Atypical (Request for Recommendation Tickets)

The next mission would render Secret Treasures, talismans, and the like useless, placing the emphasis on personal strength. Meng Qi's original plans for his exchanges needed some adjustment. After a moment's hesitation, he spoke as he thought it over:

"After stepping onto the First Heavenly Stair, improving your strength requires constant insight into the workings of Heaven and Earth and the weaving together of more principles. Simply secluding yourself in cultivation won't be of much use. But I've learned a great many different things, so I plan to spend six months sorting through and integrating my saber arts, sword arts, fist techniques, palm techniques, and the rest, truly unifying the moves I've learned into my own."

Though the Eight-Nine Arcane Art could contain myriad transformations and excel at imitation, allowing Meng Qi to use all these moves without issue, there was still a marked difference between merely using them and truly mastering and incorporating them into himself. The former amounted to rigidly executing moves, at most choosing when to use each one. The transitions and variations in combat lacked fluidity, making it easy for opponents to spot an opening. If not for the Eight-Nine Arcane Art's ability to sense danger and endure attacks head-on, Meng Qi might already have suffered for this shortcoming.

The latter, by contrast, meant drawing out the essence of the Overlord's Six Slashes and some of the Nine Annihilations of the Divine Firmament moves he had initially mastered, then blending them into his own saber arts. He would no longer be bound by fixed moves, but could bring them out at will, combining their strengths and compensating for their weaknesses until they flowed together without a flaw!

It was like using storytelling as a metaphor for swordsmanship: each move was a plot device. After suddenly learning