It was a shame that his cheat was so rigid. It had no idea what Lu Yuan meant by filling it up.
Lu Yuan could only ask helplessly in his mind, "How many years of lifespan would it take to raise my talent to Medium-grade Talent?"
"Six years!"
"And how many years of lifespan would it take to raise it to High-grade Talent?"
"Twenty-five years!"
Lu Yuan quickly did the math.
"Sixty-one minus sixteen, and I have forty-five years left to live. Minus thirty-one years, and I'll still have fourteen."
"Then raise my talent to High-grade Talent!"
On the panel, his lifespan rapidly dwindled.
Name: Lu Yuan Age: 16 Talent: High-grade Talent Lifespan: 61 years (14 years remaining) Technique: Ox Demon Fist (Initial Glimpse 61%)
He felt nothing in particular, yet his talent had become High-grade Talent.
He immediately went to the mirror. He needed to see whether losing thirty-one years of lifespan had turned him into a withered old man or if he still looked like a youth.
Thankfully, he still looked like a youth in the mirror.
"High-grade Talent. I'm a genius now, too."
According to his cheat, those with High-grade Talent had natural gifts and physiques formed from the finest essence of heaven and earth. They were unyielding in spirit, and anyone could tell at a glance that they were no ordinary people. As long as they cultivated diligently, they were certain to rise above the rest and become masters.
This was the kind of talent ordinary people considered genius.
But the geniuses his cheat spoke of were far beyond what ordinary people called geniuses.
"Ox Demon Fist..."
Lu Yuan began practicing Ox Demon Fist right there in the room.
Lu Yuan had learned Ox Demon Fist from Zhang Zhi, the head of the Lu family's guards. It had three forms—"Ox Demon Horn Charge," "Ox Demon Stomp," and "Ox Demon Hide Movement"—each with a hundred variations, making it intricate and unpredictable.
It was the best martial art Lu Yuan could learn.
Lingbao County did have a few decent martial arts schools, but their best techniques were reserved for their personal disciples.
It was said that before becoming a personal disciple, one had to undergo a trial lasting anywhere from a year to three.
Lu Yuan didn't have time for that.
Before recovering his memories, he'd practiced sporadically, working hard for three days and slacking off for two. Now that he finally trained in earnest, he realized that many of his movements were wrong and far from precise.
After going through several sets of Ox Demon Fist, his movements were already much more precise. He'd corrected many of the mistakes he'd made in the past.
His proficiency in Ox Demon Fist was rising rapidly, too.
In just an hour, his proficiency in Ox Demon Fist had climbed from "Initial Glimpse 61%" to "Initial Glimpse 85%."
Proficiency had nothing to do with one's actual cultivation level. But the higher one's proficiency in a technique, the better one's mastery of it, and the more efficient one's cultivation naturally became.
For example:
Two people with identical talent both practiced Ox Demon Fist. One had reached Mastery, while the other had reached Perfected. The difference in how quickly their strength improved was like night and day.
The former might need five years of nonstop practice before beginning Blood Exchange, while the latter might need only three or four.
That was the difference.
In the blink of an eye, a month passed.
At dawn, before the sun had risen and while the sky was still dim, Lu Yuan practiced Ox Demon Fist in the courtyard. He darted and weaved, sometimes light and nimble, sometimes heavy and grounded. His breathing was deep, yet his entire body felt invigorated.
He threw a punch, his thigh muscles suddenly twitching as force surged down his legs. He stepped forward as if an Ox Demon were charging with its horns—but it was no ordinary step.
This was one of the movements in "Ox Demon Horn Charge," a form of Ox Demon Power Fist.
After finishing a set of Ox Demon Fist, Lu Yuan felt the muscles throughout his body grow faintly warm, a sense of power filling him. He held his breath, clenched his teeth, and focused his mind on his arm and fist before punching forward.
Every muscle in his body exerted its strength in unison, concentrating all his power into the fist. He felt utterly exhilarated.
He looked at his status panel as the text changed:
Ox Demon Fist: Perfected (99%) → Ox Demon Fist: Perfected (1%)
In only a month, Lu Yuan's Ox Demon Fist had advanced through Mastery and Perfected, reaching the next level.
Before, even with uninterrupted daily practice, he wouldn't have managed it in ten years.
Lu Yuan continued practicing Ox Demon Fist.
Each form flowed from him with effortless familiarity.
As he sank deeper into the rhythm, sweat soaked his clothes. He had a clear sense of it:
"With Ox Demon Fist at the Perfected level, my training efficiency is at least ten times what it was at Initial Glimpse. I should be close to my first Blood Exchange."
A smile he couldn't suppress spread across Lu Yuan's face.
"Man, if only a ginseng fruit would fall out of the sky. Give me a few hundred or thousand years of lifespan, and I'd fill up my talent completely. I'm not asking for much—forget about becoming an anomaly. I'd settle for barely reaching Child of Destiny."
Lu Yuan could hardly imagine how quickly someone with Child of Destiny talent would cultivate.
They'd probably be too fast for even a rocket to catch up with.
"I've heard there are special techniques that can extend your lifespan. They aren't precious, but they're rare. If I could find one of those life-extending techniques..."
Lu Yuan's heart burned with excitement.
"Extend my lifespan over here, then spend it to raise my talent over there. The higher my talent, the more monstrous I'll become. If I keep this up, maybe I can reach the peak of the world and take in the view from the top."
"For now, all I can do is practice Ox Demon Fist, strengthen myself, and then look for a life-extending technique."
Lu Yuan considered it.
He still had fourteen years to live, so there was no need to rush. What he needed, while he was still weak, was to practice in quiet and build up his strength.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
As the sun set, Lu Yuan focused on practicing Ox Demon Fist in the courtyard.
He knew all one hundred variations of "Ox Demon Horn Charge," "Ox Demon Stomp," and "Ox Demon Hide Movement" by heart.
Zhang Zhi was standing nearby. In his eyes, Lu Yuan's Ox Demon Fist had a unique beauty to it. Lu Yuan seemed to have truly become an Ox Demon, its essence brought vividly to life.
"Whew~~"
Lu Yuan let out a long breath, a stream of white vapor stretching over a foot before it finally dissipated half a minute later.
He clenched his fist. A warm current coursed through his body, and his bones crackled all over.
Ox Demon Fist: Perfected (21%)
Zhang Zhi praised him with a sigh. "Little Yuan, your mastery of Ox Demon Fist is already no worse than mine. But aren't a few of your movements a little off? They're completely different from how I taught you."
Lu Yuan looked at him. "Uncle Zhang, when I practiced, I felt that changing them a little worked better."
He'd only made minor improvements to a few movements while practicing.
"Worked better?"
Zhang Zhi was skeptical. He thought it over, then tried the movements Lu Yuan had adjusted. His eyes widened. "It really is better! Little Yuan, you..."
He was left in awe. Could this be what a genius is?
He'd practiced Ox Demon Fist for twenty years, while Lu Yuan had only trained seriously for a little over a month. Even taking into account the three years of experience he'd had before, the fact that Lu Yuan had mastered the technique so quickly, to the point of matching him, was still astonishing.
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