Chapter 26: Task Reward – Primordial Qi Great Grappling

The Host has completed the regional task: “Night Raid Under Peace” and received the reward. The Host activated the first major task and received the Chapter 1 reward boost. The Host activated the first series task and received the Chapter 1 reward boost. The combined reward is: the cultivation method “Primordial Qi Great Grappling”.

George could hardly believe his eyes. It was really “Primordial Qi Great Grappling”. You see, this legendary supernatural ability had never appeared in any Taoist canon. Even in orthodox Taoist legends, there was no detailed description; it seemed more like a fabrication by later generations combining Buddhist and Taoist ideas. He never expected the System to manifest it as a reward. George carefully read the introduction to this supernatural ability.

“Primordial Qi Great Grappling” is one of the simplest forms of using the practitioner’s own Primordial Qi. Primordial Qi comes from nothingness and is naturally immune to the laws of birth and death in the mundane world. Unlike methods that refine Primordial Qi into special attributes like Separation and Reunion Divine Light, “Primordial Qi Great Grappling” only uses the most basic attribute of Primordial Qi: it is not affected by the usual cycles of Yin and Yang, the Five Elements, or even dark and evil demonic methods. Of course, the problem is that it does not provide corresponding effects to strengthen the user. Its power relies entirely on the user’s own magical power. According to this description, George thought the biggest issue was the amount of consumption. Also, the power is usually proportional to the user’s own strength, so it could be considered a steady and reliable “kingship” ability.

The most basic effect of “Primordial Qi Great Grappling” is that it can be activated instantly by thought, which is much faster than many other cultivation methods. It combines offense and defense and uses the clever interplay of void and reality. It can capture ghosts and spirits in the form of illusory spiritual bodies, or even the Primordial Souls of high-level cultivators. It can even capture and suppress flying swords, magical treasures, and certain spells. From this introduction, its versatility is excellent. It can grab and fight, and crucially, it seems it can also deal with non-corporeal creatures. George wondered if he could turn the next ghost into a ping-pong ball. Just thinking about it was fun.

“Primordial Qi Great Grappling” has very high development potential. In terms of attributes, the user can easily add the nature of their own True Qi to it, creating branches like the “Heavenly Peng Divine Grasp”, “Yin Demon Great Grappling”, or “Great Vajra Hand” for corresponding Demon, Demonic, and Buddhist factions. If you can master a magical treasure like the “Xuanpin Pearl”, you can turn it into a giant hand, greatly increasing the power of “Primordial Qi Great Grappling”. Even if you cultivate to the level of gods or Buddhas, using a giant palm like the Five Fingers Mountain to swat a fly would still look impressive. It seems the effect can vary from person to person. If the Val family learned this, would they turn into a giant hand shining with golden light?

The scroll described six stages for cultivating “Primordial Qi Great Grappling”: Illusory Form, Void and Reality, Mind and Will, Divided Spirit, Primordial Soul, and Void.

In the Illusory Form stage, the Great Grappling Hands look impressive but are mostly just for show. However, they are much stronger than the invisible Qi techniques like the “Dragon-Seizing Hand” of ordinary martial artists. They can ignore mortal divine weapons and tools, move huge boulders, and push down trees with immense physical power. However, they lack agility and flexibility, are stiff, and cannot suppress spiritual thoughts, spiritual bodies, or spells. For a cultivator’s combat, this is slightly lacking. This stage of Great Grappling is very similar to the “Peekaboo” series of the Mage of Shame! It can perform multiple attacks, charges, disarmings, grapples, or trips, but cannot perform delicate operations.

And using it actually requires continuous concentration? It seems that once activated, as long as the user maintains concentration, they can use it continuously without further consumption until the formed Force Field is destroyed. Otherwise, if concentration fails, the Force Field will disappear quickly, and reactivating it will consume a lot of resources. The obvious signs are a heavy loss of physical stamina and mental energy. This means that unless George learns to do two things at once, he probably won’t be able to fight with a sword while using the Grappling Hands at this stage. It seems it can only be useful in special situations, like when acting as a human catapult.

As for being destroyed, common ways include “Dispel Magic”, “Disintegrate”, “Greater Disintegrate”, and “Anti-Magic Field”, which can effectively damage the Illusory Form stage of Great Grappling. Some Force Field spells can also block it. However, using high-level spell slots from a mage like this should be considered a win. The only pity is that if used for direct attacks, it will still suffer damage from enemy Enchanted swords and resistances from Enchanted armor. But George thought that even he didn’t have Enchanted weapons, so enemies probably wouldn’t have many either.

In the Void and Reality stage, “Primordial Qi Great Grappling” can change between solid and void freely. It can be used to suppress ghosts or other intangible things. It can also effectively counter flying swords and magical treasures. It can also change size. Starting from this stage, the range increases greatly, especially for dealing with ghostly spirits and other non-corporeal creatures later on. For George, who lacks Magic Items, this is a huge advantage. It also strengthens the ability to counter Magic Items. Furthermore, it can become void, pass through enemy armor, and then materialize to attack.

Most importantly, it can lift George or other willing creatures into the air to fly! Of course, for other creatures, they cannot be more than forty yards away from George, or they will fall. The flying speed is not much faster than running at full speed, but it at least made George’s flying dream come true. When he gave up becoming a Mage, George thought the chance of flying into the sky on his own was very slim.

In the Mind and Will stage, “Primordial Qi Great Grappling” can communicate with the user’s mind. It is as easy as moving one’s own arm and fingers. Not only is it incredibly agile, but it can also directly transmit sensations like touch through the illusory giant hand. It can also be used to cast spells directly. The biggest change is the huge increase in usage distance, comparable to a flying sword that can take a life from a thousand li away. In George’s opinion, if the previous Grappling Hands were like World War II fighter planes with steel cable transmissions, this stage is like a fourth-generation fighter jet with four-dimensional electric transmission and computer-assisted control. Not only can he give orders to make it brake and attack, but he can also make it perform exquisite sword techniques or other skills. It feels like he has returned the “Left and Right Hand Mutual Struggle” technique. At that time, he and the Great Grappling can attack the enemy together, without worrying about continuous concentration. At the same time, the range is greatly increased. However, George’s personal vision is limited, and he has no Divination School spells, otherwise, he could truly take lives from a thousand li away. But he should be able to cooperate with others. If he loses his Territory someday, he can become a remote assassin.

In the Divided Spirit stage, he can simultaneously manifest many Great Grappling Hands, and each one can be controlled freely, similar to the Thousand-Hand Guanyin method of the Buddhist sect. As the name suggests, George can use multiple Grappling Hands simultaneously to perform different operations based on the previous stages. This is the “Aegis” and “Saturation Attack” of the magic world.

In the Primordial Soul stage, “Primordial Qi Great Grappling” is close to the great supernatural ability of the Five Fingers Mountain. It can evolve Primordial Qi to create all kinds of mundane magical powers. In the Buddhist sect, it is said that the hand has eyes, and it can automatically manifest various Buddhist magical treasures, possessing all kinds of divine effects. In the Taoist sect, one forms hand seals, and a thousand methods follow. At this stage, the Grappling Hands are no longer afraid of the influence of most hostile spells. At the same time, George can add his own spells and other effects to them.

In the Void stage, “Primordial Qi Great Grappling” is a great supernatural ability like a Buddhist kingdom in the palm of the hand, evolving a Void to create its own realm. The final stage, which is the highest achievement recorded in this scroll, can place the attacked target in a strange environment like an “Anti-Magic Zone”, “Upper Plane”, “Lower Plane”, or “Astral Plane”. Just imagine a fish-man thrown into a volcano or a mage unable to cast spells in an Anti-Magic Zone. It is truly a crushing victory. However, this requires George to have enough strength and rich knowledge.

“In this situation, I really don’t know what to say!” George seemed excited in the space. This is really a complete, advanced system. Although it is not as versatile as the spells of a Spellcaster, it is very practical from weak to strong. The reward for this task was a huge gain.

Previously, George had also completed tasks. That time, George participated in the cleanup of Kobolds running out of caves in the northern mountainous area of his Territory. The reward then was a scroll about small unit tactics called “The Picture of Wild Wolves”. George studied and contemplated it, then tested it during the soldiers’ training exercises. After many repeated practices, he finally mastered the tactical specialty “Wolf Pack Strategy”.

Overall, it was a somewhat useless tactical arrangement, used to let soldiers surround enemies with stronger strength. But if the enemy was too weak, it was unnecessary, and if too strong, the effect was not great. Until now, it had not been used much, and there would not be many places to use it in the foreseeable future. After all, the gap between George and ordinary soldiers was too large. Even if he commanded soldiers to face enemies they could not resist, he might be able to kill them himself. Anyway, this tactic was not suitable for the current environment.

George made up his mind, stretched out his hands, and held the ancient book up to his forehead. A flash of light passed, and the ancient book slowly faded and disappeared with the wind. A golden light point that appeared from the book then merged into George’s forehead.

Suddenly, the central altar shone with golden light. The small copper bells hanging from the stone dragon heads outside the tower rang loudly. Inside the tower, a staircase appeared. The steps climbed higher and higher until they connected to the second floor. Then, the floor of the second floor at the connection point automatically disappeared, and the path to the upper level was opened. At the same time, a large rune resembling a pair of hands appeared on the ceiling of the first floor of the pagoda.

At this moment, George also understood the usage method and cultivation technique of “Primordial Qi Great Grappling”. From a usage perspective, this is a power of unity between spirit and flesh. When using it, one must follow the movement of the mind, simultaneously consuming the essence of the physical body, which is Spiritual Qi, and the mental energy generated by the soul’s realization, which can be used for Word Spirit. The subsequent cultivation also focuses on the changes of the soul. As described above, through special Visualization guidance and the irrigation and nurturing of the body’s Spiritual Qi, the soul is fed. Finally, a special Essence Spirit will extend outside the main soul. These Essence Spirits will sense and accept information streams from the Multiverse, intercept useful parts for development and self-optimization. Therefore, their key attribute is perception. George only needs to practice consistently and choose the appropriate runes to carve into his soul each time he advances.

“Finally, I have my trump card. I need to figure out how to pass this method down to the family.” George was unusually excited. After all, for the House Bolerum, whose family learning was relatively shallow and whose heritage had no special characteristics, a complete, systematic power like “Primordial Qi Great Grappling”, ranging from low to high levels, was something they could only dream of.

George calmed his emotions and turned his gaze to the second ancient scroll.