Movement Technique Realms

"There happened to be an instructor explaining movement techniques this afternoon."

Seeing this, Li Qi tidied up and left the meditation room, returning to his dormitory to wash up and rest.

That afternoon, he arrived at a large lecture hall in the North Building.

There were quite a few students in the hall. Most had their eyes closed as they rested, while only a handful chatted quietly.

He found an empty corner and sat down. Looking around, he discovered that besides the many Apprentice Level students, there were also several Planetary Level students with powerful auras.

After quite some time, a male instructor who looked to be in his thirties stepped onto the podium.

After sweeping his gaze around the hall, he said, "Students familiar with me know that I dislike being interrupted during my lectures. If you have questions, write them down first. After the lecture ends, you may raise your hands to ask them, and I will explain as appropriate."

With that, he began his lesson. "In my view, movement technique is the most important part of combat skill. Even if your attack and defense techniques are inferior to your enemy's, as long as your movement technique far surpasses theirs, you can remain undefeated..."

After more than an hour, the male instructor on the podium stopped speaking. "That will be all for today. If anyone is interested in my lectures, you may consider purchasing my courses."

After advertising his courses, the male instructor announced, "It is now time for questions. Students with questions may raise their hands."

As soon as he finished speaking, many students raised their hands. Li Qi was among them.

"The female student in white in the third row." The male instructor pointed at a female student.

"Instructor, you said movement technique is the most important part of combat skill. Does that mean we only need to focus on cultivating movement technique, while treating attack and defense techniques as secondary?" the student in white asked.

"Heh, I feel like you came here to pick a fight. And that is not what I taught you. Don't go around saying I was your instructor in the future."

The male instructor first made a joke, then explained, "Attack, defense, and movement technique together make up a complete set of combat skills. None of the three can be absent.

"The reason I say movement technique is the most important is because it is the strongest for staying alive, especially in chaotic battles against numerous enemies!

"I presume everyone here has attempted the Trial Tower in the Admission Test. Wasn't the fifth floor of the Trial Tower extremely difficult? If your movement technique realm is not high enough, you will quickly be surrounded and killed by the demonic beasts."

The students nodded one after another. The fifth floor of the Trial Tower was indeed very difficult.

"Heh, to tell you the truth, the Trial Tower in the Admission Test has only five floors. However, to pass it, your movement technique mastery must reach the Perfect Level.

"A Perfect Level movement technique allows challengers to understand every move of the demonic beasts on the fifth floor. They can evade the beasts' attacks with the least effort, then kill them with ease.

"Of course, aside from Perfect Level movement technique, your attack and defense techniques must also reach the Subtle Level. Only then can you properly allocate your stamina and Mental Force, killing demonic beasts in an energy-efficient manner."

The male instructor said, "Now do you understand why I said movement technique is important?"

After listening to his explanation, everyone suddenly understood.

The male instructor then called on another student to ask a question.

The student stood up and asked, "Instructor, what is the Perfect Level?"

"You must be a student who joined the academy not long ago. If you want to understand the Perfect Level, you must first understand how skill levels are classified. From low to high, skills are divided into four levels: Basic, Subtle, Perfect, and Perfection."

The male instructor said, "Taking movement technique as an example, Basic Level movement technique means you have learned how to dodge, but you must observe with your eyes before reacting. This level of movement technique is difficult to use against enemies with extremely high speed.

"The Subtle Level means learning how to evade attacks through small movements. For example, when facing attacks from multiple demonic beasts in the Trial Tower, Subtle Level movement technique allows you to dodge and counterattack without disrupting your own combat rhythm.

"The Perfect Level means using everything around you to evade." At this point, the male instructor paused.

Then, he drew a circle around the students beneath the stage with his finger. "Everything here includes living things, such as enemies!

"As I said earlier, Perfect Level movement technique is the foundation for passing the fifth floor of the Admission Test's Trial Tower.

"The reason I say this is because the strength of Perfect Level movement technique lies in utilization—using everything around you to enter a combat rhythm you are familiar with."

"Before perfect utilization, a mere hundred demonic beasts are nothing worth mentioning."

"As for the Perfection Level, I do not know much about it either." The male instructor smiled and concluded the question. "Next question."

After answering two more questions, the male instructor directly announced the end of the day's lecture and turned to leave the hall.

Watching the instructor's departing back, Li Qi knew that he probably understood the Perfection Level. He simply did not want to explain it because he wanted to sell his courses.

Perfect Level movement technique truly is the foundation for passing the fifth floor of the Trial Tower. When I challenged the Trial Tower, I used Mental Force as assistance to reach the Pseudo-Perfect Level. Those demonic beasts could not threaten me.

Recalling the instructor's words, Li Qi muttered inwardly.

Unfortunately, Pseudo-Perfect Level movement technique supported by Mental Force is ultimately only pseudo-perfect. Once my Mental Force is exhausted, I will return to my original level and be unable to dodge when facing the demonic beasts' encirclement.

What kind of movement technique is the Perfection Level? Is it like the Artistic Conception in the original novel?

With those doubts in mind, Li Qi left the lecture hall, returned to his dormitory, took his consciousness sensor, and entered the Virtual Universe to hone his movement technique.

Several days later, he went to the North Building for another lecture. This time, the instructor explained close-combat attack techniques.

After the lecture, he eagerly returned to his dormitory and logged into the Virtual Universe for a Force-Output Amplitude test. However, he soon resumed practicing movement technique in disappointment.

Surrounded by five beast-type demonic beasts, Li Qi, whose movement technique had already reached the Subtle Level, handled them with ease. He could even think about other matters while fending off their siege.

Without studying a Martial Artist force-output manual, my Force-Output Amplitude is only onefold. It seems the path of a Martial Artist is blocked for now. I cannot cultivate both martial combat and Mental Force like Luo Feng.

Thinking of Force-Output Amplitude, he felt helpless.

A Martial Artist's Force-Output Amplitude was different from a Spirit Reader's Mental-Force Amplitude!

Force-Output Amplitude could only be increased through constant cultivation. As for the latter, the greater one's Mental Force talent, the higher their initial Mental-Force Amplitude would be, and it could be further improved through cultivation.

A Martial Artist's instantaneous explosive power in battle was extremely terrifying. With several times, or even dozens of times, their normal strength erupting at once, a single strike could kill an enemy above their level.

Such explosive power was far stronger than that of Controllers, the mainstream path among Spirit Readers. After all, the latter were known for their strange methods of controlling objects.

Over the following period, Li Qi spent his time cultivating and attending lectures. Every three to five days, an instructor would give a lecture in the large hall, but he never encountered one explaining Spirit Readers.

"Zhaoguang Academy's instructors are mainly Martial Artists. There are relatively few Spirit Readers, and even fewer remain at the academy to become instructors. If you want to attend lectures by those instructors, you have to wait. Otherwise, you can only use points to purchase courses."

This was the answer Li Qi received after asking several students.

"Then I'll wait."

After receiving that answer, Li Qi could only wait helplessly. Before obtaining additional academy points, he did not want to spend points on purchasing courses.

Ten days later, Li Qi finally got the chance to attend a public lecture about Spirit Readers.