A Shift in Mindset

Hoo—!

With a long exhale, Li Su opened his eyes.

The Arhat Divine Art was complete!

Just as it had been when the monk Tianming first transmitted the technique, the entire Arhat Visualization Diagram had settled into his memory.

He had expected his body to suffer through a period of piercing pain at the moment of final completion, but to his surprise, the end had come as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

He had assumed that permeating the meridians throughout his entire body would require time to slowly grind away and adapt.

Yet, the moment he succeeded, his True Qi had naturally coursed through every meridian in his body. The original Circulation Realm of the Arhat Fist had also shifted, using the Circulation Realm as a main artery that branched out to cover his entire frame.

Every time he circulated his energy, his meridians were blanketed by True Qi.

Arhat Golden Body!

Feeling the True Qi brimming within him, Li Su realized that he hadn't simply mastered a martial art; he had undergone a fundamental transformation.

Even if he were to lose his Arhat True Qi now, he likely wouldn't lose the Arhat Golden Body.

Mastering a divine art was undoubtedly a joyous occasion, yet Li Su pressed his lips into a thin line. After a deep sigh, he resigned himself to his fate and took out the three scrolls given to him by the monk Tianming.

If he had a choice, he wouldn't want to go, nor would he want to practice this martial art that the World Book had labeled as "Super First-Class."

But he was no longer a teenager; he had, after all, navigated the complexities of society in his past life. The Song-Xia War was undoubtedly a major event. If one could go, one went; if one couldn't, one didn't. Where did this notion of needing to master a technique before being allowed to go come from?

This was internal energy, not grinding mobs to level up.

Even if one learned it, it would take a vast amount of time to slowly convert that knowledge into actual power.

One month—what did "entry-level" even mean?

If he truly went to Western Xia, this so-called technique might prove less useful than the Arhat Fist.

Therefore, failing to master it was a certainty.

Most likely, the monk Tianming intended to take on this matter to teach Xuancheng and the others a lesson—something along the lines of "haste makes waste"—to force them to calm down. Otherwise, given their current mindset, there was a ninety-nine percent chance they wouldn't survive once they reached the battlefield.

Of course, Xuancheng and the others were one thing, and Li Su was another.

Having basically confirmed that he would be taken to participate in the Song-Xia War, he had begun to focus intensely on cultivating the Arhat Divine Art upon his return.

It had only been a week, and he had already reached completion. Of course, perfecting it fully would still require time and accumulation.

His purpose was simple.

It was naturally to better practice the three scrolls passed down by the monk Tianming—or, to be precise, the second scroll.

As for the first, Li Su had completely given up on it.

The logical contradictions were too obvious; he didn't believe he could achieve a breakthrough in such a short time.

The third, aside from being of a lower grade, was also more difficult to master compared to the second.

It wasn't that the second scroll was simple, but rather that it shared commonalities with the Arhat Fist and the Arhat Divine Art he was already practicing.

The "One Breath Circulation" was indeed troublesome, but the path the True Qi followed overlapped with the Arhat Fist's Circulation Realm—no, it was even more extensive. This meant that in practicing the second scroll, Li Su wasn't starting from zero.

The old monk had also said that once the Arhat Divine Art was mastered, there would be a bonus when practicing other martial arts. That was why Li Su hadn't rushed to practice the Unnamed Technique upon his return, choosing instead to bring the Arhat Divine Art to fruition.

Thus, Li Su's mindset was similar to that of Xuancheng and the others; he was desperate to gain entry.

However, his goal was not to head off to war, but to master more means of self-preservation.

A Super First-Class martial art was undoubtedly the best tool for that.

Furthermore, Western Xia's declaration of war not only made Li Su realize that this world differed from the novel, but it also brought a terrifying realization: while the Song Dynasty was relatively peaceful during the era of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, that had not been the case before.

Between 990 and 1090 AD, the century of conflict between Western Xia and the Song Dynasty had seen no shortage of wars.

Not only that, one had to remember that the novel contained no mention of a monk of the "Xuan" generation named Xuankong. This meant there was a high probability that in this world, Xuankong would not survive until the era of the main story. Li Su found it hard to determine if Xuankong was still alive because of his own arrival, or if the monk's fated death simply hadn't arrived yet.

Records in the real world indicated that the danger of entering a World Fragment to obtain power was directly proportional to the distance between one's birth and that power; the closer one was, the more dangerous it became. The Murong Consortium in the real world had spent generations of effort just to obtain the Star Shift.

Because Li Su possessed the plot of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, he knew that while the Shaolin Temple had its share of troubles, it was generally safe. He had been sent half a century before the story began; perhaps for someone in a more marginal position, it would have been an entirely different matter.

Come to think of it, if entering the Shaolin Temple and becoming a high-ranking monk made it easy to obtain peerless divine arts like the Muscle Tendon Change or the Diamond Indestructible Body, why had no one in the real world obtained them yet?

Over the course of several hundred years, it was impossible that the Shaolin Temple, as the pillar of the righteous path, had remained unknown.

If the Murong family's Star Shift could be taken away after several generations, why hadn't the same happened to the Shaolin Temple?

This undoubtedly made Li Su feel a hint of crisis; the idea of just lying flat was perhaps unrealistic.

In a World Fragment, the longer one lived, the greater the probability of death.

Therefore, Li Su's mindset had shifted somewhat.

It was no longer about waiting to grow stronger, but striving to grow stronger—at least enough so that he wouldn't be easily killed.

Taking a breath, Li Su began to practice according to the contents of the second scroll.

Hmm...

It was difficult.

However, compared to before he had mastered the Arhat Golden Body, it felt significantly easier.

As expected, prioritizing the Arhat Divine Art to reach Great Completion was the best choice. Now, he only needed to follow the established routine, and he should be able to master at least one of the three scripture scrolls by the end of the month.

He guided a single breath through a Circulation Realm.

With the Arhat Golden Body reaching Great Completion, what should have been a difficult task had become significantly easier.

After the Golden Body reached completion, his meridians seemed to have been thoroughly expanded, to the point where the speed of circulating his energy had also increased.

What originally took an hour per cycle now took only half an hour.

And if he focused his attention, he could complete a full cycle in even less than half an hour.

Therefore, for Li Su at this very moment, the most troublesome issue within the second scripture scroll had been largely resolved.

Hmm!

It was indeed a bit troublesome. How should he put it? It was like being accustomed to eating with chopsticks and suddenly switching to a fork—it felt incredibly unnatural. Shifting from the original Arhat circulation to the circulation of the Unnamed Technique, he felt a constant urge to revert back.

He exhaled a breath.

The first attempt had failed.

His energy was sufficient; he could manage one full cycle in a single breath. The only troublesome part was the change in the circulation path, but after a few more attempts, it should be fine.

With this in mind, Li Su began to adapt and grow accustomed to it through repeated attempts.

After about five or six tries, he finally succeeded in completing a full cycle according to the technique's requirements for the first time.

He figured that what followed would be constant, repetitive practice to become thoroughly accustomed to that method of circulation, ideally reaching a level of proficiency where a cycle would form the moment he took a breath...

Hmm?

Li Su suddenly froze, a look of confusion on his face. Puzzled, he exhaled the breath in his chest and dispersed the cycle he had just formed.

Then, he took another breath, intending to form the cycle once more.

???

With almost no effort, his internal energy quickly took the shape of the circulation path recorded in the Unnamed Technique.

Did he actually succeed?

A look of doubt lingered on 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 this simple; it should have possessed a certain degree of difficulty.

As it turned out, how much time had passed? Not even an hour.

Recalling his experiences learning the Arhat Divine Art and the Formless Calamity Finger, Li Su touched his small face. Forget it, no point in dwelling on it. After all, in the face of his 275% talent bonus, the "hell-level" difficulty described by the old monk Tianming was, in reality, probably just simple.

Closing his eyes, Li Su began to contemplate in silence.

Unlike the Arhat Divine Art, Li Su discovered as soon as he entered the threshold that this technique was clearly focused on cultivating that specific "force"!

After dispersing his energy a few times, Li Su discovered that the accumulated force did not vanish when he ended his practice; rather, it remained, merely scattered and hidden within his meridians. Furthermore, this force increased with every session of practice.

Since that was the case, he would simply continue to delve deeper.

Merely entering the threshold was not his goal; Great Completion was.