The spiritual root resembled a mana core, and it was an acquired organ that one must have in order to handle spiritual energy.

There were many different types of spiritual roots, unlike mana cores. The single spiritual root, which specialized in one specific attribute, was the most valuable. The double spiritual root, which could sustain two attributes, was the second most valuable, and so on.

The five elements spiritual root, which could sustain five attributes, was the least valuable. As the number of attributes of the spiritual root increased, the compatibility with each attribute decreased. If a person with a spiritual root specializing in wind could use 100% of their power when using a wind technique, then a person with a five elements spiritual root could only use 50% of their power when using the same technique.

Grid alleviated this huge weakness by mastering the Profound Martial Technique. Instead of completely neutralizing the attributes of the five spiritual roots, Profound Martial Technique amplified the power and quantity of the spiritual energy itself.

It was possible to increase the power of elemental techniques from the original 50% to 65%. Naturally, the inherently elementless techniques could be used with 100% power.

However, elementless techniques were rare. Even though he learned the Profound Martial Technique, he was inferior to those with single and double spiritual roots.

Nevertheless, Grid wasn’t disappointed. He had been unlucky for a day or two, but Grid was used to that. He actually laughed out loud when he heard that the people with the five elements spiritual root were seen as mediocre by the cultivation world.

This type of situation was all too familiar to him. Rather, he would’ve felt awkward if he was suddenly treated like a genius.

‘In the end, this turned out to be a good thing.’

That day, Grid destroyed the nineteenth Full Moon Fortress and learned a new technique: Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique.

The name was an exaggeration, and the person who came up with its name wanted to let it be known that whoever learnt it would become incredibly powerful. The cultivator who invented this technique must have had a similar personality to Lauel, meaning they must have had a very strong sense of self and liked to exaggerate things.

In any case, the inventor was likely not an ordinary person. The Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique was as outstanding as its name. It doubled the power of the technique that one had. It had great synergy with Profound Martial Technique, which increased the quality and quality of spiritual energy just by breathing.

Now, Grid’s spiritual energy increased by 240 every time it cycled through his body. The power of spiritual energy also increased every time the spiritual energy increased by units of 10,000. If he did a rough evaluation, for every 50,000 increase in the total amount of spiritual energy, the power of his techniques would increase by 1%.

In about a year, he would be able to fully implement the power of all elemental techniques at 100%. This meant that, in time, he would have an overwhelming advantage over people with single spiritual roots, who could implement only one attribute specialized techniques at full power.

Of course, Grid wasn’t too excited. The other cultivators wouldn’t just laze around during this time.

‘A cultivator lives for at least a few hundred years. The cultivators who lived for thousands or tens of thousands of years must’ve learned more powerful techniques than the Profound Martial Technique or Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique.’

They wouldn’t implement the power of a technique at 100%, but at 1,000% or 10,000%.

Grid had fought many powerful opponents so far and had never let his guard down. He didn’t get carried away and faced reality.

...Grid was a big problem for the cultivators.

***

“You lost the book containing the teachings of Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique? How did you manage to lose the greatest treasure left behind by our ancestor, who ascended to the immortal world a long time ago?”

“That... As the great elder knows, isn’t the material of the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique book itself special? It’s made from the skin of an upper world divine beast, so it possesses a colossal aura. The chief didn’t have enough spiritual stones to construct the Full Moon Fortress, so he used the technique book as the material for the formation and built it this way...”

“...What type of bastard invaded the Full Moon Fortress, destroyed it, and even stole the technique book?”

The great elder noticed that the other elders were sweating. His skin was dark because of the demonic art he’d mastered and his curved eyes turned red. He was no different from a demon in the demon world.

The elders felt his heavy gaze on them and nodded breathlessly. Even though the great elder glared at them, his eyes gradually lost some of the heaviness behind them.

“What were you doing instead of guarding the Full Moon Fortress alongside the chief?”

“Unfortunately, we were preparing to go into closed door training. As you also came to this conclusion in the first few days, the level of this world is so low that we thought there would be no danger...”

“Did I really? After everything that happened, are you saying that I’m the one responsible for you failing to protect the chief, the Full Moon Fortress, and the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique book?”

“N-Not at all! I didn’t mean it like that. I had no intention to blame you, great elder! Please, be considerate!”

The six elders trembled. They were cultivators in the early stage of the great ascension realm, while the great elder was at the peak of the great ascension realm. He hadn’t mastered the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique, so he postponed his ascension. However, if he wanted, he could ascend to the immortal world right now.

The great elder continued glaring at the elders, who were trembling in fear.

“Retrieve the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique immediately,” he ordered. “Only one in ten billion people can learn it, and it’s no longer as valuable as it used to be, but it’s still a symbol of our sect. You know that tens of thousands of cultivators compete to join our sect every year just because they want to learn the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique, right?”

“Y-Yes, we know that. Without the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique, the sect will never return to its former glory and our positions will be in jeopardy.”

“Plus, the decline of the sect will become an inner demon of mine and hold me back when I ascend to the immortal world,” the great elder said. “You must bear in mind that my anger might be directed at you if that happens.”

“Yes, sir!”

The elders hurried out of the hall. What they were pinning their hopes on was that the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique required a great deal of talent. Only a genius born once every one million years could master that technique.

In other words, it was impossible to learn it unless one had a high probability of reaching the upper world and becoming an immortal.

Even if someone was that talented, it would take tens of thousands of years to increase the skill level of the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique.

There was no chance that the person who dared break into the Full Moon Fortress and stole the technique book would learn it overnight and be reborn as a monster. That was the logical way of thinking in the cultivation world.

However, this didn’t apply to Grid, who was a player.

[The level of the ‘Profound Martial Technique’ has reached 2 stars.]

[The level of the ‘Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique’ has reached 2 stars.]

‘The leveling up speed is insane.’

Profound Martial Technique took effect every time the spiritual energy in the body completed one full cycle. Of course, the proficiency increased every time this happened. As a result, it leveled up quite fast and also greatly affected the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings.

This was because the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique itself played a supporting role when paired with other techniques. Therefore, when the proficiency of other techniques increased, the proficiency of this one increased as well.

A smile spread across Grid’s face. He was proud of himself for mastering both the Profound Martial Technique and Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique among the many technique books.

Next to him, Noe grumbled. “It’s all thanks to me, nyang.”

Noe’s eyes were bloodshot. He had been reading hundreds of books in the past ten days and his eyes were dry.

“I know, I know. It’s all thanks to you... Um?”

Grid was stroking Noe’s head when he felt a slight vibration coming from his inventory. An ordinary person would’ve never noticed, but Grid’s brilliant senses immediately picked up on it.

Grid cocked his head.

[Technique Book: Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique]

The booklet that Grid pulled out was glowing a faint red. It trembled, as if it was screaming for someone to save it, as if it was afraid of something.

‘Hundred year old herbs have sentience now, so it isn’t that strange for old books to have emotions.’

Grid ignored it and placed it back in his inventory. He judged that someone was trying to track his location based on this technique book and sent out the God Hands to investigate the surrounding area. His invisible artificial senses were woven together like spider webs, scanning a radius of fifty kilometers in real time.

In other words, it was impossible to surprise attack Grid.

“What...?”

Just then, Lauel contacted him. He had news.

The news was that the Full Moon Fortresses in the East Continent were being slowly but steadily dealt with. However, a crazy cultivator was slaughtering players.

Grid frowned. “What are the old dragons doing...?”

Numerous players were being massacred. That wasn’t normal. The cultivator was able to absorb the ultimate skills cast by hundreds of rankers without receiving a single scratch and then using them to counterattack?

Not even Grid could do that.

“A monster like that is on a rampage and the old dragons are doing nothing? Looks like the situation in the East Continent is worse than I thought.”

Grid was reminded of what was currently happening on the West Continent.

The apostles, the Tower Members, the Overgeared Guild, Valhalla, and other allies were actively operating from the Tomb of the Gods. There were also demon reinforcements brought from hell by Leraje...

The West Continent was incredibly powerful, even overwhelmingly so from an enemy’s perspective.

There were less than fifty Full Moon Fortresses remaining in the West Continent. Every time they destroyed one of them, they learned new techniques and gained new treasures. The speed at which the Full Moon Fortresses were collapsing was steadily increasing.

Even in places where Grid wasn’t present, it wasn’t uncommon to hear that cultivators who were Absolutes were getting slaughtered.

Grid was thinking, ‘Should the empire support the East Continent?’

[Whisper from Lauel: I just asked Old Sword Demon and he said that the East Continent will be fine. The god of the beginning, Hanul, is hostile toward the cultivators. He said Hanul can turn into light and move so fast, no one can even follow his movements. It seems that he is finally done absorbing the light from Rebecca, just as Your Majesty predicted the other day.]

Hanul had been slowly absorbing the light of Rebecca, who had severely wounded him, that was trapped in his heart. He’d been doing this secretly in a dimensional gap and it had taken him a long time to completely absorb the light, but it seemed he was finally done.

Grid was relieved. “I didn’t expect him to succeed. A God of the beginning is truly from a different league.”

Grid thought that as long as Hanul managed to absorb the light and fought against the cultivators, the East Continent would be safe.

He took for granted the fact that Hanul was hostile toward the cultivators. What Hanul needed was for people to have faith in him again. The best way to gain the support of the people was to deal with their enemies.

‘From Hanul’s perspective, this situation might seem like the stepping stone had been laid out especially for him.’

The East Continent was fine.

Grid’s relieved expression slowly turned cold. His artificial senses alerted him of six nearby presences. They were still fifty kilometers away.

If he wanted, he could run away forever. However, there was no reason for Grid to do that. Why should he spare the cultivators who came here to die so willingly?

He used Shunpo a few times and greeted the enemies.

The cultivators paled. “You...?”

They gasped. They felt a familiar energy from the man with black hair who suddenly appeared before them.

“Is it possible that you learned the Ten Thousand Wheels One Thousand Wings Technique?”

“Are you an immortal who was reborn with memories of your past life?”

However, the elders exploded one by one. They couldn’t withstand the power of Grid’s sword dance that was filled with Annihilation energy.

The elders’ counterattack got blocked by a dark blue barrier and therefore dealt no damage. They were hoping to at least take Grid down with them, but no such thing was possible.

It didn’t take long for the six Absolutes to be wiped out while Grid didn’t have a single scratch.

“Bah.”

Grid snorted and flew toward the next Full Moon Fortress.

At the same time, the great elder was sitting in a quiet hall. He sensed the death of the elders and slowly stood up.

“...That person is running rampant.”

The real battle in the West Continent was about to begin as well.