Comprehending Myriad Techniques as Woodcutter

Chapter 239: Chapter 193: Great Increase in Progress

His fundamental Martial Dao training methods had improved by leaps and bounds, and the same was true for his nourishing arts.

While his Body-Nourishing Art progressed steadily, Xie Yuan didn’t neglect his Cloud Mountain Sword Qi Skill. Although he had rediscovered the wondrous nature of the Body-Nourishing Art, he hadn’t converted it all into the Sword Qi Skill. He was on the verge of breaking through to the 5th Layer of the Body-Nourishing Art, which would elevate his power to a whole new level. He naturally wanted to achieve that breakthrough first before considering any conversion; the results would be much better that way.

However, he didn’t abandon the Cloud Mountain Sword Qi Skill to focus solely on the Body-Nourishing Art. For one thing, the Sword Qi Skill was formidable. Paired with his Swordsmanship, it provided an immense boost to his strength. In fact, his Swordsmanship was even more potent when powered by the Sword Qi Skill than by his Body-Nourishing Art.

For another, the Outer Sect required progress checks on their Cultivation Techniques. By maintaining an above-average pace, he avoided drawing attention for being too slow.

Both his nourishing and training arts had progressed significantly, and his combat techniques were not far behind.

Though he used his fists less often, they were a part of his body in a way that sabers, swords, and axes were not. A blade or spear might slip from his grasp, but his fists never would... well, almost never, especially with the protection of the Golden Bell Shield.

The Eight Trigrams Mountain-Shaking Fist, which came from that mysterious Daoist, was majestically powerful, incredibly profound, and held immense potential. Xie Yuan hadn’t abandoned it. In fact, driven partly by a desire for an aesthetically pleasing status panel, he had focused his efforts on it, raising it to the Minor Success level. It made his list of skills look much more uniform.

With his Iron Fist alone, Xie Yuan’s strength was not to be underestimated. The force of his punches was no less than that of another’s sword or saber.

As for the Moon-Cutting Axe, he practiced with it a few times at the foot of the mountain when he had a spare moment. It was a way to show he hadn’t forgotten his roots, or the great axe Situ Qin had given him.

But the technique he practiced most diligently was the Cloud Dragon Nine Forms. Still, after two months, he had only just reached the Proficiency realm.

The Cloud Dragon Nine Forms was the most powerful of all his Cultivation Techniques. In terms of raw destructive power, it was second only to Sweeping a Thousand Armies, but in its unpredictability and combat versatility, it was a cut above.

But for such a top-tier Swordsmanship, the difficulty went without saying.

Though the progress value didn’t show much of an increase, gaining even a single point required more effort than gaining ten points in his other Cultivation Techniques.

Having dealt with this Golden Finger for a year, Xie Yuan had already figured out many of its patterns.

Within the same realm of mastery—for example, the ’Proficiency’ level—if one technique required a higher progress value to reach it than another, it was most likely the more profound Cultivation Technique. However, even if two techniques required the same progress value, it didn’t mean they were equally difficult.

Reaching Proficiency in the Cloud Dragon Nine Forms required 1,000 progress points. If he recalled correctly, both the Moon-Cutting Axe and the Eight Trigrams Mountain-Shaking Fist required the same. Yet their difficulty couldn’t be compared. The difficulty of those two combined was still less than that of the Cloud Dragon Nine Forms.

But now that the Cloud Dragon Nine Forms had reached the Proficiency realm, its power was even more astonishing. With this Swordsmanship alone, few at his same cultivation realm could likely withstand it.

Then there was the Cloud Dragon Step. It was incredibly fast and exceedingly difficult to master, but Xie Yuan had also pushed it to the Proficiency realm. His Tunneling Speed and Body Technique had more than doubled, hadn’t they?

After two months of cultivation in the Outer Sect, Xie Yuan had stabilized his cultivation in the Qi and Blood Metamorphosis Realm. He was no longer considered weak.

As for his other skills, he would visit the rock crevice to study the Black Celestial Book whenever he had free time, and its progress grew steadily, making him look forward to his next epiphany. The Celestial Concealment Skill was constantly in use, so it improved continuously and its effects were noticeable.

And then there was Chopping Wood... Even after entering the Outer Sect, and with no end to its progress bar in sight, Xie Yuan still hadn’t given up. ’Constant dripping wears away the stone.’ As long as he persisted, a breakthrough would come one day. That was why he often returned to the woodshed to help out.

At first, the woodshed handymen looked at him like they’d seen a ghost whenever he returned. But faced with an Outer Sect disciple like him, they could only let him do as he pleased. Xie Yuan would just say he couldn’t forget his old trade and liked to ’come home’ and visit. What could the handymen do about a formal disciple? Besides, they discovered all he did was chop wood, which actually lightened their burden. Over time, they grew used to it. By frequently going to the woodshed and sharing the handymen’s labor, Xie Yuan was now compensating for the extra work he had previously created for them through his intense competition.

He carefully browsed his status panel. The intuitive data allowed Xie Yuan to accurately assess his own strength and progress, and he nodded slightly.

This was one of the benefits of his Golden Finger: it allowed him to summarize, plan, identify his weaknesses, and act with clear purpose.

The list of his Cultivation Techniques was immeasurably more impressive than it had been a year ago. His four categories of skills—nourishing, training, combat, and killing—had all advanced by countless levels. Xie Yuan thought,

’I hope that this time next year, I’ll see even greater progress.’

After reviewing his own progress, Xie Yuan’s gaze shifted to Lin Cheng, who was practicing with his sword in the courtyard. He wasn’t sure when Lin Cheng had woken up, but the fierce winds generated by his sword practice had already cleared a large patch of snow.

Two months had passed. Xie Yuan had been tirelessly "consulting" Lin Cheng, and thanks to his increasingly flawless acting, Lin Cheng hadn’t noticed a thing. He still believed that he and Xie Yuan were helping each other and improving together—and that his own progress was immense.

Lin Cheng’s Swordsmanship grew more adept by the day, reaching the realm of being ’proficient and having a thorough understanding,’ otherwise known as the Third Training.

For an Outer Sect disciple who had joined less than a year ago, this pace of progress wasn’t slow for Lin Cheng, especially considering his level of talent.

Their instructor praised him greatly, often complimenting his determined will, which had finally begun to bear fruit.

Of course, this ’fruit’ had been purely cultivated and force-ripened by Xie Yuan. Sometimes, when he went down the mountain to practice with his saber, Xie Yuan would touch the Treasure Saber and sigh to himself,

’Landlord Lin, accepting this saber from you was no simple task.’

The things you get for free are often the most expensive. That’s just how the world works.

Then again, Xie Yuan had been genuinely moved by the chivalrous spirit of Landlord Lin, a man who knew no martial arts, and it had stirred his own sense of a Martial Artist’s honor.

If it had been someone more shameless, accepting your saber wouldn’t have meant forging a connection. Why would they bother helping your orphaned children?

As for Xie Yuan himself, he had finally waited out Song Qingping’s departure. With Cloud Mountain quiet once more and no Grandmaster wandering about, he and Lin Cheng had "coincidentally" broken through to the Mastery realm of the Cloud Mountain Sword Form at around the same time, just recently. He had now entered the ranks of a Third Training Martial Artist.

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