Upon accumulating experience, the original movement techniques wouldn’t disappear, and when devouring experience, the original merit laws also wouldn’t vanish. Merely, he would be unable to cultivate them further, and even if he did cultivate them, there would be no success.
However, the specific properties of the consumed merit laws would be absorbed by <Bull Demon Technique>.
Fortunately, this absorption was not passive but an active choice. In other words, Ling Xiao decided which techniques would be consumed; otherwise, he wouldn’t dare to cultivate it.
Both outstanding techniques were growth type techniques; moreover, cultivating them to the highest levels of attainment could shock the heavens.
Therefore, he decided that cultivating these techniques was a must. However, their methods were rather eccentric, so Ling Xiao could only cultivate his other martial arts first.
Luckily, he possessed the Landscape Martial Soul, which could copy any martial art. Armed with thousands of stolen martial arts from Ling Clan’s Library Pavilion, he had more than enough material to work with.
Now, he only had to choose a few techniques and start cultivating.
Examining all the rare and valuable books in the library of his Landscape Painting, Ling Xiao was so excited that he rolled about on his bed in delight.
Heavenly Peak City belonged to the Northern Han Nation. According to the markets, a basic martial art could be sold for 10 taels of silver, an elementary martial art could be sold for 1,000 taels of silver, and an intermediate martial art could be sold for over 100,000 taels of silver. With each increase in grade came a massive increase in cost.
Why couldn’t the poor like Ling Xiao afford even basic martial arts?
Because he had never managed to save 10 taels of silver in his entire lifetime.
In for a penny, in for a pound! Ling Xiao prepared to sell some basic martial art manuals. At the very least, he wanted enough to treat his grandfather’s ribs.
Since the Ling Clan had not been benevolent to him, they couldn’t blame him.
This year, he hadn’t had proper free meals and only only received free lodging. Although he constantly practiced martial arts and also did chores for the clan on the side, he hadn’t received even a single silver piece. He had only received some grain ratios to ensure that he didn’t starve.
He couldn’t even eat until he felt full..
This kind of stinginess… he truly couldn’t off the clan the slightest respect.
Therefore, selling martial art books in secret was no big deal.
Naturally, he still intended to start with basic martial arts for safety. After all, there were countless basic martial arts, and they weren’t unique to the Ling Clan, so it would be very difficult for him to be discovered.
Thinking this, he hastily left for Heavenly Peak City’s auction house.
Generally speaking, one could simply leave basic martial arts in the care of the auction house. If they were sold, the auction house would directly transfer the silver generated to your banking house account.
You didn’t have to waste time waiting.
Therefore, Ling Xiao put ten basic martial arts on the auction house and returned home.
Although treating his grandfather’s injury was important, raising his strength was equally vital.
If his strength were insufficient, then others would simply injure his grandfather again since they wouldn’t be deterred by his strength.
After returning to his room, Ling Xiao began glancing through the more than 9,000 martial arts books.
Although biting off more than one could chew was bad, martial arts were a bit special. Many martial arts could supplement and complement each other. Not only were they not mutually exclusive, but they could also accelerate the progress of their cultivation.
Therefore, he would select several complementary martial arts.
If he wanted to upgrade <Soaring Cloud Steps> and feed <Bull Demon Technique>, he had to continuously practice many martial arts, which made this method very efficient.
With recommendations from the Landscape Painting, he could quickly figure out which techniques complemented each other. If he had had to select them by himself, he might not have been able to figure it out even after a day and a night.
However, using the Landscape Painting’s recommendations, he used less than 15 minutes to pick out five martial arts.
Those five martial arts could be regarded as a set; The Landscape Painting even compiled this set of martial arts into a book named “Soul of Fist.”
Simultaneously cultivating these five martial arts would increase their total cultivation and true qi accumulation speed by one-third.
In addition, when using any fist-type martial art technique, its might would double!
The five martial arts in the “Soul of Fist” were <Rush Steps>, <Meteorite Fist>, <Violent Qi Formula>, <Pure Yang Technique>, and <Return Qi Formula>. [note: ‘Rush Steps’: literal translation is ‘Fierce Tiger Leapt Down the Mountain Steps’]
In fact, upon careful analysis, Ling Xiao knew that these five martial arts were actually based on <Meteorite Fist>. It functioned as the core while the remaining four supplemented its might.
The intermediate martial art <Rush Steps> was a vigorous movement technique. Upon using it, as the distance covered increased, one’s power and momentum would increase as one constantly accelerated, just like a fierce tiger leaping down a mountain! The force behind a blow could be greatly strengthened in this manner.
Naturally, this intermediate movement technique could also serve as experience for <Soaring Cloud Steps> in the future.
The intermediate martial art <Pure Yang Technique> was a merit law that increased true qi. Its main effect was that when using any martial skill, it would have an additional fiery, burning effect, similarly increasing the might of a fist strike.
The intermediate martial arts <Return Qi Formula> and <Violent Qi Formula> were secret skills to recover true qi and instantly burst one’s true qi respectively.
The last one was <Meteorite Fist>. It instantly maximized the power one could output, but it had a glaring flaw; the consumption of true qi was too great.
Nevertheless, the former <Return Qi Formula> could make up for this flaw to a significant extent.
This was why Ling Xiao had selected these five martial arts.
As for why he had selected <Meteorite Fist> amongst all the other fist techniques, the reason was simple. The might of this fist technique was the greatest amongst all the intermediate martial arts. In addition, he liked to close the distance in fights and engage in close combat.
Its might was not inferior to even some advanced martial arts. Naturally, similar to <Violent Qi Formula>, its consumption was too great, so most ordinary awakening stage martial artists avoided this technique due to this “flaw.”
However, Ling Xiao was different.
Not only did he have more true qi compared to similarly ranked martial artists because of his Landscape Martial Soul, but he had also specially selected <Return Qi Formula> to alleviate this flaw.
Even if other martial artists were geniuses, simultaneously cultivating three martial arts would have already been heaven-defying. He, however, was simultaneously cultivating five martial arts by relying on the analysis of the Landscape Martial Soul.
In addition, they were five martial arts that complemented each other.
This was a huge advantage!
From now on, he, Ling Xiao, was no longer a gullible little beggar. His path along the dao of martial arts would be a smooth one.
After selecting “Soul of Fist” set of martial arts, Ling Xiao sat down and began cultivating.
Of course, although they were supposed to be simultaneously cultivated, he, after all, was only a single person, so he still had to cultivate them in turn. Merely, the cultivation speed of each martial art was much faster for him than it was for others even though he was cultivating five at once.
He selected <Pure Yang Technique> first.
His reasoning was very simple: <Pure Yang Technique> could increase his true qi while strengthening his body.
This was very important for everything no matter whether it were movement techniques or martial skill. After all, the foundation of martial artists was their true qi.
Even the divisions between the martial artists’ realms were based on their levels of true qi.
Ling Xiao closed his eyes before circulating his true qi in accordance with the contents of <Pure Yang Technique>.
The true qi smoothly circulated within his body. What made him most excited was that whenever he encountered the slightest blockade, his Landscape Martial Soul would automatically activate and solve the issue. Moreover, it would reveal the correct circulation path for his true qi.
Thus, it was nearly impossible for Ling Xiao to suffer a qi deviation. In addition, he faced no so-called shackles whilst cultivating merit laws.
For others, it was incredibly difficult to break through the barriers of cultivation. It could take several months or even years to break through them, but those so-called barriers shattered instantly before his path.
Along the road were only green lights. He could freely proceed without hindrance.
Although he had never lacked talent, but he had not previously been this kind of peak genius.
Everything originated from his Landscape Martial Soul.
Now, Ling Xiao came to regard the Landscape Martial Soul as even more important and became more and more interested in this miraculous opportunity.
Originally, martial souls themselves had already been very mysterious., but the Landscape Martial Soul was even more mysterious compared to the vast majority of martial souls. It aided him almost every step of the way.
Ling Xiao wished to know everything about his secret weapon.
Merely, his current strength was clearly insufficient to reveal these secrets.
In the end, cultivating would be the key to unsealing the secrets of the Landscape Painting.
While cultivating <Pure Yang Technique>, he could clearly sense the marvelous changes occurring in his Landscape Painting.
Naturally, the gradual receding of the cloud layer was the most obvious change.
At this moment, a new place materialized in the small village.
From a cursory examination, it resembled an altar, but there was no god statue enshrined, only a ball of fire!
A ball of bright flames!
