Chapter 43 – Star Finger
Seeing the elder’s movement, Zhao Feng’s eyes shone. The second floor of the Martial Arts Library was different from the first floor.
There was no real copies of the skills here, instead, they were replaced by jade tokens. There weren’t that many words on the jade tokens that summarised the martial art’s ability and they weren’t very specific. This meant that it was harder to differ which skills were strong or weak.
Zhao Feng couldn’t steal one hundred skills like last time and then slowly go over them.
Being the one guarding the Martial Arts Library, Elder Zhao obviously knew all of the skills well. What was more important was that Elder Zhao had seen his battles and understood what he was lacking .
“There’s three peak ranked martial arts here which are comparable with you. They are: [Mesmerising Wind Fist], [Star Finger] and [Sky Striking Leg].” Elder Zhao took three jade tokens out.
All of them were offensive skills?
Zhao Feng was slightly curious as he heard the names.
“Your offensive skills are too low ranked, so their potential are limited. But you’ve trained Metal Wall Technique as a defensive skill, which is not far away from a peak ranked martial art. If you ever find the Holy Rank [Silver Wall Technique], it’d be perfect.” The elder explained.
No wonder he’s a Martial Master!
Zhao Feng approved of what the elder said. His defense was already fine, so all he needed was offensive skills.
“These three peak ranked skills are all different: Mesmerising Wind Fist has the attributes of wind and it uses skill to break through power. When used with a high tier movement skill, the damage would double; Star Finger condenses one’s Inner Strength into one point and it can attack everything within a certain range; Sky Striking Leg can create whirlwinds, attacking a large amount of people and it is very effective against human wave tactics… “ Elder Zhao simply explained the three skills.
Zhao Feng felt moved by all three skills.
He could exert a lot of power from training in any of these three skills.
“Which of these three is the most powerful?” Zhao Feng directly asked.
Although they were all peak ranked, there were still differences between them.
“Hehe, out of these three skills, the Star Finger is the strongest, approaching even Holy Martial Arts. It’s even better than Zhao Linlong’s Spatial Cloud Finger, but the only problem is that it’s very hard to learn this skill and there’s a certain amount of danger involved. Elder Zhao smiled.
“Then I’ll choose that.” Zhao Feng didn’t hesitate at all.
He had seen Zhao Linlong’s Spatial Cloud Finger and it was indeed powerful. And this Star Finger skill was even stronger than the Spatial Cloud Finger. After confirming that he wanted to choose the skill, Elder Zhao went and retrieved the copy of Star Finger.
Zhao Feng was slightly excited as he received the old book. Soon, the contents of Star Finger went into Zhao Feng’s mind. Star Finger was broken into six grades and the minimum requirement was the Fourth rank of the Martial Path. This finger skill condensed one’s Inner Strength to the maximum. When it reached the low level, it could shoot straight through a two inch thick metal block.
Some body strengthening technique would even be useless facing this skill. Furthermore, this skill only cared about power, nothing else.
“Hahaha, this is just what I wanted.” Zhao Feng was extremely pleased.
“Star Finger had a huge advantage and even if you haven’t reached the Seventh rank, but have reached the fourth grade, you can attack through the air.” Elder Zhao couldn’t stop praising this skill.
Attack through the air?
Zhao Feng’s heart rippled. Everyone knew that only when a cultivator reached the seventh rank, their Inner Strength can leave the body and attack through the air.
This meant that they didn’t need to fight close combat, instead they could attack through the air. This was the difference between the sixth and seventh rank. And the peak ranked skill Star Finger could attack through the air before one even reached the seventh rank.
“This finger skill is two to three times harder to train. Some people have considered it to be a half Holy Rank Skill. I also trained this once but I was stuck on the third grade for a long time and because it was just too hard to reach the fourth grade, I gave up and started to train another skill.” Elder Zhao looked complexly but expectantly at Zhao Feng.
“Why is Elder Zhao so confident in me?” Zhao Feng said.
“Because your understanding of martial arts is very deep. You’ve already trained core and middle ranked martial arts to the max level. You’ve even trained Lightly Floating Ferry to a high degree.” Elder Zhao praised.
Zhao Feng immediately understood that Elder Zhao knew his understanding was very high and that he might be able to train Star Finger.
“Let me warn you.” The elder’s expression turned solemn.
“Elder please speak.”
Elder Zhao’s eyes turned sharp: “You’ll only have a chance to fight Zhao Linlong if you learn Star Finger and there’s no certainty of winning.”
Why?
Zhao Feng didn’t understand, wasn’t Star Finger better than Spatial Cloud Finger?
“This is because… ”
Elder Zhao let out a long sigh: “Since Zhao Linlong came first and being the head of the sect’s step son, he not only got an extra thousand blood plant, he was also allowed into the third floor of the Martial Arts Library.”
Third floor of the martial arts library?
The mysterious third floor?
Zhao Feng was shocked. Everyone knew that the second floor was mainly full of high ranked skills, and a few peak ranked skills. As for the third floor it was only a legend.
“Zhao Linlong has received a thousand year blood plant and he has a high chance to break through to the sixth rank of the martial path in the next few months and become the head of the four geniuses. The higher ups of the sect are going to support him in whatever way they can.” Speaking up to here Elder Zhao let out a sigh as he thought about Zhao Feng.
After all, Zhao Feng’s potential wasn’t any weaker than Zhao Linlong’s.
Regretfully, he was a side branch disciple, while Zhao Linlong was of the direct branch and the head of the sect’s stepson.
Even if Zhao Feng had beaten Zhao Linlong that day, his treatment would’ve been different.
“Elder Zhao, can you tell me what’s in the third floor? Could it be the legendary Holy ranked martial arts?” Zhao Feng’s breathing rate increased.
Holy ranked martial arts were a legend; one could reach the Holy Martial Path by cultivating them.
“Haha, do you think a small city like Sun Feather City could have a full copy of a Holy martial art?” Elder Zhao shook his head but continued: “But Zhao Linlong does indeed have the chance to gain enlightenment from broken Holy martial arts.”
Zhao Feng let out a long sigh. Soon, Zhao Feng gave the real copy of Star Finger back to Elder Zhao.
“You don’t want to copy it?” The elder said curiously.
“I’ve remembered it.” Zhao Feng didn’t decide to hide this.
Never forgetting wasn’t that much of a big deal. Elder Zhao was surprised, but the happiness in his eyes were deeper; it looked like Zhao Feng was indeed a genius.
Zhao Feng was still able to choose two high ranked martial arts after choosing the peak ranked skill. Elder Zhao recommended a movement skill named [Lightly Micro Step].
“This skill is rumoured to have come from the same origins with Lightly Floating Ferry and it is almost a high ranked martial art.” He explained.
One peak ranked finger skill and one high ranked movement skill.
Zhao Feng could still choose one more skill. This time, he chose [Withering Wood Technique].
Withering Wood Technique was similar to Hiding Air Technique, it could conceal one’s aura and smell. According to the description if Withering Wood Technique was trained to the high level, the cultivator could enter a ‘fake death’ state and escape the enemy’s perception.
“You have good eyesight, this skill has an extremely good effect.” Elder Zhao smiled.
After choosing his skills, Zhao Feng thanked the elder and left.
Deng! Deng! Deng…
Right at this moment, steps sounded from outside the library.
A total of three people stepped onto the second level. The first was a white-robed old man, the second a peaceful middle aged man and the last, a youth in gold. The last person was Zhao Linlong!
Zhao Feng immediately bowed towards the first two: “This junior sees elder and head of the sect.”
Then he glance at at the youth clothed in gold and said smilingly: “Big brother Linglong.”
“En.” The head of the sect and the elder nodded their heads.
But Zhao Linlong only faintly looked at him and glanced away without saying a word. This made Zhao Feng extremely awkward and irritated.
After all, Zhao Feng was third in the inner disciples, and although Zhao Linlong was first, he couldn’t disregard him.
“The head of the sect and the elder is here, could it be…” Zhao Feng guessed.
If they were to enter the second floor, only one of them was needed and not both. This meant that the two were sending Zhao Linlong to the third floor. It looks like what Elder Zhao said was true!
Zhao Feng started to get angry, but he soon recovered as he thought about the dimension in his left eye.
Zhao Feng headed straight home.
Inside the room, he closed his eyes and the three skills Star Finger, Lightly Micro Step and Withering Wood Technique popped up inside his mind. Zhao Feng first tried to learn Lightly Micro Step and found that the style of it was similar to Lightly Floating Ferry.
Half an hour later, he had reached the beginning level!
Night.
Zhao Feng surprisingly found that when he used Air Crossing Breathing Technique with Lightly Micro Step, it was even faster.
For the next few days, he concentrated on the new skills.
Lightly Micro Step and Withering Wood Technique were both high ranked martial arts and Zhao Feng found them very easy to learn. It wasn’t just because of the increase of enlightenment he got from his left eye, it was also because Lightly Floating Ferry and Hiding Air Technique set a very solid foundation for them both.
By only using ten days, Zhao Feng had trained the two skills to the high level.
Next he was going to train the most important skill, Star Finger! This finger skill was a peak ranked martial art which was hard to cultivate, back then even Elder Zhao didn’t manage to train all of it.