The Surprise Brought by the Profound Grade Inner Art

After waiting for a while, Zhao Ping'an noticed that the deduction progress was also about 1% every thirty seconds, exactly the same as the previous two times.

As for the consumption of [Deduction Points], because his body cultivation had reached the seventh level of the Martial Venerable Realm after about a month of training, and the total amount of [Deduction Points] had increased again, it only consumed 60% of the total [Deduction Points].

While the art was being deduced, Zhao Ping'an skipped breakfast and immediately flashed away from Wu'an Mountain. In a small valley a dozen miles away, he began experimenting with various attack methods of True Essence and their effects.

At this time, the outer wall had just finished compacting the foundation and was preparing to build the base.

Although the exposed outer wall was two zhang high, with the part buried underground, the total height would exceed three zhang. The cross-section resembled a right trapezoid, making it sturdy and durable, so the estimated construction period was about three months.

After the outer wall was completely finished, Zhao Ping'an decided to renovate the location of the main gate as well, gradually turning Wu'an Mountain into a solid fortress.

It wasn't until lunchtime that Zhao Ping'an returned to Wu'an Mountain, completely satisfied.

By then, the art Primordial Chaos Art had long been deduced, and the new Profound Grade Art was named: Four Symbols Gathering Essence Art.

[Four Symbols Gathering Essence Art (Profound Grade Art): 0/1500 (Entry Level, Simplified) Continuously absorbing world essence for thirty minutes can increase cultivation progress by 1 point]

This was the first time he had seen an art (martial art) whose cultivation difficulty had only tripled.

But this did not mean that Four Symbols Gathering Essence Art was weak; on the contrary, it was extremely monstrous.

Normally, when Martial Venerable Realm powerhouses condensed True Essence through their arts, the True Essence would be converted into that attribute based on the art's properties.

This included the most common five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Special attributes included ice, lightning, wind, light, darkness, and so on.

Ninety-nine percent of Martial Venerables only possessed True Essence of one attribute. Only those who cultivated special arts might possess multiple True Essence attributes, but the cultivation difficulty of such arts would increase exponentially.

Of course, the power of such arts far surpassed those of the same level.

Zhao Ping'an's Four Symbols Gathering Essence Art belonged to the category of arts with heaven-defying difficulty and equally heaven-defying effects.

It possessed four attributes: earth, fire, water, and wind.

These represented the four fundamental substances of the world.

Earth was the carrier of all things, water was the origin of life, fire was the continuation of life, and wind was the flow of the world.

The four attributes complemented each other, encompassing everything and capable of destroying everything.

After lunch, Zhao Ping'an, uncharacteristically, did not take a nap. Instead, he began to try cultivating Four Symbols Gathering Essence Art.

Because the panel indicated some changes in this cultivation compared to before, it no longer required sitting in meditation to absorb world essence. Therefore, he wanted to test his guess. If it worked, then...

After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Ping'an stood by the bedroom window, looking at the busy guards, workers, and herb farmers in the twilight. His expression was calm, but the corners of his mouth couldn't stop curling upwards.

After verification, he had confirmed his conjecture, and his mood was exceptionally pleasant.

"Four Symbols Gathering Essence Art, the word 'Gathering' in this name is truly not for nothing. It's indeed powerful..."

Sensing the surrounding heaven and earth origin energy continuously pouring into his body, Zhao Ping'an whispered softly, his face filled with emotion.

He had conducted multiple experiments. Whether it was meditating peacefully, practicing movement techniques while running at full speed, or constantly hitting iron pillars to cultivate his body, the Four Symbols Gathering Essence Art was always attracting the surrounding heaven and earth origin energy.

His body was like a giant vortex, unable to be filled no matter how much heaven and earth origin energy entered. Even if his dantian, qi sea, one hundred and eight acupoints, and twelve meridians were all filled with True Essence, the heaven and earth origin energy would still surge into his body. It just wouldn't be converted into True Essence anymore. Instead, it would disappear without a trace the moment it entered his body.

Zhao Ping'an guessed that all of this should be related to the Game Panel. He speculated that the destination of this excess heaven and earth origin energy was most likely being converted into [Deduction Points].

However, the conversion efficiency was unknown. Several hours had passed, and the deduction points on the panel remained motionless. He could only observe for a few more days before drawing a conclusion.

Perhaps all of this was just his imagination. The extra heaven and earth origin energy might have returned to the world.

What Zhao Ping'an was happy about now was the training progress of the Four Symbols Gathering Essence Art. Except for the few hours he slept, he was cultivating the rest of the time. Two proficiency points per hour, about twenty hours a day, meant forty points. It would take about twenty-five days to advance one major realm.

If people knew about this monstrous training speed, he would become an anomaly in the entire world, and countless top experts would probably want to capture him for research.

"It seems I need to cultivate a martial art to conceal my strength."

No sooner said than done, Zhao Ping'an quickly went to the study and began searching through the martial arts manuals he had plundered from the Sun Family.

No, no, still not...

One after another, after searching through hundreds of books, he finally found a second-rate martial art that could conceal strength, named the Turtle Breath Technique.

Once cultivated to perfection, if operated at full power, it could allow the user to enter a state of hibernation, making everything about them extremely weak.

After he read the Turtle Breath Technique in detail, the cultivation method immediately appeared on the panel.

[Turtle Breath Technique (Second-rate Martial Art): 0/300 (Entry Level, Simplified) Holding breath for one minute increases training progress by 1 point.]

Holding one's breath was a trivial matter for the current Zhao Ping'an.

When he broke through to the Innate Realm, he could enter a state of fetal breathing, allowing him to go an hour without breathing.

Now, at the Martial Venerable realm, he had extended this state several times, able to hold his breath for several hours. The myriad pores on his skin would replace his mouth and nose to provide oxygen to his body.

However, this was only the minimum level, just enough to sustain life. Once he engaged in strenuous exercise, he would need to breathe.

That very night, Zhao Ping'an achieved entry level in the Turtle Breath Technique. In the following few days, he cultivated it to perfection.

He also confirmed the destination of the disappearing heaven and earth origin energy. It was indeed being converted into [Deduction Points]. It could increase his points by about 1% per day. Combined with consuming large amounts of Demonic Beast meat, he could increase his [Deduction Points] by 4% to 5% per day, which was extremely fast.

His martial arts also experienced a burst of progress. First, he spent 5% of his [Deduction Points] to upgrade the Turtle Breath Technique to the first-rate martial art, Breath Concealing Art.

[Breath Concealing Art (First-rate Martial Art): 0/500 (Entry Level, Simplified) Holding breath for one minute increases training progress by 1 point.]

Shortly after, the Purple Light Ghostly Eyes, Five Thunders Sky Severing Palm, and Phantom Flying Dagger, these three Yellow-grade martial arts, also reached the perfection stage one after another.