by Gore, A. P.
Chapter 74
One Sword Strike
Incense burned in the corner of the metal room, exuding a calming aroma. Li Wei sat with his long back erect, and long black hairs sliding across his shoulders on a prayer mat, composing his thoughts on the profound mysteries of the One Sword Strike. One Sword Strike was a simple Gold Grade martial skill, but it was one of the hardest skills to master. In his previous life, Wei had been stuck at middle completion of level one and had never reached late completion. Everyone thought it was a trash martial skill, but when he’d reached the Martial Realm, he’d witnessed a senior killing a Houtian Realm expert with one strike, and he had only reached middle completion of level two of his One Sword Strike. Wei regretted not learning it then, but he would not miss that chance in this life.
But here was he, once again stuck at middle completion of his One Sword Strike. Even after practicing in the Martial Comprehension Chamber for a whole day, he couldn’t improve this skill any further. But he needed to reach the peak of level one as quickly as possible. If he reached late completion, he would have the confidence to go against any qi Foundation Realm cultivator with just his sword. And if he reached the peak of the Foundation Realm, as Xue Qi had mentioned, he could contend with early qi Bone Baptization Realm cultivators with this one martial skill alone.
So, today he was going to change his approach. He would try to use his qi to enhance his attack power.
Standing, he drew his sword and practiced the ten moves of his One Sword Strike.
Swoosh! His sword moved in a beautiful arc. In half a breath’s time, he performed ten moves, superimposing all of them in one beautiful vertical slash and producing a sound.
His heart throbbed at the force his sword had produced. After reaching the Foundation Realm, his sword had become fiercer. Although the One Sword Strike’s first level didn’t require one to pour any qi into the sword, one could always increase its power by doing so.
He moved again, slashing his sword, and this time he poured a little of his wood qi into the sword. Shining a light brown color, the sword slashed through the air with another swoosh sound.
However, he felt nothing special comparing his attack with qi to the one without qi.
He halted and reviewed his strategy. Using wood qi wasn’t making any difference. Maybe it was because of the low quantity of wood qi he had. What if he used his pure qi? It was plentiful and formed a puddle below his wood qi stem. But he wasn’t sure if he could use pure qi for an attack, as he wasn’t supposed to have pure qi. When a cultivator stepped into the qi Foundation Realm, they normally converted all their pure qi into their respective attribute. Then again, his qi cultivation art wasn’t a common cultivation art. It allowed one to have five different types of elemental qi in one’s dantian. Why not pure qi?
Sighing, he raised his sword and continued practicing his One Sword Strike, and this time he willed his pure qi toward his arm. Surprisingly, it moved. The qi slipped through his hand meridians and entered his sword with no resistance. This elated him. This was good. If he could use pure qi in an attack, that meant he could use it in many arrays that required other elemental qi, like thunder qi or dark qi, using elemental converting stones. There were endless possibilities with pure qi.
Following the pure qi insertion, his sword moved in a beautiful arc, finishing ten moves in half a breath’s time with a whistling sound.
However, the result left him shocked. There was no change in the power. So, using any type of qi in level one of the One Sword Strike didn’t help. It was a complete waste of effort.
Rubbing his chin, he pondered the issue. Was his sword the issue? He used another sword, but nothing changed. So, he tried a normal attack with qi and without qi, and attack with qi was much stronger than the other way. But when he added qi to One Sword Strike the power didn’t change as if qi vanished inside the sword without doing anything.
So, neither his qi nor the sword was the issue.
The stick of incense finished burning, leaving only ash behind. Bored, he picked up two more sticks of incense from his storage ring and lit them together. A dim fire burned for a moment, and then the incense began exuding a fragrant aroma. But before the fire extinguished, he saw two threads of fire entangling with each other, making the smoke feel thicker than usual. They were superimposed on each other.
Wei’s eyes shone with a strange light. Maybe he was going at this all wrong.
“System, access the One Sword Strike martial skill.”
A bunch of information appeared in his mind. Leaning back against the metal wall, he read through the information. The first level contained ten moves one had to master, but in the big picture, it was one move. A descending slash. It was so tyrannical that it could cut his opponent into two pieces with sheer strength. So, all ten moves he’d practiced were small parts of the one descending slash. It just used different amounts of strength to achieve the superimposing.
But did he really superimpose the moves to end up with a single move?
Bringing his sword up, he practiced all ten moves slowly. When he practiced them slowly, they felt like ten different descending slashes. But when he superimposed them, his power increased. How could he superimpose ten different moves in one move when his speed was slow?
Spreading his divine sense, he performed a One Sword Strike attack, and he watched every single move.
Fuck! This wasn’t superimposing. The final power of his strike wasn’t even two times stronger than the first move. All he was doing was performing ten moves rapidly. Each move added its power to the next one, and finally his tenth move reached nearly twice the power it would if he had performed the tenth move on its own.
Damn! It was all wrong. No wonder he’d never gotten beyond middle completion of level one in his previous life. If he wanted to reach late or peak completion, he had to superimpose ten moves in a single move, and the end attack should be ten times greater than his current attack.
Sweat wrapped around his neck as he thought about the difficulty of the One Sword Strike. No wonder it was a comprehension type martial skill. One would take years to understand this simple principle. Or one would have to train in a Martial Comprehension Chamber.
Now that he knew the path forward, he used his divine sense to monitor and deduce his ten moves.
His sword descended, cutting through the air, and he felt he had reached a better understanding of the martial skill. He could see hope of getting beyond middle completion for the first time.
“Again.” He again slashed down. Then he did it again. And then again, and then again . . .
Someone knocked on the door, and he opened his eyes. Who the heck was disturbing him? Sun Nuan and Xue Qi were busy concocting Foundation Expanding Pills, and he had asked Xue Qi to ask the beasts cleaning the palace not to disturb him until evening.
He was about to walk toward the door when exhaustion took over him, buckling his knees. Pressing the tip of the sword to the metal floor, he steadied himself. Thank heavens, the tip didn’t slip over the metal floor. A growling sound echoed from his stomach, and he realized how famished he was.
What was wrong with him? He had just eaten breakfast and entered this chamber.
“Come in.”
The door cracked open, and Sun Nuan walked in. Exhaustion was written all over her face. “Brother Wei, come for dinner.” Ever since she had started him calling brother Wei, she had transformed into a little sister who spoke informally and cared for him. “High heavens!” Her gaze moved over his body and she pinched her nose. “Please take a bath before entering the kitchen.”
Wei’s eyes followed her gaze, and he saw a puddle of water around his feet. What the heck? “Did you say dinner?”
She nodded. “It’s dinner time. Hurry up. I don’t like to eat alone, and I’ve prepared Fire Bull’s Meat Soup. It will help you replenish the physical energy you poured on the ground.”
Wei’s eyes shone with desire. A Fire Bull was a Bronze Grade Ferocious Beast wh
ose meat tasted quite good. “You go ahead. I’ll join you in a while.” He stared at the puddle of sweat at his feet. Fire Bull reminded him of his childhood when his grandfather used to love him like a grandson. Then mother was around, and he only had a fuzzy memory of her.
Lifting his sword, he slashed it downward, executing his One Sword Strike, and this time he could feel its power increased by a margin. This Martial Comprehension Chamber was awesome. Without realizing it, he had practiced for an entire day, and he could feel the improvement in his One Sword Strike. But more than that, he felt like he’d finally touched on something. After his trance, an idea popped into his mind, and the more he thought about it, the more he believed it was the right path forward. Superimposing all ten moves at once was impossible. He had to start small, like merging the first two moves first.
Yes, he had to do that. Although it was just a thought, he had gained something from the whole day’s practice, and this was a step forward.
Whistling, he stepped out of the chamber and headed for the bath. That Fire Bull’s Soup was calling, and his stomach grumbled already.
Chapter 75
Foundation Expanding Pill
Li Wei’s fist smashed into the tree, breaking it in half. But at the same time, he cursed Chang Ziang’s non-human mother. Chang Ziang was the one who invented Dragon Fist of Pain. No, that bastard couldn’t be merely human. How could anyone endure this much pain from a punch? Just one punch, and his wrist was practically broken. Wood chips had penetrated deep inside his palm.
“Brother Wei, are you all, right?” Sun Nuan ran into the garden, looking at him with worried eyes. Sometimes she reminded him of Fei’er. She’d always worried about him and cried over even a little wound on his body.
Sighing inwardly, he reached for the Green Life Grass, a healing herb he had plucked from the medicinal garden. Xue Qi had allowed him to collect herbs up to Silver Grade from the palace’s medicinal garden, and he had collected many that were needed for low-grade recipes. Once he fixed the Li clan’s issue, he should study hard in alchemy and join the Divine Fragrance Palace. Alchemy was the best path to enjoy lazy life, and he had plans to become the best alchemist in the world. Everyone would revere him, and he wouldn’t have to lift a finger. Of course, he would have to concoct medicines, but he could hire junior alchemists for that work.
Sun Nuan waved her hand in front of his eyes, pulling him out of his daydream. “Brother Wei. Let me bandage it for you.” Pulling a white cloth out, she first cleaned his wrist and pulled the wooden chips out of his skin, then wrapped some Green Life Grass around his palm. This was a well-known Silver Grade herb that could heal minor wounds in short time. Her soft fingers moved smoothly and wrapped the bandage like she had done this hundreds of times. In less than five breaths, she had finished wrapping the bandage around his hand.
“Thanks.”
“Brother Wei, why are you breaking trees with your palm? Are you suicidal?”
Wei arched his brows. “What? Why am I suicidal?”
“Ah—” she fumbled, then looked away. “I was just curious.”
Wei sighed dejectedly. “I was trying a new skill, but I won’t be practicing it again for now.” It had been seven days, but he’d only advanced his One Sword Strike by a little. Despite not reaching late completion, he had superimposed the first five moves and his attack power had increased by five times. Now he had the confidence to battle against a mid-layer qi Foundation Realm cultivator without needing to use his qi.
However, it didn’t ease his heart. He had failed to reach early completion of the Basic Movement Art after practicing it for two days, and now the Dragon Fist of Pain gave him pause. It had almost broken his wrist, and without his body cultivation healing him, it wasn’t worth it. If he dared use it in the Devil Cicada Challenge, it would be like throwing himself in a deep pit filled with venomous snakes.
On the whole, his progress over the last seven days was so-so. Now he had to think of another way to improve his own powers. Well, he had other options to increase his powers. Being an Array Master in his previous life, he knew of many ways to improve his powers. With his Foundation Realm cultivation, he could start carving high-tier Silver Grade array formations on his weapons, and that would improve his battle prowess. Xue Qi had even given him some weapons from the palace treasury he could carve arrays on. But that was neither here nor there.
Thinking about arrays, should he use the blood arrays he hadn’t used in his previous life? Like Five Finger Blood Sacrifice Array, or Bloodbath Sacrifice Array?
No, that would bring trouble to him. If others watch him using blood of others, they might consider him as a demonic cultivator from Way of Demon society that worked in Demon Descend Empire. Then he might die himself if he used his own blood. Without reaching peak of body Foundation Realm, he couldn’t take risk with such tyrannical arrays.
So, he would have to use normal arrays that would bring some surprise to Du clan.
He refocused on Sun Nuan. “Anyway, what brings you out here?”
She smiled sheepishly. “Brother Wei, I almost forgot. Let’s go. I’ve concocted twenty Foundation Expanding Pills.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” She was all smiles, proud smiles, and he couldn’t restrain himself from tousling her hair. She suddenly reminded him of a couple of disciples he’d liked a lot. He had groomed them carefully, but then . . .
“Where did you get all the ingredients?” he asked, remembering there weren’t many available in the palace’s medicinal garden.
“I don’t know, but senior Fei has plenty of them. She might have a storage ring hidden somewhere.”
“Maybe she has.” Xue Qi had many secrets.
Shrugging, he followed her to the Comprehension Acceleration Chamber, and a fragrant aroma hit him.
Xue Qi floated five feet above a golden cauldron. A red tint flashed on the surface of the cauldron, which meant Sun Nuan had run off as soon as she’d finished concocting this pill.
“Senior Fei.” Wei cupped his hands and stared at the jade case filled with twenty lustrous green pills with a white line marked on each of them. Each had a shiny surface, and he felt greed while looking at them. They were his ticket to the Bone Baptization Realm.
“Your condition is not good. You should wait until you are in optimal condition before consuming the pills.” Saying those words, Xue Qi flashed out of the door.
“Nuan, I won’t be courteous and offer a few of them to you, as I need to rapidly improve my cultivation. I’ll think of a way to repay your debt some other way.”
“Brother Wei, don’t be courteous. Just working with senior Fei has helped me tremendously. Without her help, my alchemy wouldn’t have improved, and I concocted two more pills that I’ll use for myself.”
Nodding, Wei sat in a lotus position and closed his eyes. After emptying his mind, he started absorbing heaven and earth’s essence inside his body to cultivate. Using the metal token with an array would be a faster way to cultivate, but he had to nourish his meridians and qi path first, and only pure essence energy would do that. This way, he would be in optimal condition to absorb the medicinal efficacy from the pills.
After five minutes of cultivation, he opened his eyes and reached for the pills.
When he brought the first pill to his mouth, its medicinal fragrance penetrated his senses, calm occupied his heart, and his whole body felt like it was bathing in a pure stream of qi. The white line over the pill shone even in dim light. And when the pill entered his mouth, a sea of pure qi entered his dantian, but it wasn’t tyrannical the way the Dantian Strengthening Fruit had been, or any other pill he had eaten before. It was gentle like a mother’s care and pure like an angel. It didn’t crash against his dantian’s walls. Instead, it gently nourished his dantian before entering his qi path and revolving through his foundation qi path on its own. Without him doing anything, it completed a revolution, and the pure qi turned into wood qi that settled on the tiny wooden stem that gre
w in the puddle of his pure qi.
Then another qi revolution occurred, followed by another one. This continued for almost an hour before the pure qi in his dantian transformed into wood qi.
Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked at the heavens to curse them.
Chapter 76
Breakthrough
Bewildered, Li Wei stared at his dantian and then at the white metal roof of the small Comprehension Acceleration Chamber. The incense had burned to ash while he absorbed the efficacy of the pill, but that had gone nowhere. Literally nowhere. The wood stem in his dantian was barely visible over his pure qi puddle. Even after absorbing two pills, it had barely come out of the puddle, growing a few inches taller.
This was fucking insane. If it had only increased by a couple of inches, how was he going to create a qi lotus and form nine petals?
His heart tightened and his whole body sweated. What was he going to do now? Either the pill was faulty, or he’d made a mistake while absorbing the pill’s efficacy. But that was highly unlikely. He had two hundred years of experience, and he had eaten a thousand different pills. And how could he do anything wrong with his divine sense spread through his entire body? It made no sense.
For half an hour he pondered the problem, but no solution came to mind. This was inconceivable.
Suddenly a muffled groan echoed from the corner, and his gaze darted to Sun Nuan sitting in the corner. She opened her eyes and looked at him, giving him a brilliant smile that moved his heart. She looked like a fairy emerging from a bath for a moment.
What a perverted thought.
“Congratulations, you’ve broken through,” he said quickly to hide the gleam in his eyes. Not that he was a beast that peeked at beauties, but he wasn’t a monk who wouldn’t be shaken by a beautiful girl’s smile.
“Brother Wei. Thanks to you and senior Xue Qi, I’ve reached layer five of the Foundation Realm with just one pill. This pill is magical. I can feel endless energy rushing through my body, and this has never happened before.” Her smile grew brighter.
