"Golden Cicada Robe sensed that its master's strength had increased greatly. Feeling ashamed of its own inadequacy, it broke through to perfection."
"Tiger Roar Skill refused to fall behind and broke through to Microscopic."
At this point, aside from Tiger Roar Skill, all the martial skills Lu Chong practiced had reached perfection.
However, after becoming a Martial Artist, these Human-Tier martial skills didn't seem all that appealing anymore. What Lu Chong yearned for now were even more precious and powerful Earth-Tier martial skills.
Just then, another notification sounded in his mind.
"Monument-Splitting Palm doesn't want to be looked down on. It is deducing and evolving into an Earth-Rank Martial Skill..."
Lu Chong's eyes lit up. There was actually something like this?
If so, he could save himself a lot of trouble.
But the next notification soon appeared: "Monument-Splitting Palm lacks stamina. Evolution failed."
Lu Chong was speechless. If it couldn't evolve, why show off? Wasn't this just getting his hopes up before dashing them?
The notifications didn't stop. One after another, they continued to appear—
"Nine-Shadow Step doesn't want to be looked down on. It is deducing and evolving into an Earth-Rank Martial Skill."
"Nine-Shadow Step lacks stamina. Evolution failed."
"Cloud Piercing Finger doesn't want to be looked down on. It is deducing and evolving into an Earth-Rank Martial Skill."
"Cloud Piercing Finger lacks stamina. Evolution failed."
"Iron Wire Fist doesn't want to be looked down on. It is deducing and evolving into an Earth-Rank Martial Skill."
"Iron Wire Fist lacks stamina. Evolution failed."
Failure, failure, and more failure!
Lu Chong couldn't bear to watch anymore. If they were all going to fail, why put him through this?
"Wind Splitting Leg doesn't want to be looked down on. It is deducing and evolving into an Earth-Rank Martial Skill."
"Wind Splitting Leg's deduction succeeded. It evolved into an Earth-Grade Low-Tier Martial Skill."
Lu Chong jolted.
"Wait, did that... succeed?!"
He had already given up hope. The previous seven low-tier martial skills taught at school had indeed all failed to evolve.
He'd never expected Wind Splitting Leg to surprise him by successfully evolving into an Earth-Rank Martial Skill.
Lu Chong hurriedly checked his martial skills panel. Sure enough, it had changed.
Wind Splitting Leg: Great Accomplishment (50%)
"So Wind Splitting Leg has potential to improve further after evolving."
Lu Chong suddenly remembered that when his Head Teacher, Wang Tong, had passed Wind Splitting Leg on to him, he'd mentioned that the skill had originated from an Earth-Tier axe technique.
"Is that why it managed to evolve?"
Lu Chong wondered, "If so, how is my evolved Wind Splitting Leg different from the original axe technique?"
"Could they have evolved in two different directions?" Lu Chong speculated.
Just then, the notifications in his mind continued—
"Seven-Step Killing Fist doesn't want to be looked down on. It is deducing and evolving into an Earth-Rank Martial Skill."
"Seven-Step Killing Fist lacks stamina. Evolution failed."
"Three-Inch Palm doesn't want to be looked down on. It is deducing and evolving into an Earth-Rank Martial Skill."
"Three-Inch Palm lacks stamina. Evolution failed."
"Gale Step doesn't want to be looked down on. It is deducing and evolving into an Earth-Rank Martial Skill."
"Gale Step's deduction succeeded. It evolved into an Earth-Grade Low-Tier Martial Skill."
Lu Chong's spirits lifted again. Seven-Step Killing Fist and Three-Inch Palm had both failed to evolve, but Gale Step had succeeded.
He'd originally wondered whether all Mid-Tier martial skills could evolve successfully.
It seemed that wasn't necessarily the case. There might be other factors at play.
"I'll ask the instructor tomorrow whether Gale Step has a direct connection to some Earth-Tier martial skill."
Lu Chong turned his attention to the two remaining martial skills: the high-tier Golden Cicada Robe and the top-grade Tiger Roar Skill.
He had high hopes for both of them.
Sure enough, another notification soon appeared—
"Golden Cicada Robe doesn't want to be looked down on. It is deducing and evolving into an Earth-Rank Martial Skill."
"Golden Cicada Robe's deduction succeeded. It evolved into an Earth-Grade Low-Tier Martial Skill."
Lu Chong was delighted, though he also felt a little disappointed. He'd thought Golden Cicada Robe might evolve directly into a Mid-Tier or even a High-Tier Earth-Grade skill.
He waited a while longer, but nothing changed with Tiger Roar Skill.
"Why is that? Even if it can't evolve successfully, there should at least be a failure notification." Lu Chong was puzzled.
Then it dawned on him. "It's because I haven't cultivated Tiger Roar Skill to perfection yet."
That was it. Of all the martial arts he currently practiced, only Tiger Roar Skill had yet to reach perfection.
So only martial skills that had reached perfection qualified for deduction and evolution.
Whether they could evolve successfully depended on whether they had the potential—or, as the notifications put it, the stamina.
After taking a full quarter of an hour to calm down, Lu Chong looked at his panel again—
Name: Lu Chong Level: Martial Artist, Stage One (81%) Martial Skills: Nine-Shadow Step, Perfection ... Heart-Piercing Kick, Perfection Wind Splitting Leg, Great Accomplishment (50%) Golden Cicada Robe, Great Accomplishment (50%) Tiger Roar Skill, Microscopic (1%) Seven-Step Killing Fist, Perfection Gale Step, Great Accomplishment (50%) Three-Inch Palm, Perfection
"It's too messy. I need to reorganize it. And I should rename the three martial skills that evolved into Earth-Tier skills, too."
With a thought, Lu Chong's panel changed again—
Name: Lu Chong Level: Martial Artist, Stage One (81%) Martial Skills— Human-Tier Low-Tier: Nine-Shadow Step, Perfection; Monument-Splitting Palm, Perfection; Cloud Piercing Finger, Perfection; Mountain Leaning Back, Perfection; Eagle Claw Technique, Perfection; Iron Wire Fist, Perfection; Heart-Piercing Kick, Perfection Human-Tier Mid-Tier: Seven-Step Killing Fist, Perfection; Three-Inch Palm, Perfection Human-Tier Top Grade: Tiger Roar Skill, Microscopic (1%) Earth-Grade Low-Tier: Wind Blade Leg, Great Accomplishment (50%); Golden Bell Shield, Great Accomplishment (50%); Gale Shadowless Step, Great Accomplishment (50%)
In any case, Wind Blade Leg, Golden Bell Shield, and Gale Shadowless Step had each evolved from Wind Splitting Leg, Golden Cicada Robe, and Gale Step, respectively.
Lu Chong hadn't chosen those names at random. He'd named them according to the characteristics of each evolved skill.
Because the three martial skills had evolved from their original forms, each had already reached Great Accomplishment. That allowed Lu Chong to discern their characteristics.
After Wind Splitting Leg evolved, it could release blade-shaped Gang Qi from the body with a kick.
After Golden Cicada Robe evolved, it cultivated both internally and externally, forming a Gang Qi shield over the body. It reminded Lu Chong of a martial art from his previous life: Golden Bell Shield.
As for Gale Step, it became even faster after evolving. At a later stage, it could even let him move without leaving a trace on the ground, hence its name.
However, he would have to test these three Earth-Grade Low-Tier martial skills to find out how powerful they really were.
He was now curious and eager to see how quickly these martial arts would cultivate automatically.
After all, they were Earth-Rank Martial Skills. According to Principal Fang, they were far more difficult to cultivate than Human-Rank Martial Skills.
But after breaking through to Martial Artist, Lu Chong's mental will had improved again, and Tiger Roar Skill's enhancement helped as well.
So he felt that his cultivation speed with Earth-Tier martial skills shouldn't be too bad.
Before you continue