I favor cultivating in my dreams (Third update! Bonus chapter-please vote and keep reading!)

Streams of information poured into his mind.

Li Xiuwen's gaze went from bewildered to delighted, then shocked!

After [Beginner Martial Arts Knowledge] reached minor mastery, the Incense Burner gained a new function.

He could enter a dream through its incense smoke and step into the vast, nebulous, profoundly mysterious Grand Void Illusory Realm.

Practicing any technique-based "combat method," including movement techniques, within the Grand Void Illusory Realm would yield twice the results for half the effort.

Suppose his current base cultivation efficiency was 1.

Then inside the Grand Void Illusory Realm, it would be 2.

Once his knowledge reached great mastery and perfection, that efficiency would increase further.

Li Xiuwen murmured inwardly, Wasn't this essentially a way to improve comprehension? Old Chen hadn't lied to me! Reading more really could change my comprehension!

For others, "change was easy; comprehension was hard."

But Li Xiuwen only needed to steadily improve [Martial Arts Knowledge], and his comprehension would rise dramatically along with it.

This was merely Beginner Martial Arts Knowledge, corresponding only to the beginner Grand Void Illusory Realm.

Following that pattern, there would presumably be intermediate and advanced versions later... their effects would only get better.

Combined with the Incense Burner's ability to preserve every attainment permanently and eliminate bottlenecks, his path along the martial way looked more and more promising.

He came back to himself and gazed at Old Chen on the bed, his eyes shining as though he had found a priceless treasure.

"Brother Li, what's wrong?" Old Chen put down his book and asked.

"Nothing. See you tomorrow." Li Xiuwen left the martial arts hall and hurried home.

Chen's Rice Noodle Factory.

Li Xiuwen strode inside, shut the door, and wiped away the sweat brought on by his excitement.

"A Wen, are you still getting hammered today?" his aunt-in-law asked.

"Not for now. I'm taking a day off." Li Xiuwen smiled.

He went to his quarters, lay down on his bedding, and murmured, "It says I have to enter a dream to reach the Grand Void Illusory Realm. I suppose that means sleeping."

The moment he fell asleep, Li Xiuwen's consciousness merged with the Incense Burner,

turning into a wisp of blue smoke that passed through bizarre, fantastical sights and descended upon a familiar place.

Low buildings crowded together, crouching like beasts. It was the Walled City.

The blue smoke drifted through the streets and alleys to Chen's Rice Noodle Factory, where he saw his uncle-in-law and aunt-in-law,

then sank into the Sewers, where he saw Brother Ji, Venomous Snake, and Third Master.

Emerging from the Sewers, it continued wandering until it reached the Night Heron Martial Arts Hall, where he saw the familiar cross-eyed boy and Yellow Hair, who had called him an old geezer.

At last, the blue smoke swept into the place where he had spent the most time since taking up martial arts: the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall.

Inside the entrance, A Zhen, Silly Qiang, Liu Chun, and Liu Da stood silently on the training grounds.

In the Study, Huang Sihai sat with Third Aunt keeping watch beside him,

and the scene looked like any ordinary day at the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall.

Except everyone was frozen in space and time like wax figures, utterly motionless.

Moreover, when Li Xiuwen studied the details of the buildings, the people, and the sky...

He discovered that everything in the illusory realm seemed to be made of countless tiny squares.

The edges were rough and angular, a little... pixelated.

For a moment, he thought he had entered a high-end version of Minecraft.

Passing through a gap between buildings, Li Xiuwen looked up at the sky.

A stick of Crimson Incense stretching between heaven and earth burned rapidly, and a distant, nebulous voice rang out.

[You may choose one person as your opponent in the Grand Void Illusory Realm to hone your combat methods (movement techniques).]

[The illusory realm lasts for two hours.]

[When the incense burns out, the illusory realm ends and you awaken.]

[After entering a dream, you must wait twenty-four hours before entering another.]

The information flooded his mind, and Li Xiuwen understood instantly.

The Grand Void Illusory Realm had not been generated from nothing.

At present, the area he could explore within the Grand Void Illusory Realm was limited to the Walled City.

More precisely, it encompassed a certain area around Longjin Road and the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall, including the neighboring Night Heron Martial Arts Hall.

Whenever he tried to leave that area, he ran into an "invisible wall."

Li Xiuwen guessed that the Grand Void Illusory Realm's accessible area reflected the places where he currently spent extended periods in the real world.

He had also visited the Central District Grand Arena recently and gone outside The Enclave to attend a Hometown Association gathering, but neither place was reflected in the Grand Void Illusory Realm.

In short, within this defined area, anyone he had interacted with to a certain extent could appear in the illusory realm as an opponent.

Once he understood how the [Grand Void Illusory Realm] was generated, Li Xiuwen could barely contain his delight.

"In other words, I can now practice combat methods in my sleep, with even better results!"

As for the two-hour limit, it hardly counted as a restriction.

After all, he usually only practiced combat methods for a little over two hours a day. Most of his time went into stance training and Hard Qigong.

Having figured out the Grand Void Illusory Realm's functions, Li Xiuwen wasted no more time.

First, he tried choosing Huang Sihai as his opponent.

Huang Sihai moved, like a video game character being controlled.

In an instant, he became a blur,

and an explosive crack rang out from Li Xiuwen's chest. As though struck by a locomotive, he flew high into the air and slammed into the ceiling.

Every muscle in his body tore apart, every bone shattered, and his internal organs were pulverized into mush.

He had not even seen how Huang Sihai attacked.

Li Xiuwen's body re-formed, and he murmured,

"He's too strong. There's no way to get any sparring practice out of this."

"Still, taking that one palm strike showed me how strong Master is. Terrifying is the only word for it."

"Let's try A Zhen."

With a thought, Li Xiuwen selected the short-haired girl.

A Zhen moved, charging at him without a word.

Li Xiuwen lunged forward to meet her.

After exchanging dozens of palm strikes, he grew increasingly amazed. "The Grand Void Illusory Realm has perfectly replicated A Zhen's current level of palm technique."

This "current level" was A Zhen's level the last time Li Xiuwen had interacted with her at close range before entering the dream.

Thus, he would need to interact with people in reality every so often to "update the data" of their projections in the Grand Void Illusory Realm.

"Interesting. Through the Grand Void Illusory Realm, as long as I've been near an enemy, I can learn their strength that day beforehand and feel more confident when I make my move."

Li Xiuwen soon discovered another use for the Grand Void Illusory Realm.

After trading a few moves with A Zhen, he sensed that his intangible understanding of [Sand-Turning Palm] had improved a little more.

"It works. The effect is obvious."

"A Zhen is a little too weak. Better go with Silly Qiang."

Li Xiuwen selected Silly Qiang, and they fought for a while, evenly matched.

His technique was better, while Silly Qiang had the edge in strength.

The sparring results were clearly better, too.

Before long, a notification came from the Incense Burner.

[Your Sand-Turning Palm proficiency has increased by 1%...]

Li Xiuwen worked it out. Compared with the time he had previously needed to gain 1%, his efficiency had indeed doubled.

"By a rough calculation, I can gain around 4% in two hours. In a month at most, Sand-Turning Palm will reach great mastery."

Li Xiuwen was overjoyed. According to Old Huang, his comprehension was already no worse than Liu Chun's.

Didn't that make him equivalent to two Liu Chuns now?

In the future, that would become three, four...

A mere Liu Chun. Laughable, utterly laughable.

With that thought, he tried fighting Liu Chun as well,

but the moment they clashed, Liu Chun's ferocious Waves-Sifting Sand Palm drove him back again and again.

He instinctively tried to use Hard Qigong, only to discover that he could not.

It turned out that Binding Armor Skill, like Sea-Sand Stance, was a training method,

except that stance training cultivated blood and qi, building the foundation of cultivation and improving the body's basic physical attributes.

Binding Armor Skill was a body-conditioning training method focused entirely on defense, though it also slightly strengthened his base blood and qi and physical attributes.

Neither of these was a combat method.

Thus, neither could be actively used within the Grand Void Illusory Realm.

However, the Grand Void Illusory Realm would bring in the "passive physical enhancements" produced by Binding Armor Skill and Sea of Stake Training, creating a body for him to hone his combat techniques.

The same principle applied to everyone else in the illusory realm.