"Boom! Boom!"
The two flying saucers shot through the air and finally left Monster Town.
Bai Yang carried three cases in his hands as he walked out of the conference room.
He froze slightly when he stepped outside. The area was packed with people.
Most of the Quasi-Martial Artists who had come to take the practical assessment hadn't left. They'd stayed behind to see what the examinee named Bai Yang was really like.
Luo Feng and Yang Wu stood at the front of the crowd. The moment they saw him, they hurried over to help.
Of course, Bai Yang had to carry the Mount Hua Sword himself, so he handed the other two metal cases to them.
With each of them carrying a case, it was much easier to walk.
Some of the Quasi-Martial Artists gradually gathered around, hoping to stop him and ask questions.
Then came the sharp clatter of guns being loaded.
General Tie marched out with the soldiers stationed there, his face cold.
They formed two lines of soldiers to clear a path for the three of them.
Anyone who wanted to approach would have to get past the armed soldiers first. This was no joke.
As more than a thousand people silently watched them, the three felt deeply uncomfortable. They hurried into a train compartment, shut the door, and waited to head home.
"Whew! We finally made it on. Brother Bai Yang, that was terrifying!" Luo Feng said, gazing out at the crowd, who still weren't willing to leave.
"It really was frightening. Brother Bai, take a few days to rest. Once our records have been updated in a couple of days, we'll come find you in the main district," Yang Wu added.
Bai Yang readily agreed. He'd gained a great deal that day and just wanted to get home as soon as possible so he could take stock of everything.
Everyone was too tired to talk during the trip.
At the same time, all kinds of information were being sent around the world, setting off wave after wave of commotion.
Bai Yang let out a breath and sank onto the sofa. He'd finally made it back to the dorm!
If Principal Wei hadn't sent someone ahead to meet him, it wouldn't have been nearly so easy to get back.
Was this the trouble that came with being famous?
Bai Yang felt both secretly pleased and thoroughly inconvenienced.
Well, it really did bring more trouble than anything else. Better to avoid it whenever possible.
He got up, opened the fridge, and took out a chilled drink.
With quick, practiced movements, Bai Yang opened the three cases.
He'd use the Mount Hua Sword regularly, and he couldn't carry its case around all the time, so he left it in the dorm.
When he needed it, he could wrap it in the cloth bag that came with it and sling it over his shoulder.
He had no idea what the fabric was made of, but it was unbelievably tough. There was no need to worry about it getting damaged.
One of the cases held a Series 9 Combat Suit. Its full price was around twelve billion Huaxia Currency.
It was said to be capable of withstanding attacks from Lord-level Monsters, though to him, it was better than nothing.
The case also included various odds and ends, like a backpack and a watch.
Compared with everything else, these were just extras, so no one had bothered to mention them to him.
The other case held the complete Mist Sword manual.
Unlike the material anyone could exchange for, this set from Jia Yi was the real, complete version!
Along with the regular training instructions were notes by his old friend, the technique's founder, Linghu Yi.
Bai Yang only needed to flip it open and glance at it to know it was the original.
The handwriting inside was exactly the same as the characters engraved on the case.
He first skimmed through the organized manuals, then watched the accompanying videos.
Finally, he examined the notes. As expected, they were completely unsystematic, full of wild ideas.
Most of them were practically impossible to train successfully.
But a few of his ideas were genuinely original and distinctive.
The man was probably used to being careless and had died too soon to properly organize his notes.
Bai Yang closed his eyes and thought it over for a moment. Convinced that the notes held real value, he decided to revisit them from time to time.
Next came formal training in Mist Sword.
Although it had a low rating, Mist Sword was Mount Hua's strongest technique, and it included swordsmanship, footwork, and a Guidance Technique.
Bai Yang only glanced at the footwork section and recalled the video demonstration. That was enough for him to master it.
The expert demonstrating it in the video was an Advanced War God.
But honestly, Bai Yang thought his movements were both clumsy and foolish.
He could spot at least seven or eight flaws at a glance. There was hardly anything worth learning.
He checked the explanatory manual and found that the man's footwork was described as "Conception-level."
Only then did Bai Yang realize he might have misunderstood the current levels of cultivation on Earth.
He'd unknowingly gotten stuck in a rut, and he now understood a little more about why Jia Yi valued him so highly.
The basic principle of the Guidance Technique was to raise the limit of how much cosmic energy one's cells could absorb.
Hong had created nine top-tier Guidance Techniques, reputed to be the best in the world.
Bai Yang tried one out briefly, but the effect didn't seem all that noticeable.
Because of his monster-like transformation, his absorption ability was already frighteningly strong. The Guidance Technique's benefits didn't really show.
The efficiency of absorbing cosmic energy on its own was nothing compared with using medicines like Spirit of Vegetation or Moya Crystal.
Trying to grow stronger through this method was simply too inefficient.
He could practice it briefly each night. Once he entered War God Camp, he'd have the chance to exchange for one of Hong's Guidance Techniques and use it as a reference.
His main focus still needed to be on sword techniques.
Taking the Mount Hua Sword with him, Bai Yang headed to East District Building 3.
There was plenty of space there, perfect for practicing.
Mist Sword had seven levels in all. The first level alone required a practitioner to learn eighty-one sword techniques.
The second level doubled that, requiring 162 techniques.
By the sixth level, the number had risen to 2,592.
The seventh and highest level required condensing all 5,103 techniques from the previous levels into thirty-six moves.
Yet after mastering the entire sword art, the force multiplier was only three times.
Bai Yang couldn't help being amazed. This was exactly the style of ancient swordsmanship.
It was completely different from modern swordsmanship, which focused more on combining strength and speed.
Ancient swordsmanship was aimed more at people, emphasizing endless variations and stopping just short of a hit.
Modern swordsmanship, on the other hand, was aimed more at monsters, emphasizing levels of force and a thunderous strike.
No wonder a technique like this was rated so poorly.
Bai Yang had a photographic memory. He picked up the Mount Hua Sword and began practicing the eighty-one moves of the first level.
On his first pass, he focused only on getting the forms right and didn't care about their power. In just two hours, he'd gone through all 5,139 moves.
He sat cross-legged and began thinking about the connections between them.
At his level of swordsmanship, he didn't need to learn many of the moves at all.
He could perform quite a few of them with considerable force right away. What he wanted was to learn from the moves how to use hidden force and increase his force multiplier.
He knew the original story well and had understood from the start that there were two key principles.
First, his muscles needed to be relaxed yet controlled—that was what people meant by combining hardness and softness. Hidden force should erupt only when needed, so his body could withstand it.
Second, hidden force traveled through the muscles, tendons, and bones throughout the entire body. Every muscle should take part in generating it, rather than limiting it to the hands and feet.
Once mastered, hidden force could achieve the same force multiplier in every part of the body.
Before you continue