Wang Feng could be seen laying on the ground, dirt covering his clothes, his eyes empty as he looked up into the sky. 'For the first time in my life... I can understand what a certain Norse god felt when that hulking monster smashed him around like a rag doll.'
Well, let's just say that the training match didn't end too well for him....
He slowly sat up after a few more minutes and looked towards Xia Ning Chang, who was sitting on a nearby log and looking at him with embarrassment, worry and slight satisfaction.
Wang Feng sighed as his mind replayed what had happened. He had apparently started pushing her back a bit with his attacks, that were being refined and becoming sharper by the moment.
And because of that .... He grew a bit cocky and teased her again. This made her embarrassed and because of that, she accidentally(?) used most of her strength in an attack.
That one attack made him lose his senses for a few seconds, a few seconds in which he was thrown back and forth for a few times by her following attacks before she stopped.
He stood up while wincing before he looked towards her and spoke in grievance, "Your Cruel." Saying that he turned his face to the side. Xia Ning Chang saw this and rolled her eyes before she stood up and reached in front of him.
She didn't give him time to react and grabbed his face before slipping a pill into his mouth. The pill dissolved into his mouth and his injuries started healing as waves of healing energy spread throughout his body.
He looked at her now smiling face as if waiting for a thank you. Wang Feng snorted like a child and spoke with his head turned to the side, "you're still cruel.", earning another eye roll from her.
A few seconds passed before Wang Feng suddenly broke out in laughter and Xia Ning Chang into giggles. After calming down, Wang Feng asked her curiously, "Senior Sister, what was that technique you used to move away at the start?"
Xia Ning Chang also stopped giggling and went back to sit on her place as she answered, "oh, it's a movement technique that master gave me, Shadow Phantom Steps. It allows the user to move at a great speed that leaves behind a phantom of oneself while the user can blend into the surrounding shadows."
Wang Feng's eyes shined as he heard this, he seems to have seen something similar in one of his previous life's novels. Xia Ning Chang saw his look and asked him after a second of thought, "I can teach you if you want to...", her voice lower than normal as she looked at him.
Wang Feng's eyes opened slightly. In this world, sharing any Personal Techniques, even Martial Techniques, display's the extremely high trust the provider has on the receiver. Wang Feng asked her with slightly concerned and seriously look, "Sister Xia, are you sure about this?"
Xia Ning Chang calmly studied his features for a few seconds as if searching for something before she nodded with a small smile. Wang Feng gulped and just lowered his head slightly for a moment before he looked up and told her, "then ... Let's get started."
.....
Xia Ning Chang taught him about the basics of the technique while also giving him a scroll that contained the Technique itself. After a few hours, she had to leave which allowed Wang Feng to immerse himself into training.
But, he wasn't just doing that. He was learning a Sword Technique as well. What was the use of a sword when you didn't even have a technique, right?
So he took out the Five Elements Record that Meng Wu Ya had given him. This Five Element Record wasn't just a Cultivation Technique, but a complete manual containing a few other techniques as well. But there was only one that appealed to him.
It was the Five Attribute Sword Art, a Sword Art that made use of the Five Elements. Wang Feng already had Five Elemental Qi and could use this technique. This Sword Art had many other techniques in itself, some based on a single element and some on multiple ones.
And so, Wang Feng spent the next 15 days practicing these techniques and cultivating. By the end of these days, he had already learned the Sword Arts and Movement Technique to Minor Accomplishment.
———————————————————
[Shadow Phantom Steps]
[Grade: Low - Mysterious]
[Description: The technique is a movement technique that focuses on shadow and dark attribute, which makes it perfect for assassins. It consists of three stages:
Stage 1 —> Shadow Steps
It allows the user to move seamlessly on any surface like a silent shadow.
Stage 2 —> Phantom Steps
It allows the user to cover oneself with a layer of shadow energy that can than be used to create a Shadow Phandom, the Phantom can then be used as a diversion.
Stage 3 —> Shadow Integration
It allows the user to blend in the shadows, making one invisible to the enemy. (more effective in dark places)]
———————————————————
Techniques Proficiency is divided into four parts: Entry level, Minor Accomplishment, Major Accomplishments and Perfection.
.....
Currently, Wang Feng was walking through the Black Wind Mountain. Now that he has reached Qi Sea Realm and has also learned a few techniques and has a weapon. So, he decided that it was the perfect time to go on his treasure hunt.
He left the sect and is now entering in the inner area of Black Wind Mountain. Along the way, he didn't encounter any monster beasts but he did get a few Common Grade herbs which he had collected.
After entering the Inner Area, he started walking slowly and concealed his aura to the minimum possible and continued walking. He didn't want to attract unnecessary attention to himself as he still has to travel through the whole inner area, which was the largest, and enter the core area.
As he walked, he noticed how the surrounding area grew denser trees and the sunlight was reduced in the area. "Looks like the deeper I go, the denser the forest gets.", he muttered to himself.
He walked for an hour and still didn't encounter anything and frowned. "If there's no Monster Beast, then it's alright. But, why isn't there even a single herb here?"
He was confused as he thought that he could find many herbs here, but contrary to that, he didn't even see a single one till now. He sighed and blamed his luck before he started walking again.
After a few more minutes, he finally encountered a newly promoted Tier 2 Monster Beast. He looked at it for a second before shaking his head with a sigh. This Monster Beast was too weak for him, so he just went away.
As he went deeper into the Inner Area, he finally came upon a few High Common Grade herbs and collected them. Seeing that it was going to get dark, he started searching for a place to rest for the time.
After searching for an hour, he found a small cave. So he entered the cave and covered nearly the entire enterance with a huge rock. He then took out a piece of wood and light a fire before roasting some meat over it.
After eating, he closed his eyes while sitting cross-legged and started cultivating using his Primordial Origin Art Technique. But a frown formed on his face just a few minutes later.
"I didn't expect the Qi here to be this low...", he discovered that the Qi in the area was a few times lower than his usual place of Cultivation, i.e. the Coiling Dragon Stream.
Previously, he had been slightly oblivious of this fact. The Qi in the Coiling Dragon Stream was produced from the concentration of Yang, Yin and World Qi and because of that it was more potent and abundant than here.
He pondered about this for a few seconds before he remembered something and took something out of his inventory. He was now holding a small yellowish stone with a smoother surface.
This was a Spirit Stone, a crystalized form of Qi. Previously, he didn't require any help from these Spirit Stones in cultivation, so he hadn't touched them. It was only now that he took it out.
He looked at the stone with intrigue and could tell that a great amount of Qi was stored in this ordinary looking stone. He then held it in his hand and ran the technique again.
This time, he felt how a great amount of Qi suddenly rushed from the Spirit Stone into his body before revolving around according to the Technique, getting purified into Five Elemental Qi, before entering his Dantain.
'man.... This efficiency is even more potent than cultivating at the Coiling Dragon Stream.', he thought to himself in surprise as his body continued to greedily absorb the unattributed Qi from the Spirit Stone.
More than two hour passed before Wang Feng had to stop. He looked down into his hands and saw that the spirit stone had lost it's luster and became dull, which happened because its Qi was exhausted.
He raised his eyebrow and spoke to himself, "it was drained this quickly? Is it normal or... is this because of me?". From what he could tell, the Qi in the Spirit Stone was too great.
Fundamentally, the Qi in the Spirit Stones is not the Qi he uses right now, which is still YuanQi, but True Qi which is many times purer than Yuan Qi. Plus, the amount of True Qi needed to produce a single Spirit Stone is quite a lot.
This is also one of the biggest advantage of being born in higher level world. In those Higher Worlds, the amount of Qi is exponentially higher in both quality and quantity, which in turn makes more of these stones/crystals and other resources. This effects in much higher cultivations of all cultivators.
By his estimate after observing the amount of Qi in a Spirit Stone, 7-10 of them were enough for an Initial Element Realm Cultivator to Breakthrough a stage.
But he only felt a small increase in his reserves. From which, he estimated that he would need nearly 70-80 more Spirit Stones to reach the Third Stage of Qi Sea Realm.
{A-Note: Cultivators in Qi Sea/Initial Element and Qi Transformation need to ONLY absorb Qi to breakthrough. (Not in Foundation Realm as you need to construct a Foundation in it as well as absorb Qi)
Also, to remind you all. The difference of Qi reserves in Qi Sea Realm are much larger, like their names suggest. A river is many times larger than a lake, A Sea is Exponentially larger than a river and so on.}
He thought about this for a few minutes and found the source of the happening. Although the Qi he uses is also YuanQi, his Qi was not like those of Initial Element Realm Cultivators. Why? Because his Qi was in Liquid State, while the Qi of those in Initial Element Realm was in Gaseous State.
This Liquid State Yuan Qi was more concentrated, pure and stronger than the Gaseous State Yuan Qi, which in-turn made the LS Yuan Qi harder to cultivate and more resource consuming than GS Yuan Qi.
He shook his head, 'this most definitely happened because of my cultivation system. I knew that the consumption of resources would be higher, but only now understood just how much.'
He simply threw the drained stone aside before taking out another one and started cultivating again. He drained a total of 4 Spirit Stones before dawn. After the sun rose, he came out of the cave and continued his path ahead.
For the next 8 days, he continued with the same routine of traveling in the day and cultivating in the night, which allowed his cultivation to progress steadily.
This clearly showed the advantage of background and resources. If he didn't have a system or something to provide him with resources, his growth would have been many times slower.
He also encountered many Monster Beasts and Herb and harvested a significant amount of materials and herbs.
Today, he was moving around cautiously, like always. Why? Because the closer he went to the core area, the stronger the beasts get. The previous Monster Beast he encountered had already reached Peak of Mid Tier 2, which was equivalent to Peak 6th Stage Qi Transformation Realm.
That battle had been slightly tough for him and had resulted in him getting slightly injured, which took him more than an hour to heal.
Wang Feng moved with high alertness and continued his journey, according to his estimate, he was near the core Area now, so he had to constantly look out for anything unexpected or suspecious.
He suddenly felt something and stopped, he looked around and felt an eerie silence suddenly envelope his surroundings. He hightened his senses as felt that something was watching him, lurking in the shadows.
His danger sense that had been honed by training in this mountain and in training with Xia Ning Chang suddenly spiked up making him instinctively react and jump to the side with all his strength.
The moment his body moved away, the place he was standing on was attacked by a torrent of flames before exploding violently.
He turned to the direction of the assaulter and froze for a second. In that place he saw a Lion with blazing red eyes and a golden colored body, his mane burning with golden flames. The size of that Lion was about 4-5 meters in height. The Lion roared as small specs of fire fumes erupted with just that roar. It then looked at him like a predator looking at a pray.
Wang Feng knew then and there, "I'm fucked."