Devouring the Starry Sky: Cultivation Makes Me Stronger 48

Form, sound, smell, taste, and touch corresponded respectively to human sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Humans perceived the world through these sensory organs.

Unity of Man and Nature, however, used a deeper level of "perception" to comprehend all things between heaven and earth—the so-called "experiencing the heart of heaven." Like a drop of water merging into the sea, one seemed to become part of all creation.

True Collection was an extension of this concept.

Compared to all things between heaven and earth, humans were simply too insignificant. When one merged with heaven and earth, one could only rely on "skill" to wield all things, rather than move them as freely as one's own limbs.

Thus, "True Collection" came into being!

The ancients believed that the human body contained the principles of the five elements, gathered the yin and yang energies of heaven and earth, and secretly corresponded to the mysteries of the universe's operation.

True Collection treated the human body as a Micro Universe!

However.

Although a vast amount of knowledge regarding the five elements, yin and yang, and the fundamental principles of the universe had been instilled into his mind, it was truly difficult for Luo Shen, at his current level, to digest it all.

For instance, the phrase, "Qi circulates throughout the body; over time, the heart is hidden within the heart and cannot be seen."

He recognized every single character in it, but once they formed a complete sentence, it immediately felt incomparably unfamiliar, as though he had never learned those characters before.

Looks like it's time to cram some cultural knowledge, Luo Shen thought.

"Hm?" Hong frowned slightly.

Though he had no idea what had happened in that brief instant, Hong was certain that some unusual change had occurred in Luo Shen.

Fortunately, Hong had no intention of getting to the bottom of it.

Everyone had their own secrets.

More importantly, Luo Shen's tone just now had already given him the answer he wanted to hear.

That was enough!

However.

"What? You want to enter my library?"

Hong had intended to continue asking Luo Shen about his plans, whether he was interested in serving as an inspector for one of the base cities, but instead heard that Luo Shen wanted to borrow the books in his collection.

For a moment, he failed to react.

He had considered every possibility—returning to the Training Camp, being posted elsewhere, even staying at Limitless Martial Arts Academy headquarters to train with him—but he had never imagined that Luo Shen would choose something so unrelated as reading.

What kind of bizarre turn was this?

But Luo Shen nodded seriously. "Yes!"

Compared to intense battles, Luo Shen felt that what he needed most right now was to "recharge." He vaguely felt that if he wanted to fully make use of this True Collection, starting with China's ancient texts might be an excellent direction.

"Alright!"

After pondering for a moment, Hong agreed.

Though he did not quite understand, he could sense that Luo Shen's request should be connected to the earlier change. Besides, with Luo Shen at headquarters, Hong would know immediately if anything happened.

Hong's library was located in a detached villa not far from here.

The moment he entered, Luo Shen was stunned by its scale. The entire villa had been completely transformed by Hong into a private library. Row upon row of steel shelves were packed with carefully categorized books and scrolls.

Eastern, Western, history, miscellanies, and more—there were books of every kind!

He walked over to one of the shelves.

Many of the scrolls in this section appeared incomplete. After giving them a rough glance, Luo Shen determined that they contained texts on astronomy, numerology, craftsmanship, and military strategy.

Commentary on the Water Classic, Grand Duke's Secret Methods, The Art of War, and so on.

Hong had spent tremendous effort collecting these books, which were kept under strict preservation.

It was clear.

Hong had put great care into these books.

He could pick up any volume at random and find obvious signs that it had been read many times. Clearly, these books were not merely collectibles—Hong must have often read them himself.

There were probably no fewer than a hundred thousand books here!

Fortunately, Luo Shen did not intend to read every book in the library.

After all, he was not trying to become a great scholar. He wanted to figure out exactly what True Collection was, how it should be used, and how to maximize its effects.

First, to recharge his mind.

Second, to take this opportunity to sort out his future cultivation path, lest he go astray halfway through and have to expend even more effort correcting himself later.

Originally, Luo Shen had already formed an idea for the third stance of his blade technique.

But with the awakening of True Collection, combined with what he had learned from ancient texts, he now had other ideas.

He even considered overturning and remaking the first two stances he had created.

Lightning Flash and Wind Thunder Galloping Star, both based on the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade, were powerful and fierce, but like the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade itself, they had gone down the wrong path.

The simplest reason was that force was mutual!

Since a single slash could unleash 7.5 times the power, why could that explosive force not be used for defense as well?

Luo Shen felt that—

Once he thoroughly figured out this problem, he would probably be able to completely break free from the framework of the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade and create a blade technique that truly belonged to him!

When a person became serious, time passed especially quickly.

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

Especially for someone like Luo Shen, who had thrown himself into it wholeheartedly, to the point of forgetting food and sleep, he had no awareness of time passing at all.

Fortunately, he had Five Hearts Vortex - Instinct for cultivation. He could rely on instinct to absorb cosmic energy and refine it into Gene Energy. Though its effects were somewhat worse than actively cultivating, it greatly saved Luo Shen's cultivation time.

It allowed him to devote more time to research.

Speaking of which.

He would never have known if he had not studied it, but once he did, he was thoroughly shocked.

It turned out that he had so many problems.

And he had never noticed them before!

Previously, Luo Shen had improved at a staggering pace and possessed extraordinary combat power. Even Inspector Wang, who excelled in both movement techniques and blade techniques, had been unable to defeat him. This inevitably bred quite a bit of arrogance in him.

But after researching, he realized that it was not that he was too strong—it was that Earth's martial arts were too backward!

Earth's martial arts mostly separated movement techniques, blade techniques, and bodily force generation into individual "components," then combined them into tools that made better use of the "body."

Each performed its own function.

But in truth, that was merely the most superficial use!

Just like before, his movement technique had clearly reached the realm of Unity of Man and Nature, yet because his blade technique was still stuck at the Artistic Conception Level, the combat power Luo Shen could actually display was weaker than the combat power he should theoretically have been able to unleash.

According to True Collection, they were not separate components, but a whole!

They had to be unified and integrated into the "body universe"!

15th.

"Hiss!"

Luo Shen struck out with a hand blade. A terrifying sonic boom instantly exploded beside his ears, and violent winds surged through the villa, yet this fearsome hand blade had merely been an offhand gesture.

Still, Luo Shen was somewhat dissatisfied.

Logically speaking, the maximum power his hand blade could unleash was twelve to fifteen times, yet the instant he struck, he clearly sensed that something was wrong. It had only produced a little over ten times the force!

"No, no, something must be wrong somewhere."

Just as Luo Shen was racking his brains, a flash of insight suddenly crossed his mind, and he understood the key!

"So that's it!"

********

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20th.

Late at night, Luo Shen set down the book in his hands, stretched lazily, and walked up to the rooftop terrace of the villa.

Some grass and trees had been planted on the terrace, growing lush and verdant.

Accompanied by the fragrance of flowers and grass carried by the night wind, Luo Shen found a clean spot to sit down and looked up at the stars filling the sky.

Such a sight had already become difficult to see in his original world.

Although industrialization had brought humanity into modern society, much beauty had also been lost along the way.