Chapter 161 Integral Deduction, the Birth of the Rift Abyss Technique

In the latter half of the night, the iron door at the dungeon closed again.

When Lin Chen returned to the Archives Room, only two lights remained on in the courtyard.

One was at the dungeon entrance, where the brazier reflected the glow of charcoal.

The other was in the Archives Room, where a partial shadow fell upon the window paper; it was Liu Buyu, slumped over the desk in his sleep.

He paused before entering.

The room was thick with the scent of paper and ink, and files were stacked high on the desk; the one on top was the format for the blood order and the password sealing method written by Director Yan Tie.

The corner of the paper was not yet dry and was lifted slightly by the night wind.

Lin Chen pressed the page back down, then took an outer robe from the side and threw it over Liu Buyu's shoulders.

Liu Buyu groggily raised his head, his pen still clutched in his hand.

"Inspector... which one needs to be recopied?"

"Go back to sleep."

"Oh."

He shifted his head, his forehead nearly bumping into the inkstone.

Lin Chen reached out and moved the inkstone half a foot away.

Only then did he close the door and bolt it.

The room fell silent.

Lin Chen walked behind the desk and sat down, the black abyss blade resting horizontally across his knees; his left hand pressed down on the scabbard, and his right hand rested on the edge of the table.

The System interface unfolded in his mind.

[Current Total Points: 28500.]

Below were still the same three options.

[Increase Cultivation.]

[Deduce Cultivation Technique.]

[Accelerate Cultivation Technique.]

Lin Chen stared for a long moment, then another.

If he only sought stability, pushing his cultivation to the Late stage of Condensing Dan would show results tonight.

But that battle with Director Yan Tie had laid the problem bare.

The gap between the Mid-stage Core Condensation and the Hua Gang Realm was more than just a small bit of True Qi.

The difference was that layer of projected Protective Aura.

Director Yan Tie stood in the basement, suppressing the field before acting.

Before his palm even arrived, his Qi locked onto a person's breath and steps.

Lin Chen was able to break it by relying on the terrain, on Shen Yue, Sun Qi, and He Jian blocking the door, and on Official Chen Zhili losing his composure.

This way of winning wasn't ugly, but it couldn't be relied upon as a staple.

If he met someone in the Hua Gang Realm next time, and they attacked on a long street, in an open field outside the city, or if they didn't care about Official Chen Zhili's life and just snatched the person and left, could he still stop them?

The answer was worthless, because one's life cannot be entrusted to an answer.

Lin Chen raised his hand and tapped the second option.

[Consume points to deduce a Cultivation Technique?]

"Yes."

[Please select the direction for deduction.]

Several lines of existing Cultivation Techniques appeared below the panel.

[Rock Solid Skill.]

[Xuanhuang Immovable Body.]

[Divine Movement Step.]

[Shadowless Thunder Blade.]

Lin Chen did not choose any of them.

He placed his palm over his Dantian, mentally deconstructing the battle from the day.

Rock Solid Skill was the root.

Xuanhuang Immovable Body was the bone.

Shadowless Thunder Blade was the blade.

The three had their respective uses, but when it came to life or death, there was always a half-beat delay in their operation.

When the blade rose, the footwork moved first.

When the footwork moved, the Protective Aura lagged by half an inch.

When the Protective Aura pushed up, the Blade Intent lacked that ferocity.

They needed to merge.

He couldn't just mash the three Cultivation Techniques together; he had to recast the underlying path of Qi circulation.

Lin Chen cast his thoughts onto the panel.

[Deduction Direction: Use Rock Solid Skill to stabilize the Dantian, use Xuanhuang Immovable Body to reinforce the Meridians, and use Shadowless Thunder Blade as the explosive end to deduce a True Qi technique for the transition from the Ningdan Realm to the Hua Gang Realm.]

The panel paused for a breath.

[The points required for deduction are high.]

[Estimated point consumption: 20000.]

[Continue?]

Outside the Archives Room, the wind squeezed in through the door gap, blowing the lamp wick to one side.

Lin Chen looked at that number and tapped his finger against the scabbard.

Twenty thousand points.

Back in Qingxi County, this number would have been enough to smash his way up from Body Tempering several times over.

Now, it was still expensive.

But things that weren't expensive couldn't block the Hua Gang Realm.

"Continue."

[Deducting points.]

[Current remaining points: 8500.]

[Deduction started.]

The words on the panel dispersed, turning into fragments of Cultivation Techniques.

The Qi circulation method of the Rock Solid Skill was dismantled into twelve segments, the protective route of the Xuanhuang Immovable Body was stripped into nine Meridian rings, and the explosive nodes of the Shadowless Thunder Blade were extracted separately and suspended at the very top.

These things were not gentle.

They reorganized within the panel and also reran within Lin Chen's body.

The first strand of True Qi was pressed down from the Golden Core in the Dantian, sinking along the Ren Meridian, then rushing back along the Du Meridian.

Just as it reached the back of his heart, it collided with the original protective path of the Xuanhuang Immovable Body.

Lin Chen's shoulders and back shuddered, and the legs of his chair slid half an inch across the floor.

Liu Buyu, slumped at the corner of the table, mumbled incoherently: "Don't let the seal leak..." and fell back asleep.

Lin Chen ignored him.

The second strand of True Qi was more urgent, extracted from the outer layer of the Golden Core, bypassing the twelve main meridians, and going straight into the Hand Shaoyang Meridian.

That was a route commonly used for blade techniques—fast and ruthless, but with high consumption.

The System bent this path back, forcibly connecting it into the heavy foundation of the Rock Solid Skill.

A needle-like pain surged in his Meridians.

Lin Chen's hand pressed onto the edge of the table, and fine cracks were pressed into the corner of the wooden desk.

[Technique conflict.]

[Rearranging.]

[Dismantling the protective layer of the Xuanhuang Immovable Body.]

He closed his eyes, re-inserting the memory of Director Yan Tie's punch into his sensory perception.

The cyan-white Protective Aura pressed against the blade edge first.

The punch force arrived afterward.

The blade body vibrated, the web between his thumb and index finger vibrated, and his Dantian vibrated along with them.

That wasn't just power suppression.

The Protective Aura formed a layer first, then became a blade.

When thick, it could block blades; when thin, it could cut people.

The truly troublesome part was that it didn't rely on Moves.

It was a Realm.

Lin Chen fed this sensation to the System.

The fragments on the panel vibrated again.

[Capturing the projection characteristics of the Hua Gang Realm.]

[Ningdan Realm cannot stably generate Protective Aura.]

[Deducing alternative path.]

Lin Chen's breathing became shallow.

If he couldn't generate it stably, then it would be unstable.

If it couldn't be projected for a long time, then it would be brief.

He wouldn't learn Director Yan Tie's method of spreading a layer of Protective Aura to suppress the field.

What he wanted was one blade strike.

Three would also do.

As long as he could press the Golden Core's True Qi onto the blade edge in the shortest possible time, pressing out a sharp edge capable of tearing through the Protective Aura.

The Cultivation Technique fragments on the System panel began to collapse inward.

The Rock Solid Skill sank to the bottom, suppressing the Golden Core.

Xuanhuang Immovable Body no longer spread across his whole body but became three meridian-protection lines, specifically protecting the Dantian, arms, and heart.

The explosive nodes of the Shadowless Thunder Blade were embedded at the end.

The Golden Core inside Lin Chen vibrated three times.

The first time, True Qi was stripped from the outer layer.

The second time, the stripped True Qi was pressed back into the core.

The third time, a thread of extremely fine sharp Qi suddenly popped out from the core.

That sharp Qi was too thin, so thin it lacked form.

Yet it was sharp.

It rushed along the Meridians toward his right arm, and wherever it passed, the meridian walls were cut, causing pain.

The three protection lines dismantled from the Xuanhuang Immovable Body pushed up, forcibly binding that sharp Qi in the middle.

Sweat broke out on Lin Chen's forehead.

His robes were puffed up by the wind circulating within his body, then fell back down.

The pages of testimony on the table were flipped, and the outer robe on Liu Buyu's shoulders slid halfway off.

He shivered, looked up, and saw Lin Chen sitting there, his whole person shrouded in the lamp's shadow; he didn't dare to make a sound.

He pulled the outer robe back and instinctively protected the files.

The action was too familiar.

Save the paper first, then save himself.

Lin Chen didn't open his eyes, just spoke: "If you're awake, get out."

Liu Buyu lowered his voice: "Inspector, are you practicing?"

"Yes."

"Should I call a physician?"

"No need."

"Then shall I guard the door?"

"Get out."

Liu Buyu picked up two stacks of files, his movements three parts faster than usual.

Walking to the door, he looked back again.

"The blood order paper on the desk, should I take it?"

"Leave it."

"Oh."

He went out and gently closed the door.

In the room, only Lin Chen and the lamp remained.

The deduction continued into the deepest part of the night.

On the System panel, the Cultivation Technique paths changed seven times.

The first six times, they collapsed.

Either the Dantian couldn't bear it, or the blade technique's explosive nodes were too sudden, and the protection lines couldn't contain the backlash.

On the seventh time, Lin Chen cut off the first explosive stage of the Shadowless Thunder Blade, retaining only the force-generating skeleton of the third and fifth Moves.

There were fewer fancy tricks, and less room for error.

Once operated, it was hard suppression, hard release, and hard slashing.

[Cultivation Technique framework stable.]

[Generating technique formula.]

Lin Chen opened his eyes.

Outside the window, it was not yet dawn; there was only a bit of gray in the east.

He looked down at the black abyss blade.

The blade was still in its scabbard.

However, from the ridges of the scabbard, a deep, low vibrating sound came.

It was half a tone deeper than before.

[Deduction successful.]

[New Cultivation Technique: Rift-Breaking Art.]

[Technique Description: Using the Golden Core as a furnace, compressing True Qi into the core, and briefly releasing an explosive layer similar to Protective Aura. It can be attached to weapons, fists, and palms, forming a limit-breaking output against Protective Aura.]

[Current Stage: Initial Success.]

[Number of possible bursts: Three.]

[Restrictions: After each use, the Golden Core requires at least one hour to recover. Continuous bursts will cause damage to the Meridians. Given current Physical Body and meridian strength, it can withstand at most three times.]

[Consume points to accelerate Cultivation Technique practice?]

Lin Chen finished reading the last line and did not Move immediately.

Rift-Breaking Art.

The name wasn't gentle, but it was fitting.

For the Ningdan Realm to want to touch the Hua Gang Realm, it was essentially probing into a rift with one's life.

He raised his hand and tapped.

[Consumed points: 5000.]

[Current remaining points: 3500.]

[Rift-Breaking Art practice accelerating.]

This time, it wasn't as torturous as before.

The System pressed the deduced operation path into his Meridians inch by inch.

On the outer side of the Golden Core in his Dantian, an extremely fine ring appeared.

That ring was not bright or ostentatious; it just slowly rotated against the Golden Core.

With every revolution, the True Qi was compressed even tighter.

Lin Chen tried to guide a strand.

As soon as that strand of True Qi entered his right arm, his Meridians felt a stinging pain.

He stopped.

That was enough.

This thing couldn't be tested in the room.

The Archives Room wasn't valuable, but the files were.

If Liu Buyu saw him split the table, he would probably hug the ledgers and cry on the spot.

The first rooster crow came from outside the window.

Following that was the changing of the guard for the early shift of the Patrol Division.

Boots stepped over the stone bricks, and someone yawned and cursed:

"Who burned out the charcoal brazier last night? My hands are frozen numb."

Zhao Gang's voice came from the distance:

"Frozen numb is perfect—practicing the blade won't hurt."

The person didn't dare to talk back.

Lin Chen stood up, walked to the door, and pulled back the bolt.

Outside the door, Liu Buyu stood under the veranda holding a bowl of porridge, his eyes dark with fatigue, a tuft of hair messy, and a ledger tucked under his arm.

He looked up and saw Lin Chen, and he paused.

"Inspector, you didn't sleep all night?"

Lin Chen took the porridge bowl.

"I slept."

Liu Buyu looked at him.

That face was still weary, the robes were wrinkled, and the cuffs still had the damp marks from the dungeon last night.

Yet, standing there, he was different from when he entered the door last night.

The blade was still in the scabbard, but the edge had been renewed.

Liu Buyu swallowed the words he wanted to ask.

Lin Chen held the porridge and took a sip; the rice was boiled soft, and too little salt had been added.

He placed the bowl on the railing of the veranda.

"I also had a dream."

Liu Buyu was stunned.

"Dreamed of what?"

Lin Chen looked outside the courtyard.

The sky was already turning white, and in the Main Courtyard, people were starting to Move evidence boxes, the iron locks clinking together, the sound clear and distinct.

"Dreamed that I met someone in the Hua Gang Realm next time."

Liu Buyu couldn't help but ask:

"Did you win?"

Lin Chen picked up the porridge bowl and took another sip.

"Haven't fought yet."

Liu Buyu couldn't respond for a moment.

Zhao Gang came over from the courtyard gate, having just heard half of it, and approached with his blade on his shoulder.

"Inspector, what haven't you fought yet? Who came again?"

Lin Chen looked at him.

"Have you eaten breakfast?"

Zhao Gang became vigilant.

"I ate half a pancake."

"Eat another half."

Zhao Gang frowned:

"Why?"

Lin Chen held the porridge and turned to walk into the Archives Room.

"Eat your fill."

"There's a lot to do today, and the blood order hasn't landed yet."