Chapter 204: Chapter 193: The Power Of Ki And Martial Arts

-----

The pack of the other twelve golden bats remained wary of us but still started to attack us after they saw us enter the hall. They were “programmed” to attack anything that entered, after all. Although five of them died after I released that super “Ki Blast,” as I’ll call it for now, the other twelve were all as healthy as possible.

They were at least faster and tougher than the Martial Souls, but they lacked their martial arts, Ki manipulation techniques, and intelligence. They had sharp fangs and could unleash beams of Ki from their jaws, though, but our group of four was more than capable of handling them.

Violet, Snow, and Shiro joined the battle for a little while, offering us support as we evaded, leaped, and slashed the throats of these gigantic monsters. Martial beasts, unlike normal monsters, were usually much tougher and could manipulate Ki like it was Mana for them.

Techniques using Ki are usually tougher, as they can ignore a percentage of a person’s defenses and even ignore armor defense if the attack is in the form of energy, which can result in much deadlier results than conventional magic without including advanced magic.

Nonetheless, these guys were still just B Rank mobs. Back then, I would struggle against a B- Rank Yeti King, but now? It was just a joke. Thanks to the faster regeneration of our Ki reserves, we were able to spam our Ki-powered attacks with more ease.

My special Breathing Techniques helped me gather and boost my Ki stat even more over time, and with this fast regeneration of Ki, the speed at which I could cultivate was greatly boosted.

At the end, we swept through these bozos with ease, free EXP at this point.

[You and your party have defeated [Golden Bat Martial Beast (B Rank)] x25]

[You earned 250.000 EXP]

[EXP has been saved until your next Rank Up.]

[You have collected [Golden Bat Martial Beast Corpse (B Rank)] x25]

[Lucky! All gathered Items Ranks have increased to A Rank!]

I just gathered the whole corpses for now; I’ll dismantle them later. I can probably get more Golden Ki Pearls from their insides. When Martial Beasts die, their Ki materializes inside their bodies as these Pearls. Which the Cultivators of Murim Worlds hunt and absorb to boost their cultivation speed or gain small amounts of permanent Ki while also restoring it.

“We’re done here, right, Golden Sun?”

“Yes… You did well, I suppose.”

He was really pissed!

[You and your Party have completed the Third Challenge of the {Golden Sun Venerable’s Trial}!]

[You and your Party received the following Rewards]: [Ki Enhancing Pill (B Rank)] x10 [Random Martial Arts Scroll (B Rank)] x1]

[You have consumed [Ki Enhancing Pill (B Rank)] x10!]

[Your Maximum Ki has increased by +250!]

[You have absorbed the [Random Martial Arts Scroll (B Rank)] x1!]

[The Information and Movements of the {Dark Viper Venomous Fang: Tier 1} Martial Art have been imprinted into your Body and Soul.]

Once we got the rewards, we wolfed down the horrible-tasting pills and got even more Ki than before—250! It was nice to grow stronger so easily. Although I was still slightly pissed, I got another bad draw in the Martial Arts Scroll Gacha.

This time, this one is compatible with me. With the powers I stole from Uroboros after killing and absorbing half his soul, my affinity with snakes and poison increased a lot. I also have the Venom Secretion Skill to go with it.

This Martial Arts shapes the Ki around the index fingers into sharp, curled fangs like those of vipers. Each strike using this technique can pierce through a foe’s defenses and inject Ki poison, which disrupts a target’s Meridians and slows down their Ki regeneration.

Pretty useful; I kind of like it!

“Phew, growing stronger so easily like this feels nice!” Baihe said. “For once, we’re just having fun. My Ki is finally increasing too! It has been stuck at a certain quantity for a while, but now I think it has increased by at least fifty percent.”

“Yeah, same!” Annabelle nodded.

“Hmm, I only feel like I got a bit more; maybe I had a lot without even realizing.” Kevin was perplexed.

“Well, anyway, we’re ready to go? Yeah?” I asked my friends.

They nodded confidently.

“Alright, let’s move to the fourth challenge.” I said merrily, and the walls in front of us trembled, slowly beginning to open to reveal the largest hall of them all.

It was at least fifty times bigger than the rest, and it was full of walls that reached the ceiling. There were three different paths that led to even more converging paths and dead ends. This was a labyrinth, without a doubt.

[The Fourth Challenge: {Challenge of Direction}, will now begin.]

[After managing to survive the previous challenge, you enter a brand-new one. A gigantic labyrinth where you can’t just easily leap over the walls to see the rest of it.]

[You must now use the Senses you’ve honed to find the way out of this perilous labyrinth! But that’s not all; this place’s filled with traps, Martial Beasts, and above all, treasure chests with forbidden relics and rewards.]

[Will you risk trying to find all the riches, or will you quickly move to the end of the labyrinth?]

[Dungeon Restrictions: Mana and Magic are sealed. Fighting and Offensive-type Skills cannot be used.]

[Dungeon Effects: Ki Regeneration Speed and Quantity Increases by +100%]

This time they seal our fighting-related Skills, not Martial Arts or other support Skills though—but we can now use our Sense-related Skills. I suppose the intention is to find the way through using the senses we honed or something, right?

“Wait, we can’t use Skills now?! This is unfair!” Said Kevin, complaining.

“Rules are rules, you brats.” The Voice spoke. “Now complete this trial or die trying!”

He didn’t speak after that, leaving us all in silence. Until the Constellations started commenting.

[The Cosmic Throne {Butterfly That Flies Across the Universe} is slightly angered at the attitude of the Will of the Golden Sun Venerable.]

[She says he should go take a chill pill.]

[If you manage to piss him off some more, she promises you a good reward.]

[The Cosmic Throne {Monkey that Dances in Chaos} laughs his ass off at how angry you’ve made this stupid Cultivator.]

[He has sponsored [Golden Ki Fruit (A+ Rank)] x4!]

[He says you should share that with your friends to get even more Ki!]

Oh my, thank you, monkey! I thought you got angry because I rejected your offer before, but you seem quite fond of me and my friends. I’ll make sure to exploit that for more rewards.

Also, that butterfly wants me to piss off the Golden Sun Venerable’s Will even more? You got it!

“Alright guys, eat these fruits while we are at it.” I said, sharing the fruits with my friends. Because sharing is caring.

“Oh, fruits? They restore Ki or something?” Asked Kevin.

“Yeh, just eat the damn fruit.” I said.

“Okay, okay…!” Kevin gave it a bite. “Hm?! What’s this?! It is so good! So sweet! And I can clearly feel a lot of Ki flowing with each bite! No way!”

“Really? Cronch! Ooh…!” Baihe was also rather pleased.

“Hmm, so tashty!” Annabelle was already halfway through.

I also ate the fruit. The flavor was deliciously sweet, incredibly juicy, and refreshing. It was like a combination of the sweetest apple you could imagine, with touches of tangerine and lemon. And a softness similar to the juiciest mango you could imagine.

We finished the fruits off in an instant, gaining a lot of Ki out of it. And above all, something extra!

[You have consumed the [Golden Ki Fruit (A+ Rank)]!]

[You gained +200 Ki.]

[One Random Martial Arts Tier has increased to Tier 2!]

[The [Golden Dragon Fist: Tier 1] Martial Arts have increased to Tier 2]

[Their Power has increased by +50%. You can now unleash more of the power of the Golden Dragon with each punch.]

Not bad! It was a pretty good snack.

“Anyways, should we use our Senses to guide ourselves? Even then… Ugh, this place’s big!” Baihe said. “We’ll definitely waste a couple hours here.”

“Yeah, but we can’t help it. The rewards are pretty good; let’s do this.” Kevin seemed pumped up.

“Yeah!” Annabelle nodded. “If we find any monsters, can we eat their meat this time? I’m getting a little hungry. I want some barbeque.”

“What? You want to complete this the boring, slow way?” I asked them with the cockiest smile imaginable.

The trio naturally felt slightly afraid of what I was going to do next.

“Oh no, here it comes again. She’s going to do something crazy, isn’t she?” Kevin sighed.

“Yep, definitely. I know that smile.” Baihe nodded.

“You got some idea?” Annabelle wondered.

“Like hell I do! We’ll blast through the walls.” I smiled.

“What? That’s impossible; I already touched and sensed them; they’re incredibly thick and made of a super hard material. I think they’re further reinforced by some sort of power, too. Like, they’re just indestructible.” Baihe said. “Anna, it’s not going to work this time…”

“There’s nothing indestructible in this universe, dear Baihe. You just need more power.” I said, my hands overflowing with Ki and bits of Cosmic Energy.

Yeah, this Dungeon can seal our Magic and Mana, but Cosmic Energy is a power that Constellations wield. Naturally, another Constellation can’t easily just seal it off. It goes beyond their authority.

“{Golden Dragon Fist} + {Sea Serpent’s Bite} + {Venomous Viper Fang} = {Golden Sea Dragon’s Fang}”

I combined the knowledge I had of these three Martial Arts into a single technique, as my right hand’s index finger overflowed with a golden aura. My entire arm was covered by ghostly, golden dragon scales.

BAAAM!

With a single and mighty strike, I struck the walls. The shockwave spread across them, cracks emerged, and immediately, the walls broke down. The attack’s shockwave continued into the next four walls, blasting them one after another and leaving a large hole in them.

“I-I told you so…” Kevin said.

“Wow, okay…” Baihe muttered. “Alright… Anna’s being as awesome as ever. She’s so hot when she’s all cocky and powerful too.”

“Huh?” Annabelle looked at Baihe with a weird face after that comment.

“I-I mean, she’s cool! Yeah.” Baihe nodded.

“Let’s go! Let’s explore each area we blast through!” I guided my friends through.

The first row of paths was full of Martial Beasts. Mostly in the form of Bulls, Crows, and Turtles. They were all B Rank too, so we swept the floor with them easily. Baihe used her ice magic to freeze the Golden Crows’ wings, while Kevin crushed the Bulls legs to stop their charges, and Annabelle overwhelmed the Turtles by destroying their shells with her sheer number of punches.

While we fought, Annabelle tried out her Privilege, managing to easily summon ten spider minions without restrictions! Similarly to Cosmic Energy, it seems this bastard of Golden Sun can’t seal Privilege powers, so it was easy for her to bring out her ten minions.

Half of them were C Rank, the other half were B Rank, pretty strong and tough. They helped us cover our blind spots with my tamed monster’s assistance. While I kept punching walls, I kept punching more walls.

We spent half an hour exploring everything with ease. I destroyed so many walls that the only thing blocking our path now were piles of golden stone rubble, which I stored inside my inventory. This was an incredibly tough material, so it was going to be useful for crafting.

We found three treasure chests in the entire area and another twenty more Martial Beasts. There were some traps too, such as a giant boulder rolling towards us, which Kevin crushed with a strike from his spear, arrow traps that we blocked with ease using our shields, and pit traps that were easily avoided.

Oh right! There were some really cute flame traps that released fire when you got closer. We used them to roast some of the Golden Bulls and Golden Turtles meat while we had a break. At this point, we had already explored the entire hall, and we were just chilling; Annabelle was opening the treasure chests while waiting for the meat to be ready.

“So? What’s inside?” I wondered as Annabelle opened the treasure chests.

What was inside was revealed to be thirty Golden Ki Pearls, ten in each, and a small Martial Relic. A golden-colored gauntlet in the shape of dragon claws, a golden bracelet with Chinese word inscriptions, and a ring with a ying and yang-like black and white jewel.

They were all B-Rank Martial Relics, especially because they were crafted using Murim’s Worldline unique "Alchemy,” which utilizes Ki instead of Mana. Therefore, these pieces of equipment are capable of increasing Ki and Martial Power when equipped.

What’s Martial Power? Well, a “hidden stat” that increases the strength of Ki and Martial Arts Techniques!

“Three Relics, huh? How do we distribute these…” Kevin said.

“You guys can keep them all; I’ve got plenty of good equipment.” I smiled.

“Aww, Anna, really?” Baihe asked. “I just can’t! Come on, you take the ring at least.”

“Nah, keep it. You guys need it more than me.” I was a virtuous young woman.

“Thank you! I’ll take the gauntlet! I like fighting with my fists.” Annabelle said.

“I’ll take the bracelet.” Kevin said.

“I guess I’ll take the ring!” Baihe nodded.

Once they equipped the items, they began overflowing with Ki and Martial Power.

Good, my children, grow stronger!

[The Cosmic Throne {Jester Filled With Lies} is impressed by your unexpected generosity!]

[He has sponsored [Mirage Flower Spray (A+ Rank)] as a little gift for you.]

[The Cosmic Throne {Maiden that Watches Over Nature} is moved to tears due to the beautiful friendship you have with your friends.]

[She has sponsored [Vitality Heart Crystal (A+ Rank)] as a reward for your great generosity.]

Naturally, I get rewards like this too.

-----