Chapter 158: The Destructive Five Fingers

Chapter 158: Chapter 158: The Destructive Five Fingers

[Congratulations, Host! You have successfully invested in the ninth-grade martial art, Six Directions Heaven-Piercing Finger. The investment has triggered a 15x multiplier! As a reward, your mastery of the Six Directions Heaven-Piercing Finger has advanced to the Minor Achievement Stage!]

Xavier’s eyes lit up.

It worked!

Even a martial art he had personally developed and compiled could be used as an investment resource.

All those days spent painstakingly writing and refining the manual had paid off.

A fifteenfold return wasn’t bad at all. In fact, the reward was quite substantial!

"Alright, I should get going. I’ll bring Maya back shortly."

Xavier had already made a copy of the manual using a printer before Victoria completed her breakthrough. He couldn’t wait to invest another copy in Maya and see what kind of return the system would grant him.

With that thought in mind, he hurried out of the Extraordinary Department building.

"Maya, come here. Mr. X has prepared a new martial arts technique for you!"

Xavier beckoned to the young girl.

"Thank you, Mr. X! You’re always so good to me!"

Maya Knox happily accepted the photocopied manual containing the Six Directions Heaven-Piercing Finger.

Xavier was currently using his Mr. X identity, so he had already explained his relationship with Graham Cole to Maya beforehand. As far as she knew, Mr. X was a trusted elder — a friend of her master’s.

He had also met her twice using this appearance.

Lately, however, Xavier had grown increasingly tired of maintaining the disguise. Constantly pretending to be someone else was exhausting, and he was beginning to lose patience with the whole arrangement.

Fortunately, he wouldn’t have to keep it up forever.

Once he reached the Divine Power Realm and spent some time consolidating his strength, he would possess enough power to protect himself even against Venerable Realm experts. At that point, he could finally discard the disguise and reveal his true identity.

That day wasn’t too far away.

And as it turned out, he had just received another opportunity to grow stronger.

[Congratulations, Host! You have successfully invested in the ninth-grade martial art, Six Directions Heaven-Piercing Finger! The investment has triggered a 100x multiplier! You have received the following reward: The Six Directions Heaven-Piercing Finger has evolved into the low-grade Heavenly martial art, Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger! Your proficiency has also advanced to the Mastery Stage!]

Boom!

The moment the notification appeared, an enormous surge of chaotic energy erupted inside Xavier’s body.

His cells seemed to awaken simultaneously, each one vibrating with an incredible amount of vitality. His physical strength began climbing at an astonishing rate, eventually more than doubling its previous level.

The transformation continued for quite some time before the energy finally settled.

When Xavier examined his body, he discovered that the number of illuminated stars within his Star Sea had increased from 143 to 297.

He was now incredibly close to the Fourth Star of the Star Sea Realm!

Although the breakthrough hadn’t awakened another supernatural ability, he could clearly feel that his lightning ability had undergone a qualitative improvement.

This was one of the benefits of the Six Directions Heaven-Piercing Finger. The technique wasn’t merely designed to kill opponents; it also possessed remarkable cultivation benefits.

However, the system’s reward had taken things much further.

"Wait... This isn’t the Six Directions Heaven-Piercing Finger anymore. It’s the Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger!"

Xavier’s excitement grew as he examined the information about his newly acquired martial art.

SYSTEM INFORMATION

Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger

Low-grade Heavenly Level

"With one finger, heaven and earth are imprisoned. With two, the world is shattered. Three fingers annihilate all living beings. Four fingers destroy the stars. Five fingers slay demons and gods!

When all five fingers are unleashed together, even saints and deities can be slain, and the cycle of reincarnation itself can be severed."

Current proficiency: Mastery Stage

Current capability: Able to unleash the power of two fingers.

Originally a Saint-level martial art, it was reclassified as a Heavenly-level technique because of the extraordinary difficulty involved in mastering it.

Xavier stared at the description, his excitement reaching another level.

The abilities described were simply outrageous!

"Heavenly level... Saint level..."

He muttered to himself.

"So ninth-grade martial arts aren’t the pinnacle after all. There are actually two higher classifications!"

He had never imagined that the martial arts hierarchy extended beyond the ninth grade.

After taking another look at the technique, Xavier found it increasingly difficult to resist the urge to test its power.

"Since I can already unleash two fingers, I should see what this technique can really do!"

He couldn’t wait any longer.

After reminding Maya to remain inside the courtyard and not wander off, he quickly made his way toward the familiar back mountain of Shenlong Academy.

Once there, he prepared to test the Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger.

He raised his right hand and extended his index finger.

The moment he activated the technique, chaotic energy surged out of his body like a dam bursting open.

At the same time, a golden-red force field expanded from his position, spreading across an area with a radius of more than a thousand feet in the blink of an eye.

Everything caught within its range came to an immediate standstill.

Even the dust floating in the air stopped moving. The force field extended high into the sky, trapping the clouds above as though they had been frozen in place.

Xavier looked around in amazement.

"The range is more than ten times greater than that of the Six Directions Heaven-Piercing Finger!"

He carefully sensed the effect.

"I can’t tell whether someone could force their way out of these restraints, but the suppressive power is clearly much stronger than before."

His excitement continued to build.

He was tempted to extend a second finger and witness the terrifying effect described as shattering the world.

However, after thinking it through, he decided against it.

The affected area was simply too large.

If he unleashed the second finger here, the resulting destruction could easily wipe out the entire Arcadia Academy, including its teachers and students.

He wasn’t willing to take that risk.

He had only come here to test his newly acquired martial art. He wasn’t some bloodthirsty lunatic who enjoyed killing innocent people.

Besides, Arcadia academy could practically be considered his alma mater. He couldn’t bring himself to destroy it just to satisfy his curiosity.

"It looks like I’ll need to find another place to practise."

Xavier shook his head and lowered his right hand, deactivating the technique.

Only then did he notice how much chaotic energy he had consumed.

He couldn’t help clicking his tongue in astonishment.

He had activated the technique for less than ten seconds, yet it had already consumed the equivalent of five stars’ worth of chaotic energy!

The Six Directions Heaven-Piercing Finger’s energy consumption depended partly on the strength of the targets caught within its range. The Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger would presumably follow the same principle.

In other words, the five stars’ worth of energy he had just used was only the basic expenditure.

If powerful opponents of the same cultivation level were caught inside the force field, the consumption could easily double or become even greater.

And that was only with one finger.

He couldn’t begin to imagine how much energy the second finger would consume when unleashing its world-shattering power.

"Unless absolutely necessary, I should avoid using this technique."

After making that decision, Xavier left the mountain.

Meanwhile, the hundreds of teachers and students trapped within the northern section of Arcadia Academy were only just beginning to recover from the strange phenomenon.

...

"Teacher Bright, what on earth just happened?"

"That kind of spatial restraint must have been caused by a Star Sea Realm martial artist with an awakened space-type ability!"

"Space-type ability? You’re thinking too small. I suspect it was a law-based divine ability unleashed by someone in the Divine Power Realm!"

"Divine Power Realm? That’s impossible! An expert at that level shouldn’t be capable of something this terrifying. I think it must have been a Venerable Realm powerhouse. Didn’t you see how enormous that force field was? It seemed to stretch endlessly. Only someone at the Venerable Realm could possess such overwhelming power!"

"My goodness! We actually survived an encounter with a Venerable Realm expert!"

"Hahaha! That’s right! We must be incredibly lucky!"

"Look, Vice principal Johnny is here! Vice Principal Johnny, did you see what happened? We actually survived an attack from a Venerable Realm powerhouse!"

The northern section of Arcadia Academy was filled with excited discussions.

Some teachers and students were still trying to understand what had happened, while others were making increasingly exaggerated guesses about the mysterious expert.

A few were even boasting as though they had personally fought against the terrifying powerhouse and lived to tell the tale.

When Johnny arrived after receiving the report, he nearly laughed in frustration at some of the ridiculous claims.

Still, seeing that none of the teachers or students had been injured put his mind at ease.

He quickly took out his phone and called Victoria.

"Hello? Is this General Victoria?"

"Something has happened again at the back mountain of Arcadia Academy. That mysterious expert has made another appearance, and the disturbance this time is much greater than before. Would you be interested in coming over to investigate?"

Ever since the lightning tribulation had taken place at the academy’s back mountain, Johnny had been paying close attention to the area.

He occasionally went there himself to inspect the surroundings. Although traces of martial arts practice were difficult to conceal completely, the mysterious expert had managed to remain elusive.

For the past two weeks, however, the mountain had been unusually quiet. It almost seemed as though the powerful martial artist had left.

Gradually, Johnny had begun to relax his vigilance.

He hadn’t expected the person to reappear so suddenly, much less unleash such frightening power.

The most troubling question was whether this mysterious expert was friend or foe.

Unable to reach a conclusion on his own, Johnny decided to inform Victoria and let her investigate.

Twenty minutes later, Xavier arrived at the foot of the Extraordinary Department building with Maya.

There, he found Victoria, who had just returned from Arcadia academy. Her expression was unusually serious.

The moment she saw him, she spoke.

"Xavier, have you heard? A mysterious powerhouse has appeared near Arcadia Academy."

She paused, her expression growing more solemn.

"I suspect this could be an assassin sent by the Shadow Ring!"