Perfected Technique Seal

The five illusory symbols of the five elements on the Thunder Rune Pattern flashed in succession, and the streams of mana split into five, flying toward them.

After absorbing the mana, those five elemental symbols changed from illusion to substance. They seemed to come alive, swimming about restlessly, brimming with spirituality.

Soon, threads of white, azure, black, crimson, and yellow spiritual power were stirred forth by them. They then converged at the center of the Thunder Rune Pattern, where the Five-Colored Spiritual Power gradually formed a stream of silver mana.

This stream of silver mana looked far smaller than the previous flow of mana, but it was clearly much denser, even carrying the feel of liquid.

Though its quantity had decreased, its quality seemed to have risen tremendously.

The silver mana circled the Thunder Rune Pattern once before flowing into his Dantian.

Ning Fa was astonished. After thinking for a moment, he decided to cast a simple lightning-element spell to test the might of this silver mana.

To his disbelief, the instant he raised his right hand, an egg-sized Silver Lightning Ball appeared in his palm almost instantly.

The crackling hum made one's heart tremble. Countless tiny Silver Lightning Threads danced erratically, the Silver Radiance blinding as it exuded a powerful pressure.

With a sharp whoosh, it shot out at terrifying speed, almost leaving behind an afterimage.

A sturdy redwood table in its path instantly exploded into a cloud of black ash. Yet the Silver Lightning Ball did not lose momentum; it directly blasted a hole more than ten feet wide through the wall behind it. The entire wall was nearly pierced through, and the edges of the hole were charred black.

Soft moonlight streamed through the gaping hole, falling across Ning Fa's stunned face.

Only after a long while did Ning Fa come back to his senses, but his face remained full of disbelief.

He had just instant-cast the first-tier low-grade lightning spell, the Thunderball Technique!

And why was its power so immense!?

It was at least five times stronger than before.

What exactly was going on?

He had clearly only barely mastered the Thunderball Technique to the Minor Mastery realm. He was still far from the Great Perfection realm, where spells could be instant-cast.

Cultivators in the immortal cultivation world had many methods of combat. Aside from the moves and secret arts accompanying their cultivation techniques, they could use magical artifacts, spiritual artifacts, magic treasures, talismans, and other such items. There were also the basic Five Elements Spells passed down since ancient times, which could be used against enemies.

The power of Five Elements Spells was not weak. On the contrary, high-tier spells were exceedingly formidable.

For instance, even Foundation Establishment Cultivators would struggle to withstand a second-tier Five Elements Spell.

As for third-tier spells, even Core Formation Cultivators would pale at the sight of them.

Even so, very few people specialized in cultivating Five Elements Spells.

That was because using Five Elements Spells in battle had one enormous drawback: their casting time was far too long.

Battles between high-level cultivators changed in the blink of an eye. A moment's carelessness could directly lead to defeat.

Thus, Five Elements Arts were extremely impractical in combat, nowhere near as useful as external tools such as talismans, magical artifacts, spiritual artifacts, and magic treasures.

But that did not mean all Five Elements Spells were so slow to cast. In truth, once a Five Elements Spell was mastered to a profound realm, its casting speed could be accelerated. It could even be instant-cast, while its power would also increase greatly.

Ancient records stated that during the primordial era, Five Elements Arts had been extremely widespread and had even been the primary means by which cultivators fought.

At that time, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth had also been exceptionally abundant, making it easier for cultivators to master spells to profound realms.

But as the spiritual power between heaven and earth waned, coupled with the rise of artifact refinement and talismans, cultivators gradually abandoned spells as a means of fighting enemies and instead devoted all their energy to forging their own magic treasures.

In today's immortal cultivation world, mastery of Five Elements Spells was divided into the Beginner, Minor Mastery, Major Mastery, and Great Perfection realms.

The realm in which one could instant-cast a spell was the Great Perfection realm.

So now the question was this: Ning Fa had only barely cultivated the Thunderball Technique to the Minor Mastery realm. Why could he instant-cast this spell? And why was its power so great?

This was clearly something only possible after mastering the spell to the Great Perfection realm.

Just as Ning Fa stood in shock, a strange scene unfolded.

A ray of brilliance suddenly emerged from the void and enveloped Ning Fa entirely. Then waves of Sanskrit Chants rang out, like the voice of the Great Dao.

As Ning Fa stood frozen in shock, at a complete loss, a spiritual rune mark shaped like a Silver Lightning Ball appeared within the brilliance, flickering with mysterious spiritual light.

It then shot directly into Ning Fa's forehead, leaving him no time to dodge.

Ning Fa felt a disturbance in his Sea of Consciousness. A spiritual rune mark shaped like a Silver Lightning Ball floated silently above it, glimmering faintly.

Ning Fa gaped in astonishment. A term suddenly surfaced in his mind, and he blurted out, "Perfected Technique Seal!?"

Ning Fa stood there dumbly for a long while, his eyes filled with disbelief.

The so-called Perfected Technique Seal was a concept recorded in certain ancient texts.

Those texts stated that when a cultivator mastered a Five Elements Spell to the Great Perfection realm, they might stir the power of the Great Dao and obtain such a Perfected Technique Seal.

The ancient texts gave only a brief introduction to the Perfected Technique Seal. It seemed that the Great Perfection realm of Five Elements Arts was merely a broad classification, within which there were still higher and lower distinctions.

Only by obtaining a Perfected Technique Seal could one be said to have truly mastered a Five Elements Art to its highest realm.

Without question, when cultivators possessing a Perfected Technique Seal cast the corresponding Five Elements Arts, their power far surpassed that of other cultivators who had also mastered the same technique to the Great Perfection realm.

For some unknown reason, after the primordial era, even cultivators who cultivated Five Elements Spells to the Great Perfection realm rarely obtained Perfected Technique Seals.

Some speculated that this was because the spiritual power between heaven and earth had declined, making it much harder to stir the power of the Great Dao.

This had also directly resulted in the fact that, in the present immortal cultivation world, even Five Elements Spells cultivated to the Great Perfection realm were somewhat weaker than what was recorded in ancient texts.

Yet Ning Fa had now obtained the Perfected Technique Seal of the Thunderball Technique. How could he not be utterly shocked?

Ning Fa stood like a statue, feeling that he had suffered far too many shocks tonight. He was almost numb to them.

He forcibly calmed his emotions, his gaze flickering.

The cause of all these changes did not seem difficult to guess. It should have been because the Thunder Rune Pattern had become complete.

Not only had it caused an abnormal transformation in his body, making his spiritual energy sensitivity and absorption efficiency astonishing.

It had also raised the Thunderball Technique, which he had mastered only to the Minor Mastery realm, directly to the Great Perfection realm—and had even granted him a Perfected Technique Seal!

No wonder the Thunderball Technique had been so powerful just now.

And it was likely not merely because the Thunderball Technique had risen to the Great Perfection realm. The Thunder Rune Pattern had refined the mana within his body into silver mana, which should also have been an important reason.

As a result, the Thunderball Technique's power had clearly surpassed the limits of a first-tier low-grade spell. Even ordinary first-tier mid-grade spells could not compare.

Ning Fa could not help but grow excited. Did that mean that when he cultivated other lightning-element spells, as long as he could master them to the Minor Mastery realm, they too could be directly raised to the Great Perfection realm and grant him Perfected Technique Seals?

That seemed highly possible.

Ning Fa forcefully suppressed the excitement in his heart and gradually calmed down.

Only then did he remember that he had originally intended to break through the bottleneck of the Qi Condensation Mid-stage. But judging by the situation, all the mana he cultivated through meditation had been refined by the Thunder Rune Pattern into that silver mana.

Though this silver mana was far stronger in quality than before, its quantity was much smaller.

This seemed to mean that the threshold for breaking through his bottleneck had become much higher than before. He needed to accumulate a certain quantity of this refined silver mana.

After all, that enormous stream of mana from before had only been converted into this tiny amount of silver mana. The conversion rate was probably not even one in ten.

Having understood this, Ning Fa was not discouraged. Instead, a strange light flashed in his eyes.

With his current spiritual energy sensitivity, it seemed he would not need to cultivate for very long to increase the amount of silver mana.

He even thought of consuming large quantities of the Essence Replenishing Pills he had refined himself to assist his cultivation. That should shorten the time even further.

At this thought, Ning Fa could not help throwing back his head in laughter, the sound echoing endlessly through the empty room.