Absolute In/Existence

An entire month passed and Heaven's skills reached the fluent realm. The pace of improvement had slowed down greatly, but the depth and heaviness of his mastery grew.

It was like climbing floors in a huge building. Instead of rising the floors, Heaven was taking his time exploring the rooms of the fluent realm.

'To move without taking a step forward,' Heaven muttered in his heart.

Training with great vigor and purpose, Heaven didn't slack at all as he went through every skill with diligence. He didn't lose the passion for training and improvement.

Once he loses that diligence and passion, he will stop improving and remain stagnant.

Right now, he was nearing the end of his practice for the day. He was currently practicing his arts such as poetry, writing, dancing, and painting.

Each one was allocated some time and Heaven was now focused on the last of the arts, painting.

He had his eyes closed and used his memories to draw a landscape from his previous life. A large mountain piercing through the clouds. The brush in his hand moved smoothly and the lines of the painting appeared artistic.

Smiling, Heaven took a step back and looked at the mountain on the paper. The clouds covered the peak of the mountain well.

As he looked at his painting, Heaven couldn't help but feel that something was missing.

His golden eyes swirled and just as he was going to begin to ruminate over it, he heard a noise at the door. He tore his eyes away from the painting of the mountain and walked over to the door before opening it.

Heaven could only leave the matter of the painting alone for another day.

Out in the main room of Cai Ling's abode, a youthful woman was curiously looking around. Her black lips pressed together into a pout as her eyes curiously darted around.

Seeing the woman and her black lips, Heaven recognized her in an instant.

"Are you done snooping around?" Heaven asked, a little interested in Li Yue.

She kept her body bowed while she looked at the Cai Ling's tea set before her eyes slowly turned to Heaven. A look of appraise on her face as she studied Heaven, wondering why he was still alive.

Straightening her back, she smirked and pulled out a small bag and a couple of small saplings from somewhere. She walked forwards, her hips swaying and an enchanting air surrounding her.

"Snooping around?" The black lipped woman raised an eyebrow in amusement and shot back. "Do you want to snoop around too? To stick your nose into something ~"

Her words were ambiguous and her eyes revealed an enchanting light. Peering straight into Heaven's eyes.

Heaven snickered.

"Do you need help with something?"

Narrowing her eyes in amusement, Li Yue gave him the bag and tree saplings. She winked at him and left.

"A little something the Saintess wanted me to give you."

With the bag and saplings in hand, Heaven looked at them curiously. He didn't recognize them, but he knew of them from the '150 Herbs & Plants' book.

Li Yue gave him three tree saplings; a peach tree, a cherry tree, and a Spirit Tree.

The spirit tree is a tree that sits between the mortal grade and the next grade, False-Spirit. Those are the only two grades Heaven is aware of.

In the little bag, there were over 25 seeds for some medicinal plants. All of them are of mortal grade, none possessing a hint of energy in them. They all could only be used by those who are still 'mortal'.

Smiling, Heaven didn't waste any time by stepping out of Cai Ling's abode.

He didn't need to worry about the chain that Cai Ling's master had placed on him. It had a surprising ability, one that allowed it to shorten and lengthen. However, the distance isn't too big. He could only step five meters away from the abode, making him have to plant the seeds and trees near the house.

Walking over to the sides of the house, Heaven wasn't stopped or stuck because of the chain. It mystically went through the walls and any obstacle in its path. The chains' ability allowed Heaven to walk all the way to the back of Cai Ling's abode.

In the back, Heaven looked at the ground and studied it. He dug a hole, felt the dirt, and frowned.

The quality is terrible, and he didn't have the water either for him to water the vegetation. Rubbing his chin, Heaven focused on the dirt, deciding to deal with the water at a later date.

He moved and began to plow the land and move the dirt. Making sure that the dirt was loose and finely ground. After an hour of working, Heaven had completed his work.

His strength and limitless stamina allowed him to finish rapidly.

Once that was done, Heaven stepped back into the abode and began to search for some items. Items that Cai Ling would sometimes bring to him.

He searched through the items and found a couple items he needed. One of them is blood from a strong beast, one that has strong vitality and energy in its body. Along with the blood, he had a bag of fertilizer that Cai Ling had attained from her master.

Lastly, a couple of dry herbs that Heaven researched. Herbs he hadn't seen before and had been given to him by Cai Ling.

From what he found, the herbs were different compared to the mortal grade herbs and those of the hero world and his past life. They had a hint of 'beauty' to them that he couldn't describe, but he couldn't sense anything from them.

Nonetheless, his little study done on them told him that they would be great for revitalizing and enhancing the soil.

Although their true purpose is for something else.

Grabbing a huge vat, Heaven poured the fertilizer inside the vat before pouring the beast blood as well. Mixing it with a long and strong stick, Heaven let it sit for a moment.

Meanwhile, he moved over to the dry herbs and began to ground them down to powder.

After a while, Heaven finally finished making the powder and mixing it into the revitalizing mixture he made. He took it outside to the back of the abode and left the vat open. Letting the smell of the mixture spread and attract insects.

The blood and herbal powder wasn't only to enhance the quality of the soil, but to also attract insects to grab the nutrition they offer for the vegetation.

Letting the vat sit out, Heaven returned to the inside of the abode.

He packed the painting supplies and rolled up the painting, no longer wanting to understand what was missing from his painting.

Instead, he turned his focus to practicing his Basic Strike Technique.

Cai Ling still hadn't returned, so he continued to practice his skills, improving them further. He continued to deepen his mastery, not seeking to improve too fast.

"Since I have made great progress with the Basic Strike Technique, I should try creating the leg techniques…" muttered Heaven as he stopped practicing his striking moves.

The Basic Techniques.

Heaven was planning on creating an entire series of these basic techniques. The Basic Strike Technique helped him establish a solid foundation with his striking skills. It was helping him establish a strong path to learning more complex striking techniques in the future.

However, there was something he had done poorly.

The Basic Strike Technique had become a failure, something 'too complicated'. The basic techniques needed to focus on the basics, the most basic features of the movements.

Taking the Basic Strike Technique, Heaven dissected the technique and turned it into five different techniques.

Fingers, Fist, Palm, Claw, and Arm, every technique holding its own wide set of basic moves. The instant Heaven did so and began practicing his new basic techniques, Heaven instantly felt a grand difference.

His could feel his movements be more stable and strong.

Aside from the basic techniques of the fingers, fist, palm, and claw moves, the Basic Arm Technique consists of moves that focus on elbow and shoulder attacks.

Moving from those techniques, Heaven went on to create two more techniques. The leg and kicking basic techniques.

So far, Heaven had been focusing on the 'beginner' level of these techniques of his. Focusing on the most basic moves of those basic techniques.

For example, the Basic Finger Technique only had seven moves, but they contained the essence of the finger moves.

Single Spear, Dual Spear, Soft Cobra, Knuckle strikes, Beak Strike, Two-finger pinch, and finger Hook.

Each of these strikes are the most basic moves.

All together, these basic techniques that singled out every basic move for martial arts were known altogether as the Basic Martial Technique. A compendium of unarmed martial arts basics. Basics that solidify understanding and create an unbreakable foundation that only becomes stronger progressively.

…

Training for over five more hours, Cai Ling finally returned.

Seeing her, Heaven stood up in worry. Her face had a couple of bruise marks, even her lip was split.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Heaven acted without saying a word. He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the bed, unceremoniously ripping off her clothes. Underneath her black robes, Cai Ling had more wounds.

He touched her skin gently, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the bruises and damage on her beautiful body.

"A fight? What happened?"

Heaven questioned Cai Ling.

She's a very quiet and innocent young woman, and it pained him to see her get hurt. He could see how weak her fighting skills are. Even if she's stronger in power and strength, he could see that her fighting capabilities are weak.

"Competition."

With one word, Heaven understood what had happened.

With a simple deduction, Heaven naturally figured out that Cai Ling had participated in that competition. Not because of her injured state, but from the dark wooden slip in her robes.

Cai Ling — #12 — Ring 3

He tossed the slip to the side and looked at Cai Ling. Taking a deep breath, he walked over to the hurt woman and took out a special ointment made specially for her, it was given to him by Cai Ling's master.

It carries a strong healing and numbing effect. Rubbing some ointment over Cai Ling's body, Heaven massaged the ointment onto her skin.

"Mm…"

Cai Ling groaned in pain and pleasure, enjoying his touches.

After the ointment, Heaven moved on to treating her face. Making sure she got healed and there's no permanent damage to her charming face.

Her poor plump red lips were split open and Heaven helped her with it. Once he made sure not to miss a single bruise or injury over her entire body, he looked at Cai Ling seriously.

"It's time to train you," he told her. "I will teach you how to fight and defend yourself."

Cai Ling blinked her eyes at him, not wholly believing that he had the capability to teach her. It caused him to roll his eyes and look at her with a smirk.

"Although I may be weak, my fighting experience is definitely much better than yours," replied Heaven. He stood up and pulled Cai Ling to her feet before helping her dress.

"Let's go outside."

Heaven and Cai Ling stepped out of the abode and stood in front of it. He held Cai Ling's personal weapon, a black metal fan.

Getting a feel for the fan, Heaven closed his eyes. He emptied his mind and began to recall and study all the armed martial arts he knew. His golden eyes swirled and they lit up triumphantly.

Sha!

Opening the fan, Heaven began moving. Swing the fan up and causing an updraft before swinging it down and blowing the wind away. Slicing the air and then closing the fan to knock something away.

Move after move, Heaven performed a total of 11 moves before stopping at the last one. His eyes rolled and he turned to look at Cai Ling.

"This technique is made specifically for you," explained Heaven as he closed the metal fan and passed it back to the stunned Cai Ling. "It's called the Basic Fan Technique. I don't want you to train in any technique besides this one starting today."

Cai Ling looked at the metal fan in her hands, biting her lips lightly, she nodded her head.