Secret Art Inheritance

"Secret Art of Spiritual Power?"

Bai Xiaowen immediately thought of the bizarre shield covering the strange serpent's body during their previous battle—though it had actually been a gigantic Antahe person—as well as the subsequent Spirit Spike spell.

The Antahe Caretaker nodded. "Yes. Antahe People excel at tempering Spirit Power. Using Spirit Power as the foundation and Spiritual Power as the body, they can construct powerful Mind Power Armor. It can dissolve the offensive energy contained within an opponent's attacks, or even devour the enemy's offensive energy for their own use..."

"That's incredible. I can understand Mind Power Armor, but what principle allows it to dissolve and devour an enemy's energy attacks?" Bai Xiaowen asked.

The Antahe Caretaker said, "Any Spiritual Power attack is actually controlled by the attacker's Spiritual Power. Spiritual Power is the commander, while Spiritual Power is the soldier. The essence of Antahe's Psionic Secret Art is to use techniques on the spiritual level to defeat the enemy's Spiritual Power commander. Then the Spiritual Power soldiers will Collapse Without Fighting, or may even be absorbed by our side."

Bai Xiaowen nodded and asked, "Would Secret Art of Spiritual Power be less effective against opponents with strong Spirit Power Mastery?"

The Antahe Caretaker nodded. "It would, but that depends on exactly how strong the opponent's Spirit Power Mastery is, as well as your own attainments in Secret Art of Spiritual Power. Secret Art of Spiritual Power can be divided into multiple realms. With every realm you advance, the Condensation Degree of your Spiritual Power will greatly increase, and its effects will naturally become much stronger as well."

Bai Xiaowen reacted quickly. "Since Spiritual Power attacks all carry the attacker's Spiritual Power for control, then after cultivating Antahe's Psionic Secret Art and tempering my Spiritual Power, does that mean my control will also improve when I launch Spiritual Power attacks?"

"You could say that." The Antahe Caretaker was somewhat astonished by Bai Xiaowen's ability to draw inferences from one example.

Bai Xiaowen's heart stirred. His Spirit Power Mastery specialization had been stuck at Expert Level 5, unable to break through. Could he use Antahe's Psionic Secret Art as a reference to help himself break through the shackles of Expert Level and reach Master Grade?

After all, Spirit Power Mastery was meant to strengthen one's control over Spiritual Power.

"How long does it take to successfully cultivate Secret Art of Spiritual Power?" Bai Xiaowen asked.

The Antahe Caretaker smiled. "This secret art is a thousand-year inheritance of the Antahe Kingdom. It is profound and extensive, with no end in sight. I will use a Spirit Imprint to pass the secret art, along with my own insights, directly to you. This will greatly speed up your cultivation progress... By my estimate, you will reach Initial Mastery in only a hundred days. However, to achieve modest success, you will need at least three hundred days."

The unit of time the Antahe Caretaker referred to—a day—was one rotation of Profound Ice Star, or the time it took for the other eight major stars to complete one circuit through the sky.

Profound Ice Star was roughly the same size as Earth. In other words, one day for the Antahe Caretaker was about the same as one day on Earth.

Speaking of planetary size, Bai Xiaowen suddenly realized that many planets in the Land of Origin seemed to be about the same size as Earth. Judging from the two planets he had passed through so far, both had atmospheres, water vapor, and other conditions similar to Earth's basic environment. He had no idea why.

"A hundred days just to reach Initial Mastery? That's so long..." Bai Xiaowen muttered to himself. If so, his exploration progress in the Land of Origin would fall behind everyone else's.

Still, Bai Xiaowen understood the principle that Sharpening the Axe Does Not Delay Woodcutting. Since this secret art would help his growth, learning it could only benefit him.

In particular, the Planet Cluster containing Profound Ice Star was one of the rare clusters whose celestial bodies followed stable orbital patterns and were unlikely to collide. It was a good place for Secluded Cultivation.

Bai Xiaowen quickly accepted the Antahe Caretaker's gift. The Caretaker directly used a Spirit Imprint to transmit the cultivation method of Antahe's Psionic Secret Art, a thousand-year Antahe inheritance, into Bai Xiaowen's sea of consciousness.

This method of transmission through a Spirit Imprint was quite remarkable. It passed on one's understanding of a particular skill together with its cultivation method.

Ordinary instruction only gave someone a blank textbook, while this kind of transmission stuffed the textbook, reference books, a Senior Student's notes, Collection of Mistakes, and everything else into the successor's mind all at once. As long as the recipient thoroughly understood the contents, they would quickly master the cultivation method, and their level of mastery would also make Rapid Progress.

Bai Xiaowen then began cultivating beneath this Ice Palace.

The cultivation of Secret Art of Spiritual Power was divided into three parts: Visualization, Tempering, and Construction.

Visualization involved visualizing some supreme and immense object within one's sea of consciousness, elevating one's spiritual state. The most common object of Visualization among Antahe People was a statue of Sea God Neptune.

The process of Tempering was combined with Visualization. While visualizing the object, one's Spiritual Power would naturally be tempered.

The final step, Construction, was also the most important. It transformed the tempered Spiritual Power into Rune Lines, constructing them into a stable Building-like form—the Soul Tower.

Turning scattered Spiritual Power into a solid, sturdy pagoda in itself required extremely condensed Spiritual Power.

The higher the Soul Tower was built, the greater the Condensation Degree of one's Spiritual Power, and the deeper one's attainment in Secret Art of Spiritual Power.

According to the Antahe Caretaker, the Twelve Sages were all at the level of a four-story Soul Tower. Throughout the thousand-year history of the Antahe Kingdom, only three people on record had ever reached the level of a five-story Soul Tower.

As for anything above five stories, it was a blank slate. Even the Antahe Caretaker did not know whether a higher path existed.

The "Initial Mastery" the Caretaker had mentioned referred to constructing the first level of the Soul Tower. Upon reaching this realm, one could use "Psionic Armor," taking Spiritual Power as its foundation and Spirit Power as its filling to construct powerful defenses for the body.

"Modest success" referred to constructing the second level of the Soul Tower. At that point, one could consciously remove part of the Spiritual Power attached to an enemy's Spiritual Power attack, causing it to enter an Out of Control State and thereby reducing its power. This ability was also called "Spirit Dissolution."

Bai Xiaowen began the cultivation process of Visualization and Tempering.

The more he cultivated, the more he felt that Secret Art of Spiritual Power was indeed profound and extensive. There was truly more than one path of evolution in this world, and the Antahe People's spiritual secret art was a prime example of forging a different path.

This was only the achievement of a single Demi-human Race modified by Sea God Neptune. Thinking of the many Demi-human Races, just how brilliant and magnificent must their Ancient Civilizations have been?

The Demi-human Races were already this powerful. How formidable, then, must the various Deities behind them be?

Bai Xiaowen keenly felt the vastness of the world. He was merely a frog at the bottom of a well, and he needed to be cautious upon cautious, steady upon steady. When he should cower, he absolutely would not act recklessly; of course, when he Should Go Up, he absolutely would not cower.