After returning from paying his respects, Loa soon found the heavy longing and emptiness in his heart filled by more practical desires and a sense of urgency. Growing stronger was like rowing upstream. Especially after seeing a broader world and surviving the black market's life-and-death dangers, he understood more clearly than ever that relying solely on his self-created weapon combat Battle-qi was far from enough. A systematic cultivation method, particularly an elemental Battle Qi Manual suited to his exceptional elemental affinity, was essential to building a solid foundation and reaching higher levels.
He wasted little time. The day after returning to Fenlai City, he stepped into the lavish lobby of the Hall of Wisdom once more.
This time, he had a clear goal. He went straight to the young female attendant responsible for the Battle-qi and combat technique section.
"I need mainstream Wind Element and lightning Battle Qi Manuals that can take me to Rank 7 Warrior, along with matching combat techniques focused on explosive speed or powerful assaults. Also, what top-tier movement techniques do you have?"
A trace of surprise flashed through the young attendant's eyes, but she quickly regained her professional manner and selected several recommendations from the vast collection of texts.
The Wind Element Battle Qi Manual, Wild Wind Guidance, came with the sword technique Wild Wind and Sudden Rain Sword. The manual was balanced and steady, progressing step by step, emphasizing smooth Battle-qi circulation and instantaneous bursts, and was especially suited to weapons such as longswords. The sword technique lived up to its name, seeking strikes that swept like wild winds and continuous sword shadows like torrential rain, using offense as defense and speed to win.
The lightning Battle Qi Manual, Rushing Thunder Art, came with the hammer technique Furious Thunder Strike, whose power-generation methods could be adapted. Lightning Battle-qi was renowned for its violence, speed, and strong penetration, and Rushing Thunder Art had distinctive strengths in storing and releasing power. Although Furious Thunder Strike was primarily a hammer technique, its core method of concentrating the entire body's strength and Battle-qi into a single point before unleashing an instantaneous, explosive burst was immensely valuable for any heavy weapon, or even fists and feet. It precisely addressed Loa's current lack of a heavy, one-hit killing move.
Together, these two sets were already expensive, but still within Loa's means.
However, when the young attendant brought out an antique-looking scroll made from specially tanned magical beast hide, its edges inlaid with pale silver patterns, the price she quoted made Loa's heart skip.
"The movement technique, Gentle Breeze Caressing Willow, an incomplete scroll. This technique isn't purely focused on explosive speed. It places greater emphasis on agility, dissipating force, evasion, and turning an opponent's strength against them. It was reportedly created several hundred years ago by a Saint expert who was inspired while watching willow branches beside a lake sway without breaking in fierce winds, moving with the wind and using it to shed force. Only the first half survives, so it cannot reach the legendary pinnacle of 'turning the body into a gentle breeze, untouched by ten thousand blades,' but it is sufficient for cultivation up to Rank 9 Warrior and offers tremendous benefits for physical coordination and control of combat rhythm. The price... five hundred gold coins."
Five hundred gold coins! For an incomplete scroll alone! That would consume most of the savings Loa had amassed through black-market death matches and smithing. He took a deep breath without hesitating. After witnessing that short man's ghostlike movements, he understood all too well the value of a top-tier movement technique in mortal combat. It was not merely about dodging, but the key to controlling the battlefield, creating openings, and even surviving desperate situations!
"I'll take them all." Loa placed his heavy money pouch on the counter. Inside was the vast majority of the wealth he had earned through sweat and blood over the past several months.
A short while later, he left the Hall of Wisdom carrying several scrolls that held his hopes and future. Loa's money pouch had become nearly empty, with fewer than a hundred gold coins left clinking inside.
The days that followed became more monotonous, but also more fulfilling.
By day, he hammered iron and filled orders. Even the furnace and the ringing of the anvil now seemed to carry a hint of surging wind and thunder to his ears.
His nights and every spare moment belonged entirely to cultivation. First, he read through Wild Wind Guidance and Rushing Thunder Art. The two manuals differed completely in their cultivation pathways, Battle-qi properties, and circulation methods, but their fundamental principles followed the same foundations as General Principles of Battle-qi, so he had no difficulty understanding them.
He tried cultivating both simultaneously. The result was expected, though it still disappointed him slightly. Wind Element Battle-qi was light and swift, flowing through his meridians like a stream or a clear breeze; lightning Battle-qi was violent and restless, surging like electric arcs. Each occupied its own corner of his dantian. Although his exceptional elemental affinity allowed him to progress extremely quickly in both, they remained distinctly separate and struggled to blend naturally. Trying to force them together only caused violent clashes and swelling pain in his meridians, falling far short of an effect greater than the sum of its parts and potentially even injuring him.
"As expected, creating a fusion cultivation method isn't that simple." Loa shook his head and abandoned the risky idea. Mastering both elements separately was already something most people could only dream of. He understood the danger of biting off more than he could chew.
He devoted more energy to honing his combat techniques. The speed and complexity of Wild Wind and Sudden Rain Sword greatly expanded his offensive repertoire, freeing him from relying solely on Gale Thrust's single forward attack. He adapted Furious Thunder Strike's power-generation methods to his swordsmanship and combined them with his understanding that "power begins at the waist," creating an explosive sword move far more powerful than an ordinary Heavy Thrust. He called it Thunder Collapse. Although it could not concentrate his entire body's strength into one point on a heavy weapon as completely as the original Furious Thunder Strike, its instantaneous impact and penetration were already formidable when performed with a longsword.
The greatest surprise, however, came from the weapon combat Battle-qi he had never stopped practicing.
During one experiment, he inadvertently channeled both the Wind Element Battle-qi produced by Wild Wind Guidance and his weapon combat Battle-qi into his arm as he struck. In an instant, his sword accelerated sharply, the wind from its passage grew sharper than ever, and the transitions between moves gained an elusive agility! When his weapon combat Battle-qi combined with the lightning Battle-qi of Rushing Thunder Art, his sword thrusts carried a muffled explosive crack, their power became more concentrated and their penetration stronger, and they even seemed to carry a faint numbing, stunning effect!
His weapon combat Battle-qi seemed to have become the perfect "adhesive" and "amplifier." It appeared to have no fixed element of its own, yet it could coexist perfectly with wind and lightning Battle-qi, even guiding them to combine more effectively with his physical strength and the intent of his sword moves, producing an effect greater than the sum of its parts! Under its unifying influence, the speed and agility of the Wind Element and the explosive power and penetration of lightning could actually be emphasized and blended to different degrees according to the demands of battle!
"So that's the key!" Loa suddenly saw the way forward. To truly bring out the advantages of both wind and lightning and blend them into a unique combat system, the key was not forcibly mixing the two elemental Battle-qi types. Instead, he needed to use his self-created, highly accommodating weapon combat Battle-qi as a foundation and bridge to command, harmonize, and unleash them. This was a path that belonged to him alone!
There was no experience left by predecessors to guide him along this path. Through countless cultivation sessions, sparring matches, and even life-and-death battles, he would have to explore the best proportions for combining the two elements with weapon combat Battle-qi, the rhythm of switching between them, and the timing of their explosive release. But at least his direction was clear.
His most expensive investment, the Gentle Breeze Caressing Willow movement technique, brought a transformation visible to the naked eye. At first, adjusting his steps and posture felt unbearably awkward, as though he had to shatter and rebuild every method of exerting force he had grown used to since childhood. Only when he gradually grasped the subtle feeling of "following the wind like a willow, shedding incoming force, and entering when an opening appears" did he understand just how well those five hundred gold coins had been spent. His evasions were no longer merely direct dodges based on speed and anticipation; they now included many ingenious ways of borrowing force and following momentum. His movements also became more elusive and unpredictable, multiplying their power when paired with Wild Wind and Sudden Rain Sword.
Time flew by in focused cultivation. Another winter beside the furnace gradually faded, and scattered tender green buds quietly emerged on the branches of the old tree at the entrance to Cast Iron Alley.
It was February of the following year.
Loa lowered his sword and stood in the courtyard, slowly releasing a long breath that condensed into a faint white ribbon in the cool morning breeze. Within him, weapon combat Battle-qi and Wind-Thunder Battle-qi circulated smoothly together, thicker and more solid than they had been several months earlier. He had naturally reached the middle stage of Rank 4 Warrior.
He looked west, toward the Ernst Institute. Linley should already have set off for the continent's foremost Magic Academy by now, shouldn't he?
His growing strength brought greater confidence, but also new desires. The black market's death-match arena was gradually ceasing to pressure him. Its strongest fighters were only at the peak of Rank 4, the combat environment was fixed, and their routines were becoming familiar. In his last few matches, he had rarely even been injured. The pleasure of winning money was now far weaker than his anxiety over his stagnating strength.
He knew it was time.
A true warrior needed to hone his edge in a broader, more dangerous, and more unpredictable world. The Magical Beast Mountain Range-that ancient forest stretching across the Yulan Continent, home to countless powerful magical beasts and unknown opportunities-was the proving ground for his next stage.
There were terrifying magical beasts powerful enough to keep him constantly on the edge between life and death, rare medicinal herbs and minerals, harsher laws of survival, and perhaps opportunities beyond imagination.
Back in the shop, Bob was giving a longsword its final quench. Loa walked over to him and said, "Uncle Bob, in a while, I'm planning to go train on the outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range."
Bob's hands did not pause in the slightest. He merely grunted, "Mm," as though he had expected it. A while later, after finishing the quench, he finally straightened, wiped his hands with a rag, and looked at Loa. "Can't sit still anymore?"
Loa nodded. "The death matches and mercenary jobs can't give me the pressure I want anymore. I want to get out, see the wider world, and look for... a chance to go further."
"The Magical Beast Mountain Range isn't that piss-sized black-market arena." Bob's voice was calm, but solemn. "That place will eat you alive, bones and all. A Rank 4 Warrior can manage wandering around the outskirts. Don't go charging deeper with no regard for your life. Run into creatures that live in packs, cunning ones, or ones with hides so thick they make you despair, and you won't even know how you died. And you need to be even more wary of other people!"
"I understand. I'll be careful and start at the very outer edge," Loa answered earnestly.
Bob said no more. He turned and rummaged at the very bottom of the counter for a while, then pulled out an unremarkable gray cloth pouch the size of a palm and tossed it to Loa.
"Catch. There's some 'blazing fire powder' inside, plenty to last you. It's useful against magical beasts that favor dark places and fear fire, and for keeping bugs away. There are also a few packets of powder I mixed myself to stop bleeding and fight inflammation. Works a little better than what's sold in the shops. Use it sparingly."
Loa caught the little pouch, light in weight but heavy with care, and gripped it in his hand. "Thank you, Uncle Bob."
"Thank you, my ass." Bob waved him off and picked up a farm tool awaiting repair, his back to Loa. "Say something when you're leaving. I'll keep your work here waiting for you. Don't go dying out there."
Watching Bob's exceptionally solid back, Loa felt warmth surge through his heart. He carefully put away the gray cloth pouch and looked out the window again.
The spring breeze already carried warmth, and fresh green growth flourished on the branches.
The vast outline of the Magical Beast Mountain Range seemed to be faintly emerging on the distant horizon.
A new journey was about to begin.
Before you continue