Chapter 009 – Spirit Card

Tang Tian stroked the Spirit Card carefully with his hands. That was his first martial arts Spirit Card. The size of the Spirit Card was similar to a poker card, it was thin and was made of metal, hard, yet pliable.

The spirit’s silhouette on the Spirit Card was blurry but skinny. Though it was unarmed, it had an aura that could cause palpitations in one’s heart.

Rank two martial arts. I can finally cultivate rank two martial arts!

Excited, Tang Tian took a deep breath in order to calm himself down.

His gaze regained its usual calmness and focused on the Spirit Card in his hand. The Bronze Grade Spirit Card started to glow as though the soul on the card were coming alive. The aura that could cause one’s heart to palpitate doubled in thickness.

Suddenly, a ray of light burst out from the Spirit Card, and was absorbed into Tang Tian’s body.

All of a sudden, Tang Tian’s head exploded. Many things were stuffed into it. Unable to defend in time, his brain became paralyzed. However, he very quickly escaped from the situation, and felt something odd. He seemed to know the messages that were stuffed into his brain, it was familiar yet foreign. This feeling was peculiar.

Out of the blue, he felt his hands were burning hot and immediately, Tang Tian woke up.

Lowering his head to look, the cross was already etched out onto his palm.

“Huh?” Tang Tian was confused. Before he could react, his palm generated currents of attractive forces. His mind went blank again.

The changes occurring without any signs frightened Tang Tian

When he could finally react, his expression changed abruptly.

Darn it!

The Bronze Plate could not have destroyed his hard-earned Spirit Card right?

Tang Tian’s eyelid twitched as he thought about it. Without saying anything else, he thought about the Bronze Plate.

The surroundings darkened as the Southern Cross Door glowed and floated in front of him. Yet the instant Tang Tian laid his eyes on the door, he was shocked. The Spirit Card which had disappeared earlier, had appeared on the door. Although the skinny silhouette was blurry, Tang Tian was sure he recognized it. It was the same silhouette that was on the Spirit Card!

While he was looking at the skinny silhouette, a set of words suddenly appeared in his mind

Although the ‘Celestial Guardian’ looked the same as the silhouette that was on the Spirit Card, it was emitting a powerful aura which was much stronger than what it was emitting on the card earlier.

On the Southern Cross Door, the cross stood vertically as the core. On the left was the grey man who looked just like Tang Tian, and on the right was the blurry shadow.

On both sides, the grey man looked stern, and the shadow looked vicious.

Tilting his head, he studied it for awhile.

The two shadows on both sides of the door looked remarkably like the Celestial Guardian, with features that were extremely alike, anyone would have mistaken them for another Celestial Guardian!

Tang Tian let out a laugh and thought his idea was way too interesting.

Yet not long after, he could no longer laugh. Though The Celestial Guardian looked interesting, his hard-earned Spirit Card was gone just like that, Tang Tian’s face turned bitter.

Suddenly, he slapped his forehead and remembered, when the grey man appeared, he fought with him. Could it be that the shadow wanted to spar with him as well?

His eyes glimmered and was eager to try. He had no fear at all.

While the opponent’s power seemed vicious, to Tang Tian, he was excited when he was faced with things that was never seen before.

“Hey! Young lad…um, no, Uncle!” Tang Tian pointed with his right finger towards the shadow on the door and yelled: “Do you want to fight?”

The shadow on the door had no reaction.

The method was wrong…

Tang Tian murmured and walked forward. His face was just inches away from the door, and he opened his eyes wide to stare at the shadow not forgetting to nag: “Hey, young lad, are you scared already…”

The method was still wrong…

Tang Tian did not give much thought about it and placed his hand forward to slap on the shadow.

His hand hit nothing but air.

Shocked to see his hand was halfway through the door, Tang Tian’s had an odd feeling on his hand. The door was like a soft and dense net, and with his hand halfway through the door, it was as if he had opened up the net.

Yet the weird thing was, that there were countless messages from the net permeating through his arms, entering his body.

Wait a minute…

Tang Tian’s pupils dilated and he felt pleasantly surprised. These were the messages that were transmitted into his body from the Spirit Card!

So this is where you all went!

Tang Tian grinned. He attempted to extend his arms further, to absorb more messages into his body. Instead, he squeezed his entire body into the door.

At this moment, half of Tang Tian’s body was in the door, as though he was embedded in it. He suddenly felt a strong force pulling him in. unable to react promptly, he was sucked into the door.

It was pitch dark inside, until a dull glow started lightening up the place.

His vision was a blur.

Eh, Tang Tian looked around to find himself facing the black mirror behind the door.

He focused on the lines, and in a few moments, he felt a sense of familiarity. Tang Tian lowered his head and looked at his fists.

What a weird feeling… like… he had been practicing [Flash Fist Technique] for a very long time.

He suppressed this weird feeling in his heart and tried punching.

Hu!

The punch seemed to disappear mid air. Tang Tian just had to blink once, and the punch broke through the air.

Such a powerful Flash Fist Technique!

Tang Tian steadied himself. He had a rich experience in fighting and recognized that if he met with such fist techniques during a fight, it would be a troublesome matter.

“Spirit Card Possession, possession duration: 3 days.”

“You are as weak as an ant, and your gifts are terrible. You have a low status and you are defenseless. Sweat and hardship are your only weapons, you have no time to waste.”

Many red letterings appeared in Tang Tian’s grey vision. He was curious but as he saw the last sentence, he tightened his fist!

The red letters truly hit the nail on the head!

He was already lagging so much behind compared to others, as long as he worked harder, and pushed on harder than anyone else, he would see hope!

Cultivating and practising were the only things on Tang Tian’s mind. He had already abandoned the thought of solving the mystery of the Bronze Plate. He had already gotten used to the cold numbers that kept jumping.

“Keep pressing on, Tang Tian!”

Tang Tian raised his fist and shouted to encourage himself.

His face was full of will to fight and seriousness.

The sweat dripped down from his forehead profusely. Panting, Tang Tian gasped for air as though he was the wind that bellowed. His face was pale and he could no longer bring his arms up, his knees were weak.

He had been cultivating for the past two hours continuously, and he had almost used up all his energy. He sat down and used [The Secrets of Cultivating Qi] to strengthen his qi and nourish his body.

One hour later, his fatigue was worn away. He jumped up and started cultivating again.

The selling point of the [Flash Fist Technique] was the ‘Flash’. The fist would disappear suddenly and when it reappeared, it would have attacked the enemy.

The Flash Fist’s speed was astonishing. It had a high requirement in a burst of energy within a split second. Other than the arm muscles suddenly exploding with power, he needed power from the waist and abdomen to coordinate as well.

The most difficult part was the change in tempo. Only with a high speed fist and a rapid change of tempo, would the potential of [Flash Fist Technique] be realized.

[Flash Fist Technique] was only one rank higher than the fundamental fist technique. Yet it involved complex skills and difficulty. Similarly, its power was not something the fundamental fist technique could compare to.

With the Spirit Card possessing Tang Tian’s body, he was able to find out how it should feel like to punch out accurately. Although there were some hits and misses, he was able to punch correctly once every five to six punches.

There was a limited time for the Spirit Card to possess his body. He needed to make sure that his body could remember the technique within this limited period of time. If not, he would be back at square one when the Spirit Card leaves his body.

When the Spirit Card possessed him, he was able to comprehend the [Flash Fist Technique] in this card. However, he had to force it to enter his body if he wanted it to become a part of him and he had to do it within this period of time and cultivate continuously.

Tang Tian did not dare to waste any time, he calmed himself down and started polishing his skills carefully.

With help from a predecessor with prior experience, he would be able to pick up the martial arts from him easily. Teachers only taught martial arts and were not able to do what the Spirit Cards did; to allow the students to practice until it was a part of them. Spirit Cards were very popular exactly due to this special aspect.

The Bronze Grade Spirit Card had the shortest possession period, which was three days. The Silver Grade one was a month, and the Gold Grade one was a year.

Tang Tian continuously tried to move his fists to understand the smaller details of the skill and he was completely absorbed into it.

One fist after another other, his shouts echoed.

Without stopping, he raised his fist and used his heart to comprehend. His energy was depleted again and again, then he would sit down, recover and repeat. The s.p.a.ce behind the door was magical, he could feel fatigue in this s.p.a.ce but he would never feel hungry.

Unknowingly, three days had pa.s.sed.

Tang Tian’s body shook unexpectedly. All the estrangement and sense of familiarity disappeared.

He looked up in daze and let out a long breath. This was the first time he had practiced for so long without pause. In those three days, other than sitting down to meditate, he had not taken even a single break.

He opened up his fist as he could not believe he had lasted for so long!

Slap!

He clenched his fist tightly and grinned from ears to ears, showing his white teeth.

Raising both of his hands as though he was hugging the sky, Tang Tian shouted.

“Tang Tian! You will become strong! You will definitely become stronger!”

A red word appeared floating in front of him. Shocked, he lowered his arms and looked carefully.

“[Flash Fist Technique], rank two technique, number of repet.i.tions needed to completely master the technique: 200,000. Number of repet.i.tions needed to awaken the killing technique of the Flash Fist: 400,000.”

“The hardship of cultivation was activated, time given: Ten days.”

This was…

Tang Tian was dumbfounded, but he reacted quickly. When he was practising the fundamental fist technique, all he needed was 200,000 perfect fists to perfect it.

There was a killing technique!

Tang Tian was excited.

The Bronze Card was the lowest grade Spirit Card, many of the martial arts details were unclear and it was considered the most shallow experience. Therefore, there would be no way to comprehend the killing technique in the bronze card. The killing techniques could only be found in the silver and gold card.

Unexpectedly, this cross door could actually comprehend killing techniques!

Killing techniques were gems. Any type of martial art’s killing technique had a much higher power than any ordinary martial arts. There were even some killing techniques that were stronger than the ordinary martial arts by an entire rank.

As for the 400,000 repet.i.tions needed to unlock the killing technique of the [Flash Fist Technique], Tang Tian didn’t mind. He only needed to endure this small amount of hardship to learn the killing technique. Where else could he find such a good deal?

“I have struck it big!”