Dongfang Bai's eyes were complicated. It was a pity that such a powerful secret art could only be cultivated by someone with no internal energy.
Was she really supposed to throw away all the years she'd put into the Sunflower Manual and switch to this strengthened version of the Star-Absorbing Art instead?
She couldn't quite bring herself to do it…
But if she didn't cultivate it, she couldn't bear that either.
After all, the effects of the strengthened Star-Absorbing Art were simply too formidable—far beyond anything the Sunflower Manual could hope to match.
She sighed lightly, and when she saw how curious the chat group members were about the strengthened Star-Absorbing Art, she posted the group's annotation.
What followed was a stretch of silence, and then several deep, collective gasps from the people behind their screens.
Average Group Owner: "Hiss—are we sure this is the Star-Absorbing Art and not the Energy-Absorbing Technique from The World's No. 1?"
Average Group Owner: "It already sounded excessive to be able to plunder all of someone else's years of cultivation, but it can even seize another person's essence, energy, and spirit to nourish yourself?"
Average Group Owner: "And the key point—there are no negative side effects!"
Average Group Owner: "Are we sure this is still martial arts? Sounds more like immortal cultivation."
Not to mention anything else—just the fact that it could take another's cultivation was enough to let a powerless, ordinary commoner become a powerhouse who could suppress the entire martial world in a short time!
And then there was the plundering of essence, energy, and spirit…
In a wuxia context, essence, energy, and spirit corresponded to physique, internal energy, and mental strength.
From a scientific perspective, "physique" would not only represent strength and bodily toughness, but also the body's various elements, immunity, and the like.
With a better physique, one's lifespan would increase to a certain extent.
If Dongfang Bai were to use the strengthened Star-Absorbing Art to plunder enemies' essence, energy, and spirit and thereby raise her own, then she stood a very real chance of achieving immortality.
Of course, for people like the chat group members, so-called immortality was not all that hard to obtain.
Whether by directly buying time with points, or through the Dog Talisman, or by means of divine-body technology…
Dongfang Bai herself was already one of the top experts in Smiling Proud Wanderer; aside from her master, Dongfang Bubai, there was basically no one left who could defeat her.
If she were ruthless enough to martialize the realm—turn the world's martial artists into fuel for her cultivation—her future achievements would be unimaginable.
"Richest Man": "The Star-Absorbing Art had so many aftereffects before, and a single enhancement turned it into something this terrifying. That multiplier on the enhancement is a bit scary."
"Richest Man": "It's practically like strengthening a piece of stone into gold."
"Richest Man": "If I could apply that enhancement to my iron armor—hiss…"
This wasn't only a matter of armor durability; it also implied the advanced scientific technologies embedded within it.
If the enhancement succeeded, and if he could fully digest the technologies of that armor set, it would be hugely beneficial both to him and to contemporary science and technology.
Dongfang Bubai: "If only I had enhanced the Sunflower Manual back then—"
Dongfang Bubai: "Forget it."
Dongfang Bai exhaled. Regret wouldn't help now.
Better to look ahead than pine for the past.
Dongfang Bubai: "It's a little regrettable, but there's no question the strengthened Star-Absorbing Art is superior."
Dongfang Bubai: "Besides, I have the power of the Glint-Glint Fruit; even if I lost my internal energy, I wouldn't be much weaker."
Electromaster: "Damn it, even I'm tempted by these enhancement results."
Electromaster: "But a thousand points—I don't dare to gamble!"
Misaka Mikoto wanted to cry. It wasn't that she hadn't found anything related to magic lately, but everything she turned up was cheap—nothing that could be exchanged for many points.
And the points she did manage to get, she'd spent on Sleep Talismans.
Thinking of this made her angry. That Accelerator—no matter how she tried to talk him down, he just wouldn't listen.
Make her mad and she'd drop a Sleep Talisman on him.
Let him sleep for a whole day first!
If he didn't want to become Academy City's first esper to starve to death, then he needed to properly give up that plan!!!
Wuxia King: "Is a thousand points really that much?"
Luo Hao didn't think too much about points. The items from other worlds in the chat group looked interesting, but they didn't hold that much allure for her.
A Godslayer's rank destined them to possess immense power, yet find it difficult to advance further, to break the shackles imposed by that rank.
Godslayers had limits.
No matter how many Heretic Gods you slew or how many Authorities you seized, you would not shatter that limit.
You might say that from the moment you killed your first Heretic God and became a Godslayer, your level was already capped.
Slaying more Heretic Gods would only add more combat techniques or support methods; while they could raise your combat power for a time, they would not make your fundamental essence any stronger.
With that shackle in place, powers from other worlds would still be nothing more than tools of battle to her.
As for switching to another world's power system?…
Roxie Vale's high-martial world system was what she desired, but there was no spiritual qi in Luo Hao's world.
As for a technological system, that had never been in her consideration from the very beginning.
She had thought she would still have to wait a while longer. But after learning what the enhancement function could do, she glimpsed a possibility of breaking the Godslayer rank and taking the next step.
As for the points required for an enhancement?
As Huaxia's only Godslayer—leader of the martial world on Chinese soil, Hierarch of the Five Mountains Holy Sect, Wuxia King of Jiangnan, the one who reigned atop the pinnacle of the martial path—she did not believe she would be lacking in points.
She didn't need to purchase anything else; her only longing was to break the limitation that the Godslayer rank imposed upon her.
Once she shattered that restriction, she was confident she could reach a new limit in the shortest possible time.
"Richest Man": "A thousand points is certainly not a lot, but the success rate of the enhancement is too low."
"Richest Man": "So far, only Dongfang Bai has succeeded."
"Richest Man": "If your luck's not great, I suggest you don't try it."
He was offering advice, but Tony could feel that he himself could barely restrain the urge to enhance. After all, people always had that thought in their hearts: "What if?" What if he were the one who succeeded?
It was only a thousand points. Quite a bit, yes, but for him, not that much.
And then it might end up like drawing water with a bamboo basket—coming up empty.
The Oldest Godslayer: "I know what you want to do, Luo Hao."
The Oldest Godslayer: "You want to break the shackle our Godslayer rank places on us and step into a stronger realm."
The Oldest Godslayer: "I will absolutely reach that step before you."
That was the confidence of Marquis Voban—and it was founded on how well he knew Luo Hao.
There were many mysteries in the world of the Godslayers: onmyō arts, magic, knights, shrine maidens… but in the chat group, the most valuable thing was still Authority!
And among all Godslayers, Marquis Voban possessed the most Authorities!
While those abilities were too familiar to him, so he wouldn't recover them, as for the Heretic Gods in the original work… he would take them without hesitation.
(End of this chapter)