Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 57, Yet Another Saint-Level
A Saint-level magicite core contained the essence of a Saint-level magical beast’s magical power. A Saint-level magicite core was something that was very hard to consume, and which would take a significant amount of time to do so. In the past, because Linley had the legendary ‘Dragonblood Warrior bloodline’, his special bloodline eventually dissolved and absorbed that ninth-rank magicite core of the Armored Razorback Wyrm.
But even after he had dissolved and absorbed that magicite core of the ninth rank, the residual energy of the core remained in Linley’s body, alongside his Dragonblood. It hadn’t been totally mastered and utilized by Linley.
“As the current continues to take us south, from here to the Southwest Administrative Province, we will have travelled more than three thousand kilometers. Such an enormous distance will take several days, even though we are following the current.”
Looking at the roiling waves, Linley said to himself.
Who knows if a few days would be enough for Haeru to finish dissolving and absorbing that Saint-level magicite core. Linley himself didn’t have any experience of course when it came to the subject of peak-stage magical beasts of the ninth rank absorbing magicite cores.
“Gates, why are you going back inside? The scenery around the Yulan river is pretty good.” The third brother, Hazer, said in a loud voice.
Of the Barker brothers, four were standing in front of the railing, enjoying the beautiful sights of the Yulan river. Only Gates was heading back into the cabin.
“Big bro and second bro have already made their breakthroughs, third bro. You guys can watch, but I’m not in the mood. I don’t want to waste time. I’ll go back and train.” Gates replied back loudly.
Hazer was caught off-guard.
Linley turned to stare at Gates in surprise. Right now, only two of the five had mastered the level of ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’. One was Barker, while the other was Gates. Gates was a very proud person. Linley knew this quite well.
“Gates is right.” The fourth brother, Boone, nodded as well. “I will go train as well.”
The third brother, Hazer, followed Boone into the cabin as well, leaving behind just Barker and Ankh. The two exchange glances, then began to laugh.
“Second bro, you have to work hard. If Gates makes a breakthrough, he’ll be more powerful than you.” Barker laughed as he spoke to Ankh.
Ankh nodded, drawing out the two giant long-handled greataxes on his back. “I’m going to the rear deck to train with my weapons.”
“I’ll go with you.” Barker drew out his own long-handled greataxes as well.
The long-handled greataxes of Barker and his brothers were quite astonishing. These might be the heaviest weapons that existed in the modern world. 5300 pounds each, they were quite suited to the Undying Warriors, famed amongst the Supreme Warriors for their strength.
Zassler laughed as he stroked his white beard. “Those five brothers really have become quite hard working. They make this old man feel a bit ashamed.”
But despite saying that, Zassler continued to admire the local scenery.
At Zassler’s current level, what he needed was a flash of insight. Training alone wouldn’t provide that.
Smiling, Linley stood on the front of the ship. Slowly, Linley closed his eyes. The wind over the wide Yulan river was quite strong, and it buffeted Linley’s robes, causing Linley to sway ever so slightly.
Linley had totally become one with the wind, and could sense the movements of the wind elemental essence.
…..
Time flowed on like water. In the blink of an eye, four days had passed, and the ship had entered the domain of the Southwest Administrative Province. In two days or so, they should be able to reach the harbor they were aiming for.
“Big brother Linley is training?” Jenne said quietly.
Rebecca and Leena both shook her heads, indicating that they didn’t know.
Right now, it was late at night, but Linley continued to stand on the deck of the ship, his eyes closed. If someone thought Linley was asleep, though, they would have been wrong. Because every so often, a flash of violet light would pass by Linley’s body.
The difference was, this time, Linley wasn’t aiming for speed.
When he was training in the ‘Rippling Wind’ technique, Linley’s body was always surrounded by innumerable sword flashes. But right now, there was one just one violet flash at a time.
No one knew what Linley was training.
“Wielding something heavy as though it were light. Wielding something light as though it were heavy. It can be as fierce as the storm winds, or as gentle as the spring wind.” After having trained for so long, Linley finally was gaining some insight with regards to the second stage of the Profound Truths of the Wind.
Profound Truths of the Wind, stage one – Rippling Wind. This relied on pursuing speed to the highest levels.
In truth, once a technique’s speed reached a certain level, its attack power would also be extremely powerful. This was the reason why Linley could break through McKenzie’s defense in an instant.
But the second stage of the Profound Truths of the Wind which Linley was developing was a very unique type of attack.
When he struck out with his sword, sometimes the sword would flash like lightning, while other times it would be as heavy as a mountain. In truth, this sword attack was very fast, but it gave the impression of constantly rippling and fluctuating between being fast and being slow.
That was the intention of this technique.
“Profound Truths of the Wind, stage two – Tempos of the Wind.”
A smile was on Linley’s face. He slashed through the air with Bloodviolet, and when it did, he gave off two distinctly different impressions; one was that this attack was as fierce and explosive as the winds of a hurricane, while the other was that it was a gentle and calm as the spring wind which blew through the willows.
One technique with two opposing rhythms.
“These two totally opposite tempos, when merged together, can give birth to a blade made of air.” Linley continued to pursue his goal of using his sword to create the ‘Dimensional Edge’ type of attack.
This ‘Tempos of the Wind’ was a single-target attack.
Although its power was far inferior to the ‘Dimensional Edge’ spell, which was so terrifyingly powerful that it could cut through the walls of reality itself, the power of the ‘Tempo of the Wind’ had already exceeded that of the ‘Rippling Wind’ technique.
This was especially true in one-on-one combat.
“This second stage of the Profound Truths of the Wind, the Tempos of the Wind technique, should be capable of posing a threat to peak-stage Saint-level experts.” When Linley had sparred with McKenzie, he had gained a better understanding of what peak-stage Saint-level experts were like. “However, this ‘Tempos of the Wind’ technique is most likely one of the more basic mysteries of the Laws of the Wind that I have gained some insight onto.
Linley had to admit that the Tempos of the Wind was an extremely powerful technique.
But the ‘Tempos of the Wind’ could only be considered the most basic, rudimentary level of the ‘Dimensional Edge’ spell. It was still a material, physical attack, which the opponent could use battle-qi or armor to defend against.
But the resonating vibrations produced by the ‘Profound Truths of the Earth’ was clearly a higher level of attack. Those vibrations didn’t need to break the opponent’s armor; it could simply bypass it and attack the internals directly.