Momentum and Precision

That morning, under the severalfold gravity of the Greater Gravity Spell, Arnold sat cross-legged in complete calm, circulating the battle qi within his body. Under the pressure of gravity, his battle qi moved with extreme difficulty. But when it completed another cycle and returned to his dantian, it suddenly began to tremble. The earth-yellow battle qi throughout his lower dantian surged.

It was obvious that the time for a breakthrough had come. Arnold immediately canceled the Greater Gravity Spell and began preparing to break through.

Feeling the violent changes in his dantian, Arnold smiled as well. Every strand of battle qi within him was transforming, its quality growing higher and higher.

At first, not much battle qi transformed, but as time passed, more and more of it changed, and the process grew faster and faster. The volume of battle qi in Arnold's dantian continuously shrank, yet its density increased greatly.

The transformation of his battle qi lasted nearly an hour. The battle qi within Arnold had completely undergone its metamorphosis, all of it liquefying.

There was only a thin barrier between the peak of Sixth-level and the early stage of Seventh-level, but the difference in strength was no small matter. In terms of battle qi alone, Arnold's strength had increased severalfold. Relying solely on battle qi, Arnold now dared to face an Eighth-level Warrior one-on-one, much less with his exceptionally high magical attainments.

Now that his battle qi had reached the Seventh-level realm, it was time to create a new ultimate move besides Earth Rend.

The training grounds at Yale Estate were no longer sufficient for researching a new ultimate move. Thus, Arnold left Scarlet Flame City and went to a secluded valley outside the city to develop it.

Drawing on a certain ninjutsu from his memories, Arnold began researching how to win through speed. Both the Earth Escape Art and Wind Escape Technique allowed him to merge with their respective elements, greatly increasing his speed, but the Wind Escape Technique clearly provided a greater boost.

Using the Wind Escape Technique to rapidly close in on an enemy, building up tremendous speed, then unleashing Earth Rend—the power it would produce was easy to imagine.

But didn't the Wind Escape Technique belong to the Wind Law? How could it be combined with Earth Rend? In truth, it could. The Earth Rend Arnold used was essentially an application of a natural "Momentum" between heaven and earth. When using Earth Rend, Arnold merely infused Mooncleaver with battle qi or power, so its raw might was not especially great. He simply incorporated "Momentum" into the attack; he was not actually using the Earth Law.

In Arnold's view, this so-called "Momentum" was akin to the power of heaven and earth's natural order. During an attack, it could resonate with heaven and earth, drawing upon their power to strengthen oneself and restrain one's enemy. That was "Momentum." Beyond Momentum lay the so-called Laws. Warriors did not comprehend nature and the Laws as easily as magi did. Arnold guessed that once warriors reached the advanced stages, they should comprehend the use of Momentum, then use it to further comprehend the Laws.

Arnold had a decent understanding of the five major branches of the Earth Law, but that understanding was far too rudimentary. He even felt that his comprehension of the Laws was less than one ten-thousandth of their true depth. Therefore, he would not underestimate the power of Momentum because of it.

Thus, the Wind Escape Technique could absolutely be merged with Earth Rend without any issue. Arnold began practicing again and again.

This training process was both an application of combining the Wind Escape Technique with Earth Rend and a way to deepen his understanding of Momentum.

Within this valley, Arnold often used the Wind Escape Technique to merge with wind elements and push his speed to the limit, then used the Momentum he had comprehended to empower earth elements for the final strike.

But Arnold was not very satisfied. The speed boost from the Wind Escape Technique did make him extremely fast. Yet he relied on long distances to make himself faster before using Momentum to attack his enemy. What if the enemy was only ten meters away, or even closer?

He could not always rely on distance to accelerate. So how could he increase his speed? Arnold began pondering the question endlessly.

Everything on the Yulan Continent could be explained through the Earth Laws. The Laws that warriors and magi could cultivate included the seven basic elemental systems, as well as the highly mysterious Life Magic, Fate Law, and Necromancy. Thus, other outward phenomena were actually hidden within the Elemental Laws.

For example, after long-term cultivation, Arnold had concluded that Gravity Law was a branch of the Earth Law. As for speed, after little consideration, Arnold likewise concluded that it should be a branch of the Wind Law.

If he could comprehend speed, the increase in his attack power would be beyond question.

But although he understood where speed came from, Arnold could only stare helplessly. No matter how he used the auxiliary spell Extreme, his self-created Wind Escape Technique, or high-speed movement, he was always short of that final step. He simply could not touch the edge of speed. It had been a long time since he had felt this frustrated. Only when he had comprehended the Life Force contained within the Earth Law years ago had he felt the same way.

For the time being, he could only give up and turn to another direction. Wind-type auxiliary magic had two spells: Extreme and Precision. Since Extreme's boost to speed was so convenient, it was the one Arnold used most often. However, after comprehending the Wind Escape Technique, he had basically abandoned Extreme.

This time, what Arnold intended to study was the auxiliary spell Precision! The purpose of an attack was, after all, to hit the enemy. If the enemy was fast enough to evade it, then the attack was useless. Precision allowed a wind mage's attacks to alter their angle and direction.

If he used the auxiliary spell Precision while attacking, then every strike would surely hit the enemy's vital points, inflicting highly effective damage.

If he combined Precision, the Wind Escape Technique, and Momentum, Arnold's strength would certainly rise greatly. Of course, now that he had set the direction, he needed to cultivate slowly and advance toward it.

Arnold first began training to combine Precision with Momentum.

A large tree two hundred meters in front of Arnold often shed leaves. Those falling leaves became his training targets.

Again and again, Arnold swung Mooncleaver at the falling leaves. Even with Precision, the thin strands of battle qi he sent flying could not hit every leaf. Whenever a gust of wind drifted by, the leaves' trajectories became unpredictable.

But after days of training, Arnold held Mooncleaver and slashed straight ahead. This time, the battle qi he sent flying still triggered a rapid flow of wind in the air. That current of wind wrapped around the strand of battle qi, directly enveloping the falling leaves. Crack! Crack! Crack! The leaves instantly turned to powder.

The effective combination of Precision and Momentum had been achieved.

As he continued cultivating, Arnold gained a profound understanding of the realm of Momentum. After all, he had even managed to develop the Wind Escape Technique. Cultivating Momentum to its peak would not be a problem.

His reason for comprehending Momentum was mainly to understand the Wind Law. Arnold had equal affinity for earth elements, making research into earth magic come naturally to him. His affinity for wind elements was high as well. Although he could also comprehend the Wind Law through researching and improving wind magic, Arnold felt that comprehending Momentum first, cultivating it to its peak, and then breaking through Momentum to reach the level of understanding the Wind Law would be faster than comprehending the Wind Law through researching wind magic.