Chapter 314 - 213: First Gold (Part 2)

Chapter 314: Chapter 213: First Gold (Part 2)

[Rhythm of All Things]

Quality: Silver

Description: Harmonizing with celestial rhythm, tracing origins to understand truth.

Effect: Observing and Understanding the Marvels. Grasp the formless from the formed. Perceive the outer appearance of all things to understand their essence, allowing one to deduce many things from a single example.

[Fleeting Grace]

Quality: Red

Description: Innately extraordinary, a body that breaks limits.

Effect: Base speed increased by 2x.

These two Talents from Feng Hua were the foundation of her power.

[Rhythm of All Things] was an exceptionally rare single-function comprehension-type Talent. His current Xuanxiao Spirit Body had already fused with a Red-quality comprehension Talent, but this was the first time he had ever seen a Silver-quality one.

This Talent had come at the perfect time. After entering the Inner Qi Realm, the number of Cultivation Techniques one had to train was immense. Ye Shuping wanted Yu Fei to have no weaknesses and achieve absolute dominance in every aspect of the martial path. As a result, Yu Fei needed to practice several times more Cultivation Techniques than the average prodigy.

As a comprehension-type Talent, [Rhythm of All Things] could be fused into his Xuanxiao Spirit Body. He estimated that this time, he could strengthen his main cultivation Talent to the Gold quality.

The Red-quality Talent [Fleeting Grace] was, in essence, similar to Electric Arm. Both were speed-enhancing Talents, but [Fleeting Grace] was a full-body enhancement and thus more powerful.

[Fleeting Grace] would take up an additional Talent slot. He just wasn’t sure if its manifestation would conflict with Electric Arm.

Pondering the potential consequences, Yu Fei decided to equip [Fleeting Grace] first. He had only just unlocked three Talent slots, so he had them to spare for now.

The Talent’s description was "Innately extraordinary, a body that breaks limits." As Yu Fei equipped it, a tingling numbness spread through his entire body, and he gradually lost consciousness.

By the time he woke up, it was the middle of the night. Yu Fei remained still. He didn’t get up to test his new ability. Instead, he spent another 10 Stardust to merge [Rhythm of All Things] into his Xuanxiao Spirit Body, strengthening his Talent once again.

Yu Fei felt as if he had lost his physical form, becoming a mass of nothingness that constantly flew upward, drifting slowly.

It was a very strange experience. In a trance, he sensed that he had left Shenhan. From high in the sky, he saw the entirety of Shenhan University and several spots on campus glittering with golden light.

Then, in a daze, Yu Fei seemed to arrive at a place that felt incredibly familiar and warm, like lying in his mother’s arms as a child.

During the process of strengthening his main cultivation Talent, the energy from the Senluo Jade Fruit surged from the depths of his cells, supporting the earth-shattering transformation of his body. This time, however, the process seemed to consume an extraordinary amount of energy. The wondrous green substance was almost completely depleted by the time the Talent enhancement was finished.

A deep dream leaves no trace.

Yu Fei, having just awakened, found his memory fragmented again. It seemed that every time his Talents underwent a tier-advancement, his body was like a computer that had been abruptly rebooted, needing a moment to find the lost files.

Before even getting out of bed, he immediately checked the effects of the fused Talent.

[Shenxiao Divine Body]

Quality: Gold

Description: A creation of profound mystery, favored by Heaven and Earth.

Effect 1, Serenity: The rhythm of all things, natural and effortless.

...

Effect 4, Divine Might: Base energy amplified by 15x, base strength amplified by 15x.

...

Effect 6, Protection: Favored by the planet’s will. May receive a premonition when crisis approaches.

Note: This Talent’s level is restricted by life-level and cannot be upgraded further.

"Shenxiao Divine Body?"

Yu Fei stared at the new Gold-quality Talent, but he didn’t feel the joy he had expected.

The upgrade to Effect 1 was within his expectations. After all, the Silver-quality Talent from Feng Hua was itself an enhancement to comprehension.

The other effects were naturally enhanced due to the Talent’s tier increase. This was clear from the description of Divine Might, where the amplification multiplier had risen from 12x to 15x.

But it was this new sixth effect that left him utterly confused.

’What the hell does "favored by the planet’s will" even mean?’

’The planet beneath my feet has a consciousness? That’s terrifying.’

Yu Fei couldn’t help but wonder: did everyone with a Gold-quality Talent receive this so-called favor from the planet’s will? And were they aware of it?

He recalled how, during the Talent fusion, his consciousness had briefly left his body. He had looked down upon Shenhan and traveled to a wondrous place that had felt so warm and familiar.

Looking back now, it wasn’t a dream, but something that had actually happened.

The proof was the perspective from which he had viewed Shenhan—an altitude he had never reached before, yet the sight had been so real.

So... what on earth was this planetary will? Was it benevolent toward humanity? Or, more specifically, was it benevolent toward him, Yu Fei? Did it—or It—have a body? Did it have a mind?

After washing up, he realized he had once again missed sunrise. His practice of the Melt Gold Jade Body Skill had missed the step of absorbing the Violet Qi from the East. There was no helping it; he would just have to take it slow.

Influenced by the sixth Talent effect, he didn’t feel overly excited.

In the commonly accepted view of the cosmos, the planet beneath humanity’s feet had miraculously given birth to countless forms of life, yet no other intelligent life had been found within the observable universe.

However, because of the Exotic Origin Realm, humanity had come into contact with other races, whose world environments were completely different from that of Earth.

Thus, humanity had never given up on exploring the cosmos. But due to the unique nature of the martial path and the threat from other races, research in this area hadn’t progressed very far. Yu Fei had never given much thought to the reasons why.

But today, the sudden appearance of a "planetary will" was somewhat terrifying to him.

As a human with his own will, he did not want any non-natural will to exist above humanity, or above himself.

He was especially wary of the fact that after his consciousness had been pulled away, he had actually felt a sense of intimacy toward this so-called planetary will.

In the martial path, anything that threw his mind into chaos must be purged!

He could develop feelings for anything in the world, but those feelings had to come from his own heart, based on his own judgment.

They could not be induced emotions that dominated his consciousness and were passively generated.

Looking up at the sky, Yu Fei buried his confusion deep in his heart. His strength was still insufficient; he needed to maintain a sense of reverence for the unknown. His free will could not be defiled. He would just have to wait for a future reckoning.

For a period of time after that, Yu Fei immersed himself in busy cultivation. The battle during the second-year military exercise had exposed quite a few problems.

Summarizing the results, Yu Fei found that he had many weaknesses.

First was his Inner Qi Realm. His Fu Liu Ruo Lake level of Inner Qi was completely insufficient at night. It was manageable during the day when he could refine Yang Qi to recover, but at night, he couldn’t fight for long before needing to resupply.

There were also many shortcuts for cultivating the All Things Return to Origin Scripture, but they required consuming a massive amount of rare materials. The trouble wasn’t that the materials were rare, but that he needed a massive quantity of them.

Yu Fei’s resource requirements were more than ten times that of other prodigies. This was a characteristic of his Cultivation Technique; every bit of power required more than ten times the resources.

Moreover, most people, even if they had ten times the resources, couldn’t necessarily trade them for that one bit of limit-breaking power.

Second, Yu Fei was severely lacking in his Body Technique cultivation.

His Celestial Star Travel Body was of limited use in combat. It was only at the Minor Accomplishment stage, and its performance was lackluster.

This Cultivation Technique, which excelled at close-range maneuvering and evasion, was quite formidable once mastered. At the Perfection stage, by manipulating the qi flow through the acupoints in his body, he could merge with heaven and earth, allowing him to ignore inertia and move rapidly with minimal Inner Qi consumption.

The Shrinking Earth Stepping Technique was primarily for long-distance travel, but it could also be used in close-quarters combat to rapidly close the distance with an enemy. Combined with the Celestial Star Travel Body, he could perfectly seize the initiative in a fight.

Then there was the Burning Void Escape, an explosive Secret Technique that Feng Hua’s Salted Fish Assault Team had used before.

The cultivation of Body Techniques was unique; there were no shortcuts. These three Body Technique Secret Techniques were relatively basic for the Inner Qi Realm and required time to temper and master.

Furthermore, after the grueling battle with Zhang Hu and the others, he had grasped some of the secrets of momentum and weight. There were also the hundred Schools of Swordsmanship that Ye Shuping had left for him. All of these required practice.

Fortunately, his Gold-quality Talent, the Shenxiao Saint Body, had increased his comprehension of Cultivation Techniques severalfold. By integrating Feng Hua’s [Rhythm of All Things] comprehension Talent, Yu Fei had truly become one of the top prodigies in this world.

During his cultivation, he carefully sensed the changes that [Fleeting Grace] brought him.

Unlike Feng Hua, her speed was purely on a physical level. In actual combat, Feng Hua couldn’t fully utilize its power because her reaction speed couldn’t keep up.

Therefore, Feng Hua relied more on the passive adaptation she had developed since childhood. During his duel with her, Yu Fei had noticed that the finer details of Feng Hua’s combat style were somewhat crude.

Outsiders only saw her sword as swift and sharp, but in Yu Fei’s eyes, she was just using her speed to forcefully cover up her flaws.