It's been a few days since the kowtowing and the confirmed discipleship process. I had to get a jade token and robes and all that.
My first lesson under "Master" is about to start. The space, circular and winding on itself, is silent with a faint smell of incense. Old Chang likes it or so my investigation says.
He enters the room. My transparent world vision turns on, reacting to the sheer amount of chi he has. When he entered the room the density of the spiritual energy present increased by leaps and bounds. Sitting opposite of me, one knee raised, and robes in disarray.
"What do you know about martial artists, my disciple?"
"They practice martial arts of the virtuous path. A martial artist is someone who paves his way to understand heaven's will through the cultivation of chi, the practice of combat, and the solidifying of the mind."
"Standard answer. What are martial arts, then to you, my disciple?"
"Martial arts are physical arts meant to kill, animated by the mind's intent."
"Good answer. How does the intent of the mind influence the external art?"
"By envisioning and imitating nature's work, martial artists are able to circulate the chi of heaven into external arts, priming it for other purposes, not just killing."
"What does a martial artist want, then?"
"Depends on the person?"
"Correct. But how do they go about doing that?"
"They chase what they lack. If they want strength, they train. If they want chi, they take pills or seclude themselves in meditation."
"And do you think the methods that the current era of martial artists use is the right way?"
"There is no right way, is there, Master?"
"Yes and no…"
The discussion went on for the whole day.
The conclusion is…
Old Man Chang is a genius.
Born from a noble family, then exiled at 20 years old without any way to make a living. Forced to live on the streets, he worked his way up into a laborer for an escort merchant group. He became an escort warrior some years after, then he was poached into the Heavenly Current Sect.
He was completely ungifted for martial arts. But if there was one thing his dead aristocrat father said to him, it was that effort will never betray him. So he trained and trained and trained.
But in that sect, talent was the foremost quality of a martial artist, and he had none.. His meridians were twisted. His dantian was shallow. His chi sluggish, impure. No amount of pills and no length of meditation moved him forward like the others. Then again, it wasn't like he could afford them. Every peer soared, while he crawled.
By all rights, he should have rotted as an outer disciple. But he did not.
"Effort will never betray you," his father had once spat from dying lips, whose death caused his exile. Chang lived those words until they turned bitter.
He forced himself through body refinement. Every tendon was torn.and his very veins burned. He imitated techniques, but never advanced. He swallowed pills he made, only to vomit them out as poison. His cultivation stalled again and again.
And when others broke through, he watched. When they failed, he studied. Why did he fail? Why did she succeed? Why did he change? Why did she advance, but he didn't? If you failed in breaking though, is there no other way?
One day, when his body refused to move, he lay on the training grounds and realized: comprehension itself was a realm.
That was the turning point.
He was not fast. He was not gifted. But slowly, slowly, he created a martial art more solid than any heaven's blessing.
And when the circuits of Mei Huifang appeared before him, ancient notes scorned by every orthodox master, he recognized them not as heresy.
From then on, he forged himself into a man who understood before he broke through.
His ideas, however, were rejected by the sect. It was widely known and believed that talent was and should be the only reason for a martial artist's greatness. Greatness was a birthright. His vision of comprehension and effort over talent was repulsive.
To the Heavenly Current Sect, such thinking was an insult to heaven itself. Kunlun belief holds that heaven's will bestows fortune: the noble child is born with meridians open, the blessed prodigy with qi that flows like rivers. They called this order ziran; the natural way, the proper hierarchy.
And the old man didn't like it one bit. He rose to the position of second elder, despite the brass constantly opposing him. To him, the nobles of today are a degeneration of the true noble virtues of yesterday, the virtues his fallen house tried to stand for. During the Second Sahra Sharn Invasion (dark side of K'unlun, research later), he rampaged through the enemy ranks, earning the name of True Yin Tyrant.
We are so back! This isn't that bad at all, to be honest. I'm in good hands.
I was overreacting. Yeah, this is good. Good.
—
I entered the back yard of the pagoda. Every plant present within this training space seems to manifest its own chi, gathering it from the sun, processing energy and sunlight into sugars and so on. Someday, I'll find a way to leave this place. But until then, I'll have to get stronger.
My first tier of skills are maxed out, but Martial Synthesis, Chi Harmony, and Rift Attribute have yet to be leveled up in any way whatsoever. Only Chi Harmony out of the three can be trained and leveled without combat, and even then, I'd probably hit a bottleneck if I don't use it in combat.
"Good morning, boy. IF there was one thing you learned from the first lecture, what would it be?"
"Understanding before breakthrough. Effort without thought is wasted."
"It seems my teachings finally got through to your numbskull. You're aware of it, are you not?"
"The Trial of Earth, Master?"
"No, though that's in a couple days. What I'm talking about is your 'talent'."
"What talent?" I said, not knowing which of the skills in my system he was talking about.
"Your ability to adapt. It's like enlightenment only comes to you mid-fight, and when it does, it comes to you in droves. And your talent is also a curse. It means when you want to get stronger, you have to face the music as you will. You can't get stronger without risking your life."
My Rift Attribute?
"The training methods I have and what the sect has is basically worthless for someone like you, so naturally attuned to killing," he continued.
"So for the next three days, without sleep, without eating, without rest, we'll fight. In all the times people have seen you fight, you end the duel way too quick. From my great intelligence and mind, I deduced that you… lack stamina. A swordsman who can afford to have a battle last a long time doesn't risk it with flashy moves, after all."
Me? I lack stamina? Old man, you're looking at the guy who ran miles of snow and treaded water for leagues just to break a sweat.
"Well, no better time to get to it. Training starts now."
Alright, combat analysis mode on.
Old man, in his 70s. Good posture, lean, chi-powered stamina, must end the fight quickly. Same reach as me, but he's a bit taller. Swordsmanship is nigh-perfect, but he has a weakness in his tendons, especially in his wrist, possibly sustained from over exertion or an old injury.
Disciple of the Heavenly Current style, so must prevent momentum gain. Chi circuit at his age may be susceptible to attacks to his spirit veins. Maybe imitate the Dragon's Roar technique.
Possible course of actio-
"WHOOSH!"
My thought process was broken by the sound of his glowing sword rushing to my face.
I parry, but he flanks and goes for a horizontal slash behind me, going over my arm.
His swordsmanship had a faint smell of chrysanthemum. I did not like that smell.
I twisted my body to the side and pushed through his slash to parry it, aiming to break his momentum.
That worked in the opposite direction, as the recoil was redirected to me. The sheer vibration of our blades clashing nearly disarmed me. I survived, though.
[Rift Attribute EXP +20]
A cloud of dust covered the yard.
Cutting through the dust, I lunged towards him, aiming to thrust towards his center mass like a speeding bullet.
"First Heaven Sea, 14th Form, Breathing Above the Clouds."
He was right above me the whole time.
Immediately, my transparent vision turned red as his qi suddenly exited out from his body and fell down on me.
Think. THINK.
How do you avoid this?!
[Martial Synthesis Lvl. 1 activated: Sea Pacifying Dragon's Roar Martial Art created.]
"RAAARGH!"
A roaring sound was made from using my qi to vibrate my sword, kicking up the wind and dust around me, repulsing any chi sword arrows headed towards me.
It was a haphazard on the spot technique, but I managed.
Despite me being sure that roar must've shocked his current chi, it didn't stop him.
I quickly circulated my chi into an external object around me, like an AOE tripmine that discombobulates a person's chi circuit. I theorised the technique before but I didn't have chi then l, did I?
He dashed towards me from the air, falling sword first.
"First Heaven Sea, 2nd Form, Descent to Nether Sea."
His chi pooled to the tip of his sword in threads that wrapped it like silk. The sharpness cut through the air and the chi I emitted to prevent him from getting closer.
I tried to dodge halfway by leaping into the air, rising through dust.
Once he landed, he kicked off the ground, breaking the stone beneath, and slashing towards me with thousands of possible strokes in mind.
So I did what he did. Leap into the air.
I jumped with all my strength and chi pooling in my calves and lower section, and I rose upwards. I used Chi Harmony to drain the surroundings of the chi that dissipated from my landmine trick technique.
The strategy, once again backfires on me. But not in the way you'd expect. You'd think he would've tried to get me off-balance with another one of those bullshit martial art moves that defies the laws of science, but no.
He, with chi pooling on his eyes, shining in blue, took observation of the surroundings, targeting my chi as we clashed swords.
He then emitted his qi the same way I did, if not more crude and less finalized. But its weakness was overcome by the sheer amount of qi he has.
He cut through my technique like butter on a hot knife, my sword buzzing with strain.
And I thought he was the one coming out of this fight with broken wrists.
He pushed me way back with only a slight push, and I staggered, leaving marks of burnt leather across the floor.
"This is all you got, little boy?" he said in a mocking way.
He came again. His form and stature and posture never once broke throughout this fight, despite all the aerial maneuvers you'd only see in a Bollywood basketball match.
His structure was textbook, rigid and boring, but it left no openings. He surpassed the realm of swordsmanship I'm in long ago.
His sword cut arcs like constellations in the night sky.
[Martial Synthesis EXP +20]
"First Heaven Sea, 7th Form, Crossing the Moonlit Lake."
The slash was diagonal, deceptively slow. But the chi riding it curved, a crescent blade of force whistling toward my ribs.
I twisted my wrist, parrying not against his edge but against the chi itself, vibrating my sword with newborn resonance technique. My arms numbed from the backlash, but the crescent scattered into ribbons of light like welding sparks.
[Rift Attribute EXP +10]
[Chi Harmony EXP +5]
"Hah. Clever." His smirk glinted through the haze.
He advanced without stopping, getting faster every second. I was right about having to block his momentum before it gets out of hand. What I was wrong, however, was presuming I would be able to stop him.
Each move he made bled into the next. It wasn't like any martial art from my previous world at all. It was practical but somehow completely foreign to the martial arts of my previous world.
The qi he was somehow channelling into his body was increasing. Vertical then stab then spinning draw then rising slash. Like it or not, I was learning how the Heavenly Current Sword Style works.
I concluded.
Break the flow. Break the river.
I inhaled. Circulated chi not outward, but inward. His river crashed into a wall.
"Sea Pacifying Dragon's Roar—Second Iteration!"
This time, my roar wasn't just sound. I forced chi into my lungs, then through my throat, shaking the very air. The vibration collided with his flowing strikes, dispersing the rhythm for a breath's span. I calculated the exact wavelength and everything, trying to disrupt his chi.
It wasn't like a dragon's roar at all. It was like a dog whistle. Instead of imbuing my sword with chi then moving that chi, I infused the disturbance my voice makes in the air. I used the sound wave as a weapon instead of an output.
I lunged into that gap, blade darting toward his exposed ribs.
But his wrist flicked, lightning quick despite the tendon weakness I noted. Our swords screeched as he caught me flat-on-flat, sparks spraying into my face.
"You're learning, aren't you?"
He twisted and redirected his injured wrist into a brutal backhand slash. The speed made a mockery of his age. The force of the wind generated from just that one move had my posture broken.
Steel kissed my cheek, drawing a thin red line.
"Damn it—" I ducked under, sliding on grit, my blade scraping across the stone grounds we'd started on. My lungs burned, chest heaving, every nerve screaming.
[Rift Attribute EXP +35]
[Martial Synthesis EXP +15]
No. Not yet. I can push further.
I let the strike go wide, pivoted, and let instinct guide me. My chi surged, half-formed ideas stitching themselves into techniques on the spot.
"Improvised Form… Wavebreaker Thrust!"
My sword became a dart, propelled by chi compressed in my calves and spine. The thrust screamed through the dust, fast enough to split the wind itself. How much more can I go?
Chang Yuchung's eyes narrowed.
His blade rose in a single, precise stroke.
"First Heaven Sea, 1st Form—Still Water, Clear Reflection."
Our swords met yet there was no noise. It was pure silence. His stance imitated mine on the opposite, and his chi enveloped the contact points around our blades.
He was expelling the sound wave and meeting it somehow.
The clash was so perfect it negated the force entirely. My thrust dissolved against his defense like a waterfall striking stone. He leaned forward with a voice cold enough to bite bone.
"You grow mid-battle, yes. But the bigger question is…"
"Can you actually keep this going for three days?"
Breathless, I said, "You were serious about that?"
And with that, his next strike came.
Heavier than anything I've faced before.
A descending arc that split the air like thunder cleaving the sky—
"First Heaven Sea, 15th Form, Reaper of the Drifting Moon."
It came down like the scythe of a grim reaper. It was beautiful. It carried the sweet scent of death behind it.
I could only smile.
And the world went dark again.
—
Every time I lost to that monstrous swordsmanship, I would wake up, and I would fight again. I didn't eat, and I didn't sleep. I didn't really faint, my body just succumbed to the supposed sword intent by the old man.
If I lost, and he wanted me to sleep, I would sleep. But I never really slept. My mind did, but my qi circulated and took the chi of all the things around me and harnessed it and purified it, nourishing my body.
The fight lasted three days and three nights. At some point, my body kept on fighting but my mind just wasn't there. I wasn't thinking. It was like when I was training. I was taking in all the sensations and processing them and turning them into output. I didn't think, and I didn't sleep.
In the end, when he set his blade down onto his sheath, his clothes were not even blemished in any way, though I was practically in tatters. "You'll live.", he said.
It was the first time I saw the old man smile.
After that, I slept. I slept for a whole day, fighting the old man in my dreams. I reflected on every move he made in that fight. I remembered. It's strange how good my memory is when it comes to these things. I thought of some good moves to counter his stuff.
I thought about the small sect I made in that Zhao backyard, but they probably disbanded.
Two days after the three-day duel ended, the Trial of Earth would start. As I held the blade I sharpened the night before, and as Master wrapped my forearms in bandages, I realized why he fought and trained me for so long.
The Trial of Earth wouldn't start when I finished my preparation for it. It already started the moment he started swinging.
—-
I was sent by the hosts of the trial to the mountains southwest of K'unlun. It was an underground gorge, a cavern so big it seemed like a world that collapsed into the earth.
It had jagged rocks, rushing streams and areas that seemed to reek of death. An arena-sized nightmare.
The sky bleeds purple as stormclouds coil around the jagged ridges. Disciples stand scattered across a cracked plateau with me.
Their jade tokens glowed faintly at their waists. The air itself feels heavy, as though the mountain has been waiting centuries for this moment.
Then—
A bell tolls, without wind. From nowhere and everywhere, a voice descends. All the jade tokens that seemed to shine, hanging in waists, lost their glow.
"Survive… and ascend. Make it to the other side. Stay, and the mountain keeps your bones."
The ground trembles at the words. Stones crack beneath us sending rivulets of dust and pebbles tumbling down chasms beneath our platform.
The disciples glanced at each other. Some younger participants' skin turned white with the wailing from below. Others trembled with anticipation; nervousness and excitement all in one.
The weaker ones already clutch their weapons too tightly with white knuckles and
A flock of black crows burst from the peaks whose feathers painted the better part of our sunshine, whatever was left of it . Their cries mingle with the Overseer's proclamation that seemed to carry the weight of heaven.
"No sect elder will save you. No clan blood will shield you. Here, there is only you, and the horrors that lay below and above the deep."
Suddenly, the crack leading to the gorge splits. Great stone tiles grind and collapse into a labyrinth of ridges, slopes, and narrow ledges. It seemed as if both man and heaven played apart in making this hell on earth. Somewhere deep below, the sound of hungry and immortal water rushed bellowing through the walls.
The disciples scramble for balance. I steadied myself and found my footing as the platform descended into the depression.
"It's a bit too cold, isn't it?"
The voice of the announcer booms out into the gorge again.
"Three days. Three nights. Walk out alive. Fail and you will be mourned by your family before dusk."
Silence follows, mountain groans. Ooh, that's a good name for a martial art.
I'm trying to keep myself excited but this isn't really my ideal weekend.
Then, with a sound like a dragon exhaling, the labyrinth seals itself.
The Trial has begun.
----
System Check:
Martial Rank: Half-Step Peak
Core Skills
Martial Synthesis (Lv. 4) – Instinctively fuses and forges new techniques mid-battle. Results are unstable but highly adaptive.
Chi Harmony (Lv. 4) – Aligns and circulates chi within self and environment. Useful for detox, stabilization, and external chi manipulation.
Rift Attribute (Lv. 6) – Awakens in life-and-death combat. Allows rapid adaptation, comprehension, and replication of techniques at accelerated cost.
Transparent World Vision (Lv. 2) – Perceives flow of intent, chi, and motion within a radius. Grants predictive combat insight.
—-
Martial Arts / Techniques
Sea-Pacifying Dragon's Roar (Synthesized)
Sword vibrates with roaring chi, disrupting enemy techniques and creating repulsive shockwaves.
Chi Disruption Mine (Synthesized)
External chi scattered into the ground/air; destabilizes opponent's circuits on contact.
First Heaven Sea Sword Art
1st Form, Calm Sea Hides Abyss, Neutralizes incoming attacks with deceptive stillness; sets up counterstrike, LVL. 9
2nd Form, Descent to Nether Sea, High-velocity downward strike; silk-thread chi focus allows lethal precision, LVL. 9
3rd Form, Foam Crest Shatters Shore, Wide horizontal slash generating a cutting chi wave; can break multiple defenses, LVL. 9
4th Form, Hidden Current Pulls Below, Redirects opponent's momentum; can pull enemies off-balance or into traps, LVL. 9
5th Form, Returning Tide Reverses Force, Defensive riposte that converts opponent's strength into your own chi output, LVL. 9
6th Form, Salt Wind Cuts Horizon, Rapid flurries of strikes mimicking wind patterns; disorients opponents mid-range, LVL. 9
7th Form, Swirling Sea Drowns Foe, Circular spinning slash; chi vortex pulls enemies inward, ideal for crowd control, LVL. 9
8th Form, Diver's Spear Seeks Pearl, Precision thrusting sequence; can penetrate strong defenses and armored targets, LVL. 9
9th Form, Coral Fang Fractures Flesh, Multi-angle diagonal cuts designed to shatter joints or weaponry; focuses on disabling, LVL. 9
10th Form, Sea Beast Opens Maw, Charged overhead strike; releases stored chi explosively, breaking through guard, LVL. 9
11th Form, Moonlight Shimmers on Waves, Evasive, fluid steps with counterattacks; increases mobility and misdirection, LVL. 9
12th Form, Falling Stars Pierce Sea, Quick sequential thrusts; strikes multiple angles, overwhelming opponents' defenses, LVL. 9
13th Form, Horizon Splits Sky-Sea, Wide-reaching diagonal slash; can sweep multiple opponents or cut environmental objects, LVL. 9
14th Form, Breathing Above the Clouds, Aerial maneuver, attack from high ground with chi amplification, LVL. 9
15th Form, Reaper of the Drifting Moon, Finishing strike with extreme lethality; carries fullest sword intent, LVL. 9
16th Form, Abyss Weighs Down Heaven, Heavy downward force strikes; chi compression temporarily immobilizes targets, LVL. 9
17th Form, Heaven Floods Earthly Realm, Unleashes chaotic flurry of strikes in multiple directions; hard to predict or defend, LVL. 9
18th Form, Boundless Sea Becomes Heaven, Combines all chi flows into a single, devastating sweeping attack, LVL. 9
True Inhuman Divine Revolt Art (Cultivation Method)
Revolution of the current state of the mind, body, and spirit through the rejection of heaven's will, LVL. 1