186: To ponder, to guide, to point out, to comprehend

The Cultivation of Phantom Step is very unique.

It not only requires the body to flicker but also requires imprinting footprints on the ground.

Shen Bei used chalk to sketch all the footprints from the Martial Skill book onto the ground.

Looking at them, there was more than one set of footprints, they seemed chaotic, yet they also felt as if they contained some kind of pattern.

Shen Bei stood at the starting point, or what he considered the starting point.

The actual starting point was not marked in the book.

Shen Bei stared at the footprints, pondering for a long time, but couldn't discern any pattern.

Instead, the more he looked, the blurrier his vision became.

The footprints seemed to come alive, moving and jumping on their own.

Shen Bei shook his head, muttering to himself, "Let's try it first."

At that moment, Shen Bei activated the sixth Move of Seven Stars Fist, causing his figure to flicker like a star.

He tentatively lifted his foot, stepping into a footprint, then walked from back to front, each step landing within a footprint, but there was no reaction.

Again, there were over ten footprints, perhaps they were the way to walk the Phantom Step. There were many possibilities to verify it repeatedly.

Shen Bei continued to try, and three full days passed without him achieving any effect.

It was no different from normal walking.

There was no reverse effect at all.

"That's strange…"

Shen Bei munched on bread, sipped some milk, and paced around the footprints, "Where exactly is the problem? Could it be that even if my body can flicker, this Phantom Step cannot be Cultivated?"

"Is it really a dead Martial Skill?"

At this moment, Shen Bei couldn't help but doubt his life.

He quickly finished his meal, filling his stomach.

Shen Bei was about to continue Cultivating, trying step by step to find the error.

A knock came from the door.

Shen Bei temporarily gave up on Cultivating, walked out of the basement, and saw Professor Gu Xinrou after opening the door.

Today, she was wearing a plain white long-sleeved shirt, cream-colored high heels, and impeccably tailored black ankle-length pants.

With her casual gold-rimmed glasses, she looked every bit the sophisticated city woman.

Shen Bei scrutinized her, then asked strangely, "Teacher, are you planning to quit and become a white-collar worker?"

Professor Gu Xinrou tossed her hair, her eyelashes long and curved, her eyes like autumn water. When she spoke, her fragrant breath wafted onto Shen Bei's face, "Stop joking around. I'm going to Provincial Capital Martial Arts University, so I came to inform you that there will be no classes these next few days."

Shen Bei:…

That was completely useless information.

When had he ever attended class?

To put it bluntly, no Martial Arts University in the country could find a student as low-maintenance as him, right?

Getting paid for nothing, and still having achievements. Good for you.

"What have you been doing these past few days?" Professor Gu Xinrou asked, blinking.

Shen Bei shrugged, "Cultivating Martial Skills, but I can't figure it out."

Upon hearing this, Professor Gu Xinrou's smile slowly faded. Her lips tightened, revealing an air of arrogance. She pushed Shen Bei aside and walked directly to the basement, "I'm your teacher! If you don't understand something, you should come to me directly!"

Shen Bei followed behind, returning to the basement, and said, "I'm afraid you won't understand either."

Professor Gu Xinrou tilted her head slightly, adjusted her glasses, and said with a defiant look, "Who are you looking down on? What Martial Skill is it? Let me see."

Shen Bei pointed to the footprints on the ground and brought over the Phantom Step Martial Skill, "It's this one. I won it from my fight with Cha Xiaodao last time."

Professor Gu Xinrou snatched the Martial Skill book, opened it, and took a look.

Her brows immediately furrowed, and she threw it back into Shen Bei's arms, saying bluntly, "Didn't you read the instructions? The prerequisite for Cultivating Phantom Step is that your body can flicker. This is a dead Martial Skill, a waste of time—"

Professor Gu Xinrou hadn't finished speaking.

Her eyeballs suddenly widened.

But she saw.

Shen Bei's figure flickering in place like a slide show.

As if a projector was constantly turning on and off.

"You… you…"

Professor Gu Xinrou involuntarily took a few steps back, her face filled with an expression of horror, her cheeks twitching slightly.

Her eyes suddenly widened, the wrinkles around them instantly smoothed out, and her mouth suddenly opened in a lion's roar, "How can you… ah!"

Shen Bei spread his hands, "And then what?"

Professor Gu Xinrou's eyes looked as if she wanted to tear Shen Bei apart, wishing she could open his stomach and see clearly.

She took a deep breath, slightly moved, and without concealing it, said directly, "I, I'll study it further."

Professor Gu Xinrou didn't ask Shen Bei why his body could flicker.

It was pointless to ask.

Shen Bei would surely have a hundred excuses and ten thousand lies waiting for her.

She was certainly shocked.

Professor Gu Xinrou re-adjusted her attitude and began to meticulously study the Phantom Step.

There wasn't much explanation on how to Cultivate Phantom Step.

Aside from describing the prerequisites, there were no other textual explanations.

This could only mean one thing: no Martial Artist had ever successfully Cultivated this Martial Skill to date.

Otherwise, a Martial Artist would surely have left their insights on it for future generations to admire and revere.

Some Martial Artists sought fame, some sought profit, and some sought power.

In short, no matter what the purpose of becoming a Martial Artist, once a new Martial Skill emerged, they would eagerly desire to be remembered in history and praised for generations.

While Professor Gu Xinrou was studying, Shen Bei asked from the side, "Teacher, is the origin of our human Martial Skills based on observing the Martial Skills of the Alien Leader from the crypts?"

Professor Gu Xinrou paused, slowly raising her head, "You went to the crypts, it seems you've started using your brain."

Shen Bei:…

Professor Gu Xinrou lowered her head again, continuing to flip through the Martial Skill book, and said, "You're right. Since the crypts appeared, hot weapons became ineffective inside, and all humans could do was integrate into it."

"Integrate into it?"

"Yes, initially, humans even wanted to coexist peacefully with the Otherworlders, just like in science fiction novels, treating aliens."

Professor Gu Xinrou's tone was calm as she continued, "But the reality is, there's no communication. Human flesh and blood have extraordinary enhancing effects and uses for Otherworlders. In other words, humans are the perfect food for Otherworlders."

"Under such an adversarial stance, humans can only leverage one advantage."

Professor Gu Xinrou pointed to her head, "Wisdom."

"If we couldn't defeat them, we would secretly learn, we would observe. We would directly take the Otherworlder's powerful Moves, refine them, adapt them to the human body, and after paying a heavy price, we gradually established the Martial Artist system."

"In this process, with the development of technology, four-dimensional attributes became detectable, Martial Skills became more and more numerous, and Seniors paved the way, allowing us, the later generations, to go further."

After hearing this, Shen Bei nodded.

When he encountered the Alien Leader in the crypt, his Moves were similar to Li Quanyou's.

It seemed his guess was very similar; Martial Skills indeed came from the crypts.

About two hours later, Professor Gu Xinrou began to observe the footprints on the ground.

She asked, "How did you Cultivate?"

Shen Bei demonstrated it once.

"I tried to find the starting point and find a pattern within these footprints."

This was what Shen Bei had been doing these past few days.

But there was no effect whatsoever.

Shen Bei suspected that he hadn't found the starting point, or rather, he had found the correct starting point, but took the wrong second step.

Professor Gu Xinrou, however, shook her head, "Your approach is wrong. The Martial Skill states that Phantom Step is actually about doing the opposite. It looks like you're walking forward, but you're actually walking backward."

"Therefore, what you should be looking for is not the starting point."

Shen Bei tilted his head, genuinely asking, "Then what should I be looking for?"

Professor Gu Xinrou looked carefully, then marked a sequence for Shen Bei, and finally said, "Although this Phantom Step is a footwork Martial Skill, it relies on understanding, not on the sequence of steps. Otherwise, you would have learned it long ago."

"Come, step backward."

Professor Gu Xinrou instructed.

"Step backward?"

Shen Bei was a little confused.

According to Professor Gu Xinrou, that meant his heel would be facing the front of the footprint on the ground.

Shen Bei, with some confusion, tried the Cultivation method Professor Gu Xinrou suggested.

After more than ten minutes.

Shen Bei stepped forward, not in the usual direction, but backward.

Suddenly, he moved forward while seemingly retreating, distorting the Void Realm.

When all the steps were completed, the air around Shen Bei briefly became disoriented. Although it was only for a moment, it encouraged him, showing him that he could Cultivate it.

"It really is… stepping backward!"

Shen Bei couldn't help but exclaim.

Thinking of this, Shen Bei was excited. He had originally lacked a footwork Martial Skill to confuse enemies, and Phantom Step was perfect!

In Professor Gu Xinrou's eyes, although Shen Bei's Phantom Step had only been activated once.

He had only taken one step.

But within Shen Bei's strange leg movements, it looked like he was walking backward, yet his body moved forward, creating ripples in the Void Realm, giving a reverse illusion that made Professor Gu Xinrou extremely uncomfortable to watch.

"Hiss~~~"

Professor Gu Xinrou was utterly shocked. Although she had some understanding of this Martial Skill, when Shen Bei truly made progress, she was completely stunned.

"If this Martial Skill reaches Major Achievement, it truly distorts space-time…" Professor Gu Xinrou couldn't help but exclaim.

Shen Bei, however, admitted, "It's still far off. I just took one step; there are still many footprints left to walk."

Professor Gu Xinrou nodded, "The rest is up to you. You'll need to fully walk the Phantom Step and explore it little by little."

"Thank you for your guidance, Teacher!" Shen Bei straightened his back.

If not for Professor Gu Xinrou's sudden arrival, Shen Bei wouldn't know how long he would have had to fumble around.

Professor Gu Xinrou waved her hand and turned to leave, "Nonsense, I am a teacher!"

"Wait—"

Just then, Shen Bei suddenly remembered an incredibly important matter.

If he could explore Phantom Step over time and perhaps accidentally succeed in Cultivating it.

But this matter, without Teacher Professor Gu Xinrou, truly couldn't be done…