The Almighty Martial Arts System - Chapter 227

Jiang Fei had a feeling he was about to get scammed.

The system wouldn’t just hand him such an overpowered internal energy technique for no reason—there had to be a catch.

With a mix of anxiety and suspicion, he reopened his character stats interface, his eyes immediately darting to the martial arts skills section. His previously acquired abilities—Lightfoot Art: Triple Cloud, the incomplete Taiji Fist, Qimen Dunjia, and Dugu Nine Swords—remained unchanged. But now, at the very bottom, a new entry had appeared: the internal energy technique, Beiming Divine Art.

However, the moment he saw the skill point requirement listed beside it, his face twitched.

Beiming Divine Art, Level 0 (?/50)

That’s right. Based on Jiang Fei’s past experience, the first level of Beiming Divine Art should only require 15 skill points—several times fewer than the 50 points needed for Lightfoot Art: Triple Cloud!

This… was definitely not normal!

How was this possible?!

Sure, Beiming Divine Art might not be as ridiculously overpowered in the real world as it was in wuxia novels—after all, without other martial artists to drain for their internal energy, its growth potential would be severely limited.

But Beiming Divine Art wasn’t only about absorbing others’ energy! It could still be cultivated slowly, accumulating power through traditional meditation and training!

Given its nature, even if self-cultivation couldn’t match the sheer dominance of Nine Yang Divine Art, it should still far surpass most second-rate internal energy techniques. It was, without a doubt, a top-tier method.

Take Wuyazi from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils—nowhere in the novel was it mentioned that his immense internal energy came solely from absorbing others. Instead, it was the result of seventy years of dedicated cultivation!

And Wuyazi’s power was legendary, surpassing even that of Tian Shan Tong Lao (who practiced the flawed Eight Desolates, Sole I Supreme Art) and Li Qiushui (who cultivated Lesser Formless Art).

Otherwise, after inheriting Wuyazi’s energy, how could Xuzu have possibly absorbed the combined power of both Tian Shan Tong Lao and Li Qiushui?

Because Beiming Divine Art had a critical weakness:

It was only safe to absorb energy from those weaker than oneself. Attempting to drain someone stronger was a death wish.

And yet, Xuzu managed to absorb both Tian Shan Tong Lao and Li Qiushui simultaneously!

So even if Beiming Divine Art couldn’t be used to steal others’ energy, it was still an incredibly powerful cultivation method.

Yet its first level only required 15 skill points?!

Even if it demanded 500 points like Dugu Nine Swords, Jiang Fei would’ve found that more believable.

This wasn’t about him being ungrateful or preferring difficulty over ease—it was just too illogical!

Something was definitely fishy.

And then there was that question mark in the skill point requirement.

Since he hadn’t allocated any points yet, it should’ve displayed 0. What was the meaning of this “?” nonsense?

Jiang Fei felt like he was being toyed with.

The initial excitement of obtaining Beiming Divine Art had completely evaporated, replaced by a deep sense of frustration.

Was this another incomplete version, like his Taiji Fist—something he could look at but never actually use?

“No way. Absolutely no way!”

After mentally reassuring himself several times, he hesitantly clicked the upgrade button.

What if this was a system glitch? What if he really could max out this legendary technique with just a handful of skill points?

A man had to have dreams—what if one accidentally came true?

Besides, he still had 30 skill points left. Maybe that would be enough to fully upgrade Beiming Divine Art in one go!

But alas, reality was cruel.

“Ding! Beiming Divine Art is a special internal energy technique and cannot be upgraded with skill points!”

A cold, unfeeling notification flashed in his mind.

“Oh, for f—” Jiang Fei nearly exploded with frustration, his face twisting between laughter and tears as a stampede of imaginary alpacas galloped through his heart.

If skill points couldn’t upgrade it, then what could?

Did he have to sit around meditating like some wuxia protagonist, slowly accumulating energy over decades?

You’ve got to be kidding me!

Feeling like the Prince of Melancholy, Jiang Fei opened Beiming Divine Art’s detailed description, hoping for answers.

And what he saw next left him utterly—

“SPARTAAAA!!”

The description read:

“Beiming Divine Art is a unique internal energy technique, fundamentally different from standard martial arts. It cannot be upgraded through conventional skill points and must be cultivated gradually. Advancing to Level 1 requires 15 years of accumulated internal energy.”

“You’ve got to be—”

Jiang Fei was speechless.

So it really was a slow, manual grind!

No skill points. No shortcuts. Just fifteen years to reach Level 1.

Now he understood what the “?/50” meant.

At first, he’d thought 15 was too low—now he realized it was an insurmountable wall.

Fifteen real-world years for a single level! If he wanted to master Beiming Divine Art, he’d need to pull a Wuyazi and train for seventy or eighty years!

In that same time, he could’ve earned thousands of skill points—maybe even tens of thousands!

Sure, his current experience gain was slow, but once his “Jiang Medical Clinic” expanded, leveling up would become trivial.

But this? This was torture.

After an emotional rollercoaster, Jiang Fei finally calmed down and reassessed the situation.

On second thought, the upgrade conditions weren’t entirely unreasonable.

In The Swordsman game, internal energy techniques did require real-time cultivation rather than skill points.

But in-game, one hour of playtime equaled a full day in the virtual world.

So while the game demanded “15 years,” in reality, it’d only take about a year—and with time-acceleration cards, players could cut that down to a month or less.

But in the real world?

Where was Jiang Fei supposed to find time-acceleration cards?!

This was utter nonsense!

The upgrade conditions left him thoroughly depressed. As someone who preferred quick results, the idea of waiting fifteen years for a single level was unbearable. He’d rather have a third-rate—or even useless—technique that could be mastered quickly.

After checking the details, the “?” in the skill requirement changed to 0.0001.

Jiang Fei slumped back in his seat and sighed heavily.

He could feel the universe mocking him.

“At this rate, my internal energy won’t even be noticeable for months. It’ll be a year before I see any real progress.”

The only silver lining was that Beiming Divine Art required its practitioners to start with no pre-existing internal energy. If it had locked him into this slow grind permanently, he would’ve lost it.

For now, he could always switch to a faster internal energy technique later—even if it was something as demanding as Nine Yin or Nine Yang. At least their first levels wouldn’t take fifteen years.

And Nine Yin Manual even had accelerated cultivation methods—far more practical than this.

“I thought I’d unlock godlike power overnight, but instead, I got stuck with this garbage.”

Shaking his head, he closed the skill interface and forced himself to focus on his remaining 2 unassigned attribute points.

At least this was a straightforward power-up.

“Right now, nothing urgently needs boosting, so I’ll just balance things out.”

His weakest stats were Stamina (2.8) and Strength (3.0), so he allocated a point to each.

Now his core attributes looked like this:

• Stamina: 3.8

• Spirit: 3.9

• Agility: 3.8

• Strength: 4.0

Unlike skill points, attribute points didn’t need to be hoarded. With this upgrade, Jiang Fei’s physical capabilities were now nearly four times that of an average adult male!