Eye of Truthpiercing

While Liang Bo was browsing the Library Pavilion, in a manor east of Wan City.

"Young Master, you were far too rash this time. A wager of one million taels of silver is simply too much," said Zhou Ming, the elderly steward-like man, with a frown.

"Old Zhou, I know you're worried, but what was I supposed to do in that situation? Admit outright that I didn't dare to gamble?" Sima Kai's gaze was cold and shadowy. "Besides, I admit that Liang Bo's blade technique is indeed stronger than my swordsmanship, but now we're comparing fist and foot techniques. I refuse to believe he can surpass me there as well."

Old Zhou nodded slightly. "Logically speaking, your chances of winning should be considerable. Liang Bo reached the realm of man and blade as one with his blade technique at such a young age. Most of his effort must have gone into practicing the blade, so he should not have invested much in fist and foot techniques. As for his cultivation, the strength he displayed last time should have been around the fifth rank. In that respect, he is about the same as you. Overall, your strength should be evenly matched."

"However..." Old Zhou's brows knitted together as he said, "since this man dared to wager one million taels of silver, he should have sufficient confidence in winning. Therefore, I think Young Master should make more preparations."

"More preparations? You mean this?" Sima Kai took out a green pill the size of a fingernail, his eyes flickering. "Originally, I hadn't planned to use it in this arena battle, but now..."

"A Spirit Explosion Pill?" Old Zhou's expression changed in alarm. It was a medicinal pill that could cause one's inner strength to erupt dramatically within a short time, generally used when fighting for one's life. However, its side effects were also severe; in serious cases, it could even damage one's foundation.

Old Zhou hurriedly said, "Young Master, this is no good thing. Taking too much of it will harm your foundation!"

"So what? To ensure victory this time, do I have any better choices? Besides, it's not as though I'll definitely take it. I'll hold it in my mouth beforehand. If the battle goes smoothly, that will naturally be for the best. But if the battle turns unfavorable, I'll crush it between my teeth. In any case, this time, I must win!"

Old Zhou frowned at him and sighed inwardly, but in the end, he did not try to dissuade him.

After returning from the Library Pavilion, Liang Bo spent a day roughly practicing the three martial skills, Cloud Dragon Evasion Method, Vast Sky Fist, and Meteor Arrow. Once they appeared on his character panel, he stopped paying attention to them.

For this match against Sima Kai, Liang Bo intended to use only the Cloud Piercing Palm he had practiced before, unless he was left with no other choice. Otherwise, he did not plan to use the Vast Sky Fist.

The reason was simple. Everyone in the family knew that he had never practiced the Vast Sky Fist before. If he rashly used this fist technique and displayed an extremely profound level of mastery, it would inevitably arouse suspicion.

Aside from practicing the three martial skills, Liang Bo spent all his remaining time cultivating the Eye of Truthpiercing. If he could master this secret art, his strength would undoubtedly rise greatly.

However, since he did not know what heavenly treasure this secret art required, Liang Bo's only hope was that his ability would work.

The first step was to see whether this secret art could appear on the character panel.

Following the requirements described in the secret art, he slowly circulated his inner strength and concentrated it near the apertures around his eyes to stimulate them. After a quarter of an hour, he dispersed his inner strength, rested for half an hour, and then circulated his inner strength to his eye apertures again.

After repeating this three times, one cycle of cultivation was complete.

Liang Bo hurriedly opened his character panel to inspect it:

Liang Bo--

[Cultivation]: Martial Dao Rank Four

[Technique]: True Martial Canon 10/40

[Martial Skills]: Purple Lightning Blade 20/20 Heavenly Wind Wishful Steps 10/10 Cloud Piercing Palm 1/10 Lion Wrestling Hand 0/10 Vast Sky Fist 0/30 Meteor Arrow 0/20 Cloud Dragon Evasion Method 0/20

[Secret Arts]: Eye of Truthpiercing 0/20

[Skill Points]: 15

"Huh? There's actually an extra line of information." Liang Bo froze for a moment, then was both shocked and delighted.

Compared with before, his character panel now had an additional "Secret Arts" category, standing alongside "Technique" and "Martial Skills" rather than being directly listed under martial skills. This showed that the core information of the character panel was not set in stone, but would continuously adjust according to his condition.

Liang Bo activated the modifier. He first changed the proficiency of the True Martial Canon to 1 point, directly increasing his skill points to 24.

Immediately afterward, he began raising the proficiency of the Eye of Truthpiercing.

1 point, 2 points, 3 points...

Very quickly, the proficiency of the Eye of Truthpiercing rose beyond 10 points.

"What's going on? Why has the proficiency risen so high, yet my eyesight hasn't improved in the slightest? Could it be that proficiency has no effect on secret arts?"

Liang Bo frowned and continued raising the proficiency. Soon, when he raised the proficiency of the Eye of Truthpiercing to its maximum level, a prompt suddenly appeared in his mind:

[The secret art Eye of Truthpiercing has reached maximum proficiency. Please use the human-grade spiritual material "Clear Spirit Water" to activate the secret art.]

Liang Bo froze briefly, then his eyes lit up. "Clear Spirit Water? Could this be the heavenly treasure required by the secret art Eye of Truthpiercing? Yes, that must be it!"

Because no one knew what heavenly treasure this secret art needed to be used with, it had been left idle and ignored in the Library Pavilion. Now, it seemed that Clear Spirit Water might be the catalyst it required.

As far as he knew, Clear Spirit Water was a special spiritual material produced in the frigid regions of the north. Its primary use was to cool the furnace fire during pill refining or artifact forging, preventing the furnace temperature from becoming too high. Beyond that, it had no other great use.

Thus, although Clear Spirit Water was rare, it was not expensive, costing roughly one hundred taels of silver per jin. It was available in some shops within Wan City.

Liang Bo immediately ordered Xie Jia to take one hundred taels of silver and buy one jin of Clear Spirit Water.

After obtaining the Clear Spirit Water, Liang Bo was uncertain whether he should drink it directly like medicine, drip it into his eyes like eye drops, or use it in some other way.

Clear Spirit Water was an object of extreme cold. Rashly drinking it or dripping it into his eyes could damage his body. Dripping it into his eyes in particular could easily cause blindness if he was not careful.

Liang Bo hesitated for a long time, then opened the booklet again and searched repeatedly for clues. Unfortunately, he still could not determine how to use the Clear Spirit Water.

In the end, Liang Bo brought over a large basin of clear water, dripped a small amount of Clear Spirit Water into it to dilute it, then took some of the diluted Clear Spirit Water and dripped it into his eyes.

The instant it entered his eyes, Liang Bo felt an icy chill rush straight toward his forehead. Yet his eyes felt no discomfort; instead, they felt extremely comfortable. After a moment, he discovered that his vision had improved slightly.

"This works!" Liang Bo's heart settled at once, and he immediately knew how to use it.