After parting ways with Liu Sisi following their playful activities, Ning returned to his tranquil courtyard, bathed in the warm rays of the still-bright sun. The scent of blooming flowers filled the air as he strolled inside, taking his time to tend to the plants he had cultivated.

Once his gardening duties were completed, Ning settled himself comfortably on his soft bed. Afterward, he reached for the two martial art books he had recently obtained.

[Spiral Arrow]

Ning was quite talented in archery. Maybe it was because of his space-time sensitivity, he had an innate grasp of position and movement, making it a lot easier for him to hit targets.

But since he could only reinforce himself with Qi, even with his talent, it would not suffice in facing higher-level adversaries like formidable beasts or powerful spirit animals. Their tough skin could easily deflect his arrows, rendering his archery prowess futile.

The [Spiral Arrow] technique offered a solution to this predicament. Once mastered, it would undoubtedly elevate his attacking capabilities to new heights.

Despite the allure of the [Spiral Arrow], Ning's main focus today lay on another martial art manual—the Heaven Shattering Fist.

One of the only fragmented Black-rank martial arts present in the sect. It attracted his attention not only because it was a strong martial art but also because the protagonist chose this technique.

It had to be special.

Ning took the manual and started to read it. It didn't take him long, with his superior mental strength, to completely finish reading the manual.

"As expected, it's quite incomplete," Ning muttered, looking at the manual.

Heaven Shattering Fist was quite fragmented, with many key pieces of information missing. Learning such a martial art manual forcefully would surely lead to Qi deviation if one was too adamant about it.

Not only was some information about the Qi pathways where the Qi needed to pass through missing, but the timing of the Qi circulation was also quite unclear.

"No wonder, except the protagonist, everyone didn't hesitate to throw out this martial art." Ning's eyes shined brightly. He then took out his notebook and noted down his understanding and some solutions.

After that, Ning set off to an empty space in his courtyard, with the manual and his notebook in hand.

Ning wanted to do as he always did—experiments.

Recently, he had experimented a lot less. He even pushed down this experiment he was going to do for several days because he was on a deadline. But now that he has learned most of the necessary material for the upcoming test, he finally had some free time.

"Oh, how I have missed doing these small experiments," Ning couldn't help but say. "But I do not regret it. After all, one should never bite more than they could chew."

Ning exhaled slightly, breathing the fresh air, as his eyes became serious.

Currently, the deepest secret that Ning had was that he was not a native of this plane. He was a Transmigrator.

The second deepest secret he had was the mysterious panel in his mind.

Besides these two, Ning could leverage secrets like his five elemental attributes and unique talent if he could get something of equivalent value. But he would never share these two core secrets, even with his closest confidants.

Today, he wanted to experiment with this mysterious panel that he had brought with him. Primarily, this panel only had a single ability, which was to show his progress and conditions, and Ning loved the panel for it.

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He was almost fanatic to see his numbers grow. Or as he liked to say it, he loved watching his number go brr...

Besides that, there was no other function. At least he has not found any yet.

It would forever remain just a simple panel if he didn't try to unearth its other possibilities, so Ning wanted to dig deeper into its ability to show his progress.

He took the standard fighting posture depicted in the Heaven Shattering manual.

"It all comes down to this."

Ning circulated the Qi according to the manual for a while, gathering his energy. But suddenly he stopped. After the 5th circulation, the pathway for the sixth circulation was fragmented. He didn't care for that.

Ning brute forced and circulated his Qi based on the next logical deduction he thought of. Qi circulated, air disturbed, and he waited for something but did not find what he wanted.

"Not this pathway." Ning crossed off the pathway he took in his notebook.

The first try was a dud. But Ning was determined.

Second, third, fourth, fifth... Ning continued to circulate Qi in different directions, at different timing each time.

As the sun had already set, the night sky showed upwards, and Ning was still practicing.

"320th try." Ning circulated his Qi once again, and the air started to tremble. He did not give a damn about the outside, his full attention was on the panel in front of him.

And change suddenly occurred.

[Heaven Shattering Fist: (Starting 2->3/300)]

"IT WORKED. YES!!!!" Ning didn't care about his demeanor as he cheered frantically before collapsing on the ground.

Until now, his panel only had the ability to show his progress. But Ning finally found another use for it.

Why was trying to complete a fragmented art so difficult?

It was because there would be no indication if the corrected steps were accurate or not. If someone other than Ning really did the same Qi circulation as he did, they would not even feel any change and couldn't even tell if they have taken the right step.

The panel was special in a way that it showed that Ning had taken the correct step in completing the martial art. With this single feature, he could slowly figure out the complete martial arts with trial and error.

"Well, it would take an extremely long time and effort though." Ning also summarized the disadvantages of this method. "I guess in that sense having Pure Qi really was beneficial. I could try for a long time even with my low cultivation base."

Ning was satisfied with finding a new way to use his panel, but this process of correction would probably take him months, maybe even years, but he didn't falter.

Why?

Simply because it was a Black-grade martial art.

Yellow-grade martial arts are said to have transcended the realm of mortality. With it, one could try the process of comprehending their own Qi. Be it either the elemental Qi, sword Qi, or bow Qi, as long as one had high talent and martial art, they could slowly comprehend the Qi.

It was for this reason that yellow-grade martial art cost a lot. For example, the Immortal Divine God Heaven Sword Execution art was priced at 1700 spirit stones and it was just a low-grade yellow-rank art.

Spiral Arrow was cheaper because it required one to be proficient in archery and it was one of the most basic yellow-grade arts. Otherwise, it would probably reach a price that Ning could not afford.

In a similar manner, Black-grade martial arts were the type of martial art that could be sought after but could not be bought. They were rare, very rare.

In the entire Pure Qi sect, there was only one complete Black-grade martial art, and it was only accessible to the most important members of the sect.

Ning could get his Black-grade martial art as long as he preserved; that was already considered amazing.

"Speaking of amazing, Xiao Fan is also luckier than I imagined," Ning muttered, looking at the starry sky above.

Ning was able to gradually complete his martial art with the panel, and even then, it would take him months of trial and error to complete it.

Xiao Fan had already learned the first two forms within the three months he had begun to practice. Ning also knew the reason—it was because Xiao Fan was simply lucky.

There were several types of protagonists in the novels Ning had read during his time on Earth like reincarnators, regressors, etc.

From what Ning had observed, Xiao Fan was the protagonist of Waste Wood Flow. Waste Wood Flow protagonists, as the name suggested, were the protagonists with no talent, no resources, and no parents, but even then, they were the most stereotypical protagonists.

It was because these types of protagonists had one overwhelming quality.

Luck.

They were lucky to the point that it would not be surprising for them to be an illegitimate child of Heaven. They would acquire the most opportunities, even though they were considered a waste.

As far as Ning was concerned, Xiao Fan could have simply succeeded in learning this technique by 'coincidentally' trying to brute force the martial art, 'coincidentally' finding the correct pathway of circulation, 'coincidentally' figuring out the timing, and 'coincidentally' finish learning the art in a single attempt.

Yup, there were too many coincidences right there.

Even if that was not the case, his so-called cheat that was used in the process can also be regarded as a part of his luck.

Ning's eyes narrowed at that thought, but he didn't dwell on it too much. He decided to let nature take its course for now because he was too damn tired at the moment.