Chapter 121 - Intermediate Martial Artist

The holy seal was one of the functions of the light ability, and this was the reason Lin Yao chose the Paladin Body Strengthening Technique.

‘There are various kinds of holy ability. The guardian holy seal increases the body’s defense, the justice holy seal makes the attack carry the light attribute, and the hero holy seal increases the body’s strength… After engraving the holy seal in my heart with the power of light and activating the holy seal, I’ll attain the power of the holy seal.’

The holy seal was why Lin Yao chose the Paladin Body Strengthening Technique. He didn’t care about the rest of its training methods, such as physical training and combat skill training. In addition, Lin Yao was excited about not needing to pray because he already possessed the light talent and light attribute vital seeds. He could cultivate the holy seal directly.

After contemplating this, the first holy seal that Lin Yao chose was the guardian holy seal.

The reason for choosing this holy seal was very simple. Based on an overview of Lin Yao’s abilities, his abilities had an explosive, offensive, and controlling nature. However, none of them had a defensive nature, and he felt very insecure about this. Now that he had a chance, he would like to cultivate the guardian holy seal as soon as possible.

Closing his eyes, Lin Yao sat cross-legged under the sun and focused wholeheartedly on outlining the guardian holy seal in his Sea of Consciousness.

However, he was awakened after one minute. While sitting on his bed, he clutched his head with a pained expression.

‘Damn it! The holy seal actually involves the use of mental strength. I can’t cultivate it in my current condition at all.’

Directing the power of holy light to outline the holy seal in the Sea of Consciousness—which involved all these actions—required the use of mental strength. Of course, Lin Yao couldn’t do that now because he hadn’t recovered from the aftermath of reaching his mental limit and the thinking speed acceleration.

In addition, he had just gone through in-depth electric current development. His body could no longer undergo development, not even recharge training.

After pondering it for some time, Lin Yao discovered that he could only carry out the combat skill training and physical training of the Paladin Body Strengthening Technique.

‘Forget it. I’ll practice my combat skills.’

With a dizzy head, Lin Yao found a sheathed long sword at the research institute. He stood in the middle of the courtyard and began practicing his Sword-Drawing Technique.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang…

Training repeatedly was boring, especially during the day. The sun was shining down on Lin Yao, and he almost didn’t deplete any of his energy during the training process. As a result, there was no training end in sight.

1,000 times, 10,000 times, 30,000 times.

While he was rapidly sheathing and unsheathing the sword, Lin Yao’s body had already formed a natural instinct. He no longer needed to get into position. He could already use his mind to control and unsheathe the sword at his waist at the fastest speed possible.

He was unleashing the sword with his mind… At that moment, in terms of the Sword-Drawing Technique, Lin Yao’s swordsmanship had already achieved real success.

However, such training could at most achieve real success. If he wanted to progress further, he would need a special training method.

‘The profound meaning of the Sword-Drawing Technique, Slay Steel, required the unison of body and mind and mutual sincerity with the sword. I should eventually be able to lift a steel pillar in front of me. The moment I can cleave the steel pillar with an ordinary sword in my hands, I will succeed.

‘Fathom will need me to battle with someone. The best battle is a life-and-death battle. After surviving and experiencing numerous battles, I’ll be able to comprehend and figure out this profound meaning.’

In the courtyard, Lin Yao thought of Yan Yan. The ice sparrows she controlled were extraordinarily nimble and swift. If Lin Yao wanted to cultivate Fathom, he could use those ice sparrows as his initial opponents.

However, after contemplating it again, Lin Yao eventually decided to cultivate Slay Steel.

In comparison to seeing through the flaws of the opponent before others, Lin Yao preferred unleashing a single invincible sword move.

After reporting to the instructor, Lin Yao set up a steel pillar in a remote place of the research institute and began to train the profound meaning of Slay Steel in front of the pillar.

…

There was no end to the training. Because he had been forbidden to join the night patrols and visit the mysterious land, Lin Yao was not tied up for a few days. Besides visiting the orphanage, he spent most of his time training.

Of course, it could also be said that he was undergoing hellish torture.

Every day at 10 o’clock in the morning, Lin Yao would undergo half an hour of in-depth electric current stimulation and over 10 seconds of brain development at Professor Li’s research institute. Each stimulation would always make Lin Yao end up in extreme, unbearable pain.

If it had not been for the protection of the Brave Soul, Lin Yao would have gone crazy long ago.

Due to this rampaging torture, Lin Yao wasn’t able to unlock the gene lock and activate the thinking speed acceleration.

His body had already memorized the sensation of the electrical stimulation. As long as there was current surging in his body, his body could instantly gather all his strength.

This was similar to a human picking up an object. Upon seeing an object, the eyes would send a message to the brain’s neural network. The neural network would make a judgment and then send instructions to the arm to make it move. During the process, the neural network would also complete the estimation of the object’s location.

It could be said that the simple step of picking up something already involved countless steps. However, ordinary people were long used to this and wouldn’t be bothered by it. Lin Yao was able to unlock the gene lock without thinking speed acceleration because he was now used to electrocution.

‘Why do I feel that this is a sad thing?’

In addition to being able to unlock the gene lock without the thinking speed acceleration, Lin Yao had also made considerable progress in other areas.

Although he was advancing rapidly, Instructor Tu Hong’s face looked bent out of shape when he realized that Lin Yao had skipped class for three days.

“Are you really not coming?

“Come over to group training!”

At eight o’clock at night, Lin Yao felt somewhat helpless as he lay in bed and listened to the furious holler coming from the other side of the phone.

“I’m training, Instructor.”

“There are only two or three days left until the competition. How much can you improve by training during this period? Group training to improve the team’s strength is the right way to go.”

What Instructor Tu Hong had said was not considered wrong. The improvement of personal strength was a long and gradual process, and it was difficult to produce qualitative changes in just two or three days. Therefore, it was right to take advantage of this period to carry out group training and improve the strength of the team.

However, although other people couldn’t improve their strength in two or three days, Lin Yao could do so. To Lin Yao, two to three days were enough to develop his physical body tremendously.

With electricity aiding him, he would be able to condense his vital energy seeds quickly so long as he reached the required physical realm. Therefore, Lin Yao didn’t want to waste any time.

“Sorry, Instructor. I’m really tied up.”

“If you don’t come to group training, I will cancel your qualification for the team competition and get the sixth-in-rank student to replace you!”

The instructor turned vicious and immediately threatened Lin Yao.

This made Lin Yao hesitate a little. However, in the end, he still decided to do it his way.

“Instructor, even if I don’t join the seeded player team or the second team consisting of the fifth to tenth in rank students, I can also form my own team to participate in the team competition. Please go ahead with the group training without me. It’s my fault for delaying so many people. I’m going to find people to form my own team.”

“You…”

Choking furiously due to Lin Yao’s words, at last, Instructor Tu Hong said, “You refuse to participate in the group training because you think you’re strong enough and don’t need the cooperation of others, right?”

“Uh… I…”

Ignoring what Lin Yao had to say, Instructor Tu Hong said, “Come over tomorrow. If you defeat an advanced martial artist, I will allow you to skip the group training.”

Teamwork was very important. Nevertheless, this was a world where individual strength could overwhelm and subdue many things. Therefore, as long as Lin Yao was strong enough, he could disregard some of the rules.

This time, Lin Yao didn’t reject the instructor’s idea.

“I understand.”

‘I’ll go and see what happens tomorrow. I should be able to win this time.’

With this thought in mind, Lin Yao looked at his attribute interface. Although only three days had passed, there had been drastic changes to it.

[Name: Lin Yao]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 17]

[Existing Energy: 4,200 grams]

[Other Energy: Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Thunder 100 grams, Angel Energy 50,000 grams]

[Cultivation Method: 13th Military Boxing (Profound Meaning; Gene Lock Unlocking), Paladin Body Strengthening Technique (Guardian Holy Seal), Leize Dragon God Meditation (Not Started)]

[Realm: Intermediate Martial Artist (52 vital energy seeds), Iron Person (42%)]

[Combat Skills: Clear Mirror Swordsmanship (Real Success 10%), Deafening Thunder Roar (Real Success 20%), Super Electromagnetic Gun (Not Learned)]

[Tree Planted Now: Celestial Tree (Seedling 0/100,000) (Silver Person), Tree of Heaven Punishment (Seedling 0/100,000) (Silver Person)]

[Talents: Armored Body of Light LV3, Good and Evil Distinguishment LV3, Heavenly Thunder Manipulation LV1 (20%), Angel (Angel’s Descent, Brave Soul)]

[Weapon: Brilliant Light Sword (Gold)]

[Protective Suit: Type VII Electric Current Stimulation Combat Suit (Custom Made)]

[Treasure: Three Blessed Beads, Electrical Energy Storage Crystal]

After three days of training, Lin Yao’s physical realm had advanced from Iron Person 21% to 42%, and the number of his vital energy seeds had reached 52 due to recharging. This was the training outcome of ordinary people after three to five years of cultivation.

In addition to the rapid advancement of his physical realm and cultivation progress, Lin Yao had been cultivating the holy seal and a new combat skill of the Paladin Body Strengthening Technique during the past three days.

Lin Yao carried out the holy seal training in the early morning every day. After a night’s sleep, Lin Yao’s completely exhausted mind would recover to normalcy. Lin Yao would then outline the guardian holy seal in the morning when he was still feeling energetic.

The outlining process went smoothly. The Body of Light had transformed Lin Yao’s body, making him very strong when it came to manipulating light. In just three days, he had finished outlining the guardian holy seal.

Lin Yao also made a discovery. During the daytime, as he was absorbing sunlight to the maximum, he could unlock the holy seal at all times without consuming any of his energy.

As its name implied, the main function of the guardian holy seal was protection.

After the guardian holy seal was unlocked, the cells on the surface of Lin Yao’s body would harden due to the action of the power of light, and this could avoid a lot of harm for Lin Yao.

This effect only applied to the first level. If he had enough energy and a deeper understanding of the guardian holy seal, he’d be able to use the power of light to condense the guardian battle armor.

Of course, there would be a long way to go. The current guardian holy seal had already increased Lin Yao’s defensive strength by a notch.

In addition to the guardian holy seal, Lin Yao was happy that Heavenly Thunder Manipulation had advanced to LV2.

The LV2 Heavenly Thunder Manipulation had two obvious changes compared to its predecessor. First, it could be released outside the body. Although it was only for a short distance, Lin Yao could now spread the Heavenly Thunder Manipulation between his palms and make his attacks carry the thunder lightning attribute.

‘If I had this thunder lightning when I was dealing with Shi Qiang, I’d have been much more relaxed. The metal he smelts is a conductor of electricity.’

Besides Shi Qiang, Lin Yao also thought of Yan Yan. She had relied on the freezing properties of frost to freeze Shi Qiang and was able to release ice and snow.

‘Yan Yan’s ice and snow level is at least LV2. No, it should be LV3. Besides freezing with frost, she can also condense the ice swallows for long-range attacks. This is an ability that can only be achieved by awakening the element to LV3. My Heavenly Thunder Manipulation should be able to release thunder and lightning strikes when it reaches LV3, though it can only be regarded as a thunder palm now.’

The external release of thunder and lightning was a LV2 ability. Another ability was relying on the external release of lightning. Lin Yao could vaguely sense the presence of the magnetic field after unlocking the thinking speed acceleration. This had laid the foundation for Lin Yao to practice the Super Electromagnetic Gun.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of prior knowledge about the Super Electromagnetic Gun, and Lin Yao hadn’t finished learning it. Therefore, he could not perform this move for the time being.

Nevertheless, besides the Super Electromagnetic Gun, Lin Yao had also learned another gold combat skill. Within these three days, Lin Yao had utilized his opportunity to apply for a gold combat skill.

The quality and not the quantity of a combat skill mattered the most. Lin Yao also understood this. Logically speaking, he should not spend time learning a combat skill. Nevertheless, he did that because that combat skill was also a form of the Sword-Drawing Technique.

[Thunderbolt Sword-Drawing Technique—Lightning Flash]