Martial Intent

Wu Zhen moved onto the second technique, and then the third, and then the fourth, and even a fifth one.

Within a day, he had mastered 5 techniques.

The next day, he returned to the practice stage. In the huge practice stage, he was seemingly inconspicuous, but to anyone who observed closely, they could see a pattern. He would start demonstrating an art slowly and roughly, and then speed it up until he mastered it.

Another day passed. On this day, he had mastered 7 techniques. His pace was growing even faster.

A week passed. In this week, he had mastered 140 techniques. As he mastered more and more techniques, he began to notice similarities between them all, making comprehending more even easier.

By now, he could comprehend more than 20 per day.

Mastering techniques also seemed to bring Wu Zhen ever closer to whatever the rank beyond Absolute Perfection was. Every time he mastered a technique, he could feel himself inching closer to that level. Whereas before it was just speculation, he now knew that a rank beyond Absolute Perfection did exist.

2 months had passed since he arrived in the mortal world. He had just finished mastering the thousandth martial art.

Instead of moving on to another martial art, Wu Zhen instead began practicing Divine Lightning Strikes. All of his forms were normal, up until the 108th form. For the 108th form, he had to perform a tornado kick infused with the power of Divine Lightning. For normal people, it would be quite challenging, but for cultivators who practiced body refining, it was quite simple.

As he performed the 108th form, he felt like the form itself had completely changed. As his kick hit the dummy's head, its head broke off from its body and hit a person practicing on the other side of the stage.

The power of that form had doubled, no, tripled, maybe even quadrupled.

None of his previous attacks had been able to damage the dummy at all, giving it a few scratches and dents, but this one attack had removed its head from its body. What had changed that it had so drastically improved his power?

Then, the answer hit him. In one of the books he had read in an obscure corner of the Martial Star Library, it had mentioned something called martial intent. If one was able to break through the rank of Absolute Perfection, they would be able to create a mysterious power called martial intent.

He had achieved the level of martial intent. Now, as he performed the moves of Divine Lightning strikes, he could feel a small amount of martial intent in every move. He thought that book was just fiction, but it turned out to actually be real! He named his new martial intent Divine Lightning Intent.

After comprehending martial intent, his speed grew tremendously and he was able to comprehend more than a hundred techniques each day. He finished mastering all 3000 techniques in 2 weeks.

After mastering all 3000 martial arts, he felt his foundation in martial arts had deepened greatly. His Divine Lightning Intent also grew even stronger, becoming even more terrifying.

He would be able to defeat the first opponent he faced with one hit now.

Combining the power of the soul and martial intent resulted in an incredibly powerful killing technique but was far too exhausting.

Now that he was done with practicing, he wanted to see just how strong he was. He returned to the receptionist once more.

"I would like to fight against a martial artist one level stronger than me, please."

The receptionist quickly jotted it down on a piece of paper nearby him and replied, "Sir, please be seated and wait until we call your name."

Wu Zhen sat down and waited. He was itching to fight since it had been so long and he had become much stronger.

After 20 minutes, his name was called. He walked into the arena, looking at his opponent. His opponent was a Qi Ocean 2 martial artist.

The crowd was excited, rank-crossing matches did not happen often.

Wu Zhen did not move first. He didn't want to reveal his power first. Seeing that Wu Zhen wasn't going to move first, his opponent dashed forward, taking the opportunity. Even if it was a trap, he believed that a Qi Ocean 1 couldn't possibly defeat a Qi Ocean 2 unless he was from the Azure Blade sect. Since Wu Zhen didn't have a sword, he was probably not from the Azure Blade sect.

"This is your defeat. Inferno Dragon fist!", Wu Zhen's opponent yelled.

"Same to you.", Wu Zhen said calmly before sidestepping his fist easily. His opponent was shocked. How did he dodge that?

Still, his opponent continued with a barrage of punches. Wu Zhen dodged, ducked, flipped, hopped, and did whatever he could to dodge every single move. He even closed his eyes. Using the power of the soul, he could sense the attacks that were being launched at him. The crowd watched on in shock. How was he capable of dodging even with his eyes closed?

Wu Zhen got sick of dodging and decided to attack. With one fist, he knocked out his opponent and left the ring. The crowd let out loud cheers. That was undoubtedly the most shocking performance on that ring for the entire day.

The rewards he received were much better than his previous fight, being 2000 gold pieces and a Demonic Strength pill.

A Demonic Strength pill was a pill that, when consumed, would give a cultivator 250 kilograms of extra strength. Wu Zhen immediately went to a secluded place and swallowed the pill. He felt extreme pain for a few moments before he felt a surge in strength. He felt like he was at least 40-50% stronger. The effects were truly miraculous.

It was said that the pill was refined from the core of a Qi Ocean demon, which was why it was named the Demonic Strength pill.

After consuming the Demonic Strength pill, he returned to the practice arena. He wanted to learn as many intents as possible so he could challenge stronger people in the Martial Star Arena.

After practicing till midnight, he had barely managed to learn Autumn Leaf Intent. Comprehending intents was much harder than training a technique to Absolute Perfection. The next day, he once again challenged a Qi Ocean 2 fighter and won, giving him another 2000 gold pieces and a Demonic Strength pill. When he consumed it again, however, the effect lessened, only giving him an extra 50 kilograms of strength. Still, it was useful.

He carried on, comprehending intents and fighting in the arena to earn more Demonic Strength pills. After a couple of days, Demonic Strength pills were no longer effective at all. In total, all of them had given him a 300 kg boost.

Although the Demonic Strength pills were ineffective, he still received the gold pieces from every battle. After all his battles, he had amassed a fortune of more than 10000 gold.

With his 10000 gold, he could buy better body refining pills that would help him amass even more strength, but before that, he wanted to break through to the third rank of Nine Lightning Body first.

"Hey, Freedom God-Emperor, do you know any way I can break through?", Wu Zhen asked. Freedom God-Emperor had a vast amount of knowledge, after all.

"I might be able to help you with that. Since I absorbed that thunder spirit into my body, I can hit you with a bolt of lightning that's strong enough for you to break through.", Freedom God-Emperor replied. Although his cultivation was unstable, his body refining was still relatively stable, so breaking through would not be a bad thing.

Wu Zhen returned to the room he rented in the Martial Star Arena and prepared for the thunderbolt he was going to face.

"I'm going to release it now."

A terrifying bolt of lightning emerged out of the projection of Freedom God-Emperor. In an instant, it hit Wu Zhen's body.

Instead of fainting like last time, he was able to withstand it. His body had grown a lot stronger since then. He absorbed its massive electrical force into his body, tempering it. The pain was immeasurable. It was far more than he had felt refining his body for the second time. The only reason he was able to tough it out was because of the strength given by the Demonic Strength pills.

His body felt like it was undergoing a complete rebirth. It could no longer be compared to what it was before. The effect of the breakthrough was much, much stronger than the first time he took the Demonic Strength pill. The electricity in his body was so strong that merely touching it could produce a shock potent enough to knock out a Qi Condensation 1 martial artist.

"Body refining truly is terrifying!", Wu Zhen remarked. He felt confident that he could defeat a Qi Ocean 1 warrior without even using qi.

"Martial Intent within a month of practice. What a monster I've found.", Freedom God-Emperor thought to himself.