"Nine types, huh… that's quite a lot…" Liu Bai muttered inwardly as he looked at the jade slips hidden inside the secret compartment.
In the original story, Mu Feng spent many years and only managed to collect three Spirit-Grade spiritual arts, and even those were merely Lower Spirit-Grade.
Liu Bai pondered for a moment before picking up one of the jade slips from the upper compartment.
"Blazing Sun Art, Low Level Spirit-Grade!"
Not bad. Starting out with a Spirit-Grade cultivation method although it was only Low Level Spirit-Grade it was already the highest-tier spiritual art available in the Northern Spiritual Realm.
As for higher-tier ones… perhaps the Northern Spiritual Academy might possess them…
After placing the jade slip back, Liu Bai picked up another one nearby.
"Thunderclap Nine Heavens, Middle Level Spirit-Grade!"
A Middle level Spirit-Grade art?!
This time, Liu Bai was genuinely shocked. He hadn't expected the Liu Territory to possess such a formidable heritage.
"Hehe, what's the matter, tempted? That happens to be the spiritual art your old man cultivated, and it's the strongest technique of our Liu Clan!"
Liu Qingtian smiled as he watched his son study the jade slip with a thoughtful look.
However, to his surprise, his son didn't reveal any excitement. Instead, Liu Bai calmly returned the jade slip to its place.
"What, you're not satisfied with that either?" Liu Qingtian frowned.
Liu Bai shook his head and said, "Father, I once heard that our Liu Clan possesses a High Level Spirit-Grade offensive art, right?"
Liu Qingtian raised his brows. "Oh? You actually know about that? Did your grandfather tell you?"
Of course, Liu Bai couldn't say he knew because he had read the novel in his past life, so he vaguely nodded.
"No wonder you weren't impressed by this Thunderclap Nine Heavens. If you truly want to cultivate that High Level Spirit-Grade offensive art, then your best choice is still the Blazing Sun Art. Back then, these two arts were discovered together by your grandfather in an ancient ruin. They're complementary cultivation techniques."
"So that's why…"
No wonder in the original story both Liu Mubai and Liu Yang cultivated the Blazing Sun Art. At first, Liu Bai had thought the Liu Clan didn't possess any advanced cultivation techniques, but upon seeing Thunderclap Nine Heavens, he instantly made the connection.
Having decided on the Blazing Sun Art as his cultivation method, Liu Bai then obtained that High Level Spirit-Grade offensive art from Liu Qingtian.
Great Sun Burning Sea Palm, High Level Spirit-Grade. Once mastered, a single palm strike could incinerate mountains and boil seas its power was immeasurable!
It was known as the strongest offensive art that had ever appeared in the Northern Spiritual Realm!
Aside from the Great Sun Burning Sea Palm, Liu Bai also selected a Low Level Spirit-Grade movement art…
Blaze Step—a movement art that channels flame spiritual energy through the feet, and relies on the explosive nature of fire to unleash immense speed. It was as fast as a lightning bolt and excelled in sudden bursts of power.
After selecting his spiritual arts, Liu Bai immediately checked his personal stats.
Player: Liu Bai
Realm: Spiritual Movement Realm
Spiritual Pulse: None
Cultivation Method: Blazing Sun Art (Not Initiated 0/100)
Skills:
Piercing Wind Finger, High Level Common-grade (Minor Mastery 0/50)
Blaze Step Low Level Spirit-Grade (Not Initiated 0/50)
Great Sun Burning Sea Palm, High Level Spirit-Grade (Not Initiated 0/200)
Experience Points: 0
To engrave a spiritual art into the system required no conditions simply holding the jade slip was enough. However, to cultivate it required experience points.
"Didn't think a Low Level Spirit-Grade spiritual art would need that much EXP just to get started…"
To put it in perspective, his High Level Common-grade Piercing Wind Finger only needed 50 EXP to go from Minor Mastery to Greater Mastery.
Furthermore, even among arts of the same tier, cultivation methods required more EXP than offensive arts.
Of course, he could also cultivate through traditional practice, and that would work too. The only issue was… it was hard to say how long it would take.
"Father, have someone capture a few live low-rank spiritual beasts and bring them to my courtyard…"
Liu Qingtian was momentarily stunned, unsure what odd scheme his son was planning now.
But he also knew this eldest son of his had always been calm and mature. He wasn't someone to be viewed as a mere ordinary youth. Since he had made a request, it must be for a reason.
Besides… as the lord of the Liu Domain, a few low-rank spiritual beasts were nothing. Even if his son was just fooling around, so what? He could afford it!
"Very well. I'll have someone take care of it right away. They'll be delivered to your courtyard in a few days…"
Hearing that his father agreed without hesitation, Liu Bai's heart warmed. He was incredibly thankful that he wasn't born as a background-less nobody. Otherwise, he wouldn't even have the resources to activate his cheat and would've had to gamble with his life...
But now, things were so much easier. With just a few words, he could safely obtain his first batch of EXP and secure the capital to keep going.
In this regard, whether in the mundane world of his past life or in this Great Thousand World, the cold truth remained the same.
On the way back to his courtyard, Liu Bai continued pondering how to further enhance his combat strength.
In the Great Thousand World, strength didn't just come from cultivation methods and spiritual arts. Things like spiritual arrays and battle arrays could also greatly increase one's power.
This much was evident just by looking at Mu Chen in the original story.
Of course, battle arrays were out of the question for now. Liu Bai didn't even understand what battle will was, let alone how to use it to form a Battle Will Spirit.
More importantly, in this remote Northern Spirit Realm, it would be hard to come across anything related to that field. So, the only viable path left was… spiritual arrays.
"I wonder if my system can use EXP to level up spiritual array mastery as well…"
He figured it was worth testing.
"Once this Dark Abyss matter is over, I'll have Father find me a spiritual array master to learn from."
After returning to his courtyard, Liu Bai attempted to cultivate the Blazing Sun Art on his own…
Soon, night passed.
But Liu Bai's cultivation progress was less than ideal he hadn't even reached the entry stage. At this rate, it would likely take at least three days to succeed.
Yet he clearly remembered that in the original novel, Mu Chen managed to cultivate the Great Pagoda Art soon after obtaining it, instantly condensing his own Pagoda Spiritual Energy...
Could his talent really be that much worse than the protagonist's?
Very quickly, Liu Bai shook his head and denied that thought. Perhaps there truly was a gap between them. After all, Mu Chen was arguably the number one genius of the Great Thousand World—he was the sole Nine Divine Pules holder.
Not to mention, his Pagoda Clan bloodline must have had immense synergy with the Great Pagoda Art, which explained how he could instantly master one of the highest-tier spiritual arts.
As for Liu Bai himself, even if he had some talent, it was still within the normal range. There was no need to compare himself with a heaven-favored protagonist. Besides, his strength increase didn't rely on bitter cultivation anyway.
"Young Master, the spiritual beasts you requested have arrived."
Two days later, the voice of Liu Manor's steward, Uncle Liu, rang from outside.
Liu Bai's eyes lit up at the sound, and he quickly walked out.
In the middle of a squad of family guards stood five massive beast cages, each about three meters long. Inside them were savage, ferocious wolf-type spirit beasts.
Low-rank Spiritual Beasts — Armored Green Wolves…
These were among the more common low-tier spiritual beasts. In the Liu Territory, there was even a stretch of wilderness where many of these creatures roamed.
But despite being common, the Armored Green Wolf was not weak—its strength was comparable to a Spiritual Movement Realm mid-tier cultivator. Agile and fast, and often hunting in packs, even Spiritual Wheel Realm cultivators would flee when faced with a wolf pack.
Of course, that meant nothing in the face of the colossal power that was the Liu Territory.
In fact, the Liu Manor's kitchen occasionally used spiritual beast meat for meals, and the Armored Green Wolf was one of the regulars—rumored to be highly nutritious.
Walking up to the cages, Liu Bai calmly looked at the snarling beasts that were chained down tightly with refined steel.
"Give me your spear."
He turned to the squad leader beside him and requested.
The man handed his spear over without hesitation.
Squelch!
Without any warning, Liu Bai thrust the spear straight into the heart of the Armored Green Wolf. Scarlet blood immediately gushed out from the wound, dripping to the ground with a rhythmic splatter.
The guards were clearly startled. None of them had expected their young lord to so decisively kill the wolf in an instant.
Uncle Liu stood silently behind Liu Bai, his eyes lowered toward the ground, but his entire body was tense, ready to strike at any moment.
Though the spiritual beasts were tightly restrained, he didn't dare let his guard down always prepared to respond to any accident and shield the young master from harm.
Naturally, Liu Bai was aware of this, but he didn't pay it much mind.
After all, Uncle Liu had been adopted by his grandfather since childhood, and his loyalty to the Liu Clan was beyond doubt.
Moreover, while Liu Bai didn't know the exact level of Uncle Liu's cultivation, from the brief aura that had just flashed from his body, he was likely even stronger than Liu Bai's Second Uncle…
Ding! Killed one low-rank spiritual beast. Gained 80 EXP and 1 Beast Soul Point
Huh? So there's more than just experience?
Liu Bai raised a brow in curiosity and opened his status panel.
Player: Liu Bai
Realm: Spiritual Movement Realm
Spiritual Pulse: None
Cultivation Method: Blazing Sun Art (Not Initiated 0/100)
Skills:
Piercing Wind Finger, High Level Common-grade (Minor Mastery 0/50)
Blaze Step, Low Level Spirit-Grade (Not Initiated 0/50)
Great Sun Burning Sea Plam, High Level Spirit-Grade(Not Initiated 0/200)
EXP: 80
Beast Soul Points: 1
As expected, in addition to EXP, a new entry Beast Soul Points had appeared.
What was this for? Could it be related to the future fusion of spiritual beast souls Essence?
It wasn't hard to guess. But what truly intrigued Liu Bai was whether a beast still left behind a beast soul essences if he killed it himself.
Soon, the answer became clear.
After the Armored Green Wolf was completely dead, a faint glowing orb the size of a fist slowly emerged from its corpse.
The orb looked somewhat dim, but if one looked closely, they could see within it a small, blurry wolf-shaped figure an adorable, miniature version of the Armored Green Wolf.
"Good, looks like gaining Beast Soul Points from the system doesn't interfere with the beast's soul essence…" Liu Bai thought.
Otherwise, if killing a beast himself made it impossible to extract a soul essence, wouldn't that ruin everything? That'd be ridiculous.
Without delay, Liu Bai killed the remaining four Armored Green Wolves as well, gaining another 300 EXP and 4 Beast Soul Points.
"Looks like even among low-rank spiritual beasts, the EXP they provide still varies slightly… though not by much, just a few points at most."
After taking mental notes about his system's features, Liu Bai ordered Uncle Liu and the others to remove the corpses and beast soul essences.
Then, after instructing the servants to clean up the blood, Liu Bai returned to his room.
Five Armored Green Wolves had earned him nearly 400 EXP, just enough to upgrade his strength a bit…
"Open Status Panel."
-----
Player: Liu Bai
Realm: Spiritual Movement Realm
Spiritual Pulse: None
Cultivation Method: Blazing Sun Art (Not Initiated 0/100)
Skill:
Piercing Wind Finger, High Level Common -Grade(Minor Mastery 0/50)
Blaze Step, Low Level Spirit-Grade (Not Initiated)
Great Sun Burning Sea Palm, High Level Spirit-Grade (Not Initiated 0/200)
EXP: 380
Beast Soul Points: 5
-----
First things first—Blazing Sun Art.
Without hesitation, he invested EXP into it. In less than a second, Blazing Sun Art had reached the entry level.
Liu Bai could immediately feel the spiritual energy within his body circulating according to the meridian paths outlined in the Blazing Sun Art. As it flowed through one meridian after another, he felt as though a sun had been ignited inside his body, emitting waves of burning heat.
Of course, this sensation was merely an illusion caused by the art reaching entry level. The spiritual energy cultivated through this method naturally carried the explosive and fiery attribute of flame.
---
Player: Liu Bai
Realm: Spiritual Movement Realm (Initial Phase)
Spiritual Veins: None
Cultivation Method: Blazing Sun Art (1st Layer 0/200)
EXP: 280
Beast Soul Points: 5
------
Just by reaching the entry level, Blazing Sun Art had directly advanced to the first layer, consuming 100 EXP.
His cultivation also broke through to the Initial Phase of the Spiritual Movement Realm. This meant that before mastering the method, his previous Spiritual Movement Realm had merely been superficial it wasn't even considered the initial phase.
Slightly curling his palm, a wisp of crimson spiritual energy rapidly condensed in his palm, faintly releasing a domineering and scorching fluctuation.
Liu Bai focused on the spiritual energy in his palm, sensing the subtle shifts within. Suddenly, his gaze sharpened as the once-gentle crimson energy began to tremble violently like water dripping into a pan of boiling oil.
As the spiritual energy vibrated more and more intensely, its fluctuations grew exponentially stronger.
Liu Bai's palm began to tremble. He could feel the spiritual energy resonating rapidly…
One layer… three layers… five layers… eight layers…
When the vibration reached the eighth layer, Liu Bai's trembling hand almost lost control. The spiritual energy seemed on the verge of exploding.
"Only eight layers of vibration… Still, to achieve eight layers just after reaching entry-level, the maximum should exceed ten. That already puts it above ordinary Low Level Spirit-Grade arts."
After roughly gauging the Blazing Sun Art's effect, Liu Bai noticed that he still had enough EXP to advance another layer. As for the remaining 80 points, he decided to invest it into his movement art.
Thinking this, Liu Bai didn't hesitate he immediately allocated 200 EXP to Blazing Sun Art, and 50 EXP to Blaze Step.
After this round of allocation, nearly 400 EXP had been reduced to just 30 points.
But that investment allowed Liu Bai to leap directly from just entering the Spiritual Movement Realm to the mid-phase, and also granted him mastery of a Low Level Spirit-Grade movement art. His overall strength had undergone a drastic transformation.
One could say that before this, Liu Bai was just barely qualified to advance from the Earth Class to the Heaven Class in Northern Spiritual Academy.
But now, even within the Heaven Class, he could be considered mid-tier at least.
And all of this… had happened in just under a minute.
This was the joy of having a cheat!
Feeling the roaring flame-like spiritual energy surging within him, an uncontrollable grin appeared on Liu Bai's face.
"Tomorrow… Tomorrow is the day I follow the old man to the Dark Abyss. With such a good opportunity, I really hope it doesn't disappoint me…"
If he managed to break through to the Spiritual Wheel Realm during the hunt at Dark Abyss…
Wouldn't that be a little too conspicuous?
If he ended up shocking the old man into a heart attack, now that would be quite a scene…