New Cultivation Art, the Ten Thousand Fusion Art, the Legendary Free and Unfettered Art

The next afternoon, Ye Wudao was awakened by the system notification ringing in his mind.

Hearing this prompt, he knew that the Northern Dark Infinite Art had reached perfection.

Among all his current arts and martial techniques, only the Northern Dark Infinite Art and the Overlord Spear had yet to reach perfection.

The Overlord Spear was a Houtian Realm martial technique, and the proficiency required for perfection was ten times that of a standard Houtian technique.

It would take at least a hundred days to perfect, so it was not something that could be accomplished in a short time.

Furthermore, having just advanced to the Houtian Realm entry level yesterday, he required one million realm experience points to reach the Houtian small success stage.

Based on his current cultivation speed of 80 realm experience points per minute, it would take at least eight days to reach perfection.

Therefore, since the system notification had sounded now, there was only one possibility: the Northern Dark Infinite Art had reached perfection.

Sure enough, upon opening the system panel, he saw that the Northern Dark Infinite Art was indeed perfect, and the familiar [+] sign had reappeared next to the art.

"Fuse!"

Ye Wudao did not hesitate and chose to fuse them immediately.

Just like last time, the core principles of the two arts began to merge into a new set of profound meanings.

A massive amount of information exploded within his mind.

However, this time he did not feel that familiar sense of swelling pain.

The information was fully integrated within a single second!

[Your Northern Dark Infinite Art and Sea-Gathering Art have finished fusing. Please name the new art!]

Seeing the prompt on the system panel, Ye Wudao muttered softly, "Let's call it the Ten Thousand Fusion Art!"

In truth, he had initially considered naming the new art the Northern Dark Infinite Sea-Gathering Art.

But as soon as he thought about how many more arts he would have to fuse in the future, he abandoned that idea.

As he fused more and more arts, the names would only grow longer and longer, to the point where he wouldn't even be able to remember them himself.

It was better to keep it simple and just call it the Ten Thousand Fusion Art; the name was simple and clear, and in any case, he was the only one who could use it.

From now on, whenever he saw this name, he would know it was a new art formed after fusing many others.

[Naming successful. The system has recorded the new art: Ten Thousand Fusion Art.]

[Host has created a new art. Rewarding 30,000 proficiency points for the Ten Thousand Fusion Art!]

[Your Ten Thousand Fusion Art has reached the entry level. Feeling joyful and motivated, proficiency +800/minute, realm experience +80/minute!]

Seeing these three system notifications, Ye Wudao had a rough idea of how it worked.

After the fusion, the cultivation efficiency of the new art was simply the sum of the cultivation efficiencies of the two previous arts.

The previous Northern Dark Infinite Art had a cultivation efficiency of 640 proficiency points per minute, plus the 160 proficiency points per minute from the Sea-Gathering Art.

Adding the two arts together resulted in exactly 800 proficiency points per minute.

However, on top of this, the art could be stimulated once more.

He didn't use words to stimulate the new art; instead, he began cultivating it directly, which served as a good way to familiarize himself with it.

After the art completed one cycle, the system notification appeared again.

[Host is diligently cultivating the Ten Thousand Fusion Art. The Ten Thousand Fusion Art is encouraged: proficiency +1600/minute, realm experience +160/minute.]

After the art completed ten cycles, the familiar system notification appeared once more.

[Host is cultivating the Ten Thousand Fusion Art. The Ten Thousand Fusion Art is inspired: cultivation accelerated!]

[The art is incomplete and cannot continue to increase cultivation efficiency. Please perfect the art.]

It was exactly as he had guessed.

After the new art was fused, it combined the cultivation efficiencies of the previous two, and then, after being stimulated once, the efficiency doubled again.

However, this time the new art started with 30,000 proficiency, which was only an increase of 20,000 compared to the 10,000 starting proficiency of the Northern Dark Infinite Art.

The 30,000 starting proficiency was just enough for the Ten Thousand Fusion Art to reach the entry level.

He remembered that the Northern Dark Divine Art and the Infinite Art both required 1,000 proficiency to reach the entry level, while the Northern Dark Infinite Art required 10,000—exactly a tenfold difference.

This time, however, there was only a threefold increase.

He carefully contemplated the art and soon confirmed one thing: this new art did not introduce a new realm.

The new Ten Thousand Fusion Art still focused on "True Qi Liquefaction," but the efficiency of the "True Qi Liquefaction" was higher, and the principles behind it were more detailed.

"So, does a new realm appear every time the proficiency increases tenfold?"

Ye Wudao muttered to himself. Combining the starting proficiency levels of the various martial techniques with the starting proficiency of these two fusions, he had discovered this pattern.

He pulled out the two new arts that his master, Qin Tianlong, had exchanged for him from under his bedding: the Myriad Phenomena Return to Origin Art and the One Qi Transforming Profound Art.

Both of these were arts that could be cultivated to the Grandmaster Great Success stage.

Looking at these two arts, Ye Wudao frowned deeply.

If the current trend of merging new techniques continued, each book would only provide an initial proficiency of 20,000. Even if both new techniques were merged, the total initial proficiency would only reach 70,000.

That was still 30,000 short of the 100,000 required for the next threshold.

In other words, even after merging these two new techniques, it would be impossible to reach a new realm.

He looked at his grandmaster, Qin Tianlong, who was meditating on the bed, and whispered, "Grandmaster, do you have a moment?"

After a while, Qin Tianlong opened his eyes, looked at Ye Wudao, and asked, "What is it?"

Ye Wudao pursed his lips and said in a low voice, "I don't have enough techniques. I need two more that can be cultivated to the Grandmaster Realm before I can merge them into a technique for a new realm."

Qin Tianlong thought for a moment and said, "I do have access to such techniques, but they would need to be collected."

"Currently, there are only a dozen or so techniques on Blue Star that can reach the Great Completion of the Grandmaster Realm."

"The Demon Slayer Guard only has three on record. Some are held by major sects, and others are at the Martial Arts Academy."

"I will find a way to have someone bring a few more in for you, but it might not be very quick."

"Have you already merged your Sea-Gathering Art?"

Ye Wudao nodded and replied, "I just finished the merge, but no new martial arts realm appeared."

"That is why I suspect that more techniques are needed for the merge to trigger a new realm."

Just then, Hu Lianfeng, who had been lying on his bed, suddenly sat up. He looked at Ye Wudao and said softly, "Actually, I do have a technique here, and it can be cultivated beyond the Grandmaster Realm!"

As soon as these words were spoken, silence fell over Cell No. 1.

After a moment, Qin Tianlong looked at Hu Lianfeng and whispered, "Are you talking about the Free and Unfettered Art?"

Hu Lianfeng nodded.

Seeing this, Zhang Hankuang shouted, "You old rascal, Old Ghost Hu! You had something this good and didn't bring it out?"

Hu Lianfeng rolled his eyes and snorted, "This is the legacy technique of my Carefree Sect. Why should I have brought it out for you?"

"If Wudao weren't in need of techniques, I wouldn't have even mentioned it!"

Zhang Hankuang curled his lip and said, "The Carefree Sect was wiped out decades ago. Back then, the martial arts world was full of rumors that the Free and Unfettered Art could reach beyond the Grandmaster Realm, yet the Carefree Sect didn't even have a single practitioner at the Xiantian Realm."

"On the contrary, the Northern Dark Sect, which split off from the Carefree Sect, managed to produce two Xiantian Realm experts thanks to the Northern Dark Divine Art."

"If you ask me, it's a case of an innocent man harboring a treasure being a crime. If not for the Free and Unfettered Art, the Carefree Sect might not have been annihilated."

"However, after the sect was destroyed, the Free and Unfettered Art was lost. I never expected it to be in the hands of a mere registered disciple like you!"

Hu Lianfeng pursed his lips and said in a low voice, "My master was the transmission elder of the Carefree Sect back then. He knew that the Free and Unfettered Art would bring disaster upon the sect."

"That is why he didn't pass the technique to my senior brothers, but instead passed it to me, a registered disciple."

"But this technique is indeed very strange; once one reaches the peak of the Houtian Realm, it is impossible to advance any further."

"Otherwise, how could the Carefree Sect have been destroyed?"

"My master once suspected that the version of the Free and Unfettered Art passed down to us had been tampered with, but he didn't know where the deletions were made."

He looked at Ye Wudao and said softly, "I don't know if this technique will be of any use to you. The rumors surrounding the Free and Unfettered Art are a mix of truth and lies, and it is impossible to distinguish between them."

"However, if you want to learn this technique, you must also take on the burden of the Carefree Sect's annihilation. You need to think this through!"

After saying this, he paused and sighed, "Sigh! Forget it! Decades have passed. This Free and Unfettered Art is useless in my hands anyway; I might as well pass it on to you."

"If you can successfully cultivate it, I will have done justice to my master's spirit in heaven."

"Wudao, come closer and listen!"