Further Deduction-Scattered Hand

Time flowed on, and the years flew by!

Lin Xiao settled down in these mountains whose location he did not know. He dug a cave halfway up the mountain, imitating the wilderness survival techniques he had used before transmigrating: digging a hole and building a home, piling up a clay stove, chopping wood to build a fence, climbing to the mountaintop every day to collect snow and melt it into water, going out to hunt, and gathering wild fruits and mushrooms. He lived a rather carefree life.

Every day, aside from practicing those cultivation techniques, he had nothing to do but bring back some game. There was an almost absurd abundance of wild food in this ancient wilderness. Basically, anything that had existed in his previous life could be found here—and even things that had not existed there were present now.

Lin Xiao guessed that this region might be somewhere around the Greater Khingan Mountains in the northeast. The temperature was extremely low. Even though it was currently the turn of spring and summer, the air temperature often fell below freezing.

Fortunately, his internal energy was profound, so this little bit of cold meant nothing to him. He could lie bare-chested in the snow without freezing. He went up the mountain to catch game and down into the river to catch fish. Life could hardly have been more comfortable, and he was not anxious in the slightest.

The time a Descender could remain in a descended world was actually unlimited. If they wished, they could stay there forever, until their lifespan ran out and they died of old age.

Normally, however, no Descender would grow old and die in a descended world. They could die in battle, and no matter how tragic their death was, it would not matter. But if a Descender never returned from a world and remained there until dying of old age, in layman's terms, this was called "becoming lost."

If a Descender remained in one world without returning, they would gradually become lost in that world. Even if only a projection of their soul had descended, over time they would be affected by the world's power. It would gradually pull the Descender's true body in the Primordial Gate into that world. In the end, the true body and projection would merge into one, completely assimilate into the current world, and they would never be able to return.

Once they died in the world where they had become lost, their soul would merge into that world's cycle of reincarnation, and they would never be able to return.

It was like how, in the era of the ancient Heavenly Court, immortals had their memories erased and been cast into reincarnation. If they could not recover their memories, they would forever reincarnate life after life like ordinary people, their Primordial Spirit imprints constantly worn away until they became part of the teeming masses and were no longer immortals.

Lin Xiao could not possibly make such a mistake, but there was no need for him to hurry back, either. He had only descended for a year. Every descent into a world was actually an opportunity. Gaining more experience without becoming lost was also a way to accumulate knowledge and insights into life, which would be immensely beneficial when he encountered trials related to the state of his mind in the future.

Had he not seen great figures above the immortal level deliberately travel everywhere and play at being ordinary people in order to break through? Some even deliberately disguised themselves as ordinary people and worked as librarians. All of this was to accumulate insights into life, witness the many forms of existence, and prepare for overcoming tribulations.

Of course, all that was still far too distant from Lin Xiao. He had not thought that far ahead. He simply wanted to rest for a while, relying on his heaven-gifted talent and unremitting effort...

"Enhance!"

Lin Xiao sat cross-legged in the cave, his gaze fixed on the final level of Eagle Claw Technique on the attribute panel. He shouted in a low voice.

He had already been secluded here for seven months. He had finally cultivated Eagle Claw Technique to the sixth level through his own efforts, leaving only one step before the final level.

No matter the technique, the final level was always the hardest to practice. Eagle Claw Technique was no exception. Considering that several other techniques were still waiting for him, he could not help but make the mistake every man made.

More than twenty Potential Points poured into the panel. Countless images of himself practicing Eagle Claw Technique instantly appeared in his mind. Hundreds and thousands of figures merged into one, and all their experience fused together. In an instant, he comprehended the key to the final level of Eagle Claw Technique, and the technique naturally rose to mastery.

His eyes snapped open. His palm curved into a claw and struck toward the stone wall. At that instant, he faintly heard an eagle's cry. If anyone had been there, they would have been dazed for a moment, seeing his entire body seemingly transform into a giant eagle swooping down.

"Bang!"

The stone wall beneath his claw exploded. Countless fragments flew in all directions, and the wall he had hammered, rubbed, and pressed for seven or eight months, polishing it until it gleamed, suddenly blasted open with a basin-sized crater.

"Not bad!"

When driven by his Primordial Chaos Internal Energy, which exceeded four hundred years, his mastered Eagle Claw Technique possessed astonishing power.

And that was with him binding the force between his claws. If he had released his internal energy through his fists or palms, he estimated that the entire stone cave would have collapsed.

After testing his claw technique, Lin Xiao sat cross-legged in the stone cave again. He opened the attribute panel, his eyes settling on the other newly learned martial arts.

One-Star Supreme-Grade Swift Saber, One-Star High-Grade Golden Jade Fist, One-Star High-Grade Bear's Might Fist, One-Star High-Grade Bronze Claw Technique, One-Star High-Grade Heartbreak Palm, and One-Star High-Grade Unreturning Palm—a total of six martial arts. All had been cultivated to the verge of mastery.

Anyone who refused to take a ready-made shortcut was a fool. In the early stages, he could rely on his own practice, but the difficulty of cultivating the final one or two levels rose explosively. He had already been in seclusion for more than half a year and had no interest in squatting here for another two years.

A flash of sharp light crossed his eyes as he shouted:

"Destiny!"

Eighteen Potential Points rapidly vanished and merged into Golden Jade Fist, swiftly enhancing it.

This "Destiny" naturally did not refer to Destiny Points. It was merely what he had named this attribute ability. Since even an attribute ability system like this existed, Lin Xiao felt that he ought to count as someone blessed by destiny. As this thing could also refine Destiny Points, he directly named his attribute-allocation panel Destiny.

Over the next half a month, Lin Xiao successively enhanced all the remaining techniques to mastery. Including Golden Jade Fist, the process consumed a total of 115 Potential Points. He now had 505 Potential Points remaining, enough for further deductions.

He first deduced a saber technique. Taking Swift Saber as its foundation and incorporating Three Rivers Saber, Dark Cloud Saber, and Riptide Saber Technique, he spent a total of sixty-seven Potential Points to deduce a Two-Star Mid-Grade saber technique. He still named it Swift Saber.

Swift Saber (Two-Star Mid-Grade): Five levels in total. Formed by merging several saber techniques, it deeply embodied the advantages of speed, ruthlessness, and precision, and possessed tremendous power.

The description sounded impressive, but he had no way to test its actual power for the time being. He had no opponent here to test the saber against. A saber swung through empty air was certainly fast, but he was not so sure how it would perform in actual combat.

Next, Lin Xiao's gaze lingered over the remaining martial arts. He pinched his chin and thought for a long while before finally carrying out a crazy idea he had conceived long ago. In an experimental tone, he said in a low voice:

"Taking Eagle Claw Technique and Golden Jade Fist as the core, deduce!"

That was right. He was not normally merging fist techniques with fist techniques or claw techniques with claw techniques. Instead, he was taking Golden Jade Fist and Eagle Claw Technique as the core and fusing all the palm, fist, and claw techniques into them. He wanted to see whether he could merge them into the martial art he had once envisioned.

This idea came from a novel he had read before transmigrating. The protagonist in it knew an unparalleled martial art that allowed him to shift freely and fluidly between fists, palms, and claws, with tremendous power.

This kind of martial art had a common name: Scattered Hand.

Lin Xiao also wanted to try deducing a powerful Scattered Hand—not restricted to fist, palm, or claw techniques, but capable of allowing him to deal with any enemy effortlessly without being countered.