Chương 362: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Li Yu's search continued. He drifted away from the Shattered Peaks, his initial excitement at feeling the void laws now tempered by a growing frustration. He flew over a valley filled with illusionary techniques. He saw cultivators trapped in loops of their own worst fears or greatest desires, part of the learning process. He passed over them, uninterested. Illusions were just a different form of spiritual attack and his own soul arts were far more direct.

He passed a mountain range that rumbled with the sound of thunder. Lightning arts. Powerful, yes, but his 'Abyssal Javelins' were just as fast and far more absolute. He saw water techniques, fire techniques, metal-aspected arts. All of them were powerful, profound in their own right but they all felt... small. They were rigid systems, built by others, for others. They didn't account for his unique foundation. To learn them would be like a master painter being forced to use scissors to make his master pieces.

"This is useless," he thought to himself, his frustration mounting. He had hoped for a single, foundational scripture, something like the 'Stone Binder's Ancestral Scripture' that Roric Heavystrike had found. A text that would take his existing power and elevate it, give it form and structure. He stopped, hovering in the air above a peaceful-looking valley dotted with lakes. The allied and enemy cultivators below were studying various water arts.

He watched them and a new thought, a different path, began to form in his mind.

"Maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing." He wasn't here to find a new path. He was already on his path. What he needed were not rigid systems but inspirations. Not a complete manual but a set of ideas. Why was he trying to fit that into someone else's box? He should be forging his own. Just as he had done back on his home continent, just as he had been doing this whole time. This place wasn't a library where he had to check out a book. It was a buffet and he was here to steal ingredients.

Standing on the shoulders of giants will make the task a lot easier. With this new clarity, his entire perspective shifted. He was no longer looking for a technique that suited him. He was looking for techniques he could break down and devour for parts. He then went around to all the different steles again to find sources of inspiration. After a while, he had a few that he drew inspiration from. The first was a light-aspected technique, being studied by a disciple from an allied sect.

The text was titled 'Radiant Sentry Art.' It described, in great detail, the Qi pathways required to create a small, stationary autonomous orb of light to detect intruders. Most importantly, it detailed the complex "spiritual-sense matrix" used to allow the orb to automatically fire small beams of light at any hostile entity that entered its range so the user would know exactly where they were. It was a defensive art, weak in power but brilliant in concept. Li Yu's mind began to race.

He stood on a quiet, isolated cliff overlooking the valley, processing the concept. The Sentry Art had the autonomous targeting matrix. He had read arts on creating weapon base energy projectiles like his ice blades, his abyssal javelins and so on. That combined with the other energy projectile arts that he ran, he felt the inspiration to combine it together.

"I can combine these," he murmured to himself. He envisioned it clearly. He wouldn't use light or ice. He would use his own, far more destructive Koi Qi and Void Qi. He would take the targeting matrix from the Sentry Art and link it to his own, passively-extended spiritual sense, which was always active in a fight anyway. Then, he would take the projectile-formation principles and use them to have the orb automatically form and fire his Abyssal Javelins, or ice blades or whatever else he needed. Enjoying the story?

Show your support by reading it on the official site. It would be an autonomous weapon, an 'Abyssal Sentry.' It would act as an additional aid, a subconscious bodyguard that would handle minor threats or add supporting fire, all without him needing to actively think about it. A slow smile spread across his face. This was a concept he could build on. As he got better with it, he could have more than one orb, a swirling constellation of death.

He didn't try to create it here—that would take time, experimentation and focus he didn't have. But he had the blueprints. He memorized the core Qi pathways and theoretical principles from the tablets, securing the "ingredients" in his mind for when he had more time. Meanwhile, on the Sword Spires, the other disciples were having a very different experience. The entire mountain range was silent, a sea of cultivators deep in focused comprehension. Except for one peak.

"HAHAHA! OF COURSE! IT'S SO SIMPLE! TRULY, THE CRAB GOD WORKS IN WONDROUS WAYS!" Jian Xuan's joyous roar echoed across the neighboring mountains. He was sitting before the 'Singing Blade of the Unfettered Heart,' and he was, quite literally, having the time of his life. He wasn't flaring his Qi, he wasn't powering up. He was just... happy. The text described a sword art where power came from a 'free spirit,' from acting in accordance with one's truest, most unfettered will.

For Jian, his truest will was to be a boisterous, loud and to be himself. His chanting, his shouting, his sheer joy—this was an additional method to his Dao. He was practicing the technique just by being himself. On a peak five miles away, Bronwyn Steel (Rank 6), a stern woman from the Forest of the Radiant Dawn, opened one eye. Her concentration on the 'Unyielding Pine Sword Art' was completely shattered. She glared in the direction of the shouting.

"That... lunatic," she growled.

"How can anyone study with that racket?"

"They say," her junior brother whispered, "that his power comes from the chanting. That he's... well..."

"He's an idiot," Bronwyn snapped and forcibly closed her eyes, trying to re-center her mind but it was difficult. Every few minutes, another "PRAISE BE!" or "GLORIOUS!" would echo from the peak. Every cultivator within a ten-mile radius gave Jian a wide, respectful and terrified berth. Nobody wanted to get close to the psycho, especially when he seemed to be enjoying himself so much. Li Yu, blissfully unaware of Jian's antics, had moved on. His first goal was complete. His second was utility.

His life-aspected Qi, a remnant of his unique foundation and evolution was a powerful asset he had never truly learned to control. It gave him incredible passive regeneration and some external use for his beasts but that was it. He flew to a new region, a lush green valley overflowing with vibrant life energy. This was the home of healing and nature arts. The tablets here were just as numerous. He passed by the 'Thorn-Whip Combat Art' and the 'Armor of the Ancient Treant.' He was not here for offense.

He was looking for pure restoration. He found what he was looking for in a quiet central grove. There, four steles stood in a small circle, all dedicated to the Dao of Life and Healing. He began to read. The first was 'Verdant Spring's Renewal.' The text described in intricate detail how to channel life and water Qi into another person to rapidly mend torn muscle, flesh and minor organ damage. It was a fast-acting healing art and he paid close attention to the described Qi circulation pathways.

The second was 'Life-Weaver's Suture.' This was more complex. The text explained how to spin life-aspected Qi into a "spiritual thread" to stitch together catastrophic wounds, such as severed limbs or shattered bones. The manipulation required was incredibly delicate. The third was 'Five-Organ Cleansing Light.' This was an internal art. The text detailed a method for using life Qi to purge subtle poisons, expel impurities and restore balance to the five core spiritual organs.

The fourth and final tablet was the most profound: 'Sovereign's Vitality Art.' It was not about healing others. The text described how to take one's own passive life force and actively ignite it, flooding the body with a super-charged burst of vitality to recover from near fatal injuries in seconds but at great cost to one's vitality. He looked at the steles and began to memorize, not just the words but the concepts. He focused on how each technique manipulated the same core energy.

'Verdant Spring' pushed the Qi.

'Life-Weaver' spun it.

'Cleansing Light' purified with it.

'Sovereign's Vitality' ignited it. These were the instructions he had been missing. He couldn't figure out how to make them his own right now. His mind was still processing the 'Abyssal Sentry' concept and these life arts were incredibly complex. But that was something he could do later. He had the pieces. He didn't need to master the arts, simply understand them well enough to create his own and from there master it on his own time.

With the 'Beast-Tamer's Spiritual Concordance,' the core concepts for his 'Abyssal Sentry,' and now the foundational principles for his own unique healing arts, Li Yu felt a deep sense of satisfaction. His harvest had been bountiful. He looked up at the deep blue changeless sky. The library will be closing soon.