In the wilderness, inside a cave.
Dongguan sat cross-legged on a bluestone slab, his palms, soles, and crown facing the sky as he absorbed cosmic energy.
Three days had passed since he escaped from the Long-Armed Ape King.
At first, he had regulated his breathing and tended to his injuries.
Afterward, he had sorted through what he had gained from the battle.
That battle had cost him the SS-grade saber he had used for years, but it had also pushed his movement technique to the artistic conception level.
The basic, fine control, and even perfect levels of movement technique could all be reached through practice, while the artistic conception level felt like something that could only be understood, not explained.
In fact, with his knowledge of the world of Swallowed Star, he knew that view was mistaken.
The reason it supposedly could only be understood and not explained was simply that Earth had only recently entered the age of cultivation. Only a handful of people had reached the artistic conception level, and Hong alone had a domain.
Although the sages of antiquity had attained great heights in their state of mind, state of mind and cultivation were separate matters. They could not be conflated.
True knowledge came from practice.
Only upon attaining artistic conception did one truly enter the halls of cultivation. Everything before that was merely practice in fundamental skills.
Put another way, the artistic conception level meant having a personal style. After reaching the perfect level and undergoing enough battles and trials, entering the artistic conception level was perfectly normal. The difficult part was taking that artistic conception far enough.
That was precisely why Dongguan had been mocked. Every warrior on Earth of his generation who had reached the advanced War God level had at least one skill at the artistic conception level.
His "limit of the perfect level" was the real oddity. At first, some had even mistaken it for a "special universal artistic conception." In the end, a councilor-level expert from the Flame Legion had declared it the "limit of the perfect level," and even Hong had agreed after watching footage of him.
"Artistic conception."
Dongguan stepped down from the bluestone slab. With a shift of his body, several phantom images appeared.
These phantom images were the effect of his artistic conception-level movement technique. He had named it "phantom artistic conception."
This artistic conception compensated for inferior speed by using phantoms to confuse an opponent. It was an ability he had been forced to develop while fleeing the Long-Armed Ape King.
He could not explain exactly how it worked, but he could do it. It was a kind of insight.
"Since artistic conception can be used in movement techniques, it can naturally be used in saber techniques too."
Dongguan picked up a branch from the ground and swung it, producing several phantom images.
"It works."
No one had ever referred to Hong's domain as a spear technique domain or a movement technique domain, so artistic conceptions themselves could also be integrated across different skills.
Some people had only reached the artistic conception level in either movement or combat techniques largely because their foundations at the perfect level were not solid enough.
He swung the branch without stopping his footwork, and several Dongguans appeared around him, each wielding a branch in a different pose.
"Phantom artistic conception has two directions for development: increasing the number of phantoms, and making them more realistic."
He pondered as he practiced.
As a warrior, he had almost no room left to improve within the apprentice grade. The next step was planetary grade, but that required a special method or a chance opportunity.
In the ninth level of the Ninefold Thunder Blade, Thunder God had described the opportunity that allowed him to break through to planetary grade.
On a night of thunder and rain, Thunder God had been attacked by monsters in the wilderness. After a bout of slaughter, he had gained an insight while watching the lightning in the sky and naturally broken through.
He had not forced it, and the sensation of breaking through had been incredibly comfortable.
In the video, the bald Thunder God had come across as utterly sincere.
"Be true to yourself and true to your heart. Guard against arrogance and impatience, and the opportunity will come in its own time."
Aside from secret methods, breaking through to planetary grade depended on an opportunity.
As for secret methods, he knew of none on Earth outside Ruins No. 9 and Babata's possession. Opportunities were even harder to grasp.
In the original story, Li Yao had sensed his opportunity on the execution ground.
"Forget it. Time to head back." Dongguan tossed the branch aside and began packing his backpack.
As he rummaged through it, a small bag tied up with a strip of hide came into his hand.
"Even my saber is gone, but you're still here."
He opened the small bag, revealing two scarlet eyeballs inside.
After several days, the flesh and blood clinging to the edges of the eyeballs had dried somewhat. Dongguan wiped it away with his hand.
The rat eyes were as beautiful as gemstones.
A new idea suddenly occurred to Dongguan. The thing on his forehead was an eye, and these were eyes too. Could there be some interaction between them?
He acted on the thought, holding one rat eye in front of his forehead, opening the vertical eye between his brows, and staring intently at it.
He could only use his psychic power when this eye was open, but it could also see normally.
Two eyes were enough, though, so he only opened it when using psychic power.
Now, strange patterns appeared before him. Lines seemed to emerge within the crystalline rat eye, bringing him a peculiar insight.
They seemed to be secret patterns.
"Soul, dominion..." For some inexplicable reason, these insights arose in Dongguan's mind as he studied the patterns.
He traced them into the bluestone with his finger.
Once he finished, he compared them, but they somehow did not look quite right.
He tried again, only to produce a different sort of deviation.
He closed the vertical eye between his brows and looked with his two ordinary eyes. The patterns on the crystalline rat eye disappeared, while those carved into the bluestone instead conveyed a different kind of meaning to him.
Yet it was only a rough resemblance. That trace of meaning was somewhat distorted, like a copy of a famous painting.
He opened the vertical eye between his brows again and saw the strange patterns once more.
He examined the other rat eye. Its patterns were similar, almost like a mirror image, but the details differed.
"How fascinating." He could not help losing himself in them.
After leaving the cave, he activated his communications watch and checked his location.
At the same time, he saw several messages.
There were messages from Lu Gang, Guo Ruinian, and Zhong Yang, as well as the military, the Limitless Martial Arts Hall, and Yang Bei.
There was also one from Luo Feng.
Before setting out to deal with the beast tide, he had exchanged contact numbers with Luo Feng.
He opened them and found mostly messages asking about his current situation, along with the usual invitations.
Shaking his head, Dongguan turned off his communications watch.
His was an ordinary HR Alliance communications watch, the kind most warriors used.
After awakening his memories, he had actually considered replacing it.
On reflection, he had decided against it. The HR Alliance's communications watches had backdoors, but did the others not have them too?
Besides, the HR Alliance had the largest share of that business, making replacements convenient if his watch broke.
Even against a king-level monster this time, though, the watch had remained undamaged. Its quality really was excellent.
As for the invitations, they were probably renewed offers prompted by the discovery that he was a psychic.
He had received them before, but the terms had not been as good as this time.
One item in the Limitless Martial Arts Hall's invitation offered access to ancient civilization ruins and specifically mentioned the Black God Set. Dongguan was slightly tempted.
He knew these things would lose their value in a few years, but he planned to return to the Northern Border.
According to his memories, the source of that noise lay deep in the great desert. A Black God Set would undoubtedly improve his chances of survival.
All that could wait. What he needed now was to return to human society.
"The nearest satellite city is YZ City."
Dongguan put his forehead protector back on, activated his psychic power, and flew back through the air.
There should not be any king-level monsters along the route from here to YZ City. As for lord-level monsters, he could fly too, so lord-level birds had no particular advantage over him.
By the time he returned to the base city, five days had passed since the rat tide.
The year had also changed from 2056 to 2057.
"Another year has passed."
Looking at the ice and snow scattered along the streets, Dongguan felt deeply moved.
It had only been nearly two months since his memories awakened, but he had indeed lived in this world for forty years.
Jiangnan Shanshui Residential District.
At the entrance, Dongguan encountered three people.
A young man of mixed ancestry, a yellow-skinned elder, and a white man.
"Li Wei?"
"Who called me?" Li Wei shouted, looking quite impetuous.
The elder tugged at his sleeve.
"Greetings, War God Dongguan." The elder and the white man bowed respectfully, while Li Wei merely stood there blankly.
Dongguan reached out and instantly pressed his hand onto Li Wei's shoulder.
He restrained his strength, applying only 10,000 kilograms of force.
Li Wei's physical fitness was at the intermediate war general level.
"Give it a try. Can you break free?"
Li Wei strained with all his might, his face flushing red, but still could not break free.
"Dongguan, what kind of skill is bullying a child?" a deep voice rang out.
"Li Yao." Dongguan looked toward the newcomer. "Your son has decent physical fitness, but with force application skills like these, he might well die in the wilderness if he actually becomes a warrior."
Still, he released his hand.
Li Wei immediately began taking deep breaths, nearly collapsing to the ground.
Li Yao caught him and held him up.
"Dongguan, if you have a grievance over what happened back then, come at me," Li Yao said gravely.
"Heh, you don't think I'm taking revenge on you, do you? I'm well aware of the ban on attacking warriors' families."
"Then what are you doing?"
"Just playing around."
With that, Dongguan brushed past Li Yao and entered the residential district.
"He's really changed a lot. Could it be because he awakened his psychic power?"
Li Yao narrowed his eyes as he watched Dongguan's retreating back.
"Sir, then what about taking the young master out for training?" the Liu Elder asked.
"Let's wait a little longer." Li Yao led Li Wei into the residential district. "First, have him examined to see whether Dongguan did anything to Wei. Psychics have very mysterious methods."
There were not many awakened psychics on Earth, but there were still some, and their psychic powers had different properties.
Those who excelled at manipulating inanimate objects were the most common, but quite a few could invade the mind, and some even possessed other traits.
No one could say for sure what this newly awakened psychic, Dongguan, could do.
If he hasn't done anything, I'll let it go. But if he has... Li Yao steeled himself inwardly.
Ever since the Blood Saber incident, attacking warriors' families had become taboo worldwide. If he discovered that Dongguan had done anything to Li Wei, Li Yao would make him pay dearly.
After returning to the villa and having Li Wei examined repeatedly, Li Yao still felt uneasy.
"If necessary, we can arrange for Wei to train in Paris," suggested Li Wei's mother, Vina, a blonde white woman.
"That could work."
Of the world's five great nations, China was now the strongest, but it was also where the HR Alliance had the least influence.
The two of them had recently been staying in Jiangnan Base City, so they had arranged for Li Wei to train here while they were at it.
If there was danger, they could simply abandon the plan and revisit it once they went west.
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