Top-Tier Perception Starts From Basic Fist Techniques

Lu Changsheng's heart tightened. Void Devils were formless and invisible, making them almost impossible to detect. He had sensed no trace of this one, yet it had already burrowed into his mind.

Most Divine Ability martial artists, even Martial Venerables, could do little more than rely on their mental strength to resist this sort of attack. Lu Changsheng, however, had no intention of merely defending himself. His mental strength far surpassed that of an ordinary martial artist, and the Void Devil inside his mind posed little threat to him. With the Heart Pagoda protecting his mind as well, fighting back was well within his power.

Mental Black Hole!

With a shift of thought, Lu Changsheng activated the Mental Black Hole. A massive vortex formed within his mind, and instantly enveloped the Void Devil, leaving it nowhere to flee.

As the Mental Black Hole began to devour it, the formless and invisible creature could only let out a series of piercing screams. Then, it was gone, annihilated on the spot, reduced to ashes.

Had Lu Changsheng not felt its presence so clearly, he might have mistaken the entire encounter for an illusion. But he knew better. He had recognized the Void Devil and eliminated it accordingly with his own divine ability.

Void Devils truly are troublesome. Most martial artists can only resist them passively unless they possess a mental-type divine ability capable of attacking them directly. Good thing I have the Mental Black Hole, so no matter how strong a Void Devil is, they can't do anything to me. And if I'm not afraid of them, Void Spirit Mountain will be safe enough.

Relieved, Lu Changsheng resumed his search and carefully examined the surrounding area.

Just like that, three days quickly passed by. During that time, Lu Changsheng had encountered six Void Devils, basically two a day. Those encounters made him realize why Core Dissolution Liquid was such a valuable treasure.

Given how often Void Devils showed up on Void Spirit Mountain, most martial artists would be dead long before they ever laid eyes on a single drop. Even those strong enough to initially resist the devils could not hold out endlessly. Unless someone was either completely unafraid of Void Devils or extraordinarily fortunate, finding Core Dissolution Liquid was exceedingly difficult.

Since Lu Changsheng did not feel threatened by the Void Devils, for three straight days, he combed every corner of Void Spirit Mountain in search of Core Dissolution Liquid. And finally, his efforts finally paid off when he sensed the distinctive aura of Core Dissolution Liquid.

Core Dissolution Liquid!

Following the trace of aura, Lu Changsheng arrived at a mountain stream and finally spotted three drops of the liquid that were slowly being condensed by the surrounding mist.

Core Dissolution Liquid was one of Void Spirit Mountain's unique natural treasures. Although it could occasionally form elsewhere, the mountain's unusual environment allowed it to appear in greater quantities. Even here, however, finding it required both patience and luck. The liquid had to be collected during the brief period in which it was condensing.

Once a completed droplet fell to the ground, it would immediately seep into the earth and become impossible to recover. Its energy would then circulate through the mountain before eventually condensing again somewhere else.

That was the true reason Core Dissolution Liquid was so prized. A martial artist not only had to discover the precise place where it was forming, but also arrive at exactly the right time and wait for it to finish condensing.

Lu Changsheng waited an entire day for the three drops of Core Dissolution Liquid to finish condensing. And once they had fully formed, he carefully collected them in a porcelain bottle.

Three drops of Core Dissolution Liquid... that's fifteen thousand spirit stones, which can get me fifteen drops of Heavenly Spirit Water!

Lu Changsheng was thoroughly pleased. Finding these three drops had not been easy, and had largely been a matter of luck. He had already spent four days on Void Spirit Mountain, and these three drops were all he had managed to gather. At this rate, he might only be able to scrape together ten or twenty drops by the end of this expedition—and that was only if fortune kept smiling at him.

Most martial artists who entered Void Spirit Mountain during these same few days had probably walked away with nothing at all. Unlike Lu Changsheng, they also had to remain constantly vigilant, knowing that a single encounter with a Void Devil could prove fatal.

After putting away the bottle, Lu Changsheng prepared to resume his search. Before he could leave the mountain stream, however, his mind suddenly went blank. Something had invaded his mind again, causing the Heart Pagoda to erupt with brilliant light.

A Void Devil again! No, wait, there's more than one... Lu Changsheng quickly regained his focus and sensed three shadowy presences in his mind.

Encountering three Void Devils at once would have been disastrous for almost any other martial artist—but not for Lu Changsheng.

Mental Black Hole!

Lu Changsheng activated his divine ability without hesitation. The Mental Black Hole devoured all three Void Devils in an instant, reducing them to ash. Their sudden emergence, however, made him reconsider what had happened over the past several days.

Three drops of Core Dissolution Liquid, and now three Void Devils at once. And the closer I got to this spot, the more of them I ran into. Is that a coincidence? Could Void Devils be connected to Core Dissolution Liquid? Perhaps places where they gather are also more likely to produce it.

The theory was certainly plausible, though it seemed like no one had identified such a pattern before. Then again, even if others had noticed it, the knowledge would have been almost useless to them. No martial artist in their right mind would deliberately search for a place teeming with Void Devils.

For Lu Changsheng, however, this was actually an advantage. With the Mental Black Hole and Heart Pagoda, Void Devils posed no threat to him. As long as the Heart Pagoda could detect the devils, he could destroy them with the Mental Black Hole.

So, rather than wandering aimlessly across Void Spirit Mountain and relying entirely on luck, he could use the Void Devils to guide his search. If his theory was correct, tracking areas where they gathered might lead him to far greater quantities of Core Dissolution Liquid.

With this thought, Lu Changsheng changed his strategy and began searching for Void Devils instead. Although they were formless and invisible, their presence became easier to sense as he drew closer. Better yet, he did not always need to find them himself. Once he entered their vicinity, the Void Devils would approach him on their own.

Five hours passed before Lu Changsheng encountered a pair of Void Devils again.

Just two Void Devils here. Could there be more nearby?

He quickly destroyed the two Void Devils, then he remained in the area and searched more carefully. Void Devils were notoriously difficult to detect, but the surrounding region was not particularly large, and a thorough investigation still revealed faint traces of their presence.

There are more Void Devils to the southwest. Three of them, probably.

Lu Changsheng flew southwest at once. Moments later, a familiar sight appeared before him. A vast cloud of mist drifted through the air, slowly converging as it began to condense.

Finally! More Core Dissolution Liquid!

Lu Changsheng's heart leapt with joy. It had only been a few hours since he'd collected those first three drops, and here he was, stumbling onto more. He could hardly believe it. Luck had certainly played a part, but this likely also meant his early suspicion was correct: Void Devils and Core Dissolution Liquid were connected, and areas where the devils gathered were far more likely to contain it.

Maybe Void Devils can sense the liquid forming before anyone else and arrive early to wait it out. Or maybe there's another explanation. Either way, this strategy worked and I'll just go wherever the Void Devils are to find the liquid.

Lu Changsheng was certain that several Void Devils were hiding nearby, though he could detect only the faintest traces of their presence. Unless one had already slipped into someone's mind, there was no sensing it at all.

However, that was not really a problem for Lu Changsheng. If he could not sense them, he would just attack them directly.

Buzz...

Lu Changsheng immediately unleashed the Mental Black Hole. A vast black vortex appeared in the air, blotting out half the sky and turning the surroundings dark. Then, it raged forth without restraint, sweeping the area and devouring the mental strength of anything living within reach.

Lu Changsheng made no attempt to distinguish friend from foe. There were almost no wild beasts on Void Spirit Mountain, and certainly no other people nearby. Anything with a mental presence was therefore almost certain to be a Void Devil, so he simply allowed the Mental Black Hole to consume everything it touched.

As expected, the tactic worked beautifully. Before long, Lu Changsheng could feel the Mental Black Hole swallowing one Void Devil after another.

One, two, three, four, five... Lu Changsheng counted inwardly. Five Void Devils in this area alone. That's an unusually high concentration of Void Devils, which means there must be Core Dissolution Liquid here.

Once he was certain that no Void Devils were left, Lu Changsheng withdrew the Mental Black Hole. Then, he settled down to wait for the Core Dissolution Liquid to finish condensing.

A day later, Lu Changsheng secured another three drops of Core Dissolution Liquid inside his porcelain bottle.

Three more drops of Core Dissolution Liquid. In just a few days, I've already gathered six drops. That's not bad at all.

A wide grin spread across Lu Changsheng's face. He was delighted not only by the amount of Core Dissolution Liquid he had collected, but also by the efficient method he had discovered for obtaining it: hunting down Void Devils. The more Void Devils gathered in one place, the greater his chances of finding a substantial quantity.

Days passed, one after another. And in the blink of an eye, more than ten days had gone by.

One day, as Lu Changsheng was searching for Core Dissolution Liquid, he sensed the fluctuations of a divine ability ahead and immediately went to investigate.

Before long, Lu Changsheng spotted a peak Divine Ability martial artist in the distance, locked in what looked like a fierce battle with a Void Devil. However, since the martial artist's divine ability was not a mental-type one, it almost had no effect against the Void Devil. The only thing keeping him from real danger was a treasure that shielded his mind, and even so, he refused to back off.

Lu Changsheng swept his gaze across the area and realized why the martial artist was stubbornly holding on. A vast cloud of mist was gathering nearby as Core Dissolution Liquid slowly condensed within it. The martial artist was unwilling to abandon such a valuable find, even with a Void Devil attacking him.

Lu Changsheng approached the martial artist, intending to speak up to him, but the martial artist paled the moment he recognized him.

"Venerable Lu!" he gasped.

And before Lu Changsheng could say a word, the martial artist fled without a second thought.

"Uh..."

Lu Changsheng was stunned. The martial artist had taken one look at him and bolted like he had seen the devil, not even sparing a glance for the Core Dissolution Liquid he'd been fighting so hard to protect.

Am I really that scary? Lu Changsheng frowned in confusion. Well... I guess it makes sense. I'm no longer some no-name martial artist.

At the foot of Void Spirit Mountain, countless people had watched him unleash the immeasurable divine ability and suppress the surrounding experts with overwhelming force.

In a place where martial artists often killed one another for Core Dissolution Liquid, the martial artist had naturally assumed that Lu Changsheng intended to seize his find. And knowing he had no hope of resisting, he had chosen to escape while he still could.

That was the kind of fear Lu Changsheng commanded now. Without intending to, he had become a supreme Martial Venerable whose name inspired both awe and fear, causing those who heard it to either bow or flee.

Lu Changsheng glanced at the Core Dissolution Liquid. It still needed more time to form. So, with a wave of his hand, he summoned the Mental Black Hole again and swept the area clean of Void Devils.

Then, after waiting another day, the liquid finally took shape. Only two drops this time, but still nothing to complain about.