Magical Talent: Wind, Water, and Lightning
Time passed.
At Philipzi Warrior Academy, Luo Feng remained as independent as ever. He spent most of each day training hard in the mountains behind the academy, either cultivating Battle-qi or honing his combat skills. His days were packed so tightly that he never seemed to have any free time.
When Luo Feng entered puberty, his appetite increased sharply and he shot up in height. His physical condition and strength naturally improved by leaps and bounds.
After a year and a half, the thirteen-year-old Luo Feng stood nearly 160 centimeters tall. His streamlined muscles made him stand out among his peers. Of course, that was not all the year had brought him. Half a month ago, Luo Feng had broken through to become a Warrior of the Fourth Rank and reached the early stage of the Warrior of the Fifth Rank.
Spring passed and autumn came, flowers bloomed and fell, and in the blink of an eye, another half a year went by.
At a waterfall in the mountains behind Philipzi Warrior Academy.
"Rumble~~~" The waterfall poured down like a curtain of water, crashing into the deep pool below.
The stream gurgled along. Luo Feng sat cross-legged with a greatsword lying across his legs. At that moment, he seemed immersed in nature, his heart in harmony with the entire waterfall. The wondrous sensation kept him from noticing the passage of time. So completely attuned to nature, Luo Feng found that his spiritual energy had begun to stir with new life and grow.
Luo Feng suddenly rose to his feet with his eyes closed, picked up the greatsword from his legs, and began to swing it.
Before long, nine faint streaks of sword-qi surrounded Luo Feng. Then nine became twenty-seven, and twenty-seven became seventy-two. Finally, the number stopped at seventy-two.
"Swish!" "Swish!" "Swish!" "Swish!" "Swish!" "Swish!"
The seventy-two streaks of sword-qi merged into one, their light gathering on the greatsword in Luo Feng's hand. It was hard to imagine that an ordinary mercenary's greatsword could shimmer with flowing light. Suddenly, Luo Feng opened his eyes and thrust the flickering blade straight ahead.
"Boom!" "Boom!" The water in front of him exploded. From beginning to end, the movement flowed without a pause!
A trace of a smile appeared at the corners of Luo Feng's eyes. Yes, a year had passed since he came to the academy. Every day, he had absorbed the knowledge taught there with frantic intensity and combined it with his own Battle-qi. At last, he had touched the threshold of sword techniques.
Luo Feng remembered that, according to the Coiling Dragon novel, cultivation began with attack techniques, followed by Wielding Something Heavy as Though It Were Light, then force, and finally comprehending the Laws. Of course, this applied not only to swordsmanship, but to the cultivation of all warriors.
The Laws were still far beyond Luo Feng's reach. The road had to be traveled one step at a time; he could not comprehend force all at once, much less the Laws. So, apart from his necessary Battle-qi cultivation, Luo Feng spent all his time honing his attack techniques. Now, at last, he had taken that first step and touched upon attack techniques.
"Luo Feng, you're here again. You're easy to find. Come to the back mountains any day, and I'm sure to see you," said Tizi, Luo Feng's instructor. It could be called fate: Tizi had been Luo Feng's chief examiner and, upon seeing his aptitude, had volunteered to become the instructor of his class. With Tizi's strength at the peak of the Eighth Rank, just one step away from becoming a Warrior of the Ninth Rank, he was more than qualified to be director of instruction, yet he had volunteered to be Luo Feng's instructor.
"Instructor Tizi, what did you need me for?" Luo Feng asked mildly. Tizi had helped him a great deal in reaching the threshold of attack techniques so quickly, so Luo Feng was very fond of him.
"You brat, can't I come looking for you without a reason? Never mind. Didn't you tell me once that you wanted to find a mage to see if you had the potential to become one? I contacted an Eighth-Rank magister for you. Go see him in a couple of days and ask him to test you," Tizi said with a smile.
"Ha, really? Thank you, Instructor Tizi," Luo Feng said gratefully. This concerned the path of his future cultivation. How could he not be excited?
"Ha, I really don't know what goes on in that head of yours. You're already a Warrior of the Fifth Rank. Reaching the Fifth Rank at thirteen makes you a genius, yet now you want to be tested as a mage. Don't tell me you want to become one. All right, enough chatter. My Battle-qi hasn't been flowing smoothly lately, so I expect I can break through to become a Warrior of the Ninth Rank within the next two years. I've stepped down as an instructor and plan to go traveling. I suppose I'm here to say goodbye today." Tizi had been a genius at Philipzi Warrior Academy in his youth, and he was quite confident he could break through to become a Warrior of the Ninth Rank.
"Mm, all right. Goodbye, Instructor." Luo Feng was a little reluctant to part. After all, Tizi's help over the past year had been plain to see, and now that he was suddenly leaving, Luo Feng truly found it hard to see him go.
"Hello, are you Grand Magister Maifu'er? My instructor sent me to see you." The next morning, Luo Feng rose early and hurried to Grand Magister Maifu'er's residence.
"Oh, it's you. Your instructor told me you wanted to be tested for magical talent. All right, come with me." Maifu'er wasted no more words and led Luo Feng inside.
In the hall stood a crystal ball, along with a complex hexagonal magic formation in the center. Maifu'er stood off to the side.
"Boy, put your hand on the crystal ball," Maifu'er said.
A little nervous, Luo Feng placed his right hand on the crystal ball. At once, the entire ball began to shine with a dazzling cyan light, mixed with blue and violet.
Maifu'er exclaimed in astonishment, "Boy, your aptitude really surprises me. Superior affinity for the Wind Element, superior for the Lightning Element, and high for the Water Element. Your Water Element affinity is actually close to superior too, only a little weaker than your affinity for wind and lightning."
To put it another way, what took someone else ten hours of refining magical power would probably take Luo Feng only one hour to accomplish.
"Whew!"
His elemental affinity was actually superior, and in two elements at that. It was terrifying.
Luo Feng was overjoyed by the result, because he knew that dual-element mages were stronger than single-element mages.
Now that his elemental affinity had been tested, it was time to test his spiritual energy!
"Remember, endure as long as you can during the spiritual energy test." Maifu'er suddenly grew serious. He wanted to see just how strong the spiritual energy of someone with Luo Feng's terrifying talent was.
Luo Feng stepped into the magic formation.
The formation lit up with a warm white glow, and a pressure bore directly down on his soul.
The Light Element spell, Intimidation.
As time passed, the formation shone brighter and brighter, and the pressure of Intimidation grew stronger. Maifu'er held his breath as he watched. Inside the formation, Luo Feng resisted Intimidation alone.
Time passed slowly. Luo Feng breathed heavily, his entire head spinning. The tremendous pressure was like a mountain bearing down on him, and it kept growing stronger, but he continued to endure.
Then, when the pressure reached a certain level, Luo Feng could no longer withstand it. He crashed down onto one knee, bracing himself with both hands on the ground.
His face flushed, Maifu'er announced loudly, "Spiritual energy: forty-eight times that of his peers, superior. Superior spiritual energy, superior elemental affinity."
Having lived two lives and attuned himself to nature while cultivating Battle-qi, Luo Feng naturally knew that his spiritual energy far exceeded that of ordinary people. In truth, he had come to find out exactly which elements he had a talent for. Seeing that he had a talent for three elements, two of them superior, filled him with joy. As for his spiritual energy, he could take the test or leave it, but since the old man wanted to test him, he went along with it.