How had he lost?
Before he continued fighting, he had to figure out exactly where he was falling short.
He clicked the [Battle Replay] button, and a recording of the fight he had just finished appeared before him.
On-screen, every swing of his sword was nimble and fluid, as if it came naturally to him, covering the entire area, including his opponent.
But at 0.25 speed, it was clear that while he covered a wide area, most of his swings served no purpose. Angry Haki-mi stayed within a meter of the spot in front of him the whole time.
Meanwhile, Xu Ziming's blood qi kept draining with every attack. In the end, his opponent seized an opening and pierced through his offensive.
The moment he switched from offense to defense and was surrounded, Xu Ziming had almost no blood qi left, while Angry Haki-mi still had plenty. That left him completely unable to fight back in the battle that followed.
"So that's it," Xu Ziming murmured, already feeling more confident.
His swordsmanship didn't have any glaring flaws, but he clearly hadn't yet learned how to manage his blood qi more effectively.
His opponent clearly had a better method of controlling blood qi.
Thinking of this, Xu Ziming opened the battle history, clicked on his opponent's avatar, and scrolled down twice.
When he saw the [Add Friend?] button, he pressed it firmly.
He wasn't trying to ask for his opponent's technique. He simply wanted to spar regularly and improve his real combat skills.
Angry Haki-mi soon accepted Xu Ziming's request and sent him a question mark.
"How about another match sometime?"
"Sure. Anytime."
Their exchange was brief, but that promise was enough for Xu Ziming.
Just as he was about to leave Battle Net, he saw a new option appear beneath his name: battle record.
He tapped it.
[Name: Little Ming Who Can't Use a Sword] [Win Rate: 80%] [Rank: Black Iron I] [Overall Combat Power Index: 32]
Xu Ziming looked at Angry Haki-mi's profile too. His opponent's entry clearly showed "Overall Combat Power Index: 45."
The Overall Combat Power Index, which hadn't appeared beside the names on the leaderboard before, was now visible.
Beside Shen Xingyue's name, it clearly read: Overall Combat Power Index: 139.
"That's incredible."
He hadn't expected someone his age to have already reached that level.
By the looks of it, he really wasn't anything special. He still had to train!
Xu Ziming took a deep breath and clicked the button to leave Battle Net.
The pride he'd felt after getting the Equipment Slot had all but vanished. He hadn't become a genius; with the Equipment Slot's help, he'd only managed to squeeze his way over the threshold of an ordinary person.
To cross the threshold into genius, he still needed to keep training.
After leaving Battle Net, Xu Ziming didn't immediately start practicing. Instead, he opened a shopping app.
He still had some Blue Star Coins left, and before he continued training, he wanted to buy some different cultivation methods.
They didn't have to be officially ranked techniques. As long as the Equipment Slot recognized them, that was enough.
He opened the shopping app and found it crammed with all kinds of Martial Way materials.
He soon found the section for the techniques he needed.
As a high school student, his purchasing level only allowed him to buy techniques that hadn't been revised.
What did it mean for a technique to be unrevised?
Take the Basic Body Forging Method, for instance. The current version had been refined over the past seventy years by Martial Way grandmasters into one that anyone could use.
Unrevised techniques were those from the early days of the Martial Way, when only people with special constitutions could practice them.
There were Shaolin's Yijin Jing, Taiyi's Xiantian Skill, and all kinds of martial arts passed down through the jianghu. These methods were extremely damaging to the body and took far too long to master. They had long since been discarded by the times.
But he had a cheat! Just as picking up a sword had given him the Natural Sword Bone, getting his hands on these techniques would surely give him similar benefits.
He would also get much faster at practicing them. Once he had mastered a whole stack of technique traits, how could all those people who practiced only the Basic Body Forging Method compete with him?
With that thought, he impatiently bought a copy of the Iron Cloth Shirt first. He had only a little over two hundred Blue Star Coins, and the Iron Cloth Shirt was the only one cheap enough...
The moment he paid, a flash of light passed over his wristband, and the manual appeared before him.
Modern technology was incredibly advanced. Delivery workers had long since been made obsolete. Merchants only had to scan an item with a special device, and it would be transported instantly.
The instant the Iron Cloth Shirt manual appeared before him, Xu Ziming reached out.
Just as he'd expected, the moment he touched it, the familiar electronic voice sounded in his ear.
[Detectable equipment item: Iron Cloth Shirt] [Estimated equipment trait: Steel Skin] [Equipment effects: Doubles the hardness of skin gained through cultivation; doubles the speed of Iron Cloth Shirt cultivation; instantly grants the "impervious to blades and spears" effect of the first Copper Skin layer; improves the body's ability to withstand blood qi impact; progress in Iron Cloth Shirt cultivation becomes quantifiable] [Condition for permanent fixation: Independently cultivate the Iron Cloth Shirt to the Iron Skin stage] [Equipment Slot: 2/2, full; unable to equip]
Sure enough, it could not only increase his cultivation speed, but also directly grant him the effect of the Iron Cloth Shirt's first layer.
In other words, while this trait was equipped, he could gain part of the technique's abilities even if he hadn't practiced it at all.
And then there was the ability to withstand blood qi impact. With that, perhaps he could practice the Basic Body Forging Method two more times each day.
Thinking of this, Xu Ziming removed the "Filter Charge" effect he'd gotten from the E-Grade Blood Qi Potion.
In its place, he equipped the Iron Cloth Shirt. As soon as it was equipped, his skin began to itch, then turned remarkably tough.
Along with it came the cultivation memories of the entire Copper Skin stage: the Iron Cloth Shirt's blood qi circulation route, the movements, the key points of each form... Every detail was branded into his mind in an instant, as if he'd practiced the technique countless times.
He hadn't felt this way when he equipped the Basic Body Forging Method. It seemed that back then, he'd already practiced it so thoroughly that he hadn't noticed.
According to the Iron Cloth Shirt's cultivation instructions, the first stage was clearly Copper Skin. Once he mastered this First Realm, ordinary weapons would no longer be able to pierce his skin.