Acupoint Divine Ability, Heavenly Leak!

[Evolving Acupoint Divine Ability (99/100)...]

Lu Ming felt this message emerge from deep within his body, and a trace of excitement rose in his heart.

The "99/100" at the end was something akin to experience points. A few days ago, after awakening his memories, he discovered that every time he finished striking the wooden stakes with nine rings, he would gain 1 experience point.

And this thing, the Divine Ability Panel, was a cheat he often used when playing games in his past life, and it had crossed over with him.

As long as he cultivated any technique with the Divine Ability Panel, he could evolve the corresponding divine ability!

As for why cultivating the Nine Palace Living Stakes evolved an Acupoint Divine Ability instead, he guessed it was because one of the key points of the Nine Palace Living Stakes was producing nine rings.

And the striking points were precisely the joints and such on the mannequins, so the panel recognized it as an acupoint-striking martial art.

Yesterday, his acupoint experience had almost reached 100, so he was a bit impatient, which led to training too long and sustaining minor injuries to his hands and feet.

Now that he had medicine, those injuries were nothing to worry about, so he naturally wanted to continue training. He was very curious about what kind of acupoint divine ability would evolve once he reached 100.

Perhaps, with this, he could improve his ranking even further!

He reached his hand forward, his body moving in response, stepping and circling around the stakes as he entered the Nine Palaces Stakes. He saw several red dots on the stakes coming into view from all directions, and he knew there was one more behind him.

The essence of walking the Nine Palace Living Stakes lay in how the practitioner allocated the order of striking the nine red dots to maximize time savings.

And the force that could be cultivated through the Nine Palace Living Stakes would gradually manifest in this process.

Dok dok dok...

Another nine rings!

Lu Ming walked out of the Nine Palaces Stakes, returned to the front of the wooden cabin, slightly out of breath, and stood still to collect his energy.

[Evolving Acupoint Divine Ability (100/100)...]

[Evolution complete!]

[Acquired Acupoint Divine Ability: Heaven Leak.]

[Heaven Leak]: All things have leaks, these are acupoints; strike their acupoints, damage their momentum, to replenish oneself.

As the divine ability finished evolving, Lu Ming felt his vision brighten, and a panel appeared before him.

[Acupoint Divine Ability]: Heaven Leak (Initial Completion).

Heaven Leak Divine Ability?

Lu Ming was a bit puzzled, but then his vision flickered, and the scene before his eyes changed. The surrounding wind faintly turned into gray dashed lines in his sight, and there were several black spots on the wooden cabin.

Those black spots were either corners of windows or cracks from years of neglect. Looking closely, the black spots seemed like small clusters of black smoke that the wind couldn't blow away.

That was... the "leak"!

Lu Ming suddenly realized—the Heaven Leak Divine Ability allowed him to see the flaws of all things, or rather, their "acupoints," their "weaknesses"!

He turned around, and the red dots on the nine mannequins of the Nine Palaces Stakes were now tinged with black in his eyes.

Those were the disharmonious points on the mannequins; the red dots themselves were the "weaknesses" specially made by the Military Service Bureau!

Now that he possessed the Heaven Leak Divine Ability, he had wanted to strike the leaks he saw on the cabin earlier, but he held back for fear of dismantling it.

Now, seeing the many black spots on the Nine Palaces Stakes, he couldn't hold back any longer. He stepped forward, using the Mud-Wading Steps, practically sliding across the ground as he entered.

The moment he stepped into the Nine Palaces Stakes, he struck out with one palm, slamming it fiercely into the black leak acupoint on the abdomen of the left wooden stake.

Thump!

The stake shook, emitting a soft sound.

The black leak acupoint scattered abruptly, but it coalesced again in an instant, because he had hit it but not shattered it. The leak acupoint remained.

Yet his body trembled, and he felt a surge of momentum blow toward him like wind, empowering him.

In that moment, his strength and momentum remained abundant, and even seemed to faintly increase!

Lu Ming was overjoyed in his heart. He had guessed as much earlier, but he hadn't expected it to truly mean this.

When ordinary people walked the Nine Palace Living Stakes, each strike inevitably affected their own momentum and footwork, prolonging the time to pass through the nine stakes and making it difficult to achieve the level of nine rings in three breaths.

People often said that a technique was "overused," leading to old force being spent while new force had yet to arise, allowing an opponent to seize the momentum and defeat them—it was a similar principle.

But with the Heaven Leak Divine Ability, as long as he could hit the acupoints on his target, his momentum would not diminish but instead increase in a short time!

If he could continuously strike acupoints without pause, his strength would forever remain at its peak, or even surpass normal limits!

A hundred thoughts raced through his mind, but his hands and feet didn't stop. He turned and stepped through the stakes, consecutively striking the red dots on the nine mannequins—the black acupoints in his Heaven Leak vision.

With each acupoint he struck, his momentum grew stronger, his footwork almost uninterrupted, and he smoothly produced nine rings.

Dok dok dok...

Finally, he stood at the other end of the Nine Palaces Stakes, his entire body's blood boiling with excitement.

He felt that his whole body was now like a single unit, all his strength twisted into one. After a long while, as he slowly calmed down, it was like a wad of cotton gradually fluffing out.

Warmth spread through every part of his body, his heart pounded fiercely, and a feeling of exhilarating release pierced straight through his crown, leaving him completely refreshed.

It was different—completely different from before.

Lu Ming clenched his fist tightly in excitement.

This is whole-body force! The whole-body force that the Military Service Bureau director spoke of, twisting the power of the entire body into one.

This is the mark of entering the Nine Palace Living Stakes. Just now, he had definitely reached the level of three breaths and nine sounds.

Moreover, after he finished one round, the Divine Ability Panel sent a message.

[Evolving Acupoint Divine Ability (1/1000)...]

This meant that his Acupoint Divine Ability could continue to evolve!

As long as he kept evolving the Acupoint Divine Ability, perhaps ranking high in the upcoming exams and becoming a martial arts seedling might not be impossible.

But his Heaven Leak Divine Ability was only at "initial completion" now. He wondered whether evolving the Acupoint Divine Ability again would improve Heaven Leak or evolve a new ability.

He would think about these things later. Lu Ming couldn't help turning around, his Mud-Wading Steps scraping across the ground as he stepped back into the Nine Palaces Stakes.

The feeling of whole-body force, with the body as one unit, was really good!

Just this sensation alone made him somewhat fascinated. It was the first time he had experienced the wonder of martial arts.

And of course, the Acupoint Divine Ability—each strike made his momentum stronger by a fraction. Every time he completed a full round of Nine Palace Living Stakes, his acupoint experience increased by a point, driving him to do it again and again.

He really wanted to know what would appear after the second evolution!

[Evolving Acupoint Divine Ability (2/1000)...]

[Evolving Acupoint Divine Ability (3/1000)...]

[Evolving...]

[Evolving Acupoint Divine Ability (10/1000)...]

For the next full hour, he practiced ten times. Watching his acupoint experience grow by 10 points, his heart was full of motivation.

Having reached the whole-body force level, his body wasn't as prone to injury. He could train for three hours a day, which meant thirty rounds.

After all, although each round took only three breaths, he had to go all-out every time, which was a heavy drain on his body. Even if one round took three breaths, it was absolutely impossible to do two rounds in six breaths.

He had tried it in the middle—going slowly and casually striking the acupoints yielded no experience. So he could only grit his teeth and train hard.

If he had enough healing medicine, he could train at least four hours a day, which would be forty rounds—40 points of experience!

Calculating this way, he would only need twenty-five days, less than a month, to evolve the next ability.

He really looked forward to it.

Lu Ming couldn't help showing a faint smile. This feeling of steady progress was truly wonderful.

But when he opened the flat medicine bottle and applied the ointment to his hands and feet, he frowned.

One bottle of medicine would last at most three days. If the medicine ran out, his training time would shrink, and the acupoint experience he could gain each day would take a big hit.

"Right now, I'm barely in the top two hundred. To be safe, I need to get more medicine to ensure my daily training time."

Lu Ming thought to himself.

"Clang~" Just then, a bell sounded from afar.

This was the assembly bell!

Lu Ming pushed aside his stray thoughts and hurried out the door.

During the military service period, all disciples were required to train for two hours every day—that was the morning session. Everyone had to go to the training ground.

But because the training ground didn't have enough Nine Palaces Stakes, each disciple's actual training time wasn't two full hours. That was why so many people were grinding at other times.

From the cramped little courtyards around him, many disciples emerged. They left the alleys and gathered on the main road in front of the dormitory area.

Across the way was another area of cramped courtyards. Between the two dormitory zones lay a stone-paved road. To the left of the road was the training ground.

To the right, the terrain was higher, and the courtyards there were large. Disciples coming out of those were all wearing white training uniforms. Among them, notably, was the burly Shen Jue.

Although some disciples in the cramped courtyard area also wore white training uniforms, Shen Jue and his group all had a brass key hanging at their waists—that was the key to the large courtyard area.

There were about fifty of them, many from wealthy families who had trained in martial arts since childhood, already far beyond the initial whole-body force level of martial arts.

Many disciples in gray training uniforms, seeing these imposing figures, hastily dodged out of the way.

"Lu Ming." Shen Jue spotted Lu Ming and greeted him. The companions beside him glanced at Lu Ming, then indifferently looked away.

Lu Ming nodded at him without saying much, following the crowd into the training ground.

"Clang~" The third bell fell silent. The training ground was filled with four hundred disciples.

On the high platform in the center, a man slowly walked to the edge and looked down at them.

He appeared to be in his thirties, with a sturdy build and an extremely strong presence. Standing there without a word, it felt as if a pressure enveloped the entire field, making everyone dare not pull any tricks, their bodies stiff as they stood.

He was the director of the Military Service Bureau, Wei Jinlin. He was also the martial instructor who taught them the Nine Palace Living Stakes.

"I've taught the Nine Palace Living Stakes for ten days. From today onward, I will teach no more. You will practice on your own. Success or failure depends entirely on your effort."

Wei Jinlin said, then turned and left.

Watching Wei Jinlin descend from the platform, many people's expressions shifted.

"Only ten days of teaching! What do we do? There's so much I still don't understand."

"This isn't fair. I only started martial arts now—how could I learn that fast?"

"Yes, isn't that just good news for the rich kids?"

In an instant, the training ground was filled with complaints.

Wei Jinlin acted as if he hadn't heard. To him, the Military Service Bureau was just a job. As long as no true genius emerged from it, this job held little meaning for him.

And among this year's four hundred disciples, he hadn't seen any true martial genius.

Teaching them for ten days was already doing his part; the rest was up to fate.

"Master Wei!" But just as he was stepping down from the platform, someone called out to him.

Wei Jinlin turned to look. A disciple stepped out from the crowd, wearing a white training uniform, his face dark and his eyes narrow, full of respect as he cupped his hands and said:

"Master Wei, I can now achieve nine breaks in three breaths."

"Oh?" Wei Jinlin raised an eyebrow. "You're called Zhu Ming, right? Give it a try."

"Yes." Zhu Ming acknowledged, then took a deep breath and walked over to a set of Nine Palaces Stakes on the training ground.

These stakes were different from the ones in Lu Ming's courtyard. The wooden puppets had no red dots; instead, wooden plaques hung from their shoulders, armpits, foreheads, and other spots.

The plaques swayed in the wind, occasionally clacking against the puppets.

This was a higher-level Nine Palaces Stakes.

Zhu Ming took another deep breath, his gaze suddenly sharpening, and with a Mud-Wading Step, he glided into the stakes.

"Slap slap slap..."

In an extremely short time, nine crisp sounds rang out, and all nine plaques shattered. Zhu Ming was already standing at the other end of the stakes.

The crowd stared, stunned and envious.

"Three breaths! I've just entered the martial path, and I'm sure it was less than three breaths! Zhu Ming succeeded!"

"Nine breaks in three breaths, skin tempering successful—this step into martial artist is like leaping to the heavens! Isn't Zhu Ming's family very poor? How is he so strong?"

"Talent, that's all. Sigh, comparing people drives you mad."

"Not just that! I heard Chen Jinyang from the Chen family sponsored him..."

The crowd buzzed with chatter. Lu Ming watched, quietly surprised. This Zhu Ming had decent talent. Skin tempering was the true first realm of martial arts, and Zhu Ming had already achieved it.

Still, it worked out well. With Zhu Ming taking the spotlight today, he wouldn't stand out as much.

Wei Jinlin took out a brass key and handed it to Zhu Ming:

"Since that's the case, you deserve a large courtyard too. There's a Nine Palaces Stakes with hanging stone plaques in the yard. I'll teach you the striking method later."

A flicker of joy passed through Zhu Ming's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it, respectfully taking the key and saying:

"Yes, thank you, Master Wei."

Lu Ming glanced at the brass key, realization dawning. So the large courtyards where Shen Jue and the others lived were only given to those who had become skin-tempering martial artists.

Now, Zhu Ming was one of them.

Seeing that Wei Jinlin was about to leave, he withdrew his gaze and stepped forward without hesitation, saying:

"Master Wei, I've cultivated full-body force."