Chapter 9 - Big Brain Time

Ling Xuan sat down on the ground of his room and contemplated deeply today's events. 

"To use Qi as a pill that dissolves, not as a knife that remains inside the body" Ling thought to himself.

Ling Xuan sat in meditation and started to attract Qi towards him.

"Collect!"

He opened his right palm and the Qi moved in its direction.

Soon the Qi in Ling Xuan's palm had formed something similar to a vortex.

""Close!"

Ling Xuan then proceeded to close his palm which resulted in a relatively small shockwave that spread to his other body.

"Shit that hurts!"

Ling Xuan shook his hand. It was truly painful as the energy literally not only damaged his hand but also temporarily numbed his nerves. 

"I'll have to try again, it seems" Ling Xuan sighed inwardly. He had thought that since he was a genius already yet it seems like he had overestimated himself.

........

2 hours had passed and the result of Ling Xuan's hard work was questionable to say the least.

The room was now filled with dust and many parts were damaged as well. In the centre sat Ling Xuan whose right arm was now red with the constant shockwaves.

"Why…. Just why is this not working!" Carto was absolutely pissed off at the continuous failure of his efforts.

"I am a transmigrated person with a literal computer! How can I fail here! I am not even a Grandmaster yet!" Ling Xuan was slowly being dragged into futility as the ropes of failure tightened.

Yet suddenly he realised something. He was Ling Xuan but also Carto Harts, a person from another world where technology has advanced to far greater heights than this world.

Carto punched himself in the face the moment he realised this fact. He had to look through the perspective of not Ling Xuan but Carto Harts, his original self.

"What a fool I am, I have only inhabited this identity for some weeks and now I am starting to forget my actual identity." Carto Harts mocked himself.

"Now whenever I collect the Qi no reactions can be sensed that can endanger me, so perhaps the clue to mastering this technique lies in how I compress it" Ling Xuan deduced.

Ling Xuan stood up from the floor and searched the room for something.

"Aha! I got it!" Exclaimed Ling Xuan as he held a piece of paper in his hand.

Paper in this world was rare due to the state of technology in this world. Only nobles could buy paper and use them. The paper Ling Xuan had in his hand was from his times in the Ling Clan.

Ling Xuan began writing down the process of creating the "Qi attack pill" and also figuring out how to be able to perfectly make one.

............

The next day arrived and Ling Xuan met up with Mu Feng in the stead.

"You have broken through to the Adept stage!" Exclaimed Mu Feng as he examined Ling Xuan. 

"Yes Master, due to this junior trying to master the technique you taught me yesterday and due to this junior falling several times as well my right arm was refined by the innumerable Qiwaves that were produced due to the pill's explosion, I apologise Master for disrupting your plans regarding my growth" Just as Ling Xuan was about to kowtow he was stopped by Mu Feng who held his shoulder to stop his action.

"I presume you have mastered the Hidden Serpent Pill technique?" Asked Mu Feng but he inwardly knew the answer.

"Yes Master, I have mastered the technique" Affirmed Ling Xuan.

"Show it to me then" Mu Feng pointed to a tree beside him. Although he believed Ling Xuan, he thought that Ling Xuan still needed to apply the pill to the weapon.

Ling Xuan took out his spear and steadied his breath.

He took the stance of a spear thrust.

Slowly Qi began to agglomerate near the head of the spear, forming a whirl.

And then Ling Xuan thrust the spear in front of the tree.

It did not stop until it touched the trunk.

Yet no destruction happened. It looked like Ling Xuan had failed yet that would be wrong. Mu Feng's eyes were filled with shock.

"You have actually reached it's perfect stage!" Exclaimed Mu Feng and as if on cue the tree burst apart from the inside with splinters being thrown everywhere.

Ling Xuan and Mu Feng were not hurt as their bodies were powerful enough to dodge the fatal ones or withstand it easily.

Mu Feng looked at Ling Xuan with surprise and thought, "This kid is the most talented individual I have ever seen, even more than the direct disciples of the sects I have met!"

A little while later Mu Feng calmed himself and believed that while Ling Xuan could be said to be a prodigy among the 12 Sects, if one were to use the Great Xia Family then this claim would then hold no water.

Ling Xuan, confused by Mu Feng's silence, asked, "Master, was it not enough?"

Mu Feng smiled and answered," You did good my boy, today is your day off, so rest today and tomorrow, we will begin with other combat arts".

Ling Xuan who was happy after hearing this bowed to Mu feng and returned to his room. He was filled with confidence that he now had a chance to compete with his cousins. 

...

For the rest of the morning Ling Xuan would explore the city and inform himself on the political forces of the world.

As night arrived, Ling Xuan had his dinner and went to his room.

He sat on the bed and closed his eyes.

When he opened it once again, the sight of shelves and an old computer could be seen.

"I'm back here once again" sighed Ling Xuan.

Originally he actually wanted to come here when he was mastering the Hidden Serpent Pill technique yet unfortunately he didn't know how to.

Yet now he knew that the entrance word and the exit word were 2 different things.

"Avacaniya and Kanuya, one can liken them to two poles that are the opposite of each other" Ling Xuan contemplated deeply after all no way would a force that can propel him through Space and Time to a different world would just choose a random name after all.

Yet what use was thinking about this at all, for currently he was just a slightly stronger mortal with an obsession for power that had no origin.

"Now that I think about it, why do I even need power? This world is quite peaceful, I don't need to become the peak power here, just an expert will set my life." As Carto thought about this matter, suddenly he heard a sound.

He quickly raised his head to see where the origin of the sound came from. 

"Can there be something else that exists in this void?" Carto thought anxiously as it may be hostile towards him.

Then he saw it, the computer was turned on and had a page opened.

Carto went near it and sat down on the chair.

Ignoring the squeaks produced by the old chair he looked towards the message that the computer had for him.

[View progress of martial techniques?]

 

[Yes] [No]

Carto unhesitatingly clicked Yes.

After a while the page opened and he was greeted by his progress.

[ The Stranger's Technique - Basic Understanding]

[ Visceral Thunder Reinforcement - Glimpse]

[ Crimson Barrage Pole - Advanced Understanding]

[ Hidden Serpent Pill - Absolute Mastery]

Ling Xuan had researched about the Hidden Serpent Pill all night yesterday so it reached Absolute Mastery yet he did not expect The Stranger's Technique to progress as well.

"It seems that that technique included use of the Hidden Serpent Pill to a certain point" Carto quickly deduced.

Although he already expected Absolute Mastery of the Hidden Serpent Pill , he was still overjoyed as this was the fruit of his hard work.

"Perhaps I would've achieved Profound Understanding or even Absolute Mastery of the  Crimson Barrage Pole had I known the entry word for this place" Carto's lips twitched as he thought about yesterday's missed opportunity. After all no one in this world who was at his age would have achieved such a result even those members of the Royal Family.

As for how he managed to even get the Hidden Serpent Pill to progress to this extent, well the reason was quite simple actually.

It was not Ling Xuan who had researched the technique but Carto Harts, a college student who came from a more technologically powerful and advanced World.

To him, the property by which the technique operated was quite simple to understand. It was the transfer of Kinetic Energy to another location via Qi as the carrier.

Therefore the main issue of this technique was to make the Qi able to hold the Kinetic Energy as well as it being stable enough to exist for some moments.

Carto using this was able to figure out that he needed to take care of 2 factors. One was the speed by which Qi was compressed and the final mass that was formed after the Qi was compressed. If he compressed the Qi too quickly then it would result in the "Pill' being unstable due to rapid instability. If he compressed the "Pill" too much then both the Kinetic Energy and Qi would stack on top of each other and there would be once again disruption of Kinetic Energy flow.

After figuring this out Ling Xuan was easily able to create the "Pill". Yet this was not where he stopped, oh no he went further beyond. 

"The Hidden Serpent Pill uses the Kinetic Energy produced by the movement of my arm, yet now what if I can use the entire Potential Energy my body has when in an attacking stance?" Carto had thought about it and understood that although The Hidden Serpent Pill could only handle the Kinetic Energy of his arm there was an alternative way to go around this restriction.

Through creating several Hidden Serpent Pill in his body he could release them in succession where they would convert and direct the Potential Energy which is converted into Kinetic Energy which would travel across via the help of the numerous pills until they converged at the point of Kinetic release of his body, which would then converge with the Pill that was already at there and thus would be released an attack that was terrifying to anyone at the same rank as the individual.

"Although this would result in the loss of the ability to transfer the attack inside, its ability to use the entire Potential Energy of the body surpasses the loss." Carto deeply contemplated the technique he just accidentally created.

No being that existed in this world could create such a technique as one required both the knowledge and experience to craft such a technique. Carto had based the technique of an atomic chain reaction which was without question something that this world's inhabitants did not even realise. Yet there was another theory Carto had as to why this World that had such a powerful force did not have at least a civilization equal to the 1500s in his original world.

"Yet currently it's no use to think about" Carto threw the theory to the back of his mind and focused on the present.

As he was viewing the progress of the martial techniques, he saw an icon at the corner of the page.

"Do I always miss these somehow or do they just magically appear and disappear as they wish?" Carto sighed as he clicked the icon knowing it would direct him to another page.

The page opened and its title was something that Carto found quite peculiar.

[ Created Techniques]

[ Inherent Potential Kinetic Energy Converter - Grade 2 - Miscellaneous Type] 

[ Total Kinetic Energy Release - Grade 1 - Attack Type]

 "This is awesome!" Carto exclaimed excitedly as he saw once again one of the computer's myriad functions.

"So there is an entirely different page where the techniques I have created are stored with its own classification!" Carto thought, amazed at the computer.

"If I'm correct then the helpbox should be here to explain things." After searching for a while he found the helpbox and opened it.

[ The Created Techniques Page is there for the convenience to search through the techniques created by one's hard work easily. The categorization has numerous factors including Adaptability, Sustainability, Feasibility and more. There are 2 categorizations, one is the Graded System which goes from Grade 1 which is the lowest to Grade 5 which is almost perfect. The other categorization is of the type of technique such as whether it is an attack technique or a support or a miscellaneous Type.

Note: The Grades may be subject to change in an x scenario]

As Carto read the information, he found something strange.

"X scenario? What does that even mean? Does it mean that the grades here are relative to an area and there are more realms above this?" Carto could not truly understand it.

Ignoring it, Carto, seeing that there was nothing else, went to The Want Generator and stared at it. 

He wanted to type and get a way to reach Absolute Mastery of The Crimson Barrage Pole yet he stopped.

"If I do this then it will be a missed opportunity when I join the Disciple Selection and I have already achieved Advanced Understanding of the technique, so obtaining Absolute Mastery should be easy" With this thought Carto turned off the computer.

 

"Hah…..Now what should I do here?" Carto stood up and sighed.

"Let's read the books in the library and then leave." After a few moments Carto had decided and started to revise the books that contained the political history of the world.

After some time of reading Carto would leave the space and rest for the remaining time.