; it will be much safer in the future if I ruin their martial arts. But for now, I don’t have much time, so I’ll put this on hold.
Lin Ming completely sealed all the memories that he didn’t need, and discarded all of the unnecessary life memories. After filtering everything, there was only the ‘Heretical God Force’, ‘Golden Roc Shattering the Void’, and the ‘Pulse Cutting Palm’.
The special technique and movement ability were incomparably precious. As for the ‘Pulse Cutting Palm’, although it couldn’t be considered so amazingly precious, it did have its own special role.
“Now there are only four months before Zhang Guanyu and I will fight each other. I was originally only going to draw the body inscription symbol and place it on my body, and continue perceiving the ‘Flow like Silk’ state through meditation. With the enhanced true essence gathering of the body inscription symbol and the help of my ethereal martial intent for cultivating, I should be able to break through to the Altering Muscle stage before the battle.”
“But now I also have to practice the ‘Golden Roc Shattering the Void’, and the ‘Heretical God Force’. Although this secret technique and movement ability are formidable, If I do not adequately practice them, then they will not enhance my cultivation and only be a waste of time.”
“Only four months left; my time is too tight!”
“Break into the Ten Thousand Killing Array’s top ten in 3 months, defeat Zhang Guanyu in 4 months, defeat Ta Ku in 5 months, and defeat Ling Sen in 6 months! Of these four tasks, entering into the top ten ranks of the Ten Thousand Killing Array is the simplest. As long as I can rush through to the top ten of the Ten Thousand Killing Array, the Seven Profound Martial House will award me a medium-grade human-step long spear treasure, the Heavy Profound Soft Spear.
“This is a medium-grade human-step treasure, and it is also the rarely seen elastic spear. If I have it, then my combat prowess will rise much higher, and my chances of defeating Zhang Guanyu will be that much better!”
Although Lin Ming currently had the Penetrating Rainbow spear on hand, it was still a half treasure after all. When concentrating his true essence into it, there was no smooth feeling.