To break through from the Understanding Ghosts realm to the Will of Heaven realm, Qingshui needs to guide his Qi along the Du Meridian, ascending to the Yuzhen acupoint and the Niwan Palace. He must nurture his spirit with Qi, observe Qi with his spirit, and command Qi with his spirit, thereby purifying his spiritual energy, significantly enhancing the quality of his Qi, and improving his perception and reaction capabilities.
The most crucial step in this process is the manifestation of the Innate Primordial Spirit.
For Qingshui, these steps are straightforward and pose no significant challenge.
After a short while, the breakthrough was complete.
Qingshui opened his eyes, feeling the Qi in his body more active and of higher quality than before. He flexed his wrist, took a silver needle from a drawer, infused it with Qi, and, using the Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements technique, completed Materialization in an instant.
"The speed of Materialization has noticeably improved. With the increased activity of my Qi, it's more than twice as fast as before.
The Materialization speed of the Divine Mechanisms of the Mohist Sect is already faster than other conventional Divine Mechanism techniques. If one possesses the cultivation of the Will of Heaven realm, then for a Mohist Sect Artificer, the time it takes other Artificers to craft one Magic Tool would be enough for them to create three or four. Even if it can't compare to Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements, it clearly creates a significant gap between them and conventional Artificers."
However, the Mohist Sect has gradually moved away from the mainstream of the Anomalous Human World and shifted towards the scientific research community. Their reputation in the community is no longer as prominent as it was in the old days.
It wasn't until Qingshui's appearance that their name was re-established.
"Before the breakthrough, my peak Understanding Ghosts realm cultivation was already among the top of the younger generation. My cultivation was close to that of core-generation experts. Now, I should have surpassed them, but compared to the older generation, there might still be some gap."
Qingshui pondered the current strength of this Avatar.
Even Ou Yuan, the current Grand Master of the Mohist Sect, is in the Will of Heaven realm, albeit at its peak.
"Now that I've broken through to the Will of Heaven realm, even if my Qi accumulation isn't as much as my other Avatars, it's enough to support most of the conventional techniques I've mastered. Even without using Magic Tools, I should be able to easily handle experts of Yue Qian's caliber."
Yue Qian is already very strong.
He's no worse than some of the Ten Elders; it's just that compared to old-generation powerhouses like Lu Jin and Lu Ci, who have nearly a century of cultivation, he lacks some accumulation.
"At least with the Platinum Armor already transformed into a Magic Tool, I should be able to maintain its functionality for a considerable time, possessing top-tier combat power."
I wonder what my chances are against the Old Heavenly Master.
Perhaps I could win? Or perhaps the Old Heavenly Master would simply tank my attacks with his Golden Light Mantra and dismantle me with his Lightning Technique?
But no matter what, against anyone other than Zhang Zhiwei, he should be able to sweep them aside.
"There's still a lot of medicinal power left. It should be able to push my cultivation to the mid-Will of Heaven realm, with some left over. I'll just let it slowly dissipate and refine in my body. Next, I can take advantage of this rare resting time today to thoroughly study the Wang Family's Divine Coating Secret Technique."
Divine Coating and Secret Painting are known as the two great painting Secret Techniques of the Anomalous Human World.
There are similar Ninjutsu in the Ninja World.
That would be Konoha's Super Beast Scroll.
However, beyond allowing drawn objects to materialize and aid in combat like the Super Beast Scroll, the painting Secret Techniques have many more wondrous uses.
One is the Blue Scroll Technique, which can achieve long-distance transmission of encrypted information through specially made ink. Another is called Entering the Painting, which opens an entrance to a two-dimensional space similar to a Mirror Dimension.
Both functions are highly supportive and were a significant reason why the Wang Family was able to stand firm in the Anomalous Human World for so many years.
However, with the advent of mobile phones and the internet, people's communication capabilities have greatly improved, and the Blue Scroll Technique has been almost completely phased out.
Still, in special circumstances where electronic communication is blocked, this technique remains very useful, but the applicable scenarios are too few.
Qingshui wasn't very concerned about this technique.
What he truly cared about was the method of opening a two-dimensional space entrance, similar to the Mirror Dimension.
"Using Qi as ink, and connecting with the profound through intent—it sounds mystical, but Old Man Wang also gave me an annotated copy, so it's not too difficult to understand.
But my previous guess was correct: the Entering the Painting technique of Divine Coating is very similar in principle to Kamar-Taj's Mirror Dimension.
Mirrors and other flat surfaces are essentially the same; when light shines on them, reflections can form. It's just that a mirror's surface is smoother, and the reflected light is more regular and concentrated, while light reflected from other surfaces is more scattered, forming diffuse reflection that the naked eye struggles to capture and receive to form an image.
So why does Kamar-Taj only have the Mirror Dimension magic and not a two-dimensional dimension magic?
With the power and knowledge of the Vishanti, they should be capable of it."
Qingshui flipped through the book Wang Ai had sent, searching for answers.
The ancestors of the Wang Family did not initially possess this miraculous ability.
At the time, they did consider it, but after several attempts, they yielded no results.
Things in paintings could be taken out through Qi's mimicry, but people are not Qi. Unless one cultivates Reverse Life Triple to its peak and returns to Innate One Qi, it's impossible to transform into Qi.
It wasn't until one time, when a certain ancestor of the Wang Family was drawing on a bronze mirror, sketching objects reflected in it, that they coincidentally managed to draw the object inside. This was how the research on this path began.
After generations of dedicated study by members of the Wang Family, this Entering the Painting Secret Technique was finally perfected.
By covering one's body with a special Qi, and treating the surface of one's body as a two-dimensional plane, one can enter a two-dimensional space.
However, this self-generated two-dimensional state is merely a pseudo-two-dimensional one; everything within the body is actually higher than two-dimensional. It's akin to embedding a higher-dimensional small space within a two-dimensional space.
This clearly defies common sense, yet it is indeed feasible. However, once the Qi consumed during the application of Entering the Painting is depleted, one will automatically be expelled from the two-dimensional space.
The Mirror Dimension, on the other hand, truly transports the entire body into it through the power of the Vishanti.
Compared to other abstract two-dimensional planes, the Mirror Dimension is closer to reality and easier to maintain. Its casting difficulty is lower, and its consumption is much smaller—for mages who pay a price for their spells, this is clearly more cost-effective and easier to learn.
"There are indeed complementary aspects, but using the Wang Family's Divine Coating Entering the Painting technique requires a considerable amount of time to 'mutate' one's Qi. In the Ninja World, this would be equivalent to a Ninjutsu derived from high-difficulty Chakra Nature Transformation. If one hasn't practiced it since childhood like the Wang Family members, even with my foundation, it would still take a significant amount of time to refine a portion of it."
Qingshui closed the book and synchronized with his main body.
His main body then synchronized with the Avatar in the Marvel Universe and sent a message.
The latter immediately began an experiment, using a small amount of its own life force as a price, and exchanged a high-quality energy from the Vishanti via the Sling Ring.
The Wang Family's Divine Coating requires a process of Qi alteration, similar to Chakra Nature Transformation, to unleash its unique effects. However, Vishanti's energy is a higher-level energy that can be used directly.
Qingshui took out his camera, set it up, and then a layer of golden mystic energy enveloped his Marvel Universe Avatar.
"Seven Realm Gates."
The golden mystic energy, like ink, splashed onto the wall according to Qingshui's will, transforming into layer upon layer of fantastical, colorful gates.
Qingshui stepped inside, and the first thing he saw was a chaotic swirl of colors.
What a strange sensation. It's somewhat different from the Mirror Dimension.
Qingshui looked at his fingers, then at the messy clusters of symbols around him. They seemed to have some pattern, but in reality, they were meaningless.
Generations of the Wang Family had tried to explore the meaning of these symbols, but neither Talismans nor Qimen Layouts matched them.
However, Qingshui could generally deduce their origin.
Everything in the Mirror Dimension exists as a reflection of something real.
And if a wall were also considered a mirror, then it would be a rough, uneven, poorly reflective mirror that couldn't form clear images.
These things were essentially the same as the various elements in the Mirror Dimension; they just couldn't form clear images, which is why they appeared as such abstract visuals.
"Not much practical value."
Qingshui shook his head and injected mystic energy into his eyes again.
The abstract, strange symbols gradually merged with the surrounding space, clearly revealing the outside world.
After observing for a while and finding nothing new, Qingshui tried drawing a teleportation circle in front of him and stepped through it.
As he had guessed, like the Mirror Dimension, this place also allowed him to escape two-dimensional space using spatial teleportation.
"Next, it's time for verification."
The Marvel Universe Qingshui Avatar looked at the photos the camera had taken of his chibi self walking on the wall, then went to find a batch of long-lasting food and placed it nearby.
After completing these tasks, Qingshui returned to his original position, forming a hand seal with his left hand to open the Eye of Agamotto.
He was about to cheat.
The Time Stone glowed with an emerald light, enveloping Qingshui and accelerating his personal time.
The stored food gradually diminished until, after several months of accelerated time under the green light, a colorful ball of Qi appeared in his hand.
This is quite troublesome. Does this mean that from now on, any knowledge or skills that my main body or other avatars need to learn, which take time, will all be dumped on me?
The Marvel Universe Qingshui Avatar shook his head helplessly. Without using the power of the Infinity Stones, he directly used the ball of Qi in his hand as energy to draw a teleportation circle in front of him.
It was incredibly smooth, even smoother than when he used Chakra in the past, and much more stable. It was almost as good as the teleportation circles cast using Vishanti's mystic energy.
On the other side of the teleportation circle was one of Qingshui's private small islands.
It was the island he had used for living and research before he used the Mind Stone to heal Banner.
He tossed a can through, and after confirming there were no unexpected issues, Qingshui stepped through, closed that teleportation circle, and tried to open another.
He failed.
This was because Qingshui's target location was Titan, and he didn't have Titan's spatial coordinates.
It was neither within his sensory range nor had he ever been there.
However, if he were to use Vishanti's power, it would definitely work, as that would essentially be asking Vishanti to help him pinpoint the location.
Turning his attention back to the Anomalous Human World.
By now, several more days had passed.
At the laboratory, everything was as usual.
Qingshui didn't go to the lab that morning; he had other matters to attend to.
It wasn't a big deal, but it wasn't small either.
It was small in that he gained two more titles, which didn't significantly increase his current actual influence.
It was big because this title still granted him some Fortune Value.
The title was Vice President of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, a position once held by Old Man Qian.
He wasn't made president directly because the current president's term hadn't ended, and nothing had happened to him. Naturally, they couldn't just remove him to put Qingshui in his place.
That wouldn't be promoting Qingshui; it would be actively making him offend people.
[Current Fortune Value: 83.72%]
The Fortune from being a Level 2 Professor, a Young Scholar, the director of a large research institute, and a host of honorary titles from outside, combined with the fixed income from his avatars in other worlds, had pushed his current Fortune Value back above 80%.
In a while, when the list of new academicians is announced, his Fortune should see another small increase.
By then, the opening of the next world shouldn't be far off.
In the afternoon.
Inside the laboratory office.
"Alright, that's all for today. In a few minutes, go to the school gate and pick someone up."
Qingshui put down the book titled Golden Casket Qimen Manual that he had been holding. He glanced at a message on his phone and then addressed Wang Ye.
"Picking someone up at the school gate? Who is it?" Wang Ye asked, his dark circles looking even more pronounced.
"Zhang Lingyu."
"True Man Lingyu? What's he doing here?"
"Running an errand for the Old Heavenly Master, delivering some things to me."
"Alright, we won't ask too many questions then. It's just... Teacher Zuo, I've finished today's lessons, and I've pretty much taught you everything I needed to. So for the rest of the day..."
"You can arrange your own time. By the way, Chen Jinkui hasn't bothered you again these past couple of days, has he?"
"No, he hasn't. But that guy is still loitering in the Capital City and won't leave. Yesterday, he was even doing feng shui for a company that's a business partner of my dad's. I don't know what he's planning."
"If you run into him, remember not to be reckless. Go to places with fewer people."
"Teacher Zuo, did you perhaps say that backwards? In places with fewer people, wouldn't there be no one to see, making it easier for that guy to act?"
"Yes, if it's convenient for that guy, then it's naturally convenient for everyone else too." Qingshui placed the book filled with notes into a drawer and said to Wang Ye.
Wang Ye suddenly looked up and blurted out, "Are you referring to... Grandmaster Zhou? Has he really been watching me all this time? Are you giving me advice, or do you also want to meet Grandmaster Zhou?"
"You're quite clever and astute, aren't you, kid."
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