[TL: Warning, information dumping incoming…]
Chapter 0004 Legacy Skill
Sky Fortune Martial House has only eighty years of history. The Seven Profound Martial House on the other hand was founded by the Grade Three Clan, Seven Profound Valley. They possess six hundred years’ worth of heritage and numerous Legacy skills!
Those who practice the Legacy skills from Sky Fortune Martial House have little hope of achieving Pulse Condensation Stage. However, the same cannot be said about the Seven Profound Martial House’s Legacy skills. As long as one has a Grade Four Martial Talent, breaking through into the Pulse Condensation Stage using Seven Profound Martial House’s manuals is not difficult at all!
As for Lin Ming, he has not even a decent training manual. All he had was a ‘Beginners’ Martial Arts’ manual. Every day, he would train by punching tree trunks and debone animals. This was Lin Ming’s martial way!
For the past few years, the only thing he could depend on was himself. He explored the aspects of martial arts himself through hard work and carved his way, step by step, until he reached the First Stage of Physical Training!
For him, legacies were an important existence!
Lin Ming was incomparably excited and he voraciously sorted out the knowledge regarding this Legacy skill. Not long after, this ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ surprised him yet again!
‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ is a pinnacle level Physical Training Manual from the Divine Domain. However, even though it is of the pinnacle level, it is only about Physical Training and thus was not that valuable within the Divine Domain. The reason Lin Ming became surprised was because he had finally understood what the Divine Domain is.
The Divine Domain is a higher realm that possesses hundreds of millions of years’ worth of Legacies. Physical training, martial arts, swordsmanship techniques, technical skills, arrays, all of it have been developed and honed to the extreme. It is a world reserved for the strongest of the Martial Way! Their abilities and might are not something that the current Lin Ming could hope to imagine!
Thus, this ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ is simply invaluable! Additionally, there are even more soul fragments stored within the Magic Cube. Once his strength had reached the sufficient level, he would be able to incorporate even more of them!
Considering all of this, Lin Ming’s heart was incredibly excited.
Presently, what Lin Ming fear most would be for the skill manual to be incomplete. After all the soul fragment that he had absorbed was only a small speck. It would be an absolute pity if that was the case. Thankfully, as he continued incorporating the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’, he saw that it was intact. Everything from Strength Training, Flesh Training, Viscera Training, Altering Muscle, Bone Forging and Pulse Condensation were there.
This fact was surprising enough for Lin Ming. In Sky Spill Continent, Physical Training Manuals were generally for one stage only. For example, the ‘Genuine Altering Muscle Channels’ manual is specifically meant for the Altering Muscle Stage, the ‘Golden Bone Forging Divine Formula’ manual for Bone Forging Stage, the ‘Divine Nine Pulse Skill’ manual for the Pulse Condensation Stage and so on. However, this ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ is capable of propelling one from the Strength Training Stage to the Pulse Condensation Stage. But what Lin Ming found after this shocked him even more.
Within Sky Spill Continent, Pulse Condensation marks the end of the Physical Training Stage. After which, one will step upon the Primal Assemblage Stage. The Primal Assemblage Stage is divided into Post-Celestial Stage and Pre-Celestial Stage. For most people, Pulse Condensation is a bottleneck, which they could not break through. These people would be forever stuck in the Bone Forging Stage.
Pulse Condensation is the limit for the veins within the human body. That is a commonly accepted knowledge. However, according to the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’, there exists another stage beyond Pulse Condensation – Tempering Marrow!
Above the Tempering Marrow Stage, there are actually others! Eight Gates of Hidden Celestial Stems! Using the Eight Trigrams to correspond with the movement of the Nine Celestial Bodies, one could open up eight gates within their bodies. Nine Variant Dao Palace! With it, one could break through the limits of the body and reach an even higher level of strength! [1]
Regardless of Tempering Marrow or the Eight Gates, neither one of them would affect a martial artist when entering the Post-Celestial or Pre-Celestial Stage. This gives one a far higher degree of martial achievement compared to others. The benefits are self-evident!
Realizing this, Lin Ming was rendered speechless from shock. This ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ is a timeless treasure!
Lin Ming was fervently excited to start practicing. However, before he began, he checked his pocket within his bosom for the Magic Cube. To his surprise, the cube had disappeared!
Lin Ming became fearful and cold sweat started coming out of him. His hand probed around and felt something strange on his chest. He took off his clothes and found a strange symbol on the skin of his left chest. The symbol is exactly the same as the mysterious symbol of the surface of the Magic Cube.
The Magic Cube entered my body? Lin Ming recalled that the holy woman had summoned out the Magic Cube from her palm. It was no wonder that she could do that. However, Lin Ming had no clue as to how to summon it.
Lin Ming tried to summon the Magic Cube, but to no avail. Lin Ming felt somewhat disappointed. After all, there were so many soul fragments within the Magic Cube. Back then, he had only touched the smallest and dimmest of fragment and had such a great harvest. If he could incorporate more of those soul fragments, then the amount of treasure that he could unlock would be simply unimaginable.
Thinking about that, Lin Ming suddenly gave a self-deprecating smile. He was being ignorant. If the smallest ownerless soul fragment had nearly swallowed his consciousness, then the bigger ones would likely be able to instantly exterminate him! Stop dreaming, Lin Ming!
It appeared that the secrets of the Magic Cube and the knowledge within the soul fragments would have to be left for when his cultivation had reached an even higher level. What he needed to do right now was to practice the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ as soon as possible.
Lin Ming stopped trying to summon the Magic Cube and began to explore the Legacy skill from the Divine Domain.
The essence of ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ is to transform the body into a divine weapon with amazing strength.
Additionally, the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ also emphasizes on techniques that utilizes strength. Its first layer of Strength Training is already far different from the norm.
Normally, once a person is capable of a force of a thousand jin (604 kg), that person would have achieved minor comprehension and could smash an Iron Tree with a punch. The Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians however, requires not only the training of strength, but also the training of precision, the control over the amount of strength used. Once major comprehension is achieved, one would be able to use their palm to turn a tree trunk into fine fibres!
Reading this part gave birth to a great sense of longing within Lin Ming. There was no doubt that training this ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ would make him far stronger than the average master!
…
Three days later
At the foot of Great Mountain Zhou, with the full moon suspended in the skies, Lin Ming stood upon a plain of grass with his eyes closed. He breathed following a specific rhythm, standing there for who knew how long. His entire being was still like a sculpture, illuminated by the moonlight.
He was practising the ‘True Primal Chaos Formula’, a special method of circulating true primal energies derived from the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ manual. This formula is much better at utilizing the true primal energies to temper the body and forge the bones. Once major comprehension of this formula is attained, the resulting strength and durability would be greatly improved to a level surpassing those of the same realm!
Under the night’s blowing winds, numerous fine grasses came together to form undulating waves which danced about. Lin Ming’s breathing seemed to be in accordance with these undulating waves, as though he had become one with the surrounding environment.
A drop of dew rolled upon a leaf just above Lin Ming’s head. Condensing quietly, it eventually dropped down.
Lin Ming who was originally motionless suddenly opened his eyes. He stretched out his right hand, allowing the drop of dew to fall upon his fingertip. The drop of dew rolled down the finger onto his palms. Grasping the drop of dew, Lin Ming’s right hand suddenly formed a fist, his shoulder and thigh moved to position, and he threw out a punch.
“Boom!”
With a muffled bang, the thick tree trunk before Lin Ming was shaken, traces of a fist appearing amidst the swirling tree dust!
Lin Ming exhaled and let go of his fist, allowing the drop of dew to drop down. With a “pa da” sound, it fell upon the grass and was scattered.
A smile emerged on Lin Ming’s face.
When ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ reaches a state of perfection, then the drop of dew would have shot out together without being splintered [2]. Although his current state of comprehension has yet to reach that far, he had still made some success.
In addition, the earlier punch had left a fist mark of roughly half a foot in depth upon the Iron Tree. Three days ago, his punch could at best only leave half an inch. His current achievement was all due to the ‘True Primal Chaos Formula’.
In these three days, Lin Ming had been practicing this ‘True Primal Chaos Formula’ non-stop and had finally succeeded in reaching the beginning stage. Truthfully, Lin Ming was only able to train so well thanks to the memories of the senior [3]. The senior’s experience and comprehension had greatly benefited Lin Ming’s training. Even the circulating method of the skill had been deeply ingrained into the senior’s soul. All Lin Ming needed to do was use his body to recollect them.
Due to how crazy his training schedule was, Lin Ming’s consumption rate of medicinal herbs was also much faster. He had used up three slices of the Blood Ginseng. At this rate, the Blood Ginseng would be used up within less than half a month’s time.
He now has the solution to training manuals, but still faced the problem of insufficient medicinal herbs…
Thus, two days went by and Lin Ming’s strength kept growing. The current Lin Ming was able to debone Level One Ferocious Beasts effortlessly. For him, even dismembering five Level Two Ferocious Beasts was considered easy.
…
One morning, Lin Xiaodong came to the Grand Clarity Pavilion to find Lin Ming. Lin Ming had earlier informed Lin Xiaodong that he was working in the Grand Clarity Pavilion, although he omitted telling him the reason behind it.
“The Annual Martial Arts Fair?” Lin Ming felt shocked, hearing Lin Xiaodong’s proposal to go there.
“That is right, many martial arts masters and nobles will be there. As for the items that will appear there, there are no rare items, only extremely rare items!”
Lin Ming shrugged and replied. “How could we afford those items? As of now, I only have less than twenty gold liangs on me.”
“So what if we cannot buy it? We can just go look around. Just take this as an act of gaining experience. Besides, we will be entering the martial house soon. We must at least buy a good weapon before that. Even if I cannot afford the high grade weapons, I should be able to get our hands on some middle grade weapons.”
Not wanting to disappoint Lin Xiaodong, Lin Ming chose to go out with him. After all, it would be a beneficial experience.
As they were headed there, Lin Xiaodong kept talking non-stop about the fair. He was very familiar with the details of the fair, its distance from the Seven Profound Martial House, the areas that are considered sub urban and so on. As they were walking down an alley way, Lin Ming suddenly stopped and placed his hand on Lin Xiaodong’s shoulders.
“What is wrong, Brother Ming?” Lin Xiaodong asked.
“Someone is blocking the way,” Lin Ming touched his waist where his boning knife was strapped onto. Thanks to his training of the ‘True Primal Chaos Formula’, Lin Ming’s perception abilities have greatly increased.
He could guess who it was. A few days ago, he had beaten the man with monkey like ears. Now, the man’s master has decided to show himself. This moment was something that Lin Ming had been preparing for.
Author’s note: Eight Gates of Hidden Celestial Stems originates from Chinese traditional culture. It is not unique to mangas.
[1 I tried translating them the best I could but, they could be subject to changes if the author describes it in more detail in the future… ]
[2 This part is a bit confusing.]
[3 The owner of the soul fragment that Lin Ming absorbed. That poor sod.]