An Absurd Level of Difficulty

Clang!

As Lin Fan's voice fell, a sharpness utterly unlike the mountain-like oppression of the Calamity Killing Art pierced into his sea of consciousness without warning.

His vision went black again.

Then, just as before, a vast, boundless cosmic starfield appeared before him.

But this time, the scene was no longer silent and still.

Countless silver streaks of light darted wildly through the river of stars. They gathered and interwove, finally taking the form of a silver-white roc composed of countless blades, its wings spread as it hovered above the nebula.

It merely flapped its enormous wings once.

Screee!

The once-stable walls of space were now like a fragile painting, easily torn open by those wings, leaving a pitch-black rift.

As the fabric of the universe shattered, Lin Fan slowly opened his eyes, silver light seeming to flicker in their depths.

He rubbed the space between his brows and issued a command in his mind.

"True Self, continue recording the first level of the Sky-Splitting Escape Method."

[Command confirmed]

[First level of the Sky-Splitting Escape Method, "Shadow Sweep," recording complete]

[Current True Self cultivation queue: 1. Calamity Killing Art (priority: high); 2. Sky-Splitting Escape Method (priority: pending)]

After recording the secret arts of both weapons, Lin Fan glanced at the electronic clock on the wall.

It was already well into the latter half of the night.

The prolonged strain on his mind and the two successive information surges had also left him deeply exhausted.

"Time to sleep. Gotta save my sorry hide."

Lin Fan stretched, then turned and left the underground training hall without lingering.

Back in the master bedroom on the second floor, he flopped onto the bed and fell asleep.

His breathing had already become deep and even almost as soon as his head touched the pillow.

Moonlight poured through the window like water, draping his sleeping form in a silver veil.

And yet.

Deep within his sea of consciousness, the golden True Self showed no signs of stopping.

Once, twice, three times...

The True Self never tired or grew bored, repeating the first level of the obscure and profound Calamity Killing Art over and over again.

The next morning.

Lin Fan woke groggily.

Before he even opened his eyes, he silently murmured in his mind,

"Integrate."

Bzz!

At Lin Fan's silent command, the True Self in the Bronze Hall instantly turned into specks of starlight and merged with his consciousness.

With his eyes still closed and his brows slightly furrowed, Lin Fan carefully absorbed the insights the True Self had sent back—insights that were not especially profound.

There was none of the exhilarating sensation he had imagined, as if enlightenment had been poured into him and he had mastered the art in an instant.

Instead, his mind was filled with countless repeated failures, and within those failures, a fleeting flash of insight.

These insights were incredibly subtle, yet utterly real.

They were the result of the True Self practicing an unknown number of times throughout the night, distilling the minutest details of muscle tremor control.

They were about how to channel the strength of his entire body through a weapon and convert it into "vibration."

Lin Fan mulled over the insights for a long while before slowly opening his eyes.

"As expected of a secret art that came with a bonded divine weapon... This is seriously difficult, but there's definitely something to it."

He sat up, rubbed his aching temples, and couldn't help sighing.

Even with an absolutely rational cheat like the True Self running cultivation all night, he had only just gotten a toe over the threshold of the first level of the Calamity Killing Art, Mountain Collapse.

He now had a rough grasp of how to generate force, but he was still a long way from truly mastering it.

Still, the difficulty only stoked Lin Fan's competitive spirit.

The harder a technique was to master, the more astonishing the power it tended to unleash.

"Let's give it a try. See how much I managed to learn overnight."

Lin Fan swung his legs off the bed and planted his bare feet on the floor.

He grabbed a loose training outfit, threw it on, and headed straight for the underground training hall.

As the training hall's heavy alloy doors closed, all the noise outside was shut away.

Lin Fan walked to the center of the training ground, stopped, and adjusted his stance.

He held out his right hand, palm open, and the dark, heavy Calamity appeared in it out of thin air.

Its familiar weight settled into his hand, filling him with a sense of reassurance.

Lin Fan drew a deep breath, steadied his breathing, and tried to find the right feeling for generating force.

He closed his eyes and recalled the rhythm of the giant scythe's swing.

After a long moment, following that fleeting sensation, he slightly arched his spine. Strength rose from the soles of his feet, passed through his calves and knees, gathered at his waist and hips, and finally surged toward his right arm like a flood.

"Mountain... Collapse!"

Lin Fan let out a low shout. His eyes snapped open, and light blazed from them.

His spine shuddered like a great dragon, instantly transmitting the force to his arms as he brought Calamity crashing down through the air before him.

And yet...

The moment the force flowed into Calamity, Lin Fan clearly felt a hint of stiffness and resistance.

It was like a gear suddenly catching on a high-speed train.

The vibration that should have erupted all at once dissipated by more than half because of a tiny deviation in his muscle control.

The delicate vibration frequency broke apart as it traveled through him.

Whoosh.

Calamity sliced through the air. Nothing trembled as Lin Fan had imagined; it didn't even stir the slightest ripple.

"As expected, I'm still nowhere near good enough."

Lin Fan looked at the motionless air and shook his head.

That strike hadn't managed to unleash the true essence of Mountain Collapse at all.

The hidden force that penetrated the body and shattered its internal structure—he had only managed to bring out the faintest trace of it.

No, probably not even that.

At this level, if their strength were equal, the attack wouldn't cause the other person even the slightest internal injury.

"Still, even if I've only grasped the basics, at least I'm heading in the right direction."

Lin Fan didn't lose heart. He spun Calamity in a quick flourish, then put it away.

Now that he knew where he was falling short, he had a direction to work toward.

Practicing on autopilot overnight had shown him where the move's difficulty lay and taught him the most basic path for channeling force.

It was like finding a faint trail in the fog. He still couldn't see what lay at the end, but at least there was a path beneath his feet.

All that remained was to keep walking and honing his skills until he cleared it.

Knowledge gained from books was always superficial; true understanding came only through practice.

Practicing against empty air in the safety of the training hall would never teach him a true art of killing.

Lin Fan put Calamity away and glanced at the electronic clock on the wall. It was still early, but he was already itching to get going.

He quickly changed out of his loose training clothes and into his combat suit, tightened his shoelaces, checked his arm guards, and put on his Communication Watch.

Finally, he slung on his specially reinforced tactical backpack—which was still mostly there to throw people off—and straightened his collar.

"Just need to get ready, then I'm off."

His destination: the Wilderness Zone.