As Zhao Ping'an opened one of the sandalwood boxes and placed his hand on a Third-tier Spirit Grass with three palm-shaped leaves, the familiar pop-up appeared once again on his Game Panel.
This was a new feature he had stumbled upon while inspecting the Sun Family Medicine Repository.
He didn't have to swallow the Spiritual Medicine. The Game Panel could absorb its medicinal effects directly, though he had to touch it with his own hand.
Moreover, it could only be converted into Deduction Points; it couldn't directly increase his cultivation.
"Yes!"
As Zhao Ping'an made his choice, the Spirit Grass in his hand quickly withered, and a warm current rushed into his body before vanishing deep within him without a trace.
In just a few seconds, the Third-tier Spirit Grass in his hand had withered into a yellow weed. It crumbled to dust at the slightest touch.
He hadn't absorbed any Spirit Grass before, so as not to attract attention.
"This is quite convenient. What a pity that First-grade and Second-grade Spirit Grass might have effects that are too weak. The Game Panel doesn't react to them at all. What a shame..."
Looking at the dust in the box, Zhao Ping'an sighed, then muttered regretfully to himself.
He had already tried touching First-grade and Second-grade Spiritual Medicine, but no pop-up appeared on the panel.
First-grade and Second-grade Spiritual Medicine could be found everywhere on this Medicine Mountain and was sold by the pound. But Third-grade Spiritual Medicine only grew near the spring at the mountain summit, and often took ten or even several decades to mature. There wasn't a single Fourth-grade Spiritual Medicine to be found.
He had heard that Sun Hongxi, the Sun Family Supreme Elder, had managed to break through to the Grandmaster Realm by cultivating two Fourth-grade Spiritual Medicines—the Mother-Child Yuan Gathering Grass—at the peak of Medicine Mountain.
After that, Sun Hongxi used them with a variety of Third-grade and more than a hundred kinds of First-grade and Second-grade Spiritual Medicine to refine a batch of pills. Of the twelve pills, only three succeeded. Sun Hongxi consumed all of them and finally broke through.
Before long, an entire box of Third-grade Spiritual Medicine had turned to powder.
Of course, though it looked like a lot, there had only been twenty-five plants in total. They had given Zhao Ping'an 75% Deduction Points. With the good food and drink he had been provided these past few days, his Deduction Points had risen from 6% to 90%.
And of the more than thirty Third-grade Spiritual Medicines he had taken from the Sun Family, only the last eight remained.
Zhao Ping'an didn't continue absorbing the remaining Third-grade Spiritual Medicine. Instead, he opened another wooden chest, noticeably larger than the first.
Inside lay row upon row of martial arts manuals.
Body training, qi cultivation, saber, sword, staff, spear, whip, Lightness Skill, hidden weapons, and all sorts of others—more than a hundred manuals in all.
That was after Zhao Ping'an had carefully selected them. The Sun Family's library had contained more than a thousand cultivation manuals.
"It's a pity that the best are only First-rate Martial Arts. There's not a single Human-grade Cultivation Method..."
Looking at the stacks of manuals in the chest, Zhao Ping'an muttered regretfully to himself.
But he hadn't considered that before Sun Hongxi, the strongest member of the Sun Family had only been at Xiantian Peak. They hadn't been qualified to obtain a Human-grade Cultivation Method. In fact, throughout South Ridge City, no faction had a Human-grade Cultivation Method—not even City Lord Zhou Ruiming's. The sole exception was Ouyang Yun, a Fourth Level Grandmaster.
(A Half-step Grandmaster was still at Xiantian Peak; it was just that their Xiantian True Qi had begun to transform into Qi, making it somewhat more powerful.)
This was one of the main reasons these factions were held back. The road ahead was blocked, and there was no way to rise higher.
But back to the point...
Of the more than a hundred manuals, eight were First-rate Cultivation Methods, and the rest were Second-rate Cultivation Methods. Zhao Ping'an hadn't taken a single one below Second-rate.
Of course, there was no way he could cultivate them all.
At present, he had external cultivation, internal cultivation, saber techniques, and Lightness Skill covered. If anything was missing, it was ranged attacks like hidden weapons, along with close-combat arts such as fist, palm, and finger techniques.
As for the hodgepodge of sword, spear, whip, and hammer techniques, he had no interest in learning them.
He couldn't exactly carry an entire armory everywhere he went.
After picking through the manuals for a long while, Zhao Ping'an ended up with three in his hands.
Two were precisely what he needed: one for hidden weapons and one for unarmed combat. The last was a rare cultivation method called the Mystic Pupil Soul Bewildering Technique.
Mystic Pupil Soul Bewildering Technique: Through the eyes, the user released a soul-bewildering art that plunged the opponent into an illusion. The higher the opponent's cultivation, the shorter the effect; the lower it was, the longer it lasted.
"Is this... a Mental Attack?"
As Zhao Ping'an leafed through the manual in his hands, his eyes lit up.
According to the manual, once he mastered the Mystic Pupil, he would not only be able to cast the soul-bewildering art, but his eyesight would also improve considerably. However, the technique was extremely difficult to cultivate, and using it consumed a great deal of one's vital energy and spirit.
As a First-rate Martial Art, it required the practitioner to have reached the Innate Realm before they could begin. Other First-rate Martial Arts, by contrast, could be practiced by Houtian Martial Artists, who could learn a few moves for self-defense.
Moreover, even after mastering it, someone at Xiantian Peak could only use it five times a day at most. Any more would leave them with a splitting headache and a clouded mind.
"I wonder what the Game Panel will turn it into after simplifying it?"
After closing the chest, Zhao Ping'an began carefully reading the three manuals in his hands. He started with the Mystic Pupil Soul Bewildering Technique.
The other two were the Second-rate Martial Art Willow Leaf Dart and the First-rate Martial Art Iron Mountain Palm.
A full hour passed, and the bright moon had already risen high before Zhao Ping'an finished reading all three martial arts.
At some point, all three techniques had appeared on his Game Panel.
[Mystic Pupil Soul Bewildering Technique (First-rate Martial Art): 0/500 (Not Started, Simplified) Stare intently with both eyes at the hole in the center of a copper coin five meters away for 1 minute to gain 1 Training Progress] [Iron Mountain Palm (First-rate Martial Art): 0/500 (Not Started, Simplified) Strike an iron pillar 100 times in succession with both palms to gain 1 Training Progress] [Willow Leaf Dart (Second-rate Martial Art): 0/300 (Not Started, Simplified) Hit a target one meter in diameter from ten meters away with a pebble 100 times to gain 1 Training Progress]
"Not bad. They're all pretty easy. It's time to get down to some serious cultivation."
Looking at the cultivation methods for the three new martial arts on his panel, Zhao Ping'an nodded in satisfaction.
Of course, for him, the power of these three techniques was nothing special yet. They would only truly be useful once the Game Panel had deduced them a few more times and raised them to the same level as his cultivation.
Afterward, Zhao Ping'an sat cross-legged on the bed and began carefully planning his daily cultivation schedule while absorbing and exhaling Heavenly Qi.
First were the two cultivation methods that increased his cultivation: the Golden Armor Technique and the Primordial Chaos Art. They were his foundation, and he had to spend a great deal of time practicing them.
As for the five remaining martial arts of varying levels, Zhao Ping'an decided to first deduce them until they were all at the same level.
After planning for more than half an hour, Zhao Ping'an finally finished scheduling the time for all his cultivation methods and martial arts.
Before you continue