Cultivation: Start From Simplifying Martial Arts Techniques

Chapter 385: Rapid Progress

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

The primary way Chen Fei currently increased his core soul energy was through daily cultivation, relying on the stimulation and nourishment provided by his techniques and elemental energy, allowing his core soul energy to naturally grow.

Because he had perfected three techniques, the efficiency of using elemental energy to nourish his core soul energy was much higher than that of an average cultivator in the intermediate stage of Aperture tempering realm. He was on par with those in the later stages of Aperture tempering realm.

As for the elixirs that could replenish his core soul energy, Chen Fei occasionally managed to buy them once or twice, but most of the time, they were out of stock. Over time, Chen Fei stopped putting too much effort into this area.

These two methods were the most common ways for most cultivators to increase their core soul energy. In simpler terms, it was a matter of accumulating core soul energy over time.

Of course, his progress was also due to his cultivation partnership with Chi Shuqing. Chen Fei’s core soul energy was growing at a not-so-slow pace because of this. However, Chi Shuqing was somewhat weaker and couldn’t practice every day, which left Chen Fei feeling a bit regretful.

Now, with the Strange Heart Realm being developed in this way, defeating a first-order eerie creature led to an increase of nearly half a unit of core soul energy. This speed would be shocking if word got out.

If he were to defeat a second-order eerie creature, he wondered how much more powerful the effect would be.

However, Chen Fei currently had no intention of touching second-order creatures because there was no need to. With the three-fold stack of the Heart Refinement Formation, although its pollution-erasing ability was already formidable, it didn’t mean it had no limits.

After defeating a first-order creature, the Heart Refinement Formation could completely eliminate pollution. Chen Fei saw no reason to take risks by attempting to face second-order creatures. Moreover, the strength of second-order creatures varied greatly.

Some were as weak as cultivators in the early stage of Aperture tempering realm, while others were as strong as those in the peak stage. Unlike first-order creatures, which could be dealt with using a single slash of the Godslayer Sword in Chen Fei’s eyes, second-order creatures were an entirely different story.

Chen Fei waved his hand, retracting the Heart Refinement Formation beneath his feet. He then sensed his surroundings and proceeded towards the left-rear direction, where he vaguely sensed the presence of eerie beings.

Whether there were any eerie beings or not, Chen Fei would have to go and see for himself to know.

This method of searching was undoubtedly a bit inefficient. Chen Fei inexplicably thought of the Star Gazing Art, a technique that might have been created specifically for finding eerie beings.

With the Star Gazing Art to locate eerie beings, followed by defeating them and purifying them within the Heart Refinement Formation, this mysterious sect of cultivation likely had ways to quickly slay eerie beings to complement the technique. Unfortunately, this school had disappeared, and Chen Fei had no idea if he would ever have the chance to encounter the remnants of this sect again.

Perhaps somewhere in the Strange Heart Realm, there might still be a legacy of this sect, or even some successors. Alternatively, there might be nothing left at all.

One day later, in the real world, under the waterfall and in the pool, Chen Fei slowly opened his eyes. A faint streak of light seemed to flash across his eyes, and his mighty core soul energy trembled slightly within his sea of consciousness.

However, thanks to the operation of the Thousand Thread Technique and Suppressing Dragon Elephant Technique, the fluctuation in his core soul energy quickly disappeared, perfectly integrating into his physical body.

Seventy-two. Chen Fei’s core soul energy had reached a level where he could control seventy-two acupoints.

He had increased from controlling sixty acupoints to seventy-two acupoints. Chen Fei had consecutively defeated dozens of first-order eerie creatures. As his core soul energy increased, the difficulty of further growth also continued to rise.

However, this didn’t have a significant impact on Chen Fei; it simply meant slaying a few more first-order eerie creatures.

However, Chen Fei could indeed sense that the effectiveness of the first-order eerie creatures’ sources in increasing his core soul energy was diminishing. But as long as it still had an effect, Chen Fei had no plans to change his target.

He would only switch to second-order eerie creatures when the first-order ones no longer worked.

After a day, Chen Fei had cultivated his core soul energy to the peak of the middle stage of the Aperture tempering realm, which was the level of Miao Qisheng when he was alive. Chen Fei’s core soul energy was even slightly stronger than Miao Qisheng’s.

According to the diary’s records, Miao Qisheng had already spent more than ten years since he obtained the Heart Refinement Formation. In the beginning, he was studying the array, and then he gradually figured it out and began entering the Strange Heart Realm to defeat eerie beings and refine them.

However, due to Miao Qisheng’s limited mastery of the Heart Refinement Formation, let alone superimposing arrays, even a single array wasn’t operating perfectly. Consequently, there was still a considerable amount of contamination within the eerie creature source.

So, after absorbing an eerie creature source, Miao Qisheng had to rest for a while, refining the madness and chaos within the source. Only then would he continue to enter the Strange Heart Realm.

He repeated this process, gradually raising his core soul energy to the peak of the middle stage of the Aperture tempering realm.

Miao Qisheng was extremely satisfied with this growth rate, as it was thanks to the Heart Refinement Formation that he was able to smoothly progress from the early phase to the middle phase of the Aperture tempering realm. He even believed that breaking through to the later phase of the Aperture tempering realm in the future wouldn’t pose too much of a problem. By then, he could sit on equal footing with the master of the Rain Pavilion.

If Miao Qisheng knew about Chen Fei’s cultivation speed, he would probably jump up in astonishment.

When Chen Fei sensed that his core soul energy had reached seventy-two units, he voluntarily exited the Strange Heart Realm. After all, this kind of growth was somewhat different from his usual cultivation.

Sometimes the physical body might struggle to adapt to such a sudden surge in core soul energy. It’s because Chen Fei practiced the Suppressing Dragon Elephant Technique, and his physique was extraordinary. Otherwise, even if other cultivators had the conditions, they would definitely need to progress gradually.

Putting away the Dragon Elephant Formation, Chen Fei’s figure floated upward and stood on the surface of the pool.

The moonlight shimmered like water, and the deafening roar of the waterfall still echoed. However, compared to the daytime when the sunlight shone like incense smoke, the water pool now exuded a different kind of gentleness.

Chen Fei looked up at the sky, where stars covered the heavens, each one twinkling with its own radiance.

Insights about the Star Gazing Art began to appear in Chen Fei’s mind. He lightly tapped the water’s surface with his right foot, creating ripples on the water. Chen Fei’s figure soared like an arrow, floating up to the cliff.

In his mind, the insights about the Star Gazing Art increased in speed.

The closer he was to the stars, the faster his insights grew.

In his Sea of Consciousness, Chen Fei’s core soul energy followed a specific trajectory, gradually forming a totem resembling an eye. In the next moment, a faint light emanated from Chen Fei’s eyes, and the stars in the sky were drawn much closer.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, the insights about the Star Gazing Art instantly soared, and a smile appeared on Chen Fei’s face.

It was normal to use a technique to improve one’s comprehension of it since many people learned techniques this way. After all, if you didn’t use it, how could you understand it well?

However, using a technique to increase comprehension to this extent was undoubtedly a rare occurrence.

Chen Fei stood on the cliff, and as his proficiency with the Star Gazing Art continued to increase, the distance he could see with his eyes also grew.

With the increased distance, the speed of proficiency growth naturally rose as well.

The two formed a completely positive feedback loop. Normally, the more you practiced, the harder it became. However, for Chen Fei, practicing more meant that his practice speed continued to accelerate.

Four hours later, Chen Fei returned to the Primordial Sword Sect.

Unlike usual, Chen Fei didn’t enter a secret chamber for practice this time. Instead, he began practicing the Primordial Sword Art directly in the courtyard to increase his proficiency in the Blade-Slaying Sword Technique.

At the same time, Chen Fei slightly raised his head, and his eyes gazed at the sky. Insights about the Star Gazing Art also emerged in his mind.

Practicing and simultaneously increasing the proficiency of two techniques – this kind of joy was something he hadn’t experienced since he practiced the Giant Spirit Sword.

The collision of these two insights in his mind felt somewhat peculiar, but with Chen Fei’s current mental strength, absorbing them was not difficult.

After all, these insights appeared in his mind gradually and systematically, rather than having the entire technique’s insights forced into his mind all at once.

As days passed, the resolution of the core soul energy issue allowed Chen Fei to immerse himself completely in his cultivation.

On the tenth day of his return, Chen Fei opened three more acupoints, bringing the total number of acupoints under his control to sixty-one. On this day, Chen Fei reentered the Strange Heart Realm for the second time after returning from the water pool.

After ten days of cultivation, Chen Fei’s core soul energy had stabilized completely, with no conflicts between it and his physical body. He no longer needed the Suppressing Dragon Elephant Technique to forcibly stabilize it.

Meanwhile, the Star Gazing Art had already reached a state of mastery after these ten days of practice.

During his previous stay in the Strange Heart Realm, Chen Fei spent very little time actually killing eerie creatures. Most of his time was spent searching for them.

Within the Strange Heart Realm, Chen Fei’s mental perception could only vaguely sense the presence of nearby eerie creatures. Due to this vagueness, when he arrived at a location, he couldn’t be certain that it would contain only first-order eerie creatures.

It could be second-order, or even more powerful than second-order eerie creatures.

When he encountered second-order eerie creatures, Chen Fei would keep a wide berth. As for those beyond second-order, when he felt something amiss halfway there, he would already sense the danger and take a detour to escape.

This method of searching not only wasted time but also increased the risk of encountering danger. Therefore, in these ten days, apart from taking spiritual pills, Chen Fei spent almost all of his time gazing up at the sky.

The starry sky wasn’t only present during the day; it had always been there. It was just that it wasn’t visible in the daytime, but this didn’t affect Chen Fei’s cultivation.

Thus, Chen Fei’s cultivation of the Star Gazing Art was pursued with a near-rampant, mad dash for proficiency.

In ten days, the Star Gazing Art had not just reached the mastery level but was advancing crazily towards perfection.

According to Chen Fei’s estimation, in another half a month, the Star Gazing Art would reach perfection, and within three months, this mysterious inheritance of the Star Gazing Art would achieve the level of great perfection.

As he continued to practice the Star Gazing Art, even without actively using it, Chen Fei became more sensitive to the surroundings’ auras, and the range of his perception spontaneously extended.

It was as if practicing the Star Gazing Art had automatically granted Chen Fei a mental attribute that enhanced his perception of his surroundings at all times.

Four hours later, Chen Fei withdrew from the Strange Heart Realm.

The effectiveness of first-order eerie creatures continued to decrease rapidly, but it couldn’t keep up with Chen Fei’s insane efficiency in finding eerie creatures.

In four hours, he had slain nearly a hundred first-order eerie creatures, and Chen Fei’s core soul energy had skyrocketed from controlling seventy-two acupoints to eighty.

Chen Fei had never imagined that one day the growth rate of his core soul energy would far exceed that of his acupoints.

The feeling was exhilarating!