Wang Cheng watched as numerous human warriors rushed to intercept the monsters emerging from the cave. Only then did he finally understand why only warriors near the advanced apprentice level were allowed to engage.
It was because none of the monsters coming out of the cave were below apprentice level 4 in strength.
Most of the monsters were around level 6 apprentices. Whether there were higher-level apprentice monsters hiding among them remained unknown for now.
At the cave closer to Wang Hao and his group, just as it appeared and before they could intercept, Wang Cheng had already aimed his weapon's cannon at it. By the time Wang Hao and the others jumped off the aircraft and ran toward the cave, several mid-level apprentice monsters had already fallen under Wang Cheng's cannon fire.
However, Wang Cheng only had one weapon at his disposal, so naturally, he couldn't stop the flood of monsters pouring out like a fountain.
He also noticed that aside from his own few attacks, no one else was attacking the monsters.
Leng Yan, who was in the same room, had also noticed Wang Cheng's movements and warned:
"Ah Cheng, don't attack the monsters over there. Be careful not to hurt our own people—that would count as intentional injury."
Wang Cheng finally understood why no one else was helping: they were afraid of friendly fire. After all, the power of these shells was no joke. A direct hit—or even a graze—could easily cause severe injury.
But to Wang Cheng, this wasn't a problem at all:
"Mom, don't worry. I just want to support Dad and the others over there. Relax, I know what I'm doing—your son's a shooting genius."
"Alright, stop bragging and hurry up and block those monsters. There's still a long way to go—we've barely killed a few."
With that, she ignored Wang Cheng and started operating her own weapon again, firing at flying monsters in the sky.
Wang Cheng then continued operating his weapon, firing at the mid-level apprentice monsters emerging from the cave.
Fortunately, Wang Hao's team included not just mid-level but also several high-level apprentice warriors.
For the mid-level monsters, facing high-level warriors was like lambs to the slaughter—they didn't stand a chance.
Under their coordinated attacks, the number of first-wave monsters dropped sharply.
Just then, a dark shadow suddenly appeared and pounced directly at the warriors who were freely slaughtering the monsters.
Seeing this, Wang Cheng grew anxious and instinctively threw over a dozen low-level monster corpses into the gray energy field.
After entering an enlightened state, however, his heart calmed.
A level 7 apprentice warrior stepped up immediately to face the charging beast, slashing at its claws with his blade.
The high-level apprentice monster was injured upon first contact. It halted, wary of its opponent, letting out a low growl.
"Double power burst? Reaching level 8 apprentice strength in an instant… No wonder it got hurt. But wait—this situation is…"
As he watched the many warriors fighting fiercely on the battlefield, it was like a door of knowledge had been opened for Wang Cheng.
Waves of information poured into his mind—battle techniques, movement skills, power bursts—all from observing the warriors.
Before entering the enlightened state, these battles didn't seem particularly special to him.
But now, under this "unity of man and nature" enlightenment, he noticed details in their movements and power exertion that directly corresponded to the latter parts of the Basic Warrior's 256 Techniques.
Especially the last three layers—he memorized and understood them completely. He realized that this so-called "256 Techniques" was fundamentally a power-exertion method.
Ordinary practitioners found it difficult to directly achieve 10x power bursts, so they had to adjust their muscle fibers and nerves gradually through these techniques.
Among them, the strongest was a level 9 apprentice warrior.
That person had already mastered all the 256 Techniques. From observing these warriors, Wang Cheng not only picked up the final six levels of techniques but also their full power-exertion methods.
Although many of them made mistakes in their training, Wang Cheng believed that with his later deductions and refinements, he could perfect the 256 Techniques.
Wang Cheng didn't limit himself to watching just one area—he observed battles happening all around.
He felt lucky that his mother brought him to the weapon tower.
Otherwise, even with his talent for enlightenment, if he couldn't observe such battles, he would've missed this opportunity.
Through watching dozens of battle scenes, Wang Cheng collected most of the moves and techniques.
Other than a few transitional or practice moves, he had gathered all the deadly techniques and power bursts.
This immense harvest finally let him understand why those high-level warriors, even if they hadn't fully grasped the power-exertion methods, could still apply for the later layers of training.
It was like the Ninefold Thunder Blade's system: power techniques, movement methods, and guidance arts.
Even if they hadn't fully mastered the power-exertion, practicing the guidance arts of later layers could still accelerate their cultivation.
So as long as their physical condition met the requirements, they could apply to train in the next layer.
Luckily, they had a complete inheritance. If this were Earth, where secret manuals were self-created, it would be impossible to train in the next layer ahead of time.
Wang Cheng finally understood why the people below were incredibly strong, yet their power burst levels peaked at about 4x—similar to his own level. It puzzled him.
Then it hit him. Earth's people had high comprehension because their souls had been reshaped by Earth's environment.
But on Water Source Star, these humans were from the lowest bloodlines—barely any soul enhancement. Achieving 4x bursts was already impressive.
After all, for them, reaching 10x bursts would mean reaching the planetary level.
But on Water Source Star, there were hundreds of billions of apprentice-level warriors, yet fewer than 100,000 planetary-level ones.
And that's with complete warrior inheritance. It showed just how hard it was to break through.
It was a threshold—just like on Earth, where there were tens of millions of warriors, but fewer than a hundred had reached the Senator level.
Seeing that his father could reach nearly a 3x power burst, Wang Cheng felt some relief.
It seemed his dad had good talent too. At full strength, he had level 7 apprentice combat power—just his body couldn't keep up.
But at least he could protect himself against level 7 apprentice monsters.
(End of Chapter)