Secret Art

Biodata

Power Progression

The following tracks documented improvements to Xiao Yang’s use and creation of secret arts, rather than a single technique.

Types and Applications

Force-Exertion and Combat Arts

• Hong’s spear art World Annihilation is Xiao Yang’s first purchased secret manual. Its original six layers reach 6.3-fold force exertion; Xiao Yang chooses it over the stronger-on-paper Ninefold Thunder Blade because the latter is a saber art 12 13.
• Xiao Yang’s perfected version links full-strength force impacts. He demonstrates its method to Hong and Thunder God, who learn to produce twofold force exertion with their own techniques 61 63.
• Force-exertion principles can also enhance movement and disperse incoming force for defense, though Xiao Yang develops the defensive application only after testing Hong’s suggestion 63 64.
• Secret arts do not automatically match their user’s law comprehension: Xiao Yang begins creating his own because existing techniques cannot fully express his understanding of all Ten Origin Laws 256 257.

Law-Comprehension Arts

• Babata gives Xiao Yang Heaven-Scorching Flames, a Psychic combat art concerning the Fire Origin Law. It can aid his studies, but is less specialized for comprehension than Infinite Flame Sea 73 125.
• Infinite Flame Sea is designed specifically to analyze the Fire Origin Law, making it more useful for that purpose than Xiao Yang’s earlier combat art 125.
• True Interpretation of the Void Ruins analyzes the Space Origin Law. Its first volume contains 108 forms; mastering the first form within ten years is Xiao Yang’s core inheritance assessment 127.
• Support arts can be closely guarded factional legacies. The Farm Town library offers detailed supplementary law studies, but its accessible collection contains no offensive arts 137 465 467.

Soul, Will, and Defensive Arts

• Xiao Yang’s first self-created soul illusion is rated only an ordinary Immortal-level technique, below his spear art. The Primal Ancestor helps him refine both through critique and simulated combat 257.
• Ninefold Void Return, granted by a Level-8 crop, reduces an enemy’s physical attack to one percent of its original power. Xiao Yang later combines it with armor to withstand attacks that still injure him 215 318.
• Xiao Yang adapts the Divine Eye Secret Technique into a will-based enslavement art with Tony’s guidance. Unlike an ordinary soul-enslavement art, it can contend with a World Beast’s internal power 469 471.

Acquisition and Limits

• Secret manuals may require both status and substantial payment. Xiao Yang gains access to the Ultimate Martial Arts Hall’s purchasing system after becoming a certified Martial Warrior; even the discounted first layer of World Annihilation costs 100 million Huaxia Currency 12 13.
• Some arts cannot be freely disclosed. The Bald Crystal Man orders Xiao Yang to keep the Controller 312 Forms confidential, while the art learned in Ruins No. 9 cannot be passed on to Hong 45 46.
• Access can depend on the intended recipient: Luo Feng can perceive the Nine Tribulations Secret Manual within a Black Metal Plate, but Xiao Yang cannot read it with his World Power 276 277.
• Greater depth can carry danger. Simon warns that reading protected Great Dao arts without sufficient will can cause madness or even bodily transformation 465.