Chapter 9: Take the Weaker Version. It’s For Your Own Good  

Shang Xia could only pray that everything the original owner of the body learned was enough for him to survive this ordeal.

The bolt of lightning that brought Shang Xia into the world seemed to have miraculously implanted the method to fuse the two fundamental techniques required to comprehend the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm!

He might not have been able to control the refinement of his body, but controlling his inner qi wasn’t such a difficult task. He was more than capable of combining the two techniques into one.

Even if the heavens have given up on him, he wouldn’t give up on himself!

Unwilling to let his chance of survival go, he started to combine the Chaos Essence Palm and Lightning Palm!

Pushing his inner qi to the limit, Shang Xia managed to familiarize himself with his newfound power. He could control his physical body to a certain extent!

With the power contained in the bolt of heavenly lightning, the fusion of both moves caused him to experience some sort of transformation.

The number on the tablet broke through the 65 percent mark and increased all the way to 70 percent!

A whole new circuit seemed to be forced out by the waves of inner qi traveling through his body, and when it was completed, the success rate increased to 75 percent.

On the blood red tablet, the words ‘in progress’ behind the Heavenly Lightning Refinement disappeared, and it was replaced with the word ‘complete’.

The success rate jumped all the way up to 80 percent the moment that happened.

With the fusion of two techniques, Shang Xia felt his inner qi drying up as they traveled through the new path in his body. A trace of lightning poured through him and continued its job, tearing apart his meridians and forming them again.

Since he no longer had any medicine on him, Shang Xia could only grit his teeth in pain and endure the searing pain.

As the number on the tablet seemed to plateau, the last bit was left up to chance.

Due to his intense desire to live, Shang Xia pushed himself to the limit as he squeezed out every single drop of inner qi left in him. Seemingly touched by his actions, the heavens didn’t let him down.

With the complete integration of both techniques, Shang Xia casually pressed his palm on a rock beside him. With a crackling sound, it shattered into countless pieces.

As a smile formed on his tired face, he heard the commotion coming from outside… It seemed as though the bolt of lightning had caught the attention of many people in the institution.

With a smile on his face, Shang Xia slowly emerged from seclusion.

…

“Looks like I shouldn’t do too much to mess with it!” Shang Xia decided after analyzing the technique given to him by the blood red tablet. After all, the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm that he comprehended did indeed possess terrifying power.

The heavenly lightning that struck Shang Xia, allowing him to comprehend the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm, contained extreme power. If anyone were to use the lightning contained in the Lightning Tree, god knew how ineffective it would be.

As such, there was no point for him to mess with the technique too much!

If they really wished to comprehend the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm and be comparable to Shang Xia, there was only one way to do it! Draw over a bolt of Heavenly Lightning and take it head-on!

Of course, the most important thing then wouldn’t be comprehending the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm. It would be to survive!

That also allowed Shang Xia to understand the key to comprehending the martial intent. The abysmal success rate probably had something to do with the Lightning Collection Blood Art!

It was a secret art he had never seen in his life, but when his consciousness came into contact with the blood red stele, everything regarding the secret art poured into his mind.

“This… Should I hide the existence of the Lightning Collection Blood Art?” Shang Xia thought to himself as a sinister smile appeared on his face.

Martial Intent: Chaos Essence Lightning Palm.

Secret Art: Chaos Essence Manual

.

Martial Arts Required: Chaos Essence Palm, Lightning Palm.

Assistive Treasures Required: Core of a 300 year old Lightning Tree, Fine Peach Wood

Useful Treasures: Lightning Wings, Heavenly Lightning Rocks

Effective Medicine: Vitality-Based Medication

Secret Art: Lightning Collection Blood Technique

Success Rate: 50-70%

After many days of examining the blood red tablet, Shang Xia learned even more!

It seemed as though the tablet could improve upon the technique he already understood!

That was how the success rate of the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm increased to 65 percent when his soul touched the tablet for the first time.

In the days that passed, Shang Xia discovered another use for the blood red tablet. It could estimate the success rate of a technique after Shang Xia made some changes to it.

For example, he changed the treasures required to the core of a 300 year old Lightning Tree, and the success rate changed!

The reason behind the 300 year old core of the Lightning Tree was because that was how long it took to nurture one!

When the thought flashed across his mind, the success rate increased by 5 percent! Changing the requirements based on his own knowledge seemed much more reliable than counting on the tablet to make the changes on its own!

Of course, it didn’t take a genius to know that using the core of a younger Lightning Tree would affect the power one could wield after comprehending the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm.

Compared to Shang Xia who comprehended it with the help of heavenly lightning, the rest would be a little stronger than flies.

However, what if someone were to use the core of a 1000 year old Lightning Tree? ?Shang Xia looked at the success rate on the blood red tablet and a sneer formed on his lips. 20 percent…

A wild thought formed in his mind as he changed the core of a 1000 year old Lightning Tree to heavenly lightning. Widening his eyes in shock, he looked at the number ‘0.1’ staring at him in the face.

“God damn… This daddy is really lucky…”

…

“Is this your experience when comprehending the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm?!” Shang Xi looked at the secret manual he handed her and she glared at him from the corner of his eye.

“Lightning Collection Blood Art? Looks like this is the key behind comprehending the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm…” As the person taking care of the Shang Clan, Shang Xi didn’t lack knowledge when it came to cultivation techniques. She could tell that Shang Xia jumbled in a ton of garbage in his ‘experiences’, and she captured the key point immediately.

Going back to Shang Xia, he chose not to hide the existence of the Lightning Collection Blood Art. After all, without it, the secret manual he wrote was worthless!

Even if they had a way to comprehend the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm, they wouldn’t be able to succeed! After all, he didn’t promise to hand over the manual to cultivate the Lightning Collection Blood Art.

Well, even if they did manage to comprehend the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm through sheer luck, they wouldn’t be able to reach his level!

With the Lightning Collection Blood Art, Shang Xia could easily extort the families or clans even more. After all, no one hated having more resources.

“Yeah. I gave it a name on my own. After all, I was messing about when I created it. It has the ability to draw out the power of lightning from the Lightning Wings and the other items.” Shang Xia’s ability to bullshit wasn’t something he learned on the fly. In fact, that was a skill he had honed meticulously in his previous life.

A content look could be seen on Shang Xi’s face as she chuckled, “That's right! You’re my nephew alright! This secret manual is more than enough. You don’t have to give up any other techniques to the institution…”

Nice!

Shang Xia couldn’t help but praise his aunt silently.

In the secret art he handed over to the institution, Shang Xia might not have hidden the existence of the Lightning Collection Blood Art, but he lowered the requirement to the core of a 300 year old Lightning Tree. Even though it affected the power contained in the martial intent, it did increase the success rate. That itself could save countless lives.

Without a shred of guilt in his heart, Shang Xia handed the weakened version over.

If one thought that Shang Xia was ruthless, they didn’t see Shang Xi’s edits to the secret manual. She removed every single item that would help in the cultivation of the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm. From what everyone knew, the Lightning Tree was definitely required. There was no point in hiding that. However, they could figure the rest out themselves. After several batches of cultivators failed, they would naturally improve on the secret manual.

“Humph! My nephew went through so much to successfully cultivate the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm. Why should they have it easy?” Shang Xi wasn’t wrong. Even though Shang Xia was trying his best to disagree with her ‘sinister’ methods, the grin on his face betrayed him.

Shang Xia sniggered in his heart. “I tried to persuade her… Too bad my aunt calls the shots!”

Closing the final version of the secret art in her hands, the look in her eyes turned dead serious as she looked at Shang Xia. “Brat, what’s the success rate if they use this?”

Thinking for a second, Shang Xia explained, “If they follow the exact steps, probably 40 percent.”

It went without saying that there were definitely deviations when it came to the success rate.

Even so, Shang Xi revealed a shocked expression and she yelled at him, “The Tongyou Institution is going to earn big this time! No… I have to extort them… This secret manual is too precious!”

“... what the f…?” Shang Xia stared at his aunt with a strange look on his face.