Chapter 160: Lightning Flash, Flash Step, Void Shift!

With this elderly and somewhat sighing voice fading away, the aged figure suddenly transformed into a ray of light, shooting straight into the human-shaped black mist. The next moment, the form of the human-shaped black mist appeared somewhat more substantial; whereas previously only the head and torso could be barely distinguished, now all four limbs were vaguely visible.

Having absorbed that aged figure, the human-shaped black mist stirred slightly, then seemed to turn its head to look at Su Yi. With a voice that was likewise somewhat aged and low, it spoke: "Little fellow, the Blood of Heaven and Earth is yours. May you carve out a world of your own..."

Su Yi, who had been staring blankly at the transformation before him, snapped back to his senses and hastily looked toward the Blood of Heaven and Earth. He saw that the Blood of Heaven and Earth was slowly shrinking, eventually forming an object resembling a fiery red seed that quietly landed in his palm, accompanied by a lingering warmth.

"This is..." Su Yi asked, somewhat perplexed.

"The primordial spirit core of the Blood of Heaven and Earth. If you can devour it, you will slowly begin to master the power within..." The black mist rolled gently, as if the voice were tumbling out with the motion, a single sentence per roll: "Speaking of which, the impact was a bit too great when I awoke just now, and everything inside the mask met with disaster... Fortunately, there were no battle skills or similar items inside, otherwise they would have been utterly ruined..."

"However, I still need to recuperate within the mask for some time. In light of this, I shall bestow upon you two secret techniques..." The dark shadow seemed to glance toward Su Yi, but before Su Yi could make any reaction, a powerful torrent of soul energy flooded into his mind like a tidal wave. The intense sensation of his mind being torn apart nearly caused Su Yi to faint!

"And you need not worry about that evil soul... I have already tampered with it..."

"What do you mean?" Hearing this abruptly, Su Yi's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly raised his head to ask, but the dark shadow had already vanished without a trace. Only the mysterious white mask drifted down slowly and landed in the center of his palm.

What did it mean to have tampered with it? Could it be that he no longer needed to worry about a backlash? He immediately sensed himself carefully and found that the evil soul was still present, yet there was a subtle difference this time. Su Yi could not quite put his finger on what had changed, only feeling that the Blood Emperor no longer seemed as terrifying as he had once imagined...

"No matter what, since that mysterious and powerful dark shadow said so, there shouldn't be any problem..." At this thought, Su Yi suddenly felt much lighter, as if a heavy stone had been lifted from his chest. Although such pressure could more or less increase one's sense of urgency and drive personal effort, endless despair would ultimately crush one's fighting spirit; there always needed to be a glimmer of hope.

Just like this time, although the issue was not completely resolved, Su Yi believed the greatest significance of the event lay in the fact that it proved a solution existed! Once a solution existed, specific methods to resolve it could be found, ensuring that he would not remain trapped forever in a desert of despair.

Ceasing to dwell on these matters, Su Yi first closed his eyes and concentrated his mind. The other party had transmitted the information of two secret techniques into his mind via soul energy, and he needed to digest it. Such a task required deep concentration and was best done without external disturbances. He hoped that the previous intense pressure had been deliberately contained within a certain range; otherwise, the entire Luojia Mountain Range might have been thrown into utter chaos by now.

Yet even here, he could still faintly hear the howling of the two creatures fighting fiercely above by the pool. The fact that they had not yet fled indicated that they had not sensed everything happening down here with Su Yi. It seemed the various auras earlier had indeed been suppressed entirely within this cavern. Naturally, given that aged figure's mission to guard the Blood of Heaven and Earth, it would hardly turn the world upside down and make the matter known to all...

Sorting out his thoughts, Su Yi let out a slow breath and gently opened his eyes. His gaze was filled with excitement and awe! Both secret techniques were extraordinarily powerful, and moreover, they were precisely what Su Yi needed most at this moment!

The first was a purely physical combat skill! In this world, apart from conventional battle skills and soul-based battle skills requiring battle qi, there also existed many different schools of combat skills, though most of them had been lost to time. For instance, ghost-path combat skills and purely soul-based skills requiring no battle qi were exceedingly rare and practically unseen nowadays. Yet rarer still were purely physical combat skills!

Or rather, these were not combat skills at all, but martial arts! They were the martial arts practiced during the era when martial artists flourished! However, ever since battle skills replaced them, not only had martial arts been lost, but even the martial artists who practiced them had gradually faded away and exited the stage of history...

Yet what might be considered outdated martial arts today was of paramount importance to Su Yi, because Su Yi was unable to cultivate battle qi and could only cultivate his physical body purely! In the past, he had lacked the proper methods, but now with a genuine technique, his cultivation would naturally yield twice the result with half the effort. Although the introduction described it as an evasion martial art, judging by its name, it seemed far more profound and ethereal.

The name of this martial art was "Void Path". It seemed somewhat disconnected from its actual contents, but Su Yi understood and didn't mind; after all, it was a lost art, and being lucky enough to find it was already a blessing—who cared about the name? According to the descriptions within the martial art, this evasion technique was divided into three realms: the first realm—Thunder Flash; the second realm—Instant Step; the third realm—Void Shift.

Su Yi roughly reviewed the general effects of each level. Cultivating to the realm of Thunder Flash allowed one to move like thunderbolts and swift as lightning! Cultivating the second realm, Instant Step, truly granted the ability to arrive instantly with a single step, achieving a complete teleportation effect—moving instantaneously with virtually zero time consumption!

As for Void Shift, the text was extremely abstruse and difficult to comprehend, but Su Yi roughly grasped its essence. On the surface, the effect of Void Shift appeared similar to Instant Step, both achieving instantaneous movement, yet there was a qualitative difference in certain aspects. For instance, if one wished to travel from one side of a mountain to the other, using Instant Step would mean teleporting first to the peak and then down to the opposite foothills.

If one used Void Shift, however, they would appear directly on the other side of the mountain, as if ignoring the mountain's existence entirely and teleporting straight through. This already touched upon the power of space!

In legends, apart from the various elemental power attributes across this continent, there were two even greater powers—the power of time and the power of space! Whether anyone had ever mastered the power of time remained unknown, though legend had it that the very first and hitherto only God of Battle in the continent's history had very likely mastered this power!

As for the power of space, very few could master it, and those who did stood among the mighty ones closest to the God of Battle—the legendary Void Battle Emperors! Even the Battle Venerables who currently dominated the continent were only just beginning to touch upon spatial power, yet that alone was enough for them to traverse the skies, tread the earth, and reign supreme!

"This is simply too..." Su Yi, stunned into speechlessness by his shock, had almost no words left. Just what level of technique was this? According to the text, even if he only cultivated it to the second level, there would likely be very few people left in this continent capable of catching up to him!

Following the shock came extreme excitement. This evasion martial art was outrageously overpowered. Although evasion speed was not an offensive ability, having a high movement speed could solve countless problems, and being able to slip away whenever one pleased was undeniably a cool capability.

Moreover, it held extraordinary significance specifically for Su Yi. Who was Su Yi? A practitioner dedicated to strengthening and refining his physical body. A formidable, invincible physique combined with lightning-fast speed—what did that equal? Momentum!

Speed combined with physical strength, resulting in a terrifying impact and colliding force! He would be no different from a human cannonball. With a destructive "bomb" moving at a speed invisible to the naked eye, how many people would dare to meet it head-on?

The second technique was an extremely rare method regarding the cultivation of the qi vortex. Upon practicing this method, one could cause the qi vortex to spin rapidly, forming a vortex of battle qi. If the rotation speed increased further, it would enter a special state known as the—Black Qi Vortex!

The so-called Black Qi Vortex occurred when the qi vortex spun at extreme speeds after formation, reaching a certain threshold where a concave black hole formed at its center. This black hole possessed immensely powerful suction and devouring forces, capable of sealing and devouring strange treasures of heaven and earth to convert them for one's own use. The methods of devouring were not singular, and the Black Qi Vortex could be said to be one of the rarest, most obscure, and hardest-to-cultivate methods of all. Furthermore, a person could only activate a Black Qi Vortex once in their lifetime!

In other words, either one never activated it, or once activated, no matter what method was used thereafter, it could never be opened again. Consequently, the Black Qi Vortex was also hailed as one of the most bizarre battle skill secrets!

The text of these secret techniques flashed through Su Yi's mind like a scroll. Seeing this, Su Yi felt a mixture of fascination and puzzlement. What fascinated him was that such a battle skill secret even existed in the world; what puzzled him was that he seemingly possessed no qi vortex within his body—though he had once successfully condensed one, it had mysteriously vanished later for reasons unknown...

"However... since he said so, there must be a reason. He couldn't possibly give me a useless method. Could I really succeed in cultivating this?" Su Yi pondered to himself. He looked at the warm primordial spirit core of the Blood of Heaven and Earth resting in his palm and finally decided to give it a trial!

At that moment, the cavern shook violently. Su Yi turned around to see the water-pool magical beast violently slamming its massive body against the cave entrance, as if some vital possession of its had been snatched away...