Ou Yangming frowned and pondered for a while before he finally drew a conclusion. Perhaps the so-called Power, Agility, and Physique points were closely related to his cultivation’s equivalent rank. An ordinary human in Force Grade Class Five would have a fixed amount of 5 points each.
That said, the points only applied in normal situations. If Ou Yangming used essential Qi during a fight or performed some skills, the specific points would change accordingly. It was not a casual guess, but a deduction made according to the change shown in brackets.
Needless to say, the data would probably become magnificent once he put on his armor.
‘But what’s the integration of Heaven and man?’ Ou Yangming vaguely felt that this was perhaps the biggest reason he was out of the ordinary.
He was elated to find that he had 20 points of mental power, which was likely the benefit he gained from absorbing the half-spirit beast’s flesh and blood.
A thought suddenly crossed Ou Yangming’s mind. He put the data away, and shifted his focus to the waist sash’s special skill — Blood Flight.
‘What’s this?”
On the day when Ou Yangming chose this waist sash in the basement, Ni Yinghong and Zheng Ziwen, the appraisers, had inspected it. Nonetheless, they did not use appraisal art, hence they did not notice the hidden strange skill.
Upon thinking about the mysterious skill, Ou Yangming felt like his heart was being scratched by a cat — unbearably itchy.
Ou Yangming stomped his foot, then rummaged through boxes and cases to pack up the pieces of equipment that he had smithed for himself. When he was done, he realized that the bag of equipment was no longer heavy.
Though he was not wearing his arm guards at the moment, his power was already different from before.
Ou Yangming headed swiftly to the dense forest after he left the military camp. Once he was far enough, he put on all his equipment then rubbed his hands again to perform appraisal art.
[Race: Human]
(Equivalent Rank: Ordinary Human, Force Grade, Class Four)
[Power: 15 (4+11)]
[Agility: 8 (4+4)]
[Physique: 8 (4+4)]
[Mental Power: 20]
(Skills: Military fist art, military blade technique, Military Fire Smithing Art, appraisal art, Precious Stone Embedding Art, Blood Flight]
(State: Integration of Heaven and man]
Ou Yangming was slightly satisfied after seeing the data, but he focused on the Blood Flight again.
He immediately channeled his essential Qi into the waist sash, then a peculiar and exceptionally dark aura was released. It instantly permeated into his body and caused him to shudder. Following that, he realized something frightening, his Qi and blood were flowing into the waist sash at an unimaginable speed.
In a split second, or perhaps in less than a split second, half of Ou Yangming’s Qi and blood were consumed.
Almost at the same time, his body transformed into a blood light that zoomed far away in the blink of an eye.
Everything happened so quickly that Ou Yangming, who was involved, could not even react to the situation.
Nevertheless, it was then that his 20 points of mental power unleashed an unexpected magical effect.
Even though Ou Yangming’s body was unable to react, his consciousness burst out in a flash. Through its mighty conception, time around him seemed to have slowed down, and he could see that his body had transformed into a red blood light that was zooming toward the dense forest at an unbelievable speed.
Ou Yangming had never imagined such a high speed would exist in the world. If he could perform appraisal art on his body at the moment, he would definitely see that his Agility point was ridiculously high.
While it was short-lived, it was enough to stun him.
A question suddenly arose in his head. ‘What happens if there’s an obstacle in my path?’
Once Ou Yangming had the thought, he did his best to control his flight path. However, no matter what he did, he could not do so.
Instead, when he tried to control the Blood Flight, the blood color suddenly disintegrated, causing him to be detached from the state.
“Thud — ” Ou Yangming fell butt first to the ground.
He had practiced the martial-art squat, his fist art, and his blade technique every day, so his body was tempered to be rock solid. However, Ou Yangming actually lost control of his body and fell.
Despite that, as soon as his body touched the ground, he supported himself with his hand and stood up.
He was shocked when he looked sharply at his surroundings. In just a short span of time, he had flown more than 10 kilometers away. He could already somewhat see the forest.
Ou Yangming knew that he had likely been detached from the state of flying because he attempted to take control of the Blood Flight. If Ou Yangming had let himself be controlled, he would probably still be flying.
When he thought about the problem, his face turned green.
If he had actually landed in a ferocious beast’s lair, the events that would take place would be even more interesting.
All of a sudden, Ou Yangming staggered. He was in shock when he realized that he had lost a substantial amount of Qi and blood.
If his original Qi and blood were enough to fill up a bottle such that it would overflow if the bottle was shaken, he currently only had half of the original amount left.
Ou Yangming finally understood the meaning of Blood Flight.
Without abundant Qi and blood, he probably could not have activated the skill, but even if they were sufficient, an enormous amount would be consumed when the skill was activated. Once the skill disappeared, he would then end up in a dispirited state, like he was at the moment.
Nonetheless, although the Blood Flight had many shortcomings, it could play a magical role in an escape during a critical moment.
Ou Yangming halted his thoughts. As he glanced at the dense forest that was not far away, he headed over, his military saber burning with his Military Fire. Subsequently he darted into the forest.
Due to the Vision attribute, he was able to notice the changes around him in advance. On top of that, his strength had greatly improved from before. While Ou Yangming had lost Qi and blood, and his limbs were weak, as long as he had the power to lift his military saber, hunting some small animals was still a piece of cake for him.
He slaughtered a pheasant with a slash.
Its flesh and blood instantly transformed into energy that gushed into Ou Yangming’s body, and the extreme weakness that he was feeling quickly disappeared. Nevertheless, a pheasant’s flesh and blood could not compensate for his loss. Therefore, Ou Yangming moved quicker than before, and slaughtered every small animal mercilessly with saber-lights.
Before long, his body was rich in Qi and blood again.
Throughout the process, he clearly sensed that he had improved.
During his first visit to the dense forest, he could replenish his Qi and blood easily by killing a few small animals. Now, he had to kill more than ten of them to achieve the same result.
It was evident that his body could now store twice the amount of Qi and blood than he could before.
Ou Yangming suddenly laughed out loud. There was an upsurge of saber-lights from his saber again as he began wielding it at the dense forest’s periphery.
He was performing the most basic blade technique in the military, but the technique was diverse when he executed it. The saber-lights that circulated were like billowing waves in a big river, or like quicksilver that spilled over the ground.
Eventually, Ou Yangming’s essential Qi gushed toward all the acupoints in his body.
It had been more than ten days since the slaughter of the half-spirit beast. Back when he absorbed the beast’s blood and flesh, the enormous gush of Qi and blood had not only helped him advance to Force Grade Class Four, but it had also pushed him to the peak.
After being almost depleted of Qi and blood, when they were replenished so muc
h that they were about to overflow, Ou Yangming sensed an opportunity. It was a message from his body that had called out to him instinctively.
Hence, instead of stopping, he worked harder, and the saber-lights in his hands shone brighter.
“Kill —”
Ou Yangming roared on the spur of the moment. All of his essential Qi, his power, and even his mental power, had integrated with the saber as he slashed a big tree.
He slashed the big tree easily as though he was cutting some beancurd, then moved as fast as lightning to kick it in mid-air, and flew backward like a swimming dragon.
When Ou Yangming finally gained a foothold while holding his military saber, he towered like a mountain and bore a mighty aura.
Force Grade Class Five!
The instant he slashed the tree earlier, his spirit seemed to have become one with the entire force. It was at that moment that the integration of Heaven and man was vividly shown from his body.
The slash that he made did not only come from his own power, it also contained a mighty force gathered from nature, allowing all his essential Qi to be released in an instant.
When Ou Yangming recollected his essential Qi, he naturally advanced to Class Five.
Chapter 88 - Substitution Skill
When Ou Yangming put his saber away, he sensed the upsurge of essential Qi in his body, as well as the weakened Qi and blood. He was in high spirits. In actual fact, he had not come out to cultivate martial arts. He had only wanted to test the Blood Flight skill.
However, his unintended actions had brought unexpected results. After performing the Blood Flight skill, he lost a substantial amount of Qi and blood, which was why he used the Devouring ability in the dense forest to absorb energy from flesh and blood, and to turn them into Qi and blood for his body. During the process, Ou Yangming suddenly experienced a strong heroic spirit, and he cultivated martial arts, causing an upsurge of his Qi and blood. As things got out of hand, he eventually advanced to the peak of Force Grade.
It was definitely a massive opportunity for him.
Nonetheless, once Ou Yangming arrived at the peak of Force Grade, he realized that his rich Qi and blood were emptied again.
As such, he headed inside the dense forest easily, and recovered his Qi and blood after just 15 minutes.
Honestly, Ou Yangming’s current body was so much more powerful than before that the amount of Qi and blood he could store was on a different level. That said, his attributes had improved accordingly. He also had the support of abundant essential Qi and a considerable amount of mental power. Therefore, Ou Yangming became a few times more efficient in hunting and required a much shorter time.
When Ou Yangming absorbed the energy of more flesh and blood, he had also used appraisal art a few times.
If Zheng Ziwen knew that Ou Yangming could perform appraisal art so frequently, he would definitely be stupefied and in disbelief.
Ou Yangming, who had 20 points of mental power, was more powerful than the good-for-nothing, Zheng Ziwen. At the very least, Ou Yangming would not feel burdened even if he consecutively used appraisal art four to five times.
Needless to say, he dared not attempt to use the art more than that.
After testing and verifying a few times, Ou Yangming finally understood something.
Sure enough, as he had guessed, if he did not use essential Qi or other unique abilities, his personal attributes were linked to his cultivation rank. On the other hand, if Ou Yangming employed his essential Qi, his attribute values would change significantly, and the specific amounts changed would vary.
Ou Yangming exclaimed once he confirmed everything. It seemed like there was a certain limit to appraisal art, he could only find out the most basic information, and could not inspect specific changes during a fight.
After replenishing his Qi and blood, Ou Yangming put his military saber away reluctantly. He drew the Devouring attribute, then used his body technique to hurry back to the military camp.
There was an important matter that he had to attend to back in the military camp.
When Ou Yangming returned to his courtyard, he put away his equipment set properly, then retrieved the raw gemstones that he had brought back.
The raw gemstones were extremely valuable, but they would not be coveted by anyone even if he just left them there. After all, nobody could break into his residence other than Old Craftsman.
Ou Yangming casually smashed one of the raw gemstones, and as he had expected, no gem was found.
On the contrary, when he reached for the other raw gemstone, he was cautious with it.
Based on the raw gemstone’s hardness, unless it was intentionally broken, it was unlikely to shatter even if one accidentally dropped it. Despite being aware of that, Ou Yangming subconsciously handled the stone carefully.
After some thought, a light flashed in Ou Yangming’s hand as his Military Fire burned.
Zheng Ziwen could carry out stone-cutting using different tools, but Ou Yangming did not have the conditions to do so. Besides, even if Ou Yangming was given those tools, he would not have had control over them right away, thus he decided to use his Military Fire.
Nevertheless, under Ou Yangming’s control, the Military Fire burned very slowly. He did not want the fire to ruin the gem inside the raw gemstone.
If the Spiritual Fire Blacksmiths in the gem trade had witnessed this, they would surely yell at Ou Yangming as they were afraid that he would destroy the gem.
This was because there were many past cases where the Military Fire or the spiritual fire was used to retrieve a gem, but very few were successful cases. If a person was slightly careless, the raw gemstone would crack, and the gem would be destroyed.
However, Ou Yangming was different.
When he used his Military Fire’s power, his consciousness was split into two, where the one watching from above was in a miraculous state — the integration of Heaven and man. Under the consciousness’ observation, the situation inside the raw gemstone was crystal clear. Hence, Ou Yangming was aware of the key points when he advanced further with his Military Fire.
Like peeling a bamboo shoot, he removed the raw gemstone’s surface bit by bit.
Following that, a mysterious gem was revealed, but Ou Yangming was surprised because the gem was odd.
Other gems had a beautiful color and luster, but the one that he was holding was black and unexceptional.
No, even though the gem was as black as an inkstone, inside it was a rich core, but the core looked like a sleeping person.
As Ou Yangming looked at the black core, he felt a chill for some reason.
While he was unaware of the gem’s background, his guts were telling him that it was incredibly valuable. It was rare and more powerful than the gem that had increased his Physique by 4 points.
Appraisal art…
An Appraisal Light landed on the gem.
[Item: Substitution Gem]
[Attributes: Accumulates energy from Qi and blood, resists a fatal attack for the host]
Ou Yangming was hesitant for the first time
when he held the gem in his hands.
His initial plan was to embed the gem in the waist sash after carrying out the stone-cutting process. In any case, the waist sash had three grooves, so one slot would be left even if he added this gem.
Nonetheless, he suddenly realized that the gem’s equivalent rank was definitely above the waist sash’s and he would not be using the same equipment forever. Would it be a waste to embed this gem in the waist sash?
After some consideration, Ou Yangming cast his worries aside and began refining the gem.
This was because he thought about his mysterious Military Fire. Although Ou Yangming had no idea if the fire had the ability to draw and transfer skills, he believed that he could keep the gem intact if he were to remove it from the waist sash in the future.
Soon enough, the black gem began transforming in the Military Fire. At the very least, its outer appearance wa
s obviously changing
By controlling the Military Fire, the black gem’s attributes did not decline, and it was smoothly embedded in the waist sash. Similarly, once the gem was embedded, its outer appearance was no longer unusual, and the human-like core seemed to have faded
vas
away.
Ou Yangming studied it for some time before confirming that there were no flaws, then he proceeded to scan the waist sash with his Military Fire.
[Item: Extraordinary waist sash (Yellow)]
(Equivalent Rank: Ordinary Tool, Fine Grade, Rank Five]
[AttributesL Toughness +20, Physique +4]
(Skills: Blood Flight (Activation Condition: Abundant Qi and blood), Substitution (Accumulates Qi and blood, substitutes death)]
‘Fine Grade Rank Five?’
Ou Yangming suddenly widened his eyes. What did he see? He saw that the waist sash had leaped from Good Grade Rank Three to Fine Grade Rank Five without warning.
After blinking a few times, Ou Yangming realized that the black Substitution Gem was not as simple as it seemed.
The waist sash’s grade had improved dramatically after the gem was embedded.
Ou Yangming had another vague thought in his head. He believed that super-powerful equipment above ordinary tools — the legendary magic tools — possessed unimaginable magical effects.
It would surely not be easy to cross the boundary between an ordinary tool and a magic tool.
Therefore, whether it was the waist sash that had accidentally grown or the shield that had declined from being a magic tool and was now an ordinary tool, they were stuck being ordinary tools at the peak of Fine Grade Rank Five.
The reason being they could not advance further than that.
Ou Yangming had a fiery feeling inside his heart. He wanted to find out exactly how powerful a magic tool was.
That being said, it was difficult to acquire one.
Ou Yangming shook his head and cast the unrealistic thought aside. Perhaps his wish would come true one day, but today was definitely not that day.
After halting his thoughts, he continued to focus on the waist sash.
Immortal Path to Heaven c1-725 Page 52
