Chapter 10: Beginning the Cultivation

Accumulating experience does not cause original movement techniques to disappear, but devouring experience causes original cultivation methods to vanish directly; they can no longer be re-cultivated, and even if one tries, they will not succeed again.

However, the characteristics of those cultivation methods are absorbed by the "Ox Demon Technique."

Fortunately, this devouring is active rather than passive, meaning it can be chosen. Otherwise, Ling Xiao really wouldn't dare to practice it.

Both of these extraordinary techniques are growth-oriented, and when cultivated to their highest stages, they are earth-shattering.

Therefore, they must be cultivated, but since the method is a bit peculiar, Ling Xiao can only practice other martial arts for now.

Fortunately, he possesses the Mountain and River Martial Soul, which can replicate martial arts, and he has stolen quite a few from the Ling family's library.

Now he can pick a few to start practicing.

Seeing those secret manuals in the Mountain and River Map's library, Ling Xiao started rolling on his bed in excitement.

The Tianfeng City where they reside belongs to the Northern Han Kingdom. According to market prices, a basic martial art can be sold for ten taels of silver, an elementary martial art can fetch one thousand taels, and an intermediate martial art can go as high as one hundred thousand taels.

Why couldn't a poor person like Ling Xiao even afford a basic martial art?

Because he couldn't save up ten taels of silver in his entire life.

In for a penny, in for a pound; Ling Xiao prepared to take out some basic martial arts to sell, at the very least to get his grandfather's ribs treated.

Since the Ling family is heartless, he shouldn't be blamed for being unrighteous.

He hadn't been eating and living for free in the Ling family for the past year. He had to practice martial arts and do chores, yet he didn't receive a single tael of silver, only some rations.

And he wasn't even full.

He truly had no respect for such a Ling family.

Therefore, selling martial arts manuals privately was no big deal.

Of course, for the sake of safety, he planned to start with basic martial arts. After all, there were too many of them, and they weren't exclusive to the Ling family, so it would be hard to get caught.

Thinking of this, he hurried out and went to the auction house in Tianfeng City.

Generally speaking, one only needs to deposit basic martial arts at the auction house. If they are sold, the auction house will transfer the silver directly to your bank account.

There is no need to wait there every day.

So, after Ling Xiao placed ten basic martial arts at the auction house, he returned to the Ling family. Treating his grandfather's injuries was certainly important.

But increasing his strength was equally important.

If his strength was insufficient, the incident of his grandfather getting injured would surely happen again.

Back in his room, Ling Xiao began to choose from over nine thousand martial arts.

Although being greedy leads to poor digestion, martial arts are a bit special; many can complement each other. Not only do they not hinder one another, but they can actually accelerate the progress of cultivation.

Therefore, he definitely had to choose a few to practice in combination.

Moreover, to improve the "Soaring Cloud Steps" and to feed the "Ox Demon Technique," he had to constantly practice more martial arts.

With the suggestions from the Mountain and River Map, the selection time became much shorter. If he had to choose by himself, he probably wouldn't have finished in a day and a night.

However, under the guidance of the Mountain and River Map, it took him less than a quarter of an hour to select five martial arts.

This could be considered a set of martial arts; the Mountain and River Map even gave this set a name: "Soul of the Fist."

Practicing these five martial arts simultaneously can increase cultivation speed by 10% to 30% and increase the speed of True Qi accumulation by 10% to 30%.

When using fist techniques, the power can be increased by one to two times!

The five martial arts of the "Soul of the Fist" are "Fierce Tiger Descending Mountain Steps," "Meteor Fist," "Qi Explosion Technique," "Red Sun Technique," and "Qi Recovery Technique."

In fact, a careful analysis reveals that these five martial arts all revolve around the "Meteor Fist" as the core, with the other four serving as support.

The intermediate movement technique "Fierce Tiger Descending Mountain Steps" is a fierce and powerful technique. After executing it, every distance surged forward increases power, momentum, and speed, just like a fierce tiger descending a mountain!

Of course, this intermediate movement technique will eventually serve the "Soaring Cloud Steps."

The intermediate internal cultivation method "Red Sun Technique" is a method to increase True Qi. The key is that when executing martial arts, it can add a scorching fire effect, which also enhances the power of the fist techniques.

The intermediate secret techniques "Qi Recovery Technique" and "Qi Explosion Technique" are, respectively, a technique to recover True Qi and a technique to instantly burst True Qi.

The latter allows the "Meteor Fist" to reach maximum power in an instant, but the disadvantage is that it consumes too much True Qi.

The former, "Qi Recovery Technique," can largely compensate for this flaw.

This is the reason why Ling Xiao chose these five martial arts.

As for why he chose "Meteor Fist" among the fist techniques, the reason is simple: this set of fist techniques has the greatest power among intermediate martial arts, and what Ling Xiao likes is wide-open, aggressive combat.

Its power is not even inferior to some advanced martial arts. Of course, its disadvantage is the same as the "Qi Explosion Technique"—it consumes too much, so martial artists at the Awakening stage generally don't like to choose it.

But Ling Xiao is different.

Not only is his True Qi thicker than other martial artists of the same strength due to the Mountain and River Martial Soul, but he also specifically chose the "Qi Recovery Technique" to make up for the flaw.

For other martial artists, even geniuses, practicing three martial arts at the same time is already heaven-defying, but he can rely on the analysis and demonstration effects of the Mountain and River Martial Soul.

He is fully capable of practicing five martial arts simultaneously.

And they are five mutually reinforcing martial arts.

This is the advantage!

From now on, he, Ling Xiao, is no longer that little beggar who can be bullied by everyone. His path of martial arts will be a smooth one.

After selecting the "Soul of the Fist" set, Ling Xiao began to practice.

Of course, while it is called simultaneous practice, he is only one person after all, so he still has to follow an order, only that the cultivation speed of each martial art is faster than others.

He first chose to practice the "Red Sun Technique."

The reason is simple: the "Red Sun Technique" can increase True Qi and strengthen the body.

This is crucial for both movement techniques and martial arts, as the foundation of a martial artist is True Qi.

Even the division of martial artist realms is actually based on the different stages of True Qi.

Ling Xiao closed his eyes and began to practice according to the content of the "Red Sun Technique."

As True Qi circulated in his body, what excited him was that whenever he encountered a blockage or trouble, the Mountain and River Martial Soul would automatically activate, help solve the problem, and provide the correct path for True Qi circulation.

In this way, it was basically impossible for Ling Xiao to suffer from Qi deviation, and there were no so-called bottlenecks in practicing cultivation methods.

For others, difficult cultivation barriers that might take months or even years to break through simply did not exist for him.

It was all green lights, all smooth sailing.

His talent was not bad to begin with, but he was not as peerless as he was now.

All of this stemmed from the special effects of the Mountain and River Martial Soul.

This made Ling Xiao value and become even more interested in the Mountain and River Martial Soul.

The Martial Soul was already very mysterious, and the Mountain and River Martial Soul was clearly even more mysterious than most. Just how magical was it?

Ling Xiao was eager to know.

But to know this secret, his current strength was clearly insufficient.

And cultivation was the key to unlocking the secrets of the Mountain and River Map.

Because as he practiced the "Red Sun Technique," he could clearly feel that the Mountain and River Map was also undergoing some wonderful changes.

Of course, the constant disappearance of the clouds should be the most obvious one.

At this moment, in the small village within the Mountain and River Map, there was one more place.

It was an altar, and inside the altar was not a statue, but a ball of fire!

A brilliant flame!