-----
"Well, what you all did back there certainly earned you so brownie points with ," Maria said with a warm smile. "Well done! If you keep showing that kind of sincerity from now on, I might even give you a cool Dream Heart. What do you think?"
"Really?!" they all shouted in unison, eyes sparkling with excitent.
"But only once you prove it’s truly worth it," Maria added, still smiling.
The Elders burned with renewed conviction, while the White Mist Immortal, now reborn as a Rakshasa, quietly mulled over what he had witnessed.
"Maria, that technique..." he muttered. "It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen, yet it carried sothing strangely familiar."
"You noticed?" Maria replied with a playful grin. "I improvised sothing new. I’ll explain the details later, but your White Mist Arts ford the perfect foundation for it, and for many more techniques to co."
"...I see," the Immortal nodded slowly. "I feel oddly happy that my martial arts can live on like this, becoming part of sothing far greater. I truly believe your Martial Arts might beco the strongest in all of Murim."
"Ah, that would be nice," Maria laughed lightly. "We’ll see."
With dozens of enthusiastic new mbers added to the ever-growing sect, Maria returned ho and prepared a grand feast for everyone: a massive barbecue using the Martial Beasts she had hunted along the way, plus plenty of modern dishes from Azure Star.
While everyone ate and enjoyed the pleasant evening, Maria quietly checked her System notifications. She had leveled up again.
Ding!
[You and your party have slain several powerful Cultivators and Martial Artists!]
[You have slain the [Vampire Duchess of the Lucarion Family, Vesperine Lucarion]!]
[You have slain the [Glacial Mountain Immortal, Lin Hao]!]
[You have earned a large quantity of EXP!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[...]
[Your Level has increased from Level 366 to Level 381/500!]
[All of your Stats have increased.]
[You earned 15,000,000 System Points.]
[You have learned the Spectral Ghostly Fist Second Form, Sword Soul Heart.]
[A New Section in the System has been added specifically for Martial Arts detached from any Skill or Privilege, where you can browse what you’ve learned, their Mastery Levels, and what you are currently Learning.]
"Oh? Nice, thank you, System."
Maria imdiately opened the new section, curious.
-----
{True Martial Arts}
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: First Form – Phantasmal Fist]: [Comprehension: 100% (Mastery)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Second Form – Sword Soul Heart]: [Comprehension: 50% (Interdiate)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Third Form – ???]: [Comprehension: 0% (Unknown)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Fourth Form – ???]: [Comprehension: 0% (Unknown)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Fifth Form – ???]: [Comprehension: 0% (Unknown)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Sixth Form – ???]: [Comprehension: 0% (Unknown)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Seventh Form – ???]: [Comprehension: 0% (Unknown)]
-----
"Huh?!"
Maria blinked in surprise. She already had vague ideas for the later forms, but the System was telling her there were five more in developnt.
This was an entirely new function, completely separate from skills, privileges, or even stats.
Sothing the System could barely assist with.
Sothing she had to discover and master entirely on her own.
"Hmm, the ideas are definitely flowing," Maria nodded to herself. "The whole point is to create techniques that aren’t just copies of System-granted skills. They have to be truly mine, not sothing the System hands ."
That was why progress felt so slow. These techniques required genuine insight, realization, and enlightennt.
Yet it was fun.
Maria had never enjoyed creating anything this much. It didn’t even compare to the days she spent crafting new equipnt.
There was sothing deeply exciting about building from the ground up, with no outside help.
Sothing she was forging entirely by herself.
There were only two techniques so far, but to Maria, they ant more than any of her Skills.
Even more than her Evolutions.
They were an embodint of her true self, of her history, her tragedies, her happiness, her hope, her perseverance, and her dreams.
"Ah, right..."
Her smile faded slightly as she rembered her two Dream Weapons had been badly damaged in the earlier fight. They had temporarily fused into a spear, and when the spear nearly broke, they retreated into her soul for safety. Now they were slowly reassembling as fragnts.
"It’ll take a while for you two to recover..." she sighed, feeling oddly empty about these weapons.
Unlike the Dream Weapons of others, hers never spoke to her. They held no deeper reflection of her dreams or aspirations.
Nothing of the sort.
It left her feeling strangely hollow.
Everyone else had already awakened true Dream Weapons that grew alongside them, absorbing their masters’ power and becoming utterly unique.
Yet Maria’s remained dull, as if sothing essential was missing.
Or perhaps they were never truly her Dream Weapons to begin with.
"..."
Maria quietly observed her Dream Heart, the massive crystallization of Dream Essence and Nightmare Energy that occupied a large part of her soul.
It fueled her powers trendously and remained linked to these two weapons.
Yet she couldn’t help but feel there should be sothing more for her.
"Maybe I never properly awakened my real Dream Weapons and just forced these two to take the role... But how do I awaken the true one? I have no idea."
Her control over the Dream Heart yielded nothing.
She couldn’t summon a miraculous new dream weapon or dream spirit.
They simply existed, silent and inert.
"Maybe I’ll figure it out as I train and expand my Martial Arts. After all, that’s also a journey into my own inner self..."
Night fell. Maria spent a peaceful evening with her lovers before finally going to bed.
The next morning, she began the day by interrogating her two "prisoners": the Vampire Duchess Vesperine and the Glacial Mountain Immortal Lin Hao.
She extracted far more information than expected about the Murim Alliance, the Seven Great Sects that ford its core leadership, and the sect that originally founded it.
The Heavenly Palace Sect was an ancient and imnsely powerful sect that had existed for over 200,000 years. It began in the Endless Grasslands and gradually expanded across the entire world of Murim.
Today it was a worldwide organization of unparalleled prestige and manpower, boasting nearly a hundred Immortals and several Ascended Divines, the realm said to be the ultimate pinnacle of cultivation.
Their great leader and patriarch, the Heavenly Emperor, watched over all of Murim, supposedly ensuring that orthodox principles ruled this wild world.
Of course, it was complete nonsense. Allying with Vampires for power proved how pathetic they truly were, Maria thought.
-----
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