On the day he challenged Zhao Yong and earned the first-class scholarship, Ma Mingyu had said it before.
As long as Xu Ziming succeeded in the challenge, he would teach him his own original sword art. Aside from the Basic Sword Method, any sword art on the market could easily sell for tens of thousands of Blue Star Coins.
Even those were common, low-quality goods, so Xu Ziming had been looking forward to today's sword art for a long time.
"My self-created sword art is called the Five Prison Sword Art. It possesses an inherent suppressive force and cultivates a strand of Luofu Sword Intent."
As he spoke, Ma Mingyu transmitted the full contents of the technique to Xu Ziming through his wristband.
"Go back and memorize the entire technique. Practice it on your own first, and ask me anytime if there's anything you don't understand."
"The principal was present for the match just now. The first-class scholarship reward will be deposited into your card by evening. It's merely an additional payment on top of the second-class scholarship, only twenty thousand."
Xu Ziming nodded. The school was not some charitable fool—how could it possibly give him extra Blue Star Coins? This was already very good.
As for the Blood Qi Potion, he had chosen the D-Grade one just now. On one hand, he had already bought four E-Grade Blood Qi Potions. On the other, he wanted to see whether the D-Grade Blood Qi Potion could trigger a new trait effect.
After receiving the sword art and confirming the first-class scholarship reward, Xu Ziming bid Ma Mingyu farewell. They could discuss the Underground Black Boxing tomorrow. He believed his teacher would not lead him into a trap.
As for today, he needed to raise the number of times he had practiced the Basic Body Forging Method to one hundred, permanently solidify the trait, and unlock a new Equipment Slot.
Since it was daytime, Xu Ziming did not go home. Instead, he went to the Pengcheng Martial Arts Training Base.
The moment he entered, the beautiful clerk approached him with a smile. Upon seeing Xu Ziming, she froze for two seconds before instinctively covering her nose.
"Would you like a special room again today?"
"No. I want an ordinary training room today."
"Ah? Oh, okay."
What was that supposed to mean? He was not some pervert. He could not possibly come here every time just to whip himself in public, then leave reeking from head to toe.
Though that had happened last time...
After entering an ordinary training room, Xu Ziming immediately assumed the stance for practicing the Basic Body Forging Method.
His blood qi began circulating continuously. Ever since he had reached minor mastery of the technique, practicing it was no longer as difficult as before.
His cultivation speed was also extremely fast.
[Basic Body Forging Method: 95/100] [Basic Body Forging Method: 97/100]
Time passed, and before long, Xu Ziming reached the final repetition.
Blood qi flowed out from his lower abdomen and slowly traveled upward, reopening one acupoint after another. It reached the crown of his head and the Baihui point before slowly circulating back, completing a full cycle.
As his blood qi completed one full circulation, the final practice of the Basic Body Forging Method was finally complete.
["Body Forging Acceleration" trait permanent solidification condition met] [Detected: New Equipment Slot unlock task completed 2/2] [Equipment Slot unlocked]
An electronic voice sounded beside his ear, but Xu Ziming had no mind to pay attention. As he completed one hundred repetitions of the Basic Body Forging Method, his body felt as though it had been set ablaze.
A surge of blood qi buried deep within his marrow suddenly emerged.
"Ha—" He panted heavily, a faint flush gradually coloring his face.
Then, that blood qi actually began circulating through his body on its own, over and over without the slightest sign of stopping.
His body also began moving as though beyond his control, repeatedly performing the movements of the Basic Body Forging Method.
It was clearly still the Basic Body Forging Method, yet the movements carried a naturalness and profundity he had never possessed before.
[Detected: Number of unlocked Equipment Slots has reached three. New Equipment Slot function unlocked: Epiphany] [Epiphany condition: Automatically triggered after practicing the same technique one hundred times] [Trait grade classification unlocked. You may view the grade of each trait yourself] [Investigation function unlocked: Automatically detects an enemy's Life Energy Level and number of Life Evolutions] [New function unlocked: Generates a personal panel based on traits such as Body Forging Acceleration and Natural Sword Bone]
The electronic voice echoed in his mind, but Xu Ziming could not hear any of it.
He was utterly immersed in the Epiphany, unable even to sense the passage of time outside.
Ten minutes, twenty minutes, one hour.
The rental time for the training room slowly ticked away, but Xu Ziming's movements grew faster and faster.
Finally, with a tremendous bang, a massive aura erupted from Xu Ziming's body, followed by another electronic voice.
[Life Energy Level breakthrough. Current: 3.4]
A single Epiphany had directly increased his Life Energy Level by a full 0.2.
Only then did Xu Ziming open his eyes.
"Whoo—" Powerful strength brewed in his hands. An increase in Life Energy Level differed from an improvement in a technique.
It was closer to an elevation of his very life level. During the previous two breakthroughs, one had left him starving, while the other had caused him to faint from exhaustion.
Neither had allowed him to truly experience the effects brought by an increase in Life Energy Level.
Only this time did he clearly feel it: a sense of ease that came from the depths of his soul.
"Beep."
The training room door made a sound, and the pretty young clerk cautiously peeked inside.
"Sir, your time is up. Excuse me... Ah?!"
Her gaze happened to fall on Xu Ziming's lower body. The turbulent blood qi from earlier had left him in an extremely excited state even now.
Combined with the few low roars she had heard coming from inside before entering.
The scene became extremely awkward for a moment.
"Hey! It's not what you think!"
The moment Xu Ziming finished speaking, the door on the other side slammed shut, leaving him alone in the room.
A notification for automatic renewal also popped up on his wristband.
Great, another new misunderstanding.
Xu Ziming helplessly looked at the closed door and could only turn his attention to the Equipment Slot.
Only then did he learn that the Epiphany just now had been brought about by the Equipment Slot.
"An Epiphany every hundred repetitions? This is an ultimate Equipment Slot. Too bad I'm not a hunter."
The Equipment Slot now had two empty spaces. Only the [Qilin Body] trait had not been permanently solidified.
Every other trait had already been successfully solidified, and their text was displayed in different colors.
[Body Forging Acceleration] and [Steel Body] were white, [Natural Sword Bone] was green, while [Qilin Body] was a deep purple.
It seemed trait grades were divided by color, with white presumably being the lowest grade.
He first equipped the [Sword Saint Body Technique] again and saw that this trait was blue.
He then checked whether the D-Grade Blood Qi Potion had been issued to his wristband.
After seeing the notification that the first-class scholarship had arrived, he immediately took out the D-Grade Blood Qi Potion and held it in his hand.
[Detected equipable item: D-Grade Blood Qi Potion] [Predicted obtainable trait: Filter Charge+] [Trait effect: On top of the white trait's effect, increases the absorption efficiency of all types of Blood Qi Potions by another 100%, and increases energy utilization efficiency from all sources by 100%] [Permanent solidification condition: Consume ten D-Grade Blood Qi Potions]