The world is like a prison, my body is holy

Chapter 107 Boundless Ocean Divine Skill
After waking up in the middle of the night, Wang Wen was unable to fall back asleep. Every time he felt a little sleepy, the image of that terrifying ghost would reappear before his eyes, and he would instantly wake up again...

After tossing and turning for a long time, he simply gave up on going back to sleep. He got up, grabbed the fine steel silver spear leaning against the corner of the wall, pushed open the door, and strode out into the center of the courtyard under the bright moonlight. He took a stance, flicked the spear, and in an instant, the bright spear light filled the courtyard.

"Hey!"

He brandished the steel gun in a venting manner. The steel barrel, made entirely of wrought iron, seemed like a flexible rubber stick in his hands. Sometimes it moved like a whirlwind, changing in countless ways, leaving only the figure of the man and not the gun. At other times, it was as fierce and powerful as a dragon emerging from the sea, with an imposing aura.

A man with a gun ran back and forth in the courtyard, breaking through the endless waves of weapons and enemies that he imagined surging towards him like a tide. The shrill sound of the gun cutting through the air mixed with the howling wind, like the sound of ghostly drums blowing in the wind and the roar of ten thousand souls!
After a long while, Wang Wen's rapidly moving figure suddenly stopped. He straightened up and forcefully swung his steel spear, thrusting it into the artificial hill at the corner of the wall two zhang away. He shouted angrily in a low voice, "Break!"

Without the slightest light or flash, a puff of dust suddenly erupted from the artificial hill in the corner, yet it remained unmoved, as if only the hem of its clothing was slightly dirty!

Wang Wen maintained his stance with his spear thrust forward, breathing heavily. Suddenly, a large sweat broke out all over his body, soaking his undergarments in an instant.

He slowly straightened up, his eyes lowered, and gently tapped the ground with his steel spear.

With a muffled rumble, a section of the courtyard wall behind the artificial hill suddenly collapsed. In the bright moonlight, a small, ping-pong ball-sized light could be faintly seen on the artificial hill.

However, Wang Wen's shot had the force to pierce through the artificial hill first, and then collapse the courtyard wall behind it!
Black Ox, who was ruminating in the corner of the courtyard, raised his head and cheered loudly: "Master is mighty! Master is domineering! Master will find ten thousand wives!!"

Wang Wen exhaled two puffs of white smoke from his nostrils and said softly, "You should learn something good... Protect me. Without my response, do not allow anyone to step into the courtyard."

Hei Erniu stood up, his muscles bulging: "You can rest assured about my work!"

Wang Wen chuckled, slowly closed his eyes, summoned the Mountain God's Decree, and pressed the radiant "+" sign behind the Nine Waves of Azure Waves.

In an instant, countless clear images flooded his mind.

Every scene is a masterpiece, depicting vast skies and boundless seas, with towering waves stretching endlessly.

In every scene, there is a picture of him standing on the shore, facing the raging waves.

Whether under the blazing sun, in the drizzling rain, amidst twinkling stars, or shrouded in heavy fog.

Some were fair-skinned and beardless, others were dark-skinned and glossy, some had a full beard, and others were dressed in tattered clothes.

They wield spears, swing iron fists, or strike with bare hands...

Compared to the fragmented and scattered visuals and insights from the past when using merit points to improve martial arts skills and techniques.

These scenes and insights seem somewhat different this time.

This time, it's as if countless persistent days and nights on a timeline have been edited together, and the insights gained from countless days and nights of hard work have been forged into one, tempered into steel.

He not only extracted the martial arts insights from "Nine Waves of the Azure Sea," but also experienced the unwavering determination and perseverance of countless days and nights, facing raging waves in order to master a martial art.

He gradually realized that a martial artist's strength is never just about the level of skill. What truly determines a martial artist's strength is their inner power, their confidence, their perseverance, their courage, their fearlessness, and even their chivalry and ideals!
This inner strength must come from genuine knowledge gained through practice, not from empty fantasies.

Just like, if a person wants to become a chivalrous hero admired by thousands, he cannot simply imagine himself helping those in need and thus possessing a chivalrous spirit.

Instead, it is through countless struggles and torments of risking one's life to save others from dire straits that one can gradually wear away the selfish and dark side of him, and only then can he hope to transform into a heroic and righteous man who stands tall and is full of righteousness!

The Mountain God's Decree could not give Wang Wen the things that could only be learned through experience.

But he was able to help Wang Wen understand the fleeting nature of time, the changing of the sun and moon, and the great perseverance and willpower required to do so day after day and night.

These two things are precisely what a cheat code player like Wang Wen lacks most.

Time is a wonderful thing...

After a long while, Wang Wen's mind finally snapped out of the feeling of the long passage of time and felt the peace and tranquility he had been away from for so long.

He stood quietly for a moment, digesting the martial arts insights condensed from this improvement, and then summoned the Mountain God's Token again, pressing the radiant "+" after "Canglan Nine Layers (Eightfold)" in one go.

The plus sign disappeared, and he calmly watched as the 27648 merit points transformed into countless images that appeared in his mind.

Each image depicts him standing atop a solitary, towering cliff on the coast, facing an endless raging storm and towering waves!
But this time, it wasn't him summarizing and extracting the essence from those images. Instead, his mind was divided into countless parts and evenly invested in each of his own. He witnessed the oncoming storm from their perspectives. Whether it was the cold, stinging sensation of large raindrops hitting his face or the pungent, salty sea breeze, it all felt so real that it was as if he were actually standing on the shore in a downpour!

Despite the simultaneous influx of so many perspectives and so much information into his mind, there was no sign of brain overload. On the contrary, the overwhelming amount of overlapping information made every minute detail of every scene as clear to him as the willow banks of a river after a rain shower.

Wow, what a big production!

He was filled with wonder and was about to try to move his limbs when the deafening roar of a giant wave crashing against the shore completely overwhelmed his senses.

At first, he could clearly distinguish that the roaring sound was the superposition of the sound of a giant wave crashing against the shore from countless images.

Before long, he could no longer distinguish whether the roar was the result of countless superpositions or a single roar that pierced through countless images.

Even the flow of time seemed to suddenly become strange, sometimes so fast that a year or two could pass in the blink of an eye, and sometimes so slow that three autumns could pass in the blink of an eye...

Wang Wen's hundreds of divine thoughts were all immersed in this strange flow of time, like a stubborn ox that had walked into a dead end, persistently trying to distinguish whether it was a single sound transforming into infinity, or infinity sounds merging into one.

Until all distracting thoughts in his mind vanished completely, even the concept of "I" faded to the point of being as transparent as a fishing line, leaving only the eternal sound of a giant wave crashing against the shore, like the Milky Way hanging high in the sky, echoing repeatedly in his mind...

By this time, he had completely lost his sense of time and had no idea how long he had been on the top of this cliff.

Suddenly, the sound of giant waves crashing against the shore, which seemed to last forever, stopped!
The wind stopped.

The rain also stopped.

The sky cleared, and the clear sunlight shone on his face.

One by one, the images disappeared, and the divine thoughts, which had been divided into hundreds and thousands of parts, returned one by one along with those disappeared images.

"Why did you stop?"

Wang Wen raised his head blankly, his gaze following the shimmering blue sea surface to the boundless horizon where the sea and sky meet. The sound of giant waves crashing on the shore, still echoing in his mind, automatically provided background music for the calm sea surface before him, which resembled a piece of azure glass.

"Boom."

"Bang." "Bang..."

After an unknown amount of time, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him, and he abruptly realized: 'One is infinity, and infinity is one; the ocean is boundless, and the highest good is like water; I am one, I am infinity!'

Once the thought was made up, the azure sea before my eyes rapidly dissipated, and the feelings of chaos and emptiness in my heart also disappeared, leaving only a sense of calm and tranquility after a long period of time.

He opened his eyes, glanced up at the moon hanging in the western sky, then spread his legs, assumed a stance, closed his eyes again, and calmly guided the surging, almost rampaging energy within his body, slowly channeling it into the inner elixir-like core in his lower dantian.

After all the energy in his body had been absorbed into his inner core, he used a technique that combined both strength and gentleness to propel the energy within the core to rotate, expand, and contract. In this process, he gradually integrated his own essence, energy, and spirit. After repeating this dozens of times, the light and agile energy slowly became more profound, yet he found it increasingly easy to control...

This is a meticulous process that demands immense patience and endurance.

But Wang Wen is no longer lacking in patience and endurance...

Until the Golden Core could no longer contain such immense power, it shattered with a "pop," giving birth to a wisp of azure blue, water-like energy!
This wisp of azure gas, resembling flowing water, is the true qi of martial arts. It is a qualitative change that occurs when the inner core shatters, a powerful energy comparable to the magical power of a Taoist cultivator.

Wang Wen swiftly controlled the wisp of true energy, using it as the core to guide the scattered energy within his dantian to circulate through his meridians in a grand cycle. After one grand cycle, the energy within his body was reduced by more than half, and the wisp of true energy had shrunk to the thickness of a chopstick, steadily settling within his dantian.

He stopped at the right moment and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

True Qi is far more domineering than physical strength. However, since the martial arts acquired realm has not yet opened the two bridges between heaven and earth, it cannot absorb the external spiritual energy. It can only rely on the martial artist's own essence, energy, and spirit to refine it. It must be combined with food and medicine to support the growth of True Qi. Otherwise, if True Qi excessively draws on essence, energy, and spirit, it will cause irreparable damage to the physical body and even the soul.

Similarly, since true qi is refined from the essence, qi, and spirit of a martial artist, the increase in the quality of true qi will also nourish the essence, qi, and spirit of the martial artist. Not only can it forcefully hold on to life when the martial artist's physical body suffers a non-fatal severe injury, it can also promote the martial artist's essence, qi, and spirit to sublimate to a non-human realm.

To give a vivid example, there is the gray-clad swordsman who turned the tide in the Battle of Huangshan. According to Master Hunkun, the gray-clad swordsman served as an official during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Zhou. From Emperor Taizong to the current Emperor Hongtai, the Zhou Dynasty has gone through twelve emperors and nearly 170 years. In other words, the gray-clad swordsman is an old man who is close to 200 years old!

For an ordinary person to reach two hundred years old, even the bones in their tomb would probably have fallen apart.

And that gray-clad swordsman, even at two hundred years old, could still wield his sword with unparalleled vigor, slaying Arhats with incredible power and strength—he was invincible in the world!

This is the miraculous effect of martial arts true qi nourishing the martial artist's essence, energy, and spirit.

There are even rumors that, in the final stages of martial arts cultivation, one can also cultivate a primordial spirit, capable of taking a person's head from dozens of miles away with a flying sword...

Of course, this is just a rumor, and no one knows whether it's true or not.

It is worth mentioning that the feedback effect of true qi on a martial artist's essence, energy, and spirit is passive. That is to say, when true qi exists in a martial artist's body, it will constantly enhance the martial artist's essence, energy, and spirit, as if an invisible armor covers the martial artist's body, resisting many external harms to the martial artist, including but not limited to piercing weapons and the entry of evil poisons into the body...

This is what martial artists call "internal protective energy".

In the current era of spiritual energy revival, the most significant function of the internal protective energy is to prevent evil and poisonous energy from invading a martial artist's body.

For example, those weak and vengeful spirits have pitifully low physical damage; what is truly fatal is the entry of evil energy into their bodies. Even for higher-level vengeful ghosts, the most troublesome thing is the eerie ghost realm.

With the protective inner energy, even a fighter like Wang Wen, who has also practiced external martial arts, can stand amidst a pile of vengeful spirits and let them gnaw at him without harming a single hair on his head. Even high-level vengeful ghosts capable of opening their domains can have their combat endurance greatly increased by the protective inner energy blocking the erosion of ghostly energy within the ghost domain.

Those innate grandmasters who have opened the two bridges between heaven and earth and can connect with the external primordial energy of heaven and earth with their own true energy can also add another layer of external protective energy on top of their internal protective energy. With these two layers of armor, they are practically comparable to a golden-bodied Arhat, impervious to water and fire, invulnerable to swords and spears, and protected from evil and poisonous gas...

Just like Fang La, the leader of the Ming Cult, when he was on the top of Huangshan Mountain, he stubbornly withstood the heavenly thunder of Zhang Tianshi of Longhu Mountain and went head-to-head with him. Zhang Tianshi surrounded him and struck for a quarter of an hour or two, but he still couldn't break through Fang La's protective outer energy. He was simply inhumanly strong!
……

After exhaling a long breath, Wang Wen summoned the Mountain God's Token again, muttering to himself with a puzzled expression: 'While it's true that you get what you pay for, making such a fuss over a mere book like "Nine Waves of the Azure Sea" is a bit like using a cannon to kill a mosquito!'

He looked closely and saw:
【Huangshan God】

[Achievements: 175976]

[Yin De: 3616.6]

[Yin Shen: Exorcism (+)]

Shrine: (Damaged)

[Hundred Schools: Taiyi Salvation and Protection Scripture (Second Heaven) (+), Black Tiger Fist (Perfect), Six Harmonies Spear (Divine Skill), Iron Shirt (Perfect), Palm Thunder (Perfect), Boundless Ocean Divine Skill (First Heaven) (+)]

'What the heck?'

He suspected he was seeing things, blinked, and looked again, only to find that the position that should have been "Nine Waves of the Azure Sea" was still occupied by an unfamiliar martial art called "Boundless Great Ocean Divine Skill".

Not only that, the number of merit points is also wrong. He previously had more than 240,000 merit points. He spent 6912 points to go from the seventh to the eighth level of "Canglan Nine Waves" and 27648 points to go from the eighth to the ninth level. He should have had 210,000 merit points left, but now he only has more than 170,000 merit points left. More than 30,000 merit points have been lost out of nowhere.

His mind raced, and he considered several possibilities, but he rejected them all one by one.

Finally, a possibility suddenly occurred to him. He thought to himself, "Is it possible that those scenes were originally meant to help me understand the mystery of multiple forces overlapping into one, but I got stuck on the details and instead of exploring how to condense those multiple forces into one, I started studying the relationship between one and infinity. This forced the Mountain God Token to continue burning merit points to give me more screen time, ultimately leading me to 'abandon the trivial and pursue the essential' and comprehend this Boundless Ocean Divine Skill?"

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that it might be true!
Because the essence of the ninth level of "Canglan Nine Layers of Waves" is indeed to teach how to condense multiple forces into one, accumulate small efforts into great momentum, and break through the insurmountable barrier of Dan Jin to advance to the post-natal realm in one fell swoop!
Strictly speaking, this level is a very exquisite technique. It can be used as a martial art to fight enemies, or it can be considered a shortcut to advancing one's internal energy to the acquired realm.

But what he ultimately comprehended was a fundamental skill that "accumulates sand to form a tower, gathers rivers to form a sea, the sea is boundless, the highest good is like water, and changes without change." Its essence is to transform oneself into the sea, and to be able to grasp any change one desires.

To put it more vividly, "The Nine Waves of the Azure Sea" is like shooting skills. It teaches how to aim quickly and shoot accurately, emphasizing that the gun is fast from ten paces away and accurate and fast within ten paces.

"The Boundless Ocean Divine Skill" has moved beyond shooting techniques and instead focuses on the caliber and yield of firearms. It believes that as long as the caliber is thick enough and the yield is large enough, no enemy is invincible. If the 155 caliber is not enough, switch to the 203 caliber. If TNT is not enough, switch to depleted uranium rounds. There is always one that suits the enemy.

From this perspective, the "Boundless Ocean Divine Skill" absolutely deserves the title of "divine skill". Its grandeur is also more than enough to make it the main skill for him in the acquired realm and even the innate realm. It is definitely not a loss to spend more than 30,000 merit points to upgrade the "Nine Waves of the Azure Sea" into this martial art!
That's right. He had just sent away a skill that consumed a lot of merit points, "Canglan Nine Layers of Waves," and now he was greeted by an even more powerful money-devouring skill, "Boundless Ocean Divine Skill," which made Wang Wen's liver hurt a bit.

You should know that he still has a "Lightning Thunder Fist" technique that hasn't been recorded in the Mountain God's Token yet. At this rate, he shouldn't do anything else from now on; he should just honestly go and earn merit points!

'I thought I was a whale (someone who spends a lot of money on in-game purchases), but it turns out I'm actually a hardcore grinder...'

Wang Wen clutched his liver, then put away the Mountain God's Token with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.

He felt that he had discovered a deeper use for merit points.

Following this line of thought, if he wants to learn a more powerful martial art or Taoist technique in the future, he can create a martial art based on his own needs and some basic knowledge, and then burn his merit points to let the Mountain God Token deduce and improve the subsequent techniques for him.

For example, if the "Lightning Thunder Fist" cannot solve his cultivation approach of unifying martial arts with law, he might be able to create a martial art that unifies martial arts with law based on the idea of ​​combining martial arts and law provided by the "Lightning Thunder Fist" and combine it with his own knowledge, and let the Mountain God Token deduce and improve it.

Aside from the drawback of burning merit points, this method is practically a cultivation path tailor-made for him!
(End of this chapter)