Chapter 178: Chapter 177 Formless Battle Technique
Looking at the challenge finally completed on the virtual panel, Le Yuxin couldn’t help but feel a little dazed.
When he first died and replaced Yin Yinyin, he thought this challenge was basically impossible and was already prepared to roll a new challenge.
Who would’ve thought, after all the twists and turns, it was just supposed to be about starting a newspaper and making some trouble, but he managed to finish this challenge along the way.
"Sometimes things just work out when you least expect it—like a branch of red apricot sneaking over the wall."
The first thing he did after receiving the reward, of course, was use it immediately. He had no idea if this "zero-base eternal skill upgrade chance" would ever come again, so Le Yuxin had to tread carefully.
Because it was a zero-base upgrade, Le Yuxin only needed to know a little about the skill to satisfy the challenge. He tapped open the available options, and the virtual panel popped up the list of abilities he could choose from—
"Dugu Nine Swords"
"Wave-Riding Step"
"Divine Transformation"
"Iron Palm"
"Tai Chi Fist"
...
"Uchiha Shuriken Technique"
"Leaf Strong Fist"
"Breath of Water"
...
"Cat School Swordsmanship"
"Elven Sword Dance"
"Ashina Style Swordsmanship"
...
"Wing Chun"
"Shadowless Kick"
"Gunfighting Technique"
...
"Sword-Wielding Combat Technique"
"Formless Battle Technique"
"Lingxu Battle Technique"
...
Le Yuxin looked over the dozens of options, and the virtual panel even helpfully sorted them into categories: "Wuxia," "Anime," "Game," "TV & Film," and "Radiant." He almost spit out his mouthful of Five-Flower Tea from the sweetness.
He’d thought at best he could only pick one of the eighteen Combat Techniques to upgrade, and even if there were other options, they should be related to this world—like secret realms, Luminous Stone research, or Barbarian knowledge. Who would’ve guessed the system would expand the range all the way to the pop culture works from his last life?
"No way, you’re only telling me now that I’m a transmigrator with an All-Worlds Skill System?"
"Am I finally stepping into a true power trip, main-character mindset?"
But after looking more closely, Le Yuxin quickly noticed some clues.
First, there were no Inner Strength skills at all in the Wuxia category—not even any moves that required Inner Strength. It was either hard skills or pure techniques only.
The same went for the anime category: shuriken techniques, strong fist, breathing styles—none of them were fantastical. "In theory, with enough anime-watching, incredible discipline, and a body that just won’t quit, maybe you really could recreate these in the real world—hell, they didn’t even give a Stand ability."
It was even more obvious in the TV & Film and Game categories, just normal fighting and sword techniques. Le Yuxin remembered playing a ton of fantasy games and watching loads of magical movies; they couldn’t have at least offered a superpower like a thunder gun or something? Instead, it was all this low-tier stuff."
After comparing these abilities, Le Yuxin finally understood how the system was picking the available skills—
First, Le Yuxin at least had to theoretically know how to train it. Even if he only read about it in a book, as long as anyone in the book could train it using a theoretical method, he could learn it too.
Second, the method for training the skill couldn’t involve supernatural stuff. So outer strength, lightweight skills, breathing techniques, shuriken tricks—all fine, but no Inner Strength allowed.
Third, the ability couldn’t be too ridiculous. It had to be within the limits of a normal human. So even if Le Yuxin had seen stories where "the main character took one deep breath and became a god," the system wouldn’t count it.
"All that excitement for nothing..." Le Yuxin sighed, turning his gaze back to the list of Eighteen Combat Techniques.
Sure, those abilities were pretty cool, but the Eighteen Combat Techniques were the meta in this world. Because at best, those other abilities were "the limit of normal humans," while the Eighteen Combat Techniques were techniques invented by Radiant people to surpass humanity by channeling Light Energy for some mind-blowing effects.
For example, a few "Peak of Perfection" Martial Artists could walk on light at noon, without any external help, stepping up into the sky. "Yeah, they’d be sweating buckets in the sun, but that was way cooler than just ordinary martial arts."
Originally, Le Yuxin had his eye on the Lingxu Battle Technique, but after recently clinging to Mu Qingmei’s thigh to break through an ambush, he started thinking the Formless Battle Technique might be a better pick.
After all, even Jing Zhengwei learned Lingxu Battle Technique, so Le Yuxin wasn’t in a hurry for that one. But Formless Battle Technique was the most versatile—its core was to extract the essence from the other seventeen Combat Techniques, plus eight commonly used weapon skills, and fuse them into a flawless, ultimate Battle Technique.
This technique had a high floor, a high ceiling, and a high bar for entry. "If a normal person could spend a lifetime to get just one Combat Technique good enough to show off, Formless Battle Technique was the unattainable goddess no one could even dream of chasing down, no matter how hard they tried."
At least Qian Yuliu and Yin Yinyin had never seen a Formless Battle Technique practitioner; right now, Mu Qingmei was one of a kind, like "a scorpion taking a crap—one and only."
Le Yuxin hadn’t considered Formless Battle Technique before, mainly because he’d never seen it in action, so he instinctively thought, "breadth can’t beat depth." After all, in his mind, how could such a mash-up be better than a specialized technique?
"It’s like eating a buffet and slapping together beef brisket, fried sauce, and instant noodles—it can’t possibly compare to the handcrafted stuff from a legit noodle shop."
And then Mu Qingmei proved him wrong.
This world really did have a super technique that dominated all others in its tier. "If Radiant was a game, the dev who made Formless Battle Technique would have been dragged out back and shot—did you balance those eighteen Martial Artist classes with dandruff or what?"
But reality wasn’t a game; balance didn’t matter. "So this Formless Battle Technique that anyone could learn and was famous across the world, really was just plain better than the other seventeen!"
Without much hesitation, Le Yuxin used the zero-base skill point right on Formless Battle Technique!
The only reason he’d wanted Lingxu Battle Technique was for its dodge skills and movement speed. But Formless Battle Technique included Lingxu’s essential moves, so learning it would still give him the agility boost he wanted—not a loss!
"Mmmph!"
Le Yuxin’s whole body jolted; it felt like something was dissolving in his brain, with a weird flow of knowledge seeping in and making his scalp tingle, hands and feet going icy cold.
It wasn’t like upgrading Biting Battle Technique to eternal intermediate—back then, Le Yuxin had been fueled by Chen Fu’s death and had Kui Zhao as an enemy breathing down his neck, so the upgrade went through with almost no resistance. Plus, going from beginner to intermediate was like going from a D to a C grade—just adding a little sugar to Coke.
But going from zero to beginner was like leaping from a zero to a passing grade!
An avalanche of Formless Battle Technique knowledge poured into Le Yuxin’s mind, like being force-fed until he burst!
"He finally got why this reward was comparable to the eternal upgrade on an existing skill—leveling up was hard, but mastering something from scratch wasn’t easy either!"
After trembling for several minutes, Le Yuxin finally calmed down. He closed his eyes for a moment’s meditation, then suddenly jabbed at the window!
Light flashed past, and in the next second there was a perfectly smooth hole in the glass window—edges flawless, like it was always meant to be there.
Formless Battle Technique—Divine Spear!
Inspired by "Liaoyuan Battle Technique," it was about an all-or-nothing, no-way-back direct thrust!
Insanely cool!
Le Yuxin flicked his hand, launching a paw-shaped burst of light that clawed a hole in a vase across the room!
Formless Battle Technique—Devil’s Claw!
Even though the Formless Battle Technique moves were super useful, after doing some quick tests Le Yuxin started to notice a major problem—
Formless Battle Technique didn’t have any combos!
Take Biting Battle Technique: standard openers, anti-counters, burst attacks, charged hits, stuns—you could cycle through them endlessly, it was bulletproof.
But Formless Battle Technique was different. The moves were strong and useful individually, but you couldn’t combine them into routines—it actually encouraged Martial Artists to break them up and blend them into whatever skillset you were already best at.
Because, logically, Martial Artists were supposed to master the other seventeen Combat Techniques and eight weapon skills first, before truly grasping Formless Battle Technique. So its complete form should be: seventeen techniques, eight weapon skills, twenty-five Formless moves—all fused effortlessly, slicing dragons with a casual backhand, and no matter what kind of crisis, you’d still go beast mode. That was Formless.
Formless Battle Technique was theoretically an advanced skill; Le Yuxin skipped most of the prerequisites and just learned it straight up, so of course he couldn’t use it at its full potential!
"Learning Formless Battle Technique in one leap and calling it a day? Not gonna happen."
But he didn’t mind—for one thing, the Biting, Aiki, and Lingxu Combat Techniques each had their Formless equivalents, so he could plug them right into his usual fighting routines, plus...
Clack clack clack!
With a boosted jump, Le Yuxin bounded across the study, taking three steps in the air from one end to the other—his eyes lit up with a flash of power!
"That’s some useful knowledge gained right there!"
He felt his mastery of Lingxu Battle Technique had gone up!
Because the Lingxu Battle Technique had come as part of Jing Zhengwei’s body’s memories, Le Yuxin could use it just fine, but after all, it was someone else’s memory—he knew the "what," not the "why."
But with Formless Battle Technique’s take on Lingxu, he now had a direct grasp, almost deep enough to overshadow Lingxu Battle Technique itself. "It was like an elementary school student who’s mastered algebra going back to do basic chicken-and-rabbit math puzzles—he just breezed right through!"
The same went for Aiki Combat Technique. Even though Jing Zhengwei had trained some souped-up, evil-mod version, the principle was the same, and Le Yuxin could reverse-engineer it just fine.
He had a feeling: if he had enough time, he could upgrade both techniques to eternal skills on his own!
Next up...
He put a point into upgrading "Ice Blood Physique."
In that instant, he could practically feel the blood flowing inside him, all the vague worries in his heart swept away, and all the tangled, fate-stricken thoughts became sharp and clear again.
"Ice Blood really is the thing for me," Le Yuxin said calmly, "This old body isn’t worth keeping."
"Y-Young master..."
He heard a timid maid’s voice from outside, "We heard a loud noise, did something happen?"
"Come in."
Two maids pushed open the door. When they saw the study trashed, they recoiled in shock.
"Chill out, I just got carried away and practiced some martial arts in here," Le Yuxin said, "Why don’t you clean up a bit."
"But—but the butler’s going to ask...," the maid said nervously. "That was Master Qingfu’s favorite antique vase... And that was the Jing Family’s ancestral inkstone, and..."
"What else from the Jing Family ancestors is still in one piece?" Le Yuxin suddenly asked.
The maid pointed at a chair, "There’s this century-old heirloom redwood armchair, and the zitan wood desk."
Le Yuxin slapped the chair into pieces, then kicked the desk to smithereens. The study rang with crashes as the maids didn’t even dare look up.
He clapped his hands and said, "Done. Go tell Housekeeper Fookang I’ve smashed all the stuff the Jing family patriarchs liked, and he should get me a brand-new set of furniture."
"I’m not into nostalgia," Le Yuxin said, arms crossed, squinting as some thought crossed his mind, "Honestly, I kinda prefer things after they’ve been broken."
The maids nodded frantically. Le Yuxin waved his hand to leave but suddenly asked,
"By the way, has Qing Lan come back yet?"
...
...
Mu Qingmei felt like her life had recently drifted way off her expectations.
She’d worked so hard to land this undercover gig, thinking she could finally experience what her two big brothers went through—living on the edge, dancing on a knife. She needed to prove she wasn’t just a fighter, but a clever, shrewd White Night Walker too!
"Qing Mei! Is your draft ready yet?!"
"Almost almost!"
Every time a new issue of Youth Daily hit the stands, it meant the next issue was already on the schedule.
Mu Qingmei lowered her head and hurried her draft, racking her brain for a good persona this time.
Should she stick with "weakly Yanjing female swordsman"? Nah, she’d played that one to death. If she kept using it, she was going to get lazier and lazier.
"A strong-willed female Martial Artist cheating on her husband and sleeping with all the county’s hotties"? Yeah, Mu Qingmei loved playing that character, but Big Sis Wen Hong had started to suspect her writing style. Qing Mei was sure if she used that persona again, she’d get bullied next time she went to the clinic.
"The red-dreamed woman who serves her enemy for love and revenge"?
Honestly, Mu Qingmei only tried that one to test if Editor-in-Chief Qing Lan was actually "Yin Yinyin," but her submissions kept getting bounced back—with the critique being zero sincerity or real emotion.
Couldn’t blame them, though; Mu Qingmei had never been in love, never lost a lover, never served an enemy. How could she possibly capture that vibe?
She did work for Jing Zhengwei and hated Jing Zhengwei, but that was all for justice, not out of any personal feelings.
Worth mentioning, whenever she handed in anything as the "thirsty lady Martial Artist," it always got approved first try. She started to think the editor-in-chief was a little messed up in the head.
Thinking about it, Mu Qingmei couldn’t help but feel down.
She was supposed to be getting closer to Qing Lan, not stuck in here doing drafts!
Whether or not Qing Lan was "Yin Yinyin," getting in her good graces would mean huge benefits for Xuanzhu White Night!
She wasn’t even on the third floor, only the second floor!
It’s not like she hadn’t tried. She’d even shamelessly tried to sweet-talk Qing Lan, asking for help with writing. But Qing Lan just gave her dead-serious advice on how to write stories and didn’t care about the brown-nosing—she just focused on work, work, work.
Probably fair to mentally roast, "Why are you busting your ass so hard for Jing Zhengwei, that shady bastard? You don’t even get a paycheck. You work in the day, and then at night he..."
While Mu Qingmei was zoning out and slacking, footsteps sounded from upstairs. She looked up and saw Editor-in-Chief Qing Lan coming down.
Checking the time, she realized it wasn’t quitting time yet, so she went up quickly. "Qing Lan-jie, did you need something from us?"
Calling her "Qing Lan-jie" was something she’d had to shamelessly fight for.
"No," Qing Lan said, "I just want to get home early."
That was a shock; Qing Lan never left early. Sometimes she even stayed late with everyone else to work overtime. Today, no one had even turned in their first drafts—obviously it was just another mandatory overtime day, so why was Qing Lan heading out?
"Is something up?" Mu Qingmei probed.
"It’s nothing important, just..." Qing Lan tucked her hair behind her ear, took off her glasses and put them away, tipping her head as she said, "I just suddenly got the urge to go home early."
So cute!
Mu Qingmei saw the faint blush on Qing Lan’s face, batted her eyes, and her brain immediately started brainstorming.
"That look isn’t hunger!"
"Is she going to see a lover?"
"Whoa! Is she going home for a secret tryst?"
A dozen plot threads rammed around in Mu Qingmei’s head. She made up her mind—she was going with the "cheating, thirsty lady Martial Artist" persona for this week’s submission!
She had to get this spicy story out of her head!
It was the sacred duty of the writer!
"Let Big Sis Wen Hong laugh if she wants—getting misunderstood was the fate of all creators!"
Just then, a flurry of footsteps resounded on the stairs, and a staff member burst onto the second floor, breathless and waving towards the south.
"Sh—sha..."
"Shit!" he yelled, his broken voice echoing throughout Xuanzhu County, "The Chenfeng guys broke through!"