Star Gate

Chapter 102: Sunderer of Hundreds (III)

The moon perfects itself only to wane and water fills only to overflow. If one underwent a sustained period of stagnation after reaching Fullmoon or peak Sunderer, prolonged struggle would mark the beginning of decline.

Yuan Shuo had dawdled at this level for a very long time. He held a deep impression that if martial masters didn’t shoot swiftly upward from this level, they would end up the same as him, stuck in a dead end for the rest of their life if they weren’t graced with a fortuitous encounter!

As it stood, Liu Long was ramming himself upward. He’d barely made it to Sunderer, yet the downhill plunge stared at him straight in the face if he didn’t continue his momentum!

“Teacher, how do you determine an initial Sunderer from a mid?” Li Hao couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea.

“That’s easy!” Yuan Shuo explained. “Sunderers project their internal force into only the four limbs when they first reach this level. The four limbs are the easiest to extend into—completing this stage means you’ve mastered initial Sunderer! Mid Sunderer is marked by the torso. It is mastered when internal force can project from all parts of the body except the head.

“Late Sunderer involves the head. Internal force can extend from the entire body—at this point, you can injure enemies with internal force from a head butt! This indicates perfect proficiency of your body, making you a late Sunderer!”

“Then what about peak Sunderer?” Li Hao blinked.

“Peak?” Yuan Shuo smiled. “That is when you come in contact with the consciousness! This level is a bit too profound for you at the moment. To put it simply, it feels like you’ve grown an omnipresent eye. You can perceive danger and sometimes sense people or see behind you. You might be able to view the inside of your body or your organs. You have touched the consciousness, which marks peak Sunderer! It is the first step to Dominator.”

Li Hao understood! He finally had a thorough outline of the martial master cultivation system. All Slayers needed to do was practice internal force and temper the physical body. Sunderers could project their internal force beyond the body. Extending it through the limbs was initial Sunderer, through the torso was mid Sunderer, everywhere throughout the body was late Sunderer. Looking inward, sensing danger, and grasping the consciousness was peak Sunderer.

“Is Captain Liu a peak Sunderer?” asked the young man.

“Not really, but kind of!” Yuan Shuo shook his head.

“How so?”

“It was mysterious power that elevated him to that level, so he has no inkling of the consciousness! He can be firmly considered a late Sunderer, but his accumulated internal force exceeds that level. Most modern martial masters share this problem! Thus, it’s not likely that Liu Long can break through, not unless he comprehends the consciousness. If he doesn’t, he either needs to make the crossover, or stay as a peak Sunderer for the rest of his life!”

“Is there no other way?” Li Hao frowned.

“There is!” Yuan Shuo grinned. “This is the hardest challenge for martial masters to overcome! How do you think I came in contact with the consciousness myself?”

The levels before weren’t too hard—accessing the consciousness was the real difficulty. Li Hao didn’t understand, but he knew that his teacher did. The professor was a Dominator, after all!

“How did you do it, teacher?”

“Martial training, intent training, heart training, and origin training!”

Li Hao looked on blankly.

Yuan Shuo sighed. You suddenly don’t seem too sharp either, kid. Forget it, I’ll go into more details since it hasn’t been long that you’ve known about martial dao.

“Take the New Book of Five Styles for example—I lived in the mountains for three years in order to break through to peak Sunderer! I spent the days observing the true characteristics of tigers, deer, bears, apes, and birds. I learned and imitated everything about them. Remember, imitate, not become then!

“Humans are humans and animals are animals. We need to grasp the profundities of our observations! Why do tigers attack through pouncing? How do they pounce and why can they accurately injure their enemy, delivering fatal hits with one move? How do deer determine that a tiger is about to ambush them?

“It is an extremely marvelous process!” Yuan Shuo chuckled. “Those who can understand will comprehend and those who cannot… Well, there’s no helping it. That means they really lack the potential!”

“Teacher, Captain Liu practices the Nine Forged Force,” Li Hao asked with newfound curiosity. “He’s not imitating the five animals. How can he grasp the consciousness if he wants to break through?”

“This hearkens to the origin of each martial dao secret art! Let’s talk about his Nine Forged Force—you need to consider how the inventor created it! What is the intrinsic nature of the Nine Forged Force? How does one layer internal force nine times in one move? Since I’ve never practiced it, I am unable to offer an answer.

“As its practitioner and a well versed one, does he not have a slightest inkling? Pursuing greater strength is correct, but pure strength will not propel one beyond the bottleneck!”

Li Hao nodded appreciatively. A few words from his teacher helped him sketch a rudimentary picture of the martial master cultivation system. As expected of a Dominator!

So Captain Liu couldn’t ascend because he wasn’t a true peak Sunderer yet. He’d yet to brush against the consciousness and understand it, so he was far from Dominator. This was a problem that mysterious power could not resolve and he might face the same difficulty in the future.

After learning all this, Li Hao turned his attention to absorbing mysterious power. Since he’d strengthened his spleen last time, the young man opted for the other organs first. Of the five organs, the heart corresponded to fire, spleen to earth, wood to liver, metal to lungs, and water to the kidneys.

Li Hao started with water first! Let’s work on the kidneys! Strong kidneys made for strong men… The well-read young man was aware of this. Stronger kidneys might translate to a stronger crotch… perhaps. In any case, he was growing concerned after using the same dirty trick twice. What if someone did the same to him?

Li Hao drew a tiny bit from the jade sword after water energy entered his body. He didn’t dare waste anything from Stellaris and was deathly afraid of consuming so much that he depleted the treasure.

The kidneys were vitally important as they discharged toxins and removed metabolic wastes. He wouldn’t have to worry about the enemy employing poison if his kidneys were strong enough—any that assailed him would be swiftly excreted.

This organ also regulated blood pressure. Someone with powerful blood like Li Hao easily sent his blood pressure racing. That wasn’t a severe problem in itself, other than his blood vessels easily breaking. This was a drawback of the blood being stronger than the body.

Motes of mysterious power filtered out of the human bone, entering the young man’s body to be swiftly segregated by cosmic power. The attributed portion acted just as Li Hao surmised—they corresponded to the five elements and began strengthening the kidneys!

Yuan Shuo closely observed his pupil all the while, various looks flashing through his eyes. He had some preliminary thoughts, but now wasn’t the time for experimentation.

After Li Hao absorbed two cubes of water energy, he swiftly took in metal and wood. When he finished digesting two cubes of the four elements, he reassessed the state of his strengthened organs. His body actually labored under a bit of strain. The various organs could endure blood flowing faster, but his heart… seemed overtaxed.

Babump, babump, babump!

His heart pounded furiously; the discomfort was bearable as the imbalance wasn’t too great.

“He’s missing fire!” Yuan Shuo instantly grasped, then thought of something else just as quickly. He swiftly vanished from the house.

……

Outside the residence.

Yuan Shuo bounded into the air and appeared in front of Hao Lianchuan. “Do you have fire attributed mysterious power?”

“Eh? No... what’s going on?”

“I remember that you’re a fire supernatural?”

“Yes…?”

“And you don’t have fire energy?”

“Me being a fire supernatural doesn’t mean I possess its mysterious power. Am I supposed to strip power from my own body?” Hao Lianchuan looked on wordlessly; he wasn’t in the habit of carrying that on him!

“Strip some from your body!”

“……” Hao Lianchuan nearly choked on his own spit. What was that supposed to mean? I’m still alive, but you want to strip my power?

“Hurry up and extract some! I’ll tell you a secret!”

“A secret?”

“Swiftly now!”

Fine then, Hao Lianchuan was very curious about this secret. He extracted a tiny amount from himself, at which Yuan Shuo frowned.

“That’s not enough, give me twenty cubes. That’s nothing to you!”

“……” Hao Lianchuan sighed. “Don’t be pulling the wool over my eyes, Professor Yuan. I hope this secret is worth twenty cubes!”

Yuan Shuo couldn’t be bothered with the director. He swiftly collected the fire energy in a supernatural object, to which Hao Lianchuan turned a blind eye. The old man had some money, huh! He’s squirreled away some good stuff over the years.

“What is this secret, Professor Yuan?” It didn’t matter if it wasn’t a big secret. Twenty cubes weren’t much and it’d seemed like Yuan Shuo was going to hit him if he didn’t agree. A secret would be an unexpected bonus.

However, the professor’s response shook him to the core. “Your heart is overtaxed! Fire energy is a great stimulant for the heart. You should absorb some energy of the other four elements, even if in trace amounts. It’s fine if there’s some conflict, just absorb a very small amount to counteract the burden on your heart. Otherwise… your heart may explode one day!”

With that, he glided through the air and swiftly disappeared, leaving a gaping Hao Lianchuan behind. His heart was overtaxed and he needed to partake some energy of the other elements! Yuan Shuo was right, he had indeed felt some strain on his heart lately, but didn’t think much of it.

“The energy of the five elements?” The director sank into deep thought, suddenly finding this to be a very worthwhile trade for twenty cubes. That old man certainly possessed a stunning amount of secrets. Any random one was worthy of immense attention!

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