thenovelthief Chapter 1440 - 740: Ghostly Step
Chapter 1440 - 740: Ghostly Step
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"Hmm, can this be used to escape? Weren’t they meant for hiding? If I get discovered, what am I supposed to do?" Qing Shui muttered to himself. He felt this kind of technique should have more to it.
Sure enough, after quickly reading through "Qing Shui", the technique could be divided into two parts. The first part was about hiding techniques, while the second part was about the art of escape. The recorded escape art still needed to be activated through the ancient enhancement technique before it could be used.
The name of this technique was duhhhh, and its short name was... Ghostly Step.
Qing Shui didn’t care much about the name of the escape art that appeared in his mind, because he had already managed to gain a lot of insight from the hidden weapon technique and "Lonely First". It could be said that Qing Shui was eagerly looking forward to the insights he would gain from "Ghostly Step".
However, just trying to understand its basics already gave Qing Shui a headache. He knew this technique wasn’t that easy to comprehend. If not for that enlightenment, it would have been impossible for him to grasp the hidden weapon technique so easily and gain the equivalent of ten years of experience in just one day.
The escape technique "Ghostly Step" was actually derived from the calculations of the 9 directions and 8 Trigrams[1], which were part of the Divination Technique of the "mysterious gate, hidden home"[2]. Before Qing Shui could even learn the basics of "Ghostly Step", he first needed to study the 9 directions and 8 Trigrams calculations. All of this information had already been imprinted in his mind, but to fully digest and absorb it, he still needed a long time.
Qing Shui shook his head to clear away the dizzy waves and left Greenwood Forest. He didn’t want to encounter another Demon Beast. Although he had gained tremendous benefits from this encounter, if there had been two Golden Wolves, or even more Golden Wolves, Greenwood Forest would have become Qing Shui’s grave.
"Ah, if it really turned out like that, I wouldn’t even be able to escape even if I wanted to. Once I master ’Ghostly Step’, it’ll be much safer."
Another reason that drove Qing Shui to master Ghostly Step was that it could also be used offensively; when used together with "Lone Fist", there was a chance that the power he released could double or even triple!
By the time Qing Shui finally climbed back to the mountaintop near the Qing surname’s place, the sun had already set. Only a faint light remained in the western sky, casting a reddish glow that painted the heavens beautifully.
While the iron was hot, Qing Shui immediately began cultivating the initial basics of "Ghostly Step" at that very moment. Even though mastering "Ghostly Step" would eventually require a complete understanding of the entire system of 9 directions and 8 Trigrams calculations, he didn’t need that at the start. The first stage only demanded one thing—to be as fast as possible. To push his speed to the absolute limit; so fast that he could produce afterimages. Ghost Step required the knowledge of the 9 directions, 8 Trigrams calculations and the mysterious gate to confuse opponents, making it easier for Qing Shui to escape. If he wanted to cultivate "Ghostly Step" to its absolute peak, then he had to fuse the knowledge from the calculations and use it together with the techniques within "Ghostly Step".
Time flew by like a white stallion galloping past a gap; five years had already gone by. Qing Shui was now fifteen years old, and his body had grown taller. Hints of cold indifference appeared in his beautiful eyes, as if he looked down upon the whole world and nothing was worth his attention!
Qing Shui was once again labeled as trash. The only difference from the past was that after he broke through the third level heaven of the ancient enhancement technique, he could no longer advance!
Qing Shui was not dejected. He faced everything with a calm attitude, ignoring how others viewed him. Two years ago, he had already cultivated to the peak of the third level heaven of the ancient enhancement technique. After that, no matter how hard he worked or how he cultivated, he could not make any further progress. Not only that, his cultivation in the Blue Lotus Art was also stuck at a bottleneck, at the peak of the third level.
In these five years, Qing Shui had suffered greatly in his heart. Among the third generation disciples, he was the one most devoted to cultivation. His expertise in hidden weapon techniques as well as in "Lone Fist" had soared to an astonishing level; both had reached the great success stage of these two techniques.
Even for "Ghost Stairs", Qing Shui had managed to cultivate it to the minor success stage. Although his mastery was only at minor success, he had already reached the point of creating afterimages and could use it to advance or retreat, combining it with his hidden weapon techniques and "Lone Fist", allowing his combat power to soar to a terrifying level never seen before.
Currently, in the Qing Family, the eldest son Qingzi had already successfully cultivated the Blue Lotus Art to the Late-stage Warrior of Seventh Grade, almost reaching the peak of Seventh Grade!
Qing Youu had already cultivated to the peak of Seventh Grade Martial Arts, and Qing Yang had already cultivated to the Middle Stage Warrior of Sixth Grade. Among the third generation disciples, the others between thirteen and fifteen years old, including Qing Hu, had mostly reached the early stage of Fifth Grade Martial Arts.
In comparison, Qing Shui, who was already fifteen, had only cultivated the Blue Lotus Art to the Fifth Grade of the Warrior Era.
In daily training, Qing Shui was considered not only one of the oldest third generation disciples at fifteen, but also the weakest among the third generation disciples. At first, in the daily training, there were two third generation disciples, named Qing Hui and Qing Chuan, who were one and two years older than Qing Shui. But in the last year and this year, both of them had successfully broken through to the Sixth Stage Martial Arts Warrior at the age of sixteen.