Basic Inner Skill 1.0, First Battle with Tang San

"Three months, and I've only improved by one and a half levels. This is still a little too slow."

In Old Jack's underground vegetable cellar, Chen Ming opened his eyes after finishing his cultivation. Feeling the progress of the Soul Power within his body, dissatisfaction still lingered in his gaze.

During the first month, through constant experimentation, Chen Ming had created Basic Internal Skill 1.0, based on the traditional Meditation Method and structured around the meridian concepts of internal martial arts. Compared to the traditional Meditation Method, Basic Internal Skill 1.0 was roughly thirty percent more efficient.

After that, apart from eating, drinking, relieving himself, and exercising, Chen Ming spent every day focused on entering meditation to cultivate while trying to refine his Meditation Method. After two months of adjustments to the finer details, his cultivation speed had increased by another ten percent.

By his estimates, his current cultivation speed was already close to that of a Spirit Master with Innate Full Soul Power using a traditional Meditation Method.

If Chen Ming's computing power before awakening his Martial Soul had been 1, then that of a normally educated person who had received higher education would have been around 0.8. For an ordinary farmer in the Douluo World, it would probably have been only around 0.5, perhaps even lower.

After awakening his Martial Soul, Chen Ming's computing power had doubled, reaching 2. After three months of gradually adapting to his Martial Soul and Soul Power, along with intensive computational training, his computing power was now around 2.5.

Although roughly thirty percent of that computing power belonged to fixed bodily instincts, and casually drawing upon it would cause all sorts of problems in his body, Chen Ming's own 1.75 computing power still far surpassed that of ordinary people.

Conservatively speaking, given another year, Chen Ming would be able to upgrade Basic Internal Skill 1.0 to version 1.1. At that point, he would gain a cultivation speed exceeding that of most Spirit Masters with Innate Full Soul Power.

But Chen Ming was still dissatisfied, because his Basic Internal Skill had no other special effects. It merely cultivated a little faster and condensed Soul Power a little more thoroughly.

Forget advanced effects like endless vitality, attribute enhancement, immunity to all poisons, or rapid healing—even the most basic effect of prolonged breath was absent.

Put nicely, this Basic Internal Skill was balanced and peaceful, possessing no attribute and conflicting with no attribute or Martial Soul. Put bluntly, it did not even work especially well with his own earth attribute, completely incapable of producing an effect where one plus one exceeded two.

Moreover, because he had too few references and could not conduct aggressive experiments on himself, Chen Ming's progress had become increasingly slow after the tremendous breakthrough he had made in initially creating the meridian structure and circulation.

To improve further, he needed to work on that fixed computing power, deepening his cultivation by adjusting his body's instinctive responses and functions. Both the difficulty and time required for such a task were extremely daunting.

Give Chen Ming seven or eight years, and he was confident that even if he shut himself away to work things out alone, he could cultivate Basic Internal Skill to an extremely high level. But that was simply far too slow.

Yet due to the unfortunate cultivation system of Douluo Continent, Chen Ming did not have many targets to use as references.

Finally, just before setting out for Nuoding City, Chen Ming, who had held himself back for three months, could no longer suppress the restlessness in his heart. After repeatedly confirming that his excuse sounded reasonable, one evening, Chen Ming blocked Tang San's path as he ran continuously through the mountains.

"Little San, long time no see." Chen Ming waved and greeted Tang San.

"Indeed. So what do you need from me?" Tang San looked at Chen Ming, a trace of surprise flashing through his eyes. He spoke in a cold, rejecting manner, full of vigilance toward Chen Ming's sudden appearance.

Chen Ming and Tang San knew each other, but they were not particularly familiar. Although Chen Ming had once considered building a good relationship with Tang San and obtaining the Mysterious Heaven Skill from him, after several interactions, Chen Ming had figured out Tang San's personality.

Suspicious, arrogant, cold, and deeply self-centered. When acting, Tang San often liked to find himself some moral high ground as an excuse.

If Chen Ming spent enough time improving their relationship and let Tang San see him as a subordinate or a brother in name, it would not be difficult. But that was the absolute limit. Becoming true brothers with Tang San was impossible.

Tang San would never truly accept anyone, unless that person was called Xiao Wu.

As for obtaining secret Tang Sect techniques such as the Mysterious Heaven Skill, the chances were infinitely close to zero. There was also a great possibility that he might accidentally be poisoned to death while eating, or accidentally be crushed by some stone that had come from who knew where while walking. Thus, Chen Ming had not interacted much with Tang San, afraid that he would be branded as someone courting death.

But now that his Martial Soul had awakened and he had created Basic Internal Skill using his own knowledge, Chen Ming had become somewhat bolder. He planned to test Tang San's capabilities a little and gather information about him, to see whether he could reverse-engineer some useful intelligence for himself.

"Little San, in a few days, we'll be heading to Nuoding City Junior Soul Master Academy. To be honest, as children from the countryside, I'm afraid we'll be bullied."

"I've always wanted to find someone to test combat between Martial Souls and Spirit Masters, but there isn't anyone suitable in the village. Little San, I've thought about it for a long time. Since you have Innate Full Soul Power, you must possess something extraordinary."

"How about the two of us spar? We can familiarize ourselves with combat between Spirit Masters."

Chen Ming's words were sincere and earnest, but they provoked Tang San.

Hmph, does this man take me for a soft target?

A cold glint flashed through Tang San's eyes. He naturally assumed that after awakening an Earth Dragon Martial Soul, Chen Ming had begun looking down on his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. This so-called sparring was merely an excuse to pick a fight.

But on second thought, Tang San felt that Chen Ming's words were not entirely unreasonable. Adapting to combat between Spirit Masters before entering Soul Master Academy would also prepare them for the future.

Disciples of the Tang Sect never fought unprepared battles. Having a punching bag to familiarize himself with would not be bad.

"Fine. In that case, let's have a match."

Tang San casually agreed, then summoned his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. A blade of Blue Silver Grass appeared in his hand. With a flick of his elbow, Tang San lashed it out like a whip.

Although the fragile Blue Silver Grass burst apart the instant it struck Chen Ming's body, the force still left a shallow bloody mark on him.

Chen Ming silently cursed Tang San for having no martial virtue, then summoned his own Martial Soul as well. His body expanded and became beast-like, while savage scales resembling armor emerged across his skin, transforming him into a mighty half-man, half-beast warrior.

Although Tang San believed that, with the Tang Sect's unique arts at his disposal, he was inferior to no one, when he looked at Chen Ming's appearance, like a heavily armored general, then at the shattered Blue Silver Grass in his hand, irritation still rose in his heart.

"Roar—" Chen Ming let out a furious roar and charged at Tang San. He did not use his sharp claws, instead swinging his forearm down like a pendulum.

The Heavy Armored Earth Dragon restricted Chen Ming's fine control and agility, but it had little effect on his explosive power in a straight line. An ordinary Tool Martial Soul Spirit Scholar should not have been able to react in time.

Yet a trace of purple flashed through Tang San's eyes. His feet moved in strange steps, and with a sway at an odd angle, he slipped directly out of Chen Ming's attack. Then his hands faintly glowed as he struck toward Chen Ming's chest.

Thud—

After activating Mysterious Jade Hand, Tang San only felt as though he had struck a slab of rock. The rebound jolted his hands painfully. Not only had he achieved nothing, his hands had been numbed by the impact.

Chen Ming did not change tactics. He merely dropped his shoulder and rammed toward Tang San.

A fierce glint flashed through Tang San's eyes. The Soul Power of the Mysterious Heaven Skill surged forth like a tide as he used Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon. Grabbing Chen Ming's shoulder, Tang San shifted and twisted, directly throwing off the strength in Chen Ming's lower body and pushing him back several steps.

Two Spirit Scholars who had not yet obtained their first Spirit Rings fought fiercely on the small mountain. Tang San used all kinds of techniques, yet found it difficult to break through the scales covering Chen Ming's body, forcing him to target Chen Ming's joints and face.

After suffering twice, Chen Ming protected his joints and face. Like a wild bull, he continuously launched collisions with his massive body, only for Tang San to evade each time with the footwork of Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.

Tang San felt as though every attack he landed on Chen Ming was striking a massive, hard stone. His martial skills were difficult to unleash, and he could only hop and dart about like a flea while barely attempting attacks.

Chen Ming, meanwhile, appeared to be in a miserable position as Tang San relied on his movement technique to treat him like a stationary target, but he was not actually upset. Though he seemed to be passively taking blows, Chen Ming's goal had never been to defeat Tang San. It was to gather Tang San's data through their spar and attempt to reverse-engineer it.

After grinding against each other for over ten minutes, Tang San cursed in annoyance, then used Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to move away from Chen Ming. "Forget it, no more fighting. Your defense is too boring."

After leaving those words behind, Tang San did not wait to see whether Chen Ming agreed. He turned and left directly. Seeing this, Chen Ming could only shrug, release his Martial Soul Possession, and return to his room.

He lay on the bed and pretended to sleep, while secretly activating his AI Thinking and dedicating most of his computing power to analyzing the spar he had just had with Tang San.

Secret internal arts such as the Mysterious Heaven Skill and Purple Demon Eye were difficult to analyze in one go, but the Mysterious Jade Hand and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track Tang San had used were comparatively easier to analyze and understand.

Without Tang San's knowledge, Chen Ming used his astonishing computing power to replay their spar in his mind, beginning to slowly decipher Tang San's ultimate techniques bit by bit.