Li Hanfeng thought he was pretty bold, choosing two techniques - Spirit Severing Blade and Mysterious Shield - that weren't exactly easy to learn.
But he didn't regret it. One technique was recommended by a teaching elder, and the other was probably recommended by the Spiritual Sword Peak Master. They had to be good.
He especially couldn't give up on the Spirit Severing Blade's effects.
Sure, ninety-nine percent of the comments in the manual were complaints, but if you paid attention, you'd notice everyone agreed on one thing.
If you could achieve perfect-grade spiritual qi quality during the Qi Refining stage, this technique was absolutely the best choice.
"I hope it won't be too difficult."
Li Hanfeng took out the jade slips containing the two techniques and channeled spiritual qi into them, pressing them against his forehead one by one.
When he'd asked at the management office, the duty senior had already explained how to use jade slips.
As the jade slips glowed faintly, two sets of information appeared in his mind - the specific learning methods for Spirit Severing Blade and Mysterious Shield, including how to channel spiritual power and how to release the techniques.
Of course, this didn't mean he'd instantly mastered the techniques. It just saved him memorization time and prevented memory errors that could lead to dangerous cultivation mistakes.
To truly master the techniques, he'd still need long-term practice.
"If they have methods like this, why not use jade slips to let people master techniques instantly instead of making us practice step by step?"
Li Hanfeng couldn't figure it out, but since the teaching elder hadn't covered this yet, he didn't dwell on it.
After digesting the knowledge in his mind, he began trying the Spirit Severing Blade.
Usually, when first learning techniques, you could only practice energy manipulation and couldn't actually release anything, so he felt safe practicing in his room. Once he felt close to mastering it, he'd find an open area to try actual release.
The Shushan Sect had plenty of open space, if nothing else.
"According to what those seniors wrote in the manual, ordinary people can usually master basic lower-grade techniques within five days at most, unless they're particularly slow."
"But for the same cultivator facing a lower-grade technique like Spirit Severing Blade, taking two weeks to master it is normal. If you're a bit slow, you might need a month or even longer. Only people with excellent comprehension are exceptions. I wonder how long I'll need. The Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method went smoothly, so techniques should be similar, right?"
Li Hanfeng tried channeling his spiritual qi according to the Spirit Severing Blade's energy manipulation method in his mind, following each step carefully without any unnecessary movements.
If you didn't follow the fixed steps for techniques, failure wouldn't be life-threatening, but it would cause two days of spiritual power disorder and delay cultivation. He definitely didn't want that.
Following the steps properly meant that even if you failed, you'd only feel uncomfortable for a short while with minimal impact.
Apparently, ten thousand years ago, whether you followed the steps or not, failure would cause long-term spiritual power disorder. This only started improving a thousand years ago and developed into the current system.
This improvement was naturally thanks to the great masters of the cultivation world. Cultivation methods kept advancing, so how could techniques stay stagnant?
Time passed bit by bit. After two hours, a muffled sound came from Li Hanfeng's room.
He stared at the crack on the ground not far from him - two feet long, two inches wide, three feet deep, with a perfectly smooth cut as if sliced by a divine weapon. His expression was somewhat dazed.
He had caused this!
Using the lower-grade Spirit Severing Blade technique, and with less than one percent of his spiritual power.
Only then did Li Hanfeng realize he might have underestimated his own comprehension.
Mastering Spirit Severing Blade in two hours!
The smooth progress with the Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method wasn't without reason.
Looking at the crack in the ground, he sighed, "The elder and seniors truly didn't deceive me - the power is indeed formidable."
Just one percent of his spiritual power caused such terrifying damage. What if he'd used a bit more spiritual power just now?
Cutting through gold and splitting stone wouldn't be difficult!
Actually, he'd already done it. The floors in the probationary disciples' rooms were paved with a special wood called Dark Iron Wood.
This wood's characteristic was being hard as rock and difficult to decay.
If his Spirit Severing Blade could cut through Dark Iron Wood, cutting through stone would be no problem.
For a moment, he was eager to try using more spiritual power to release Spirit Severing Blade, but remembering this was where he'd be living, he calmed down.
"Forget it. Let me master Mysterious Shield first, then find an open area nearby to experiment."
Mysterious Shield wasn't easy to cultivate, but it wasn't as difficult as Spirit Severing Blade.
This time, he only needed one hour to make a blue shield appear in front of him.
The shield was circular, about a foot in diameter - not very large.
"One percent spiritual power can only create such a small shield? What if I increase the spiritual power output?"
Mysterious Shield wasn't an attack technique, so he could experiment freely in his room.
Before long, Li Hanfeng used twenty percent of his spiritual power to construct a spherical blue shield that completely enveloped his entire body, providing 360-degree protection without blind spots. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few breaths before collapsing and disappearing.
Watching the dissipating shield, he began analyzing his experience with the full-coverage Mysterious Shield:
"Twenty percent spiritual power to construct full-coverage protection, and after successful construction, maintaining it requires continuous spiritual power consumption. Even with my current spiritual qi reserves, I could probably only maintain it for about three minutes... but that's after becoming proficient. Right now, just having mastered the basics, the full-coverage shield collapses after just a few breaths."
"The most practical approach now is constructing a hemispherical shield that completely covers the front of my body. It only consumes ten percent spiritual power and can be maintained for about thirty breaths without continuous spiritual power input."
Thirty breaths - about a minute and a half. If facing an attack, that would be enough time to respond.
"Too bad I can't test the Mysterious Shield's specific strength without actual combat, but according to the manual's description, blocking three or four Fireball technique-level lower-grade techniques shouldn't be a problem."
When he was at the Technique Pavilion, he'd specifically looked up the famous Fireball technique.
Fireball technique had moderate power and moderate difficulty - it could serve as the standard for lower-grade techniques.
A proficient Fireball technique had destructive power roughly equivalent to a hand grenade - quite impressive.
If Mysterious Shield could block three or four of those, it proved its excellence.
"For the next two months, I'll need to set aside time to practice techniques while continuing cultivation, trying to reach proficiency before the assessment."
A proficient Spirit Severing Blade could instantly release three spirit blades with terrifying power.
A proficient Mysterious Shield could quickly construct full-coverage protection, further ensuring his safety.
Originally, his plan wasn't like this - he'd planned to spend two months getting both techniques to the beginner level with slight proficiency.
But since he could master techniques in just a few hours, naturally he should set his goals higher.
If he didn't need to spend most of his time improving cultivation, even mastering two techniques wouldn't satisfy him.
Originally somewhat anxious about the assessment, he now felt a bit of anticipation.