"Next, it was time to optimize this sword art." Although the Spirit Wind Sword Art had just demonstrated its extraordinary qualities, for Chen Yuan, the problem was that it was still too difficult to master.
Only secret arts optimized through the system could achieve a perfect fit with Chen Yuan. Moreover, the Spirit Wind Sword Art's greatest flaw was its lack of force-exertion techniques, leaving his force multiplier at only 1.3 even now.
Remember the launch site domain .
Now that he knew the Spirit Wind Sword Art's secret lay in the Wind Artistic Conception, he only needed to preserve its most essential part during the optimization.
Thus, Chen Yuan did not hesitate. With a thought, he opened the optimization page on the panel.
"System, optimize the Spirit Wind Sword Art. Optimization direction: use Conception as the core, increase the secret art's power, improve its force-exertion techniques, and abandon universality to optimize it solely for me."
Optimization task established. Current optimization target: Spirit Wind Sword Art. Optimization direction: retain its Conception-related characteristics, increase the secret art's power and force-exertion techniques, abandon universality, and optimize according to the host's circumstances. Estimated Kill Point cost: 16. Establish optimization task?
"Sixteen Kill Points... As expected, it had doubled." Chen Yuan felt fortunate. Thankfully, after abandoning universality, optimizing the secret art only required one percent of the Kill Points. Otherwise, the 125 Kill Points he had would truly not have been enough.
That was right. After Chen Yuan killed the three Tiger Mastiff Dog leaders, his Kill Point total had reached 125.
Since he had enough Kill Points, Chen Yuan naturally saw no need to be frugal and quickly confirmed the optimization.
Optimization task established. Optimization time: 15 hours.
"As expected of an A-rank secret art. Even its optimization time was this long." Chen Yuan sighed as he looked at the remaining optimization time.
Then Chen Yuan picked up his sword and headed into the county town.
"Since it was still early, I might as well farm some Kill Points first."
The cold moonlight shone upon Chen Yuan, stretching his shadow farther with every step.
As time passed, the jade rabbit vanished and the golden crow rose. Within County 0247 in the Wilderness Zone, Chen Yuan opened his eyes inside an abandoned apartment building.
Opening the panel, Chen Yuan glanced at the information he was interested in.
Remaining optimization time: 30 minutes. Kill Points: 583.
Subtracting yesterday's remainder, this meant that Chen Yuan had gained 474 Kill Points by slaughtering nearby Monsters last night. It also meant that at least a hundred Monsters had died beneath Chen Yuan's sword.
It was not that Chen Yuan could not kill more. The county town simply was not large enough to attract many Monsters to gather here, leaving them too scattered.
There was another reason as well. Chen Yuan's main purpose was cultivation. After killing for a while each time, he would find a base, practice the Guiding Technique, and enter Deep Sleep to recover.
By now, including this awakening from Deep Sleep, Chen Yuan had cultivated three times in total.
Looking at the remaining optimization time on the panel, Chen Yuan took out a piece of Monster meat he had casually picked up last night, built a fire, skewered the meat, and set it over the flames to roast.
The Monsters within several kilometers of this base had basically been cleared out by Chen Yuan, so he was not worried about any Monsters coming to disturb him.
And that was indeed the case. Time slowly passed as Chen Yuan leisurely ate breakfast. Once he had finished eating, the optimization progress bar finally reached its end.
Optimization task complete. The secret art "Spirit Wind Sword Art" has been optimized into "Unnamed" (click to expand details).
Chen Yuan gave a soft exclamation, finding it strange that the optimized secret art had no name this time.
After asking the system, Chen Yuan received an answer.
It was actually quite simple. The system had not found a name in Chen Yuan's memories that matched this new secret art.
Whether it was the earlier Hibernation Method: Crystal Visualization or the later Muscle-Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing Classic, the system had used Chen Yuan's memories as a template to select names that matched the characteristics of the secret arts.
This time, however, Chen Yuan had optimized the Spirit Wind Sword Art entirely according to the rules of the Swallowed Star world. Naturally, the system could not find a similar name in his memories.
"I see. Let me see what this new secret art can do." Chen Yuan curiously opened the secret art's details.
Unnamed: Combat secret art. Rating: Ultimate. A combat secret art centered on the Wind Artistic Conception, consisting of swordsmanship, movement techniques, and a Guiding Technique. Its specific effects are as follows: 1. Cultivating this secret art can additionally increase movement speed, sword-drawing speed, and neural reaction speed. 2. Allows early mastery of the Wind Artistic Conception and improves the cultivation efficiency of swordsmanship techniques below the Conception Level. 3. Increases Force Exertion Level, with a maximum Force Exertion Level of 5. 4. Assists in comprehending the Unity of Heaven and Man technique. 5. After the secret art is perfected, increases the efficiency of comprehending "Domain." 6. After the secret art is perfected, slightly increases affinity with the Wind Law.
Chen Yuan read through the secret art's abilities one by one, his mouth gradually falling open. "It's this powerful? It can even help comprehend Domain and increase Law affinity!"
Chen Yuan received the secret art's contents. This time, he studied them for a full half hour before leaning against the wall and closing his eyes to process the information.
After a long while, Chen Yuan opened his eyes and sighed. "So that was it."
He could now be certain that the Chen Family's bodies were indeed different from ordinary people.
Of course, this did not mean they were not Earthlings. Rather, the Chen Family bloodline contained certain hidden special gene fragments, and it was these genes that gave the Chen Family their unique talent.
Chen Yuan still did not know what these gene fragments were, but according to his guess, they might be related to that "Law affinity."
Simply put, the Chen Family differed from ordinary people. They were naturally closer to the Law of Wind.
This also explained why, during the Great Nirvana, Chen Yuan's grandfather Chen Xuandao had been able to push the power of a C-rank secret manual to A-rank—because he had comprehended the Conception of Wind and instantly become a top expert who wielded Conception Level techniques.
Likewise, it explained why only Chen Family members could master the Spirit Wind Sword Art. No matter how talented others might be, without that special gene fragment in their bodies, they would ultimately be unable to comprehend the Wind Artistic Conception through a mere C-rank sword art.
Back then, Hong might have seen through this point and thus rated the Spirit Wind Sword Art as a C-rank secret manual rather than an A-rank one. After all, for the vast majority of people, this sword art's upper limit was indeed limited.
Therefore, the reason this secret art optimized from the Spirit Wind Sword Art possessed those final two astonishing abilities—increasing the efficiency of comprehending "Domain" and slightly increasing Wind Law affinity—was precisely because the secret art perfectly matched Chen Yuan's body. Combined with the special genes within the Chen Family bloodline, it produced this nearly heaven-defying effect.
"Since that's the case, then besides continuing to increase my strength, my next priority is cultivating this secret art." Chen Yuan looked at the words Unnamed on the secret art and thought for a moment. "I'll call this new secret art the Gale Sword Art."
The origin of this name was simple—compared to the Spirit Wind Sword Art, this new secret art's core advantage was speed, which was also the first effect of the secret art.
According to the secret manual's description, once Chen Yuan cultivated this secret art to perfection, his sword-drawing speed and movement speed would double again from their current foundation, while his neural reaction speed would increase by two levels.
One had to know that because of the Spirit Wind Sword Art, Chen Yuan's sword-drawing speed had already increased by seventy percent and his movement techniques by fifty percent. If they doubled again on that basis, just how fast would he become? Even Chen Yuan found it difficult to imagine.
Not to mention what a two-level increase in neural reaction speed meant. As an Advanced Warrior, Chen Yuan's neural reactions would be comparable to those of an Intermediate War General.
All three improvements targeted the attribute of "speed."
Therefore, Gale Sword Art was quite a fitting name.
As Chen Yuan's thought settled, the secret art's name on the panel changed accordingly.
Gale Sword Art: Combat secret art. Rating: Ultimate. Current progress: Beginner/Proficient (0.01%).
"Huh? What's going on with this progress?" Chen Yuan asked the panel, then suddenly understood. "It's because I have already mastered the Wind Artistic Conception, so theoretically I'm at the Proficient level. But I haven't cultivated this secret art yet, so I'm still at the Beginner stage."
"Since it's a new secret art, I'll start over." With a thought, Chen Yuan erased the word Proficient after the secret art's progress.
After finishing all this, Chen Yuan packed his backpack, stamped out the fire, then pushed open the apartment door and walked out.
"Time to cultivate properly."
Before you continue