After leaving, Ed had found a place to sit and cultivate. He had found an uninhabited cave and sat down in lotus fashion. As far as he was concerned, he needed to find out better ways to fight. He was sure that the boy that had escaped would send back some elders of his sect or clan. These were people he could not fight at the moment. He needed more strength or techniques.

He sat and took out the fruits from his bag. He wondered how he was supposed to absorb this. There were many ways to absorb energy from fruits such as his, but he wondered what the best way to get the maximum result was.

He reached out at the Etheric energy with his own energy to see what would happen. Then, he felt a rush of Etheric energy fill him. He had split attention, allowing him to split contemplate. This helped him to be cultivating as he walked. If others cultivated every moment as he did, they would have levelled up faster than he. But his body was like a hollow space, sucking all the energy from the surroundings and disappearing like nothing.

The Etheric energy that filled him this time was much more significant than any other time. He felt a significant increase in his energy. Tiny, but significant. He went ahead and absorbed the other fruits. By the time he was done, he had significantly grown in cultivation.

He took this time to look back into the technique the old pervert had given him. All he saw were the same images. He wondered if he would ever understand how to use this technique. Contemplation techniques were great because they could increase the rate a person absorbs the energy around him. This would increase his absorption rate significantly, maybe to a point where he can absorb more energy in a day than he does in a month. That would be a miracle. But now, it was only a dream.

He decided to concentrate on other things. The fight he just had did great for his experience. He hoped to class more with those in his generation. This would do great for his fighting experience. Since he could not contemplate higher than he usually does, he might as well learn a martial skill.

He remembered his spirit-picking. Spirit-picking was really important for every cultivator. This was the time they leaned towards a particular energy. The properties of their powers and abilities are, after all, connected to the kind of energy they can feel and cultivate.

The picking of stars was also the picking of abilities. Some people would lean towards swords, others, alchemy, weapons refining, axe-wielding, spears and so on. During his own spirit picking, he did not pick out one star. Instead, all the stars hanging in his well of consciousness were all sucked into his core. Did this mean he could practise any skill? He wondered.

He took out the spatial rings he had gotten from the bodies of those he had killed and looked into them one by one. Today, he had used a sword. Does he continue on this path? He noticed a sword skill inside the spatial ring of the leader. The name was eye-catching; Slicing the sky, cutting the earth. He picked up this skill and stared at it for a while. After making up his mind, he started reading the jade slip.

Inside, he learnt a lot about the creator of the technique. He was a hermit on a mountain trying to understand the way of the sword. He watched the hermit display the skill over and over again. Getting up, he followed the moves. After an hour he had mastered the first level.

If those at the Tze sect knew of this, they would have vomited blood. To Ed, these were just basic moves. He practised the second and third levels before he stopped. He did not stop because he could no more go on; he just stopped because there were no more levels. He was happy with the technique. He just needed people to try it out on.

Taking another look at the spatial rings he found the speed technique that the female disciple had used. Shifting space. The words brought thoughts to his head. Was this a spatial technique? He looked into the jade slip and started to read.

Oh, so that's what really happened. When he had seen her move, he thought it looked like the blink technique, but now discovered it was not. The blink technique is also a spatial technique. But this was an ability every soul awakening master had. It was part of entering the soul awakening stage. The ability to move through space. Just like the soul realisation masters could fly when they reached that stage.