With questions in mind, Xu Ziming carefully read through the contents of the Nebula Mental Tempering Method.
He discovered that practicing this method required him to use his body to sense energy in the galaxy in the dead of night and draw it in to nourish himself.
Besides tempering his mind, it could even harness the power of starlight to raise his Life Energy Level.
But the key question was: how could he sense starlight from tens of thousands of light-years away with his physical body? That was practically impossible.
But just because the human body couldn't do it didn't mean the Equipment Slot couldn't.
He purchased the mental tempering method without the slightest hesitation, just as he had countless times before.
Two seconds after the purchase, the Nebula Mental Tempering Method was stored in his wristband.
Why hadn't it appeared right in front of him? Because he was still inside the Battle Net.
Just as he was about to leave the Battle Net, Xu Ziming's wristband received a friend request. He glanced at the ID.
It was the female streamer he'd just killed. Seeing that bizarre name again—"Found Out My Boyfriend Cheated With His Best Friend, Went to a Brothel in Despair and Picked the Mistress"—Xu Ziming almost rejected the request on the spot.
Still, he accepted it. But as soon as he tapped to confirm, he left the Battle Net space.
Meanwhile, after Wu Mengmeng lost, her entire livestream chat began to flood with messages. Most viewers were just there for the spectacle.
"Streamer, you're not gonna add him and ask for another round?"
"Streamer, when I saw you acting all coy just now, I thought you were my buddy. Nearly scared me into punching you."
"What meaning is there in life anymore?"
"Get lost, get lost, get lost! We're done here!" Wu Mengmeng watched the comments fly across her livestream. It took her more than ten minutes before she finally tapped the button to add him as a friend.
But after she sent the request, several minutes passed without a response.
"Hahaha, he doesn't care about the streamer at all."
More comments flashed across the screen. Just as Wu Mengmeng was about to give up, her request was accepted.
Wu Mengmeng saw that Xu Ziming had finally accepted her friend request and leapt to her feet.
"See that? My charm speaks for itself!"
She quickly sent Xu Ziming a message.
"Let's fight again. This time, I'll prove myself!"
[The other party is offline. Your message will be delivered when they come online.]
"What!"
Xu Ziming had no idea what was happening on the other side. As soon as he left the Battle Net, he took out the Nebula Mental Tempering Method.
The instant his hand touched the Nebula Mental Tempering Method, information from the Equipment Slot appeared.
[Detecting equippable item: Nebula Mental Tempering Method] [Potential trait: Star God's Favor (Blue)] [Trait effect: Receive the favor of the great Star God. Your body can easily establish a connection with planets, increasing the speed of energy extraction by 100%.] [Permanent fixation requirements: Mental method initiation and completion of one hundred rounds of mental tempering]
Perfect. The Equipment Slot had solved the biggest problem with practicing the Star God Mental Tempering Method.
Just then, his wristband rang. He raised it and saw that Fang Xingyun was calling.
"Senior Fang, what's up?"
"Ziming, I saw that you chose the Star God Mental Tempering Method. I forgot to tell you about it. Almost nobody can successfully practice it."
Fang Xingyun sounded unusually serious. "I only managed it because I stumbled upon an opportunity. According to big data calculations, an ordinary person needs at least ten years of effort just to sense a planet."
"And that's only to establish a basic connection. So let's pretend you didn't choose it this time. I'll have your selection attempt added back in through the system."
"Thanks, Uncle Fang. But I'm still going to try practicing this method."
"Fine, give it a try. Just don't let it interfere with your College Entrance Exam."
With that, Fang Xingyun hung up.
Wonderful. He'd get a cultivation method for free again. Old Fang was a decent guy, no question.
Still, it was only natural. Fang Xingyun had invested so much in him; there was no way he'd make things difficult for someone else on top of that.
Who in real life would help someone with everything and still make them hate him? What an idiot.
If there is one, pretend I never said that.
The best time to practice this mental tempering method was at night, when stars were out. But it was only around nine in the morning.
So Xu Ziming didn't start practicing right away. Instead, he opened the Five Prison Sword Art.
Although he had passed out by the time Ma Mingyu arrived at the scene yesterday, he could still vaguely sense that incredibly powerful Sword Dao aura from beyond his consciousness.
That must have been the next realm of swordsmanship: the Sword Intent realm.
Practicing Sword Momentum depended on the individual, while cultivating Sword Intent depended on the quality of the technique.
Different techniques led to different kinds of Sword Intent, but even the same Sword Intent could display different levels of power in different hands.
Regardless, at the same swordsmanship level, Xu Ziming's strength was sure to be overwhelmingly superior.
When he took out the Five Prison Sword Art, Xu Ziming didn't obtain a new trait, because the sword technique still provided the "Sword Saint Body Technique."
After all these times, Xu Ziming had learned a thing or two. Weapons and cultivation methods of the same grade generally provided the same traits. At least, he hadn't encountered any exceptions yet.
That made it something like the "Golden Eyes" in urban treasure appraisal novels, a magical tool for finding bargains.
Eagerly flipping open the Five Prison Sword Art manual, he began to savor it, word by word.
It was a sword technique with an extraordinarily strong personal style. Calling it the Five Prison Sword Art didn't seem quite right.
That was because the word "prison" described only one of the technique's abilities.
What made this sword technique truly formidable was the intense killing intent and intimidating power it carried.
It was surely thanks to this ability that Ma Mingyu had become a god of slaughter on the battlefield, one who struck terror into the hearts of the alien races.
Now that he understood the technique's strengths, Xu Ziming could hardly suppress his desire to practice it. It wasn't just him—even his body was getting excited.
Starting with the first form, Xu Ziming began practicing in earnest.
[Five Prison Sword Art (Uninitiated: 1%)]
Clumsily following the postures illustrated in the manual, Xu Ziming quickly completed one round. With the help of the Sword Saint Body Technique and Natural Sword Bone,
one round of practice could increase his proficiency by 1%. At this rate, he'd be able to reach initiation by nightfall.
He completely lost track of time and practiced to his heart's content in the training room. The Five Prison Sword Art was different from the Basic Sword Method.
The Basic Sword Method focused on the fundamental movements of swordsmanship. Its whole purpose was to build a solid foundation.
He had to memorize a whole slew of techniques—thrusting, lifting, deflecting, chopping, tapping...
As an advanced sword technique, each form of the Five Prison Sword Art linked one or two of those basic techniques together to produce a greater effect.
Its first skill was to ensnare! It was called Dragon Trap.
That was the "prison" in the Five Prison Sword Art. If Xu Ziming hadn't passed out, he would have witnessed the sword move Ma Mingyu used at the end to trap the Flame Spirit Clan commander with all his strength.
It was clearly just a manifestation of Sword Qi, yet it had pinned a monster on the verge of its third Life Evolution in place, leaving it unable to move.