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Chapter 500: Cultivation, Promotion, Farewell (II)

Why is that? Li Hao wondered. Why had the three cavities vanished? Following the proper order for gradual advancements might be easier if they were still present.

According to the ancient books, proceeding down the proper order might make for easier and stronger cultivation. The young man didn’t understand why the three cavities of the books had vanished in modern society. Although the supernatural locks provided similar function, it created enormous trouble for martial masters as they accumulated energy that was continuously funneled into the body!

The stronger they were, the harder they were to break in the end. Releasing the self resulted in what had happened to modern day martial masters. There was so much power contained in the supernatural locks that the body and organs couldn’t withstand it. The organs of the ancients weren’t necessarily stronger, their tempering seemed to be easy training in Li Hao’s eyes. It wouldn’t necessarily measure up to Yuan Shuo’s decades of nurturing, but even Yuan Shuo couldn’t withstand the power of summoning spirits in all five organs.

A variety of thoughts ran through the young man’s mind. Some of the knowledge that his teacher had passed on also floated to the forefront. Li Hao thought of the Black Armors, how these soldiers’ souls remained unceasing and their obsessions undying millions of years after their death. They weren’t the novices that the ancients spoke of. Instead, they were likely the so-called grandmaster level martial masters since they’d formed mental strength.

This was an innumerable sum of grandmaster! This was an army formed of grandmasters. Otherwise, they would’ve faded away after the physical body died. There would be no lingering obsession.

Li Hao continued to read as energy flowed into his body to strengthen his organs.

“The ancients simply needed to open their passages of blood qi and construct a circulation system of energy to build the five bridges. But if we do so now, our fragile passages won’t possibly support the domineering power of the five organs. This is particularly true for those of us who have strong supernatural locks and auras. A circulation system of the five organs won’t work at all.”

The more Li Hao thought about it, the more he felt it was the supernatural locks that could truly support such an endeavor. But could supernatural locks permit the flow of blood qi and energy? They absorbed energy. If blood qi passed through them, perhaps they’d just devour that too. In that regard, the locks would continue to grow stronger until they reached an ultimate peak and stopped taking in energy.

Was there such a limit to the locks?

Li Hao frowned, he didn’t know and had never heard about one. Perhaps other people were trying to find it, but he’d yet to do so or reach a point of finding that his supernatural locks weren’t taking in more energy.

The young man suddenly thought of someone.

“Paging Company Leader He Yong!””

“......” He Yong’s signal traveled out of the silver armor after a while. “What?”

“Is Martial Uncle He still nearby?”

“I’m leaving after a few days, what?”

“I have a question, martial uncle. Is there a limit to the locks? Is there a point in which they don’t absorb energy anymore and stick to a certain state without changing...”

“Yo, not bad kid! You’re already studying that step? Of course there’s limits. I told you before that those who can break their locks and unseal themselves have reached the extremity of a path. There’s a sign of that limit—the locks no longer taking in energy!” He Yong hadn’t thought that Li Hao would start studying this system so quickly. “If we ignore the lock in the head, we’ve discovered nine locks in the human boy.

“Setting aside supernaturals, martial masters like us have filled the locks of our limbs to their limits. That is the cultivation level we sit at. When the locks of our four limbs are fully saturated, that puts us on par with Nova level battle strength!

“If we continue to strengthen the locks of the five organs... that makes for the hardest step. Strengthening the locks does not also mean strengthening the organs, so the organs tend to be very weak. Not a single one of my locks of the organs are at that ultimate stage yet. Someone like Hong Yitang may have accomplished it with one of his locks, so they normally display peak Nova strength. I can only display mid Nova!”

He Yong gave a detailed overview. “This is a bit far removed from you since I sense the locks of your four limbs have yet to reach saturation. Hence, Ole Hong and I didn’t say anything. To think that you’d be researching this so quickly!”

A light danced in Li Hao’s eyes. I see! He finally fully understood what it meant for a martial master to unseal himself. The supernatural locks!

“Then why don’t we unseal the locks of the four limbs? Why do we open the ones of the five organs?” This was a question that still floated through his mind.

“I don’t know about the others as our paths may differ. As for me, I tried and couldn’t. While the locks of my limbs are saturated, I find that the ones of my organs are easier to budge. The ones of the limbs seem to have solidified and cannot be broken. No battle strength can be released. All you’ll get for your efforts is a massive fart, which would be hilarious!”

Li Hao laughed as well. “So, this means that the locks of your five organs are saturated because the ones of your limbs are, right?”

“Not necessarily. Some may choose to strengthen the ones of the five organs first—it’s all up to individual choice. Some may even go straight for the one in the head. That’s what Tyrant Blade did. His mind intent is incredible, so it’s possible that he focused on the head first...”

“So what my teacher is doing is focusing on the five organs first?”

“Yes!” He Yong affirmed. “They are the hardest—or rather, they’re as difficult as the head. The four limbs should be the easiest, which is what most martial masters choose these days. I am so, Ole Hong is probably so. We end up at the same destination, the only difference is how we reach that final stop.

“There’s another point of difficulty to the five organs, and that’s that the locks aren’t completely independent of each other. They possess five different abilities, ones that conflict with each other! This conflict is the greatest source of trouble as it easily causes the five organs to break apart. It is why we have yet to find the proper method to progress beyond this difficulty.

“Your teacher’s Breathing Method of the Five Styles may resolve this limitation, so we’re all waiting and hoping!”

A sigh ended his words—it looked like he was quite tormented by this conundrum. Strengthening the five organs was a very difficult path to walk.

“Even if your teacher succeeds, he has five auras while we have one. That’s another major point of difference. So you tell me, do we have any hope even if he succeeds?” He Yong was very pessimistic.

“Don’t forget the Building Five Bridges method,” Li Hao reminded. “There might be some problems with teacher’s breathing method that may be resolved when we train the five organs as one!”

“You’re studying Building Five Bridges already! Have you had any gains?”

“Yes, but I’ve run into some difficulties that may require some of my teacher’s theories...” And the difficulty there was that his teacher’s organs likely hadn’t reached full capacity yet. Then would his organs continuously reside in a weakened state if his teacher tempered them, with only the supernatural lock being made stronger instead?

There were still main points that his teacher didn’t mention. Perhaps he’d discovered them only after he left. Had he resolved them? If he hadn’t, Li Hao would have to strengthen his locks to their utmost before building the five bridges. In that case, He Yong and Hong Yitang might as well abandon hope! Who knew how long that would take?

The knowledge that Li Hao currently possessed was insufficient for him to make some changes. Perhaps only his teacher could modify the breathing method so that the energy would be balanced and avoid being absorbed by the supernatural locks.

The young man cut their communications short. He couldn’t locate his teacher at the moment, anyway, so he might as well continue strengthening his organs and their locks. Since he had sword energy, it was much easier for him to do so than anyone else. Otherwise... one supernatural lock might take him many years to fully strengthen. It was much easier with sword energy at hand.

With that in mind, Li Hao began absorbing elemental energy. Rays of energy melded into his body, mimicking the efforts of the martial masters outside. Endless energy seeped out for them to digest. A black dog occasionally took in a few mouthfuls as well. It was noticeably fatter than it was earlier and was drowsy from overeating. This place was the best!

Apart from Liu Long, the other forty-nine martial masters had almost all entered late Sunderer. There were two or three who’d yet to do so, but it was only a matter of time. The captains were beginning to hone their mind intent.

There was one exception among them—Wang Ming. He was different in that he didn’t need to comprehend mind intent. He absorbed vast quantities of elemental energy to baptize his supernatural lock before absorbing it into his organs. His metal energy was noticeably stronger than the rest and he reached late Sunflare in the blink of an eye. He even began progressing toward peak Sunflare.

There were both advantages and disadvantages to supernaturals. A major point in favor was that they didn’t have particularly significant bottlenecks at the moment. They simply needed to locate their supernatural and slowly wear away at it to grow into their strength. Their rate of progress was superb!

However, he wasn’t in a hurry to break his next supernatural lock. He only saw five at the moment, which would theoretically take him to Nova. But he recalled what Yuan Shuo had said, that his potential would be greater if he strengthened his supernatural locks!

When he broke his last lock, he’d fused the fragments into his other locks. That was one strengthening. Now he absorbed more elemental energy to continue fortifying them and not just wear away at them. Since he couldn’t be a martial master, he would be a powerful supernatural! There was so much energy for him to choose from. If he’d followed the proper order of things, he might be making his way to Solar already.

But after some thought, Wang Ming decided to slow his progress down. Even if he couldn’t withstand martial masters of his cultivation level, he wanted to be invincible among supernaturals!