As I watched Aisnam practice her palm techniques, I had a large smile on my face. It had been three days since her arrival, and she had already brought the eighth Palm Technique to Perfection, and trying to push toward Minor Immersion.
More importantly, with every technique she learned, the speed of her learning was getting faster and faster. Even under the acceleration effect of that weird gate, it took almost a day for her to properly learn that first technique. Yet, she practiced the current technique for barely two hours before she reached Perfection, achieving what was supposed to be impossible.
And, that was with the constant commentary she was running to my benefit while I practiced near her.
It was good to see that I wasn't the only one benefiting from the System cheats, mostly due to its restrictions being quite easy to bypass. It further confirmed my earlier guess, that the mysterious goddess didn't put any thought about how things would work before sending me here.
I stopped practicing my martial arts when she was covered with the distinct glow of a skill breakthrough. "Congratulations, madam," I said. "You have taken another incredible step toward the mastery of your cultivation."
She stopped as well, marking the end of the lesson, and triggering the system hit.
[Cultivation Difference Bonus - 60; Pampering Bonus - 85 (Capped)]
[145x Return - Great Quake Six Palms - Beginner, Minor Integration]
"Yes, it has been … fascinating," she said. "Eight techniques in three days … what a wondrous achievement." She looked dazed as she hugged me, not that I could blame her.
"Well, do you want to visit the other hills," I said. "They have told me to break this talisman if you ever want to practice the other techniques."
She looked conflicted. "Do you think I should, or should I focus on my palm techniques?"
"You should at least study fist techniques and the sword techniques," I reminded her. "After all, your cousin is a Kartpa Valley disciple, and they apparently favor fist techniques, and flying swords are common for every Foundation Establishment cultivator. There's no harm in being prepared for them, and I'm sure learning other techniques wouldn't hurt, particularly since you have such an incredible opportunity. You can learn them now, and practice later."
"You're right," she said, then chuckled. "It's a pity that they don't have such a marvelous effect for other techniques."
I shrugged. "I don't know much about cultivation, but even I know it's more or less a miracle to have one, let alone multiple, right?" I asked.
"Certainly," she answered. "I doubt even Entsa pavilion has something this wondrous. They have their mystic lands where the time flows faster, but they have their costs," she said.
I nodded, trying to hide my surprise at her casual comment. I thought that I was getting used to the wondrous nature of the cultivation world, but the idea that even time could be manipulated was surprising. I was tempted to bring her to the hill where I was housing the formation techniques, curious if one of them included the information about how to manipulate time, but decided against it.
It was tempting, but the priority was to arm Aisnam properly. While I fully intended to cheat, the situation in the region was getting too complicated. There was a chance that, after her victory, her allies decided to protect her by moving her. If something like that happened, I needed her to be as safe as possible.
"Why don't you meditate for a moment and prepare yourself while I go and arrange the details of the visit," I said as I crushed the Symbol I had been holding temporarily, and left before waiting for an answer. Unlike the palm techniques, which had an inherent booster, I needed to change things a bit if I were to help her.
For that, I went to the hill where I had placed the sword techniques. I started by finally activating the insult reward I had received from my prisoner — who was currently straining against the formations that were keeping him trapped under the illusion that he could free himself — and my mind once again flooded with information.
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Once again I was glad that the System softened the delivery. Just like how ordinary cultivation techniques were far more complicated than martial arts, the techniques for Foundation Establishment cultivators were far more complicated than ordinary techniques. An order of magnitude better.
And, they were expensive as hell. The ordinary techniques used only used fractions of strands. Even the most expensive one used a strand or two. The flying sword, on the other hand, consumed five strands for its weakest hit, and it was possible to deliver harder hits by spending more Qi.
They were perfect for the Foundation Establishment cultivator's higher capability.
While I processed that, the glow of reaching Major Integration covered the hill, once again imprinting the achievement of reaching the skill. Interestingly, it was just as strong as the other times, suggesting that the strength of the technique didn't matter.
Or, if it did, it required a stronger technique.
Either way, I didn't care even as I immersed myself in the sensation as I carved the words Sword Hill on a wooden board, embedding it with the strongest conception of the flying sword skill I could manage. Only then, I browsed the techniques, and realized that I could easily reach the Major Familiarity stage for each of them. It looked like mastering a Foundation Establishment technique helped even more than I expected, and the persistent glow helped as well.
More than happy to abuse that detail as well, I prepared a set of notes for every technique to hasten Aisnam's learning, which took about half an hour.
When I returned, Aisnam shuffled from her meditation. "Everything alright?" she asked.
"Yes. They asked me to organize some of the notes for you first," I said as I led her toward the hill. She stumbled once she saw the wooden board like I had punched her. Even her nose started to bleed before she avoided looking at the board.
I might have overdone with embedding the conception of sharpness in my calligraphy. A good note for the future.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"Don't worry about it. It was just that the sword intent is … too strong," she muttered. "It's a good thing. It'll help me to learn even faster. I was just unprepared," she said before she started reading.
As she started reading, I walked behind her, my hands on her shoulders, massaging her gently. "Don't distract me," she muttered.
"No, you need this," I said even as I rubbed her shoulders, using my essence to relax her. "You have been working hard for the last few days, you know it affects your learning," I said. "You'll learn it faster. Trust me," I said.
"I doubt it," she muttered, clearly not believing me, but spending the last few days trying to decipher the new techniques without sleep, even with the learning assistance of that weird gate, had stressed her too much to object to a shoulder rub.
Luckily for her, the shoulder rub was actually helping her. Mostly because I was cheating by using my essence to slowly mimic both the concept of the sword and some of the basic sword moves coming from the Foundation Establishment sword control technique. Combined with the glow from the skill breakthrough and the calligraphy, she managed to reach Beginner comprehension rapidly, in just under an hour.
"It helps, right," I muttered once she processed her progression properly.
"I must have been more tired than I realized because it actually did," she responded as she leaned back, nuzzling against my chest while I caressed her hair, enjoying the momentary moment of calm. I was tempted to let her collapse against my chest and sleep, but I did not.
Things were getting more and more heated. And, while it was tempting to offer her to stay here forever and cultivate in peace, I knew enough about Aisnam that she wouldn't be happy living like this. Not if it meant escaping the people that killed her brother and tried to kill her.
"Feel free to share your insights," I said instead. "I'm planning to create a new sword-based martial arts, and I'm sure it'll help."
She chuckled. "You and your techniques," she said cutely, but stayed leaning against my chest. "The technique I just learned is called the Merciful Sword, and it relies on the concept of a wind. It relies on moving fast enough that the enemy dies before they could even understand they are under attack…"
I didn't interrupt her as I listened, already planning on the next steps of learning. Sword techniques were the biggest priority, mostly because she needed to learn how to defend herself convincingly against them. While I planned to cheat in her duel, the stronger she looked, the more convincing the hit would look.
Then, there were the new Formation techniques I picked. I had already browsed them, and saw significant differences between them and Nabata technique. Hopefully, adding different techniques would increase my abilities more.
With the disaster looming, formations were my greatest weapon.
"That's all I could comprehend for now," she muttered. "I should continue studying."
[Cultivation Difference Bonus - 60; Pampering Bonus - 85 (Capped)]
[145x Return - Merciful Sword - Beginner, Major Accomplishment]
I let her even as I triggered the comprehension, wondering just how much time we would have before Kartpa Valley sent a formation expert to repair the stone door.