Chapter 678: Anomalous Behavior

They were not allowed to use secret treasures and charms in the next task, so they should focus on improving their strength. Meng Qi had to adjust his original plans, hence his hesitation. He pondered.

“After successfully crossing the first step of the Celestial Ladder, the key is to sense the operation of the world from time to time and intertwine with Dharma and Logos often. Counting on hermetic training alone won’t be very helpful, but my knowledge and experience of these are quite complicated. I shall spend six months on the organization of bladesmanship, sword art, fist movement, and palm stroke, truly achieving mastery of the movements that I’ve learned.”

Although Eight Nine Mysteries was adaptive to changes and was pretty good at imitation, this didn’t preclude Meng Qi from operating many other movements. There was a huge difference between simply using a movement and having mastery of it. The former was rigid—at most someone would know when to use which movement. What was more, during a fight, the cohesiveness of the changes between movements wasn’t fluent, and it would be easy to find its flaws. If it were not for the Eight Nine Mysteries’ ability to sense danger and fight with resistance, Meng Qi would have suffered much pain by now.

On the other hand, the latter was the extraction of the essence from his part of the preliminary knowledge of the Six Strokes of the Overlord and Divine Nine-Annihilation, and then combined with his own bladesmanship, not being restricted to a particular movement. This would allow those movements to cooperate with each other, learn others’ strengths and make links smooth, enabling Meng Qi to operate them at his fingertips!

It was like an analogy of sword art by telling stories—every movement was like a coping method. After suddenly learning so many Dharmakaya movements and skills of the Exterior, he was solely operating those coping methods. Operating once or twice would be fine, but if he fought an enemy too many times, it would expose the rules of the coping method. It could easily lead to failure unless his strength was far superior to his enemy’s.

Ever since he was promoted to the Exterior, the enemies he had fought were either killed or had faced him just a few times such that it wouldn’t expose the problem. However, coming up was a Death Task. As he was aware of this flaw, he should remedy it as soon as possible.

The real master wasn’t the one who was unwilling to use coping methods but the one who understood how to abandon representation images and grasp the essences of coping methods, which should be combined according to the circumstances. The fascinating stories came out, therefore, when one abandoned vulgarity, repetition and monotony.

In the past, Meng Qi’s palm stroke and sword art were in the master’s realm, but once he got a promotion to the Exterior, he encountered too many adventures and attained many skills and movements with mighty power that couldn’t be combined with each other. They had to be preserved separately. In this aspect, bladesmanship, fist movement and palm stroke of Heavenly Golden Scripture were way more serious than his sword art problems.

Meng Qi knew this very well and had always been trying to solve it. His primary result was his movement, “The Big Bang Technique” combined with “Let All Begone” and “the Singular Existence of Mine.” The movement “Falling Sun” — the “Universal Demise” combined with “World of Dao” and “the Chaos Vortex” — was the one that really belonged to him. He thoroughly remembered every change in his heart and the specific level in different situations, which was extremely important.

However, these were just two movements that he had formulated. There were still many bladesmanship, sword arts, and palm strokes that he hadn’t combined, and the two sole movements were also divided into “coping methods” that he had merely developed on his own. There was still a long way to go before he had a thorough understanding of the essence of the new coping method and their linking stories without repetition.

When his movement reached the realm of coming in handy fluently and flawlessly, he could extract his own “Taoism” from it, which would act as the soul of the whole story.

Therefore, after pondering about it, Meng Qi planned to “waste” half a year to do this thing. After all, it would be used as an exchange for the Six Taoist. What a pity if he wasted this chance!

Jiang Zhiwei’s eyes shone brightly. “Indeed! I should exchange for half a year as well!”

After she realized the World of Dao, movements such as Unmoved Tai Shang all had new paths and changes. It was true of Anatta Sword when she learned the Twenty-three Swords Skill, Six Kills on Twenty-three Swords Skill, and Cutting Tao And Seeking True-self as described by Meng Qi. The present stage was to extract the essences of other sword arts and combine and achieve mastery given the frame of World of Dao, trying to thoroughly remove the sword art of the Exterior realm.

Meng Qi smiled as his idea gained support. He continued speaking. “Aside from this, I plan to exchange for the Three knives corresponding to the Three Swords so that they would have their own correspondence when I organize the bladesmanship and sword art instead of forcing to combine the sword and knife. What’s more, I plan to improve the quality of Heaven Inflicted Pain and make it a Top Grade weapon.”

The three knives referred to Three Sabers, Three Swords, and Three Souls. The outline that Evil God Xuan Tian extracted from his own bladesmanship was ten out of countless knives could break the world, and just one attack could separate the air, achieving the effect from complex to simple and that was the essence of bladesmanship which had the significance of reference for Meng Qi.

After he finished speaking, Meng Qi had already thought it through. He chose to spend 8,800 Karma points for the Three Knives and 1,200 Karma points for six months. He also selected some materials and made the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms promote Heaven Inflicted Pain, which was close to Mid Grade, to Top Grade, costing him a total of 1,200 Karma points.

“Heaven Inflicted Pain, Precious Weapon of the Top Grade, with a blade made out of Sky Thunder Gold and a handle carved out of Thunder Wood, and other precious materials… It is exceptionally heavy, weighing more than 700kg… It has definite control over various kinds of lighting and is extremely powerful. The weapon is worth 6,700 Karma points.”

As for Flowing Fire, which had absorbed the blood of Wild Ox Monster, it was infinitely close to Exquisite at present. Meng Qi firmly believed that even without the aid of the Six Taoist, Flowing Fire could naturally get promotion after several challenges of fight and stimulation!

When he finished all these things, Meng Qi still had 1,190 Karma points left. He smiled at his friends and said, “Who needs to borrow some Karma points and exchange for training? Remember to pay back before the Death Task.”

He didn’t worry about problems such as his own protection devices or materials for the Immortality Elixir of East Pole. The inspiration of “World of Dao” the second time around was to collect Karma points. Meng Qi did not believe that if they had a choice the members of The Immortals could suppress their desire and only sense once!

They would be “scourged” if they didn’t take advantage of such a precious opportunity!

In addition, Meng Qi found that he had other things that he could exchange for Karma points. He had forgotten about things like the skills of Shang River Fairy that he had kept in his mind, or the wages from Six Fan School that could buy exotic minerals and produce and elixirs.

Zhao Heng’s eyes shone when he heard what Meng Qi had said, but then he said with a wry smile, “With enough materials, it didn’t take too long for me to get a promotion to the Third-fold Heaven, but to successfully pass the first Celestial Ladder, one could barely count on hermetic training.”

This was the first barrier for the Exterior. The key point was the perception of the rule existing in the world that needed challenges.

The reason why Ruan Yushu didn’t choose to exchange for time previously was that she had given the exotic minerals and produce needed for training to the Six Taoist before this task in order to collect Karma points. Under the circumstances without enough materials, hermetic training lasting for five or six years wouldn’t help her break through to the second-fold Heaven. Therefore, her first choice had focused on materials. Now that she knew that Meng Qi had some Karma points left, she slightly lowered her head and tried to keep calm as she said, “I need your Karma points.”

With enough time and exotic minerals and produce, reaching the Third Heaven realm before the next task would not merely be a dream for her.

“I will give it to you later after the trade. We all need to stay here for hermetic training anyway.” Meng Qi considered the affairs of the Immortals and decided to lend Ruan Yushu the points after having the conversation later.

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If she promised to join the Immortals, she could gain not just skills but also selective exotic minerals and produce at a real bargain in the Immortal-tracking Alley. She could earn extra Karma points by completing member tasks. She could simply wait until she gets there to exchange training time and enter the Third Heaven realm!

Following Meng Qi’s example, Jiang Zhiwei decided things she needed to exchange. She wandered in front of the thick light pillar and exchanged for six months in order to practice the sword arts that she had achieved during this period of time, including but not limited to World of Dao and Yuding’s Immortal-stabbing Sword.

Then, she spent 2,200 Karma points to exchange for “Blade-curing Wine” in order to preserve the Sword of the Sun-Penetrating Rainbow when she encountered challenges after she finished hermetic training. She expected her own promotion through her sword.

After she exchanged for these two things, she said with a smile, ” If nobody wants to borrow Karma points, I want to use them to exchange for a protection device. After all, other things won’t work anyway.”

Ruan Yushu had already borrowed Meng Qi’s Karma points, and Qi Zhengyan shook his head, indicating that he had enough Karma points. Therefore Jiang Zhiwei selected for a while and exchanged for “Seamless Robes of Heaven”, a Top Grade Precious Weapon worth 8,800 Karma points. When fully stimulated, it was equivalent to Meng Qi’s current defense power and was both water- and fire-resistant.

“Senior Brother Qi, have you decided yet?” Meng Qi turned around and looked at Qi Zhengyan.

Qi Zhengyan said expressionlessly, “Promote the level of Golden Dragon Stripe Sword to Top Grade, exchange for a Dark Chaos Crystal to assist training, and exchange for a year.”

“Book of the Chaos” needed a different specific amount of power in every stage, but exotic minerals and produce were necessary which was divided into a different stage. For example, Qi Zhengyan exchanged for Core of a Fallen Star when he cultivated Purple Star River, thus he already had preparation, using materials with chaotic power that won’t consume too much.

Meng Qi saw Qi Zhengyan had his own opinion in this matter, so he didn’t give any other suggestion. Instead, he said with a smile, “Strive for Third Heaven at the next task.”

Qi Zhengyan slightly nodded his head and exchanged 2,400 Karma points for one year and 2,000 Karma points for the second Dark Chaos Crystal. Then he exchanged 4,600 Karma points for material Dragon Skeleton as well as its cultivation, in order to improve the level of his Golden Dragon Stripe Sword.

“The Golden Dragon Stripe Sword, being a Top Grade precious weapon, is a cold dragon sword. Its blade is particularly solemn and sharp, listed as Exquisite, which is difficult to break. Its edge is sharp enough to cut metals and stones. If one were to be hit by the sword, one’s blood and heart would freeze. If used well, it could blow clouds and mists as well as change the climate and freeze rivers with its Sword Qi. It is worth 6,400 Karma points.”

Once the exchanges were completed, three people, as well as Meng Qi, needed to have hermetic training. Zhao Heng left Samsara Square after bidding them farewell.

Meng Qi cleared his throat when he saw Zhao Heng leave. He began talking about The Immortals and explained all the incentives to them in the same detailed way he had used to persuade Jiang Zhiwei.

Ruan Yushu listened quietly, and she didn’t hesitate to say, “No problem, I’m in.”

With the Death Task looming, she found no reason to reject it. It was a way to improve herself without harming her family. Moreover, it was a recommendation from her trusted friends.

Meng Qi breathed a sigh of relief. He then looked at Qi Zhengyan with a smile. “Senior Brother Qi, what about you?”

Qi Zhengyan blurted out. “I don’t like being bound, so I’m going to pass.”

He then turned around and walked into his room to begin his hermetic training, not giving Meng Qi a chance to persuade him.

“Senior Brother Qi seems a bit odd.” Meng Qi frowned. “In order to improve his strength, he would rather exchange his sect skills to the Six Taoist. With the Death Task imminent, why would he refuse so firmly when there are so many benefits that come with joining the Immortals?”

“I hadn’t even mentioned ‘World of Dao’ yet!”

Ruan Yushu suddenly said, “Qi Zhengyan was a bit surprised when you collected the core with the tiny emerald tree. It was the kind of surprise that things were beyond his expectation.”

She was a very observant person.

“It also seemed like he wanted to touch the core in the tree.” Jiang Zhiwei recalled the scene.

Meng Qi was still frowning. “Is there any possibility that Senior Brother Qi is hiding something?”

“Zhiwei, you need to bring Yushu to The Immortals when we leave Samsara. I will talk to Senior Brother Qi.” Meng Qi continued.

“Okay.” Jiang Zhiwei didn’t say much.

Meng Qi set aside his thoughts and gave Ruan Yushu a detailed explanation about the Immortals.

After their discussion, Ruan Yushu chose the movement “Fairy of the Moon” as it contained some knowledge of melody. It would not be suspicious if she changed to Sonorous Skills at a crucial point. In addition, the movement could help her develop outstanding Lightness Skills and achieve her purpose—it was suitable for saving her life.

Once Ruan Yushu was finished with the Supreme-wisdom Tree, Meng Qi began his hermetic training and temporarily dropped his worries.