Virtual Martial Arts Tower, Thirteenth Floor.
This was a fighting ring, over ten meters in length and width. In the center stood a burly, bare-chested man, glaring at him with a hostile expression.
The man was over two meters tall, looking like a giant, and standing before him gave off a suffocating sense of pressure.
"Kid, are you my opponent in UFC?" the giant looked down at Feng Lin, speaking in a deep, rumbling voice.
UFC?
Ultimate Fighting Championship!
This was a mixed martial arts competition originating from ancient Earth, which had become even more popular in the interstellar era. Its rule was that there were no rules—as long as no weapons were used, any technique was allowed: Sanda, Muay Thai, Karate, genetic martial arts...
This was true unrestricted free fighting, highly sought after by fighting enthusiasts across the stars.
The Virtual Martial Arts Tower sure knew how to play!
Feng Lin mused, while also wondering why the tower consumed so much energy to construct so many different fighting scenarios.
To let people experience various styles of martial combat—there had to be a deeper purpose behind it.
The vague understanding in Feng Lin's mind gradually became clearer, but it was still shrouded in a thin mist, impossible to see through or guess.
After racking his brains for a long time with no clue, he didn't dwell on it too much.
Since he couldn't figure it out, he wouldn't force it.
This insight came from battle, so he would return to battle.
If he couldn't understand, it meant he hadn't fought enough.
Feng Lin ignited his fighting spirit and threw himself back into combat.
Lion Fist!
This opponent was a UFC fighter, massive in build, with disheveled hair, like a humanoid ferocious lion. The fist technique he used was also extremely savage and violent, exuding a brutal aura that seized the mind.
Feng Lin had never heard of this fist technique, but he clearly felt as if he were facing the king of the forest, an uncontrollable fear rising within him, making him hesitant and unable to fully execute his martial arts.
With his mind constrained, Feng Lin couldn't let loose, and his techniques failed to unleash their power.
The opponent's attacks came like a tide, fierce and relentless.
After exchanging a few blows, Feng Lin suffered losses and quickly pulled back to create distance.
Leverage the advantage of speed!
Feng Lin thought, repeating his tactic. His entire body began to move rapidly, leaving behind a trail of afterimages.
Eight Trigram Palm!
Eight Trigram Palm, also known as Wandering Eight Trigram Palm or Eight Trigram Linking Palm, was an ancient Chinese martial art focused on palm technique changes and footwork circling. It emphasized a body like a swimming dragon, a waist like an axis, avoiding the heavy and striking the light, attacking where least expected.
Feng Lin stepped in the Eight Trigram pattern, continuously circling like a whirlwind around his opponent.
Though the opponent's techniques were fierce, his speed was noticeably slow. Feng Lin avoided his sharp edge, forming his palm into a blade and striking at vital points.
Feng Lin's life force was already superior to his opponent's, and with a strategy in place, he completely reversed the situation.
He was like a masterful tamer toying with a fierce, savage lion.
The king of the forest seemed ferocious, ready to devour, but under superior skill, it was just flailing its claws and fangs, utterly useless and harmless.
"Coward, are you just going to run? Fight me head-on if you dare!" the giant roared in fury, his reaction startlingly real, like a living person.
Fight head-on?
That was a joke!
Feng Lin's eyes remained calm as ever, not provoked into recklessness.
When he already held a massive advantage, abandoning his strengths for weaknesses—wasn't that foolish?
Feng Lin was clearly not foolish. He exploited his speed advantage, keeping his opponent under his control, and finally seized the right moment with a cunning "Hidden Flower Under Leaf" strike, blasting him into dust.
Gene Potential +20%.
This time, fighting on the move without direct confrontation was relatively easy, yielding little potential.
Feng Lin felt he was gradually finding the most reasonable and suitable fighting style for himself, and each subsequent battle became easier.
The guardian of the fourteenth floor was a beautiful woman in black, hidden in the shadows, hard to guard against. She excelled in Tang Sect hidden weapons, staying in the dark and launching them from a distance.
The hidden weapons were as dense as a net, leaving no room to dodge.
But relying on his swift and agile speed, Feng Lin still managed to evade and find a way out.
Then, without showing mercy because his opponent was a woman, he ruthlessly eliminated her.
Gene Potential +18%.
The genetic martial art rewarded on this floor was the Butterfly Through Flowers Hand, requiring the awakening of the "Precision Gene" to precisely control the power and accuracy of each hidden weapon, maximizing its effectiveness.
Feng Lin obviously didn't have this gene, so he couldn't learn it.
The biggest difference between genetic martial arts and ancient martial arts was that one needed the corresponding gene to learn them.
Feng Lin could only leave regretfully and continue climbing the tower.
Virtual Martial Arts Tower, Fifteenth Floor. This time, the guardian was a master of the long spear.
Years for the saber, months for the staff, a lifetime for the spear.
The long spear was the king of cold weapons, the hardest to master, but once mastered, its power was immense.
The guardian's spear thrusts were lethal, like mercury pouring to the ground, leaving no gaps. The spear blade spun, stirring up gusts of wind, forming shapes like pear blossoms, razor-sharp.
Spear light pierced through the air, leaving marks on the surrounding walls.
Unable to face it head-on unarmed, Feng Lin quickly circled, and after a hundred exchanges, finally found an opening, seized the weapon, and destroyed him.
Gene Potential +21%.
This time, the genetic martial art Storm Pear Blossom Spear required awakening the "Storm Gene" to control wind force, which Feng Lin obviously didn't have, so he had to reluctantly give up.
On the fourteenth and fifteenth floors, the opponents' life force was already close to his.
But the anticipated tough battles didn't happen; Feng Lin won them all easily.
After several fights, he finally figured out his own fighting style.
In any battle, there was no great secret—just four words: play to your strengths.
Use your strengths to attack the opponent's weaknesses, and naturally, you would be invincible and unstoppable.
Feng Lin realized that because he hadn't systematically studied martial arts before, his grasp of techniques was his flaw, while his strength was speed.
Yes, speed!
In all martial arts under heaven, nothing is unbreakable except speed.
Maximizing speed was his way.
Perhaps this was the Virtual Martial Arts Tower's greatest purpose: to have people constantly spar with virtual martial arts masters to find their own optimal fighting style.
After several tough battles, the martial experience Feng Lin gained finally crystallized into his unique insight, giving him his own martial philosophy.
People have three views: worldview, values, and life outlook.
Cultivators also have a martial philosophy—a comprehensive understanding of martial arts and their own strength, requiring heartfelt comprehension. In cultivation, this is called the martial heart, or simply "martial mind."
A cultivator without a martial mind was like a silver spear with a wax tip—looks good but useless.
Possessing life force without combat power.
Feng Lin's smile grew more confident as he continuously harvested gene potential.
His potential rose to 192%, on the verge of gaining two more gene points.
Feng Lin climbed the tower again, this time to the sixteenth floor.
He didn't know that his record on the school's optical computer showed a life force of 1.5, reaching the sixteenth floor of the Virtual Martial Arts Tower, where the opponent's life force was 1.6. This was entirely a cross-tier battle.
His martial arts skill was no longer a weakness!
Feng Lin was excited, unaware that his astonishing cross-tier performance was being fully recorded by the tower's optical computer, drawing the attention of all the school's teachers and even the principal.