"Martial Art Manual obtained from a special ruin?"
Lu Xuan opened the notes and introduction for the Mindful Breathing Technique.
It turned out that the world's catastrophe had caused many special ruins to emerge. Some might have originated in ancient times, while others could no longer be verified. But these ruins contained treasures, among them Martial Art Manuals.
"A Martial Art Manual from a special ruin—if he dared to put it up for sale, someone must have already cultivated it and verified that it worked. Otherwise, how could it have survived until now?"
It had to be so.
Lu Xuan did not hesitate and directly chose to purchase and borrow it.
He definitely was not just trying to take advantage of the cheap price.
Payment successful.
A massive stream of data flowed into his account, and the general outline of the Martial Art Manual appeared before Lu Xuan.
With the Martial Art Manual in hand, Lu Xuan paid no further attention to anything else. He slowly calmed his mind and began comprehending it.
A martial artist's Martial Art Manual was like a mathematical formula—obscure and difficult to understand. Fortunately, the manual contained relevant simplified annotations. With the support of Psychic Power, Lu Xuan quickly grasped the most basic circulation method.
Mindful Breathing Technique
Its core was to breathe and exhale with one's heart, analyzing the world's energy drawn in and expelled during breathing. One had to filter the energies layer by layer, ultimately choosing those beneficial to oneself and retaining them in the body while circulating the Martial Art Manual, thereby achieving a cultivation effect.
Time passed second by second.
Soon.
With the assistance of his powerful Psychic Power, Lu Xuan analyzed the circulation route of the Martial Art Manual.
His comprehension of the Martial Art Manual officially entered the Initiation stage.
As he devoted himself to circulating the Martial Art Manual and cultivating, the world's Spiritual Energy began gathering toward him.
Sensing this happening, Lu Xuan immediately stopped cultivating and instead poured out the spiritual liquid from the Bronze Gourd and swallowed it.
When a martial artist broke through, it would cause Spiritual Energy tides.
This was disadvantageous for concealing his identity. It could easily alert people from the Monster Potion Company. With his current strength, if he faced the Pharmaceutical Company, he would be doomed.
Fortunately, he had the Bronze Gourd.
The spiritual liquid it secreted was enough to support his breakthrough.
That way, he would not cause too great a disturbance and could break through in peace.
The spiritual liquid entered his mouth.
Vast Spiritual Energy poured into every cell of his body, fully stimulating all their functions.
Boom!
A muffled sound rang out.
The aura around Lu Xuan grew even more powerful. Merely sitting there, he was like a fierce tiger. The vital energy radiating from his flesh and blood evaporated the surrounding chill, and clouds of white mist swirled around him.
Fourth-order Intermediate Martial Artist—achieved!
Lu Xuan opened his eyes and threw a punch forward.
Bang!
The force of his punch shook the air, producing a thunderous boom.
The strike landed on the steel plate from a distance, shattering the thick plate into several pieces.
His bones and tendons rumbled like thunder, and his vital energy spilled outward.
This was the mark of fourth- to sixth-order Intermediate Martial Artists. A level higher, seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-order Advanced Martial Artists could solidify Spiritual Energy into blades.
"I finally broke through!"
Lu Xuan reined in his aura and clenched his fist. "My aptitude isn't particularly good, but as long as Future Mail exists and I obtain more opportunities, I can make up for that shortcoming. Perhaps I can even use this to surpass the others. It's not impossible."
An eighteen-year-old Intermediate Martial Artist.
He could be considered a genius.
One had to know that the strongest freshman at Jiangnan Martial University was only a sixth-order Intermediate Martial Artist.
"Now that I have a Martial Art Manual, I don't need to worry about losing vital energy."
Lu Xuan felt much more at ease. "Next is Martial Skill cultivation, but this thing seems even more expensive than a Martial Art Manual."
Martial Art Manuals and Martial Skills were different.
A Martial Art Manual strengthened one's foundations, increased the speed of absorbing the world's Spiritual Energy, and promoted cultivation.
A Martial Skill, on the other hand, raised a martial artist's individual combat power. It was the key factor that truly determined life and death.
Therefore,
Martial Skills were far more expensive than Martial Art Manuals.
After roughly browsing through them,
the cheapest Martial Skill cost one million Federal Coins.
With Lu Xuan's current wealth, he could barely afford one.
"If all else fails, I'll cultivate the Martial Skills I snatched."
Lu Xuan took out the Martial Skills stripped from Xu Long, as well as the Martial Skills he had picked up from the Pharmaceutical Company.
Nine Wave
Butterfly Dance
He had not found any trace of the two Martial Skills in the Federation's database.
In other words, aside from martial artists who had joined the Xu Family and the Pharmaceutical Company, no other martial artists could possibly cultivate them.
That was precisely where the problem lay.
Once he cultivated them, he could easily be recognized, exposing his identity.
"Tsk!"
Lu Xuan grew troubled and could not decide what to choose for a moment.
Just then, his Mental Power sensed someone approaching. He hurriedly activated the Storage Ring and put everything away.
"Hmm, my little sister is back."
Lu Xuan collected his thoughts. "Even if I have a Martial Skill, home isn't a place to cultivate. I'll find a chance to go to the Wilderness and cultivate it there."
For now, he should help his little sister break through to become a martial artist.
He took out a piece of high-grade monster-beast meat from the Storage Ring, then took out the Qi-Blood Pills he had purchased earlier, along with some others he had just bought. He also placed the steaming dishes he had stored in the Storage Ring on the table.
Creak~!
Just after he finished everything, his younger sister, Lu Ying, pushed open the front door.
"You're back?"
Lu Xuan looked up and smiled at Lu Ying. "Come quickly and see what your big brother prepared for you."
Lu Ying's originally icy little face blossomed into a radiant smile. She kicked off her shoes and pounced toward Lu Xuan. "Big Brother, are you all right?"
The little girl reached out and felt around, checking whether her big brother was missing an arm or a leg.
After examining him, she discovered that not only were none of his parts missing, he even seemed to have grown a little taller. The aura around him gave her a feeling of dread.
If she had not known Lu Xuan, she would have thought that the person standing before her was a martial artist.
Lu Xuan scratched his head and laughed it off. "What could happen to your big brother? It's not like I went to the Wilderness to collect corpses."
"Even so, you have to be careful!" Lu Ying pouted. "The teacher said that it's very dangerous outside. You can't go unless you've broken through to become a Third-order Martial Artist."
After confirming that her big brother was uninjured, she craned her neck and bounced on her little feet as she asked,
"Big Brother, didn't you prepare Qi-Blood Pills for me?"
"Where are they? Where?"
Seeing how excited his sister was, Lu Xuan rubbed her head and pointed at the table.
"Take a look. What's that?"
Lu Ying circled around Lu Xuan and darted to the table in a flash. Like a kitten, she stretched out her neck, twitched her nose, and sniffed. Only after sensing the surging vital energy within the Qi-Blood Pills did her eyes widen. Excitedly, she reached out and grabbed them.
"Woohoo!"
"It really is a Qi-Blood Pill!"
Lu Ying held up the Qi-Blood Pill like a pearl, dancing about excitedly.
"Love you, Big Brother!"
Seeing his sister's happy expression, Lu Xuan felt considerably more at ease.
For a long time, because he was not a martial artist, he had been completely unable to provide his sister with the best cultivation conditions.
Now, that had finally changed.
And things would only get better.
"Little sis, can the Qi-Blood Pills help you break through and become a martial artist?" Lu Xuan pressed the excited Lu Ying down into a seat at the dining table and asked.
Lu Ying opened the Qi-Blood Pills and took a look. There were three of them. She immediately nodded.
"They can help me break through to become a martial artist, but I have to break through at my teacher's house..."
"Why?"
Lu Xuan interrupted his sister.
Future Mail had clearly mentioned that his little sister's breakthrough would fail because of a classmate, damaging the foundation of her martial path.
That had already happened once. It absolutely could not happen again.
"With my teacher protecting me, I'll feel more at ease during the breakthrough." Lu Ying put some meat into Lu Xuan's bowl before beginning to eat in large mouthfuls.
"No!"
Lu Xuan slammed his chopsticks down, startling Lu Ying so badly that the meat in her mouth fell to the ground.
"Why not?" she asked.
Lu Xuan hesitated. He had been too agitated.
After a pause, his tone softened. "What I mean is that it would be too much trouble for your teacher. Besides, martial artists value self-reliance. If you need your teacher's help with everything, how will you make a name for yourself on the path of martial cultivation in the future?"
"Do you understand?"
This was not false.
His little sister was ultimately still a layman when it came to martial cultivation and did not understand much about the heart of martial cultivation.
While browsing the forums, Lu Xuan had noticed a post.
Its general point was that during a crucial breakthrough, one absolutely must not rely too heavily on a safe environment provided by others. That would easily plant seeds of weakness in one's heart of martial cultivation, making it difficult to go far on the path of martial cultivation afterward.
"This..." Lu Ying began thinking seriously.
It did seem to make some sense.
"Then I'll try it at home!" she said, her mind made up.
Breaking through to become a martial artist would not cause any harm. Even if she failed, she could simply go to her teacher's house and try again.
It was not as if the pills could be poisonous, right?
Thinking this, Lu Ying silently chewed a few pieces of meat. As if recalling something, she looked up at her big brother.
"Big Brother, my classmate is coming to our house tomorrow."
"Your classmate?" Lu Xuan paused mid-bite and asked suspiciously, "Is her name Jiang Xi?"
"How did you know?"
Before you continue