Era of Mist

Chapter 226 -225: Basic Fist Arts Perfected, Fist Principles

“Boss, about that stuff we found in the factory…”

“Seal it all up. No one is to touch it. Just leave it for now, but investigate any theft rigorously. Anyone who steals for personal use gets their hands chopped off. Anyone who conspires with outsiders to sell it will be killed without mercy.”

“Yes, sir!” Hearing Shi Tiexin’s cold command, Ah Fei couldn’t help but shiver. Shi Tiexin’s authority had been growing by the day, but after last night, something about their leader seemed to have changed, making it even more impossible to defy him.

At least within this Flying Car Gang, Shi Tiexin was gradually developing an air of authority, his word becoming absolute law.

Ah Fei was awestruck, a feeling that slowly morphed into fanaticism. ‘In these chaotic times, only a boss this strong and this tough is worth following!’

Ah Fei accepted the order and left, ready to carry it out to the letter. Shi Tiexin watched the eastern dawn, then glanced at his Basic Fist Arts progress bar—it was still a few ticks away from ninety-nine, just a little bit short.

‘Ah, what the hell. I’m not waiting anymore.’

‘Time to splurge a little today. I’ll use the Celestial Golden Light to max it out directly!’

With a single thought, the award certificate icon appeared, a golden liquid sloshing within it. A beam of golden light erupted from the icon, instantly shining down on the Basic Fist Arts progress bar.

Bathed in the golden light, the last few ticks on the bar filled up in an instant, hitting the limit of ninety-nine. Shi Tiexin immediately felt his Basic Fist Arts improve by a sliver. The change was minuscule, but the feeling was distinctly different from before reaching the limit. ‘The limit and just being ‘profound’ are truly on different levels. No wonder the ‘interface’ lists it as a separate stage.’

At the same time, he once again sensed the existence of the Wall of Perfection.

But this Wall of Perfection couldn’t stop him either. As the Celestial Golden Light continued to pour in, the wall blocking his path was rapidly broken through. Shi Tiexin focused on the sensation and suddenly realized something. ‘The Wall of Perfection for Basic Fist Arts seems more brittle, thinner, than the walls for the Six Basic Heart Techniques like Mathematics and Rhetoric.’

Shi Tiexin glanced at the amount of Celestial Golden Light consumed: five points. Usually, after spending five points, he would still be struggling to bore his way through the barrier. But this time, Shi Tiexin could clearly feel that the Wall of Perfection for Basic Fist Arts was already on the verge of collapse.

With one more point of Celestial Golden Light, there was a loud RUMBLE. The Wall of Perfection was completely shattered, and the light from the Basic Fist Arts progress bar flared. Amidst the radiating golden light, the word “PERFECT” at the end of the bar suddenly flew up, then contracted and condensed along with the bar’s glow, shrinking into a star in the blink of an eye.

[Basic Fist Arts Proficiency advanced to: PERFECT]

[Attribute Activated: Fist Theory +1]

[Fist Theory: When kung fu is practiced to a profound depth, mastering Fist Theory allows one to grasp any fist art. Those with high Fist Theory will receive varying cultivation speed bonuses when learning new fist arts, depending on their level of comprehension and the difficulty of the art.]

The descriptive text appeared and then vanished, leaving only the words “Fist Theory +1” condensed within the newly formed star. WHOOSH—the star ascended into a sea of stars, taking its place alongside the other six. However, compared to those six brilliantly shining stars, this new one for Basic Fist Arts was considerably dimmer.

The Cue Card, which he hadn’t seen in a long time, suddenly popped up.

This time, the Cue Card showed a drawing of two boxing gloves bumping together, like boxers touching gloves before a match. Beneath this image, a line of text was written in neat, blocky characters.

“There’s no such thing as a useless attribute, only a useless person.”

The Cue Card wobbled, as if to emphasize its point, before retracting.

‘Heh, it really has been a while since I saw that Cue Card.’ Its sudden reappearance gave Shi Tiexin the warm feeling of reconnecting with an old online friend.

He carefully mulled over the entire process of leveling the skill to Perfect and identified three points worthy of attention.

First, Basic Fist Arts consumed far less Celestial Golden Light than the Six Basic Heart Techniques. Excluding the one extravagant point he used to reach the limit, the actual cost to break through the Wall of Perfection was only five points—half the amount required for a Fundamental Heart Skill.

Shi Tiexin had his suspicions about this. There were many possible explanations, but the most likely one was that Basic Fist Arts was simply less difficult and less impactful than the Six Basic Heart Techniques, thus requiring less Celestial Golden Light.

He could verify this when he perfected the first level of Deja Vu, since its cultivation difficulty was similar to Basic Fist Arts.

The second point of interest was the attribute granted by perfecting Basic Fist Arts.

The “Fist Theory” attribute was very useful on its own, but a side-by-side comparison revealed that it wasn’t as potent as attributes like “Comprehension” or “Qi Pathways” from the Six Basic Heart Techniques.

Those six attributes constantly affected every aspect of a Heart Technique Cultivator’s being, whereas the effect of “Fist Theory” was less overwhelming. On the surface, it simply accelerated the speed at which he could learn other fist arts.

‘Perhaps the cost of breaking the Wall of Perfection was lower precisely because this attribute isn’t as powerful.’

Of course, there were no useless attributes, only useless people; having an attribute was better than not. But the third thing Shi Tiexin noticed was also related to attributes.

The “Ruthlessness” attribute that Shi Tiexin had comprehended on his own did not appear inside the star. When Shi Tiexin gazed at the new star in the Azure Sky, he could clearly see the words “Fist Theory +1” in its core, but the word “Ruthlessness” was nowhere to be found.

‘What’s the logic behind that?’

Shi Tiexin frowned and pulled up the attribute interface again, bringing up the description for Basic Fist Arts. In this description, the two attributes of Ruthlessness and Fist Theory were clearly listed. However, the word “Ruthlessness” was written in white text, while “Fist Theory” was in gold.

Shi Tiexin frowned and thought for a long moment, and a hypothesis formed in his mind.

‘Could it be… the “Ruthlessness” effect only triggers when I’m using Basic Fist Arts? If I switch to a different style, it’s gone. But “Fist Theory” is permanent, like a star in the Azure Sky, and its starlight will shine down on me no matter what martial art I use.’

‘I’ll learn a new martial art later to test this. Then I’ll know for sure.’

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on such things. Now was the time to seize and consolidate the spoils of victory. Besides, Shi Tiexin glanced at the award certificate icon—he only had seventy-four points of Celestial Golden Light left.

‘I’m getting anxious with this little Celestial Golden Light on hand!’

‘This won’t do. I have to find a way to get more Celestial Golden Light!’

Shi Tiexin felt he needed to change his spending habits. He couldn’t be as stingy as before. Get more Golden Light, spend more Golden Light, and then get even more Golden Light. That was the only way to create a virtuous cycle and become progressively stronger.

“Hey, Ah Fei, do me a favor and find out if there are any competitions in or around Tokyo happening soon.”

At nine o’clock the next morning, Ah Fei placed the information he had gathered in front of Shi Tiexin.

“Boss, big and small, there are seven competitions coming up.”

‘That many?’ Shi Tiexin was instantly delighted. ‘Alright, let me take a look. I might as well go win a few championships!’

He glanced at the first item—the Miss Tokyo Beauty Pageant.

Emmm……