Chapter 54: Too Rich to Cultivate Normally

He spent the rest of the day testing his new capabilities. A strike against the stone wall of his room left no mark on his hand, though the wall cracked slightly. A full force jump took him more than three stories high with minimal effort. His stamina seemed endless as after hours of continuous movement, his breathing remained completely steady.

But physical power wasn’t his only focus.

Yu Liang pulled out another manual from his inventory. The Misty Steps movement technique. He had used it during the battle with Wang Shen, but his comprehension remained shallow. He had only grasped the basics and hadn’t been able to reach its peak. Now, with a perfected body and time to study, he could properly develop it.

The technique was a Tier 2 Mid Grade. Not extraordinary by high level standards, but sophisticated enough to serve him well through Foundation Establishment realm.

He began practicing in the private courtyard outside of the Moonlight Inn, repeating the basic footwork patterns until muscle memory developed. The technique emphasized sudden acceleration and directional changes, using Qi to reduce obstacles and enhance reflexes.

With his refined body, the movements came more naturally than before. His bones could handle the stress of rapid direction changes. His blood carried Qi to his legs fast enough to support continuous technique use.

By the end of the another week, his Misty Steps had progressed from crude understanding to genuine competence. He wouldn’t call himself a master, but the technique now felt like an extension of his body rather than something forced.

Yu Liang returned to his room and sat in meditation, examining his overall progress by calling out system panel which he hadn’t seen in ages.

[ System Status ]

Name: Yu Liang

Cultivation: Qi Condensation Second Layer

Physique: Iron Marrow Body

Movement Technique: Misty Steps — Major Proficiency

Combat Technique: Flowing Water Technique: Ripple, Stream and Waterfall

Yu Liang reached into his system storage and pulled out a small jade box. Inside rested three leaves, each one glowing with a faint golden light—Enlightenment Leaves.

He had bought them more or less on a whim during his shopping spree at the Mystic Pavilion, storing them amongst many other materials. The cost of fifty million mid grade spiritual stones for five leaves had been rather high, but not that significant in comparison to the rest of his purchases.

Now, looking at the remaining three, he understood why the attendant’s hands had trembled when retrieving them.

Enlightenment Leaves were legendary cultivation aids. Each leaf, when consumed, granted a period of heightened comprehension typically between four to six hours where the consumer’s understanding of techniques, concepts, and cultivation principles increases dramatically.

Insights that might take months to develop would crystallize in moments. Bottlenecks that seemed insurmountable would suddenly appear obvious.

Great sects rarely handed them out. Even talented disciples usually had to earn one through significant contributions. Some cultivation families kept a few leaves stored away for their younger generations, only bringing them out when someone reached an important bottleneck. Finding more than a handful in one place was already considered an incredible stroke of luck.

Yu Liang had eaten two of them like candy while practicing Misty Steps.

The first leaf, which he used on the third day of practise made a noticeable difference. Movements that had felt awkward before started becoming easier to understand. He no longer had to stop and think about where his Qi should go or how each step connected to the next. By the end of that afternoon, he was moving through the technique with far fewer mistakes.

The second leaf was eaten two days later, which pushed his comprehension even deeper. He began seeing variations he could develop, understanding how to adapt the technique to different situations, grasping the subtle timing adjustments that separated technique from mastery.

By any normal standard, his progress was insane. Most cultivators with mediocre talent would spend years practicing a Tier 2 technique before reaching this level of proficiency.

Some may never achieve true advancement at all.

But calling his comprehension of technique "perfection" would be wrong. Perfection meant understanding the technique completely meaning every nuance, every possible application, every insight the original creator possessed. That level of mastery required either decades of dedicated practice or the kind of innate talent a genius possess that Yu Liang simply didn’t have.

His trash tier talent remained unchanged. The Enlightenment Leaves hadn’t made him smarter or more perceptive. They just simply accelerated the comprehension he was capable of achieving, compressing months of slow progress into days of rapid advancement.

If any cultivator from a major sect knew he had consumed two Enlightenment Leaves just to learn a single Tier 2 movement technique, they would cough blood from sheer outrage.

Two leaves could have guided a much more talented disciple through Foundation Establishment realm breakthrough. They could have helped a genius comprehend a Tier 5 technique. It could have been saved for critical moments when enlightenment meant the difference between life and death.

Instead, Yu Liang had simply used them to skip the difficult part, throwing resources at the problem until his own limitations stopped being a problem.

Some elders would probably need a few days of meditation after hearing that.

If those same cultivators knew he still had three leaves remaining and that he had purchased them as casually as buying steamed buns without knowing it’s worth, they might genuinely collapse.

As the resources he "wasted" on a single movement technique could have produced a high level cultivator if given to someone with actual talent. A true genius, supplied with two Enlightenment Leaves and equivalent resources, might have reached Core Formation by the time Yu Liang achieved basic proficiency.

But Yu Liang had never relied on talent in the first place. What he had was enough resources to make up the difference. Rather than spending months slowly improving, he chose the simpler path, use what he had, get the results he wanted, and worry about efficiency later.

Still, the result was Major Mastery. It was enough for him to use the technique reliably in combat, while leaving plenty of room for further improvement.

Technique proficiency was generally divided into five stages: Basic, Minor, Major, and Perfection, followed by a realm beyond perfect mastery known as ’Origin.’

Yu Liang had only reached Major Mastery for now, but with enough practice and real combat experience, he could continue pushing it further.

He placed the jade box back in his storage ring.

Three leaves remained. Enough for future breakthroughs, future techniques, future moments when comprehension mattered.

Three leaves were still in his possession. He could save them for a difficult technique or use them when he encountered another bottleneck.

For now, though, he was satisfied with what he had gained. His had improved, his foundation was more stable, and the restaurant would soon be ready to open.

Whatever problems came after that, he would deal with them when they arrive.