There are an uncountable number of martial art techniques and cultivation methods in the world. One could even say that the number was endless as new techniques were created every day. Most of them, however, are low ranking and won't benefit anyone above a certain level.
The levels of techniques from worst to best are, Third-rate, Second-rate, First-rate, Human, Earth, Heaven, Perfected, and Transcendent.
A first rate power in the world, such as the strongest immortal sects and families, need at least a Heaven grade martial art to be called as such. The strongest of them have a Perfected grade technique. Transcendent grade martial arts or breathing methods were pretty much impossible to find.
You could probably count all of the transcendent techniques in the world on a single hand.
Baek Hong was beyond lucky to get such a heaven defying technique. With such a technique, it would be harder than ascending to the heavens to... well... ascend to the heavens.
And although having a Transcendent grade breathing method was enough to ascend to immortality, it was not enough.
She needed martial arts that could increase her combat power which was sorely lacking. Thanks to her void constitution, she was unkillable to anyone less than two realms above her at the early stages. Only at the later stages would one, a single realm higher, be able to kill her.
Could someone in the same realm kill her? You ask.
No, that would be an embarrassment.
Imagine someone who could pass through solid matter being killed by a kid with a sword. It just doesn't make any sense. Her survivability was guaranteed. She only lacked power.
***
"Hmmmm..." I was in our clans scripture hall with mother trying to choose a few techniques.
It should be noted that advanced techniques almost always required qi to use, so no one below the qi accumulation stage could use them.
There were numerous different kinds of martial arts. There were spear, knife, blade, sword, assassination, movement, body strengthening, and other auxiliary techniques to choose from.
There were at least a thousand books in each section along with a few jade slips that held the higher ranked ones.
I wanted a few to read and practice so I could pass the time. It wasn't really a problem to choose multiple as I was a genius.
But which ones?
The people of our clan were the decendents of a divine white tiger, we all had tiger-like traits, and as such we had an abundance of movement techniques along with claw techniques. Everyone in the clan had physical strength much higher than a human, we could move more swiftly as well.
We were able to maintain our position as the strongest clan because of our movement technique.
'It would be a shame not to choose a technique that compliments my bloodline.' I thought.
It would be too much to choose one of each so I decided to only grab three.
I wanted a movement technique, a claw technique, and a body strengthening technique. These were the specialties of my clan as they all embodied a divine white tiger.
The movement technique would compliment my void physique, the claw technique would give me much needed combat power, and the body strengthening technique is to prevent sneak attacks when I'm not able to avoid them.
I felt like this was a good decision given the circumstances.
It's not like I'll be in danger inside the clan so this is only a precautionary measure to ensure my safety anyway.
I told my mom which category of techniques I wanted and she led me around and recommended me some.
"The
This wasn't the fastest one, as my mother chose this incase I was even in danger and needed to travel for long periods of time.
"For the claw technique... this one."
My mother handed me a martial art called the
"This martial art is focused on attacking vital areas with the claws, such as main arteries the heart or the head. The name comes from how violent this martial art is, people using this will almost always end up a bloody mess by the time their enemy is dead."
"As for the last one... here. I use this technique as well so I can guarantee the effects." She said with a smile on her face. "The
After saying that, she summoned a sword and struck herself with it. The sword shattered into hundreds of pieces. There were no qi fluctuations either. Her skin was undamaged, not even a mark remained. She then pinched her self in the arm to show that her skin was still soft and malleable.
I was amazed at my mother showing off her martial art. I couldn't wait to practice these myself.
I grabbed the three books and thanked my mom before running off to my room.
The names were kinda... but never mind that.
All of the martial arts mother had chosen were of Human rank, I was pleasantly surprised at this.
Although these weren't that precious, the fact that I could have three of such techniques at only five years old filled me with pride towards my clan.
I was happy here and was free to do anything I wanted. I loved my parents. I was content with life.
I couldn't help but smile, thinking of this.
I opened up the body strengthening manual first and read through it.
As always, with only a single read through I could perfectly understand it. The focus of this martial art was to circulate your qi a specific way to induce the desired effects. After making a full circulation, you would enter the beginner stage.
At the begginer stage you could drop a knife anywhere on your skin and come out undamaged.
After completing a hundred circulations you would be in the small accomplishment stage. You could remain unscathed if anyone below your realm tried to slash you with a sword.
After a thousand times you would be at the large accomplishment stage and would be able to tank hits from anyone in the same realm as you.
At the perfection stage you would be able to defend against a strike from someone a major realm above you.
Unfortunately though it would still be impossible for a first stage Golden Core to come out alive against a ninth stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
I closed the book and started circulating the little bit of qi I had gained passively as the book said to.
The book said it would take a week to reach the beginner stage, but since when has it taken me a normal amount of time to do anything?
In only a minute I was at the beginner stage.
Ten minutes, small accomplishment.
Two hours, large accomplishment.
A day, perfection.
That's all it took.
I didn't have a weapon to test it out, but I could definitely feel the difference.
I moved on to the next one.
After following the steps in the book I completed the entire exercise once.
It took me ten minutes to fluidly repeat the steps mentioned in the book.
It took me an hour to reach the beginner stage.
Ten hours to reach small accomplishment.
A day to reach large accomplishment.
I kept practicing. I was getting faster and faster. What took me ten minutes in the beginning only takes two minutes now.
After another two days I reached perfection. I could now complete the entire set of movements in thirty seconds. I was nearly twenty times faster than before. My feet felt lighter and I could walk without making any noise now.
It was addicting.
I couldn't stop myself from basking in the sense of accomplishment I felt from perfecting two techniques in only three days.
I only had one more left now. The
I started by circulating my qi through my body as the book stated. I had a pain shoot through my hands to the ends of my fingers.
My fingernails had grown to a sharp point that was needed for the cultivation method, there was blood covering the ends of my fingers, but I didn't care.
I following the instructions picture by picture until I could execute them all in one fluid motion.
I bent my elbow and got into the primary position. My hands were open and my fingers were mimicking a sword, my fingernails the blade. I slashed at an imaginary opponent. I aimed for the neck first, making a slashing motion, followed by their eyes, wrists, heart, and joints.
The main point of this art was to swiftly finish off your enemy. If that wasn't possible you would immobilize them first by aiming at important sections of the body before killing them.
I repeated these steps for a week before reaching the large accomplishment stage, I felt infinitely close to perfection but couldn't reach it due to lack of experience.
The feeling of not being able to complete it was awful.
I felt like I had bugs crawling under my skin.
I had to reach perfection... no matter the cost.