"I finally understand how my master felt back then. Living alongside monsters and watching them effortlessly achieve what you've struggled with all your life—it really does make you feel like you've wasted half your life."
Old Liang had taken so many blows tonight that he was nearly numb.
One piece of good news after another had left him reeling.
He'd never even dared dream that he could take in a young He Lanchán as his apprentice!
An Old Martial Arts prodigy, exceptional Mental Strength, and now a grasp of the Spirit Cultivation Technique...
As Qin Shi would put it, it was like losing ten rounds in a row, hitting the pity system three times, and then combining the pieces into a three-star, five-cost unit.
His luck was so good it made him question reality!
"If eating a few pages could let you comprehend the Spirit Cultivation Technique without any practice,
then why did I spend all those years reciting and copying the text day and night? I even dreamed about deciphering those coded characters in my sleep!"
Old Liang smiled wryly. He couldn't fathom where Qin Shi's talent came from. It was practically a blessing from the gods.
His broad palm brushed over the ancient booklet, handwritten by the master's master. Not a trace of energy remained on it.
Hong Sheng had passed down the ways of Old Martial Arts, not a method for cultivating the mind.
The sort of story where someone generations later comprehended a divine technique from a secret manual was all but impossible.
"Could it be that Shi was a natural-born Psionicist, blessed with an awakening talent?"
Old Liang gazed at him in astonishment, his imagination running wild.
He watched Qin Shi circulate his Qi Sensation through a complete cycle.
Maybe his luck was finally turning!
That was what he thought.
Of the three main career paths in Eastern Xia, only Martial Artists were more or less like normal people.
The other two tended to have an air of the supernatural about them.
Take Mechanics, for example. People called them "grease monkeys."
They believed steel was pure and machinery sacred, and were utterly obsessed with technological innovation and upgrading their flesh.
They prized reason, admired logic, and despised anything redundant or having to deal with other people.
In practice, they liked the smell of machine oil, setting off explosions, collecting gears excavated from ancient ruins, and dating non-flesh-and-blood life forms.
Psionicists were relatively solitary, preferred their own company, and loved things of aesthetic value.
They often possessed "awakening talents" steeped in mysticism.
They might never have touched a paintbrush or learned an instrument, yet possess an innate mastery of those arts and an understanding beyond the reach of ordinary people.
In the Old Era, now buried beneath the dust of history, there had even been an extraordinary painter.
Without ever setting foot on a supernatural path, he had observed deeper layers of the world with his naked eye alone, then captured them on fabric with paint and brush, creating works that endured through the ages.
It sounded rather artistic, but in truth, Psionicists were highly prone to paranoia, split personalities, and twisted minds.
They were a hotbed of madmen, geniuses, warmongers, and schemers.
The most popular magazine published by Tomorrow Group, Outlook Weekly, had named them "the profession least welcomed by other supernatural paths."
"Master Liang, Hundred Forms Cultivating Momentum turns out to be a visualization method, and the Spirit Cultivation Technique is the key that unlocks it."
Qin Shi slowly sat down, a look of dawning understanding passing through his eyes.
Once the coded text of the Spirit Cultivation Technique had been deciphered, it revealed visualization diagrams imbued with "momentum."
He recalled the strange sensation from earlier, when his mortal body seemed to merge with the air currents and become a gale.
He'd felt lighter, almost intoxicated by the sensation.
After he swallowed those pages, it was as if countless pieces of information had poured into his consciousness.
The jumbled symbols, which he had once been unable to recognize or understand, were broken down and rearranged, joining together into strange, ancient, and profound diagrams.
Wind! Countless air currents gathered into all kinds of wind!
Breezes, gales, warm winds, cold winds, hot winds, whirlwinds, hurricanes... Countless forms of wind appeared one after another, etched deeply into his mind.
All he had to do was focus and meditate, and he could catch the faintest strands of swirling air.
"Exactly. The essence of Hundred Forms Cultivating Momentum is 'make the heart a furnace, encompass all things,' then 'cultivate the mind and refine momentum, taking it for your own.'
"It's a form of 'internal cultivation.' It takes Life Force as its foundation and nourishes the mind in return, allowing the two to advance side by side."
Old Liang smiled.
"In a way, this path suits you well.
"He Lanchán, who developed Hundred Forms Cultivating Momentum to its supreme level, was much like you. He, too, embodied the Spirit-Flesh Union."
No wonder he'd refined more than 8,800 kinds of momentum. He was the ultimate grinder, relentlessly stacking up numbers!
Qin Shi couldn't help admiring him. This First Generation Ten Prodigy sounded a bit like one of those reclusive martial artists who spent all their time grinding levels. He'd quietly honed his skills, patiently waiting for his chance to amaze everyone and make a name for himself across the stars.
At the same age, Qi Wuxiang had stood head and shoulders above his peers at nineteen, won the championship at twenty, and defended his title again at twenty-eight.
By contrast, He Lanchán had to wait until he was thirty-six just to reach the Stellar Cup finals.
Before that, he'd barely been known at all.
Then the dark horse toppled the unstoppable Qi Wuxiang and brought King Qi's bid for a third consecutive championship to an end.
"Master Liang, comprehending 'Swift as the Wind' changed the path my Qi Sensation follows. Why is that?"
Qin Shi voiced his confusion.
When he'd first grasped his Qi Sensation, the warm current had darted up and down, confined to his chest and torso.
Only after several rounds of Burning Sinews with Golden Elixir had he opened the joints in his limbs and completed a simple cycle.
After he ate the master's master's handwritten pages and comprehended 'Swift as the Wind,' his increasingly powerful Qi Sensation naturally began gathering in the soles of his feet.
"A Martial Artist's 'momentum' is the process of the 'Qi' within them flowing outward.
"In the martial arts novels of the Old Era, they called it 'projecting Internal Force' or 'Hundred-Step Heavenly Aura.'"
Old Liang picked up a porcelain bowl, turned it upside down on the table, and ran a finger lightly around its base.
With a soft scrape, he peeled off a "bracelet" large enough to wear around his wrist.
Qin Shi's eyes widened. This was the first time he'd seen Old Liang show off his real skill.
"The Old Martial Arts path has forms for training and forms for fighting.
"The training forms cultivate the body and mind. The fighting forms are for battle and killing.
"Fists and feet are for the arena, where opponents trade blows on relatively even footing and the line between life and death isn't so stark.
"But on an ancient battlefield, when it's kill or be killed and your life hangs by a thread, you need weapons."
Old Liang chuckled.
"As the old saying goes, grappling is for taking people alive, but locking them down is for killing. Only once you've mastered grappling do you move on to weapons.
"Weapons are extensions of your limbs. When person and weapon become one, killing is as easy as cutting grass!
"Even today, quite a few Divine Mecha combat teams like to forge blades, swords, and spears from exotic metals and charge into battle alone.
"By the way, don't try it unless you've become a Martial God. You'll get blasted to pieces by a battleship."
I'm not stupid!
How could I possibly do something as idiotic as tanking an orbital cannon with my bare body?
Qin Shi mulled it over. After all Old Liang's rambling, the point was that "momentum" could provide an enchantment effect and increase a person's killing power.
Qi was the mana bar, and momentum was the ultimate!
"Hundred Forms Cultivating Momentum—Swift as the Wind! Just as the name suggests, it focuses on speed!
"If you keep comprehending it, you can develop the 'traits' best suited to you.
"Things like 'cutting,' 'sharpness,' 'agility,' or 'stealth.'
"What I just showed you was how to condense the momentum of wind at your fingertips, creating a spiraling cutting force.
"It can slice through steel plates, let alone a porcelain bowl."
Old Liang explained at length, stirring Qin Shi's excitement.
He wondered: if he mastered Swift as the Wind, could he move with the lightness and agility of the experts in Old Era martial arts novels, leaping through the air and soaring through the heavens?
"Of course you can, but it's best not to do that in a Metropolitan Area. You might trigger airspace monitoring and set off the air-raid sirens. That would be trouble.
"Back in the early days of the Eastern Xia New Calendar, after the Republic had just been founded, plenty of Martial Artists ignored the law and flew around Central City and the Metropolitan Area. A fair number of fools got riddled with bullets when the defenses opened fire. Their bodies weren't even left intact."
Faced with his apprentice's boundless curiosity, Old Liang offered a friendly warning.
Many Old Martial Arts factions longed for the turbulent era of warlords and social collapse.
A big part of the reason was the freedom and lack of restrictions.
Back then, Martial Artists whose Life Force had broken through several hundred could pilot Divine Mecha across ancient planets, defeat the rampant space pirates, escort civilian spaceships, and make the acquaintance of noble young ladies from the great families of the Imperial Capital... Those were the kinds of tales filled with chivalry and romance.
They had once inspired countless young people to take up Old Martial Arts.
"Shi, don't get ahead of yourself and become obsessed with cultivating momentum, either. If your Life Force is below twenty points, overpracticing the Spirit Cultivation Technique can easily deplete your body's potential."
Old Liang cautioned him aloud, though in his heart he was thinking about how to get his hands on some high-grade Energy Liquid that could boost Flesh Activity.
He needed to push the last four points of Life Force to achieve a complete new-birth transformation!
Energy Liquid was a priceless commodity, strictly controlled by the authorities and rarely available on the open market.
The more outstanding Qin Shi's talent seemed, the more unsettled Old Liang became.
Wouldn't it be a sin to let such fine jade be wasted in his hands?
The next day.
Lin Yunqing's Vast Sea Conqueror drove through the gates of Qiguang Hengda University.
She wore casual sportswear, her long black hair falling over her shoulders, and looked every bit like a lovely young teacher.
"Big brother! Your sister's here to bring you a lovingly made lunch!"
Lin Yunqing didn't even knock. She walked straight into the Director of Administration's office.
Secretary Xu, seated outside, recognized the young lady of the Lin Family and didn't stop her.
"How many times have I told you? At school, while I'm working, you have to call me by my title!"
Lin Xiaohan felt a headache coming on. His younger sister was particularly mischievous and never made life easy for the family.
If she'd come to see him on her own, it probably meant trouble!
"I know, big brother."
Lin Yunqing held up a pink cat-shaped takeout bag and sidled closer with a grin.
"Your little sister personally cooked a lovingly made lunch for Director Lin! And while I'm at it, I'm carrying out the stakeout mission your sister-in-law assigned me!"
Lin Xiaohan's mouth twitched.
"What did I do to offend you lately? Do you have to poison me to death?"
No one in the family could stomach Lin Yunqing's dark cuisine. Only their father had the Life Force to power through it.
"I just made a little money. I ought to thank you properly, right?"
Lin Yunqing said with a smile.
"When I went to the Youth Palace this morning, some guy named Qin Lihao had someone deliver the latest model from the Thunderbolt line of sports cars as an apology.
Lin Xiaohan furrowed his brow.
"That's quite a gesture. He just gave you a sports car worth tens of millions? What did you do with it?"
He wasn't worried that his sister would be blinded by such petty gains.
Lin Yunqing nodded.
"Of course! You don't know how broke I am! As soon as I got the car, I opened the 'Earn-Earn' app and had someone come pick it up! They paid me on the spot. It was super efficient!"
Sell a new sports car secondhand?
That sounded exactly like something his sister would do.
Lin Xiaohan grew serious.
"Don't keep stirring things up. The Yancheng Qin Family is full of heroes and champions, and famed for benevolence, justice, propriety, and wisdom. They're notorious for being vicious and insidious."
Lin Yunqing raised an eyebrow.
"I don't have time to deal with them. As long as that lecher Qin Zhijie stops hanging around me... Anyway, big brother, down to business. Have Qiguang Hengda University's special admissions started this year?"
Before you continue