The Moonlight Sect likely placed this martial art behind the wooden door to prevent more talented inner sect disciples from cultivating it by mistake.
After all, newly promoted inner sect disciples are typically wouldn’t choose such a difficult, highly demanding, and extremely dangerous martial art.
Breaking through to the Mortal Realm is no easy feat, and failure means losing all prior progress, a cost far too great.
Through deep contemplation, Ling Xiao identified two characteristics of Twelve Golden Lotus Technique.
First, like most internal cultivation methods, each additional lotus petal raises the practitioner’s realm by one level, increasing the quantity and quality of true essence and cultivation. With twelve levels, it surpasses most internal methods by three.
Second, unique to Twelve Golden Lotus Technique, each petal allows the practitioner to harness a celestial force, totalling twelve celestial forces.
Celestial forces have no hierarchy; their power grows with each petal.
Level 1: Sense celestial force, enhancing Cloud Dragon Divine Movement.
Level 2: Celestial force takes shape, becoming more pronounced and powerful.
Level 3: Celestial force fully enters, greatly increasing power. With three forces available, their combined use makes Cloud Dragon Divine Movement unmatched among same-grade martial arts.
Levels 4–6: Celestial force reaches minor success, with increasing power and more vivid phenomena, producing special effects—wind cuts, thunder stuns, rain restores true essence, lightning paralyses.
Levels 7–8: Celestial force nears major success, with even more terrifying destructive power and growth.
Level 9: Celestial force reaches perfection, with nine phenomena dancing chaotically. Combined with Cloud Dragon Divine Movement, it can trigger natural phenomena, depending on martial soul and weather. If successful, practitioners below the Transcendent Realm are negligible, and even early Transcendent Realm experts must retreat.
Levels 10–12: Unverified due to lack of practical testing, but presumed to fully harness celestial forces, capable of killing Transcendent Realm experts.
…
The final three levels aside, as untested speculation may be unreliable, the ninth level’s perfection is already terrifying.
In suitable weather, triggering celestial forces makes Ling Xiao nearly invincible below the Transcendent Realm, potentially killing opponents instantly.
Even Transcendent Realm experts must avoid such conditions.
Ancient martial arts are indeed ancient, and this one, created by a madman, has power far beyond rare gold-grade martial arts, possibly even surpassing superior gold-grade ones.
Could it be top-tier gold-grade?
Who knows? Among gold-grade martial arts, it’s the most terrifying but also the most dangerous.
The Moonlight Sect’s loss of hundreds of top geniuses to this technique proves it.
Only a lunatic would create such a martial art.
In such perilous conditions, only a lunatic would cultivate it.
Ling Xiao always believed that, lacking a foundation or clan, he had to take extreme paths to compete with noble clan geniuses.
Fortunately, with his Mountain River Martial Soul, alchemy, and array crafting, he could minimise cultivation risks.
Having comprehended it, he began cultivation.
Level 1: Condense the first golden lotus petal, sensing the celestial force—wind.
Ling Xiao lacked a wind-type martial soul, but his Mountain River Martial Soul encompassed everything, a world containing nearly all celestial phenomena, making comprehension trivial.
During cultivation, Ling Xiao activated his Mountain River Martial Soul.
He dared not use it in combat for fear of discovery, but in cultivation, protected by cave abode arrays and his own disruptive airflow, no one could detect it.
He used only one of the Mountain River Martial Soul’s powers—wind.
Within the Mountain River Martial Soul, fierce winds raged, howling through forests and whipping seas into waves.
Seizing the moment, Ling Xiao began cultivating.
With the martial soul’s aid, his exceptional comprehension, and the Mountain River Martial Soul’s analytical ability, he mastered the first level in just an hour, a golden lotus petal shimmering at his dantian.
“Heh, my judgment was spot-on. With the Mountain River Martial Soul, I’m a perfect match for Twelve Golden Lotus Technique!”
Though he expected cultivation to be manageable, having experience with superior gold-grade martial arts, he hadn’t anticipated it being this easy.
According to the manual, even the creator needed at least seven days for the first level, while others took months, years, or decades.
Ling Xiao’s advantage lay in his terrifying comprehension and the celestial forces within his Mountain River Martial Soul.
This cultivation speed would likely astonish even the technique’s creator.
The second level was relatively harder, as is typical with martial arts—the higher the level, the greater the difficulty.
But this difficulty was relative.
The second level required the celestial force of “thunder.”
This posed no challenge for Ling Xiao.
With the Mountain River Martial Soul activated, the weather in his world shifted from fierce winds to booming thunder.
A thunder bear phantom appeared behind him.
With these aids, condensing the second lotus petal took only three hours.
This was his advantage, an immense one!
While condensing two petals, Ling Xiao’s cultivation surged, advancing from 20% Half-Step Master to 50% Half-Step Master, a speed like flying.
A good internal cultivation method indeed boosts cultivation significantly, and his judgment was correct.
The third level’s difficulty increased further. Ling Xiao tried but found the first two levels’ foundations unstable, making success elusive and the process fraught with risks.
After consideration, he paused further cultivation, splitting a clone to consolidate the first two levels’ gains.
Another clone continued to comprehend.
