Blade Force

He silently added to himself: If my Blue Silver Grass could restore Soul Power instead of only vitality, I really would have you stay in cat-person form for the foreseeable future. Of course-it absolutely wasn't because I wanted a few more looks at a catgirl. It was purely to help you adapt faster.

Jiang Che reined in his wandering thoughts, composed himself, and continued, "Also, during Martial Soul Possession, you need to keep sensing the paths your Soul Power takes through your body."

"Simply put, you need to make the possessed state controllable and precise, guiding Martial Soul Possession toward speed, step by step."

He raised a hand and pointed toward an open stretch in the distance. "Come on, Zhu Zhuqing. Activate Martial Soul Possession and sprint that way at full speed. Run and let me see."

After hearing Jiang Che out, Zhu Zhuqing did not ask a single question.

The next instant, the phantom of a Hell Spirit Cat flashed behind her and vanished. Her Martial Soul had already possessed her.

She lowered her body, drove with all four limbs, and shot straight into the depths of the forest like a bolt of black lightning.

Watching the ever-lengthening afterimage, Jiang Che gathered Soul Power in his throat, his voice piercing the howling wind. "Pay close attention-to the flow of Soul Power in your legs, waist, and back! Remember how Soul Power is distributed through every inch of muscle during Martial Soul Possession in your cat-person form!"

Zhu Zhuqing pushed her speed to the fullest. Wind blades cut at her face, and the scenery around her blurred into flowing patches of color.

As she approached her limit, Jiang Che's shout exploded beside her ears once again.

She abruptly gathered her focus and sank her awareness into her body.

As her legs drove fiercely against the ground again and again, she began to catch the traces of Soul Power consumption under Martial Soul Possession.

"I can feel it!" Zhu Zhuqing whipped her head around, her eyes lighting up with surprise and delight as she shouted toward Jiang Che in the distance.

"Then keep running! Keep going!" Jiang Che's voice was steady and firm. "Try actively adjusting the distribution of your Soul Power. Push every unnecessary portion toward increasing your speed!"

Zhu Zhuqing stopped letting herself be distracted. Gritting her teeth, she pinned every ounce of her will on running itself.

Her breathing grew heavier and heavier, her chest heaving like bellows. Sprinting at the limits of Martial Soul Possession weighed on her like a mountain.

Zhu Zhuqing clenched her teeth tightly.

In the past, during Martial Soul Possession, her Soul Power had circulated entirely on instinct, like a stream automatically flowing along an old riverbed.

This was the first time in Zhu Zhuqing's life that she had actively interfered with the path of her Soul Power.

Like an infant learning to walk, the Soul Power driven by her will darted this way and that, repeatedly hitting walls. When she finally managed to guide it into her legs, it suddenly scattered into her shoulder blades, the sides of her waist, and her tailbone before she could exert any strength, refusing to obey her at all.

She simply shut out her body's wails completely, condensed her will into a single beam, and tried over and over-dispersing, then trying again.

Finally, at the instant she pushed off the ground once more,

Her burst of speed in that instant rose a full twenty percent above her limit.

Although it lasted only a second, as brief as a breath, she had done it.

But the price followed immediately.

Her vision abruptly went black, the world flipped over, and she pitched forward, her back slamming into the grass.

Jiang Che's figure followed close behind.

"First Soul Skill, Profusion!"

Jiang Che used his first Soul Skill to heal Zhu Zhuqing.

Zhu Zhuqing's eyes were tightly shut, her face twisting slightly from the intense pain.

"You're pushing yourself far too hard." Jiang Che's throat felt slightly tight as he sighed softly.

A week slipped quietly by.

Over that week, Jiang Che taught Zhu Zhuqing the Symbiosis Method.

Of course, Jiang Che also explained its benefits and drawbacks.

Zhu Zhuqing agreed after only a moment's thought.

She merely had to refrain from doing anything that would harm Jiang Che. To Zhu Zhuqing, that was hardly an issue.

Over this month, Jiang Che had not been idle either. He had made a breakthrough in his Lingyun Flower-Flying Knife, successfully learning Blade Force.

In a dense forest, a thousand-year Cave Demon Spider lurked among dead trees.

It had just dragged a hundred-year One-Horned Rhinoceros out of its nest and was tearing at its flesh with its chelicerae.

Jiang Che adjusted his breathing, stabilized the True Qi inside his blade, and made that Blade Force envelop the Blue Silver Longsword.

The Cave Demon Spider suddenly stopped eating, turning its eight compound eyes toward Jiang Che's position.

Jiang Che sprang off the ground, sweeping his blade upward.

The hard shell the Cave Demon Spider took such pride in was instantly breached by that slash.

In pain, the Cave Demon Spider swept a leg sideways, intending to send Jiang Che flying.

Jiang Che was ready. A Qi Condensation Shield enveloped his entire body as he took the Cave Demon Spider's sweep head-on.

Seeing its strike fail, the Cave Demon Spider turned to flee!

It had only just taken a step.

A slash imbued with Blade Force swept out.

The Cave Demon Spider let out a shriek. With one leg lost, its body fell off balance, its center of gravity tipping to the left.

He raised his blade again.

The Cave Demon Spider lurched toward him, opening its mouth to spit out a glob of venom.

Jiang Che blocked it with the Qi Condensation Shield.

The venom clung to the Qi Condensation Shield, sending up billowing white smoke.

The second slash severed another of the Cave Demon Spider's legs.

Those two slashes felt to Jiang Che like cutting through sheets of paper, utterly effortless.

With two of its eight legs crippled, the Cave Demon Spider completely lost its balance, its enormous body toppling sideways.

Jiang Che gripped his blade with both hands and delivered the final slash.

The demon spider's body stiffened for an instant. All eight legs twitched at once, and then its entire body went limp.

[Ding-!]

[Killed a 1,121-year Cave Demon Spider. Gained 15 Skill Points.]

[Current Skill Points: 314]

"Strong. This is really too strong!"

He had only mastered the Blade Force of the first form. If he fully comprehended that form, this Cave Demon Spider probably would not last even a second.

Zhu Zhuqing and the Profound Water Turtle, hiding off to the side, were both left staring in a daze by what Jiang Che had just done.

The Profound Water Turtle looked at the Cave Demon Spider's miserable state, then at its own shell, and swallowed.

Frightened though the Profound Water Turtle was, it never entertained even the slightest thought of running away. This was because the Soul-Enhancing Pill Jiang Che had given it a few days earlier had brought it heaven-defying benefits.

The main reason Jiang Che had given this turtle a Soul-Enhancing Pill was that watching it serve as Zhu Zhuqing's punching bag every day seemed far too stifling...

But after giving it that Soul-Enhancing Pill, Jiang Che regretted it.

It was not that he begrudged the Soul-Enhancing Pill. Rather, after tasting the pill's benefits, this turtle put considerably more effort into being a punching bag.

Later, when it was no longer needed as a punching bag, good grief, the turtle refused to leave. Come hell or high water, it insisted on staying here to keep being a punching bag.

Zhu Zhuqing had far more on her mind than the turtle beside her.

Besides shock, she also felt bewildered by why Jiang Che was so strong.

To kill a thousand-year Soul Master with the cultivation of a Soul Grandmaster-how inconceivable was that?

Jiang Che's Second Soul Ring was a Thousand-Year Soul Ring. Every single thing about him would cause quite a stir in the outside world.

At present, Zhu Zhuqing felt both shock and anticipation for the future.

Because Jiang Che had told Zhu Zhuqing about the benefits of this Soul-Enhancing Pill, that meant she could absorb a Soul Ring at least three thousand years old as her third Soul Ring!