One hour pa.s.sed, 5th layer middle stage!

Another hour pa.s.sed, 5th layer late stage!

Half an hour later, 5th layer peak!

Ming Ren wanted to break through the bottleneck in one go but realized it would take decades at this rate. The amount of Spirit Energy needed to pa.s.s through the bottlenecks in his cultivation more than quintupled with the improvement to the One Breath Luminescence Art and the primary awakening of his physique.

Ming Ren had the experience and knowledge needed for the physique to progress but lacked Spirit Energy. The fastest way was to find more cultivation resources, such as Spirit Stones, Monster Cores, or Pills. Opening all of his meridians would also help with the speed but he needed at least a good set of acupuncture needles to start doing so.

Inside Lin Yu Xue's s.p.a.ce ring, there were 100 gold coins, 30 low-grade spirit stones, a few manuals of the Cloud Clan and a couple of swords. Although those spirit stones were not low to the Ming Ren from before, to him right now they were too few.

One of the swords was a low-grade first rank double-edged straight sword while the other one was an unranked peak sword.

Unranked swords were equivalent to the level of power of a pract.i.tioner of the Body Tempering Realm, while the first rank corresponded to the Spirit Sea Realm. Each pa.s.sing rank became increasingly rare, and even Spirit Gate Cultivators usually carried only one peak 1st Rank Weapon. A weapon at the 2nd Rank, equivalent to the Spirit Gate Realm, was considered an amazing treasure.

Whether the weapon had other features or not would also greatly increase their rarity and cost. Skills could be imprinted on weapons through Runic Characters, and all sorts of other extremely amazing improvements could be done.

The low-grade sword didn't have any attributes or special features. Ming Ren remembered it cost 1.000 gold coins, while the unranked peak sword cost 100 gold coins. With a flick of his wrist, the unranked sword came out, and together with it, as soon as it landed in his hands, a fearful intent that threatened to slash everything apart.

Ming Ren swiftly cut from in several directions, each strike with a graceful flow. The Bright Sword Art was comprised of several speed-focused techniques, and Ming Ren only studied those of the Body Tempering Realm with his real body but experienced many other techniques in the Bright Scripture.

If Cultivation Law Merits could be divided into Qi Gathering Speed, Qi Distribution Precision, Internal Spirit Energy Conversion to External Spirit Energy, Qi Might, and Potential of Body Strengthening, all interlinked and dependant on each other, direct damage Martial and Mystic Arts depended on three factors: might, speed, and spirit consumption.

What was the greatest might the technique could produce?

In terms of merit, Arts could be divided into Human, Earth, and Heaven Tier as well. Each Tier was divided further into low-grade, middle-grade and high-grade. The higher the tier, the higher the difficulty and power of the technique. Some techniques might require other special attributes, True Elements, or Rare Energies, such as Mental Power.

Each Art inside a Tier was cla.s.sified according to their merits. The Bright Fist was a middle-grade human tier art because it had low might, high-grade speed, and middle consumption. It was also an innate light art, which meant its power would be raised when combined with the True Element of Light.

When measuring according to a cultivator's power, the Bright Fist could easily generate might equivalent to the first layer of the body tempering realm at its small success stage, at the second layer of the body tempering realm at its middle success stage, at the third level at the great success stage, and at the fourth level at the Perfection stage.

When compared to a cultivator's speed, the Bright Fist could generate speed equivalent to the fourth layer of the Body Tempering Realm at small success, the fifth layer at middle success, sixth at great success, and seventh layer at the Perfect stage.

Only the spirit consumption of a technique didn't change with the practice stages. The more might a technique generate, the more spirit it used.

If the Bright Fist had high might, the small success stage would be equivalent to the seventh layer, middle to the eight layer, great success to the ninth layer, and Perfection stage equivalent to a 1st layer spirit realm cultivator's might.

Of course, the Cultivation Law and Technique were mutually interdependent, so a high-grade technique and a low-grade cultivation law, or a high-grade cultivation law and low-grade technique, would still be unable to bring out the most potential out of the cultivator.

A Cultivation Law with low-grade Qi Might reduced the final amount of power by one level, so a cultivator that reached the perfection stage of the Bright Fist would only be able to display might equivalent to the third layer of the body tempering realm. Middle-grade Qi Might maintained the balance in the level of power, high-grade increased the power by one, and a perfect grade allowed the might to rise by two whole levels.

This meant that a Peak Human Realm technique at the Perfection Stage with a high-grade Qi Might Cultivation Law would be able to reach a full might equivalent to the 3rd layer of the Spirit Realm, turning the cultivator into someone able to cross realms and fight more powerful foes.

However, being able to reach this level of power doesn't mean that he can do so without worries. First, the user would need enough Spirit Energy to sustain such an attack, something a common cultivator would be unable to do, especially at the Body Tempering Realm, without access to a complete Spirit Sea.

Second, the needed to be strong enough to withstand the strike itself, otherwise, it might be destroyed in the process!

Aside from the Cultivation Law, other techniques might raise the power level of a technique, such as an innate physique or supplementary art. And, obviously, cultivation itself was a limiting factor to might.

Someone at the 4th layer that brings out the full potential of a high might technique can only reach power equivalent to its own cultivation. It could never bring enough power to match the 7th layer without other factors. The higher the grade of the technique, the easier it is for someone who comprehends it to display its might.

Cultivation Law might and innate physiques are exceptions to this rule. Someone at the 4th layer with a high might technique and a Perfect Qi Might tyrannical cultivation would be able to bring out power equivalent to the Sixth Layer, but his body might not necessarily stand the repeated use, or his internal spirit energy might not be enough.

This doesn't mean a technique with low-grade Qi might, like the Bright Fist, when used by a 7th layer cultivator, would never be able to reach a power equal to that layer, but that he would need to spend much more Spirit Energy to compensate for the technique's innate lack of power.

It all depended on whether the pract.i.tioner would be able to comprehend the art or not in the first place. Some arts demanded extreme comprehension potential and specific powers. Not reaching at least the small success stage severely limited the resulting might and speed.

In the end, cultivation base was still the most important factor in might.

Ming Ren stepped forward and cut in an arc gracefully and swiftly. This was the Sword Art of his clan, [Bright Sword First Movement - Flash]. The intent that appeared earlier was completely gone, and the slash only carried the power of the 1st layer of the Body Tempering Realm. He only reached the Small Success Stage with it.

It was also a low might technique with high-grade speed, so its power was not great.

Once more, Ming Ren repeated the slash, this time powering the technique with more Spirit Energy, reaching the fifth layer, the same as his cultivation base. The amount of spirit energy cost greatly increased as well.

Ming Ren practiced the technique for a while, utilizing all the knowledge he acquired inside the Bright Sculpture to master the Sword Art. It didn't take long.

Middle Success Stage, 2nd layer might, 5th layer speed!

Great Success Stage, 3rd layer might, 5th layer speed!

Perfection Stage, 4th layer might, 5th layer speed!

After completely mastering the first movement, Ming Ren stepped forward once again and cut with the same motion as before, but this time revolving the Spirit Energy inside his body to activate the One breath Luminescence.

The strike carried a might of the sixth layer, and its speed reached the seventh layer!

It was better, but not enough. Ming Ren calmed himself and breathed in, activating both the One Breath Luminescence Art and his Dragon Light Divine Body Physique, as well as increasing the amount of Spirit Energy to the maximum.

This time the slash produced strong might, reaching power equivalent to the eight layer of the Body Tempering Realm in both might and speed.

He instantly felt drained of Spirit Energy, but there was no harm to his body. The tempering that happened during the breakthrough to the fifth layer already strengthed it enough to resist the power equivalent to the 8th layer.

This was already heaven-defying for sure!

As a fifth layer cultivator, being able to threaten and kill those at the eight layer was almost unheard of, except for those Heaven's Chosen sons and daughters of the biggest clans.

Ming Ren gripped the sword tightly, full of expectation and pride.

His fate already changed.