Chapter 3843 — Designs on the Art
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
When a skilled cultivator of higher rank deliberately conceals his strength, one who surpasses him in power can see through the disguise without much difficulty; but one who is weaker has a far harder time of it.
By Nan Tianguan's reckoning, if the other party had been able to kill Nan Tianyong, then he must possess at least the strength of the late Foundation Establishment stage, and quite possibly even more than that. With Yu Jiang's modest mid-Foundation Establishment cultivation, it was only natural that he could not see through the man's concealment.
"Eldest Martial Uncle is wise indeed. And yet, from what this disciple observed, that fellow's strength truly did not match my master's—it was only that he hurled some great killing weapon, and my master, caught off guard, took the blow and was slain by that single strike. Otherwise, that thing would have been far from my master's match," Yu Jiang analyzed, his face steeped in grief.
Just what Wei Zhao's true strength was, he could no longer make out at all; but judging from that first exchange of blows, even if the man was stronger than himself, he could not be much stronger.
The chief reason his master-by-convenience, Nan Tianyong, had fallen for the trick this time was simply that he had underestimated his foe too greatly. He had not even used a martial technique before the great killing weapon was flung straight into his face—and thus was he slain by treachery.
Of course, Nan Tianyong need not have died at all; it was only his misfortune to have taken in a disciple as black-hearted and wolf-livered as Yu Jiang. With such a one at his side, death came easily enough.
"A great killing weapon?" Nan Tianguan's expression stirred slightly, and he said with keen interest, "Tell me in detail, Martial Nephew—just what manner of great killing weapon could slay the Third Brother with a single strike?"
The jianghu is a treacherous place, and the world of cultivation has ever been one where the strong prey upon the weak. Any cultivator with even a modicum of strength is sure to possess trump cards of his own for preserving his life—only some are effective and some are not, some are commonplace and some are monstrously formidable.
Be that as it may, if a thing can serve as a life-preserving trump card, then compared with ordinary martial techniques it must have something uniquely its own. And Nan Tianguan had always been deeply interested in other people's trump cards and killing moves.
It was not from any great curiosity on his part, but because the cultivation art he practiced was of a most peculiar kind—the Lesser Formless Divine Art.
In the cultivation world of Yunjie Island, there were five cultivation arts renowned far and wide for their formidable, heaven-defying effects, and held in the highest esteem; nearly every cultivator coveted them. History had proven time and again that whoever obtained any one of them was all but assured of one day ascending to the seat of a local overlord.
These five arts were collectively known as the Five Great Divine Arts.
Among the Five Great Divine Arts was one called the Formless Divine Art. It was said that with this art at one's side, any martial technique was at one's command—even one never painstakingly cultivated, once merely witnessed, could immediately be imitated, and its might would be in no way inferior to the original.
Beyond allowing its practitioner to imitate any martial technique of anyone at any time, this Formless Divine Art possessed another, even more heaven-defying effect: it could gradually fuse together the essence of the many martial techniques thus imitated into an entirely new Formless Divine Technique.
In other words, this Formless Divine Technique gathered the finest essence of a hundred schools; in theory it was a supreme martial technique capable of endless advancement and endless growth—and this heaven-defying property alone was enough to outclass nearly every martial technique in existence.