There were many kinds of Great Knights.
The most complete was someone like Russell, who had thoroughly excavated every meridian, opening each one to its fullest extent.
Otherwise, if even one meridian had not been excavated carefully enough, it could cause instability when Battle Aura circulated through the Greater Heavenly Cycle.
As for those Great Knights who had attained their level through shortcuts, while every one of their meridians had indeed been opened and connected together, their meridians were narrow and winding. It took a long while for their Battle Aura to complete a single Greater Heavenly Cycle.
Such instability meant they could not even truly be called Great Knights. Great Rangers was a more fitting title.
The rangers among the Cave Freemen lacked supplies of potions, so they relied on this shortcut method to excavate their meridians. Lone Wolf Lisbon, the former ruler of Xiangshui River Cave, had even opened all his meridians and cultivated himself into a Great Ranger.
Yet that Great Ranger of his could not even withstand Eric's surprise sword strike.
When he was ambushed, he had barely any Battle Aura available to project in time and fend off danger, so he died without ever understanding why.
Katie had previously taken this path as well.
"Rangers use the least amount of Battle Aura to open as many meridians as possible, while knights use the greatest amount of Battle Aura to grind through their meridians inch by inch... If I were in Lisbon's situation now and someone ambushed me, my Battle Aura would instantly project outward and form protection."
Not only could his Battle Aura instantly form protection, the enhancement it brought to his body would also allow him to react at once.
He could twist aside and evade the ambush.
"More importantly, Great Knights can cultivate