1187 Skill Improvement

The Iron Fist Punch skill was a Heaven grade skill, which in the last decade Alex had managed to improve to the Immortal grade. Doing so, the technique's strength had improved by a tiny amount, enough to be noticeable. However, in the last hour, Alex had used his new Dao to improve the technique even further, finding better ways to use it.

He spent the last few hours looking into himself to see the movement of his Qi. The improvement itself came surprisingly easy to him now. He knew what sort of path his skills needed to take to be improved. In addition, the world helped him follow the right path too, by aiding him in the movement of Qi through his body.

That way, Alex had been able to improve his technique very quickly, compared to taking months at a time before.

He used the new technique finally and was surprised to find that it did not improve as well as he would've hoped it to.

He was disappointed by the fact that his skill had actually not improved much at all. The improvement was so small that it wouldn't have mattered had he not improved it in the first place.

The worse part of it all was that Alex knew that this was the best he could do. This was the best the world could do for him. For the Iron Fist Punch, this was the best technique could be.

Alex was disappointed at first, but the disappointment slowly faded away as he understood the truth.

Skills couldn't be infinitely improved. They could be degraded to the point where they were pretty much useless, but when it came to improving, there was a steep plateau the skills hit once they became sufficiently improved.

The strength of a skill depended primarily on 3 different things.

The first one was the quality of Qi used to use the skill. This was perhaps the most important aspect of skill as even the trashiest of trash skills could do something good if used with a sufficiently strong Qi.

The second was the amount of Qi. This wasn't as important as after a certain amount of Qi, the skill didn't become any stronger at all.

Finally, it was the efficiency of the pathway for the technique. The more efficient the pathway was, the better it was for the technique. Efficient didn't necessarily mean the fastest way, just the one where the Qi lost the least strength while flowing out.

There was a limit to how efficient something could be after reaching the peak.

That was what had happened to his Iron Fist Punch. After upgrading it to just past Immortal grade, it had become the most efficient it had been and could no longer be improved.

If he really wanted to improve this technique in any way, the only method he had was the change the technique entirely, and that was not what he wanted to do at all.

"I will have to see what I can improve and how much," he thought. "I really might have to change the techniques to do entirely different things if I want them to become stronger."

Fortunately, Dao of Technique aided him in that as well. Even without trying it out, Alex knew that by using this new Dao he could change the techniques in any way he wanted.

Although, he wasn't certain if he could do it in a short amount of time at all. He would have to experiment some more.

"What should I improve next? Maybe the Palm of the S—" Alex stopped speaking as his head turned in a certain direction. "What was that?"

He felt a fluctuation in space that caught his attention. He couldn't tell if the fluctuations were strong and far away, or moderate but very close.

His spiritual sense rolled in that direction, pushing to the best it could, but he couldn't see anything. His spiritual sense couldn't even cross halfway through the dome, and the fluctuations definitely came from beyond it.

"Linlin, something is happening on the other side of the Dome. Can you take an elder and go immediately?" he asked the girl that was waiting on him in the garden.

"Yes, your Majesty," Linlin obeyed immediately.

Alex went back to the palace as he didn't feel like working on his techniques at the moment. He wanted to first know that everything was alright before trying it all out.

Besides, it was already late in the afternoon, so he couldn't just sit around doing nothing. He went to the throne room and waited for more information to come in.

He waited a few minutes before someone rushed in.

"Linlin, what's going on?" he asked.

"Your majesty, so-someone came to the capital through the Teleportation formation," the girl said.

"What's so surprising about that? Everyone comes in through the teleportation formations," Alex said.

"No no no no no," the girl quickly shook her head. "The big one. The one nobody uses."

Alex's eyes narrowed as he realized what she was talking about. "The Intercontinental Teleportation formation?" Alex asked as he quickly stood up.

Linlin nodded aggressively. "Someone came through that," she said. "She says… she says she wants to speak with her Majesty."

"Scarlet? Why? Did you ask?" Alex questioned.

Linlin shook her head. "She won't tell us at all," she said. "The elders are very suspicious of her so they are holding her for now."

Alex frowned a little. "Where did she come from? Did the Dragon emperor send her by any chance?" he asked.

"That… that's the suspicious part, your Majesty," Linlin said while holding a confused look on her face. "She says she's from the Central continent."

"The Central continent?" Alex felt his heart beat faster when he thought of the possibility. He rushed out of the palace before Linlin could even answer him and flew in the direction of the formations.

He flew over the dome and very quickly saw the 10 elders flying toward him while surrounding a single person in the middle.

Alex saw the girl they were keeping. She was tall and slender and wore a jade-green robe. Her silky black hair flowed in the wind. As for her face, it held a frown on it.

Alex looked at the face and realized it was the same.

He flew quickly and soon enough the elders noticed. They all stopped and greeted him as he appeared. The girl's eyes perked up a little when she heard them greet Alex as 'his Majesty'.

Alex arrived in front of them, but he didn't greet the elders back at all. His focus right now was on the girl in front of him. The girl he had seen such a long time ago. The girl who he had waited to see once again in many years.

The girl whose face he so clearly remembered.

"Sister Hao Ya, it's you, right?" Alex asked.

The girl's face went through many different emotions and she couldn't believe someone actually recognized her. "How do you know who I am?" the girl asked while looking closely at Alex. She felt she had seen him before somewhere.

"It's you!" she shouted. "You're the one that broke the game, aren't you?"