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Looking at the hovering transparent screen before him, a strange surge of knowledge once again flooded Ji Wuye's mind like a rushing river breaking through a dam.

However, unlike the previous instances where the accompanying pain lanced through his skull, this time the discomfort was diminishing—fading to a dull throb with each new occurrence.

When he received this latest surge of information, it caused only a slight headache, the pressure behind his eyes akin to a mild hangover.

"Meridian Shift..." he muttered softly after a moment, his brow furrowing as he stabilized his whirling thoughts.

His gaze alternated between studying the glowing transparent screen and processing the newly acquired knowledge pulsing in his mind's eye.

As the name suggested, Meridian Shift—the third stage of the Pressure Form Perfection Style—was an advanced technique that allowed one to briefly shift or relocate the crucial pressure points along their body to another position for temporary moment.

From what he could discern, this esoteric knowledge seemed rather niche or potentially useless to the current martial artists of Jianghu.

After exhaling slowly, he mused inwardly, 'Even among so-called experts, the present state of Jianghu's martial arts is still primarily focused on the fundamental understanding of harmonizing with the natural world.'

Indeed, only a rare few—those particularly skilled in medicine and anatomy—had the rigorous training to wield techniques involving the human body's delicate pressure points and meridians.

However, even those hard-won abilities were rudimentary at best, paling in comparison to the mastery and depth offered by the Pressure Form Perfection Style.

'No wonder Du Chen wasn't affected back then,' Ji Wuye muttered, a fleeting furrow creasing his brow as fragmented memories from a previous timeline unexpectedly surfaced.

Yes, he could vividly recall how in that timeline, Du Chen had also mastered—or at least advanced further along—the Pressure Form Perfection Style to this stage.

It all made sense now why Du Chen alone was able to move freely under such crippling conditions while the rest of them were immobilized.

A weary sigh escaped Ji Wuye's lips as the memory faded. 'But in the end, we still failed...' Shaking his head, he dismissed the hovering display with a negligent wave of his hand.

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Ji Wuye's lips curled upwards in a delighted smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes, baring his white teeth in undisguised glee.

‘I’ve been waiting to check this,’ he thought, the pure joy he felt mingling with a surging wave of keen anticipation as he stared intently at the hovering transparent screen before him.

It had been such a maddeningly long time since his Quick Adaptation skill last upgraded. He had been holding back his urge to examine it when the transparent skill screen first appeared, but at the time, he had been preoccupied with the battles against the Wudang disciple and Elder Xia.

Now, at last, it was time to put it to use.

The previous effect's versatility had proven to be an incredibly useful boon in a myriad of unexpected situations.

Unlike the grueling process of advancing through the ranks of martial arts, which forced an onslaught of new knowledge and understanding, gaining new skill effects mercifully did not impose the same taxing burden on its user.

Now, as his crimson eyes rapidly scanned and absorbed the description detailing Quick Adaptation's newly unlocked third effect, Ji Wuye began to ponder its profound implications, a sense of possibility igniting in his mind like a spark to kindling.

‘Any form of energy…’ he mused inwardly. ‘Let’s see…’

In the next moment, as if in answer to his musings, Ji Wuye's pupils flared with an incandescent ruby glow, blazing like twin fires stoked by an inner force.

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Under Ji Wuye's vision, the faint bluish glow of Qi energy became starkly visible—the ethereal essence resembling the way wind swept in sinuous currents through the mountains or how water flowed gently in a sunlit creek.

This was the tangible manifestation of Qi, now visibly floating and swirling before him in the dimly lit basement room.

The wisps of energy seemed to seep out from the very cracks between the aged brick walls and vaulted ceiling in a perpetual ebb and flow.

"Amazing..." Ji Wuye murmured, his eyes widening in astonished wonder as he slowly scanned the entire chamber, witnessing this breathtaking phenomenon with unsettled awe. His mouth hung slightly agape, utterly transfixed.

As he studied the hypnotic patterns, his mind raced with the profound possibilities now offered by Quick Adaptation's third effect...

"Endless," he finally stated, blinking slowly as if emerging from a trance.

With this ability, he could potentially trace or track an enemy's movements, locate areas where Qi congregated in powerful condensed nodes, and even preemptively perceive the bare "spark" of Qi that preceded an opponent's attack.

However, there remained one vital concern—one that needed confirmation before he could fully grasp the extent of this new effect's usefulness.

Closing his eyes for a moment to concentrate, Ji Wuye began manipulating the Qi, drawing it from the abundant sea of his Lower Dantian and guiding it to flow through his meridian pathways.

Slowly, the faint bluish glow began to emanate from his cross-legged figure, coalescing into a shimmering membrane that enveloped his body in a softly pulsing aura.

Rising fluidly from his seated position, he began pacing back and forth in a wide circle around the perimeter of the basement room, his feet tracing an invisible sphere as he meticulously examined his surroundings.

After repeating this process several times, Ji Wuye returned to his original spot and settled back into a lotus position, refocusing his senses on closely observing the flows of Qi.

To his dismay, his movements left a faintly glowing wake of residual trails hanging suspended in midair like ghostly impressions, the overlapping patterns spiraling and crisscrossing in a thickly woven mesh that filled the entire space in an unruly tangle.

"It's quite messy and obstructs the view," Ji Wuye muttered with a resigned sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose as his first key concern was confirmed.

Just as he had suspected, without the ability to activate and deactivate Quick Adaptation's effect at will, these persistent swirling trails would disrupt his vision in a constant, cumbersome distraction.

It was a pity that passive skills like Deflecting Blows or Feline Reflex couldn’t function in the same adaptive manner as Quick Adaptation.

Still, this limitation wasn't the main issue at hand. There was a second crucial matter that required Ji Wuye's focus.

"It will be hard to trace like this," he muttered, frowning slightly as he narrowed his eyes in concentration.

It was only then, peering more intently through the cluttered mesh of residual energy trails, that he noticed a distinct difference—the subtle distinction between the Qi he had released from his own body and the natural Qi seeping from the cracks and gaps between the basement's aged bricks.

"The shape...and the color..." Ji Wuye murmured to himself, studying the disparate Qi closely.

The natural Qi appeared fainter, its ephemeral form resembling a gentle breeze or the liquid flow of water.

In contrast, the Qi trails left in the wake of his movements were noticeably thicker and brighter, the incandescent wisps reminiscent of fireflies winking in the midnight air.

While this nuanced difference could potentially prove quite useful for distinguishing purposes, there still remained one final aspect Ji Wuye needed to confirm before grasping the full extent of this new ability's functionality.

Rather than attempt to deactivate the passive skill effect, he instead chose to simply wait and observe.

He would wait patiently to discern just how long the lingering traces of his own released Qi would persist, and consequently determine the practical duration of Quick Adaptation's newly unlocked third effect and its potential for tracking applications....