Chapter 16 : Chapter 16
Chapter 16: Ning Ri Practices the Blade
After the disciple token finished speaking, Ning Ri did not say anything. Instead, thoughts turned in his heart—
【mortal anomaly】 could only be broken after one became a cultivator.
But his own situation was obviously not quite normal.
No...
That was not right.
Before anomalies existed, mortals in ancient times had been able to pick up cultivation methods and cultivate on their own.
It was only after anomalies appeared that self-cultivation became forbidden.
In other words, it was actually the current cultivation world that was abnormal.
Only his own path of cultivation was normal!
So had he originally possessed a mortal anomaly or not?
Could it be that the appearance of the panel had helped him break the mortal anomaly?
Or was it because he was a transmigrator, and his soul differed from that of this world’s natives, so he had not been born carrying a 【mortal anomaly】 the way the natives were?
Eh...
At that thought, Ning Ri’s brow suddenly twitched—
He suddenly recalled that when he had made up explanations for Xun Cang and the other sects before, he had always said that he had obtained his Qi Refining Art through a fortunate encounter.
He had thought there was nothing wrong with that excuse. Was it not perfectly normal for people in the cultivation world to have fortunate encounters?
But the moment those other sects heard it, they rejected him.
They had even said that fortunate encounters were unstable, and poor aptitude was poor aptitude. He could not possibly keep stumbling across fortunate encounters forever.
When he had first heard that, he had not felt there was anything wrong with their response.
But now that he thought about it, had those sects rejected him so quickly because they thought he was lying?
They must have believed that the Qi Refining Art on him had definitely been taught by someone, and since he was lying about it, they had immediately grown annoyed and rejected him even faster.
It was like an HR recruiter seeing that a candidate had falsified his résumé, only for the candidate to keep brazenly lying to their face during the interview...
When Ning Ri thought of this, he slapped his thigh—
No wonder so many sects had rejected me!
But the Defying Heaven Sect had been different.
The moment Elder Xun heard that it had been a fortunate encounter, he had gone silent for a while.
Then, when he spoke again, he had said that Ning Ri was very suitable for the Defying Heaven Sect.
Ning Ri had always thought that what Elder Xun meant by “suitable” referred to his unusual acupoint stones and incomplete spirit root.
But now it seemed that Elder Xun... might have thought that the mere fact that he had managed to pick up a cultivation method was already heaven-defying enough!
In other words, Elder Xun had chosen to believe what he said!
Though, to be fair, he really had not lied...
Still, the more he thought about it, the more Ning Ri’s favorability toward Xun Cang—and toward the entire Defying Heaven Sect—rose.
However, judging from the reactions of the other elders, Elder Xun did not seem to have publicized the matter too widely. Either the higher-ranking elders were all deliberately keeping it hidden, or perhaps Elder Xun had also thought he was lying, but had still been willing to tolerate it and allow him to join the Defying Heaven Sect.
Then,
Ning Ri suppressed the thoughts in his heart. After placing the disciple token to one side, he opened the panel.
【Host】: Ning Ri
【Skills】:
【Mortal Blade Arts】: 4 (Resettable)
【Qi Refining Art ·】: 3 (Resettable)
【Gale Step · Incomplete】: 3 (Maxed Out) (Resettable)
【Iron Bones Art of the Crocodile Turtle · Incomplete】: 0
【Spirit Absorption Art】: 10 (Maxed Out) (Resettable)
【Complete Collection of Artifact Refining Techniques for the Qi Refining Stage】: 0
【Heaven-Burning Chapter】: 0
...
Free Skill Points: 68
Below that were techniques such as 【Subtle Precision】, 【Dao Nourishment】, 【Red Furnace Melts Snow】, and 【Ghostaxe Divine Craftsmanship】.
When Ning Ri had been learning the artifact-refining techniques Mo Cuidao gave him, he had been learning while resetting points at the same time.
Once he had finished showing one off, he would reset it on the spot.
If he needed to display it again, he could just add the points back later, thus avoiding the problem of not having enough skill points.
At first, he had thought the idea was a little ridiculous, as though he might be overthinking things, but later Mo Cuidao had taken out far too many manuals, and Ning Ri simply had not been able to learn them all fast enough.
That made him secretly grateful that he had started resetting points early on. Otherwise, his skill points would never have been enough.
Then Ning Ri pondered for a while—
The artifact-refining techniques Mo Cuidao had given him were all at the Qi Refining realm.
They all capped out at ten points!
Once all of them were maxed out, his artifact-refining standards would definitely make him a true all-around powerhouse.
That said, the number of skill points required was no small matter, so he would still have to stay up late and keep drilling his blade arts.
Fortunately, the dormitory room in Jingui Garden was spacious enough. It was more than forty square meters, and since it had no living room, kitchen, or toilet, it was more than sufficient for practicing the blade.
Aside from practicing the blade, Ning Ri also began weighing the choice Zhou Heng had given him.
Should he incur a large debt of contribution points and let the elders venture into an anomaly to retrieve spiritual medicine for him?
Although Zhou Heng had said it was not very dangerous, Ning Ri still felt it was somewhat inappropriate...
Perhaps he was simply not yet used to being treated with such kindness by others.
What was more, he had not yet reached the point where he truly needed that!
After thinking it over, Ning Ri made a decision. Then he opened the panel, drew his blade, and began to practice...
...
Every half an hour that Ning Ri practiced the blade, he gained 1 skill point in blade arts.
As he practiced, he could clearly see the panel before his eyes changing from:
【Mortal Blade Arts】: 4 (Resettable)
to:
【Mortal Blade Arts】: 5 (Resettable)
Then it changed again to:
【Mortal Blade Arts】: 6 (Resettable)
Whenever Ning Ri practiced the blade, he had to keep the panel open and watch the skill points rise. Only that gave him a sense of accomplishment.
In truth, he felt the panel ought to add a red 【↑】 to indicate growth. Better yet, it should also add a daily line and a five-day line to display all the effort he had put in over the past five days, and then when he reset points, it could turn green.
Would that not make it much richer?
Or perhaps it could add voice prompts, so that every time he improved, it would announce something like:
“Congratulations, Host. Because of your tireless perseverance, your 【Mortal Blade Arts】 have become more proficient.”
“Congratulations, Host. Because of your wholehearted dedication, your 【Mortal Blade Arts】 have reached the level of consummate mastery.”
“Congratulations, Host. Because of your burning of midnight oil, your 【Mortal Blade Arts】 have become truly astonishing.”
Unfortunately, the panel did not have that function.
Later on, he planned to modify the disciple token so it could broadcast such things by voice, shouting at him once every half hour,
just like how shop owners turned on payment notifications:
“Payment received: 114,514 yuan.”
Would that not give a tremendous sense of achievement?
Ning Ri was very focused whenever he practiced the blade, but there were always many thoughts in his mind. If he did not think like this, endlessly practicing the blade over and over would be far too dull.
In the future, he planned to keep a cat or a dog—preferably one that was especially noisy—to keep loneliness at bay.
Although his Qi Refining cultivation and artifact-refining techniques had not been learned by his own efforts...
ordinary blade arts could not rely on spiritual power to take shortcuts!
A mortal’s blade arts practiced that way would not be authentic.
Whoosh!
The long blade cut through the empty air, and its cold gleam seemed to flash across the disciple token. Sweat trickled down Ning Ri’s forehead, and his gaze was sharp as an arrow—
So the skill points in his blade arts had truly been forged bit by bit through honest practice, one stroke at a time!
And as the arcs and shadows of the blade flew and swept through the empty room, the skill points on his panel were rising at an astonishing rate...