Chapter Ninety-Six: Spatial Arts

The rules of seniority in the cultivation world really are a mess...

When you live long enough, you really can do whatever you please.

Wang Li brushed aside the tangled matter of lineage and asked Master Sheng, “Xu Jing couldn’t even tell that her soul had a seal on it. This isn’t simple, is it?”

Master Sheng said dismissively, “It’s very simple.”

“How so?”

“The seal on her soul carries Xu Jing’s aura. If you wanted to hide a secret on your disciple, would you tell that disciple you had placed a seal on his soul?”

“Uh... probably not...”

“Then that settles it. Are you still fighting or not? If not, I’m going back to sleep. Ask whatever else you want after I wake up. Oh, and Yun Jingzi’s technique is pretty good. You can study it a bit; it’ll help you better grasp the laws of space.”

Master Sheng gave Wang Li no chance to ask more. After tossing out that one remark, he fell silent.

Wang Li still wanted to ask what secrets Yun Jingzi was hiding, and why he himself could break the barrier of space with a single punch. But since Master Sheng did not want to speak, he set those questions aside for the time being.

He looked at Yun Jingzi. “Your trump card won’t work on me. There’s no point in going on. I might as well help you complete your technique first.”

The fight was definitely over, and could not continue. He could not guarantee he would still be able to shatter a spatial barrier with one punch, and from the look on Yun Jingzi’s face, she probably had no mind to keep fighting either.

Yun Jingzi had questions of her own, especially after Wang Li said that the flaw in her soul was not innate, but the result of a seal. If she did not get to the bottom of it, she would remain uneasy.

But since Wang Li clearly did not want to say more, she could not press him. She would have to find another chance later.

Besides, the problem with her soul did not affect her too severely. At least for now, it mattered less than her technique. Wang Li had taken the initiative to help her complete it, and that opportunity was too rare to miss.

“This is the technique I practice. It’s called Empty Severance. Though it is called a technique, it is more of a concealment and offensive art. It has nine tiers, but because of my own cultivation level, I can only bring it to the fifth tier, which barely reaches the standard of a low-grade mystic-rank technique.”

Yun Jingzi handed Wang Li the jade slip that recorded her technique and said, “The explanation for the divine sense is not included. I’ll explain it aloud.”

Wang Li took the jade slip and waved a hand. “No need. I have my own way.”

He gave no further explanation. Returning to the great boulder where he usually sat in meditation, he sank his divine sense into the jade slip.

After reading the technique, Wang Li had to admit that geniuses truly existed in this world.

The techniques of the Heavenly Mystery World mainly focused on cultivating the five elemental spiritual energies, but there were also many other paths of cultivation, such as lightning techniques, spiritual techniques, body cultivation, soul cultivation, reincarnation, nirvana, and so on. Naturally, there were also cultivators who wielded powers like time and space.

It was just that such cultivators were not the mainstream, and the number of corresponding techniques was far smaller than that of the five elemental arts.

Wang Li himself cultivated lightning techniques and spiritual techniques. And considering his special constitution, he could barely be counted among body cultivators as well. He therefore knew very well how difficult it was to cultivate special techniques, and he understood even more clearly how hard it was to create one from nothing.

Although he had his heaven-defying data-analysis ability, which could synthesize techniques suitable for himself, that still depended on collecting multiple existing techniques of the same attribute. It was not self-created. Even so, to this day he had still not managed to raise Soul Suppression Manual or the Thunder of Justice Scripture to a rank equal to the five elemental techniques. There were indeed objective factors, such as the lack of foundational techniques, but that only further proved how difficult it was to cultivate special techniques.

Yet Yun Jingzi, relying on her own exploration and her own unique traits, had forcefully created a technique that reached all the way to the laws of space. How could Wang Li not be astonished?

In his admiration for her peerless talent, Wang Li smoothly completed Empty Severance. But because his own cultivation level was still limited, and because he had no other space-type techniques to use as reference material, he merely filled in all nine tiers. He did not perfect it, much less raise its rank.

Still, Wang Li had not worked in vain. He had almost obtained a precious and exceedingly rare space-type technique for nothing, and it resonated with the spatial laws he had just comprehended, bringing him immense benefit.

The only pity was that a space-type technique could not greatly increase his cultivation speed the way five-element, lightning, and spiritual techniques could.

Yun Jingzi was very satisfied after receiving the final four tiers of the technique.

She was a contented person. With those four tiers in hand, she had more than enough to complete her accumulation before the Tribulation Realm.

Moreover, in the last four tiers, she discovered things that clearly surpassed her own understanding of the laws of space. She guessed those things must have come from Wang Li, but she felt that was perfectly natural. They gave her quite a few new insights, and perhaps could even help her find a new breakthrough in her cultivation.

Satisfied, more than satisfied.

Yun Jingzi was deeply grateful to Wang Li, while Wang Li himself remained somewhat cool. After saying a few words of encouragement, he devoted himself to cultivating the complete Empty Severance.

In the corner, Jiang Yue had watched the entire battle. She put away her recording treasure and looked at Wang Li with sparkling eyes.

“Should I have that awful Wang Li complete my technique too?”

Jiang Yue was tempted, but her body remained obediently still, and she quietly observed him.

To be honest, she had not found Wang Li’s cultivation level surprising. What she had not expected was that he could so easily suppress Yun Jingzi. Even more unexpected was that he not only excelled in fire techniques, but also cultivated lightning techniques and spiritual techniques, and perhaps even space techniques.

That made no sense at all.

What kind of person could cultivate so many techniques of different attributes at the same time?

Was he not afraid of internal conflict among the techniques ruining his cultivation entirely?

Or could it be that he was one of those legendary...

Jiang Yue remembered something that Master Liuguang had once mentioned in passing, and Wang Li’s experiences were very much like that description.

According to Master Liuguang, anyone like that would surely lead an era once fully grown.

“Is Wang Li that kind of person?”

Jiang Yue had grown up. She knew how to think before jumping to conclusions.

She felt that... she might have discovered something extraordinary.

“Once the Chosen Selection is over, I should let Grandfather test Wang Li... That fraud Yun Jingzi has secrets too, hehe. Now you all have leverage in my hands...”

Wang Li did not know that the little girl had set her sights on him again. He was so immersed in the laws of space that he could hardly pull himself free.

Yun Jingzi, having obtained the complete technique, immediately entered meditation to cultivate, neatly and thoroughly forgetting all about Jiang Yue.

Time flew by like a white horse flashing past a gap in the fence. The second stage of the three-year Heaven's Selection soon came to an end, and a full seventy people emerged victorious, successfully advancing to the third stage of the trial.

When the third stage began, nothing happened like the delay Master Sheng had mentioned.

However, the third stage differed entirely from the first two. It was not a trial entered by everyone at once, but one in which people were admitted one by one according to their ranking in points for the final round.

After three years of quiet cultivation, Wang Li, Jiang Yue, and Yun Jingzi finally saw a fourth person.