It is time for Lu Yan to level up his cultivation base himself. After his meeting with Guo Feng, Lu Yan makes the decision to not wait for Liu Fang anymore. He still will be careful enough not to make huge breaking through, such as doing it overnight.
Lu Yan makes a request to go into a secluded meditation. Since an inner disciple have to report if they about to go missing for some time, this procedure is mandatory. He decided to do it outside from the sect and file his permit to leave the sect along with it.
Lu Yan's destination is none other than the Hollow Jade Mountain. A place that has a special meaning in Lu Yan's heart, besides it is also secluded place that he needs to cultivate without disturbance.
Lu Yan had predicted, but still surprised at how easy he is going to the breakthrough. He already heard how people said that breakthrough to the next level of cultivation base is so hard. It takes them weeks or months, some has failed several times before finally succeed. There is also those who never made it to the breakthrough. It takes Lu Yan less than three days done it. If he known better or try harder, he might have done it overnight.
Lu Yan of course not just going back to the sect after this, it will create too much uproar if he does. Nobody ever made a breakthrough to the next cultivation stage in three days, not even Guo Feng. To make use of his wait, he will take this time to learn as much as he can about magic. First thing in his list is to open the second bag given to him.
Lu Yan always wonder how much this bag can contain. Since the Qi Absorption Stage will have magical techniques, supposedly it will have more books to learn but the second is far smaller than the first bag.
Casting aside his doubt, Lu Yan starts to cast a simple spell provided specially to open this bag. Lu Yan heard about a magical bag before, but never actually seen any of those.
"First time you see it, you are going to be surprised." Lu Yan has been warned, but nothing can prepare him for this. When he opens the bag, it is like a whole different world inside it. There were chests and other bags inside, each one of it bigger than the second bag itself. Before, he always wonders why this bag felt heavy being so small. Now he is confused at how this bag can be this light, holding all those things inside it. Lu Yan calculate this bag can fit about the same amount as his cottage in the sect.
Just like the previous bag these chests arranged in different categories and there is also notes attached to them. Breathing techniques which changed into qi cultivation techniques, fighting techniques and alchemy, but most of it are magical techniques. Those are the type of books that takes Lu Yan's attention the most.
"Finally, I will be able to use some magic." Lu Yan has witness so many magic performs, but never able to cast one himself.
Before he starts to focus into learning a magic, Lu Yan's curiosity took over. He is going through all the chests one by one, peeking through what are inside them.
There is one chest titled "talismans" and the notes accompanied it quite short "This is your lifelines, use it only necessary. Excessive use will slow down your cultivation progress." Lu Yan knows what talisman is. A magical item that enable someone to use some spells. It does need magical power to activate it, but it is far less than it can produce. It also makes the user able to cast complicated spells he never learns before.
There are risks you have to deal with magical items you did not recognize, the stronger they are the bigger the risks are. Lu Yan realizes this and decides not to touch this chest for now. These are magical items used by a God. Even if He considered those are weak items, Lu Yan knows better that even the patriarchs of a sect considered weak for him.
Lu Yan then check the potions and equipment left by the God. He immediately satisfied to know the God did not lie about the Soul Enforcer potions. As for the equipment, most of it looks ordinary, except for one that caught his attention. It is a fan made by four blades with four different colors, each of this blade have a ring connected by a metal plate. It was meant to be used as a blade knuckle.
With his cultivation level Lu Yan cannot use this weapon yet, but he can guess the power of this weapon by the note attached to it.
"Every fan needs wind to become useful, therefore the green blade is formed. A single wind will be lonely, so lightning is called by the yellow blade to accompany it. When the lightning struck, the red blade will ignite the fire. The fire will burn all so it needs the blue blade to cool it off." A cliché like this surely written by that God.
Lu Yan finally arrive at the last chest in the bag, which occupied by the compulsory skills he needs to learn. The qi cultivation technique as always is the basic technique and needs to be learned first. Next is the magical techniques which dominated most of it.
The fighting techniques he needs to learn now more complicated, as it teaches how to combine the magical techniques along with the physical techniques. Lu Yan knows how devastating this combination can be, as he saw his seniors performed it.
Lu Yan learns the cultivation and magic techniques for a few days, before he finally takes a break. He spends his time rummaging a chest that has piqued his interest before, the chest called "Special Treats: Things you should not learn, but extremely fun."
One particular book that Lu Yan interested in is called "Astral Projection". Lu Yan knows this magic beforehand, in fact this is somewhat the first magic he ever "use". He not casted it himself, but experienced it somehow.
This magic should not be learned before Lu Yan reaches the Soul Core Stage, yet he got potions that can strengthen his soul and body. With every drop of both potions, the God predicted that Lu Yan will able to use the Astral Projection for a few minutes. Those time can get longer the more he drinks, but he must drink it before casting the spell.
It still has its own risk. As the calculation of potions effect cannot be just added like that. One pill might give you one hundred points but two pills are not equal two hundred, it will be less. The more it goes the less effective the potions will be. Not to mention the side effect the potions might have, especially when you take too much of it.
Lu Yan knows the risk, but it is something he knows he will take anyway. Not only this magic sounds so fun, he also feels attached to it. There are other books in this chest that brings even more risk yet equally interesting.
One of the most interesting for Lu Yan is the Blood Magic. This magic enabling the user to substitute potions with blood, including to strengthen the user's magical power. Using magic to strengthen physical power is pretty common, but magical power usually only be able to strengthened with outside help or long-term practice. To be able to instantly power up the magic power without the use of potions will be a huge help in dire situation.
Blood can be reproduced by your own body, but it needs time to do so. Using this type of magic repeatedly may drained too much of the caster's blood. In the heat of combat most people will not be able to calculate this risk. That is why this skill noted as prohibited by the heaven. Along with Lu Yan's own compulsory magic skills, this technique should never be used in public.
The least interesting skill for Lu in that chest, is the spell to summon Blank Sapphire. Summoning are another magic that supposed to be learned once he reaches at least the Soul Core Stage. Blank Sapphire though is deemed as different. There is a whole book explaining to Lu Yan as to why the God think he might be able to summon it at the later stage of Qi Absorption Technique instead. Lu Yan never know why though, it just too long to read for him. He never fond of Blank Sapphire anyway. She is just a stuck-up little girl that gave him a few instructions and that is all.
Lu Yan get back to his training after rummaging through the chests. His plan is to master at least one magical technique before he gets back to the sect. The first technique he had in his mind is the Flying Sword.
Flying Sword relies on telekinetic power to move the weapon of his choosing according to the weapon's fighting techniques. This technique is not as simple as it looks. Moving object with a force to a certain level easy enough. However, performing a fighting technique will need precise movements. Sudden changes in speed and directions is what makes a technique great. All those things are hard to perform even with hands, let along with telekinetic power.
That is why flying sword is not just ordinary telekinetic magic. To perform it requires the user to have connection to his weapon and make it felt like their own limb. Making this kind of connection is not just based on magic power alone, there is some other talent involved to master it. For some people this kind of technique is hard to master, if not impossible. But for a few others, this kind of connection are built naturally. Lu Yan is one of that few others.
Of course, simply making a connection is not enough. To perform a flying sword technique, they must be able to perform the technique without any magic. Then they have to be able to control their magical power and stamina while keep using the fighting technique. Luckily, Lu Yan doesn't have problems with any of those.
Aside from his proficiency of using this technique, there are a particular reason as to why Lu Yan chooses this technique. Flying Sword is so generic and not going to give out his cultivation base, even when used extensively. Cultivation based do not make any distinctive style for telekinetic magic. As long as he performs it using the Wing Sect technique, nobody will notice.