Martial Arts: My talent multiplier increased

After pushing the second ore, Shi Potian lay down on the west wall at a height of fifty feet.

Although Fang Yuan's twice-powered Divine Soul Perception Network had a 40% decrease in accuracy, it was still enough to read Shi Potian's physical condition.

The speed of blood and qi circulation has dropped to 60% of its peak. The slight trembling frequency of the thigh muscle group indicates that lactic acid accumulation is approaching a critical point. The external manifestation of the power of the Rift Mountain Fist—that layer of grayish-white bone texture—is at least three parts darker than when it first entered the cave.

Two extreme climbs plus a catapult. If you do it a third time, the probability of exhaustion is over 70%.

70%.

Fang Yuan doesn't take bets with a 70% chance of failure.

His gaze shifted from Shi Potian to the shifted ore in the very center of the dome.

It is fifty feet above the ground.

Directly below—the beast's upper body was still outside the crack. Its two forelimbs braced against the rubble, the deep furrows carved by its claws reaching its knees. The sealing power of the two returning ores was pulling it down, but it was resisting. The bony ridges of its neck stretched into jagged arcs.

Two dark golden flames stared intently at the dome.

It has become smarter.

It will spit into the mouth of anyone who gets too close to that ore.

Lin Qingxue stood behind a depression at the western end of the cave. The old servant's hand rested on her shoulder. The cold mist she had just unleashed had greatly depleted her energy; her face was as white as paper, but she stood firm.

Tie Meng lay prone on the edge of the rock ridge. The dents in his iron arm guards pressed against the rock surface, making his wrists ache.

Fang Yuan squatted on the stone ridge.

My brain is processing data.

Shi Potian—No. He didn't have enough strength. He forced himself up, but collapsed at a height of forty zhang, smashing into a bloody pulp.

Lin Qingxue—No. The backlash from the cold illness could erupt at any moment. Her leap and release of the cold mist was already her limit; another high-intensity climb would cause the cold poison in her meridians to break through the suppression of the Yangyan Pill.

The old servant—his combat strength is sufficient. He might even be at the peak of the Bone Refining Realm, or perhaps even a suppressed Dirty Refining Realm. But his priority is to protect Lin Qingxue to the death. Asking him to leave Lin Qingxue's side and go to the dome alone—he wouldn't agree. Fang Yuan wouldn't even ask.

Tie Meng – His climbing precision is insufficient. Mercenaries excel at ground combat, not wall-climbing like geckos. He lacks the climbing experience to ascend a 50-zhang vertical surface.

Fang Yuan mentally reviewed the four options.

All were rejected.

There is one option left.

he himself.

Four times the skill of a foothold. His precision in body control had already been proven during low-altitude climbing—one zhang (approximately 3.3 meters) of rock face in a single breath. That was assuming there were sufficient points of contact to hold onto.

The cave ceiling is fifty zhang high. The roughness of the walls is unknown, and the density and distribution of clinging points are uncertain. The vertical distance is more than twelve times that of the previous ones.

His bone density and muscle endurance, four times that of those refined bone marrow—he withstood Zhao Lei's heavy punch yesterday and only managed to take a half-step back. This demonstrates that his physical constitution has far surpassed the limits of an ordinary mid-stage bone refinement cultivator.

But fifty feet.

Above the heads of ferocious beasts at the Qi and Blood Realm.

Fang Yuan ran his finger across the surface of the stone ridge.

A white mark was left on my fingernail.

A deep roar came from below. The beast's forelimbs dragged two new furrows in the ground—it had struggled upwards by about half a foot. The sealing power and the beast's struggle were locked in a tug-of-war. The energy cycles restored by the two ores were insufficient to completely suppress it.

Time is slipping away.

With each passing breath, the chances of the ferocious beast breaking free increase.

Fang Yuan stood up.

Seeing him stand up, Tie Meng instinctively followed suit. Then he noticed Fang Yuan's gaze—not downwards, but upwards.

Dome.

Tie Meng's expression changed.

"you--"

Fang Yuan was already walking towards the edge of the rock ridge. He didn't walk fast, and with each step he measured the joint between the rock ridge and the side wall of the cave with the soles of his feet.

The quadruple stance training is doing two things simultaneously. The tactile perception underfoot is analyzing the hardness and particle density of the rock face. The doubled spiritual perception network is climbing upwards along the rock face, like an invisible hand groping for usable climbing points in advance.

Below thirty zhang—the protrusions and fissures are dense enough. The spacing is between one and two feet. Sufficient.

From thirty to forty zhang (approximately 130 meters) – the wall surface becomes smooth. Long-term erosion by the condensation droplets from the dome has created a slippery mineral film on the rock surface. Climbing points decrease drastically.

Above forty zhang (approximately 33 meters) – the dome begins to taper inward. The curvature increases. The angle of the walls changes from vertical to inward slope.

Tilting inwards means—the person has to hang upside down.

Fang Yuan's fingers touched the hilt of the short sword at his waist.

Tie Meng grabbed his arm.

Five fingers, as thick as iron rods, dug into the muscles of Fang Yuan's upper arm. The force was considerable. Tie Meng's eyes bulged so wide they seemed about to pop out of their sockets.

"Go up there—are you sure you can come back alive?"

Fang Yuan glanced down at Tie Meng's hand. He didn't shake it off.

"uncertain."

Fang Yuan's lips twitched slightly. The movement was extremely small and fleeting.

"But if we don't go up there, none of us are sure to survive."

Tie Meng's fingers loosened. Not because he was convinced. It was because the word "everyone" had hit him hard in the head, making his rebuttal stuck in his throat.

He was a mercenary. Mercenaries settle scores.

If the third ore doesn't return to its place and the sealing array doesn't close, the ferocious beast will break free—no one present can withstand a slap from a Qi and Blood Realm cultivator.

Tie Meng's hand fell to his sides. He clenched it into a fist. His knuckles cracked twice.

Fang Yuan didn't look at him again.

He walked to the very edge of the rock ridge, leaned out halfway, and scanned the east wall of the cave from bottom to top with his eyes.

The route took shape in my mind.

It doesn't travel in a straight line.

Climbing in a straight line is the fastest, but it exposes the largest area. The beast's fiery gaze sweeps across the dome from the crack to the very center at an angle of approximately 120 degrees. Climbing in a straight line, you'll enter its visual center at a height of over 30 zhang.

spiral.

Ascend in a spiral along the cave wall. Utilize the irregular rock formations and a few remaining giant stalactites on the cave walls as cover. Change sides every half circle, ensuring the beast's line of sight is constantly obstructed by the rock strata.

To reach smooth areas over forty feet high—use a short knife. Insert the tip of the knife into a crevice in the rock beneath the mineral film, serving as a temporary anchor point.

Towards the inner section of the dome—

Fang Yuan paused his deductions here.

There's no ready-made solution for the inward contraction segment. We'll figure it out when we get there.

With twice the comprehension, I've already calculated everything I could. The rest is a matter of the body.

Fang Yuan rubbed his hands together three times in front of him, drying the sweat from his palms.

He leaped off the rocky ridge.

The sole of the boot landed on a protruding rock platform at the base of the cave wall. The knees bent at a forty-five-degree angle, absorbing the drop.

Place your fingers on the wall.

cold.

The rock is relatively hard and has a coarse texture. It's easy to grip.

Fang Yuan began to climb.

The first zhang. He gripped a horizontal crack two fingers wide with his right hand, and stepped on a bump the size of an egg with his left foot. His body was pressed against the wall, and his center of gravity was always maintained within the quadrilateral formed by his hands and feet.

There was no sound.

The four-fold stance training locked the aftershocks of each exertion of force within the muscles. The sound of the fingertips touching the rock surface was compressed to a level that only Fang Yuan himself could hear.

The fifth zhang. It had already exceeded the height of the stone ridge. Tie Meng below craned his neck to look at him, his lips so tight they were almost white.

The tenth zhang. The route began to curve. Fang Yuan's body bypassed a broken stalactite with a diameter of half a zhang, switching from the east side wall to the northeast side.

The stalactites blocked the beast's view.

Its attention was still focused on the western part of the dome—Shi Potian was still lying on the wall there.

Fang Yuan mentally marked Shi Potian's presence. A sitting duck. Not in a derogatory sense. A precise tactical positioning. As long as Shi Potian remained hanging on that wall, the ferocious beast would dedicate at least half its attention to him. Because Shi Potian had pushed the first two ore rocks. The beast remembered him.

The fifteenth zhang.

Fang Yuan's breathing rate began to rise. It wasn't due to physical exhaustion—his muscle endurance, four times stronger than his bone structure, was far from its limit. It was the air. The air was even thinner at the top of the cave, mixed with the scorching heat emanating from the dark golden runes. Every breath he took felt like his lungs were burning.

The twentieth zhang.

Fang Yuan made a mistake when he went around the third stalactite obstruction.

The protrusion that my left foot was stepping on was covered with a very thin mineral film.

It slipped.

My left foot slipped off the protrusion. My body instantly lost its balance and tilted outward by two inches.

Fang Yuan's right hand, with three fingers gripping the crack tightly, had been completely redistributed within a fraction of a breath—the gripping power of his right index, middle, and ring fingers had been simultaneously stretched to their limits. The edges of his fingernails were embedded in the ridges of the crack, and one fingernail was partially lifted off the ground.

The pain exploded from my fingertips.

Fang Yuan remained silent.

My left foot wobbled in mid-air for a moment, then my toes found a narrow stone ridge less than an inch wide on the wall. I stepped firmly.

The center of gravity is back to normal.

Two breaths. The entire process took less than two breaths.

But in those two breaths, the gravel ground twenty feet below flickered at the bottom of Fang Yuan's vision. Dark golden light patterns flowed across the beast's scales. If those three fingers hadn't gripped it—

Fang Yuan didn't think any further.

Blood seeped from the torn fingernail. Drops of blood trickled down between the fingers, leaving a thin, dark red line on the grayish-white rock face.

Keep climbing.

The twenty-fifth zhang.

He had circled around to the north wall. The spiral route was now more than halfway complete. The ore in the very center was now directly south of him, about fifteen zhang horizontally away.

This location—

The beast's head tilted to the side.

Fang Yuan's spiritual perception detected the change at the same moment. The beast's right eye—the dark golden flame—moved away from Shi Potian's body.

Move to the north side.

Move toward him.

Fang Yuan's spine instantly stretched to its limit.

On a cliff face twenty-five zhang high, his body clung to the rock. His only points of attachment were his ten fingers and two toes. There was nowhere to hide.

The principle of the spiral route's concealment is based on the premise that "the beast's visual angle is cut off by stalactites and rock protrusions." However, the two breaths that Fang Yuan's foot slipped just now—the blood and qi fluctuations caused by his body swaying—were detected by this ancient beast's perception.

It found him.

Fang Yuan's brain processed the two plans in a very short time.