Whew!
After letting out a long breath, Li Su opened his eyes.
The Arhat Divine Art was complete!
Just as when Monk Tianming had first transmitted the art to him, the entire Arhat Visualization Diagram had entered his memory.
He had thought that his body would still ache for a while once he finally succeeded, but unexpectedly, it all came together naturally in the end.
He had thought it would take time to slowly work the energy through every meridian in his body and get used to it.
But at the moment of success, his true qi had naturally flowed through every meridian in his body. Even the Circulation Realm of the Arhat Fist had changed, spreading throughout his body with the Circulation Realm as its main artery.
Each time he circulated his energy, true qi covered every meridian in his body.
The Arhat Golden Body!
Feeling the true qi brimming within him, Li Su realized that perhaps he had done more than simply master a martial art. He had undergone a transformation at the very core of his being.
Even if he lost his Arhat True Qi now, he probably wouldn't lose his Arhat Golden Body.
Mastering a divine art was certainly cause for joy, yet Li Su pressed his lips together tightly. After letting out a deep sigh, he resigned himself to taking out the three scrolls Monk Tianming had given him.
If he could, he didn't want to go, nor did he want to practice this martial art that the World Book had marked as beyond first rank.
But he wasn't a teenager, after all. He'd lived in society in his previous life, if nothing else. The Song-Xia War was unquestionably a major event. If he could go, he could go; if he couldn't, he couldn't. Where had this idea come from that he had to master a technique before he could go?
This was internal cultivation, not leveling up by killing monsters.
Even if he mastered it, it would still take a long time for it to gradually turn into strength.
So what if he reached the entry level in a month?
If he really went to Western Xia, this supposedly powerful technique might not even be as useful as the Arhat Fist.
So there was no question: he wouldn't master it in time.
Most likely, Monk Tianming planned to use this matter to teach Xuancheng and the others a lesson—something like "haste makes waste"—and calm them down. With their current mindsets, nine times out of ten, they wouldn't survive if they went to the battlefield.
Of course, Xuancheng and the others were Xuancheng and the others. Li Su was Li Su.
Knowing he would almost certainly be taken to join the Song-Xia War, Li Su had started diligently cultivating the Arhat Divine Art as soon as he returned.
And after all, it had only taken a week for him to complete it. Of course, it would still take time to keep building on it until it was truly perfected.
His purpose was simple.
Naturally, it was to better cultivate the three scrolls Monk Tianming had passed down to him—or, more accurately, the second scroll.
He had given up on the first one entirely.
Its logic clearly contradicted itself, and he didn't think he could break through it in a short time.
The third scroll, aside from being a lower rank, was also more difficult than the second.
It wasn't that the second scroll was easy. Rather, it shared certain similarities with the Arhat Fist and Arhat Divine Art he had been cultivating.
Circulating a full cycle in one breath was indeed troublesome, but the route the true qi followed overlapped with that of the Arhat Fist's Circulation Realm. No, it was more accurate to say they overlapped extensively. In other words, Li Su wasn't starting from scratch with the second scroll.
The old monk had also said that mastering the Arhat Divine Art would make it easier to learn other martial arts. That was why, after returning, Li Su hadn't rushed to practice the Unnamed Technique. Instead, he had brought the Arhat Divine Art to completion.
So now, Li Su's mindset resembled Xuancheng and the others': he was eager to reach the entry level.
But his goal wasn't to join the war. It was to gain more ways to keep himself alive.
A martial art beyond first rank was undoubtedly the best way to do that.
Moreover, Western Xia's declaration of war had not only made Li Su realize that this world differed from the novel in certain ways; it had also made him aware of something terrifying. The Song Dynasty had been relatively peaceful during the era of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, but things hadn't always been that way.
The wars between Western Xia and the Song Dynasty from 990 to 1090 AD had been numerous.
What was more, Xuankong, a monk of the Xu generation, didn't exist in the novel. That meant there was a good chance Xuankong wouldn't live to see the era of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils in this world. Li Su couldn't be sure whether Xuankong was still alive because he had come here, or whether Xuankong's destined death had simply not yet arrived.
Records from the real world said that the danger of entering a World Fragment to gain power was proportional to how close you were to that power from birth: the closer you were, the more dangerous it was. The Star Shift of the Murong Consortium had taken several generations of effort to obtain.
Because Li Su had the plot of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils in his mind, he had thought Shaolin Temple was safe overall, even though quite a few things had happened there. Yet he had been sent directly to half a century before the story began. Someone from a more remote corner of the world might have had a completely different experience.
It made sense when he thought about it. If becoming a senior monk at Shaolin Temple meant you could get your hands on peerless divine arts like the Muscle Tendon Changing Classic and the Diamond Indestructible Body just by being careful, why had nobody in the real world obtained the Muscle Tendon Changing Classic yet?
Over the course of several centuries, the Shaolin Temple, the foremost institution of the righteous path, couldn't possibly have gone unnoticed.
The Murong family's Star Shift had been taken away in just a few generations. Why hadn't anyone done the same with Shaolin Temple?
It all left Li Su with a faint sense of danger. Simply lying back and waiting to grow stronger might not be realistic.
Within a World Fragment, the longer you lived, the higher the odds were that you'd die.
So Li Su's mindset had changed somewhat.
Instead of waiting quietly to grow stronger, he would work hard to grow stronger, at the very least so he wouldn't be killed easily.
Drawing a breath, Li Su began cultivating according to the second scroll's instructions.
Hmm...
It was difficult.
Still, it felt much easier than before he had perfected his Arhat Golden Body.
Sure enough, bringing the Arhat Divine Art to completion first had been the best choice. Now he only needed to cultivate steadily, step by step, and he should be able to reach the entry level in one of the three scrolls before the end of the month.
One breath to circulate a full cycle.
With his Arhat Golden Body perfected, what should have been very difficult had become much easier.
After the Golden Body was perfected, his meridians seemed to have expanded completely, making his qi circulate faster as well.
What had originally taken one shichen per cycle now took half a shichen.
And if he focused his attention, he could complete a cycle in even less than half a shichen.
So, for Li Su at that moment, the most troublesome problem in the second scroll had more or less been solved.
Hmm!
Sure enough, it was a little tricky. How to put it? It was like being used to eating with chopsticks and suddenly switching to a fork—it felt incredibly awkward. His qi had gone from following the Arhat Circulation Realm to following the Unnamed Technique's Circulation Realm, and he kept wanting to switch back.
He let out a breath.
His first attempt had failed.
He had enough breath to complete a full cycle in one go. The only tricky part was changing the Circulation Realm, but after a few more tries, he should be able to manage it.
With that thought, Li Su set about adapting to it through one attempt after another.
After about five or six tries, he finally completed his first cycle according to the technique's instructions.
After that, he just needed to keep practicing until he was completely used to circulating his energy that way—ideally, he'd become so proficient that the cycle formed the moment he breathed in...
Hmm?
Li Su suddenly froze, a puzzled look crossing his face. Still confused, he exhaled the breath in his chest and dispersed the Circulation Realm he had formed.
Then he took another breath, intending to form the cycle again.
???
With almost no effort, his true qi quickly formed the cycle described in the Unnamed Technique.
Did he count as having mastered it?
A puzzled look crossed Li Su's face. Although he had perfected the Arhat Divine Art to master the second scroll of the Unnamed Technique more quickly, he still hadn't expected it to be easy. It should have been quite difficult.
But how long had it even taken? Less than an hour.
Remembering his experiences learning the Arhat Divine Art and the Formless Calamity Finger, Li Su rubbed his little face. Forget it. There was no point dwelling on it. After all, with his talent boosted by 275%, what the old monk Tianming called hell-level difficulty was probably just easy for him.
Closing his eyes, Li Su began to quietly reflect.
Unlike the Arhat Divine Art, Li Su realized as soon as he reached the entry level that this technique seemed to cultivate that very "force"!
After dispersing his qi several times, Li Su discovered that even when the accumulated force dispersed as he completed the exercise, it didn't actually vanish. It was still there, merely scattered through his meridians, out of sight. And with each session of cultivation, this force grew.
If that was the case, then he would simply keep going deeper.
Reaching the entry level wasn't his goal. Mastery was.