He had backups prepared for his plan, nobody wanted to go with a backup if the actual plan worked.

As he slowly started the Weakening cycle, a strange sensation enveloped him. After reaching 100% completion of Tempering Marrow stage, he felt his true essence forming a system of circulation, going from his dantian, through his organs, into his bones and flowing back into the dantian through his meridians. Lin Ming had predicted that the Weakening Cycle would disrupt this system somehow, blocking the flow of true essence by weakening his body and causing his cultivation to regress. Instead, as the Weakening Cycle persisted, he felt his whole body slowly hardening, as if becoming calcified.
‘No, that isn’t right. It’s like the cell density is somehow increasing?’ He felt the true essence slowly being blocked out as the new cells squeezed in tighter and tighter. His cultivation fell all the way back to Strength training stage and his true essence stopped flowing out from his dantian. ‘I haven’t lost any of my strength. Its just that my cell density has increased to the point where true essence doesn’t penetrate through them anymore.’ He clutched his fist, feeling the strength flowing through his muscles. ‘Alright, time to get back to work I guess.’

Time usually flowed quickly whenever Lin Ming cultivated. It seemed like the blink of an eye, but in reality, nearly two months had passed. ‘I’ve reached the peak of the second cycle.’ He held out his hand and clutched his fist. ‘I should try a serious move.’ Standing up, he squared his hips and drew back his fist as far as it could go before punching out.

A sonic boom exploded as his fist traveled through the air, leaving afterimages. The wall opposite him immediately shattered from the direct impact of the wind. At the same time, the winds whipped up around him, ripped through the furniture, ornaments as well as the walls, sweeping everything into a tornado. Even the roof couldn’t hold, flying up into air like an umbrella on a windy day. Lin Ming simply stood there as the blood pumped through his veins, propelled by a rapidly beating heart. A cool current emerged from his body, forcefully calming him.
‘400,000 jin of strength is no joke.’ He nodded his head. ‘Luckily I’ve already confirmed that everything will return back to normal when I exit the Instant Dungeon.’ Last time he had entered the Instant Dungeon, his fireball had made a hole in the wall. He was prepared to pay Grand Clarity Pavilion for the damages but luckily the hole had magically repaired itself after exiting the dungeon. That was when Lin Ming concluded that the changes made inside the dungeon do not carry-on outside when the Instant Dungeon is destroyed. ‘Speaking of leaving, I guess this confirms my suspicions. Its time to carry out the plan.’ Nodding to himself, just as he raised his hand, he suddenly felt an extremely strong pull from the middle of his forehead. It was powerful to the point where it actually caused a stinging sensation to pierce through his skull. ‘Alright, alright. I guess I can’t hold you back anymore can I?’ It was time to form his battle spirit, Lin Ming knew that the piercing pain was actually a signal. It was about to form, whether he liked it or not; next time the formation process will be forcefully invoked and he wouldn’t be able to contain it. ‘I will let you form, but even if I can’t incorporate the amount of laws I would like, I should at least demonstrate the ones I understand.’ Taking a deep breath, he sat back down and assumed the lotus position. First he drew out the true essence and converted it into a wind rune. The elemental formed and merged with him.

[Wind elemental has merged with your body, your speed has increased]

Ignoring the notification, he followed up with the water elemental. The Gamer ability once again reminded him, but he simply closed the notification with his mind and followed with metal elemental, earth elemental, thunder elemental, fire elemental and finally the wood elemental.

‘Time to feast!’

With a grand proclamation, he let the suction force that had been suppressed in his spiritual sea free. At that moment, his dantian was almost completely empty, all his true essence had been spent increasing the power of the elementals. Although this seemed unimportant at the time, it was one of many factors that had contributed to a chain reaction. The suction swept through his body, seemingly pulling everything in it as it formed. Yet, it only lasted for an instant. Before he knew it, the suction had completely stopped. This signified that his battle spirit had taken form. Lin Ming could care less at this moment however, as his mind had drifted off. His brows had a deep furrow in them, his mind repeatedly going over the sensation he had felt just then. ‘This feeling,’ for the first time since coming to this world, he felt an inspiration strike him. Something that was completely illusory yet solid, ‘that feeling of being almost completely empty and yet at the same time severely saturated…that was strange.’ It seemed like his luck had really come in handy this time as he saw a notification suddenly show up.

[Congratulations on creating Lin Ming’s Eight Trigrams Martial Arts training manual]

‘Huh?’ This was the only sound he could make before information poured into his mind. Closing his eyes, Lin Ming tried his best to understand the origin of this strange technique that appeared out of nowhere.

‘What even?’ His eyes shot open, completely widened, before he closed them again. Lin Ming focused his attention into his spiritual sea. In the grey world, above the barren land, there was a multicoloured lotus floating in the fog. This lotus had eight petals, with seven petals containing the elemental runes of wind, water, metal, earth, thunder, fire and wood. The final petal also contained a rune, but it was one which he had no idea of. Finally, below the lotus flower were two runes; a pitch black rune that seemed to sucking everything in and a glaring white rune that was illuminating it’s surroundings.
‘This.’ He released a sigh. ‘I don’t have time to think about this.’ Shaking his head, he withdrew himself from his spiritual sea. ‘I’ll go over it later.’ Opening his eyes, he stood up and raised his hand, canceling the Instant Dungeon. ‘For now, I have some posturing to do.’

….……………

‘Its rather quiet tonight.’

An old man in a blue gown closed his eyes, enjoying the wind against his face. ‘Its good that the Human Hall elders could catch a break. The selection is close-by, hopefully there are some good seedlings this time.’ A smile appeared on his face as he looked at the buildings lining up the side of the great Zhou Mountain.

“I wonder what the Deputy Master is smiling about.”

The smile was immediately wiped off the old man’s face as he heard the voice drift into his ears. He turned around, his eyes darting around the room. “I’m afraid Deputy Master is looking in the wrong place.” Turning around, his eyes looked around until finally he caught sight of a figure. His brows shot up as he saw the figure of a young man, dressed in a coarse hemp shirt, wearing rough pants with leather boots, standing in midair.

Ekeriel

Hey guys, final chapter for this week. Sorry for the delay once again. I decided to reveal faster than expected, so let me know if you think its too quick. I think our protagonist has done enough training, its time to show-off for a bit.