Faint moonlight enveloped the vast land, like a delicate, ethereal veil.
Within the dark space, Lin Dong's figure reappeared. As he manifested, two streaks of light followed closely, representing the Tongbei Fist and Eight Desolations Palm, both of which he had personally performed.
This time, however, Lin Dong's gaze wasn't on those two streaks of light. Instead, he stared intently at the second streak, his expression extremely tense.
Earlier that afternoon, he had flipped through the entire Qi Men Seal scroll. But just as Lin He had said, it was merely an incomplete scroll. To cultivate such a seemingly complex and restrictive technique was indeed exceedingly difficult.
Therefore, he had studied and practiced it that afternoon, but the results were minimal. It wasn't like the other martial arts Lin Dong had encountered, such as Tongbei Fist or Eight Desolations Palm, which were all fixed techniques. The Qi Men Seal was different; it required the use of Seal Arts to activate it, drawing out the Yuan Power within the body. When Yuan Power was combined with the Seal Art, it could unleash extremely powerful force.
Although he had only quickly glanced through it, Lin Dong could still sense that this incomplete Seal Art was not entirely complete. This was probably the main reason why Lin Xiao and Lin Zhengtian, despite successfully cultivating it, later gave up. Without a complete Seal Art, the Qi Men Seal could not unleash its true power.
But even if the Seal Art was incomplete in its later parts, he had to rely on the Stone Talisman's light image to see if it could perfect this remnant scroll somewhat...
As Lin Dong watched anxiously, the second streak of light in the dark space remained silent for a moment. Finally, it rippled and floated for a while, once again forming a streak of light.
Seeing the light image take shape, Lin Dong couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
The light image's hands were clasped together, forming a complex hand seal.
"It is indeed the Qi Men Seal – Heaven-Opening Seal Art."
Lin Dong's gaze grew fervent at this moment, staring unblinkingly at the light image.
After the light image performed the first hand seal, it continued to transform five more times in succession. Each seal art was relatively complex, but having prepared in the afternoon, Lin Dong could still barely follow their rhythm.
And when the light image's hand seal transformed for the seventh time, Lin Dong suddenly muttered, "This Seal Art is incomplete; it simply stops here, completely absent. That's why it was said that the latter part of this Seal Art was a remnant scroll, not recorded..."
And as Lin Dong watched with eager and anxious eyes, the light image, which had been transforming the Seal Art as smoothly as flowing water and drifting clouds, suddenly paused slightly. Fortunately, this pause only lasted for a breath, and the Seal Art in the light image's hands immediately continued to transform!
"Success!"
Looking at the Seal Art in the light image's hands, which was clearly very unfamiliar yet seemed extremely fitting, Lin Dong almost couldn't help but jump up, his face filled with intense excitement and elation.
Originally, the martial art was incomplete, but under the strange ability of the Stone Talisman's light image, it had been repaired and perfected!
"It actually can..."
Lin Dong was agitated for a long while before slowly regaining his composure. He then looked towards the light projection of the Stone Talisman, and his expression changed drastically. He had discovered that the light projection now seemed much dimmer, and even the speed at which it transformed the hand seals was gradually becoming indistinct, with delays beginning to appear.
"What's going on?" Lin Dong was greatly alarmed. This was the first time he had witnessed such a situation since obtaining the Stone Talisman.
As Lin Dong's expression turned somewhat grim, the speed at which the light projection transformed the hand seals grew slower and slower. Then, it abruptly stopped. However, judging by the final hand seal, it was clearly not the last step of the Mysterious Gate Seal.
"Could it be that even the Stone Talisman's light projection can't fully complete the Mysterious Gate Seal?"
Lin Dong frowned deeply, clearly a little bewildered. Why was the Stone Talisman's light projection fine just a moment ago, but now it suddenly couldn't complete the technique?
The Stone Talisman's light projection stopped perfecting the technique, then paused, only to start demonstrating the Mysterious Gate Seal from the beginning again. However, what frustrated Lin Dong was that this demonstration still stopped at the exact same point as before...
This repeated several times, but there was still no change...
Lin Dong stared blankly at the Stone Talisman's light projection. After a long while, he finally let out a helpless sigh, scoffing at himself, "Forget it. It's good enough that it's been perfected. At least it's more complete than what was recorded on the damaged scroll."
As he spoke, Lin Dong extended his hands and subtly formed the hand seals according to the slightly perfected technique demonstrated by the light projection...
Thus, his cultivation continued for a long while. Lin Dong had just lowered his hands and let out a deep breath. Although those hand seals were complex, under the perfect guidance of the Stone Talisman's light projection, memorizing them wasn't too difficult. Of course, while memorizing them wasn't hard, executing them would not be so easy.
"According to this damaged scroll, the Mysterious Gate Seal is divided into Four Stages, but the scroll only recorded the hand seals for the First Stage. If I'm not mistaken, the hand seals that the Stone Talisman's light projection perfected earlier must be the Mysterious Gate Seal's Second Stage. But I don't know why it couldn't fully perfect the Third and Fourth Stages. Could it be because they are too difficult?"
Lin Dong's eyes flickered. In the end, he could only shake his head and sigh, "Two stages it is, then. With my current strength, successfully cultivating even the First Stage of the Mysterious Gate Seal would already be quite impressive."
Comforting himself thus, Lin Dong, with a hint of regret, exited this dark mental space.
***
On the bed in the room, Lin Dong's tightly shut eyes slowly opened. He vigorously jumped off the bed, then drew in a breath and sucked in his abdomen. His hands then somewhat awkwardly began to form the slightly complex hand seals.
As the hand seals were slowly completed, step by step, a faint ripple of nascent Yuan Power suddenly emanated from within Lin Dong's meridians. However, this ripple was very small, flashing once before disappearing completely.
As these fluctuations vanished, Lin Dong also helplessly shook his head. Although he had memorized the Seal Art, achieving seamless coordination between his Yuan Power and the Seal Art would still require a considerable amount of practice. After all, the first stage of the Qi Men Seal was already considered a Third-grade Martial Art.
“The first stage of the Qi Men Seal is equivalent to a Third-grade Martial Art. If one were to cultivate the second stage... then it could be comparable to a Fourth-grade Martial Art, or even stand at the pinnacle of Third-grade Martial Arts.”
At this thought, the vexation in Lin Dong's heart greatly diminished. He lightly exhaled, then reached out and took out the Stone Talisman. But as his gaze swept over it, his expression suddenly changed drastically.
“What's going on here...?”
Currently, the Stone Talisman looked somewhat dull. The gentle, cool, jade-like sensation it originally possessed had largely dissipated, and even the dense, strange symbols carved upon it had faded considerably.
Right now, the Stone Talisman looked no different from an ordinary rock.
This appearance suggested it had lost its sustaining power, rendering the Stone Talisman utterly ordinary.
“Energy depletion?”
A flash of insight appeared in his mind, instantly dispelling the confusion in his heart. Only now did he suddenly realize why the Stone Talisman's light projection had only completed half of the technique just now, and then automatically stopped.
For the Stone Talisman to perfect martial arts, it likely also required energy to sustain itself. And after perfecting the Tongbei Fist, Eight Desolations Palm, and the Qi Men Seal just now, all the energy within the Stone Talisman had been almost completely depleted!
“That must be it...”
In the room, Lin Dong wiped the sweat from his forehead. Now that he knew where the problem lay, finding a way to thoroughly resolve the Stone Talisman's issue was of utmost importance to him. No matter what, he couldn't allow any unexpected problems to occur.