Hard-and-Soft Qi

The sudden paralysis filled Zhou Liang with delight.

"This is the sixty-fourth acupoint. Another paralysis-type acupoint. If I collect a few more, it should be enough. After all, every region of the body now has acupoints with known effects. That way, I can launch effective attacks from any angle."

As Zhou Liang picked up a thick notebook, he muttered to himself.

The notebook recorded extensive knowledge about acupoints. It contained numerous diagrams of the human body, depicting the effects of various acupoints and the results of striking them precisely.

There were sixty-three such acupoint charts in total. Zhou Liang was about to write down the sixty-fourth.

But just as his pen touched the notebook, a strange sensation arose in his mind.

Within that starry sky, several stars flickered and fell together.

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As they fell, a tiny star from the same cluster teetered precariously. Drawn along by the starlight force of those falling stars, it slowly began to descend as well.

In the end, it fell and merged into Zhou Liang's soul along with the other stars.

At once, a lucid, empty sensation swept over him. The power of his soul began to rise, his perception was elevated, and a vast amount of knowledge flooded into his mind, constantly crashing against him.

As time slowly passed, the clear sensation gradually faded. His greatly enhanced soul steadily stabilized, his perception returned to calm, and he absorbed the final portion of knowledge.

"Holy crap, even the data I made up has turned into actual cultivation techniques!" Zhou Liang said, his eyes wide with disbelief.

He was so shocked that he even blurted out a curse. After all, he was intimately familiar with the three sets of knowledge that had appeared in his mind.

They were cultivation techniques he had created himself.

Zhou Liang had a childhood friend who had taught himself game development. He claimed he wanted to create a polished little game that would become a huge hit.

To be honest, the guy had some real skill. The first little game he made had received a fair amount of praise.

After receiving that recognition, he wanted to make a second one. This time, though, he had grand ambitions and wanted to create a Martial World game unlike any other.

"In martial arts novels, aside from the thrilling world of grudges and revenge, there are divine weapons, all kinds of strange divine arts, and breathtaking beauties. The grudges and revenge are the plot—I'm good at that. Divine weapons are easy enough to set up, and beautiful women can be handled by outsourcing the art. But those unique and unusual divine arts are giving me a headache. You've always had a wild imagination since we were kids, so help me come up with a few!"

Zhou Liang still remembered his childhood friend saying that to him.

But Zhou Liang had been upset over something at the time. Although he agreed to help his friend, he had no mood to carefully devise unusual cultivation techniques.

So he casually pulled up some anime characters online and made up a bunch of cultivation techniques based on their traits and abilities.

For example, One-Punch Mountainbreaker and Mountain-Shaking Meteor-Iron Arm!

Non-Killing Secret Art and Mind-Cleansing Prison-Breaking Zen!

Blazing Flameflow and Southern Bright Leading-Fire Fist!

Heaven-Shaking Earth-Rending Demon-Subduing Art and Thirty-Six-Route Crescent Blade Method!

Sixfold Hells Void-Eye and Endless Hell Utmost-Evil Pupil!

Hard-and-Soft Qi and Myriad Laws Spirit Transmutation!

There were also many other bizarre cultivation techniques. He had simply picked an anime character at random and made up a technique for them on the spot.

There were also plenty of other strange things related to the Martial World, such as various escape arts, pill refining, artifact forging, blacksmithing, and other unusual arts.

Because he had gotten carried away with making up names, he had created a great many of them. After copying one set to keep for his own amusement, he sent the rest to his childhood friend.

And now, that data had actually become stars in his golden finger. What had fallen from them consisted mainly of two cultivation techniques, along with a collection of knowledge related to pill refining and pill formulas.

[Hard-and-Soft Qi] [Myriad Laws Spirit Transmutation]

Hard-and-Soft Qi had originally been something he made up by combining the Strong Fist and Soft Fist from Naruto.

Hard Qi could make the body incomparably tough, granting extremely high defense. Every move could subdue demons and vanquish tigers, and once cultivated to great mastery, it could even forge protective qi around the body.

Soft Qi made the body extraordinarily flexible, granting extremely agile movements. Every move was unpredictable, and once cultivated to great mastery, the body would become like a flawless vessel capable of deflecting countless forces.

Hard-and-Soft Qi also came with four sets of moves.

They were the Qi-Concentrating Acupoint Strike, Force-Splitting Windrend Leg, Heavenly Origin Breathing Method, and Eight Gates.

Among them, the Qi-Concentrating Acupoint Strike was a setting created mainly from the style of the Soft Fist, mixed with some acupoint-striking techniques from the Martial World.

Force-Splitting Windrend Leg was even simpler. It combined the various kicking techniques of the Strong Fist, the various leg techniques of the Hidden Leaf, kicking techniques from One Piece, Orochi's leg blades from The King of Fighters, and all sorts of other depictions of leg techniques.

The Heavenly Origin Breathing Method was actually the Seven-Day Breathing Method, which enhanced one's vitality and thereby unleashed explosive strength.

Here, it had been modified into a cultivation method. Cultivating the Heavenly Origin Breathing Method could raise one's life vitality and also enable explosive states, though its main purpose was to enhance life vitality and bodily flexibility.

However, it happened to suit Xiao Wu perfectly. Given the level of this cultivation technique, once she cultivated all seven layers, she would not only gain seven stages of explosive power, but would mainly improve her own flexibility.

The greater the body's flexibility, the greater the power it could unleash. This was extremely important for Hard-and-Soft Qi.

Only with greater explosive power could one's instantaneous acupoint-striking attacks become stronger, and the explosive force of one's leg techniques become even more formidable.

It was also the prerequisite cultivation method for the Eight Gates.

Zhou Liang had set it as the prerequisite cultivation method for the Eight Gates. Only after completing the Heavenly Origin Breathing Method and possessing sufficiently strong vitality and flexibility could one neutralize the side effects of the Eight Gates.

Furthermore, the Eight Gates had also been modified, becoming a Mystic of a cultivation nature.

First, one used one's inner force to open numerous specific acupoints in the body, then opened the meridians linking them together, forming a gate-like array within the body. Each of the Eight Gates possessed different attributes and abilities, while also allowing one to open the gates and unleash explosive power.

Of course, inner force had become Soul Power here, and everything else had changed accordingly.

Zhou Liang looked at the acupoint knowledge recorded in his hand, then sensed the various kinds of knowledge bestowed by the golden finger in his mind.

His expression remained blank as the hand clutching the notebook gradually turned red.

Then, with a boom, it burst into flames.

"The golden finger really is the best. But I think I've figured out its trigger pattern!" Zhou Liang thought, stroking his chin with his other hand.

By then, the notebook in his other hand had completely burned away. It soon turned to ash and scattered across the ground.