"I have only one week before we depart to the Raging Saber Sect. I wish I had the time to cultivate in the fourth floor of the pagoda, but I'm afraid it won't even be enough to grow accustomed to the Radiant Finger Strike battle skill." Ye Mo thought as he entered the combat chamber.
This one was smaller than the precedent and rather than the armored puppet, it was a wooden puppet that stood in the center of the circle.
The puppet resembled a male wooden mannequin, but with curved roots growing at the top of its head from which grew green leaves. He looked mostly human at the exception of his jade green eyes devoid of pupils and the fact it had no toes as it didn't need them to walk or run, the extremity of his leg only taking the vague shape of a foot.
Its appearance was similar to the treemen Liu Zhi employed but much smaller, the size of a regular human being, and less frightening.
Ye Mo didn't train immediately but sat down and slide the spatial ring out of his finger. It was a silver ring with strange markings and a scarlet gem embedded at its top.
When he looked at it, he thought of something.
"Ma De Quan was an important disciple of the Ethereal Blossom Sect, he should have had a spatial ring as well, yet when I reached the underground cave, his corpse didn't carry anything. Well, there could be many reasons for this, Ma De Quan did write his friend wanted to discover his secret, he probably took his ring during their fight hoping to find a clue, aware that Ma De Quan would die soon and won't reveal anything."
Ye Mo casually pondered before he cleared his mind of useless thoughts and bit his thumb causing a drop of blood to quickly fall down the spatial ring. When the blood entered in contact with the ring, the gem gave off a faint glow for an instant as he immediately felt a connection with an immense space was established.
Standing up, Ye Mo placed the ring back on his finger and moved all his belongings from the sky-blue pouch and Ma De Quan's ingredients from the red pouch in the ring's space. Although everything he possessed was sent in the ring, the place it took was ridiculous compared to the space the ring contained, if it was possible, Ye Mo could easily fit the whole combat chamber inside.
However, despite the fact the use of his spatial pouches became obsolete in the presence of this ring, he didn't throw them. They were still a qualitative product of their kind and could be sold for a good price or exchanged in the future.
With this matter settled, Ye Mo took out the manual of his new battle skill and read its contents for a while.
When he was finished, he raised his hand and propped a finger up, pointing straight at the puppet.
"Make your Qi flow in wave towards the arm, then when this wave reaches your hand, another must follow in your arm. Direct the first wave to your finger while the second flows in your hand and a third circulates in your arm. Follow in suit until all three waves of Qi merge at the fingertip, creating an excedent amount of energy. This abundant energy is useless merely resting in your finger and will gradually strain your meridians, finally explosively release the excedent at your target."
Ye Mo recited the instructions from the manual in his head while he made the waves of Qi follow each other in his arm.
The manual recounted how the Qi should react, the shape it has to take, in which meridian it must circulate and the mistakes to avoid.
There was a precise timing to follow for the Qi waves to travel at each part of his arm before they merge together, if the waves reached each section of his arm too soon, the later ones would dissipate before merging. If they arrived too late, the initial wave in his finger would fade.
If the waves of Qi met before they reached the finger due to a bad manipulation, the release of the Radiant Finger Strike would fail, but the Qi used would still be spent regardless of the outcome.
It might seem simple but it required a precise control of Qi to be executed without fault and you could imagine how much more difficult it would be to pull in the urge of a dangerous battle from which the release would depend life and death.
There were two battle skills that Ye Mo found desirable in the last floor of the tower. One was the Radiant Finger Strike, the other was the Obsidian Resin Manifestation.
The second was a defensive battle skill that enabled the user to display a deep black liquid on the surface of his body. The liquid could freely be manipulated and was used as protection. The broader the surface of the body it covered and the lower would be its resistance while if it remained in small parts, it was tougher than steel. When it was concentrated in a very small point, it was nearly indestructible, far surpassing the abilities of Yellow Class battle skills.
This was an ideal technique for close-combat cultivators as the fluid was versatile and could follow the fighter's movements allowing him to express all his savagery while being fully protected.
"This was the kind of battle skill I seeked when I went to the third floor to pick a defensive technique, but I couldn't find anything I wished for at this time, finally taking the Buddha Golden Bell battle skill out of choices. Now that I went for something completely unrelated, I actually discovered such a good art, too bad I couldn't choose it anymore..." Ye Mo thought in pity.
The last battle skill he picked was a defensive one, he couldn't return and choose the same type once again, it wouldn't be optimal and he would simply waste this opportunity even if it was a good martial art.
His movement battle skill was trash, his only offensive battle skills were becoming insufficient, he had no investigative technique nor long-range methods, if he still chose to pick a defensive art, one of the only part he has covered, that would truly be stupid. Although Buddha Golden Bell wasn't his first choice, it was still a good battle skill with formidable defensive properties.
If he was present during Hong Li and Li Zhen's battle, Ye Mo would also have realized the Obsidian Resin Manifestation battle skill was the martial art the dean used to drive off the Li clan patriarch.
Focusing on his Qi, Ye Mo gathered the three waves at the tip of his finger which glowed brightly for an instant before a ray of light burst forth.
The ray vanished as soon as it appeared, but in this split second, the wooden puppet fell back on the ground.
Although this phenomenon was his own doing, it was so fast Ye Mo could only see a flash of light.
When the wooden puppet stood back up, a hole the size of a baby's fist had appeared on its hip, exposing the floor behind it.
The same instant, roots grew out of the extremity of the hole and joined each other, the wound being resorbed in no time.
This regenerative ability was the reason Ye Mo chose the wooden puppet this time. The armored puppet once broken would take some time to gather his body back in one piece and even more to heal the steel plates.
It wasn't bothersome before since he was mainly training to defend himself with the Golden Buddha Bell battle skill and his iron wrist guards. In addition, the armored puppet has greater resistance than the wooden one and could spar with Ye Mo for hours before being too damaged to continue.
However, now he was learning to use a peak-tier offensive battle skill, its destructive power was far greater than anything he could display before and the armored puppet would be broken in only one strike without any difference.
The wooden one instead could immediately stand back and completely heal in a second, even if its head was crushed or only its hand remained, it would be able to fully regenerate itself in a breath of time, ensuring Ye Mo could train as much as he wants.
However, this one wasn't paying attention to the wooden puppet recuperation at this moment, looking down with a frown.
"It was only one use of the Radiant Finger Strike yet it depleted close to 40% of my Qi. My dantian is almost entirely empty, the consumption is far too great, this is not good, I can't release it more than once currently before I need to spend all my time recovering my Qi. I need to quickly increase my cultivation first before I can train with this battle skill."
Ye Mo's reserves were almost completely emptied with this move, it must be known he had less than half his dantian filled with wisps of Qi at this time. He had no choice but to sit cross-legged and start revolving the black vortex to replenish his Qi.
The higher the level of the battle skill and the greater was its ability, but also the amount of Qi necessary.
You cannot skip steps the same way an infant can't wield a greatsword. Cultivation and battle skills had to progress alongside each other, you could give a low-tier Star Class battle skill to a Qi Gathering cultivator, but he wouldn't be able to use it without paying an immense cost while a low-tier Yellow Class battle skill would have no meaning in the hands of an Inner Core cultivator, having the effect of a fly's fart to his enemies.
After an hour, Ye Mo was able to restore his reserves, at this time, he pulled out a Qi Condensing Carp and devoured it.
The texture was soft and chewy, but it quickly turned into a mass of heavenly Qi that traveled down his throat and circulated to his meridians, it made several circulations before it was refined in a multitude of wisps of Qi.
With just one carp, he increased the wisps of Qi in his dantian by 9%, if one had a great number of them, quickly rising through cultivation layers was possible.
In cultivation speed, first come resources, second is talent and last come hard work. No matter the talent rank of the cultivator, it couldn't surpass this rate of Qi refinement.
"I should be able to fill more than 90% of my diantian by swallowing all of them." Ye Mo determined as he kept cultivating.
One might wonder why he wasn't using the last floor of the cultivating pagoda to fill his dantian in less time, simply because his cultivation increased much faster by swallowing Qi Condensing Carps and even if he did so in one of the pagoda's room, he wouldn't be able to absord the ambiant Qi at the same time since his meridians would already be full circulating and refining the Qi from the carps so going in the pagoda would basically be throwing gold in the institute's pockets without receiving anything.
Ye Mo ate four of them in half a day and filled 84% of his dantian with Qi. He kept one for the future, now wasn't the time to cultivate, he rented a combat chamber for 50 gold coins and was here to train with his new battle skill.
Even if he ate the last, he wouldn't be able to breakthrough to the 9th layer or raise the number of try for the Radiant Finger Strike so it wasn't necessary immediately.
"I can use it twice now, the number will increase once I reach the next layer but right now I can't do much about it."
Ye Mo raised his finger and aimed at the wooden puppet once again.