Chapter 127 - 8 Haha, I’ve Mastered My Divine Skill

Chapter 127: Chapter 8 Haha, I’ve Mastered My Divine SkillOf these five Inner Strength techniques, Xiao Jie didn’t even consider Wild Bull Skill, Body Building Decision, or Hard Qi Gong. On one hand, his attributes didn’t meet the standard; on the other hand, they weren’t the kind of Kung Fu body he needed. The only thing he needed to consider was between Qi Nourishing Technique and Flying Goose Skill. Qi Nourishing Technique offered a higher limit of Inner Power and also had a regenerative effect. Meanwhile, Flying Goose Skill could enhance the effects of movement techniques, which were also quite beneficial enhancements. However, after a moment of hesitation, Xiao Jie decisively chose Flying Goose Skill, and his reason was simple. While the increase in Inner Power limit and regenerative effect seemed good, they wouldn’t directly affect combat power, only endurance. Unless a battle lasted a long time, long enough to exhaust one’s Inner Strength, otherwise, it wouldn’t have any effect. Moreover, he could always take medicinal pills if he really ran out of Inner Power. In comparison, improving the effectiveness of movement techniques was very powerful, especially since it would even strengthen actions like jumping and rolling. If he could train up to the ten-layered Flying Goose Skill, which was a 100% addition to jumping and rolling, then that would be quite exaggerated. Since he was already an agility-based character with a light load, his jumps and rolls could cover a large distance, and with this 100% bonus, goodness, he would be able to jump seven or eight meters and roll four or five meters easily. It wouldn’t be quite Qinggong, but it wouldn’t be far off. He felt he could truly compete with the performance of characters in martial arts action games. "Master, I would like to learn the Flying Goose Skill." With that, Xiao Jie clicked ’learn’, and with the sound of clinking silver, his bag immediately had thirty taels less. Xiao Jie felt somewhat emotional, that was three hundred thousand gone. Gone as quickly as he heard the sound. Yet, three hundred thousand in exchange for an Internal Cultivation Method was quite a good deal, how many people in reality want to exchange for it but can’t? "Alright, follow me." Duan Yu then led Xiao Jie into a quiet room. Next, he introduced the Cultivation Method. "Flying Goose Skill follows the Ren Meridian through the Foot Three Yang Meridians, entering the Zu Yangming Stomach Meridian, then into the Foot Taiyin Spleen Meridian..." Xiao Jie listened till he was utterly confused. How could he possibly remember all this? "However, there’s no need to worry if you can’t remember it. I’ll channel Inner Strength through your body once, and you must sense the route it takes during the process, grasp the pattern of Inner Strength circulation. Then you can follow this route in your cultivation. If your comprehension isn’t good enough, there might be a possibility of failure, and your tuition won’t be refunded then, you know." Hearing this, Xiao Jie suddenly became serious—there was a possibility of failure? He would have to be careful. "Please, Master." "First, sit cross-legged, just like I do." [System Prompt: Your character’s action module has added the new content [Meditation].] Xiao Jie used the action to meditate, watching his avatar sit down with crossed legs. Duan Yu sat down behind him, then suddenly placed his palms on Xiao Jie’s back, a mist of white fog slowly emerged around their bodies. Xiao Jie watched in amazement; it closely resembled the effects seen in martial arts films when practicing Internal Cultivation Methods. A human meridian chart composed of meridians appeared on the screen. [System Prompt: Inner Strength will begin to flow, please remember the route it takes, 3—2—1—] A white orb of light flowed from Xiao Jie’s Dantian, beginning to move slowly along the meridians towards his feet, circulating through those meridians in a large loop, finally returning to the Dantian. "Did you clearly sense it?" Two options appeared in front of Xiao Jie. 1, I sensed it clearly. 2, I didn’t sense it clearly, please Master, go through it again. It seemed if he chose 1, a test would follow. He most likely needed to retrace the route by himself to learn this Internal Strength technique, and the route mainly involved moving along the meridians in the legs, which appears to be related to different Internal Strength techniques. Xiao Jie guessed that if it were Hard Qi Gong, it would probably circulate through the meridians on the body’s surface. Xiao Jie thought he remembered the circulation route, but to be cautious, he chose 2. "I didn’t sense it clearly, please Master, go through it again." "Alright, I’ll do it once more," Duan Yu said, but this time, Xiao Jie watched without blinking, and soon, the cycle ended again. Yet, Xiao Jie was still not confident—didn’t feel 100% sure. After thinking for a moment, he decided to have another go. This time, he directly took out his phone and started recording the screen. If technology could help, there was no need to go through so much effort. "You’re quite cautious. Alright, I’ll do it one more time. But this is the last time. If you still don’t sense it, then you may not be suited to cultivate this Internal Strength technique," he said, and started the circulation again. After this round of cultivation was completed, Xiao Jie had completely memorized the circulation route, and with the video on his phone, it was impossible to fail. "Master, I’ve memorized it," he said and opened the video, ready to review. "Good. Now, it’s up to you to circulate it once by yourself, begin." As the game began, Xiao Jie’s mouse immediately overlapped with the orb of light, which started to move slowly. He found he could control the direction of the Inner Strength, and with each meridian junction, he had to make a choice. So this was controlling the direction of True Energy’s circulation? Hah, quite straightforward and simple. Xiao Jie concentrated deeply, up, down, turning, and then back again. Watching the orb of light circulate through the meridians, Xiao Jie focused intently on pressing the direction keys. It was a simple little game, yet Xiao Jie played with beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Terrified of a single misstep. Luckily, he had a good memory, plus his phone for reference. The orb didn’t move too fast, allowing plenty of time for choices. Once the circulation of Inner Power was complete, a flash of white light appeared on his body. [System Prompt: You’ve successfully mastered the circulation path of the Flying Goose Skill and have learned the Basic Internal Skill [Flying Goose Skill] at Skill Level One. Your Inner Power Bar is now open.] Indeed, a short white Inner Power bar appeared below the Energy level. [Inner Power Value 30/30.] A BUFF appeared overhead as well. [Flying Geese in the Sky: Your jumping, rolling, and all movement effects of Qinggong increase by 10% (permanent BUFF)] "Haha, my divine skill is finally mastered!" Xiao Jie burst into hearty laughter in front of his computer, overjoyed. This was the legendary Inner Strength that so many longed for in their dreams—a power beyond the ordinary. Although it was only a tiny budding force, it was enough to drive people insane with desire. Almost subconsciously, he wanted to test the effects of this Inner Strength in the real world. But in the end, he restrained himself. For one, the transfer of benefits from the game to reality generally required some time—it was not something to be rushed. Secondly—how far had he gotten? It was but an entry-level Internal Cultivation Method, keep calm, keep calm Xiao Jie. He would wait until he had fully learned all the Saber Skills and Qinggong before experimenting with them together. "Many thanks for the instruction, Master." "Hahaha, why be so polite? I’ve received your silver after all. Your internal skill is just at the entry-level, so you must practice it frequently and continuously use this cultivation technique to make progress. Besides meditating to increase experience by exercising Inner Strength, some day-to-day activities can also enhance your Inner Strength experience. Different Internal Cultivation Methods require different approaches—for instance, to benefit from this Hard Qi Gong, you must be frequently attacked and tempered. On the other hand, this Flying Goose Skill requires you to often jump, roll, and leap—’three years to learn the classics, ten years to practice the skill’. It is not easy to master an Internal Cultivation Method to perfection, so work hard." "Many thanks for the guidance, Master." Xiao Jie performed the ’clasping fist’ gesture towards Duan Yu as a salute and then left. After leaving the quiet room, Xiao Jie headed straight for the next instructor, the ’Golden Blade Guest’ Liu Sanlang. This martial arts pursuit was ever more compelling the more he learned. "Esteemed master, I wish to learn the Saber Skill. Could you possibly impart some of your knowledge?" "Hmm, certainly, but first, I need to assess your skills to decide which Saber Skills to teach you. Different Saber Skills require different talents, and without the necessary talent, you cannot learn the more advanced techniques." Translated into layman’s terms—that meant he wanted to see what level his weapon skills were at. Xiao Jie didn’t waste words and started to demonstrate his skills right there in the air, Helical Slash, One Cut, Two Pieces, Rolling Blade Slash... a sequence of combat skills. Liu Sanlang nodded, "Alright, that’s enough, I can see it; albeit you haven’t practiced any routine, your Saber Skill is quite masterful and is certainly up to the level for learning Intermediate Blade Skills." "I have six Saber Skills here, three Basic and three Intermediate, choose for yourself. First things first, although you have the requisite talent, the tuition fee must be paid in full." Suddenly, a list of learnable skills popped up in front of Xiao Jie. Six Harmonies Saber Technique (Basic Saber Technique) Learning Cost: 10 taels of silver. Entry-level. Beef Slaughter Saber Technique (Basic Saber Technique) Learning Cost: 10 taels of silver. Entry-level. Splitting and Hanging Saber Technique (Basic Saber Technique) Learning Cost: 10 taels of silver. Entry-level. Trigram Saber Technique (Intermediate Blade Skill) Learning Cost: 20 taels of silver. Mastery of Sword Skill. Fu Hu Saber Technique (Intermediate Blade Skill) Learning Cost: 20 taels of silver. Mastery of Sword Skill. Gale Saber Technique (Intermediate Blade Skill) Learning Cost: 20 taels of silver. Mastery of Sword Skill. Xiao Jie decisively ruled out the three Basic Saber Techniques—of course, he wanted to learn the good stuff. He carefully examined the effects of the three sets of Saber Skills. [Trigram Saber Technique (Intermediate Blade Skill) Basic moves: Trigram Saber Sixty-four Forms. Inner Power Effect: Trigram Mysterious Steps. Your footwork becomes elusive, to a certain degree increasing your evasion rate, making it harder for enemies to hit you (ineffective against AOE skills).] [Fu Hu Saber Technique (Intermediate Blade Skill) Basic moves: Fu Hu Saber Six Forms. Inner Power Effect: Fu Hu’s Power. Your attacks gain an additional 30% Strength Attribute damage bonus.] [Gale Saber Technique (Intermediate Blade Skill) Basic moves: Gale Saber Nine Forms. Inner Power Effect: Gale Force. Each of your attacks increases the speed of your next blade swing by 10%, stacking up to three layers.] "What’s the difference between the basic moves and Inner Power Effect of these Saber Skills?" "The basic moves mean turning your indiscriminate hacking into a set of attack patterns that can unleash better damage and also enable combo strikes. As for the Inner Power Effects, those are special effects that require the consumption of Inner Strength to activate; without Inner Strength, they cannot be used." Now that made things simple. Xiao Jie nodded in understanding. "I choose the Gale Saber Technique." His own strength was too weak, and the damage bonus gained from the Fu Hu Saber Technique would be too minimal. Furthermore, the description of the Inner Power Effect for the Trigram Saber Technique was too vague; ’to a certain degree’ was impossible to gauge quantitatively, and for the precision-seeking Xiao Jie, such imprecision was not reliable. "Good choice. I see you move with agility and nimbleness, a perfect fit for the venturous nature of the Gale Saber Technique, which emphasizes offense over defense, aiming to inflict the greatest damage in the shortest time. Eliminating the enemy is the best defense. Watch closely, lad!" With that, Liu Sanlang started to demonstrate the Gale Saber Technique on a practice dummy in front of him. Each of his strikes was faster and more urgent than the last. By the end, the blade was producing a whistling sound as it swung, the speed was so fast that it left trails of afterimages. Wow, that’s intense, isn’t it? A 30% increase in attack speed? It feels like there’s 100% even. Swipe! [System Prompt: Liu Sanlang has imparted the skill [Gale Saber Technique] to you. With a swish, another 20 taels of silver were gone. Xiao Jie opened his Skill Bar. [Gale Saber Technique (Saber Skill) Basic moves... Inner Power Effect... Current Level: LV1.] That was it, his Saber Skill was only at LV1, so he could only stack three layers; surely as it leveled up, he could stack even more. This Liu Sanlang, being a Saber Skill instructor, must have completely mastered it, which explained the remarkable power just now. It also added a bit of expectation for his own future. "Many thanks for the guidance, Master." "Hm, there’s no need for politeness. Taking someone’s money and imparting skills is a matter of course. I hope that after you have learned my Saber Technique, you will uphold justice and vanquish demons, so that teaching you all of this will not have been in vain." "I will bear it in mind." Upon saying this, Xiao Jie went straight to the next one; now, he was to learn Qinggong.