He had a slight obsession with cleanliness and really couldn’t stand the fishy smell on himself.

But even after that, David Bolton didn’t go to sleep and rest. After returning to the dormitory, he picked up the long blade “Qiulan” and continued swinging and slashing it repeatedly inside the room.

—This was originally homework to be done before midnight, but because he was delayed catching up with Emily Clark, it was pushed to now.

Grace was already used to this and wasn’t surprised, only a little worried about David Bolton’s health: “Master, why are you still practicing this? You’re already so exhausted today, meow.”

“I have to practice!”

David Bolton’s gaze was sharp as a torch, unwavering, as he continued to swing his arms, bringing forth a dazzling light like a flowing ribbon.

The space inside this room wasn’t large, but when David Bolton practiced with the blade, he deliberately didn’t move his feet. In this way, just swinging the blade in all directions was barely enough.

“But I still don’t get it. What’s the use of you practicing this, Master? You clearly said that if your physique doesn’t improve, your blade skills won’t progress any further.”

Grace Green scratched her face with her hand, her eyes full of confusion: “Aren’t you planning to become a spirit master, Master? Then why keep practicing with the blade? I think that spirit art from the Mo Palace today was way more powerful than your blade techniques. Hmm, could it be you want to achieve that ‘intent precedes action’ you mentioned?”

“How could that be? ‘Intent precedes action’ isn’t something you can achieve with this method. I’m just getting more familiar with the nature of the blade.”

David Bolton couldn’t help but laugh at her words. He pondered for a moment before explaining again: “Remember I told you before about the battle states like ‘intent before action’ and ‘intent and action as one’?”

“Mm! You did, Master. Grace never forgets a word you say.”

Grace Green nodded: “‘Intent before action,’ ‘intent and action as one,’ ‘intent precedes action,’ ‘ultimate action conceals intent.’ You said that, at the same level, someone who’s mastered the second-level battle state ‘intent and action as one’ could defeat ten spirit cultivators at the ‘intent before action’ level; and after reaching the third-level battle state ‘intent precedes action,’ you could also fight ten at ‘intent and action as one.’ Different battle states mean vastly different combat power. I even said at the time, it’s like you playing that online game, spending over a million Federation coins in ‘Ling Tian Zhan Huang,’ but still losing to those skilled noobs because of clumsy hands.”

David Bolton ignored those strange terms from Grace Green and continued explaining: “But above ‘ultimate action conceals intent,’ there are still ‘spirit energy to the finest detail,’ ‘unity of man and weapon,’ ‘three flowers gather at the crown,’ ‘five energies toward the origin,’ ‘law of heaven and earth,’ ‘unity of heaven and man,’ ‘all phenomena illuminated,’ and ‘primordial spirit enters the Dao’—a total of twelve battle states. Among them, ‘unity of man and weapon’ refers to a spirit master’s control over their own life-bound spirit weapon. As the name suggests, it means making your life-bound spirit weapon like a part of your own body.”

Grace Green still didn’t quite understand: “So you’re practicing with the blade to achieve ‘unity of man and weapon,’ Master?”

“Something like that! Actually, I also want to change my habits, but that’s not easy. I used to use a sword, now I use a blade. If I’m not careful, I’ll treat the blade like a sword.”

David Bolton sighed, then continued swinging the blade as before. As his speed increased, a faint humming sound began to emerge within the room.

Knowing that the dormitory had excellent soundproofing, David Bolton was completely unrestrained, swinging the blade two thousand times before stopping, then hurriedly climbed into bed and fell asleep with his head under the covers.

—In the past, David Bolton’s goal would have been to reach over five thousand swings, until his arms couldn’t take it anymore.

But Grace was right; he really was utterly exhausted now. The moment his head touched the pillow, he lost consciousness.

When David Bolton woke up the next day, the sun was already high in the sky.

He had overslept, but David Bolton didn’t really care. Today was the losers’ bracket match, and even if he slept all day, it wouldn’t matter.

But soon he noticed that Grace Green was floating cross-legged in the air beside his bed, staring intently at a form projected in hologram, her little face full of puzzlement.

“What are you looking at?”

David Bolton glanced over and saw that the form was filled with strange characters he couldn’t understand at all.

“It’s the scan results of the Spirit Ascension Pill from yesterday, and the records of your physical condition at the time, Master.”

With a wave of Grace Green’s hand, the characters on the form changed to the script of the Sky Dome Continent.

But David Bolton still couldn’t understand it—things like vitamin one, vitamin three, vitamin twelve, water molecules, sodium atoms, and so on.

However, he could vaguely guess at the right side of the chart, which seemed to indicate the effects these components had on his body.

“So, did you figure anything out?”

David Bolton teased, just seeing Grace Green’s troubled look told him she must have gained little.

“Absolutely nothing!”

Grace Green hugged her knees, looking dejected: “No matter how I analyze it, there’s just no way to explain how this pill could make your psychic power increase by a tenth overnight, Master.”

“You should call it spirit energy here!”

David Bolton corrected her, then smiled: “If you could figure it out, that would really be strange! The seven great mystic sects of the Sky Dome Continent, so many divine masters and holy spirit teachers, have been researching for over two hundred thousand years, and not a single person has truly understood the secret. All they could come up with is a vague yin-yang system to explain it. If you could uncover its mysteries in a single day, that would be truly incredible.”

Chapter 0011 Celestial Phenomena Cover the Sky