Zhang Hankuang saw Hu Lianfeng whispering into Ye Wudao's ear. He curled his lip but said nothing.
Hu Lianfeng wasn't wrong. The Free and Unfettered Art was the Carefree Sect's inheritance technique. Whom Hu Lianfeng wanted to teach it to was his own business.
Learning the Free and Unfettered Art would drag him into the Carefree Sect's grudges, so he was better off leaving it alone.
Ye Wudao listened carefully as Hu Lianfeng recited the Free and Unfettered Art.
When Hu Lianfeng finished, he looked at Ye Wudao and asked softly, "Did you memorize it?"
Ye Wudao nodded. "I did!"
The Free and Unfettered Art had already been entered into the system panel.
But when he saw its technique proficiency, he froze.
Free and Unfettered Art (Not Initiated) (0/10).
A starting proficiency of 10?
That was a hundred times lower than the Northern Dark Divine Art and the Infinite Art. In other words, the Free and Unfettered Art could only be cultivated to the Houtian Realm at most.
He looked at Hu Lianfeng and asked, "Master, are you sure this Free and Unfettered Art can be cultivated beyond the Grandmaster Realm?"
Hu Lianfeng paused, then asked in return, "Do you think there's something wrong with it?"
"Anyway, this is exactly what my master passed down to me."
"As for whether it can be cultivated beyond the Grandmaster Realm, I really don't know!"
"Anyway, ever since Martial Dao's revival, no one in the Carefree Sect has reached the Xiantian Realm. Later, many people switched to the Northern Dark Divine Art. Gradually, they split away from the Carefree Sect and formed the Northern Dark Sect."
Ye Wudao pressed his lips together and shook his head. "I feel like the Houtian Realm is the limit of this technique."
Hu Lianfeng furrowed his brow and murmured, "Could the Free and Unfettered Art really have been abridged?"
"So that's why the Carefree Sect hasn't had anyone reach the Xiantian Realm for all these years? Because of the technique?"
As Ye Wudao watched Hu Lianfeng murmur to himself, he began stimulating the technique.
"Free and Unfettered Art, look at the Northern Dark Divine Art. It's already reached perfection. You two come from the same lineage, so you need to work hard!"
[Your technique, Free and Unfettered Art, was spurred on by you. It is striving to improve and has begun cultivating automatically. Technique proficiency +160/minute, realm experience +16/minute.]
He had only stimulated it once, and the Free and Unfettered Art had already begun cultivating automatically.
But when he saw its cultivation efficiency, he immediately realized something was off.
After only one round of stimulation, its proficiency should have been 10 points per minute. How had it suddenly reached 160 points per minute?
[Congratulations, host. After cultivating the Northern Dark Divine Art's follow-up technique, the Free and Unfettered Art, it has inherited all the Northern Dark Divine Art's talents!]
[Congratulations, host. The Free and Unfettered Art has reached perfection. Because the Northern Dark Divine Art and the Ten Thousand Fusion Art have fused, the Free and Unfettered Art has merged into the Ten Thousand Fusion Art.]
[Your Free and Unfettered Art has successfully fused with the Ten Thousand Fusion Art. Please name your new technique!]
One system notification after another appeared on the system panel.
Ye Wudao's mind went blank as he read the notifications.
He hadn't even started cultivating. How had the Free and Unfettered Art already reached perfection?
The Northern Dark Divine Art and the Free and Unfettered Art had fused automatically?
So these two techniques had been one and the same all along?
He pressed his lips together and thought, "I'll keep the new technique's name as the Ten Thousand Fusion Art!"
[Name confirmed. The system has recorded the new technique, Ten Thousand Fusion Art.]
[Host has created a new technique. Reward: 100,000 technique proficiency for the Ten Thousand Fusion Art!]
[Your Ten Thousand Fusion Art has reached the Initiation stage. Delighted, it is striving to improve. Technique proficiency +1,600/minute, realm experience +160/minute!]
Ye Wudao froze when he saw the new system notifications.
The new technique's starting proficiency was 100,000!
In other words, after merging with the Free and Unfettered Art, the Ten Thousand Fusion Art had successfully broken through to a new level.
He closed his eyes and began to comprehend the principles of the Ten Thousand Fusion Art.
He discovered that the new Ten Thousand Fusion Art was based primarily on the Free and Unfettered Art.
The Free and Unfettered Art really was a technique that could be cultivated beyond the Grandmaster Realm. The catch was that to cultivate it, one first had to bring the Northern Dark Divine Art to perfection.
Otherwise, the same thing would happen as in the Carefree Sect: everyone's cultivation would get stuck at the Houtian Realm, unable to advance any further.
The Free and Unfettered Art was essentially a follow-up to the Northern Dark Divine Art, meant to help Grandmasters break through beyond the Grandmaster Realm.
Cultivated on its own, however, the Free and Unfettered Art could only reach the Houtian Realm.
At the same time, he found a new term in the new Ten Thousand Fusion Art—"Martial Dao Golden Core"!
Beyond the Grandmaster Realm came "True Qi Liquefaction." After "True Qi Liquefaction" came "condensing liquid into a core"!
Seeing this new term, he couldn't help shouting, "Second Master! It's the Martial Dao Golden Core!"
Hu Lianfeng, lost in memories of the past, came back to himself at Ye Wudao's shout.
He looked at Ye Wudao and cried out excitedly, "What did you say? Martial Dao Golden Core? The Free and Unfettered Art can be cultivated to the Martial Golden Core Realm?"
"Does the legendary Martial Dao Golden Core really exist?"
At that, Qin Tianlong and Zhang Hankuang also stared fixedly at Ye Wudao.
Feeling the three men's burning gazes, Ye Wudao shook his head. "No! The Free and Unfettered Art by itself can only be cultivated to the peak of the realm beyond the Grandmaster Realm. I'll tentatively call that the Liquid Condensation Realm."
"The Free and Unfettered Art can be cultivated to the peak of the Liquid Condensation Realm. But my technique is a new one formed by fusing the Free and Unfettered Art, the Infinite Art, and the Sea-Gathering Art. That's why I can cultivate to the Martial Dao Golden Core Realm."
Hu Lianfeng frowned. "That's not right! Wasn't your previous technique a fusion of the Northern Dark Divine Art and the Infinite Art?"
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him. He stared at Ye Wudao in disbelief and asked in a low voice, "So the Northern Dark Divine Art and the Free and Unfettered Art are actually one technique?"
Ye Wudao nodded. "That's right! The Northern Dark Divine Art is actually the prerequisite technique for the Free and Unfettered Art."
"Once the Northern Dark Divine Art reaches perfection, one can advance to the Lesser Mastery stage of the Grandmaster Realm."
"At the Lesser Mastery stage of the Grandmaster Realm, cultivating the Free and Unfettered Art lets one advance beyond the Grandmaster Realm."
Hu Lianfeng heard this and suddenly understood. He murmured softly, "No wonder no one in the Carefree Sect has reached the Xiantian Realm all these years. So that's what was going on!"
Hearing this, Zhang Hankuang looked at Hu Lianfeng and laughed. "Speaking of which, why didn't the people in your Carefree Sect cultivate the Northern Dark Divine Art first?"
Hu Lianfeng rolled his eyes. "Do you know how hard the Northern Dark Divine Art is to cultivate?"
"I've cultivated it for most of my life and only reached the Lesser Mastery stage."
"My master told me that cultivating the Northern Dark Divine Art to the Greater Mastery stage was extraordinarily difficult."
"In the more than one hundred years since Martial Dao's revival, across both the Carefree Sect and the Northern Dark Sect, no more than a handful of people have managed to cultivate the Northern Dark Divine Art to the Greater Mastery stage."
"And not a single person has reached perfection!"
At that point, Qin Tianlong chimed in. "Old Hu isn't wrong about that. The Northern Dark Divine Art might seem to only reach the Lesser Mastery stage of the Grandmaster Realm, but it's actually extraordinarily difficult to cultivate."
"Otherwise, the Northern Dark Divine Art wouldn't be known as the most useless technique among those cultivated by Grandmasters."
"Looking at it this way, the Free and Unfettered Art is the only technique in the Blue Star Martial Dao World that can currently be cultivated beyond the Grandmaster Realm. It's only natural that it's difficult."
"Perhaps the Carefree Sect split the technique into two parts back then to keep its inheritance from being lost."
"The first half is the Northern Dark Divine Art, and the second half is the Free and Unfettered Art."
"But I have to say, the person who split the technique was truly remarkable."
"They split one technique into two and still made both parts cultivable."
"That Carefree Sect patriarch who split the technique was truly extraordinary."
After he finished, he looked at Ye Wudao and said softly, "Still, according to Wudao, the Free and Unfettered Art isn't complete either. It, too, was abridged."
"The Free and Unfettered Art can only be cultivated beyond the Grandmaster Realm, while the new technique Wudao created through fusion can already be cultivated to the Martial Dao Golden Core Realm."
"People in the Carefree Sect must have known the technique had been abridged and feared its inheritance would be lost completely. That's why they split the Free and Unfettered Art into two parts."
Ye Wudao nodded. Qin Tianlong's theory made sense.
Just then, Zhang Hankuang sidled up to Hu Lianfeng with a broad grin. "Old Hu, how about teaching me that Free and Unfettered Art of yours?"
Hu Lianfeng rolled his eyes and laughed. "Ha! I wonder who called the Northern Dark Divine Art useless when I taught him the Northern Dark Divine Art back then, saying it could only reach the Lesser Mastery stage of the Grandmaster Realm!"
Zhang Hankuang hurriedly said, "I was just too blind to recognize a great treasure!"
Hu Lianfeng shrugged. "Even if I wanted to teach you, you wouldn't dare learn it!"
Zhang Hankuang frowned. "Why not?"
Hu Lianfeng explained, "The Northern Dark Divine Art can't be cultivated alongside other techniques, unless you're like Wudao and can cultivate the Primordial Art."
"Or you can cripple your cultivation and start over with the Northern Dark Divine Art."
"Choose one of the two!"
Hearing this, the corners of Zhang Hankuang's mouth twitched. "Forget it, then. I'll stick with my Infinite Art!"
Qin Tianlong, standing nearby, heard this and shook his head. "Actually, it isn't only the Northern Dark Divine Art that can't be cultivated alongside other techniques."
"Most techniques in the Martial Dao World can't be cultivated together with other techniques."
"To cultivate the Free and Unfettered Art, you first have to cultivate the Northern Dark Divine Art. For those of us in the Xiantian Realm, that would be more loss than gain."
"We can only hope to find the follow-up techniques for the ones we cultivate. Otherwise, we'll spend the rest of our lives stuck in the Grandmaster Realm."
After speaking, he looked at Zhang Hankuang and smiled. "Little Zhang, if you can't cultivate it yourself, you can have a son and let him learn the Free and Unfettered Art from Old Hu!"
"Who knows? Your son might have a fine talent for the Martial Path and even revitalize the Carefree Sect!"
Hearing this, Zhang Hankuang shrugged. "Forget it! I don't even have a wife. Where am I supposed to get a son?"
Before you continue