Deducing the Heaven-Splitting Three Forms!

Su Yunwan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the displeasure in her heart as her expression turned cold.

Fine. Good advice could not save a ghost bent on dying. Since he insisted on jumping into the pit himself, there was no need for her to waste any more breath.

"Then the procedures are complete." Her voice returned to its earlier businesslike chill as she handed over the sealed box.

"The secret scroll has a one-time mental imprint seal. The redeemer only needs to touch it with their mental power to open it. Burn it after reading; it cannot be copied or spread. Take care of yourself."

Lin Ming accepted the weighty sealed box. It felt icy in his hands. He nodded without even saying thank you, then turned and sat back down in the corner, placing the box on his lap.

Seeing his manner, the stifled anger in Su Yunwan's chest grew even heavier.

She gave Lin Ming's back a long look, snorted coldly, and turned to leave, the hem of her dark green military uniform cutting a crisp arc through the air.

After taking a few steps, she stopped again. In the end, she could not hold it in and turned her head slightly, leaving him with a cold warning:

"I hope you will not regret today's decision. Here, wasting even the slightest resource may mean death."

With that, she did not look back again and strode away, as though staying another second would contaminate her with the unpleasant ill luck of this place.

Lin Ming seemed not to hear the departing footsteps behind him or Su Yunwan's final warning. All his attention was focused on the sealed box on his lap.

His fingers brushed over the box's cold surface until they found the slightly indented mental-power sensing area. He concentrated, and a thread of weak yet condensed mental power slowly extended outward.

A faint white glow lit up on the surface of the sealed box, followed by a soft click. The lid sprang open by itself, leaving a narrow gap.

Lin Ming lifted the lid. Inside was black velvet lining, upon which lay a strange dark-gold scroll, neither paper nor silk.

The scroll was barely a foot long, yet heavy in his hand. Its touch was warm, carrying a trace of ancient vastness.

On its surface, four ancient characters were written in some kind of dark-red pigment, their strokes like iron hooks and silver lines, their bearing majestic—Heaven-Splitting Three Forms.

He picked up the scroll and unfolded it.

There were only several hundred archaic words on the scroll, along with a few crude yet profoundly evocative diagrams of force circulation. They described the first form, "Mountain Splitter."

The text was difficult and obscure, while many parts of the diagrams were incomplete and blurred. Many crucial circulation routes and exertion techniques were vaguely described, or simply left blank.

Just as Su Yunwan had said, it truly was a severely incomplete riddle that left one with nowhere to begin.

However, the instant Lin Ming's mental power touched the contents of the scroll and recorded them in his mind—

[Detected martial skill Heaven-Splitting Three Forms (Fragmentary Scroll). Repair conditions met. Consume 1000 Kill Points to repair?]

"Repair."

[Command confirmed. Consuming 1000 Kill Points. Beginning repair deduction...]

[Repair complete. Obtained complete martial skill Heaven-Splitting Three Forms (Spear Art).]

[Heaven-Splitting Three Forms: First Form · Mountain Splitter (force bearing the weight of a thousand jun, splitting mountains and shattering stone); Second Form · Sea Severing (spear momentum like the tides, cleaving rivers apart); Third Form · Heaven-Splitting (a strike of intent, shattering the void). Overall rating: S (growth potential).]

[Detected that the host possesses a relevant foundation (Basic Spearmanship: Subtlety). Consume 1000 Kill Points to raise mastery of Heaven-Splitting Three Forms to the 'Proficient' level?]

"Raise it."

[Command confirmed. Consuming 1000 Kill Points. Beginning infusion...]

Vast insights into spear techniques surged into him! It was an artistic conception utterly unlike Basic Spear Art—grander, more tyrannical, more profound!

The heaviness of Mountain Splitter, the grandeur of Sea Severing, the ethereality of Heaven-Splitting... countless secret methods of exerting force, unique paths for circulating qi and blood, and techniques for merging spirit with spear momentum branded themselves into his soul!

It was as though he had endured years upon years of bitter cultivation and study!

[Infusion complete. Heaven-Splitting Three Forms: (Proficient)]

[Remaining Kill Points: 15.]

All of this happened in the time it took for sparks to fly from flint. To an outsider, Lin Ming had merely picked up the secret scroll, pressed it to his forehead, and set it down again. The entire process took less than three seconds.

When the infusion ended, Lin Ming slowly opened his eyes.

Deep within them, a sharp palm shadow seemed to flash and vanish. He gently flexed the fingers of one hand, his joints giving off faint crackling sounds, while a heavy, tyrannical artistic conception faintly flowed around him.

Heaven-Splitting Three Forms, Proficient level!

From obtaining the secret scroll to mastering a complete martial skill suspected to be S-rank and reaching the Proficient level, only a few minutes had passed.

The expenditure of two thousand Kill Points had been worth every bit of it.

"Mm..." Lin Ming felt the vast essence of palm arts in his mind and the instinctive familiarity in his body, murmuring to himself, "I... really am too hardworking. This is all the result of my hard work."

Had Su Yunwan, who had just left in anger, heard that, she would likely have been so furious that she drew her gun on the spot.

However, just as Lin Ming finished digesting this enormous gain and was preparing to familiarize himself with his newly acquired power—

WOOOOO!!!!

A shrill alarm of the utmost severity erupted without warning, like billions of steel needles viciously stabbing into everyone's eardrums! This alarm was unlike any that had sounded before!