Chapter 386: Online and Offline

Wangchuan’s thoughts ran wild.

He emerged from the Armory Manual Vault with 《Raging Tide Sword Art》 and 《Flying Dragon Hand Technique》, and after that, he encountered no further trouble.

Lin Zhentao escorted Wangchuan back to the west wing guest room in the outer hall and could not help sighing in admiration.

“I never imagined that Hall Master Wangchuan’s reputation alone would be enough to cow Elder Cao into not making things difficult for you. I was worrying for nothing.”

Wangchuan smiled faintly.

“I still have to thank you. Without your reminder, I might not have handled him so smoothly.”

He then asked Lin Zhentao about the areas where he was free to move.

After all, now that he was at headquarters, he still had to follow headquarters’ rules.

Lin Zhentao naturally held nothing back.

“On the headquarters grounds, you can move around the outer hall freely. However, the Hall Masters from the various regions usually remain in their own lodgings or cultivate in one of the two training grounds nearby. As for meals, someone will specially arrange to have them delivered to your room. If Hall Master Wangchuan needs anything else, you can just instruct me.”

“As for taboos…” Lin Zhentao gave him an especially serious reminder. “Do not go near the main discussion hall unless absolutely necessary. The Gang Leader is very particular about that.”

Wangchuan nodded to show that he understood.

“Then many thanks, Brother Lin.”

“If Hall Master Wangchuan needs anything, you can come find me where I am on duty at any time. I will come at your call.”

Lin Zhentao cupped his fists and took his leave.

Wangchuan rose to see him out.

The moment he returned to his room, he immediately read through the two fifth-rank martial arts manuals and turned them into his own data entries. Then, without delay, he headed for the training grounds to begin practicing them.

There were three training grounds at Caobang Headquarters in total. One large training ground was located in the inner hall.

The other two were somewhat smaller and were both set in the outer compound: one for headquarters personnel, and one for those who had come from the regional halls.

When Wangchuan arrived at the western training ground to practice, the place was completely empty. Not a single person could be seen. Only four weapon racks stood in the four corners of the field.

Still, the iron dummy stakes in the training ground were exceptionally solid, each as thick around as an adult man’s waist and wrapped in three layers of thin iron plating, giving them an astonishing toughness.

The first thing Wangchuan did was practice 《Raging Tide Sword Art》.

Over the past period of sparring with Lu Ping’an, he had already mastered three sword arts at the Perfect Mastery realm, while 《Water-Moon Sword Art》 had reached the Integration realm. His use of the sword had long since become second nature, and it had also become his most formidable trump card.

Although 《Raging Tide Sword Art》 was of a higher rank, after studying it carefully, he discovered that the true essence of the art was simply momentum-building layered upon momentum-building.

Internal force gathered momentum.

Then the sword burst forth like raging waves.

Training in 《Raging Tide Sword Art》 required inner power to be mobilized throughout the entire process.

The more inner power one expended, the fiercer and more powerful the edge contained within the sword art became.

The higher the realm of the sword art, the more layers of sword momentum one could unleash. As the moves flowed together, they formed a mighty offensive like surging river waters, endless and unbroken.

After familiarizing himself with the sword forms, Wangchuan began circulating his inner power.

As his sword moves advanced, internal force erupted with them.

In the air, there seemed to appear a layer of ripples invisible to the naked eye, like a faint river breeze, wrapping itself around the Thousand-Forged Longsword and leaving a sword mark across the iron dummy stake.

Slash!

Slash, slash!

Wangchuan’s expression was utterly focused.

With 《Basic Sword Technique》 at the Perfect Mastery realm, there was almost no flaw at all in the way he drew and wielded the sword. His sword forms flowed smoothly, and his movements did not distort in the slightest.

The only problem was that every strike required two points of inner power to be poured into the blade to accompany the attack.

After performing roughly a hundred moves and reducing his inner power to a rather dangerous level, Wangchuan finally stopped and sat down on the spot to circulate the 《Xuanwu Art》.

With the 《Xuanwu Art》 at the Perfect Mastery realm, his recovery speed was very fast when it came to restoring inner power.

One full circulation cycle restored fifty points of inner power.

“No.”

“This is too slow.”

Under normal circumstances, when Wangchuan operated the 《Xuanwu Art》 underwater in a wooden tub, he needed only three minutes to complete one full circulation cycle. But here, it took at least six minutes.

The wasted time was not enormous.

But he could remain at headquarters for at most one month.

After thinking it over, he decided to shift his inner power recovery with the 《Xuanwu Art》 to the bathtub in the real world.

So—

he practiced on the training ground, expended his inner power, then hurried back to the west wing room to log off and jump into the bathtub, where he circulated the 《Xuanwu Art》.

In less than twenty minutes, he could fully restore all of his inner power.

Then he would come back out and continue practicing.

After repeating this cycle several times, his sword moves became increasingly familiar, and the coordination between his sword forms and inner power grew more and more seamless. At last, he successfully brought 《Raging Tide Sword Art》 past the entry threshold and began truly cultivating it.

After nightfall, Wangchuan logged off in his room.

At Caobang Headquarters, his sense of security was overwhelming.

After logging off, he checked with Li Na and learned that the studio was operating smoothly. Then he slept on a fixed schedule for three hours, rose early, and returned to the dedicated training ground to continue practicing 《Raging Tide Sword Art》.

The cultivation threshold of 《Raging Tide Sword Art》 was not high. So long as he coordinated his sword forms with inner power and executed a complete flowing sequence, two full sets were enough to increase his experience by one point. Of course, that might also have been because his 《Basic Sword Technique》 realm was already high enough to let him handle all sword forms with ease.

One complete set of 《Raging Tide Sword Art》 contained twelve moves, and consuming forty-eight points of inner power allowed him to gain one point of experience.

It took very little time.

The real waste was in recovering inner power.

Ten minutes of sword practice would exhaust all 290 points of his inner power and earn him six points of experience, and then he would spend half an hour circulating his cultivation method to recover.

An hour for nine points of experience growth.

He could accept that.

And so he repeated the cycle.

Around noon, Wangchuan finally heard the system prompt.

“Ding!”

“《Raging Tide Sword Art》 has advanced to ‘Minor Mastery.’ Reward: +1 Agility.”

He summoned his Status Panel and glanced at the detailed information for 《Raging Tide Sword Art》:

《Raging Tide Sword Art》:

Current Realm: Minor Mastery

+80 attack. With doubled inner power infusion, each successive attack stacks 20% attack on top of the initial state, and momentum can be built continuously up to two times (the second attack gains an additional +16 attack, the third attack an additional +32 attack). Strikes to vital points can deal double critical damage. Internal force erosion: a small chance to interrupt the enemy’s move, and a small chance to force the enemy into a stiffened state.

Next Realm: Practice Makes Perfect

+100 attack. With doubled inner power infusion, each successive attack stacks 25% attack on top of the initial state, and momentum can be built continuously up to three times (the second attack gains an additional +25 attack, the third attack an additional +50 attack, the fourth attack an additional +75 attack). Strikes to vital points can deal double critical damage. Internal force erosion: a certain chance to interrupt the enemy’s move, and a certain chance to force the enemy into a stiffened state.

The intimidation factor of 《Raging Tide Sword Art》 was unexpectedly powerful.

The deeper one cultivated it, the more times its momentum could stack, and the higher the stacked attack became. Especially when paired with the 70% attack increase from the 《Xuanwu Art》, the third strike could officially break past the 200-point mark.

So strong!