Outrageous Difficulty

Clang!

As Lin Fan's words faded, a sensation entirely different from the mountain-heavy pressure of the Calamity Killing Art took hold.

A sharp, piercing edge struck his consciousness without warning.

His vision went black once more.

Then, a vast, boundless starry sky appeared before him.

But this time, the scene was neither silent nor dead.

Billions of silver streams of light darted frantically through the galaxy, converging and intertwining until they formed a silver-white roc composed of countless blades, hovering with wings spread above the nebula.

It merely flapped those sky-covering wings once.

Rip!

The previously stable spatial barrier was torn open like a fragile painting, a pitch-black fissure appearing where the wings had struck.

As the cosmic space shattered, Lin Fan slowly opened his eyes, a silver glint seemingly flashing in their depths.

He rubbed his brow and issued a command in his mind.

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

[Command confirmed]

[First stage 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: Waiting)]

Having finished recording the secret techniques for both weapons, Lin Fan glanced at the digital clock on the wall.

It was already late into the night.

The prolonged mental tension and the successive information shocks left him feeling deeply exhausted.

"Sleep, sleep. My life is more important."

Lin Fan stretched, decided not to linger, and turned to walk out of the underground training hall.

Returning to the master bedroom on the second floor, Lin Fan collapsed onto the bed.

Almost the moment his head hit the pillow, his breathing became long and steady.

The moonlight outside the window poured in like water, draping a silver veil over him as he slept.

However.

Deep within his consciousness, the golden "True Self" did not rest for a moment.

Once, twice, three times...

The True Self, tireless and unfazed by monotony, repeated the obscure and profound first stage of the Calamity Killing Art over and over again.

The next morning.

Lin Fan woke up in a daze.

Before he even opened his eyes, he muttered in his mind.

"Merge."

Hum!

As Lin Fan thought the word, the "True Self" in the Bronze Hall instantly turned into specks of starlight, merging into his consciousness.

Lin Fan kept his eyes closed, brows slightly furrowed, as he carefully digested the insights the True Self had fed back to him—insights that were not particularly profound.

There was no sudden enlightenment or the exhilarating feeling of instant mastery he had imagined.

Instead, his mind was filled with countless repeated failures and the fleeting spark of inspiration found within those failures.

These insights were extremely subtle, yet incredibly real.

They were the result of the True Self practicing countless times throughout the night, summarizing the control of minute muscle tremors.

It was the technique of how to channel the body's entire strength through a weapon to create "oscillation."

Lin Fan savored the feeling for a long time before slowly opening his eyes.

"As expected of a secret technique from a companion divine weapon... the difficulty is truly immense, but it certainly has substance."

He sat up, rubbed his throbbing temples, and couldn't help but sigh.

Even with the "True Self"—an absolutely rational cheat—grinding all night long, he had only just touched the threshold of the first stage of the Calamity Killing Art, "Mountain Collapse."

He could barely understand the basic principles of force generation, but he was still quite a distance away from true "entry-level" mastery.

However, this difficulty only ignited Lin Fan's competitive spirit.

The harder a technique was to master, the more astonishing its explosive power tended to be.

"Let's give it a try. Let's see how much I've actually managed to practice in one night."

Lin Fan rolled out of bed, his bare feet hitting the floor.

He grabbed a loose training suit, pulled it on, pushed the door open, and headed straight for the underground training hall.

As the heavy alloy doors of the training hall closed, all the noise from the outside world was shut out.

Lin Fan walked to the center of the training ground, stood still, and began to adjust his posture.

He gripped his right hand, and the pitch-black, heavy Calamity appeared in his palm out of thin air.

The familiar weight brought him a sense of immense stability.

Lin Fan took a deep breath, adjusted his breathing, and tried to find that sense of force generation.

He closed his eyes, recalling the rhythm of that giant scythe as it swung.

After a long while, following that fleeting sensation, Lin Fan arched his spine slightly. Power rose from the soles of his feet, traveled through his calves, crossed his 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 snapping open, a sharp glint erupting from them.

His spine whipped like a great dragon, transmitting power instantly to his arms as he slashed Calamity down through the air in front of him.

However...

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

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

The oscillation force that should have erupted instantly dissipated for the most part due to a tiny deviation in muscle control.

The subtle frequency of the tremor broke during transmission.

Whoosh.

Calamity sliced through the air, but the vibration Lin Fan had imagined did not occur; it didn't even stir a ripple.

"As expected, I'm still far off."

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

That strike had failed to unleash the true essence of "Mountain Collapse."

He had only managed to exert a tiny, weak fraction of the internal force meant to penetrate and shatter the target's internal structure.

No, perhaps not even a fraction.

An attack of this level, assuming equal strength, wouldn't even cause the slightest internal injury to an opponent.

"Still, although I've only barely grasped the surface, at least the direction is correct."

Lin Fan didn't lose heart. He performed a flourish with the blade and sheathed Calamity.

Now that he knew where he was lacking, he had a direction for his efforts.

The night of grinding had taught him where the "difficulty" of this move lay and allowed him to master the most basic path of force generation.

It was like finding a faint path in the fog; although he couldn't see the scenery at the end, at least there was a road beneath his feet.

The rest was just a matter of walking it and honing his skills to flatten the path.

Knowledge gained from books is always shallow; one must practice to truly understand.

In this safe training hall, practicing blindly against the air would never yield a true killing art.

Lin Fan put away Calamity and glanced at the wall clock. It was still early, but he couldn't wait any longer.

He quickly changed out of his loose training suit, put on his combat gear, tightened his shoelaces, checked his arm guards, and fastened his communication watch.

Finally, he shouldered the specially reinforced tactical backpack—still used as a cover—and straightened his collar.

"Time to pack up and head out."

Target: Wilderness Zone.