Chapter 206 - 195: Treading on the Void, Riding the Wind?

Chapter 206: Chapter 195: Treading on the Void, Riding the Wind?

Chen Yue tapped his toes lightly on the corridor floor. In the next instant, his figures filled the entire Wenda Corridor.

Dozens of afterimages were rushing forward, spinning, leaping into the air, and landing. It was like a scroll painting frozen in time, filling every corner of the corridor with every possible posture at the exact same moment.

The illusory figures overlapped and intertwined, making it nearly impossible to tell which was his real body and which were afterimages. It seemed a version of Chen Yue stood there from every possible angle.

But the figures soon began to diminish, vanishing one by one like water receding with the tide. They dissipated into the air, finally leaving nine figures, each indistinguishable from the real one.

The quality of these nine figures was completely different from the earlier afterimages. The previous ones were obviously illusions, but now, each of the nine figures possessed a complete silhouette, as if nine identical versions of Chen Yue were standing in the corridor simultaneously.

Then, the nine figures began to converge silently in the same direction. With each one that merged, the remaining figures became more solid. In the next instant, all the illusory figures finally condensed into a single, real body.

Chen Yue was now standing in mid-air, not on the ground. A distance of about ten feet separated his feet from the corridor floor. With no support and nothing to hold him up, he simply stood there, perfectly stable.

A smile lit up Chen Yue’s eyes. He glanced down at his feet, then lifted his left foot and took the first step forward.

When his foot descended in mid-air, it was as if he had stepped on an invisible stair, stopping steadily. Then came the second step, the third, and the fourth.

Chen Yue began to walk down from mid-air, slowly, step by step. With each step, he seemed to press down on a non-existent stair in the empty air, and each movement was steady and unhurried.

After a total of nine steps, his feet finally landed on the ground, making a nearly inaudible sound.

Nine steps, nine mid-air footholds!

After reaching Perfection in the Soaring Void Thousand Layer Step, he could push off the air itself nine consecutive times. Each push could be used to change his direction and adjust his speed.

Innate Realm experts could glide for miles in a single leap, or even further. This was a qualitative change brought by the Innate Realm. The support and propulsion of Primordial Power allowed an Innate Realm Martial Artist to move through the air as easily as a fish moves through water.

But those Below the Innate Realm absolutely did not have this ability.

Pure Inner Strength had significant limitations. Its propulsive force could only act on the point of contact between the body and the ground. Once the feet left the ground, that force lost its target.

Only by cultivating an extremely refined Body Technique could one, at the moment of leaping into the air, repeatedly compress and release Inner Strength under the soles of their feet at incredible speed. This was necessary to gain a point of leverage for movement in the void.

This required control over Inner Strength far beyond that of an ordinary person, absolute and precise control over one’s center of gravity, and a flawless grasp of the timing for releasing the Qi Force from the soles of the feet.

After the Soaring Void Thousand Layer Step reached Perfection, Chen Yue could already perform nine such mid-air pushes consecutively, moving as freely as if he were walking on solid ground.

In a battle Below the Innate Realm, this was a massive advantage, one that an opponent would find hard to anticipate.

Because most Martial Artists relied on the ground for movement, an opponent who could change direction consecutively in mid-air would instantly nullify any and all predictions.

This kind of advantage in a life-or-death duel was beyond words, as it directly shattered the most fundamental assumptions of combat for both sides.

Chen Yue reined in his Body Technique, sat cross-legged again in the center of the corridor, closed his eyes, and slowly began to circulate the Perfection Realm Vast Heart Rock Skill.

The moment the Cultivation Technique activated in his meridians, he sensed a difference. Circulating his Inner Strength was easier than before. Pathways that once required conscious effort to guide it through now flowed effortlessly.

What was even more obvious was that the tempering of his Sea of Consciousness and Heart Spirit had become much clearer.

Previously, the tempering of his Heart Spirit had been minuscule. He had to quiet his mind just to perceive the faint, almost non-existent change.

But now, as the Inner Strength flowed back from his internal organs to his Dantian, it spread out with a warm vibration.

That vibration traveled through his meridians, directly to his Sea of Consciousness, leaving a subtle trace upon his Heart Spirit.

Although the trace was faint, it was real, and with each Circulation, it grew a tiny bit stronger than the last.

This meant that after the Vast Heart Rock Skill reached Perfection, the efficiency of tempering his Heart Spirit had increased significantly.

The next day, Chen Yue took out a Nourishing Spirit Pill Yang Pill and placed it in his mouth. He then began to refine its medicinal power, using the Perfection Realm Vast Heart Rock Skill in conjunction with the Celestial Demon Burning Technique.

As he completed the first Circulation, he once again felt the difference in the Vast Heart Rock Skill now that it had reached Perfection.

Not only was he refining the medicinal power faster, but the warm vibrations generated as his Inner Strength circulated through his organs even helped the Medicinal Power permeate more evenly into the depths of his meridians.

Medicinal Power that might have originally taken several Circulations to fully digest was now broken down and absorbed in a much shorter time.

Following this rhythm, Chen Yue consumed fourteen Nourishing Spirit Pill Yang Pills in a row before he felt his meridians reach their limit.

This was two more pills than he could take before the Vast Heart Rock Skill had reached complete Perfection.

An increase of two pills each day might not seem like much, but as this increment accumulated over time, the resulting growth would be quite substantial.

The Soaring Void Thousand Layer Step had already reached complete Perfection and no longer required any training time.

Chen Yue invested all the freed-up time into the remaining two Cultivation Techniques: the Furious Wave Saber Intent and the Ten Thousand Forms Tiger Roar Golden Bell.

The sound of a blade slicing through the air and the hum of fists moving through stances alternated, like a continuous, monotonous performance, lasting from noon to dusk, and from dusk deep into the night.

By investing more time, he would naturally gain more Experience Points in the daily settlement.

However, there was an upper limit. Once he surpassed a certain threshold, practicing more would no longer yield a proportional increase in Experience Points.

It was like his Heart Spirit becoming saturated after repeatedly absorbing the same type of insight.

Chen Yue had experimented with this before, which was why he chose to train multiple Cultivation Techniques simultaneously. This also allowed his Heart Spirit a brief rest when switching between techniques, preventing the dullness that came from being immersed in the same sensation for too long.

But now, with only two Cultivation Techniques left that had not reached complete Perfection and achieved a Limit Break, Chen Yue had no choice. He had to pour all his training time into them.

His training rhythm became even more monotonous than before, but also more profound.

Time slowly trickled by. Outside the corridor, the moon ascended into the sky, casting its silvery glow upon the stone slabs at the entrance.

Chen Yue’s training continued unabated, not slowing in the slightest as night fell. The glint of his saber drew arcs in the darkness, illuminated by the starlight.

Until midnight arrived.

[Daily Settlement]

[Diligent training, Cultivation +512]

[Diligent training in Furious Wave Saber Intent, Experience +3876]

[Diligent training in Ten Thousand Forms Tiger Roar Golden Bell, Experience +18459]

...

Chen Yue looked at the information on the panel and slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. The breath formed a wisp of pale white mist in the dim light, rising for a moment before dissipating into the corridor.

Taking two more Nourishing Spirit Pill Yang Pills, along with the boost from the Perfection Realm Vast Heart Rock Skill, had increased his daily Cultivation gain from just over 400 to 512. The effect was obvious.

Maintaining this pace would shorten the time until Chen Yue broke through to the Innate Realm by nearly half a month.

Down from the previously estimated three months to about two now.

Two months, from the early stage of the Refining Organ Realm to the threshold of the Innate Realm. Such speed was inconceivable!

Focusing all his energy for an entire day on the Furious Wave Saber Intent and the Ten Thousand Forms Tiger Roar Golden Bell had increased his experience gain, just as expected.

According to the settlement, the experience for Furious Wave Saber Intent had risen from over 3,200 to over 3,800, and the Ten Thousand Forms Tiger Roar Golden Bell had jumped from over 15,000 to over 18,000. The growth for each Cultivation Technique was tangible.

’Just as I’d thought, though, the return on investment is much lower. After all, I’m in the Wenda Corridor.’

’If I were to allocate this time to training more Cultivation Techniques, although the growth for each individual one would be less, the total gains would definitely be higher than they are now.’

As far as Body Techniques went, Chen Yue knew that the Soaring Void Nine Transitions was already one of the strongest techniques in the Panshi Sect for those Below the Innate Realm.

The Panshi Skill was much the same. As the foundational Cultivation Technique passed down in the Panshi Sect, its cultivation path in the Refining Organ Realm had been polished to a state of near perfection.

’That’s why my previous plan was to first bring the Cultivation Techniques I was already practicing to complete Perfection, raising my combat strength to the next level as quickly as possible.’

’Instead of switching back and forth between several half-mastered Cultivation Techniques, it was better to push the core ones to their peak first.’

’But now that the Soaring Void Nine Transitions and the Vast Heart Rock Skill have reached complete Perfection, I could try integrating a few more Cultivation Techniques into my routine.’

’After the Vast Heart Rock Skill reached Perfection, the flow of my Inner Strength is already extremely smooth. If I integrate the power generation methods or aura circulation characteristics of another Cultivation Technique, it could indeed bring some fine-tuning to the details.’

’The same is true for my Body Technique.’

Having made up his mind, Chen Yue closed his eyes again and began to absorb the massive flood of insights surging from his Sea of Consciousness. His Heart Spirit gradually accepted and sorted them, transforming them into bodily instincts.

Meanwhile, the Vast Heart Rock Skill circulated slowly within him, continuously nurturing his meridians. This allowed the Qi Blood and Heart Spirit, which had been depleted by the circulation of the Celestial Demon Burning Technique, to slowly recover through the night’s nourishment.

Early the next morning, just as the dawn light crested the eastern ridge of True Inheritance Peak and cast its pale golden rays obliquely onto the stone slabs at the entrance of the Wenda Corridor, two figures appeared on the platform outside.

Meng Yu Jin and Mo Ciqiu walked side by side, one in an aqua long dress, the other in a moonlight-white long robe, their steps unhurried and light.

Their footsteps made almost no sound on the stone slabs, only the dew-dampened hems of their clothes swayed gently in the wind.

As the sun rose higher, the light shifted from the side of the corridor’s entrance to the front, pushing back the dim shadows within inch by inch.

Zhao Chengwu, who had been sitting motionless and cross-legged under the eaves, slowly opened his eyes, revealing a sliver of greyish-white light. That sliver of light then gradually widened.

When his eyes were fully open, a ripple that only Innate Realm experts could perceive emanated from Zhao Chengwu, causing an extremely subtle fluctuation in the surrounding space for a moment.

Seeing this, Meng Yu Jin and Mo Ciqiu hurried forward and bowed. "Greetings, Elder Zhao!"

Zhao Chengwu glanced at Meng Yu Jin and Mo Ciqiu. His gaze lingered on Meng Yu Jin for a moment before moving to Mo Ciqiu, and then he gave a slight nod.

He raised his right hand. The withered, stick-thin hand waved gently in the air, its fingertips plucking an invisible string. The entire Wenda Corridor began to tremble slightly.

The walls on both sides of the corridor and the stone slabs on the floor all emitted an extremely deep hum. In the midst of the trembling, the peculiar aura within the corridor thinned out and then began to slowly dissipate.

Inside the Wenda Corridor, Chen Yue was sitting cross-legged and regulating his breath when he suddenly sensed the change in the corridor’s aura and the slight vibration of the ground.

He opened his eyes and swept his gaze across both sides of the corridor. The peculiar aura that had filled the air was fading. Chen Yue knew this meant his training time in the Wenda Corridor was over.

Chen Yue stood up and walked toward the corridor’s exit.