Chapter 519: Secret Art (I)
In the morning, golden sunlight spilled across the courtyard. A gentle breeze drifted through, swaying flowers of every color as their light, refreshing fragrance spread through the air.
Within the vast courtyard, a chilling saber edge tore through the void, slashing out terrifying saber lights that inspired dread. Each saber arc sliced through the air with a hiss, carving thin spatial cracks into the void before they vanished in an instant.
Lin Zheyu practiced the Seven Absolute Sabers at a pace that was not merely slow but agonizingly sluggish. Every slash seemed to require the full force of his body just to execute, as though millions of pounds of pressure were bearing down upon him. Yet his hand remained incomparably steady, the saber edge not deviating in the slightest. Only the dense beads of sweat covering his forehead, along with his heaving chest and heavy, ragged breathing, revealed the terrifying pressure he was enduring.
Time slowly passed. More than two hours later, the familiar sensation of spiritual ascension emerged once more. His essence, qi, and spirit instantly twisted together into a single force, condensing into a mysterious energy that elevated his soul into a strange frequency of fluctuation. Lin Zheyu frantically pushed his perception to its limit, attempting to comprehend the mysteries hidden within that unique frequency. Yet just like before, he gained nothing at all.
Lin Zheyu gasped heavily for breath, using the long saber as a cane as he finally came to a stop.
"Still nothing," Lin Zheyu murmured softly between breaths, though there was little disappointment on his face.
This was not the first time he had studied and attempted to comprehend the mysterious fluctuation frequency his soul entered during spiritual ascension. Every attempt had ended in failure. After catching his breath for a moment, Lin Zheyu tapped his storage pouch with his right hand. Five low-grade demonic spirit stones appeared in his palm. Because these spirit stones contained dense demonic qi, they were extremely cheap and especially suitable as an energy supplement when using Origin Force for enhancement.
Lin Zheyu planned to depart that afternoon and leave the Martial Realm to carry out a mission. The main reason he had waited until today was to complete this training session and obtain Origin Force.
Use 1 unit of Origin Force to cultivate the Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art—Beginner.
A thought flashed through his mind, and Lin Zheyu's consciousness instantly blurred as he entered the consciousness space and began endless cultivation.
A vast surge of mysterious energy erupted forth, sweeping up the energy within the five demonic spirit stones in his hand and pouring it into Lin Zheyu's body. The Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art was the strongest soul-cultivation secret art within the Martial Alliance, without question.
Martial cultivation differed from the Immortal Dao. Martial cultivators focused on cultivating the physical body, while Immortal Dao cultivators specialized in the soul. The soul cultivation methods of the Immortal Dao were unsuitable for martial artists. The mainstream soul secret arts that martial artists could cultivate were techniques like the Sacred Evolution Spirit Nurturing Art, which used the physical body to nourish and strengthen the soul in return.
The Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art was the same. This secret art was divided into three versions: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Rumor claimed there was an even stronger version above them all, though almost no one had ever cultivated it successfully. Only truly monstrous geniuses had any hope of mastering it. That version was known as the Ultimate Edition.
The beginner version required neither authority nor contribution points and could be purchased directly with spirit stones, though it was rather expensive. Anything above the intermediate level, however, required sufficient authority, contribution points, and rank before one even qualified to purchase it.
As an expert with power at the peak of the Divine Repository realm, Lin Zheyu was qualified to purchase the intermediate version. However, it simply was not worth it. His current authority level was low, and he held no official position. The discount he could receive on the intermediate secret art was pitifully low. Paying such an outrageous price would practically make him a fool.
The beginner secret art only cost fifty medium-grade spirit stones, but for the intermediate version, even after applying every discount Lin Zheyu qualified for with his authority level, it would still cost a full five hundred medium-grade spirit stones. That was ten times more! It simply was not worth it.
For the time being, Lin Zheyu had no intention of wasting too much Origin Force on his spiritual soul. He only consumed a single unit of Origin Force each time he recovered through enhancement, so there was no need to exchange for an excessively high-level secret art.
A few breaths later, Lin Zheyu slowly opened his eyes, a trace of delight flashing through them.
"As expected of a secret art worth fifty medium-grade spirit stones. My soul has strengthened by at least 10%!" Lin Zheyu exclaimed in surprise.
His spiritual soul had also, more or less, reached a bottleneck, and the effects of improving it through the Sacred Evolution Spirit Nurturing Art had become negligible. Part of the reason was that, without including the enhancement from the golden runes and the golden body dharma form, Lin Zheyu's base physique had not improved significantly for quite some time.
Another reason was that the Sacred Evolution Spirit Nurturing Art itself was simply too low-level. After all, it was merely a soul cultivation secret art designed for those below the Martial Innate realm.
The only reason Lin Zheyu had been able to continue using it until now was that his physique had continuously undergone leaps in strength and far surpassed that of ordinary martial artists. Now that he had switched to the Martial Alliance's strongest soul cultivation secret art, even if it was only the beginner version, it was still far beyond comparison with the Sacred Evolution Spirit Nurturing Art.
The first cultivation session with the Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art—Beginner produced the greatest effect. As his spiritual soul continued to strengthen, the results would gradually weaken. Still, Lin Zheyu believed that it would not be long before he could exchange for the intermediate, or even advanced, versions of the secret art.
Lin Zheyu carefully sensed the changes brought about by his soul's enhancement. His spiritual sense had become noticeably stronger, though that was secondary and not something he particularly cared about. What truly surprised him was the considerable improvement to his Perception Domain. That was the real pleasant surprise.
[Heaven Rewards the Diligent]
[Name: Lin Zheyu]
[Origin Force: 289]
[Skills: Earth Shrinking Technique (Perfection), Primordial Concealment Technique (Perfection), Seven Absolute Sabers (Second Stage: 39%), Primordial Golden Body (Second Stage: 100%), Spirit Martial Universe Secret Art—Beginner (Perfection)]
Lin Zheyu looked at the data within his consciousness. His accumulated Origin Force had already reached 289 units.
Once this mission ends, it'll be time for me to enter seclusion for a while, Lin Zheyu thought to himself.
The old man from Soaring Cloud Pavilion would need roughly a year to refine the dharma treasure. To avoid any unexpected complications, Lin Zheyu planned to cultivate in seclusion for around ten months before heading to the space-time node in the northern lands. By then, it would be about time for the opportunity involving the rule fragments to appear there.
After tidying up and confirming that everything he needed had been packed inside his storage pouch, Lin Zheyu opened the formation surrounding the courtyard and headed toward the western outskirts of Yanwu City.
There was a teleportation formation there. It belonged exclusively to the Martial Alliance, and only its members were qualified to use it. Before joining the Martial Alliance, Lin Zheyu had only been able to use the public teleportation formations to travel through mountains and forests to reach Yanwu City.
***
The thunderous sounds of battle echoed through an unnamed stretch of wild mountains and forest.
"Beat the hell out of them! And pass a message to that Xiao Yu. If he doesn't get the hell out of Yanwu City, I'll beat every Martial Alliance martial artist I see!" Woo Yixuan's arrogant voice rang through the forest.
A blood-colored aura spread around him, his powerful presence condensing into the phantom of a massive, ferocious tiger.
Recently, Woo Yixuan had been leading martial artists from the three great ancient martial families around to cause trouble for Martial Alliance martial artists everywhere. He was not an idiot. Last time, his actions stemmed mainly from his inflated pride and absolute confidence in his own strength, which was why he had acted like such a spoiled young master.
He knew he could not directly trouble Lin Zheyu within Yanwu City, so he deliberately used Lin Zheyu as an excuse to target members of the Martial Alliance instead. His goal was to make those martial artists he had beaten vent their anger onto Lin Zheyu and force him out of Yanwu City.
The matter had escalated quite severely. In just two or three days, large numbers of Martial Alliance martial artists out on training missions had been beaten by people from the three great families.
Yet neither the upper ranks of the great families nor the Martial Alliance stepped in to stop Woo Yixuan's antics. This sort of conflict was nothing new within the Martial Realm. Back when the Martial Alliance had first split off independently, the clashes had been a hundred, even a thousand times more intense than they were now.
As long as no truly vicious incidents occurred and no Shackles Realm martial artists joined the fight, the higher-ups from both sides would not interfere and simply let the younger generation make trouble as they pleased.
"Haha, I've been waiting for you bastards for ages! Brothers, move!"
Just as Woo Yixuan and his group were fighting to their hearts' content, several powerful auras suddenly erupted from different directions.
"Shit, it's an ambush!"
"Damn it, those bastards are sneaky enough to pull this kind of trick!"
The esteemed family martial artists immediately sensed danger and hurriedly pulled back, preparing to retreat.
"Trying to run? Too late! Hehe, stay right where you are. I held back for so long just so I wouldn't scare you off!"
A bald man's aura suddenly surged upward. With a grin, he stomped forward with his right foot and intercepted the opponent attempting to flee.
The Martial Alliance martial artists who had suddenly appeared all around them exploded forward with terrifying force, the sheer burst of power creating thunderous air blasts. One powerful figure after another shot forward like cannonballs, giving the esteemed family martial artists no chance whatsoever to escape.
A mocking smile appeared on Woo Yixuan's lips as he said, "Heh, did you really think I came unprepared? Move!"
With a flick of his right hand, a white bone bangle suddenly appeared in his palm. Woo Yixuan activated the bangle, and several phantom images abruptly emerged from it, enveloping the esteemed family martial artists within.
Immediately afterward, the figures of the esteemed family martial artists gradually turned illusory, before vanishing and reappearing several hundred meters away in an instant.
