[Scripture of the Heavenly Way]
[The Way of Heaven is to take from what has a surplus and give to what has a deficit.]
[Authored by Wei Jun of the 'Seven Righteous of the Plum Blossom,' who poured his heart and soul into creating this scripture to compensate for his own deficient Innate Constitution.]
[Cultivation Requirements: Comprehension 35, Constitution 8, Innate Lv2, Clear Mirror Lv4, martial aptitude 4000]
[Cultivation Formula: [ (x+y) / 2 ]^2]
[Internal Breath Lethality: B-Top]
[Internal Breath Density: B-Peak]
[Internal Breath Explosiveness: B-Bottom]
[Overall Physique Enhancement: C-Peak]
[Internal Art Special Effect: When calculating the final experience acquisition multiplier for this technique, your Constitution is treated as the average of your Constitution and Comprehension for the purpose of the assessment.]
[Your Clear Mirror and Innate traits will gain more experience.]
Leo Young casually flipped through the book, quickly comprehending its contents. Then, the final experience acquisition multiplier and his current realm appeared.
[Final Experience Acquisition Multiplier: 7.92]
[Current Realm: Utterly Clueless (0/300,000)]
In terms of raw power, this technique wasn't particularly high-tier. Even excluding the fifth floor and those without panels, there were many techniques in the Scripture Pavilion stronger than this one. However, stronger didn't mean better; the cultivation formulas of those other techniques were completely unsuitable for Leo Young.
There was no helping it. The inclusion of Comprehension in the cultivation formula was simply too powerful.
After all calculations, Leo Young's Constitution was 19.5 points, while his Comprehension, including the bonus from his unique trait, was effectively judged as 153 * 3, which is 459... Whether this 'y' was in the formula or not was incredibly important to him.
And so, Leo Young gave up on some techniques with explosive power and chose this one, planning to practice it for a while. Once his common traits, martial aptitude, Constitution, and other stats had improved, he would then consider other techniques.
After reading it through once, feeling that he had memorized everything, Leo Young casually placed the book back on the shelf.
Truth be told, a more scheming person would have taken the book back with them even after memorizing it, pretending they hadn't. But Leo Young had never cared for such things. It was just like how he had guessed that Su He was likely observing him under Su Tianqing's orders, yet he still chose to come to the Scripture Pavilion, even if this action made him seem like a madman crazed for revenge.
What was worse, Su He would soon 'think' that Leo Young was also a terrifyingly intelligent madman. Since they shared a dormitory, Leo practicing the art when he returned would be impossible to hide. This would make Su He realize that Leo had memorized and fully understood the entire Scripture of the Heavenly Way, and even started cultivating it, after just a single read-through... This was why a more cunning person would have taken the book back, even if they had already memorized it.
Ultimately, as a transmigrator, Leo Young felt no emotional connection to the family that had died in his backstory. But others 'believed' he did, and it wasn't something Leo Young could easily explain. This back and forth gave rise to many unspoken complexities...
——————
Returning to his dormitory, Leo Young sat cross-legged, preparing to begin his internal art cultivation.
A technique required a full major circulatory cycle to gain experience, and the time needed for one cycle varied between techniques. The Qi Nourishing Scripture, for example, took only the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, whereas the Scripture of the Heavenly Way required much longer—a full shichen, which was two hours.
If one was disturbed or voluntarily stopped midway, then all progress would be lost, with no experience gained whatsoever—as for issues like one's internal breath going astray and causing qi deviation, those were rare.
Therefore, a technique that gave 1 experience point for 1 unit of time was actually far more efficient than one that gave 10 experience points for 10 units of time, because the former could make use of spare moments throughout the day, and interruptions weren't a big deal.
["What is he practicing... switching cultivation methods?!"]
Leo Young had guessed correctly. Su He was indeed observing him, leaning against the outside of the dormitory, his gaze fixed on Leo within.
As a disciple of the Sect Master and the Third Senior Brother of all of Zhenwu Mountain, his cultivation was beyond question. He could tell at a glance that Leo Young was in the process of switching techniques.
["That's the Internal Breath of the Qi Nourishing Scripture... with that little cultivation, he can't have been practicing for long. Switching methods is so much trouble. He would have been better off just dispersing his qi. It's faster and safer."]
Switching internal arts carried a certain degree of risk. While switching from the Qi Nourishing Scripture was the simplest, Leo Young looked like someone with no foundation whatsoever. For a complete novice like him, it was still quite difficult.
With this thought, Su He was about to interrupt Leo. While interrupting someone switching techniques was dangerous, with Leo Young's meager cultivation... Su He was certain it was safer than letting Leo fumble around on his own.
["?!"]
However, just as he was about to push the door open, his expression changed slightly.
["He succeeded?!"]
["So fast!"]
Leo Young didn't have much Internal Breath, so it was reasonable for the switch to be fast. Su He himself wouldn't be slow either. But someone with no foundation shouldn't theoretically be this quick...
Seeing that Leo Young had already succeeded, Su He naturally didn't disturb him any further and began to observe from the outside.
["He's started cultivating. This technique is... from the Ling Clan? Or the Qin Clan? No, neither. It looks somewhat familiar."]
Zhenwu Mountain had numerous techniques. The Internal Breath of the Scripture of the Heavenly Way was gentle in nature and lacked distinct characteristics. It wasn't a 'wildly popular technique,' so of course Su He couldn't recognize it at a glance... However, recalling Leo Young's actions in the Scripture Pavilion, the answer was easy to deduce.
Su He hadn't considered this possibility before because he thought it was impossible. The full text of the Scripture of the Heavenly Way was nearly four thousand characters long, abstruse and difficult to understand. A normal martial artist would struggle just to memorize it, let alone comprehend it, and Leo Young had only looked at it for three minutes!
Good heavens, three minutes! A university student might not even be able to memorize a single ancient poem in that time; you'd have better luck with a high schooler.
["...Is this desperation for revenge? But practicing like this will surely lead to failure. He probably didn't check the book out because he was afraid I'd notice. He's too hasty. I already told him I'd start teaching him tomorrow..."]
Su He shook his head and sighed softly. It wasn't completely incomprehensible. After all, he was a sixteen-year-old boy whose entire family had been massacred. Though he appeared calm, who knew what he was truly thinking? Any decision he made could be understood from an emotional standpoint.
He decided to let Leo Young learn a lesson. He would pop out and offer some guidance after Leo's internal breath went awry and his cultivation failed. With Leo's level of cultivation, no mistake would cause any serious problems. After all, talking about poison without considering the dose is just nonsense.
Then, Su He began to wait patiently. He believed it wouldn't take long. He had heard about the Scripture of the Heavenly Way; only those with exceptional Comprehension could practice it, and it was extremely difficult to even begin. Leo Young had only looked at it for three minutes. What could he possibly have understood?
Two hours later, Su He appeared in Zhenwu Hall, his face a mask of bewildered shock and helplessness, as if he had regressed to infancy.
"What's wrong?" Su Tianqing asked.
"..." Su He was silent for a long moment, then finally squeezed a few words from his throat. "Dad..."
"Something... feels very wrong."
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