Chapter 72: Upgrading Internal Art and Sword Art
Deep within the desert, there was a patch of greenery.
A little stream with clear waters flowed steadily, and five horses were drinking from it.
Not far away, five people wearing heavy armor had their swords placed at one side while they silently ate their rations.
These five people were Lin Yi and his companions.
At this moment, the armors on their bodies were full of saber cuts and blackened bloodstains.
All of them were in a pathetic state, and their disheveled hair was revealed when they took off their helmets.
Three days have passed since they were first discovered by the Blood Saber Sect disciples.
In this three days, the five of them went through countless battles. They were single-mindedly focused on constantly charging forward and killing anyone who blocked their way.
With the help of Lin Yi's superb archery skills, they finally managed to kill off all those people following them closely and shake off the pursuit from the demonic cult disciples.
For now, they were safe. Only, three days of constant charging had caused them to lose all knowledge of their current location. The only thing they were aware of was that they were deep inside the Western Region, as could be seen by the abundance of sand and the lack of greenery.
"Fortunately, Senior Brother Lin Yi had made ample preparations. If not, we would be starving right now!" Lu Buping said in relief as he chewed on his rations. The rest of them nodded in agreement.
After surviving numerous fierce battles during this three days, the four of them were becoming more and more experienced and competent in their behavior, no longer doing things in a wishy-washy manner.
Even the rations which they usually found difficult to swallow was now being devoured easily by them.
On the other hand, their Senior Brother Lin Yi was slowly chewing on his rations, his eyes seemingly in a daze.
They paid no notice to it and focused on eating.
Who knew when the demonic cult disciples would find them? They might have to go on the run at a moment's notice.
Although Lin Yi was in a daze right now, they were confident that he would be the first to react if anything happened.
What was Lin Yi doing in a daze right now?
He was, of course, looking at the system panel.
After three days of pursuit, he finally had time to check the long list of system notifications. He also wanted to check how much battle experience he had earned after all that killing.
As he opened the system panel, countless system messages flashing in red entered his eyes.
System notification:
Killed a demonic cult disciple, 5,000 battle experience awarded.
Killed a demonic cult disciple, 5,000 battle experience awarded.
Killed a demonic cult disciple, 5,000 battle experience awarded.
……
Killed a demonic cult disciple, 5,000 battle experience awarded.
Killed a demonic cult disciple, 5,000 battle experience awarded.
Killed a demonic cult disciple, 5,000 battle experience awarded.
……
Killed a demonic cult disciple, 5,000 battle experience awarded.
There were more than a hundred of such messages. This meant that Lin Yi had killed more than a hundred demonic cult disciples over the last three days.
Without further delay, Lin Yi opened the experience panel.
System notification:
Current battle experience: 650,000
650,000 battle experience!
Looking at the zeroes in the number, Lin Yi smiled brightly. He finally felt that it was totally worth suffering so much hardship for the past three days!
Clearing the third standard meridian required 300,000 battle experience. So did upgrading Deadly Chain of Three Celestial Swords to perfection stage.
Being a gold grade martial art, Lin Yi was not surprised at the huge amount of experience required to upgrade it to perfection stage, and the requirement for peerless martial arts was even more insane.
In his previous life, Lin Yi did not get the chance to learn any peerless martial art, so he did not know much about them. He only knew that the conditions for learning peerless martial arts were extremely harsh from the complaints of the few players who did manage to learn them.
Without harsh conditions, there would be much more people possessing peerless martial arts, since quite a few major sects had inherited these skills. In the entire Great Jianghu, people possessing peerless martial arts were incredibly rare.
Lin Yi discarded these thoughts as they flashed through his mind. He still had a long way to go before he could learn peerless martial arts. He had to first obtain the position of chief disciple in Huashan.
Right now, he could only make use of the limited time he had to upgrade his skills.
Uttering a brief order to his companions to guard him, he ignored the stunned looks in their eyes and proceeded to close his eyes and sit cross-legged. This was the posture one took when practicing internal arts.
"Senior Brother Lin Yi is going to practice his internal art?"
They were flabbergasted at the sight and awed by the audacity of Senior Brother Lin Yi to do this at such a time.
Practicing internal arts required the body and mind to be totally immersed, losing all senses of the exterior world during the process.
Any interruption could easily cause the practitioner to go berserk. Therefore, it was extremely rare for someone to practice internal arts in the wilds.
Lin Yi paid no attention to them and simply consented in his heart to clearing the third standard meridian, Hand's Minor Yin Heart Meridian. Immediately, his body shook and he lost control of it.
300,000 battle experience was rapidly consumed and mysteriously transformed into a warm current which flowed into his dantian. With a jolt, the warm current combined with his internal strength and became as one. His greatly expanded internal strength then surged from his dantian towards Hand's Minor Yin Heart Meridian unopposed.
Bo!
The third standard meridian was cleared with a light sound.
Twelve standard meridians, four phases. The first phase was now complete.
As he regained control of his body, Lin Yi consented in his heart to upgrading his sword art.
Once again, 300,000 battle experience was consumed.
A huge amount of information was crammed into his mind, and he instantly understood the principles of Deadly Chain of Three Celestial Swords at perfection stage. The true power of the sword art was finally unlocked.
There was still only three moves, but now these three moves incorporated countless variations and possibilities, and each variation was capable of killing.
The true Deadly Chain of Three Celestial Swords allowed it to be used under any circumstances.
Actually, there were two additional stages when it came to perfection stage of superior swords arts.
The first stage complicated the simple, creating countless variations from a single move. This stage could be reached using the game system.
The second stage simplified the complex, turning countless variations and sword moves into just three moves. These three moves had now reached the peak state of power!
This stage required one to understand it by oneself, the system was unable to provide assistance.
This was why in the game, some players were able to use the same perfection stage superior sword arts to much greater effect.
In his previous life, Lin Yi relied on his superior battle experience and techniques to reach the second stage, without knowing the principles behind it. But in this life, the improved game system had imparted the knowledge of these principles to him, allowing him to understand the workings of sword arts, making him even stronger than he was in his previous life.
System notification:
Successfully cleared Hand's Minor Yin Heart Meridian!
Successfully upgraded Deadly Chain of Three Celestial Swords to perfection stage.
Huashan Sutra (Silver): Huashan's basic internal art sutra. Level 3, Third standard meridian Hand's Minor Yin Heart Meridian has been cleared (+60 internal strength). 400,000 experience points required to clear fourth standard meridian Hand's Yang Supreme Large Intestine Meridian.
Deadly Chain of Three Celestial Swords (Gold): Huashan superior sword art inherited from Sword School. Perfection stage (+50 attack).
Lin Yi glanced at it before opening the stats panel to check his stats.
System notification:
Name: Lin Yi
Identity: Huashan upper courtyard disciple
Attack: 180 (Basic stat +60, Internal art multiplier +60, Hand's Minor Yin Heart Meridian +60)
Speed: 160 (Basic stat +50, Internal art multiplier +50, Hand's Minor Yin Heart Meridian +60)
Defense: 80 (Basic stat +10, Internal art multiplier +10, Hand's Minor Yin Heart Meridian +60)
……
Once again, his stats improved greatly.
Now, even if hundreds of non-experts attacked Lin Yi at once, they wouldn't be a match for him.
Facing ordinary third-rate experts, Lin Yi could also easily overwhelm them.
Compared to having just 10 points of stats when he first crossed over, Lin Yi was so much stronger now.
This half year had not been wasted!
Lin Yi clenched his fists tightly.
Right now, he was capable of boosting his attack stat to 540 if he channeled his internal strength. This meant that he was capable of fighting ordinary second-rate experts!
However, he was still not a match for Linghu Feng. He needed to clear the seventh standard meridian and become a second-rate expert before he could possess the power to fight Linghu Feng.
"It won't be long before I can challenge Linghu Feng!
"Linghu Feng, I'm taking the position of chief disciple for sure!"
Lin Yi thought with a smile as he opened his eyes.
"A break…breakthrough?!"
His four companions stared at Lin Yi with their mouths agape.
Senior Brother Lin Yi actually made a breakthrough in his internal art in the wilds while being hunted down?
It was as if they were witnessing a legend.
Lin Yi smiled and was about to say something when he heard a strange sound, his face turning cold.
Hissing sounds came from all directions as if something had completely surrounded them.
The expressions of his four companions also changed drastically, and they hurriedly lifted their swords and put on their helmets as if a great enemy had approached.