New Talent, Hundred Profound Gang Body!

Cultivation knowledge was generally recorded in classical texts and divine scripts; the more advanced and powerful the technique, the more intricate and profound its contents.

One of the greatest hurdles preventing cultivators from learning cultivation techniques and spells was comprehension.

This made the value of a lineage all the more apparent. Having a master and having no master were entirely different matters.

Even the cultivation insights for the most worthless cultivation methods could be sold as goods, fetching anywhere from a dozen or so spirit stones to over a hundred.

If one wanted to freeload, the only option was to rely on the elders' lectures once or twice each month.

And once one understood the contents, beginning cultivation was when one's talent was truly put to the test.

The greater one's talent, the easier cultivation became.

With Su Hao's three blue talents—the Fire Elemental Sword Physique, Sword Heart, and Medicine Spirit—cultivating Mortal Grade and Spirit Grade techniques and secret arts of their corresponding systems was exceedingly simple.

But if he cultivated Mystic Grade techniques or higher, it would become far more strenuous.

"The Incomplete Extreme Intent True Scripture isn't that difficult either..."

Su Hao muttered, even feeling that cultivation would not take much time.

How could anyone enter seclusion for eight years over this?

He simply could not grasp the difficulty involved, and instinctively felt that the cultivation process of the Extreme Intent True Scripture was not complicated.

"So-called talents are the essence contained within all living things. A talent is a wisp of spiritual essence.

"Use spiritual essence to open the body's spiritual apertures, gather the violet qi of heaven and earth, and pour it into those apertures.

"The more fully infused spiritual apertures there are, the stronger the power. At the utmost, one can fill one hundred and eight spiritual apertures, reaching the state of perfection and amplifying one's strength by one hundred and eight times.

"With fewer than five spiritual apertures, using the Extreme Intent True Scripture requires paying the price of dropping one or two minor realms.

"With five to ten spiritual apertures, using the Extreme Intent True Scripture requires no price. Once its effect ends, however, spiritual power cannot be used for one hour. The more spiritual apertures there are, the weaker the side effects.

"After thirty spiritual apertures, there are no side effects at all. But to use it again, time must be spent refilling the spiritual apertures."

Su Hao had already fully understood the opening portion of the Incomplete Extreme Intent True Scripture.

"The fragment only records the methods for opening and infusing ten spiritual apertures. If completed, it would be enough to unleash three times one's strength.

"Those seniors who had already cultivated the Extreme Intent True Scripture weren't unaware of the side effects—they simply didn't wish to reveal them.

"After all, the more secret a secret art is, the better. Side effects are weaknesses, and no one would reveal their own weaknesses.

"That's why this secret art was made to seem so terrifying."

Su Hao's face was full of delight. One talent was one wisp of spiritual essence.

And his advantage lay precisely in the sheer number of his talents—and there would only be more of them in the future!

He impatiently began trying the method for opening spiritual apertures.

He tried to gather spiritual essence from within his body.

Time ticked away, second by second.

Su Hao cultivated with utter focus. This secret art was his greatest reliance for killing Lin Zhi Shan.

Late that night, a crimson wisp of spiritual essence appeared within his body.

The spiritual essence of the Fire Elemental Sword Physique!

The wisp of spiritual essence circled through his body. In only the time it took for an incense stick to burn, it settled at the Yongquan acupoint on the sole of his left foot, gradually coiling around it. The acupoint began to glow crimson and emit a faint heat.

The first spiritual aperture opened!

Next came the second spiritual aperture—the spiritual essence of the Sword Heart.

This wisp of spiritual essence was crystalline and transparent, sparkling like stars as it began to strike at the Yongquan acupoint on his right foot.

Everything progressed smoothly.

In just one night, Su Hao opened three spiritual apertures.

The spiritual essence formed from blue talents could open spiritual apertures with ease.

But the spiritual essence formed from white talents was far less powerful. The speed at which it opened spiritual apertures plummeted, leaving him unable to open the fourth aperture even after more than an hour.

At dawn the next day, he used the method recorded in the secret art to gather violet qi and attempted to infuse his spiritual apertures.

"The violet qi of the rising sun can only be gathered in the instant dawn breaks. One wisp of violet qi can fill one-third of a spiritual aperture, meaning it takes three days to fill one aperture.

"If nothing goes wrong, I can fill three spiritual apertures in nine days?

"Three spiritual apertures can increase my strength by fifty percent and last for twenty breaths.

"The more spiritual apertures there are, the longer the duration and the greater the amplification."

Su Hao did not dare delay and immediately began taking pills to cultivate.

Strength was the foundation of everything.

At Qi Refining Level 4, even with a fifty percent amplification, he could at most stand on equal footing with Qi Refining Level 5.

He took a bottle of Pure Qi Pills from his storage bag.

This was the most basic cultivation pill for Qi Refining cultivators.

A bottle contained ten pills. One pill could equal half a day of arduous cultivation, though refining its medicinal power also took time.

Combined with the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth, cultivators with pill resources could quickly leave those without resources far behind.

Su Hao directly swallowed three pills.

He was not even afraid of the side effects of the Origin Blood Pill, much less Pure Qi Pills, which contained fewer toxic impurities.

With the Medicine Spirit talent, his speed in refining medicinal power far surpassed that of ordinary cultivators.

Ordinary cultivators could manage about two pills a day, and they did not dare take them continuously—every medicine carried some poison.

But Su Hao could take an entire bottle a day and refine it completely.

Even the accumulated pill toxins were less than normal.

After spending a little over an hour, he could actively metabolize and expel them. This was one effect of the Medicine Spirit talent: low-level Marrow Cleansing and Hair Rejuvenation.

For three days straight, Su Hao remained shut in his room. Aside from gathering purple qi, he did nothing but pop pills and cultivate.

On the third day, he grew even more impatient, swallowing fifteen Pure Qi Pills in a single day.

"Why am I still not at Qi Refining Level 5...

"That bastard Lin Zhi Shan could leave seclusion at any moment."

As long as Su Hao had not caught up to Qi Refining Level 7, this fear would only grow worse.

Who knew whether Lin Zhi Shan's realm would improve when he emerged from seclusion?

If he could not catch up in realm, no secret art or dharma artifact would be anything but a paper tiger.

"Senior Brother Su, something terrible has happened!"

Someone outside the courtyard was shouting frantically.

Su Hao halted his cultivation, his expression grim. His pale face carried a gloomy cast.

That murderous gaze alone frightened the young man who entered the courtyard.

"If you don't have a proper reason for this, I'll kill you!"

Su Hao gritted his teeth as he walked out of the room.

He remembered this young man. He was one of the Medicine Slaves, Xu Qing.

Name: Xu Qing
Realm: Qi Refining Level 2
Talent: Medicine Person (Gray)

"I... Wei Bao is dead!" Xu Qing said in a panic.

"Wei Bao?" Su Hao frowned slightly. "Who's that?"

"One of the Medicine Slaves who came in with us. He got into an argument with Chen San, and the two of them started fighting. Wei Bao fell, hit the back of his head on a rock, and kicked the bucket!

"Right now, you're the only one in Bamboo Heart Courtyard who can make decisions, so I thought I should notify you..."

Xu Qing explained with a placating smile.

If he had known this would happen, he would not have come.

"Dead is dead. Throw him in the mass grave and bury him."

Su Hao's emotions settled somewhat. They were all fellow sufferers who had come in together.

He was not truly going to kill Xu Qing over this.

Just as he was about to turn away, Su Hao stopped, a strange look appearing in his eyes. "Wei Bao... he must have taken quite a few Heart Nurturing Pills, right?"

"Of course. His cultivation was even higher than mine—Qi Refining Level 3!"

Xu Qing was deeply jealous. Wei Bao had already finished his Heart Nurturing Pills, while he himself lagged far behind many others.

"Qi Refining Level 3?" Su Hao naturally knew that such a flimsy realm was not even a match for a normal Qi Refining Level 1 cultivator. "Where did he die? Take me to have a look."

"Talent Power Medicine Person detected. Absorb it?"

"Absorb!"

Su Hao arrived at the scene of the death. Beside the corpse on the ground floated a wisp of Talent Fire.

"Senior Brother Su, he struck first. He had it coming! Even if this gets brought before Alchemist Lin, I'm in the right!"

At the front of the crowd, Chen San pointed at Wei Bao's corpse.

Su Hao ignored them. All his attention was on the Talent Fire. "Absorb!"

With the extra Medicine Person talent he possessed, the two could be combined!

Name: Su Hao
Realm: Qi Refining Level 4
Talents: Hidden Kill (Purple), Fire Elemental Sword Physique (Blue), Medicine Spirit (Blue), Sword Heart (Blue), Golden Spirit Body (White), Martial Artist (White), Vigorous Yang (Gray), Vigorous Yang (Gray), Medicine Person (Gray, inactive), Medicine Person (Gray, inactive), Medicine Slave (White, inactive)

"Detected that the host possesses two identical talents, 'Medicine Person' ×2. They can be fused. After fusion, 'Medicine Person' will evolve into 'Medicine Slave.'"

"Fuse."

"Consumed Medicine Person ×2. Generated new talent: Medicine Slave (White)."

"Detected..."

"Consumed Medicine Slave ×2. Generated new talent: Medicine Spirit (Blue)."

"Detected that the host possesses two identical talents, Medicine Spirit ×2. They can be fused. After fusion, 'Medicine Spirit' will evolve into Hundred Profound Gang Body (Purple)."

"Hundred Profound Gang Body!"

Su Hao could not help but burst into laughter.

Lin Zhi Shan had spared no expense in blood and materials, piling up human lives in an attempt to complete his own talent. Yet in the end, Su Hao had mastered that very talent a step ahead of him!