Chapter 55: Are the Secret Manuals Fake?

"What on earth is this?"

"Phan, Phantom Archery?" The people around were drawn over, and after taking a glance, their faces were full of confusion.

"Strange, why do I feel like this thing looks a bit familiar?" Zhao Shan rubbed his crew cut, racking his brains to think.

Suddenly, he slapped his thigh hard and said loudly, "I remember now! Isn't there someone selling this stuff at the market in Zhou Family Fort?"

"The market in Zhou Family Fort?" Lu Yu was full of surprise.

Lu Guohao and the others also frowned. Someone selling this stuff at the market? How did they have no impression of it at all?

"That's right, I remember it too." Sun Gang nodded. "It was an old man who didn't look like a good person, with shifty eyes."

"Yes, yes, yes, that's him!" Zhao Shan's voice rose a few notches in excitement. "I've been keeping an eye on him for a long time. Every time I go to the market, he sets his stall up very neatly with a dozen of these things in front of him. No wonder it looked familiar to me."

"A dozen!" Lu Yu was truly taken aback.

"That's right, a dozen of them. Things like 'Nine Suns True Formula', 'Chaos Shifting Art', 'Spirit Rhinoceros Heart Sutra', 'Longevity Wonder Technique', 'Eighteen Rifts of Space'—there were too many, I can't even remember them all."

As Zhao Shan spoke, Lu Yu listened, dumbfounded.

Nine Suns True Formula? Chaos Shifting Art? Don't these sound like the martial arts Secret Manuals from those fantasy stories? They have them here too?

If it were before he transmigrated, Lu Yu would definitely think this was absurd, but in this world, setting aside the Awakened, according to Wang Shu's words, there really were people who had cultivated True Qi.

Since there was True Qi, then the appearance of a "Nine Suns True Formula" seemed to make sense?

"Now that you mention it, I remember too." Qin Hai widened his eyes. "That seems to be an old swindler. The time before last when I went, I even saw someone looking for him to return their purchase. The old man refused to refund it no matter what, and they started arguing."

"Yes, yes, yes, I remember too. The old man ended up lying on the ground throwing a tantrum, making quite a scene, and in the end, the matter just fizzled out."

"So, the people from Wang Family Zhai also bought this stuff from that old man?" The way everyone looked at the small booklet in Lu Yu's hand instantly became strange.

Lu Yu felt a bit awkward; it seemed it really was a fake. Fortunately, he hadn't held out much hope.

"Sorry about that, Xiao Yu," Sun Gang smiled awkwardly. "I thought it was a treasure."

"It's fine, Uncle Sun, don't take it to heart." Lu Yu smiled and waved his hand.

As he walked, Lu Yu was still a bit curious, so he carried his bow on his back and flipped open the cover with one hand, thinking he would see what was actually written inside; there was no harm in looking, anyway.

As a result, the moment he saw the first page, his brows furrowed tightly into a "chuan" shape. Who on earth wrote this?

The handwriting was too ugly to bear looking at, yet the person who wrote it felt quite good about themselves, deliberately hooking the strokes of every character to show off a style, which was simply a clumsy imitation.

"Can this thing really be reliable?" he couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Lu Yu endured the discomfort and finally finished reading the first page, but his tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed.

This so-called "Phantom Archery" actually looked like it had some substance to it.

Drawing the bow like a full string, the arrow flying like a phantom; this Arrow Technique focused on the word "fast," using a unique way of exerting force to increase the speed of shooting arrows.

It was said that once cultivated to a certain Realm, one could stimulate the blood and Qi within the body to unleash a unique skill called "Phantom Consecutive Arrows."

The so-called Phantom Consecutive Arrows meant being able to shoot several arrows in succession, with each one faster than the last, even reaching the effect where the later arrows catch up to and strike the previous ones in mid-air. The higher the proficiency, the more arrows one could shoot!

The person who wrote this Cultivation Method seemed afraid that the reader wouldn't understand, so they thoughtfully included sketches that took up a full two pages.

Lu Yu's gaze fell on the words "stimulate blood and Qi." He remembered that when he was hunting the Spirit-horned Deer earlier, he had used almost no effort to draw the bow, yet his body felt as if it had been hollowed out.

Could this be the so-called stimulating of blood and Qi? The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was very likely. He would have to ask Wang Shu when he got back.

He flipped back two more pages to the practice methods for this Arrow Technique; they were written simply and were easy to understand, and some of the content coincided with his own current insights.

"Could it be that this Arrow Technique is real?" He felt a shock in his heart and was a bit excited. He flipped back another page, only to suddenly discover there was no more content.

Aside from some Entry-level practice methods, there was simply no content on stimulating blood and Qi, let alone any Phantom Consecutive Arrows!

He flipped forward again and finally let his gaze fall on those two pages of hand-drawn illustrations. He was speechless; was this too much of a con? With just this little bit of content, someone actually bought it?

Lu Yu tucked the small booklet into his pocket. He hadn't held much hope from the start, so he couldn't really call it a disappointment.

Forget it, while there was still some distance before returning to the Zhai, he would take stock of this haul. With a thought, the attribute panel appeared before his eyes.

He had strengthened once before, and all attributes had increased by another ten percent.

Realm: Body Tempering Third Layer

Level: 7 (0/64)

Constitution: 51.34

Strength: 35.38

Agility: 22.80

Spirit: 11.79

Potential Point: 30 (7 points/1 day)

Experience Value: 162

Experience Value had increased significantly, mostly contributed by the people of Wang Family Zhai. Taking down one person could earn 7-10 Experience Value, whereas the Spirit-horned Deer only provided 6-7 points each.

At the same time, a plus sign had appeared after Body Tempering Third Layer.

"It actually reached the threshold for a breakthrough?!" Lu Yu was pleasantly surprised and hurriedly clicked it, but the smile on his face instantly froze. Alright, it had indeed reached the threshold.

Constitution exceeding 50 points triggered the breakthrough condition, but unfortunately, at his current attributes, the success rate for the breakthrough was less than thirty percent.

To have a one hundred percent success rate, the average of the three attributes—Constitution, Strength, and Agility—must reach 45 points!

But now, apart from his Constitution meeting the standard, his Strength was only 35 points, and his Agility attribute was not even 23 points, a long way off from the average!

Lu Yu gave a wry smile; he knew that a major Realm breakthrough wouldn't be that easy.

According to Wang Shu, even in a Zhai as large as Li Family Fort, there were only one or two experts who had reached the Refining Flesh Realm.

"But strengthening a few more times should meet the standard." He thought to himself, having a premonition that the current breakthrough only required the average of three items, but perhaps in the future, the Mental Attribute would also be counted, and it might not be a simple average.

"Not only do I need to strengthen my body, but I also need to increase my Skill levels." He moved his gaze down, intending to check the proficiency of 【Basic Archery】; after all, he had shot so many arrows just now, the proficiency should have increased quite a bit.

But when he looked down, he was suddenly stunned. Something was wrong! In the Skill column, 【Wang Family Taiji Fist】 had always been at the very top, but now, why was there an extra line of small text above 【Taiji Fist】?