With the augmentation of the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm, the memories in his sea of consciousness were stretched to an extreme slowness. He Sheng was able to fully reconstruct the scene from that time and examine it from the tiniest details.
Back then,
the sword-bearing youth had abruptly descended from the sky. Yet rather than attacking the moment he appeared, he said:
"Such a mere country bumpkin cultivator dares to be this arrogant? You truly know neither the height of heaven nor the depth of earth!"
Only after his words fell did he point from several dozen zhang away. A streak of azure sword light then tore through the air toward Brother Piao.
Though everything had happened in but an instant, the battle-experienced Brother Piao had already set up three layers of defense.
First, he brought out a shield-type artifact to protect himself.
Then, he used the Water Armor Art to condense a pale-blue suit of light armor over his body.
Finally, he took out a second-tier upper-grade defensive talisman, the Golden Bell Talisman, and held it in his palm.
The moment that azure sword light came hurtling toward him, Brother Piao immediately sensed that something was wrong. But the sword light was too fast, leaving him no time to dodge, so he instantly activated the Golden Bell Talisman in his hand.
What followed was that the sword light pierced through Brother Piao's shield artifact in a single strike.
He Sheng repeatedly examined this moment and discovered that, while the sword light's power was immense, it had actually dimmed considerably after piercing through Brother Piao's top-grade defensive artifact, the Rock Shield.
"In other words, the sword light's power had already weakened substantially at that point!"
Though Brother Piao was greatly alarmed, he had not made any mistake in his response.
After activating the Golden Bell Talisman beforehand, the second-tier upper-grade defensive talisman instantly formed a protective golden radiance around him.
Logically speaking, after the already-weakened sword light struck that protective golden radiance, its power should have been further diminished.
But something bizarre happened!
That azure sword light actually passed through the protective golden radiance in an instant.
The dignified second-tier middle-grade Golden Bell Talisman did not weaken the sword light in the slightest, as though it were some shoddy counterfeit.
Not only that, the azure sword light immediately passed through the pale-blue light armor Brother Piao had condensed around his body as well.
The Water Armor Art likewise did not have the slightest effect on the sword light, nor did it diminish even a fraction of its power.
That was to say, among the three defensive measures, only the Rock Shield had been effective.
What came next, naturally, was Brother Piao's heart meridians being shredded by that streak of sword light.
"Brother Piao was by no means weak, and there was nothing wrong with his response.
Yet in the end, he was instantly killed by a single sword strike from that sword-bearing youth. The key was that streak of sword light ignoring the two layers of defense provided by the Golden Bell Talisman and the Water Armor Art.
Otherwise, there was no way he could have been so miserably one-shot."
He Sheng repeatedly reviewed the memory and could not help thinking of a certain game mechanic from before he had crossed over, arriving at a bold conclusion!
"Could it be... that azure sword light had the effect of ignoring mana-based defenses?!"
Both the Golden Bell Talisman and the Water Armor Art were defensive measures formed purely from mana. Their greatest difference from the Rock Shield was that an artifact possessed a physical form.
"The azure sword light had genuinely pierced through the Rock Shield, even damaging this top-grade defensive artifact.
Yet the mana-based defenses generated by the Golden Bell Talisman and Water Armor Art were not damaged at all. The azure sword light simply treated them as though they did not exist and passed straight through.
So... this was the only explanation that made sense!
And the reason Brother Piao had mistaken his opponent for a Core Formation cultivator was that he had not had time to discern the details.
He only saw that azure sword light break through all three layers of his defenses at once, believed the other party completely outclassed him, and thus suspected that he was a Core Formation cultivator.
Ignoring mana-based defenses...
He Sheng was deeply shocked by his own deduction. He had originally thought his Subtle Ripple Intent Realm was impressive enough, only to turn around and encounter a pure mechanics monster.
"It seems cultivation in this world is even more complex and profound than I imagined."
As everyone knew, a stat monster could not compare to a mechanics monster.
"It was like in King of Glory—no matter how strong a primitive man was, could he beat a Trisolaran?
Wouldn't he just end up getting outplayed all over the place?"
Therefore, if one wanted to deal with a mechanics monster, one first had to become a mechanics monster oneself. That was common knowledge.
The question was, how could he become one?
He Sheng examined his current condition and knew that only the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm might possibly advance further and become something at the core of a mechanic.
"So I still need to invest a massive amount of cultivation time into the Clear Ripple Water Control Art. But where would the time come from?"
He Sheng currently had only a little over two months of allocable cultivation time remaining. It was fundamentally of little use to the Clear Billows Water Control Art, which had already reached Transcendent Mastery.
He turned his gaze toward the water clock in his palm and first set his sights on his only remaining spell, the Clear Billows Moistening Art.
"This spell is also a high-level spell that can only be cultivated after reaching Foundation Establishment. It is more like an auxiliary skill for spirit plant farmers, able to promote the growth of spirit plants and shorten their maturation cycle to a certain extent."
It was a fine spell, but it was utterly useless for core combat strength.
A thought stirred in He Sheng's heart, and he directly reset it to zero.
[Current Total Allocable Cultivation Time: Nine Months and One Day]
"This amount of time still isn't enough, but I'll try it first."
With a sliver of hope, He Sheng focused his consciousness on the plus sign beside the Clear Billows Water Control Art, and cultivation information appeared before his eyes.
[After nine months of arduous cultivation, your Clear Billows Water Control Art has improved somewhat. However, you also feel that cultivating this art at the Transcendent Mastery stage is not easy.]
There was only that one scant sentence, and nothing else.
He Sheng did not even feel any obvious change in his Clear Billows Water Control Art, much less anything beyond that.
[Clear Billows Water Control Art (Transcendent Mastery): 308/1000] (Total Cultivation Time: Ten Years, Six Months, Twenty-Nine Days)
However, according to the information displayed by the water drops in the clock, the Clear Billows Water Control Art's proficiency had still increased noticeably.
"Calculating carefully, one month raises proficiency by roughly twenty-two points.
"In other words, I still need approximately thirty-two months to raise the Clear Ripple Water Control Art to the perfected realm of Transcendent Mastery."
He Sheng looked at the increasingly streamlined information on the water clock. There was nowhere left to scrape out cultivation time.
"The Clear Billows Water Origin Art cannot be touched. This is a cultivation method, and reverting it might cause my realm to fall."
After his previous breakthrough, He Sheng had also understood that for cultivators, their greatest source of combat strength was first and foremost the improvement of their realm.
Not to mention, if his realm fell, might it cause other problems?
For instance, damage to his dantian's spirit sea? Mana flowing in reverse? Twitching meridians? And so on.
These were all injuries and even lingering aftereffects that could arise from a fallen realm, according to Brother Piao's memories. Naturally, He Sheng did not dare try it under his current circumstances.
"Then I can only revert my formation arts!"
Among the hundred arts of cultivation, the path of formations was an immortal art that could greatly enhance a cultivator's combat strength.
However, the path of formations had always been profound and difficult, requiring an enormous amount of time to study. Those able to become formation masters were all people of extraordinary talent who had poured tremendous effort into it.
Just like Brother Piao's formation arts mentor, Li Daoyun, who had still been holding a formation plate in his hands when he passed away several years ago.
"Formations are good, and Brother Piao did not invest little time into this path. Unfortunately, a First-Tier Upper-Grade Formation Master's boost to a Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivator's combat strength is negligible."
Put simply, he would first cut it down and extract some cultivation time. He could add it back later anyway.
He Sheng gathered his consciousness onto the minus sign behind his formation arts.
Whoosh...
The total practice time for his formation arts rapidly decreased, but He Sheng soon noticed something was wrong.
"Stop!"
At a thought from He Sheng, the reversion process halted. He looked at the water drops in the top row.
[Arts]: [First-Tier Middle-Grade Formation Master: 2000/2000] (Total Practice Time: Six Years, Ten Months, Five Days)
He Sheng had reverted his formation arts to just the point of First-Tier Middle-Grade perfection. The total practice time had decreased by 747 days, yet the total allocable cultivation time that had previously been reset to zero had increased by more than 747 days!
[Current Total Allocable Cultivation Time: Four Years, One Month, Three Days]
"The universal cultivation time gained from reverting it had actually doubled, reaching a full 1,494 days!"
What was going on?!
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