Even for rare Gold Rank martial arts, few inner disciples reached the perfection stage, let alone the transcendent stage.
As for high-grade Gold Rank martial arts, it was said that one needed at least the cultivation of the Transcendent Realm Seventh Heaven to be qualified to practice them, and even then, comprehension was extremely difficult.
The ten core disciples generally practiced high-grade Gold Rank martial arts.
Top-grade Gold Rank martial arts were even more challenging, with greater requirements.
Among the Moonlight Sect disciples, only the top three of the ten core disciples were likely qualified to practice martial arts of this level; the rest were not.
Even many deacons, hall masters, and elder-level experts, due to their limited comprehension, could not grasp martial arts of this caliber.
In the Moonlight Sect, there were only about thirty top-grade Gold Rank martial arts, which was why Ling Xiao could quickly find the ones he liked.
He was also quite fortunate. If he had joined another sect, he might not have found martial arts like Soul Dice or Dragon Finger.
After all, these were treasures of the Moonlight Sect.
Yet, Ling Xiao had spent just a quarter of an hour comprehending these martial arts and had already reached the first level.
Such terrifying comprehension was truly formidable.
But upon closer consideration, the reasons were clear.
First, Ling Xiao possessed the Mountain River Martial Soul, whose analytical and deductive abilities were extraordinary, allowing him to comprehend extremely complex martial arts through the simplest methods.
Second, after his soul merged with the Mountain River Martial Soul, his comprehension reached a terrifying level, making so-called geniuses and super-geniuses pale in comparison.
Additionally, his prior cultivation of the Terrifying Finger helped him comprehend the Dragon Finger more quickly.
As for the rapid progress with the Soul Dice, it stemmed from his formidable soul force.
Regarding the Dragon Finger, he had essentially mastered it after a single glance. After all, the Terrifying Finger was derived from the Dragon Finger, and with the refinements from the Mountain River Martial Soul, it was even more perfect than the Dragon Finger, though it lacked a few techniques.
Once you master one method, all methods become clear.
Learning under these conditions was almost too easy.
The reason for learning the Terrifying Finger was to conceal his mastery of the Dragon Finger.
Such martial arts might exist in other sects, so Ling Xiao wasn’t worried about being discovered.
However, the Soul Dice was unique to the Moonlight Sect, passed down through generations, and absolutely could not have been leaked.
Since Ling Xiao had obtained it through unconventional means, a bit of concealment was necessary to avoid trouble.
After spending an hour consolidating the Dragon Finger at the first level, he even tested its power. When executed in human-dragon form, its power was comparable to the final move of the Nine Death Techniques, “Destruction.”
However, “Destruction” was an area-of-effect technique.
The Dragon Finger, on the other hand, condensed true essence into a single line, focusing all damage on one point, making its single-target destructive power astonishing.
He also gradually familiarized himself with the six variations of the Soul Dice.
Since the six points represented six distinct attack methods, their power was hard to gauge.
Overall, its controllability was poor because the points were random, making it difficult to predict the outcome of a roll.
However, its overall power was even more terrifying than the Dragon Finger.
For ordinary battles, the Nine Death Techniques or Dragon Finger were more suitable.
But against extremely powerful opponents or those with unknown abilities, the Soul Dice was more appropriate.
It was like gambling: with good luck, rolling a suitable attack mode would be formidable, but if the roll was unsuitable, while the attack would still be terrifying, the lack of control was problematic.
For now, he would choose different martial techniques in combat based on the opponent’s strength and fighting style.
The most commonly used were still the Nine Death Techniques and the Mountain River Heart Method. The Soul Dice, Dragon Finger, and martial arts laws were still in the comprehension and cultivation phase, not yet fully mastered.
He might occasionally test them, but they wouldn’t be his primary attack methods.
Even so, his current strength was formidable.
Even a Transcendent Realm Fifth Heaven martial artist would have to pay a heavy price to defeat him.
Feeling he had comprehended enough, Ling Xiao set aside these two newly acquired martial arts and prepared to spend some time advancing “Cloud Dragon Divine Movement” and the Demonic Art of Ten Thousand Beasts.
He had previously cultivated many entry-level Gold Rank martial arts as materials for advancement, and now was the time to use them.
The advancement process was simpler than before, mainly due to his familiarity.
After about two hours, Ling Xiao’s “Cloud Dragon Divine Movement” advanced to a high-grade Gold Rank movement technique.
As the name suggests, he infused the essence of formations into this technique, making it more elusive, not only faster but also harder to track.
To advance this technique further, he would need rare Gold Rank martial arts as materials, which was quite extravagant.
Another two hours later, his Demonic Art of Ten Thousand Beasts successfully advanced to a high-grade Gold Rank martial art.
The advanced version unlocked the abilities of two great demon kings: the Ferocious Beast Demon King and the Plague Demon King!
Ferocious Beast Demon King: After demonization, one can use the power of ferocious beasts, enhancing attack and defense, with the body undergoing certain unique changes.
Plague Demon King: After demonization, one can use the power of plagues, either spreading or absorbing plagues. The body undergoes no changes, but the aura becomes extremely sinister.
Given Ling Xiao’s style, he wasn’t fond of the Plague Demon King, but “plague” could be used against enemies. As long as it didn’t harm the innocent, it was fine to use.
More crucially, after advancing to a high-grade Gold Rank martial art, the supplementary abilities improved significantly. Previously, it could boost power by ten percent; now, it could boost by twenty percent and included special effects.
This naturally aided the use of other martial techniques.
Most importantly, his physical combat strength had greatly increased.
In situations where true essence and soul force couldn’t be used, this would play a critical role.
…
After advancing these two extraordinary techniques, Ling Xiao left his cave dwelling and headed to the “Mission Bulletin Board” in the Inner Gate Main Hall.
Everything he had done was to take on a few sect missions.
This way, he could not only train himself but also earn sect points, a rare opportunity.
If he could accumulate enough sect points, even without exchanging them for martial arts manuals, there were still miraculous elixirs, divine weapons, and other items to redeem.
