First Glimpse of the Door

[Collapse Mountain Fist, Heart Like Mountain, a single punch thrown as if a giant mountain topples]

[First Glimpse of the Door: Amplifies Strength by 3 Points]

[Mastery Through Practice: Amplifies Strength by 6 Points]

[Perfected Skill: Amplifies Strength by 9 Points]

[Entering the Hall and Room: Amplifies Strength by 12 Points]

[Supernatural Skill: Amplifies Strength by 20 Points]

"So Martial Skills are divided into five stages..."

Yang Ling subconsciously glanced at his own Attribute Panel.

Character: Yang Ling

Class: Martial Artist

Level: 8

Strength: 11

Agility: 5

Spirit: 10

Martial Arts: Vajra Mingwang Technique (First-rate Cultivation Method, Beginner)

Experience Points: 10/100

Collapse Mountain Fist (Beginner)

Proficiency: 0/100

Health Points: 110

"Martial Arts cultivation methods use Experience Points, while Martial Skills use Proficiency. But at the starting stage, both only need 100 Points."

"Earlier, Wu Que's Black Tiger Fist was at Entering the Hall and Room, and Zhang Hao's Zhang Family Leg Technique was also at Entering the Hall and Room."

"And Huìnéng's Tablet Breaking Hand and Gale Step are both at Entering the Hall and Room."

"Judging by the amplification levels, the difficulty of the first four stages should be relatively normal. But the final Supernatural Skill is clearly very hard to reach, which is why it amplifies Strength by 20 Points all at once."

"Enough overthinking. Time to train!"

Yang Ling closed his eyes, his mind continuously recalling the training method of Collapse Mountain Fist.

The next second, he suddenly assumed a stance and began practicing methodically, one move at a time.

Time passed minute by minute.

About an hour later.

A layer of sweat had already appeared on Yang Ling's forehead.

Just then, a surge of warmth flowed into his body.

"Something's happening!"

He glanced at the Attribute Panel.

[Collapse Mountain Fist, Proficiency: 1/100]

"The Vajra Mingwang Technique only takes about fifteen minutes to increase 1 Experience Point. Why does an ordinary Martial Skill take a whole hour to increase 1 Proficiency?"

A flicker of doubt passed through Yang Ling's eyes.

Logically speaking, the training speed of Collapse Mountain Fist should be faster than the Vajra Mingwang Technique.

After all, this was just an ordinary fist technique.

"Forget it, just train."

Yang Ling couldn't be bothered to dwell on it and continued focusing on practicing the fist technique.

Occasionally, when tired, he would rest for a while.

Before he knew it, the roosters outside began to crow.

Yang Ling snapped back to awareness and checked the Attribute Panel again:

[Collapse Mountain Fist, Proficiency: 6/100]

"6 Proficiency Points? It doesn't have an upper limit like the Vajra Mingwang Technique?"

Yang Ling was somewhat pleasantly surprised.

To verify this, he had no intention of resting and continued cultivating Collapse Mountain Fist.

An hour later, the Proficiency increased by another point.

Before he knew it, it was noon.

[Collapse Mountain Fist, Proficiency: 12/100]

"Just as I thought..."

Yang Ling muttered to himself:

"There's no upper limit to practicing fist techniques... that means..."

A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he unconsciously clenched his fist:

"As long as I train hard every day, I can rack up 100 proficiency points in seven or eight days. At that point, I'll have reached the First Glimpse of the Door?"

A surge of motivation filled Yang Ling's heart.

But after staying up all night, he was a bit tired.

"Cultivating the Vajra Mingwang Technique seems to restore energy quickly. If I can use it to replace sleep, then I can spend all 24 hours leveling up..."

Yang Ling acted on the thought and began cultivating the Vajra Mingwang Technique.

A little over an hour later, he gathered another 5 Experience Points.

[Vajra Mingwang Technique, Experience Points: 15/100]

Yang Ling slowly opened his eyes, feeling completely refreshed, as if he had slept for ten hours.

"This is the feeling!"

His spirits were somewhat elevated.

He wolfed down two buns and then resumed practicing Collapse Mountain Fist.

Since he couldn't enter the mine for the next few days anyway, he might as well use the time to push his Collapse Mountain Fist proficiency.

For the next full West Five Days, Yang Ling didn't leave the house.

"Hah!"

After finishing a set of punches, Yang Ling felt thirsty and grabbed his cup, gulping down a few mouthfuls of water.

He glanced at his Attribute Panel:

[Vajra Mingwang Technique, Experience Points: 35/100]

[Collapse Mountain Fist, Proficiency: 99/100]

"Just one more proficiency point."

Yang Ling wiped the corner of his mouth and continued practicing.

Before he knew it, an hour had passed.

Collapse Mountain Fist's proficiency quietly reached 100 points.

Whoosh!

Yang Ling's fist suddenly carried a bit more power. When he threw a punch, even the sound of it cutting through the air was noticeably louder!

"I broke through!"

Yang Ling immediately checked his attributes:

Character: Yang Ling
Class: Martial Artist
Level: 8
Strength: 14 (3)
Agility: 5
Spirit: 10
Martial Arts: Vajra Mingwang Technique (First-rate Cultivation Method, Beginner)
Experience Points: 35/100
Collapse Mountain Fist (First Glimpse of the Door)
Proficiency: 0/1000
Health Points: 110

"Those 3 extra points of Strength come from Collapse Mountain Fist."

"I didn't expect to reach First Glimpse of the Door in just West Five Days, but..."

Yang Ling noticed that Collapse Mountain Fist's proficiency had become 1000.

"So to reach Mastery Through Practice, I'd have to grind day and night for West Fifty Days?"

"Would Perfected Skill require 10,000 proficiency points? That'd take over a year..."

"And Entering the Hall and Room? That would take over a decade—and that's with nonstop training?"

Yang Ling's burning enthusiasm was suddenly doused by a bucket of cold water.

He finally understood why Wu Que and the others only trained their Martial Skills to Entering the Hall and Room.

Those guys must have already been cultivating for over a decade at least.

As for Supernatural Skill... that would probably take over a hundred years.

He would die of old age before reaching the next level, unless...

"Unless I'm gifted. If I can gain 10 proficiency points per hour from practicing punches, my progress would increase tenfold..."

"Collapse Mountain Fist isn't the main issue. Looking at this... the Experience Points for Vajra Mingwang Technique might align with proficiency."

"Even though it's only at the Seventh Layer, it has a daily cultivation cap—only 5 Points per day."

"The first layer alone takes 20 days."