Chapter 613: Before the Auction

As Old Chen had said, the auction was postponed by twenty days. Adding the remaining time, it totaled thirty days.
On the streets, advertisements for second-tier divine skills could be seen everywhere. Describing them as overwhelming was no exaggeration at all.
Thirty days, under a million-fold time acceleration, equaled over eighty thousand years. Naturally, Ye Feng and the others wouldn’t miss such an opportunity for cultivation, so they all entered the Absolute Martial Ark to practice in seclusion.
With the two divine powers given to him by Luo Yan, Ye Feng went to find Zi Ling, wanting to know how to acquire such powers.
“Did you come to see me for something?” Zi Ling knew right away that Ye Feng must have a reason for coming to see her when she saw him appear before her. She was well aware that he was the kind of person who would bother her for anything.
“That’s right,” Ye Feng said, taking out two Xuan Tian Crystal Stones that sealed the divine powers. Before he could speak, Zi Ling’s gaze was fixed on them.
“Xuan Tian Crystal Stones? What divine powers are sealed inside?” Zi Ling asked immediately.
“One is a swordsmanship divine power, and the other is a blade arts divine power,” Ye Feng replied with a smile.
“I really didn’t expect you to be able to get both of these powers…” Zi Ling was quite surprised.
“They were given to me by someone else. I still don’t understand how they came into my hands. I was actually planning to ask you,” Ye Feng said with a wry smile.
“Given to you?” Zi Ling was even more surprised. “That person is really generous. These two powers have nothing to do with one’s physical constitution; anyone can cultivate them. It just depends on whose comprehension and aptitude are higher, determining how fast they can master them. Moreover, martial arts divine powers don’t require corresponding divine skills, as they are already a combination of divine powers and skills.”
“Martial arts divine powers? Aren’t those just swordsmanship and blade arts powers?” Ye Feng raised his eyebrows upon hearing this.
“You’re referring to the narrow definition of martial arts divine powers, which means powers that don’t use any weapons. But in a broader sense, whether it’s knives, guns, swords, halberds, or other weapons, they can all be considered part of martial arts. So these powers can all be called martial arts divine powers,” Zi Ling explained. “Sword and blade arts powers are the most common among martial arts divine powers. Yet even so, these two also share the characteristics of other martial arts divine powers—combining divine powers and skills. Therefore, martial arts divine powers can’t be ranked like ordinary divine powers. Each has its own characteristics, and there’s no distinction between strong and weak.”
“I see. So how do martial arts divine powers come about? They probably aren’t evolved from extreme attribute substances’ laws like elemental divine powers, right?” Ye Feng pressed further.

“Martial arts originate from the Heavenly Dao. However, unlike substances with extreme attributes that inherently contain laws, only living beings can give rise to martial arts. The origin of martial arts lies in life at the dawn of the universe, understood from within the Heavenly Dao,” Zi Ling explained the origins of martial arts. “To extract martial arts powers, one can only choose living beings and use special methods to draw them out from their bloodlines. In fact, other powers can also be extracted in a similar manner. Once a power is extracted, the individual will forever lose it and cannot relearn it.”

“There’s a question: since they are powers, why have I never seen anyone use them in this primary main plane?” Ye Feng couldn’t help but ask. “Not even in the battle records of those strong warriors in the training hall.”

“That’s because, if one relies solely on self-practice, they must first wait until their own miniature universe is formed and they understand the basic laws of the Heavenly Dao before they can further comprehend martial arts powers. Usually, among those at the True Void level, less than one in a thousand can comprehend martial arts powers on their own, and even among those at the Great Void level, it’s less than one in ten. Of course, there are exceptional geniuses who can comprehend martial arts powers at the Pseudo Void level. Such talents are so rare that even in the main plane, it might take an entire era to produce one.”

“How long is an era?” Ye Feng interrupted.

“A hundred trillion years is considered one era,” Zi Ling explained. “But those who forcibly seize others’ powers to refine them are excluded from this.”

“So, with my current level of cultivation, can I refine these two powers?” Ye Feng was skeptical.

“I think it’s very difficult. You’re not even at the star domain level yet, and your understanding of the Heavenly Dao is almost zero. The chances of success are practically zero,” Zi Ling said bluntly, not afraid of discouraging Ye Feng. “Unless you enter a state of sudden enlightenment, in which case it would be quick—probably just one day to refine these two powers.”

“Uh, sudden enlightenment isn’t that easy,” Ye Feng said, somewhat exasperated. Although he had the privilege of supreme comprehension, he only had two such opportunities left, so he naturally had to be cautious about using them.

“There are still opportunities for sudden enlightenment,” Zi Ling said, seemingly having prepared for this topic in advance.

“What do you mean? Do you have a way to put me into a state of sudden enlightenment?” Hearing this, Ye Feng felt that Zi Ling might indeed have a method.

“I can’t put you into a state of enlightenment, but I know there’s an opportunity that can do so,” Zi Ling said with a shake of her head and a smile. “That opportunity requires you to strive for it on your own.”
“What is it?” Ye Feng asked immediately.
“As far as I know, in each main plane, there’s a grand competition held at regular intervals. It includes a Talent Competition and a Strongest Competitions. The Talent Competition involves many strong individuals competing within a certain level of cultivation. For example, in this primary main plane, only those with cultivation below the star domain level can participate. As for the Strongest Competitions, they’re open to strong individuals whose cultivation doesn’t exceed the limits of that plane. In the primary main plane, anyone without cultivation beyond the star rank can join. Both types of competitions offer extremely generous rewards, including a ten-day opportunity for enlightenment,” Zi Ling explained. “Especially in the Talent Competition, even in the primary main plane, sometimes strong individuals from higher-level planes come to watch. If you perform well, you might even be taken as a disciple on the spot.”
“There’s such a thing?” Ye Feng wasn’t particularly excited after hearing this. He already had Tian Dao as his master and a godfather with cultivation roughly on par with Tian Dao’s. Still, he was eager to try. If recognized by those strong individuals from higher-level planes, it would prove he was a true genius. Moreover, with a ten-day opportunity for enlightenment, he definitely wouldn’t give it up easily.
“One more thing. If you really get this chance for enlightenment, remember that after mastering two martial arts techniques, merge other techniques with them—the more the better. A fifth-level technique combined with a martial arts technique can at least exert the power of a sixth-level technique. If three fifth-level techniques are combined with a martial arts technique, and their attributes match, it might be possible to achieve the power of a seventh-level technique,” Zi Ling reminded him. “If all nine techniques of the same basic element are merged with a martial arts technique, it can exert the power of a tenth-level technique. But even in intermediate main planes, few people can achieve such a level of integration.”
“I remember you saying that techniques with different attributes can also be merged, right?” Ye Feng asked further.

“It’s possible, but that kind of fusion creates new divine powers, and only divine powers with the same attributes can be fused in this way. For example, the destruction power of the lightning attribute and the burning power of the fire attribute can be fused to create a new divine power. There’s another type of fusion, where divine powers of the same attribute are combined—like fusing all nine fire attribute powers to reach the perfect state of fire attribute divine powers, thus forming a supreme fire attribute divine power. Even among the super strong beings at the Dongxu level in the intermediate main plane, fewer than a hundred have reached such a perfect state.” Zi Ling made the strong beings of the intermediate main plane seem utterly insignificant.

“Strong beings who have reached the perfect state should be able to easily fuse martial arts divine powers with already perfect supreme divine powers, right?” Ye Feng assumed thisobviouslyly.

“Wrong,” Zi Ling shook her head. “If you try to directly fuse a martial arts divine power with a perfect supreme divine power, the difficulty is more than a hundred times greater than fusing it with individual divine powers. Because the perfect state means such a divine power has no flaws, making it extremely difficult to add anything else to it. If a perfect supreme divine power is a complete sphere, then the nine divine powers are its nine components. Now, consider the martial arts divine power as a bead much smaller than the sphere. Do you think it’s more laborious to force the bead into the complete sphere or to place it among the nine components and then merge them?”

“Naturally, forcing it in is more laborious…” Ye Feng finally understood. “I get it.”

“There’s one more thing you need to know: each category of martial arts divine powers has nine types—whether it’s swordsmanship, swordsmanship, spearsmanship, etc., including martial arts in a narrow sense, there are only nine types. If you can fuse nine divine powers of any martial art to reach the perfect state, you’ll be invincible in the intermediate main plane.” Zi Ling spoke indifferently, as if discussing something unrelated to her.

“I remember!” Ye Feng’s eyes shone as he had fully figured out his next steps.

His conversation with Zi Ling was indeed very beneficial for Ye Feng. Not only did he learn about the general situation of the intermediate main plane, but he also got information about the genius competition. Most importantly, it clarified his future direction for cultivation.

Back in the training hall, he began a new round of challenges, fighting against star universe-level strong beings…

Meanwhile, outside, there was already a lot of buzz due to the second-tier divine skills.

“I heard that a second-tier lightning attribute divine skill will appear at the auction in Longquan City this time?”

“Longquan City’s auctions are quite clever—they manage to obtain such treasures to auction!”

“A second-tier divine skill; I must get it!”
“This time, I absolutely must obtain that second-tier divine skill!!!”