Zhou Weiqing’s head was currently in a mess, totally at a loss. At this point, he felt like everything he had learned thus far was a lie, his world turned upside down. Hearing Long Shiya’s words, he could only shake his head subconsciously.
Long Shiya said passively: “I no longer have any Skills Stored. All my previous Skills, I have wiped away.”
“What?!” Even though Zhou Weiqing had guessed that the answer would be something he could not expect, he still had not in his wildest dreams guessed that it would be SO unimaginable.
Long Shiya continued passively: “You also have Six Attributes, and in truth, all the Skills you have Stored are very strong. However, you should have also learned from experience that with your cultivation level, you can’t even use them all once through. I know what you are thinking, in the future as your cultivation level raises, you will be able to use them all. However, do not forget that as your cultivation level rises, your Heavenly Energy increases, you will still be gaining more Stored Skills. Each extra Heavenly Jewel… you will gain six more Skills! In that case, if you actually reach the Heavenly God Stage, how many Skills would you have? Seventy Two!”
“Heavenly Skills, they are gifts of nature. Each and every Heavenly Skill have their own profound secrets behind them, and they cannot be explained so simply by that laughably simple rating system. Before meeting me, have you ever imagined that a mere Wind blade could have the power of a Heavenly God Tier Skill?”
Zhou Weiqing shook his head numbly.
Long Shiya said: “Exactly. As such, the effects of Heavenly Skills are all just a form or pattern of Heavenly Energy usage. Any Heavenly Skill, when trained up to the absolute maximum, they will all be able to produce the greatest power possible. If in future you have seventy two Skills, let me ask you, how many can you actually train to the absolute maximum? Hmph, I’m afraid that the answer is not a single one. You might think now that you already have some control over your Skills. Well, let me tell you, you are far from being even close to the maximum. In order to train a single Skill to the maximum, that will take an unbelievable amount of time, energy and effort. Unless you can live up to a thousand years old, otherwise you can forget about training all seventy two Skills to the absolute maximum.”
“This question had plagued me for a long time, and it was only at the age of sixty one before I finally straightened out my thinking. At that time, I was already at the Heavenly King Stage cultivation level. As such, I used my own Heavenly Dao Energy to forcefully erase all my Stored Skills, blazing a trail of my own to just focus on the control of my Heavenly Energy and Attributes. Ten years later, I finally mastered this Skill Manipulation Arts of mine. From that time onwards, I did not have any Skills Stored, but it could be also said that I have all Skills of my six Attributes, and I have no longer any need to Skill Store anything. In fact, I can actually create Skills of my own according to my need. Furthermore, I can use them all to the greatest degree that my current cultivation level is at. At the same time, I could start creating my own fusion Skills as I could come up with, with only my imagination and creativity as my limit.”
Zhou Weiqing sucked in a deep cold breath. Although Long Shiya had not described much, from his words Zhou Weiqing had already understood much. This was truly a totally new path that Long Shiya had carved on his own, one so different from the current cultivation of Heavenly Jewel Masters today. This was truly a miraculous deed. After all, Long Shiya’s words had totally overturned everything Zhou Weiqing had learned about Heavenly Skills.
Looking at Zhou Weiqing’s vacuous expression, Long Shiya said with a pleased expression: “This control skill of mine, before the Sixth Jeweled cultivation level, there is actually no real advantage to be had, perhaps even lesser. However, as your cultivation level rises, the advantages grow more and more obvious. Do you know what the greatest benefit to this Skill Manipulation Arts of mine?”
Zhou Weiqing suddenly seemed to wake up, and a light flashed in his head, and sudden inspiration struck him, and the words seemed to escape his mouth involuntarily: “No cooldown!”
It was Long Shiya’s turn to be surprised: “That’s right, how did you think of that?”
Zhou Weiqing said: “Since teacher is able to control Heavenly Energy to duplicate any Skill of the level, then those are all duplicated or simulated Skills, so there shouldn’t be any cooldown for them right? Furthermore, just now I saw teacher using the Fetters of Wind on both Little Red Bean and Fei’er.”
Long Shiya said with a satisfied smile: “That’s right, very good. Being able to draw inferences with just a few hints, you are indeed my good disciple. What you said is indeed true, one of the greatest benefit of this Skill Manipulation Arts of mine is being able to use those skills consecutively without any cooldown. At the same time, you’re able to use them at the power level required with the lowest possible expenditure of Heavenly Energy. As such, as long as you have enough Heavenly Energy, you can keep using these Skills one after the other as much as you want.”
Zhou Weiqing thought about it for a moment, then said: “That is to say, at my current four Jeweled cultivation level, if I can learn this Skill Manipulation Arts of yours, then I will be able to use any Skills of my six Attributes to my current Four Jeweled level of power right?”
Long Shiya nodded and said: “Exactly that. If you are able to learn more attribute fusions and fuse some Skills together, the power will be much greater.”
Revelation struck Zhou Weiqing and he said: “I get it, no wonder you said it might actually be a detriment to my current power by using this Skill Manipulation Arts, as the sheer power of my Skills might drop. However, the future prospects would be far greater if I went down this path. After all, we have the benefit of having so many Attributes, and just being able to fuse them in all the various possibilities is a massive boon. The more Attributes we have, the greater number of fusion possibilities… no wonder you would only accept me as your disciple…”
Long Shiya did not hide his admiration for his new disciple, clapping him on the shoulder as he said: “Very good, it sure does save me much time and effort teaching you things. As long as you understand, that is great.”
Zhou Weiqing said: “Teacher, then should I follow your lead and erase all my Skills too before I learn your Skill Manipulation Arts?” If he were to say that he was not highly tempted by all of that, it would be a lie. Just the single benefit of having no cooldowns was already a power that could topple the heavens, let alone the other benefits of the Skill Manipulation Arts. This was truly something that would make him incomparable to any of his level. After all, the power of Fusion Skills were extremely clear to Zhou Weiqing, his own D ark Demon God Lightning was exactly that. Just that three Attributes Fusion Skill alone had let him defeat Shen Little Demon, who was at a cultivation level three Jewels higher than him at that time. If he could unleash a Six Attribute Fusion Skill in the future, what kind of power would it hold?
Long Shiya shook his head, saying: “It is not necessary to erase them all. There is no point in purposefully dropping your current combat prowess just to learn my Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts. At the same time, you will not need to focus on training those Skills any longer. Besides your Heavenly Energy cultivation, all of your focus should be on my Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts. Once you have some mastery of it, any Skill in your hands will be able to be at your maximum.”
As he spoke up to this point, he paused slightly before continuing: “Well, it’s not that you do not need to Skill Store any longer… if there are any Heavenly God Tier Skills, do not pass them up. Although our Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts can ultimately allow us to unleash our Skills at the Heavenly God Tier power, there are just some effects that we are not able to duplicate. For example, your Dragon Silencing Seal, Time Reversal etc etc…”
Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Teacher, didn’t you say you have no more Stored Skills? Does it mean you really didn’t Skill Store any Heavenly God Tier Skills?”
Long Shiya gave a humph and said: “Theory! Don’t you know what theory means? My meaning is that once you master this Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts, in theory you do not need to Skill Store anymore.”
Zhou Weiqing said fawningly: “I understand, I understand. Teacher, you have truly opened my eyes. When I get back from the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens, I will start learning.
Long Shiya asked curiously: “Why are you going to the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens?”
Zhou Weiqing said: “I’m going to catch some Heavenly Beasts. Err… it’s kind of a long story, but here it goes…” He went on to speak of his background, and the fall of the Heavenly Bow Empire, how he had ran off to the ZhongTian Empire to seek an opportunity and build up towards reviving his Empire, and everything up until now in detail.
Originally, he did not know anything about Long Shiya besides him being a Heavenly Emperor Stage powerhouse, and was slightly reluctant to become his disciple. However, now that he had witnessed the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts, he had been fully convinced. If he could go back to the past, he would unhesitatingly sincerely beg to become Long Shiya’s disciple, and not the act that it had been. Furthermore, Long Shiya also had the Darkness Attribute… With his cultivation level, it would not be too difficult to release his father from that Darkness Consolidated Fate Denying Seal. If his new master was willing to help, there was definitely great hope for the Heavenly Bow Empire.
When Long Shiya heard Zhou Weiqing’s words, his face grew serious. “Little Fatty, do you know why I did not take any action all the time you faced Han Tianyou, and even all the way up until he left before I even showed myself to you?”
Zhou Weiqing blinked and said: “Is it because you were trying to test me out?”
Long Shiya shook his head and said: “Not exactly. Your abilities did indeed interest me greatly. However, the Snow Deer Tribe has some connection to me, and with this old man here, and that Han Tianyou actually dared to kill some Snow Deer Tribesmen… normally with my temper he would not have lived to walk out of here. The reason I let him go was because of you.”
The main reason why I did not kill Han Tianyou was because of it is a rare but great opportunity to put you through the hard school of adversity. The growth of any Jewel Master is a long process, a complicated one. However, one thing is certain… the greater the pressure and stress, the faster the cultivation. Well, that or death. Such a test, or a tempering, is extremely valuable to you. That is the real reason why I did not kill him or capture him, to leave you with a latent enemy. Without pressure, where would your motivation be? As such, in terms of cultivation and training, I will give you my all in helping you, guiding you, training you, and making sure you are in the right direction. However, in terms of your own business, you will have to do it on your own, to solve your own problems. Otherwise, if I help you solve everything, what motivation do you have to work hard and cultivate? As such, do not think that I will help you save your family directly, or to revive your Empire. That is definitely not possible, and you need to be clear about that.”
Zhou Weiqing gave a sad look and said: “Master, you don’t have to be so ruthless right…”
Long Shiya gave a humph and said: “Little brat, this is for your own sake. Alright, enough nonsense, who asked you to go to what rubbish Ten Thousand Beast Heavens? You just stay here and learn and cultivate with this old man. As for those Heavenly Cores you need, you can just pick them out from here. Those things are like ordinary rocks to me.”
As he said that, Long Shiya threw a cloth sack at Zhou Weiqing.
Zhou Weiqing caught it reflexively, and when he extended his Heavenly Energy to check within, he was so startled he almost dropped it.
He had never seen, or even heard of, such a terrifying Spatial Object. In this cloth sack, it held a Spatial Dimension of more than ten thousand square metres! That was a size almost unheard of! More importantly, the entirety of the Spatial Sack was filled with heaps and heaps of all kinds of objects. Of which a large portion were Heavenly Cores, stacked like mere grains in a granary in mounds and mounds of them. From just a single look, he could not even count how many there were.
A faint smile crossed Zhou Weiqing’s lips. This Large Fatty teacher of his might say that he would not help him, but in truth, would he really not help?