Dragon Elephant Martial Disc Array

Over this period of accumulation, the restlessness brought on by the successive breakthroughs in the Star-Forge Technique within the Sword Tomb secret realm had been thoroughly settled. It was time to consider advancing to the next stage.

Having joined the Celestial Sword Bureau with the rank of Major, Chen Longshi’s credentials were impeccable. As long as he could break through the Bronze-tier life's shackles, there was little doubt he would soon be leading a team of his own.

He arrived at the base’s training grounds. True to its reputation, the Celestial Sword Bureau’s facilities were far more comprehensive than those of the Xuanyuan Military Academy. The various training equipment was highly specialized; for example, there were gravity training chambers for body-forging, and for those wishing to hone defensive star techniques, there were dedicated impact training rooms.

Barring a few special training rooms that required military merit to access, most facilities were free of charge. Equipment intended for Bronze-tier lifeforms was generally within the free range.

There were quite a few people training at the base, each minding their own business, most within specialized rooms. Chen Longshi found an empty body-forging training room and swiped his card to activate it. Upon reading the instructions, he discovered the gravity could be adjusted. He tried double gravity, which felt adequate, and gradually increased it until stopping at five times gravity. The heaviness was tolerable, but as it was his first time, he decided not to push further.

Let’s begin.

Suddenly, five mechanical fists emerged, each attached to long mechanical cables, controlled by an intelligent system. They operated like five immensely strong Bronze-tier body-forging experts attacking in unison. He set the timer to five minutes.

Chen Longshi activated the Golden Bell Star Technique.

A thin, golden shield, like a bell of pure gold, enveloped him. The mechanical fists began attacking from all directions. Apart from defending his vital points, Chen Longshi withstood the rest head-on.

The sound of relentless impacts echoed throughout the chamber. The fourth level of the Golden Bell lasted only three minutes before shattering, and the fists crashed directly onto his body. Enduring the blows, waves of force reverberated through him from skin to core.

Vital energy surged down ceaselessly, rapidly advancing his mastery of the Golden Bell. In ancient times, martial arts were divided into internal and external schools, but both ultimately trained strength. External methods relied on external stimuli to forcibly unlock the body’s potential, resulting in increased power. In the era of starforce cultivation, wondrous star techniques emerged, allowing the body to be forged through starforce, yielding even better results.

This kind of rapid power increase, however, came at a cost. Without timely healing, lingering internal injuries could damage one’s foundation over time.

Fortunately, Chen Longshi had an endless supply of vital energy derived from soul nourishment, eliminating such worries. After yet another round of forging, the fourth level of the Golden Bell was achieved in one go.

As his cultivation deepened, he increased the number of mechanical fists in the room to ten.

The golden shield shattered and reformed, again and again. Blood scabs formed all over him, but he paid them no mind. These were the result of external forging—the body constantly healing, expelling congested blood through the pores during metabolism. He could feel his muscles becoming tougher and more elastic, his reflexes sharper, his tendons stronger, and his explosive strength more formidable. Even his internal organs were being tempered, his breath growing longer, and his vitality brimming.

The fifth and sixth levels followed without much resistance.

By the end of the day, before the sun had set, the Golden Bell Star Technique had reached perfection.

As Chen Longshi exited the training room, he immediately felt his muscles full and solid, his skin smooth and jade-like. Under a magnifying glass, one could see that the minute structures of his skin had formed interlocking diamond-shaped patterns.

Bronze-tier Star Technique: Golden Bell perfected—Strength +2.8, Agility +2.3, Constitution +3.3.

Although slightly inferior to the Tortoise-Serpent Body-Forge Technique, it surpassed the Eighteen Forms of Star-Forge. This was of little concern; as long as his physical abilities kept improving with each body-forging star technique, it meant there was still plenty of room for growth.

With the perfection of the Golden Bell, his starforce stirred within, restless and eager to break through to the Star Vein Realm.

With a surge of powerful will, Chen Longshi’s mind suppressed the restless starforce throughout his body.

Name: Chen Longshi
Age: 20/30
Life Tier: Bronze
Strength: 22.1, Agility: 23.8, Constitution: 27, Spirit: 160
Martial Attainment: Star-Forge Realm, 10th Grade
Star Techniques:
Iron: Eighteen Forms of Star-Forge (perfected), Starforce Sense (perfected), Intro to Star Guidance (perfected)
Bronze: Eighteen Forms of Star-Forge (perfected), Star Guidance Intermediate (perfected), Tortoise-Serpent Body-Forge (perfected), Golden Bell (perfected)

It was time to exchange for a new body-forging technique.

As a Major entering the Celestial Sword Bureau, Chen Longshi began with a thousand military merit points. Adding the dozens earned from his last mission, he wasn’t sure of the Bureau’s exchange rates, but a Bronze-tier star technique should be easily within reach.

He left the training room, still full of vigor, washed away the blood scabs, and headed straight for the Celestial Sword Bureau’s Star Pavilion—a library that doubled as a vault for star cores. Besides a wealth of academic and general knowledge, it housed many treatises on martial cultivation, including the insights of renowned figures.

He had no interest in these for the moment. At the computer, he searched: “Bronze-tier, Star-Forge Star Technique.”

Instantly, a dense list of names filled the screen, dazzling him. There were at least ten thousand options, with each exchange costing just 100 military merit. Was a Bronze-tier star-forging technique really so cheap? Which should he pick?

“Young man, choosing a star-forging technique?” a voice suddenly asked behind him, making Chen Longshi jump, his hand half reaching for his sword.

He spun around to find a silver-haired middle-aged man in plain clothes standing behind him. When did he get there?

Was it necessary to be so stealthy?

Though Chen Longshi knew the Celestial Sword Bureau was full of hidden masters, the fact that such an unremarkable figure could approach him unnoticed was truly terrifying. He took a deep breath and answered respectfully, “Senior, do you have any advice?”

The silver-haired man smiled like a sly fox. “No need to be so tense. If you’re selecting a star-forging technique, I suggest you consider the special star skill, Dragon-Elephant Martial Disc. For someone who’s practiced many body-forging star techniques, what you need most isn’t to keep learning more and more techniques, but to excel in synthesis and self-discovery—to suppress yourself and break your limits.”

“Dragon-Elephant Martial Disc?”

Chen Longshi quickly found it: a Bronze-tier special star technique, costing 300 military merit to exchange. Just reading the brief introduction, he felt a surge of excitement—this was exactly what he needed.

Among star skills, Bronze-tier techniques contained anywhere from nine to eighteen star glyphs, but some possessed an extra core glyph. For example, his own Swordmastery technique had an Eternal Star Glyph. These were all classified as special star techniques or skills—rare and usually unattainable. Yet, here in the Celestial Sword Bureau, he could exchange for one so easily from the library.

Without hesitation, he made the exchange.

“Thank you for your guidance, Senior. May I have your name?”

The silver-haired man smiled, “Just call me Silver Fox. I joined the Bureau only a few years before you, no need for such formality. Come on, kid, add me on StarComm. If you have any questions in the future, we can connect. The more friends, the more opportunities, right?”

Chen Longshi couldn’t quite figure out who he was, but befriending such a well-informed person could only be beneficial, so he readily accepted the request. After a few words, Silver Fox went off to organize books in the Star Pavilion.

A librarian? Though that was a legendary profession in its own right, something about him didn’t fit the image.

Chen Longshi shook his head, dismissing the thought.

He quickly exchanged the Dragon-Elephant Martial Disc, then chose four more Bronze-tier star techniques—Steel Bones, Iron Vest, and Condensed Fiend—spending another 600 military merit.

He also browsed the Bronze-tier sword skills, which cost even less, between 50 and 100 points each. For sword skills, quantity was all he needed; eventually, they would all be fused to enhance Swordmastery.

He exchanged for five sword skills: Severing Sword, Nebula Sword Art, Bird Flight Sword Technique, Sky Eight Flashes, and Sword Reversal, spending a total of 400 military merit. His thousand-odd merit points dwindled to just a few dozen.

It seemed he’d have to take on more high-reward missions in the future.

Satisfied with his haul, Chen Longshi wasted no time; after collecting his new techniques, he headed straight back to the training grounds, not even returning to his dormitory.