As he lay in his tent after the battle, Kanoru closed his eyes and visualized the tornado. In his mind, only 15% of the tornado resembled a real one. Once the visualization reached 30%, he would advance and become a middle-ranked priest.
"At my current pace, it will take at least a year to reach middle-ranked priest."
If anyone knew he had become a lower-ranked priest in less than a year and would become middle-ranked in another year, they would be amazed—and possibly envious. Yet, Kanoru still wished to advance faster.
His rapid progress in the priest cultivation system stemmed from his visualization of the wind element and his growing understanding of it, which accelerated his practice speed. The bottleneck slowing him down, however, was the refinement of his spirit.
Before becoming a priest, his spirit was as weak as a cotton thread. Now, 15% of it had transformed into a steel wire, enabling him to control the elements. If he could obtain a spiritual herb or fruit that enhanced spirit refinement, he could advance faster.
The spirit realm experts had mentioned that if they won the battle, everyone could exchange their earned merit for resources. If the battle was won, Kanoru planned to prioritize obtaining resources that would both transform his spirit and strengthen his body.
"A stronger body means faster advancement as a samurai. A higher-ranked samurai will always be stronger than a middle-ranked priest."
The faster he became a higher-ranked samurai, the more time he would have to prepare for the Divine Samurai Realm, commonly known as the Spirit Realm.
Refocusing on his visualization, he decided to try something new. Until now, the tornado had been formed by his knowledge of tornadoes and his understanding of Nature-Cut. However, he had not yet incorporated his comprehension of Nature Sound, which he had been trying to grasp for over a year.
He always felt as if he was missing something—something preventing him from fully understanding it. Tonight, he decided to add Nature Sound to his visualization and observe the results.
As he infused his comprehension of Nature Sound, the tornado in his mind began to vibrate. The familiar roar of a tiger, the howl of a wolf, the rush of a waterfall, the patter of rain, and other natural sounds he had mimicked with his sword now resonated from the tornado.
To his surprise, his spirit refinement increased from 15% to 16% —only a 1% improvement. Yet, he knew that the time required for him to advance to middle-ranked priest had shortened.
He couldn't tell by how much, but he was certain that after a few days of practice, he would be able to gauge the difference.
After visualizing for a few hours and clearing his mind of distractions, Kanoru gradually fell asleep.
On the second day, the battle was similar to the first. His group lost only three people compared to the ten from the previous day. However, he was able to protect the people most important to him. Kanoru always fought at the front, shielding Gu Mingzhu, Asuna, and Mika, ensuring no monster got past him.
But on the third day, the situation changed. A new unit of invaders appeared— thousands of hairless, red-skinned dogs—all facing the army Kanoru was part of. It was clear that the invaders intended to annihilate them in one decisive strike, hoping to terrify Bilu City into surrendering.
As the horn of war sounded and spells started flying, Kanoru glanced back at Asuna, Mika, and Gu Mingzhu one last time. A sense of unease filled him—he knew today's battle would be far more brutal.
The three were positioned in the safest place—the spell squad. Though they were samurai, Asuna and Mika had been assigned there because they were now also lower-ranked priests. With Kanoru's help, they had started visualizing and had grasped Nature-Cut, enabling them to perform elemental attacks.
The red-skinned dogs barked furiously before charging at incredible speed. As they neared him, Kanoru suddenly felt his blood grow turbulent. He had to suppress it, but his strength was still weakened by 10%.
With his strength reduced, he fought the first red-skinned dog that attacked him. It took him two moves to kill it, but the effort consumed 5% more chakra than usual. However, killing the dog did nothing to stop the blood turbulence.
As he continued battling the red-skinned dogs, the turbulence caused his blood to either surge or slow unpredictably, making it difficult to control his strength. Several times, he was struck by the dogs' claws, and his situation grew increasingly dangerous.
More than once, he came close to losing his life, but at the last moment, he used the Nature-Cut of wind to escape safely. His comprehension of Nature-Cut allowed him to survive where others could not. Among the entire army, fewer than ten people were capable of doing the same.
Meanwhile, countless soldiers fell prey to the jaws of the red-skinned dogs.
Kanoru fought on, but by noon, there were still many hours left before the battle would end, and he had already consumed 70% of his chakra battling the red-skinned dogs.
While fighting a middle-ranked red-skinned dog and a goat monster, Kanoru used his spirit to sense his body carefully, trying to determine how the red-skinned dogs were causing his blood turbulence. However, he found nothing—except that his heartbeat alternated between speeding up and slowing down.
Unable to figure out how to block the dogs' magic, Kanoru decided to try a method he hadnt used in battle before.
He infused his sword with nature sound, causing it to vibrate and release a vibration wave around him. Initially, he thought it was useless, but then he felt his heartbeat gradually return to normal.
Realizing its effectiveness, he let the vibration wave spread. Those fighting near him also found the red-skinned dogs' magic weakening, allowing them to fight without disturbance.
Kanoru fought for a few minutes without any blood turbulence. However, as he killed the red-skinned dog and the goat monster, he saw a higher-ranked boar monster charging straight at him.
Glancing around, he found no allied higher-rankers nearby to take on the boar.
Today, he would have to defeat it alone.