Cultivating Self-Strengthening, Driving Techniques to Self-Strengthen! Incomplete Techniques Limit Efficiency!

Qin Tianlong saw that Zhang Hankuang and Hu Lianfeng had both been completely drained, so he stood up too.

He came over to Ye Wudao and said quietly, "You really are the strangest oddball I've ever met in my life."

"If the Demon Slayer Guard found out you cultivated techniques and martial skills like this, they'd have to drag you off and dissect you!"

"Actually, martial skills have always favored precision over quantity."

"That's because a person's energy is limited. Cultivating techniques and learning martial skills already push you to your limit."

"Besides, the strength of a martial skill depends on its level of mastery. No matter how many you cultivate, if you can't raise your mastery, it's all for nothing."

"But none of that is a problem for you."

"Your techniques can cultivate themselves, and so can your martial skills. To me, that sounds like a wild fantasy, yet it's happening right before my eyes."

"Since that's the case, I won't hold back. I'll teach you every martial skill I know."

"But you'll have to master them all yourself."

At this, he paused, then shook his head with a wry smile. "Telling you to master them all feels a bit redundant."

"With your circumstances, you can cultivate every martial skill to perfection. You probably understand how to master them all better than this old man."

Ye Wudao smiled but said nothing.

Qin Tianlong had spoken the truth. All of Ye Wudao's techniques and martial skills could automatically cultivate themselves to perfection.

Every increase in a martial skill's level brought a corresponding insight to his mind, as if he had practiced it countless times himself.

Those insights were etched into his brain. He didn't need to understand them; it was as if he had been born knowing them.

Qin Tianlong picked up a wooden staff from beside him and said to Ye Wudao, "I specialize in spear techniques, and this is an innate-level spear technique."

"This spear technique is called the Overlord Spear. It's an unparalleled technique left behind by the Chu Overlord thousands of years ago."

"The Overlord Spear is all about dominating force—pressing forward without fear, with strength enough to heft a thousand catties."

"You're only in the Body Tempering Realm right now, so you can't unleash the full power of this spear technique. Only when you reach the Xiantian Realm and use Xiantian True Qi to drive the technique will it reach its peak."

"Watch closely!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Tianlong thrust the wooden staff in his hand forward.

Ye Wudao's expression changed instantly. He could feel that, at that moment, the wooden staff in Qin Tianlong's hand had become a spear.

That was because Qin Tianlong had cultivated spear techniques for years and reached the realm where man and spear were one.

Ye Wudao watched intently. The Overlord Spear was truly formidable. Every movement, open or closed, brimmed with dominating force.

This spear technique never retreated; it only advanced. Every move drove forward, without a single backward step.

It certainly lived up to the Chu Overlord's name!

When the system recorded the Overlord Spear, Ye Wudao couldn't help thinking, No wonder it's an innate-level martial skill. It takes a hundred thousand proficiency points just to reach the beginner level.

Body Tempering martial skills required 1,000 proficiency points to reach the beginner level, while Houtian martial skills required 10,000.

Once past the beginner level, no matter the rank of the martial skill, the proficiency required for each further increase multiplied tenfold at every step.

After teaching him the Overlord Spear, Qin Tianlong went on to teach him several more martial skills.

Chain Cannon Fist, Tiger Subduing Fist, Air Splitting Palm, Vajra Palm, Horse Slashing Blade Technique, Six Harmonies Spear, Thousand Catty Drop, and Lost Trace Steps.

There were eight in all, and every one was a Houtian martial skill.

Qin Tianlong truly was a Xiantian Realm expert. He knew far more martial skills than Zhang Hankuang and Hu Lianfeng.

According to Qin Tianlong, he also knew some of the martial skills Zhang Hankuang and Hu Lianfeng had taught Ye Wudao.

Looking at the densely packed list of martial skills on the system panel, Ye Wudao grinned from ear to ear.

There were now twenty-one martial skills in his list.

He had also stimulated every target once, putting them all into automatic cultivation. Those two rounds of stimulation had each raised their cultivation efficiency by 20 points per minute.

He had worked it out carefully. Taking Houtian martial skills as an example, going from unlearned to beginner took about seven hours, and from beginner to minor mastery took about thirty-five hours.

Going from minor mastery to major mastery took around two hundred hours.

Going from major mastery to perfection took about a month.

If he managed to stimulate or encourage a technique during that time and increase its cultivation efficiency, the process would speed up.

In other words, cultivating a Houtian martial skill from unlearned to perfection would take about a month and a half.

Body Tempering martial skills required only one-tenth the proficiency of Houtian martial skills, so they could go from unlearned to perfection in about five days.

Xiantian martial skills required ten times the proficiency of Houtian martial skills, and would take about ten months to perfect.

Xiantian martial skills seemed difficult to cultivate, but they really weren't.

According to Qin Tianlong, he had cultivated the Overlord Spear for half his life, yet had only reached major mastery in spear techniques. He was still some distance from perfection.

Cultivating techniques, on the other hand, was relatively simple. The two techniques Ye Wudao was cultivating now could both be practiced in the Body Tempering Realm, and each required only 1,000 proficiency points to reach the beginner level.

That meant even cultivating them to perfection would require only 1.1 million proficiency points.

Cultivating both techniques to perfection would take only about five days.

And once both techniques reached perfection, they would give him 200,000 Realm EXP.

Two hundred thousand Realm EXP would be enough to advance him to the Houtian Realm.

To reach the Houtian Realm in five days—if word of that got out, it would shock the entire Martial Dao World.

That night, the three masters went to the Rift World, leaving Ye Wudao alone in Cell No. 1.

With nothing else to do, Ye Wudao began practicing his punches.

He started with Eight Extremes Fist.

After finishing a set, Ye Wudao froze.

A prompt he had never seen before had appeared on the system panel.

[The host practices Eight Extremes Fist. Eight Extremes Fist is encouraged, and its proficiency increases by 80 points per minute.]

He hadn't expected that practicing Eight Extremes Fist once would double its cultivation speed.

Seeing the system prompt, he continued practicing Eight Extremes Fist.

He performed another set, but no prompt appeared.

He repeated the set again and again. It wasn't until the tenth time that the system prompt appeared once more.

[The host diligently practices Eight Extremes Fist. Eight Extremes Fist is encouraged, and its proficiency increases by 160 points per minute.]

"So it's not just verbal stimulation that can raise a technique's cultivation efficiency. If I take the initiative to practice, I can stimulate techniques and martial skills too, making them cultivate faster!"

Ye Wudao muttered under his breath as he looked at the system prompt.

Then he continued practicing Eight Extremes Fist. He wanted to see how many times he could encourage it.

He performed Eight Extremes Fist ten more times, but no system prompt appeared.

He didn't mind. He had nothing else to do and plenty of time.

On the hundredth time, the system prompt appeared again.

[The host diligently practices Eight Extremes Fist. Eight Extremes Fist is inspired, and its proficiency increases by 320 points per minute.]

Ye Wudao let out a long breath.

Just as he had thought, whenever his number of practice repetitions increased tenfold, the technique would be encouraged.

And this method of leading by example wouldn't put the technique into a state of cultivation deviation.

So this was the right way to use the system.

A technique could make him stronger through self-improvement, while his own efforts could make the technique stronger in turn.

At that moment, he seemed to understand the true meaning of the Martial Dao Self-Improvement System.

He pursed his lips and said softly, "Eight Extremes Fist, is this really your limit?"

He wanted to test whether verbal stimulation would still work after the technique had been stimulated many times.

[Your martial skill Eight Extremes Fist scoffs at your words. Its cultivation speed increases dramatically, and its proficiency rises by 640 points per minute.]

Ye Wudao saw the system prompt, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

In other words, there was no limit to how many times a technique could be stimulated, whether through words or by leading through example.

As long as he got the timing right, cultivation efficiency could increase without end!

Just as he was pondering this, another system message appeared.

[Your martial skill Eight Extremes Fist reaches major mastery. It is in a wonderful mood, and its proficiency rises by 1,280 points per minute.]

1,280 proficiency points per minute!

Ye Wudao was completely stunned!

At this rate, it would take only thirteen hours for his Eight Extremes Fist to reach perfection.

All his previous calculations about cultivation speed had been overturned.

At the thought, he eagerly sat on the bed and followed the instructions of the Northern Dark Divine Art to cultivate it.

This was his first time cultivating the Northern Dark Divine Art himself. Before this, the technique had always circulated automatically.

After the technique completed one cycle, the system prompt appeared just as he had expected.

[The host cultivates the Northern Dark Divine Art. The Northern Dark Divine Art is inspired and accelerates its cultivation!]

[The technique is incomplete and cannot further increase its cultivation efficiency. Please complete the technique.]

When he saw the prompt, Ye Wudao froze for a moment.

The technique was incomplete?

What did that mean?

Could it be that the Northern Dark Divine Art Hu Lianfeng had taught him was a watered-down version?

At the thought, he tried cultivating the Infinite Art!

After one cycle, the system displayed a prompt.

[The host diligently cultivates the Infinite Art. The Infinite Art is inspired, and its proficiency increases by 80 points per minute, while Realm EXP increases by 8 points per minute!]

After circulating it for ten more cycles, the system prompt appeared again.

[The host diligently cultivates the Infinite Art. The Infinite Art is encouraged, and its proficiency increases by 160 points per minute, while Realm EXP increases by 16 points per minute!]

He looked at the new system prompt, his brow furrowing slightly.

Why did his own efforts have no effect on the Northern Dark Divine Art, but work on the Infinite Art?

Had Hu Lianfeng really been holding something back?

Suddenly, he noticed that the cultivation efficiencies of the Northern Dark Divine Art and the Infinite Art were both 160 points per minute.

An idea came to him, and he continued cultivating the Infinite Art!

[The host cultivates the Infinite Art. The Infinite Art is inspired and accelerates its cultivation!]

[The technique is incomplete and cannot further increase its cultivation efficiency. Please complete the technique.]

After completing one hundred cycles, Ye Wudao saw the system prompt and finally understood.

It wasn't that Hu Lianfeng had held something back. Both techniques could only raise their cultivation efficiency to 160 points per minute.

He remembered what Hu Lianfeng and Zhang Hankuang had told him when they taught him the techniques: the Northern Dark Divine Art could be cultivated to the entry level of the Grandmaster Realm, while the Infinite Art could be cultivated to the great success level of the Grandmaster Realm.

He also remembered Qin Tianlong telling him that no one in the Martial Dao World had broken through the Grandmaster Realm because of the techniques.

In other words, all the techniques currently circulating in the Martial Dao World were incomplete, which was why they could only be cultivated as far as the Grandmaster Realm.

But why had this happened?

Weren't these techniques ancient martial arts passed down from antiquity?

If they were incomplete, how could they still be cultivated?

He thought about it for a while, but couldn't figure out why these techniques were incomplete, so he stopped trying.

Perhaps once he reached the Grandmaster Realm, he would be able to understand.

Then he began practicing martial skills directly.

From what he could tell, the martial skills were all complete, and their cultivation efficiency could be raised without any limit.