Chapter 173: Mastered

In the network of the orthodox deities.

Huang Zichou looked at the many students who were choosing their examination techniques and said with a smile, "Choosing which technique is also very important in this exam."

"If you pick a technique that's too difficult and end up failing to master it, you'll get zero points directly."

"It's better to pick a slightly easier technique with a higher chance of success."

Another lesser deity said, "This is part of the exam—whether you have a clear understanding of your own talent, your limits, your potential..."

"But since most of the students here have made it this far, picking a five-star difficulty technique shouldn't be too hard for them to master."

"Starting from six stars, there's a possibility of failure."

"With seven-star difficulty, it's quite risky."

"Eight or nine stars, and there's a very high probability of failure."

"As for the ten-star, hardest technique, probably only Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao would dare to choose it."

Just then, Huang Zichou said in surprise, "There are actually three people who chose a ten-star technique?"

"And one person chose a nine-star difficulty technique? Another chose an eight-star?"

Huang Zichou laughed: "Quite a few arrogant ones among this batch of examinees."

Bai Zhenzhen, looking at the Ten Thousand Swords Unending Technique she had chosen, couldn't help but start feeling nervous.

The Foundation Establishment exam consisted of three rounds. Apart from the first comprehensive round, the next two would be conducted along four tracks: Dao Heart, Mana, Physique, and Martial Arts. Each track would decide a champion, who would receive a Foundation Establishment qualification certificate.

"Yu Zi is taking the physical education track, and I'm taking the martial arts track."

"Right now, I happen to be missing a sword technique strong enough to fight with."

Looking at the actual combat martial art Ten Thousand Swords Unending Technique, worth 1.49 million and with ten-star difficulty, Bai Zhenzhen thought to herself, "If I miss this chance... it might be a very long time before I get another opportunity to learn a sword technique like this."

After searching repeatedly, Bai Zhenzhen knew that this Ten Thousand Swords Unending Technique was not only the most suitable for her among this batch of techniques, but also the most powerful.

"And on the martial arts field, those aristocratic sons from the Immortal Capital I'll have to face... they probably all have some mastery of these top-tier expert-level martial arts, right?"

"To defeat them, I have to seize this free opportunity and learn such a martial art within two hours."

Despite saying this, Bai Zhenzhen wasn't very confident in her heart, because she had never studied such an expensive martial art, nor had she personally experienced just how difficult a ten-star martial art could be.

But there was no helping it—as a poor person, to compete with the wealthy students present, she had no other choice but to go all out, betting everything she had.

At the same time, on the other side, Li Tongyun was already trembling with nervousness, all because she had just chosen a nine-star technique.

She kept telling herself, "I have to master it! I have to master it!"

Li Tongyun had ranked after twentieth in both of the first two exams; especially in the second round, the Gluttony Contest, she had fallen to over thirtieth place amid constant vomiting.

So, to get a total score high enough to rank in the top twenty, after calculating over and over... she absolutely had to master a nine-star technique in this round.

On another side, Zhang Yu had chosen the eight-star difficulty technique, the Spring and Autumn Endless Zen, worth 1.55 million.

Although it wasn't the highest ten-star difficulty, Zhang Yu knew that this technique was definitely among the strongest of today's batch.

"Ah, whether it's the Titanium Gold Body Refining Method or the Great Heavenly Dragon Divine Power, they are strong too, but the alloys and dragon blood needed to upgrade their technique levels later are too expensive."

"On the other hand, Spring and Autumn Endless Zen doesn't require any external materials to upgrade its technique level."

Once Zhang Yu figured this out, he knew he had no choice but to choose Spring and Autumn Endless Zen.

As a poor person, he didn't have many options to begin with. Having this opportunity to cultivate Spring and Autumn Endless Zen for free was already a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

As the ten-minute technique selection period ended, the exam officially began.

The information on each student's chosen technique, along with the required cultivation materials, was delivered to them.

What was delivered to Zhang Yu was simple: a physical book with the five large characters "Spring and Autumn Endless Zen" printed on it. This was his exam paper for this round.

After scanning through the entire Spring and Autumn Endless Zen, Zhang Yu began, following the instructions in it, to condense the Longevity Mana described in the technique.

Only by successfully condensing the Longevity Mana, and then using it in conjunction with the forty-nine body-refining postures from Spring and Autumn Endless Zen, could one be considered to have achieved the initial mastery of this body-refining martial art.

Just as Zhang Yu was cultivating Spring and Autumn Endless Zen...

On the other side, many of the students had already been making rapid progress in their respective techniques.

While Yun Jing was cultivating the All-Encompassing Palm, his eyes, bright as stars, could see every structure inside his own body, clearly observing the movement of muscles and magical power, achieving an inner vision effect.

Moreover, after memorizing the content of the All-Encompassing Palm, as he practiced, he could also see a figure of someone performing the technique overlapping with himself, constantly grasping the errors in his cultivation of this palm technique, adjusting and improving almost every moment.

This was one of the effects of his Eyes of the Law's Skeleton, allowing him to achieve inner vision while quickly imitating various techniques and automatically detecting all errors during cultivation.

And when Yun Jing's gaze briefly glanced at other people practicing martial arts, various numbers would pop up in his field of vision.

"500,000... 450,000... 700,000..."

These were the prices of the martial arts techniques that many people around him were cultivating, as marked by the Eyes of the Law's Skeleton.

Through comparisons of these prices, Yun Jing's mind formed an impression of the strength of these people.

At the same time, on the other side, Ye Lingxiao glanced over the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual and did not choose to practice its sword moves. Instead, he sat down right where he was and began to mentally rehearse them.

For Ye Lingxiao, who could fully control his body and magical power, as long as the mental rehearsal had no problems, there were no problems. And the speed of mental rehearsal was obviously far faster than physical practice.

Therefore, when cultivating most techniques, he would often scan the manual once, then sit down on the spot, mentally rehearse it, and when he actually moved, he would have already mastered it.

……

But for Bai Zhenzhen, who had also chosen the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual, everything was not so simple.

Holding a training sword, her figure flickered as she moved, accompanied by flashes of lightning, already executing various sword techniques from the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual.

However, this Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual was a top-tier sword technique among expert-level techniques, said to exhaust all changes of sword moves in the Qi Refining stage, reaching the limit of sword move variations in the Qi Refining realm.

After all, in the Qi Refining stage, divine abilities were not yet manifested, so sword moves driven purely by power, speed, and magical power were still limited.

Yet even so, this Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual was said to have tens of thousands of sword moves.

As Bai Zhenzhen flipped through the thousands of pages of the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual while rapidly practicing the sword moves, the more she practiced, the more she felt something was wrong.

"This won't work."

"Practicing move by move like this, how can I possibly learn this Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual in two hours?"

Not a single mistake, every move perfectly inside, every thought clearly seen!

As her mental method circulated, Bai Zhenzhen stopped blindly practicing and instead flipped through the general outline of the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual again, beginning to think.

"Practice a sword move ten thousand times, and its meaning will reveal itself."

"The normal practice method of the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual is indeed to practice these sword moves one by one, master all the variations, and ultimately condense the sword intent, so that in battle, you can break all external martial techniques."

"But obviously, there's no time for that now."

"However, since the True God placed this technique here, it means it is theoretically possible to master this sword technique within two hours."

As time continued to pass, Bai Zhenzhen became calmer and calmer, constantly pondering the secrets within the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual.

"Is there some rule that can connect these sword moves? If I comprehend it, can I instantly master them?"

Just then, Bai Zhenzhen saw Ye Lingxiao, who was meditating with his eyes closed.

Although she didn't know what Ye Lingxiao was doing, Bai Zhenzhen had a flash of inspiration.

"I can't practice ten thousand sword moves in two hours."

"Though my body can't, what if I practice them in my mind?"

Bai Zhenzhen closed her eyes and began to mentally rehearse each move of the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual, but she still felt something was off.

"No, what I imagine in my mind is different from actually executing the moves with my body. It doesn't count as mastering them, right?"

"But since the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual is about condensing sword intent... do the moves have to be precise?"

Bai Zhenzhen recalled when Zhang Yu had comprehended the Heavenly Martial Heart-Refining Technique, and even though his moves were crooked and messy, it didn't seem to matter much.

Thinking of this, Bai Zhenzhen closed her eyes again and began mentally rehearsing the sword moves, while also having a new idea.

"The Ten Thousand Swords Without End Manual is, after all, a combat technique. What if I imagine an opponent in my mind?"

Speaking of opponents, the first person Bai Zhenzhen thought of was Zhang Yu.

As the opponent she had fought the most times and was most familiar with, Bai Zhenzhen quickly simulated a scene of Zhang Yu fighting her in her mind.

In many past battles, her memory had long since recorded Zhang Yu’s various performances in actual combat.

So at this moment in her mind, when Zhang Yu struck with full force, it was like a formless cloud blocking her path, seemingly unassailable—no matter how she struck with her sword, she could hardly break through.

“Yu’s really tough to beat.”

Yet in this mental sparring, Bai Zhenzhen kept detecting flaws in her own sword techniques.

Previously, she had always tried to do this to her opponents—to see through the weaknesses in their attacks.

Now, as she practiced against herself in her mind, she kept finding flaws in her own execution of the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Technique.

At that moment, Bai Zhenzhen felt she had done the right thing.

“That’s it… The Ten Thousand Swords Without End Technique is the ultimate in sword technique variation. Why should sword techniques change? Naturally, to break the opponent’s moves.”

“Practicing ten thousand times by rote memorization is just learning by heart. Understanding the sword intent through breaking techniques should be the superior method of training in this martial art.”

Next, she simply alternated between flipping through the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Technique and sparring against Zhang Yu in her mind. Under this kind of real combat training, Bai Zhenzhen felt as if she were about to transform into a thunderbolt, tearing apart the dense fog before her, and a sword intent gradually rose in her heart.

In the days that followed, the other students also improved rapidly.

After coming out of the temporary surgery room beside them, Yu Xinghan wore a tragic expression. The third eye in his mind opened, carrying the hatred of Rebirth, and he was making rapid progress in his cultivation of the technique.

Yun Jing’s speed grew faster with each repetition, each one more precise than the last, getting closer and closer to success.

Ye Lingxiao was far ahead of the pack—hundreds of versions of himself in his mind were practicing different sword techniques separately, rapidly pushing forward his progress in the Ten Thousand Swords Without End Technique.

But just as Ye Lingxiao felt he could claim first place,

“Examiner, I’m done.”

Ye Lingxiao suddenly opened his eyes and looked, only to see Zhang Yu raise his hand and say, “I’ve mastered it.”