The three towers weren't far from each other, and Ye Mo arrived quickly at the one pertaining to battle skills.
Every newcomer in the institute had the right to pick one for themselves, but they couldn't go further than the second floor.
Ye Mo showed his own token at the entrance with his name inscribed on it and was allowed inside.
He directly climbed the stairs and came to the second floor, where all the mid-tier Yellow Class battle skills were placed.
It didn't take long for Ye Mo to get one in hand but he still stayed the whole hour reading others and broadening his horizons. Knowing which battle skill your opponent is using could turn useful in a fight.
One of them was the Red Diamond Fist, a battle skill that would make the user's fist shine brightly in red when launched, becoming hard like a diamond and releasing a force that would send the opponent flying upon contact.
"Looks the same as Wang Yue's strike back then, if he had mastered the battle skill completely, he would have broken my hand... It wouldn't prevent me from dealing with him though." Ye Mo placed the book back on the rack.
When one hour passed, Ye Mo left the tower after the attendant unsealed his battle skill.
He returned home and laid both martial arts on his bed.
One was the Black Vortex cultivation technique while the other was the Stone Breaking Punch battle skill.
A simple name for a simple battle skill, but its power could not be underestimated. Upon completion, even the weakest of cultivators could break a boulder with their fist alone.
Moreover, its advantage was that it was easy to learn. It didn't require a strong comprehension and could be mastered with time and repetitions alone. The rate at which you learn battle skills was fundamental for cultivators, as it could quickly increase your battle strength and make the difference between life and death.
Important enough, the faster you learn a battle skill, the sooner you can allot this time of practice back to your cultivation and progress quickly.
"I already have Wind Flow for movement. What comes first now is offense. My body alone is not enough currently to defeat someone with good defense and I lack the means to destroy my enemies. With such a battle skill coupled with my physical strength, I wouldn't have needed to go through such lengths to deal with Ha Jun, I could directly penetrate his defenses and end the fight. The Stone Breaking Punch will enable me to quickly grasp another card in my hand." Ye Mo chose his martial arts with something specific in mind. This time he needed to increase his attacking power.
"Although the power is great it remains just a punch. It's easy to anticipate and guard against it; however, I always fought with punches and kicks so far and never had a problem with it and I believe the limits of an art lie in the individual's abilities, not in the battle skill in itself. Nonetheless, the most important point about the Stone Breaking Punch is that it lowers the difficulty of learning the mid-tier Star Rank Mountain Shattering Fist." Ye Mo's heart burst forth with ambitious and determined feelings.
The Stone Breaking Punch was a battle skill created by a demonic cult leader in ancient times, but his name wasn't retained by the flow of time. The cult welcomed many members in its good days, but a lot of them were muscle heads with very low comprehension and had a hard time learning battle skills.
As such, the strength of the cult as a whole grew slowly. The cult leader spent years researching and studying battle skills relentlessly in an effort to improve the cult's condition. In the end, from the Mountain Shattering Fist, he derived a whole new battle skill, the mid-tier Yellow Class Stone Breaking Punch!
Unfortunately, good times don't last, and not long later the cult was ambushed and destroyed by righteous forces while the battle skill fell into their hands.
As a creation derived from the Mountain Shattering Fist, the Stone Breaking Punch contained a part of the essence of the Star Rank battle skill. Their users would feel familiar with the Mountain Shattering Fist and would be able to grasp it more easily than someone who started from nothing.
It must be known that mastering a Star Rank battle skill could take years or even decades of training.
Ye Mo's objectives displayed his faith in himself and his resolve. Star Rank battle skills were practically non-existent in Azure Water City, peak-tier Yellow Class arts were barely present and in very limited numbers even for institutions.
To obtain the possibility to learn a battle skill like the Mountain Shattering Fist, he would have to enter one of the great sects of the central lands, but how many wished to join one? Was it enough to become a member?
No, it was hard, extremely hard. In institutions, rank 2 talents were in the low average, but in sects they were nothing more than trash.
For Ye Mo, Azure Water City was too small, it couldn't contain his ambitions. He wanted to roam the world freely, using the various opportunities offered to him to gain strength, as this place would be his first step, bound to become a vague memory of his past.
Instead, the Tiger Martial Institute felt like a prison. Although he was trapped inside, unable to leave at his own will, it also offered a stable and propitious environment for his growth until the day came for him to go.
Ye Mo picked up the Black Vortex cultivation technique and read the other half before sitting cross-legged at the center of the room, "This one is the priority, in my current state, I wouldn't be able to throw one punch before running out of qi."
Inside his dantian, wisps of Qi fluttered gently in this mysterious and unusual space until they suddenly started to gather together. The wisps of qi turned into a small thin cloud that rotated clockwise, at first slowly, but it quickly gained in speed and became faster and faster until at its center, a black hole the shape of a spinning star took form.
Quickly, Ye Mo felt waves of heavenly qi assaulting every part of his body, passing through the pores of his skin and rushing madly in his meridians.
He felt like the gravity suddenly multiplied tenfold and something was crushing him from inside.
Ye Mo gritted his teeth while beads of sweat trickled down his forehead.
The surrounding qi was crashing like tidal waves on his body, circulating at a rapid pace through his meridians.
He held on for more than an hour, but the flow of qi in his meridians was too massive and he felt they would tear if he kept going.
The Black Vortex quickly lost shape, and the cloud that visibly gained in mass dispersed in multiple wisps of qi.
"... It's better than I thought." Ye Mo took a few hard breaths before calming down, but when he looked inside his dantian, he was short of breath once again.
In this hour of cultivation, twenty-three new wisps of qi wandered in his dantian with the others. Two more hours and he would have surpassed his entire week of night cultivation with the breathing technique.
"Incredible! Just as I expected of the Black Vortex cultivation technique." Ye Mo was contented.
"It's time to take this one now." Without taking a moment to recover, Ye Mo retrieved a small wooden box from his pouch and gently opened it.
Inside lay a fiery red medicinal pellet. It was the well-known Meridian Purifying Pill, a creation of superior quality that allowed the owner to increase his potential.
Ye Mo ingested the pill and sat down. It had a sweet taste like candy, but it quickly melted in his mouth, turning into a hot stream of energy flowing in his body. Everywhere it passed, a burning sensation arose, and his meridians slowly expanded while the flow of energy gradually reduced in size.
After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the rush of qi from the Meridian Purifying Pill dissipated, but the transformation rendered to the meridians was tremendous.
If before they were akin to a small stream, now they were a great river swallowing boats and hiding creatures of all kinds in its depths.
"Let's see the changes..." Ye Mo closed his eyes and used the basic breathing technique to cultivate as a reference since he was more accustomed to it than the Black Vortex. He realized that he was now 40% faster at creating a wisp of qi than before, which was not far from the efficiency of a rank 3 talent.
"I can understand why Fang Jishen and his friend wanted this pill so much. Something that can modify your meridians and increase your cultivation speed is nothing less than a life-changer. Too bad its effects work only once." Ye Mo thought as he opened his dark eyes.
After washing himself and dressing up, he decisively left his house, a mysterious glint lingering in his black pupils
The talent you had was something defined at your birth.
There weren't many ways to improve it, and the most common one was the Divine Regal Flower, a priceless treasure that was coveted by every cultivator in the world.
What the heavens created, only the heavens could change. This plant had the power to raise the rank of someone's talent upon ingestion without any side effects, but their creation was the work of nature alone, and you could only depend on your luck to find one.
A simple mortal could stumble upon one without ever hearing of them while the strongest of cultivators could search their whole lives without ever seeing their shadows.
Even rank 5 talents would desperately try to obtain them at times, after all, didn't they have parents, children, brothers, and sisters that could benefit from this herb? In addition, if they had sufficient strength, using this plant as a bargain was enough to exchange for anything.
Currently only the strongest sects of the continent, after thousands of years of accumulation, preciously keep the few they were able to gather in their treasure vault. That was the only place you were sure to find the Divine Regal Flower without exploring the wilds.
The Meridian Purifying pill took a roundabout approach about this instead, as it didn't directly raise your talent but rather improved your meridians, making them wider and sturdier, able to absorb and circulate more qi at once, increasing your cultivation speed.
Raising your cultivation talent was something that obsessed cultivators from all times and after millions of years the Meridian Purifying pill was one of the results of this obsession, but of course it couldn't compare to the Divine Regal Flower.
First it was very hard to make one, it necessitated the best alchemists and many ingredients each try for a low percentage of success so only a small number of them were reserved for the best members each year.
Also the increase in cultivation speed couldn't compare to the talent raising Divine Regal Flower.
But the main point was that the Meridian Purifying pill could only be used once before it would lose all effects, while the flower could raise your talent each time until you reached the best possible.
Ye Mo returned home deep in the night when the moon was high in the sky.
In the meantime, inside the Liu Clan Estate, Liu Hao was sitting on a throne in the main hall pondering, his right hand stroking his chin.
The hall would be in complete darkness if it weren't for the moonlight penetrating the windows on the side, but it only accentuated the dismal atmosphere of the place.
Suddenly the doors were knocked on three times before a man entered.
"Patriarch, you have a visitor." The man bowed down respectfully before notifying Liu Hao.
"A visitor at this time? Who is it..." Liu Hao asked as he looked at the man, his brows wrinkled.
"He's a student of the Tiger Martial Institute, he said it was important."
"Hmm... Alright let him come." Liu Hao accepted with a wave of the hand.
The man quickly walked around the hall lighting up the torches before leaving the room. He returned shortly after, escorting a young man with auburn hair and a sleeveless martial suit.
"You're... the kid from the Fang family?" Liu Hao looked at the young man's face and tried to recall.
"Yes, sir. My name is Fang Jishen." The young man calmly raised his head as he presented himself.