I Can Copy the Talents of All Creatures

In his spare time, Yu Fei spent an entire day researching. Combined with the feedback from Yan Sea, he gained a much deeper understanding of the cultivation path for the Second Realm.

Unlike First Realm Martial Artists who focus on building a foundation, Second Realm Martial Artists are the minimum standard for recruitment into the Yu Kingdom’s military. The requirements are therefore quite high, and the number of Cultivation Techniques available for this realm is vast.

After synthesizing all the information, Yu Fei identified four main paths for choosing a Second Realm Cultivation Technique.

The first path involved defensive Cultivation Techniques. Survival was always the top priority, and there were a great number of Iron Body Skills available. According to the advice he’d read in online forums, these skills were divided into four tiers.

The lowest tier had low requirements for aptitude and resources; one just had to be able to endure pain. These techniques involved striking the body with various external forces to harden the skin and membranes. Once mastered, they provided some defensive capability, but it wasn’t strong—a low-budget version for commoners.

The second tier also had no requirements for aptitude or innate talent but demanded a large amount of resources. The results of the cultivation were determined by the resources invested; with enough investment, one could even reach the top ranks of defense.

The third tier demanded both high talent and significant resources from a Martial Artist. If the conditions were met, progress was extremely fast, allowing one to easily obtain powerful defensive capabilities. Furthermore, after breaking through to the next realm, there were follow-up techniques in the same lineage, which could save a great deal of time.

As for the top-tier Iron Body Skills, their descriptions were all bizarre. They warned that only those with immense willpower and peerless talent should attempt them. Curiously, they made no mention of resources, and the merit point cost to redeem them was very low.

Just how low? A low-tier Iron Body Skill manual cost 50 merit points, whereas a top-tier one cost only 10. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

He wasn’t in a hurry to make a decision. He wanted to hear Yan Sea’s advice first. Besides, Su Yue was knowledgeable and worldly; there might be hidden pros and cons she was aware of.

Besides Iron Body Skills, the second path was speed-related techniques, which were subdivided into Body Techniques and footwork. These were also the most expensive types of techniques to redeem.

The third path was weapon techniques, a mandatory skill for Second Realm Martial Artists.

In the Scripture Pavilion’s listings, in terms of sheer quantity, there were over 1.36 million weapon techniques for the Second Realm, around 110,000 Body Techniques and footwork techniques combined, and 330,000 Iron Body Skills.

Finally, there was the fourth path: the very specialized Qi Blood Burst Secret Skills, with over 20,000 in total.

The sheer number of techniques was as vast as an ocean. An ordinary person could spend a lifetime just browsing the list, let alone mastering any of them. It was a reflection of just how prosperous the Martial Arts Extraordinary World of the Yu Kingdom was—a world that surpassed Yu Fei’s imagination.

Less than a day later, he received a message from Yan Sea. It was obvious that Su Yue’s advice had been included.

For Iron Body Skills, the advice was for Yu Fei to try cultivating a few top-tier techniques. If he couldn’t even get started, there was no need to invest any more energy. This was because, in the early stages, top-tier Iron Body Skills had extremely high requirements for a Martial Artist’s innate talent and aptitude, but paradoxically required few resources. If he couldn’t make any headway, he should fall back to the next best option: wait until university and use the school’s resources to learn a high-tier technique, which would also provide a decent defensive ability once mastered.

As for Body Techniques and footwork, he should just pick a highly-rated technique that appealed to him and practice it a little. There was no need to invest too much energy.

Qi Blood Burst Secret Skills were completely unnecessary. They were meant for ordinary Martial Artists who had no hope of breaking through to the Inner Qi Realm, as each use caused minor damage to the body.

Finally, Yan Sea stressed that the most important thing for Yu Fei right now was to cultivate the Taiwei Profound Origin Pillar to the Perfection Realm as soon as possible, awaken its special properties, and enter the Third Realm. In his spare time, he should study the Swordsmanship Mr. Kong had gifted him. Everything else could wait until university, where he could practice under the guidance of professional instructors.

One’s realm was fundamental. For a genius Martial Artist, during the first three Body Tempering realms, all energy should be focused on their foundational Cultivation Technique. Other skills could be chosen based on interest and practiced casually. They should wait until after entering the Inner Qi Realm to truly expand their abilities.

The vast majority of techniques fueled by Qi Blood were completely incompatible with Inner Qi. At that point, one would have to learn them all over again, which was a total waste of time.

Only Martial Artists with average talent and little hope of reaching the Inner Qi Realm needed to bother meticulously studying Qi Blood-based techniques.

That being said, Yan Sea didn’t understand Yu Fei’s needs at all.

First of all, his daily practice time for the Taiwei Profound Origin Pillar was already maxed out; any more would be counterproductive. As for his basic Swordsmanship, just casually practicing it each day was enough. Even so, he wasn’t far from producing the one-foot sword glow said to be characteristic of the Perfection Realm. Consequently, he had a good amount of free time.

Besides, to further enhance his innate talent, he needed to possess formidable strength. Improving his combat power was an urgent matter.

After some careful searching in the Scripture Pavilion, a top-tier Iron Body Skill caught his eye.

[Pure Yang True Body]

’What a coincidence,’ he thought. The third effect of his own fused red talent, the [Void Martial Body], was called Yang Fire. Its description said: "Qi Blood becomes Pure Yang, impervious to all evil."

’They’re both based on Pure Yang,’ he realized. ’I might be able to learn it!’

It only cost 10 merit points. Yu Fei added it to his shopping cart and continued to browse.

In the end, he settled on the [Pure Yang True Body] and a highly-rated footwork technique called [Three Powers Footwork]. The description stated it was a simplified version of an Inner Qi Realm footwork, which meant it would allow for a seamless transition later on. The price, however, was staggering.

Original price: 499 merit points. Limited-time offer: 299. After buying the two techniques, Yu Fei was left with just 1 merit point. ’What the hell am I supposed to do with that?’

After selecting the techniques, all he had to do was wait for them to be delivered.

In his free time, he repeatedly watched the training essentials for the Taiwei Profound Origin Pillar in his Holographic Mirror Helmet. The high-tech device provided a fully immersive experience. However, it was locked to his personal iris scan after verification, so no one else could log in and use it.