Fledgling Eagle Takes Flight Art

The Immortal Sect was unlike any cultivation sect currently known. It was highly unusual.

Inherited from the previous age of civilization, it placed tremendous importance on ordinary people and did not regard them as mere ant-like masses whose sole purpose was to produce cultivators with spirit roots.

The Sixty-eighth Set of Eagle's Takeoff Sword Art was a product of this philosophy. The project had been born on the very first day cultivators were discovered, over ten thousand years ago. After the painstaking improvements of generations of Immortal Sect sages—including God Transformation Ancestors and numerous Nascent Soul Cultivators—it had now gone through sixty-eight iterations.

Even now, one of the Central Array Spirit Computer's core main threads was still deducing the sixty-ninth generation of the Fledgling Eagle Takes Flight Art.

Should a breakthrough occur, even the current God Transformation Ancestors might join the project and accelerate its development.

This was an absolutely pioneering breakthrough in the Cultivation World.

Those sects and holy lands, great and small, might possess such capabilities, or perhaps they might not. But they would absolutely never invest vast resources and high-level cultivators into something like this.

Those Four Spirit Roots high-level cultivators who had flared briefly across history like epiphyllum blooms had all obtained heaven-defying opportunities. There was simply no possibility of reproducing their success.

The Sixty-eighth Set of Eagle's Takeoff Sword Art was standard teaching material across Luminous Blue Star. It included sword arts, saber arts, fist arts, staff arts, and more besides. Whatever one wanted, one could find it within.

What Jiang Ding cultivated was precisely the Sixty-eighth Set of Eagle's Takeoff Sword Art!

Unfortunately, the difficulty of a technique often matched its effects!

He had begun learning martial arts at seven years old. Nine years had passed, yet he was still only in the Proficient Realm, still far from Minor Accomplishment!

How could he temper his bones and marrow until inner qi was born like this?

Jiang Ding's aptitude might have ranked at the bottom on Luminous Blue Star.

But he was still at the bottom among Luminous Blue Star's martial artists!

With the assistance of Banyan City's Array Spirit Computer, he would have been a genius among geniuses in any small world that possessed only martial arts inheritances—a dimensionality-reducing strike. It would not have been strange for him to have reached the peak of the Inner Qi Realm by now.

That was indeed the case. If he had cultivated any martial arts technique other than the Fledgling Eagle Takes Flight Art, he might even have had a shot at reaching the Innate Realm by now.

The only downside was that his road of cultivation would be severed.

The vast majority of mortal martial arts had been created by mortals and low-level cultivators. With their abilities and knowledge, they simply could not create something capable of leading onward into cultivation.

The process of cultivating mortal martial arts forcibly destroyed countless tiny meridians that martial artists could not observe, causing already abysmal aptitude to fall beneath even the floor.

Even if someone forcefully switched to a cultivation technique from the Innate Realm, risking nine deaths and one life, and somehow succeeded, their ultimate limit would be merely Qi Refining Level One or Two, while their lifespan would be greatly reduced.

"Today, I'll continue practicing the Sixty-eighth Set of Eagle's Takeoff Sword Art." Jiang Ding took a Green Steel Sword from the weapon rack.

It was shaped like an eight-sided Han sword, one meter and thirty centimeters long, with a sharpened edge. Its forging material was N2702 Law-Breaking Steel. It possessed a weak Law-Breaking Effect of its own, which could be slightly enhanced by infusing it with inner force.

This material was also commonly used to manufacture bullets. At supersonic speed and under rotation, it could block a certain degree of cultivators' divine sense interference, preventing bullets from deviating from their original firing trajectory from even a slight touch of divine sense.

He placed his hand on the sword hilt.

In an instant,

the little figure beneath the light screen moved.

It stretched its limbs, and its body gradually enlarged until it became identical to Jiang Ding's. Its height, shoulder width, arm length, and every other measurement matched his exactly. Yet its body was made of pale blue light, every muscle, every bone, and every minute meridian clearly visible, each marked with tiny labels.

"Preparation Stance."

Amid the mechanical voice, the blue figure moved. Its right foot stepped forward, its knee bent slightly, its left hand stroked the scabbard, and its right hand crossed its waist to rest upon the sword hilt.

The air around them seemed to freeze.

Though it was clearly no more than a humanoid figure formed from pale blue lines, without even skin, a heavy momentum spread from it at that moment, like a towering pine standing firm.

Jiang Ding knew this was not merely a matter of gripping a sword.

From his perspective, he could clearly see the figure's meridians and muscles undergo dozens, perhaps hundreds, of complex changes in less than half a second. It was as though springs of all sizes within its body were compressing, gathering every kind of force and storing energy for a heaven-shattering blow in the next instant.

Its momentum was no illusion, either. The human brain had sensed danger and issued a warning in this manner, urging the body to get as far as possible from the source of that danger.

Jiang Ding grasped the sword hilt and assumed the exact same posture as the blue figure, closing his eyes to feel the power building within his muscles and meridians.

Of his 639 muscles, 52 could not build power perfectly. They were mainly the smooth muscles of the digestive system and bladder, as well as the cardiac muscles of the heart. Even though he had long completed Flesh Refining Realm cultivation, he still could not perfectly train the muscles in these areas.

A tiny error could lead to a difference of a thousand miles.

The result was that he accumulated at least three times less power than the figure before him, even though it had been formed entirely from data on his own muscles, meridians, and bones, with exactly the same foundation.

"Exhibiting Sword Style."

Like a spring wound to its utmost limit, the pale blue figure shifted in a flash from absolute stillness to extreme speed. Using its sword tip as a brush, it drew a perfect circle around itself.

Hundreds of muscle lines shifted from tension to release, following a certain pattern. It was as graceful as a piano master performing, full of rhythmic beauty.

Jiang Ding copied it, but the circle he drew always contained the slightest disharmony and deviation. He could not release one hundred percent of the stored force.

"Arm Sword Style."

"Step Sword Style."

"Internal Organ Sword Style."

"Turning Sword Style."

"Harmony Sword Style."

"Running Sword Style."

Jiang Ding followed the figure, sword in hand, dancing through the forms. One moment he stepped forward and thrust swiftly; the next, he turned right and hacked down; then he circled a single point in a chain of stabbing attacks. The sword blade tore through the air with hissing sounds, and his afterimages filled the training room of over a hundred square meters.

"Hidden Sword Style."

The blade slipped silently into its scabbard. Jiang Ding's body trembled slightly as he struggled to calm his ragged breathing, exhaling stale air bit by bit. Great streams of sweat poured from his pores, soaking his clothes in moments and making them cling tightly to his skin.

Including the Preparation Stance, the Eagle's Takeoff Sword Art had only nine forms. It emphasized Extreme Speed and explosive force, unifying practice and combat. It was an exquisite sword art that exhausted the research of meridians, muscles, and bones. If cultivated to Minor Accomplishment and paired with a sharp weapon, killing ordinary Inner Qi Realm martial artists would be as easy as flicking a hand—one casual stroke of the sword.

Jiang Ding felt pain everywhere in his body, while his stomach burned like fire.

He crossed three steps in two, picked up the milky white Essence Condensing Bone Strengthening Soup, and drained it in one gulp. Its temperature was still just right; it had not cooled despite sitting there for so long.

Warmth traveled down his throat into his stomach, then spread throughout his body. The excruciating pain immediately eased.

The Eagle's Takeoff Sword Art dug too deeply into the human body, which was why it placed such a huge burden upon it. If not for the Essence Condensing Bone Strengthening Soup supplied by the school, things would be fine in the short term, but without long-term nourishment, it would be very easy to train oneself into ruin.

Ding!

Jiang Ding was delighted and quickly looked up at the figure before him.

The first vertebra in the pale blue line-drawn body flashed, changing from 62% to 66%.

"Four percent!"

Jiang Ding was invigorated. "Ten more times, and I'll be able to temper the first vertebra completely. Give me another thirty days—could I break through into the Inner Qi Realm?"

Unable to spare time for rest, he immediately took advantage of the remaining time to practice another set of sword forms.

Unfortunately, perhaps because he was too impatient and his movements were not precise enough, this time let alone gaining four percent, he did not even gain one percent progress.

"So it really was an illusion."

Jiang Ding was somewhat dejected, but instead became calmer. He slowly considered which movements had not been properly executed, and how the rhythm and sequence of his muscles and meridians differed from those of the figure.

After practicing like this more than ten times in a row, he finally gained something.

His proficiency in the Eagle's Takeoff Sword Art increased by one point, becoming Proficient 33%. He had taken another small step toward Minor Accomplishment.

Several other vertebrae also improved by a few points.

Ring ring ring...

Without realizing it, class had ended. The pale blue figure slowly vanished, the bright training room lights shut off in sequence, and the training room door slowly opened.

Jiang Ding spent several minutes washing up, changed into a blue-and-white school uniform, and walked out of the training room.

"I heard those cultivation geniuses improve their techniques by five or six percent every time they train, while their bone tempering rises by more than ten percent. With the accumulation of days and months, who knows what realm they've reached by now?"

"Inner Qi Great Accomplishment? Inner Qi Perfection?"

Jiang Ding pondered silently.

Though Rongcheng First High School was the best high school in Rongcheng City and sent the greatest number of students into university Cultivation Departments each year, its martial arts faculty was not the strongest. Thus, it had failed to attract the most elite martial arts geniuses, most of whom had gathered at Seventh Middle School.

Most people along the way were students returning to their classrooms from training rooms. Some had slumped shoulders and unsteady footsteps, clearly having trained too hard.

Students gradually returned to the classroom. Jiang Ding found his seat and closed his eyes to rest.

Very soon, a strong stench of sweat reached his nose.

"How's your progress?" He did not even lift his eyelids.

"Not bad." Li Junhao said in a deep voice, "In a few months, I should have a chance to break through Skin Refining and enter the Flesh Refining Realm."

"Keep it up."

After several minutes, the noisy voices gradually fell silent, and Jiang Ding opened his eyes.

Class Leader Hua Bing had somehow appeared at the podium.

"Starting from the first row, everyone collect your schoolbags in order." She swiped her student card over the display on the metal cabinet beside the blackboard. The small doors opened one by one, revealing schoolbags of various colors within.

Every student was already used to this and retrieved their schoolbags in turn.

Before long, Jiang Ding received his gray backpack and the black sword beside it. He first strapped the sword to his waist, then took a box from his backpack.

He opened the box.

Inside lay a black handgun and a magazine filled with bullets.

A Type 58 Self-Defense Pistol.

The specifications of the pistol that had accompanied him since middle school instinctively surfaced in Jiang Ding's mind.

Year 10558, Type 58 Self-Defense Pistol, manufactured by Luban Arms Technology Company. Six-round magazine, using 7.62-millimeter N2702 Law-Breaking Steel bullets. Effective range: fifty meters. Within that range, it could pierce the inner force defenses of an Inner Qi Minor Accomplishment martial artist. Two consecutive shots striking the same point, or three consecutive hits, could break the inner force defenses of an Inner Qi Great Accomplishment martial artist.

Over ten thousand years ago, Luminous Blue Star had begun intersecting with the Cultivation World. From time to time, Outer Realm Cultivators or martial artists would suddenly teleport onto Luminous Blue Star, inflicting severe harm upon nearby residents.

Although Luminous Blue Star was barren, it occasionally produced a Natural Treasure that drove Outer Realm Cultivators mad—Law-Breaking Immortal Gold. They would not hesitate to risk life and limb for it, especially old cultivators nearing the end of their lifespans, who were even more frenzied.

Therefore, long ago, Luminous Blue Star had fully opened civilian gun licenses. Even middle school students had to begin firearms training.

Naturally, the guns were mainly for self-defense, to buy time for escape. That was why they were issued pistols.

"Disassemble and maintain!" Hua Bing shouted.

Her divine sense unfolded. The Type 58 Self-Defense Pistol floated in the air and disassembled itself into more than thirty parts, including the barrel, recoil spring, slide, firing pin, and magazine. The gun oil bottle opened on its own, applying maintenance oil.

Of course, with her Qi Refining Level Six strength, the Type 58 Self-Defense Pistol was merely symbolic and could not provide her any protection.

The more than thirty students also began working, and the clicking sounds rose one after another.

Jiang Ding's fingers danced like phantoms, dismantling the pistol into parts of varying sizes. He then applied maintenance oil to each one and reassembled it.

He was extremely careful, inspecting every component for wear and checking whether the bullets were intact. Unlike powerful Qi Refining cultivators, this was something that truly concerned his safety.

Although Rongcheng City remained peaceful and no incidents of Outer Realm Cultivator invasions or slaughter had occurred for many years, one could never be too prepared.

By the time he finished reassembling it and placed it into the holster on his waist, thirty-two seconds had passed.

Looking around, he saw that everyone else had gradually finished as well.

"First, firearms must have their safeties on. Begin!" Hua Bing started the recitation, and everyone took it up.

"First, firearms must have their safeties on. Do not point the muzzle at people, or it will be treated as drunk driving;"

"Second, on public buses, yield to the elderly and children..."

"...Firearms must not be used anywhere except in self-defense."

"Class dismissed!"

"Goodbye, Class Leader!"

Jiang Ding grabbed his backpack and leaped out through the window.

That was normal enough. Students upstairs directly used lightness skills and the Wind Riding Technique to leap more than ten meters. Some ran to the tops of trees and bounced away branch by branch, vanishing from sight. Others, rich enough to afford them, controlled Magic Artifact Flying Swords and flew through the sky with extraordinary grace, drawing envious gazes from all around.

"That's Gongsun Ling from Second Class. She's also Qi Refining Level Six. I heard she passed the Flying Magic Tool pilot license exam a few days ago." Li Junhao climbed down while gripping the window frame, envy in his voice.

"She's only in the Qi Refining Mid Stage. Isn't she afraid she'll run out of spiritual power and fall?" someone nearby said sourly.

"So what if she falls? It's only a dozen meters high. She can't possibly get hurt."

Jiang Ding looked at the sweet and innocent girl in the sky, feeling just as envious.

For someone who lived among the clouds like her, even if he fired every bullet in his Type 58 Self-Defense Pistol, he probably could not break her shield or harm her in the slightest, right?

The miserable him could only walk on the ground, backpack on his back, leaving one solid footprint after another.

Rumble—

Rumble—

As he reached the school gate, the powerful roars of engines came from far away, rising and falling in succession.

Jiang Ding hurriedly stepped aside.

"Hurry up!"

"Hey! You drivers, slow down! The formation's going to get messed up!"

A medium tank drove through the school gates. Its 100-millimeter cannon barrel was slightly raised, bright rifling faintly visible within. A 12.7-millimeter dual-purpose anti-aircraft machine gun at its side rear pointed diagonally upward at a forty-five-degree angle. Its armor was smooth and heavy, its five pairs of wheels turning as students along the road hurriedly made way.

A dark-skinned student sat cross-legged atop the turret, resting with his eyes closed.

A Type 62 Training Tank!

The thought surfaced in Jiang Ding's mind.

Generally speaking, the driver should have remained in the cockpit. The frontal armor of a Type 62 Tank could withstand a Qi Refining Late Stage cultivator's attack without damage.

But its weak points, such as the tracks and cannon barrel, were another matter.

Thus, many cultivators disliked staying in the cockpit and instead used divine sense to control the tank.

"Formation! Formation!"

Behind the tank came students from Class 3 of Senior Year Three, twelve of them carrying Type 89 Heavy Machine Guns weighing 125 kilograms apiece. They stood almost in two straight lines, following marching formation and strictly aligning with the tank's width. Cultivators did not need such precautions, but for martial artists like them, whose bodies were fragile as paper, this was the only defense they could rely upon once enemy cultivators broke through their own cultivators' interception on the battlefield.

More than ten Type 62 Training Tanks rumbled past, leaving dust all over the ground.

"Class Three is back from field training."

Li Junhao complained.

"This outdated tactic should have been eliminated long ago. The army's active units changed their class organization ages ago. A tank paired with several or more than ten self-propelled artillery vehicles would be much better, wiping out enemies from beyond the divine sense range of low- and mid-level cultivators dozens of kilometers away."

Jiang Ding shook his head. "It isn't that simple. Outer Realm Cultivators are increasingly inclined to cultivate concealment techniques, or mobile masking spells such as Earth Escape and Water Escape. Our Infantry Spirit Particle Radar cannot always find and lock onto the enemy."

While chatting, the two waved goodbye at an intersection.

Jiang Ding stopped beneath the Route 18 bus sign and found a less crowded corner to wait for the bus.

At a little after six in the evening, quite a few people were already there.

A group of chattering elementary school students contributed the greatest noise and liveliness. Apart from them were exhausted-looking office workers, most with Inner Qi Realm cultivation. They carried gun cases on their backs—not self-defense pistols like Jiang Ding's, but combat firearms such as submachine guns and shotguns.

As for heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, and even twin-mounted anti-aircraft machine guns, one could generally buy them for collection, but taking them into public places was extremely difficult. Personal gun licenses for such weapons were rarely issued.

Inner Qi Realm martial artists filled the streets. Those in the three body-refining realms were rare; they were either minors, disabled people, or overly lazy loafers.

This did not mean that Rongcheng First High School, reputed to be the number one high school in Rongcheng City, was full of slackers, with only three Inner Qi Realm martial artists in the entire class.

Rather, the Fledgling Eagle Takes Flight Art was actually a cultivation technique. Even with the assistance the Banyan City Array Spirit Computer provided students, its difficulty was beyond imagination.

After graduating high school, many people—or most vocational high school students—would no longer cultivate the Fledgling Eagle Takes Flight Art. Instead, they switched to mortal martial arts, and their progress naturally became extremely fast.

According to online materials, the most popular mortal martial arts at present were the Nine Yang Divine Skill and the Nine Yin Divine Skill. The former strengthened the body and nourished vital essence, while the latter nourished yin and enhanced beauty. Its true qi was also quite powerful, enough to serve as the sect-protecting martial art of any mortal sect, the kind only core direct disciples could access.

The Minor Yin Yang Skill secret art was even more popular.

Of course, even so, the Innate realm was still a threshold only a small minority could cross.

For an Innate Martial Artist, earning a place in the middle class was hardly difficult.

The bus brakes shrieked, followed by a fart-like hiss of released air. The elementary school students crowded aboard in a chattering swarm, then came Jiang Ding and the others. After glancing around the bus, he found nothing unusual and took up a spot by the handrail beside a window.

He leaned back as wind blew in through the window, carrying threads of coolness.

Jiang Ding silently considered the circulation paths of the various meridians and muscles in the human figure from the earlier cultivation class, combining them with the fundamental principles of cultivation techniques mentioned in language and mathematics lessons.

Why did the meridians circulate in the Preparation Stance in the most efficient way possible?

Could it be improved a little?

Woooo—

Whooo—wooo—

Screech!

The sudden air-raid siren and braking jolted Jiang Ding awake from his thoughts. He gripped his sword hilt tightly, his gaze swiftly sweeping the surroundings.

"The authorities have announced a Cultivator Realm-Breaking Invasion. The road ahead is closed!"

The driver shouted his explanation, fumbling as he pulled an AK47 from a cabinet.

"A Cultivator Realm-Breaking Invasion?"

The bus fell silent for a moment before erupting into an uproar.

"Don't panic! Get off in an orderly fashion. The police are already handling it..." The driver was equally flustered as he opened the doors and directed passengers out through the front and rear exits.

Fortunately, although Banyan City had not suffered a cultivator invasion for many years, such news still surfaced online from time to time in other places. No one panicked to the point of completely losing control.

Jiang Ding followed the flow of people, getting off behind a group of children.

"To the air-raid shelter, hurry..."

"Mom, I'm scared..."

Jiang Ding looked around. The road that had been flowing with traffic moments ago had come to a standstill. A huge number of citizens were evacuating amid noise and confusion, while doors had opened in many places that had once been walls or lawns. The red markings for air-raid shelters were exceptionally conspicuous.

Whether at schools or companies, air-raid drills were held every month. Though chaotic, the crowd remained fairly orderly.

Whoosh!

Whoosh! Whoosh!

A piercing sound tore through the air.

"Missiles!"

Someone in the crowd cried out.

Jiang Ding looked up.

One, two, three... over a hundred trails of flaming white smoke screamed across the sky, moving far beyond the speed of sound. They left only fleeting afterimages on the retina before vanishing.