Chapter 25: Chapter 25 Everlasting Firmament Flame Technique
One Cultivator could trample on several martial artists due to the essence within their body, which made them resilient to normal weapons. However, essence alone was insufficient when a Cultivator needed to deal with hundreds of martial artists; combat techniques were essential to accomplish that.
Having essence alone is not enough; a Cultivator must know how to use it to its fullest extent, whether refining pills, crafting weapons, constructing buildings, or locating and searching. However, the most crucial use is in fighting. Conflicts can arise at any time, so it is vital to prioritize one's safety.
There is a significant difference between a Cultivator who possesses combat techniques and one who does not. While not an insurmountable gap like bullshit heaven and earth, a Cultivator with combat techniques can handle four to five Cultivators of the same level simultaneously with relative ease. In one-on-one combat, those without combat techniques are destined to lose, and even a lower-level opponent could potentially defeat them.
In a cultivation world, there are countless techniques, generally categorized into two kinds: cultivation and combat.
Cultivation techniques help Cultivators cultivate and improve their bodies, but they cannot be used in fighting.
Combat techniques, on the other hand, encompass various types of techniques such as fighting, defense, escape, healing, and searching. They provide Cultivators with ways to use essence in diverse manners.
In summary, cultivation techniques guide essence into the body, while combat techniques guide essence outside the body for practical applications.
Shangguan Yi is now a genuine Core Formation Cultivator, but he doesn't possess a single combat technique yet, which is a dangerous situation. In terms of combat, he might not even be able to fight a level 10 Foundation Establishment Cultivator right now. While it may not matter if he remains in seclusion, the situation is different as he will have to leave soon.
However, he has prepared well in advance. After years of accumulation, he possesses thousands of techniques, ranging from low-grade to high-grade, though all are level 2 techniques. While their grade might not be sufficient to create potential level 3 techniques, he still has the resources needed to achieve this.
Shangguan Yi looked into the technique function, where various techniques appeared, ranging from level 2 low-grade to level 3 low-grade. Some were complete, some incomplete, and some satisfied him more than others.
Shangguan Yi spent a few days reviewing them and finally selected three techniques: two offensive and one escape. To complete each one, he needed to create a level 2 supreme-grade technique from thousands of techniques and then use the corresponding resources to upgrade it to a level 3 low-grade technique.
With enough resources, Shangguan Yi began feeding the techniques into the technique function one by one. The system acted like a dark vortex, seemingly endless. The process progressed quickly, and his essence began depleting rapidly.
An hour passed, then a day, a week, a month—all quickly blending into each other. Three months later, the system finally presented Shangguan Yi with the three techniques. These were not in the form of books or scrolls, but rather as inspirations that directly entered his mind. The knowledge integrated seamlessly into his consciousness, making it feel as if he had always known these techniques.
The Solar Solitude Technique condensed essence into a core of flame to attack. When it touched the target, it created a great explosion. With enough proficiency, a Cultivator could control it to explode in the air.
The One Blink Technique involved condensing essence into the eye area and releasing flames to attack the eyes or any parts of the target that the eyes could see.
The Polar Star Technique used essence as a guide to inspire flames to move from one place to another.
All of them were level 3 low-grade techniques. As for the pros and cons of them, Shangguan Yi needed to test them out in the real fight to understand their usage and range fully.
Right now, the Azure Cloud Pavilion focused heavily on the essence pills, with around a million batches of ingredients in total. However, there were only 20 level 2 pill refiners, making the task of refining essence pills a demanding one. Every pill refiner had to put down their other tasks to focus on this priority. Shangguan Yi wasn't too worried about this, as he could produce numerous mid-grade essence pills in a single day without affecting his cultivation.
Thus, he focused on mastering the Solar Solitude Technique first. With his comprehension, the system, and available resources, Shangguan Yi successfully practiced it to a complete state within three months.
He then spent another six months mastering the remaining two techniques.
During these nine months, he used a total of 2 million essence stones to achieve this. As of now, his current essence stone reserves were down to about a million.
However, he still had around 500,000 batches of various pill ingredients and more than a million pills of different kinds, so he considered himself to have sufficient resources.
It must be noted that the system had a 100% success rate for refining pills. Every time the Azure Cloud Pavilion provided him with ingredients, he would keep half of the refined pills, by telling to outsiders that he had a success rate of 50%. Additionally, he continually spent his essence stones to buy more ingredients. Therefore, it was no surprise that he had so many pill ingredients left.
The situation with his combat techniques had been resolved to an initial stage; now, he just needed to improve and adapt them in real combat, something the system couldn't provide for him.
Shangguan Yi then resumed his cultivation. After a month, he checked the system and saw that he hadn't even progressed 1%, so he decided to stop and focus on other things.
Everlasting Firmament Flame Technique was a cultivation technique that Shangguan Yi had wanted to create since he was at the 1st level of the Foundation Establishment Realm. However, due to its stringent requirements and his difficult circumstances at the time, he had prioritized upgrading the True Sun Flame technique instead.
Now that he had the qualifications and resources to create it, Shangguan Yi eagerly sought after it. The techniques he had previously provided to the system never disappeared; once recognized by the system, they became integrated with it. Shangguan Yi simply needed the essence stones and his own essence to activate them. Therefore, in terms of techniques, he had enough to fulfill his needs, and the essence stones were also sufficient. As for other materials, he had acquired them through transactions involving the Blazing Dust Pill long ago.
Shangguan Yi invested essence stones, materials, and his core essence into the technique function for a day. However, the technique was not created immediately; the system required time to process and develop it. One month later, the Everlasting Firmament Flame Technique was finally completed.
Like the True Sun Flame Technique, it was a level 3 low-grade technique. Yet, Shangguan Yi sensed a deeper and more profound quality in it compared to any other flame techniques.
Shangguan Yi examined the content of the technique, finding it less described compared to the True Sun Flame Technique.
The Everlasting Firmament Flame Technique: "The creation of thousands of flames, born with flame, grown with flame, and become the lord of all flame."
Deeply contemplating its meaning for a month, Shangguan Yi eventually gained an initial understanding. Checking the technique function, he found the Everlasting Firmament Flame Technique already listed, requiring 5 million essence stones to cultivate it to completion.
"Five million. This number is five times higher than the True Sun Flame Technique," Shangguan Yi mused aloud. Having already experienced the effectiveness of the True Sun Flame, he understood the crucial role a superior technique played in cultivation. Thus, the higher the resources required by the system to complete it, the greater the technique's potential.
Without hesitation, Shangguan Yi swiftly allocated a million essence stones to the system. As the system absorbed them and began refining, numerous inspirations flooded his mind. He immersed himself in cultivation right there, diligently striving to comprehend the contents.
A month later, his comprehension of the Everlasting Firmament Flame Technique had risen to 23%. He spent another month testing it out immediately, and the results were slightly better than those with the True Sun Flame Technique; his cultivation had progressed to 2% by now.
Despite comprehending only 23% of it, the Everlasting Firmament Flame Technique is even better than the True Sun Flame Technique. Shangguan Yi certainly didn't hesitate to pour his resources in it.
"The high-grade essence pills are barely useful to me at the moment. It's time to sell them off," Shangguan Yi decided. With tens of thousands of high-grade essence pills in reserve, he planned to distribute ten thousand of them to obtain enough 4 million essence stones.
Shangguan Yi wasn't worried about running out of essence pills because he still had more than enough ingredients to refine them. What was most useful to him now were the supreme-grade essence pills. Unfortunately, he no longer had the ingredients to refine more of them; only around a thousand pills remained in reserve.
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