New Body Talent

That night, Lin Tianyang did not feel at ease letting Fang Ling return to his own room to stay alone.

Instead, he brought Fang Ling to the two-story house he shared with Shimu and had him stay in the guest room.

That way, if anything felt wrong during the night, they would be able to hear him call out.

The thoughtful arrangement moved Fang Ling so much that he nearly cried.

They truly were wonderful teachers, a wonderful Shimu.

Lying in bed beneath the covers, he felt immensely fortunate to have met the two of them.

Coming to study at War King Academy had been the best decision he had ever made, without question.

Wiping away the tears at the corners of his eyes, he could not help feeling emotional again.

Today had truly been perilous. If he had not endured the searing pain of his lung being cut open, found his opponent's opening, and landed that kick, he would have been dead for sure.

Having paid such a tremendous price, aside from gaining one point and sensing that his Scythe Technique was on the verge of a breakthrough, he had also gained something even more astonishing—

Warrior's Will Lv1 (Body Talent: A tenacious fighting will forged through fierce Life and Death Battles. It allows you to temporarily ignore the effects of pain on your body. Will has power; the flow speed of your Soul Power within your body passively increases by 5%.)

This was a new talent. Judging from the description, it had two effects.

The first was to ignore the effects of pain on the body.

For someone whose only means of combat was close-quarters fighting, this was an extremely important ability.

Ignoring pain did not mean having no sense of pain.

Pain was an important self-protection mechanism of the human body. People could not live without it.

But in battle, it would be terrible if pain caused a brief lapse that made him miss an attack opportunity, or if unbearable pain put him at a disadvantage.

Even Fang Ling, who considered his willpower firm, had been unable to perfectly avoid the effects of pain before this talent appeared.

Minor pain was manageable.

But something like being pierced through the chest by a sword, or ruthlessly cutting open his own lung—that relied entirely on adrenaline doing its job!

This time was one thing. Heaven helped those who helped themselves, and his efforts had finally brought some return.

But if he gambled like that several more times and kept fighting desperately, he would be an idiot.

The talent's second effect was that his tenacious will made his Soul Power flow faster.

Though it was not much, only five percent, it was still a very gratifying improvement.

A faster flow rate meant two things.

It enhanced the speed of meditation cultivation, but more importantly, it allowed Soul Power to circulate through the Meridians faster.

The former did not matter much, since he did not rely on meditation for cultivation anyway.

The latter was extremely important and provided an enormous boost in battle.

Fast Nerve Reflexes only meant his body reacted faster. Combat did not come solely from physical reactions, but also from his unconventional combat thinking.

And that was only one aspect of close-quarters combat.

He was a Spirit Master. Although he was developing toward close combat, Spirit Skills accounted for a major part of his strength.

The release of Spirit Skills depended on his thoughts, but also on the speed at which Soul Power moved through his body.

A faster Soul Power flow meant Spirit Skills could be activated faster, perhaps even cast instantly!

Extreme Nerve Reflexes, naturally sharp combat thinking, and crucial instant-cast Spirit Skills.

With all three combined, speed, precision, and ruthlessness would be maxed out.

If he could get a Teleportation Spirit Ability as well, he would become the strongest agility-type warrior, invincible in battle.

That was the direction he had planned for his development.

Originally, one piece had been missing.

His slowly flowing Soul Power did not match his incredibly fast reactions. It was like the short stave of a barrel.

Others might not notice the gap, but Fang Ling could. Even if activating Spirit Skills or summoning his Martial Soul already seemed fast to others, it still did not feel smooth enough.

Other than endlessly meditating and trying, he had found no way to make up for it.

Now, through a fortunate coincidence, that weakness had been filled. It was truly something worth celebrating.

Warrior's Will Lv1 was called a Body Talent, yet it placed greater emphasis on the power of mental will.

It felt as though calling it a Spiritual Expertise would have been more fitting.

If that guess was correct, then the "body" in Body Talent did not refer solely to the physical body. It could likely be divided into two smaller categories—physical and spiritual.

Clearly, Reflex Lv2 and Digestion Lv2 were physical talents, while Warrior's Will Lv1 was a Spiritual Expertise.

As for spiritual power cultivation, aside from Tang San's Purple Demon Eyes, Douluo Continent had almost no other cultivation methods.

Judging by Tang San's original cultivation path, spiritual power was extremely important.

And ten thousand years later, there was Huo Yuhao, a Spirit Master who specialized in spiritual power.

That inevitably made Fang Ling think further.

When searching for soul beasts in the future, after gaining enough combat strength, perhaps he could also take soul beasts skilled in spiritual power into consideration?

He would plan it out later.

His body was far too weak to support any more thought.

A wave of drowsiness washed over Fang Ling. He closed his eyes and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Seven days later.

Fang Ling forced down a pot of medicinal soup brewed from who knew what Medicinal Herbs and soul beast tissues, suppressing his nausea all the while.

This was a nourishing medicinal soup carefully prepared by Shimu.

Shimu was gentle and virtuous, and highly capable as well. Brewing such things was naturally no challenge for her.

But the medicinal soup was not free. He had to pay for it.

There was no labor charge, only the cost of materials, but each pot still cost fifty Gold Soul Coins.

Seven pots in seven days, one each day, cost him a full three hundred and fifty.

Fortunately, he had fought more than ten Life and Death Battles in a row, and the battle with Xu Chi alone had earned him a thousand. Otherwise, he could not have afforded to drink it.

Expensive medicine truly had different effects. The results were immediate.

With Digestion Lv2 boosting his absorption efficiency, the Medicinal Power was absorbed at an incredible speed.

He recovered just as quickly.

After being healed by a Healing Spirit Master, injuries this severe had taken barely seven days to recover by more than half.

His complexion was no longer as pale as before, the bluish-purple tint on his lips had faded, and strength had returned to his muscles.

Fang Ling wanted to try training, but he was not given permission. He could only engage in low-intensity activity.

So he simply relaxed and, with his teacher's help, reviewed that battle.

He learned a great deal from it.

His teacher helped him request leave, so he was not attending class for the time being. Instead, he studied more theoretical and technical aspects of combat.

The feeling that his Scythe Technique was about to break through grew stronger, yet it still did not ultimately change.

Thinking back to his previous breakthroughs, he should need practical experience.

His body needed to be able to use it naturally before the corresponding change could happen.

Otherwise, it would be far too terrifying if merely thinking about it could trigger a breakthrough.

That would be too absurd. The Stats Panel would not acknowledge it.

Just as he had said before, his cultivation level reached the Fifteenth Level on schedule.

He had not spent much time meditating before quietly breaking through—adding points—to that level amid his teacher's astonished exclamations.

The Soul Power entry became: 15 (38%).

His points were completely exhausted again.

In two and a half months at War King Academy, he had spent the first month practicing Scythe Technique and Body Technique. Then, over the next month and a half, he had raised three levels, leaping from the Twelfth Level straight to the Fifteenth Level. This speed was simply outrageous.

His Martial Soul had also been raised to Lv2, changing from the description of Agricultural Scythe to Enhanced Agricultural Scythe.

Its hardness and sharpness had both improved slightly.

Because it had evolved once, the rules seemed to have changed. From the Stats Panel, Fang Ling learned that his Martial Soul's next evolution required twenty points.

That was not much—merely twenty One-Ring Spirit Masters.

Raising his cultivation from the Fifteenth Level to the Twentieth Level would require at least ten points.

With his current record, one-on-one fights were somewhat difficult, and opponents were not easy to arrange.

He needed to try competing in one-against-two matches.

He could gain two points at once, making point acquisition more efficient.

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