037: Beaten and Realizations 

I'm a talisman master, how could I forget my advantage?!

Zemirah felt stupid, patting her forehead as she thought of the talismans she accumulated in her storage ring.

Her arsenal of talismans has a wide variety, from the ones that the original owner already knew to the talisman patterns she bought after taking over.

The most powerful ones came from the book she once traded with Roch, at the auction house where they first met each other.

Zemirah knew deeply how amazing talismans are, from their wide-ranging types and uses to the fact that lower-level cultivators can activate higher-grade talismans to fight across realms.

Taking out a bunch of talismans that can conceal herself, from her figure, aura, and others, Zemirah activated them silently. 

"This should be enough, now let's see the situation in the pond." Only when Zemirah was satisfied did she decide to stop.

Walking forward, she used her [Blink Star Footwork], shuttling through the trees and bushes like a blinking star. When she was only a few meters away from the pond, she hid in a huge boulder rock.

The pond was silent with small ripples, indicating that there were living creatures below. Zemirah can feel the breath of various tortoise beasts. She knew it was the Earth Swamp Tortoise, the one with the highest cultivation at the Peak-Stage of Energy Condensation Realm.

This made Zemirah sigh in relief, at least it didn't exceed her realm, though it was higher than her stage.

"Fortunately, I can try to compete with a higher stage opponent without using any higher grade talisman, only with my personal ability." Zemirah smiled, understanding Roch's thoughts.

Zemirah's [Nature Soul Jade Pendant] also did not sound an alarm, meaning that there is no existence that is beyond her realm.

After confirming her opponent, Zemirah stopped hiding herself, fully exposing her breath to the existence hidden in the pond.

The calm pond suddenly stirred, large ripples appeared and huge tortoise shells suddenly appeared. It was the group of Earth Swamp Tortoise, with the Peak-Stage of Energy Condensation Realm as the leader.

There are 6 early-stage, 3 mid-stage, and 1 late-stage Earth Swamp Tortoise, Zemirah counted. She did not know if there were unhatched eggs Earth Swamp Tortoise, if there were, she would love to have one to gift her disciple.

Zemirah was instantly in awe at the huge beasts in front of her, seemingly seeing the small tortoise on earth transforming.

This emotion was suppressed by her, followed by a raging battle intent.

"Roar~!"

The Earth Swamp Tortoise roared loudly, trying to scare the sudden intruder. The intruder had lower cultivation than him, but a dangerous premonition made the Earth Swamp Tortoise leader vigilant.

After staying in the wild for so long coupled with his nature as a tortoise, caution was already engraved in his bones. The Earth Swamp Tortoise did not attack at first sight but tried to threaten Zemirah.

Zemirah smiled, amazed at the difference between ferocious beasts and spiritual beasts, they are indeed more enlightened. However, she did not back down despite the warning.

"Senior, please fight me!" With that, Zemirah unsheathed her sword. A sword movement from her sword technique followed after her words. 

A shining light of sword attack slashed towards the Earth Swamp Tortoise who immediately reacted. The Earth Swamp Tortoise roared loudly, angered by Zemirah's sneak attack. He shielded his tribe members from the attack using his tortoise shell.

The dark tortoise-shell bear most of the brunt of the sword slash while some escape and fell on the pond. The water on the pond was slashed open, almost allowing everyone to see the depth of the pond.

Zemirah did not stop moving after making her first move.

She used her footwork to change positions, targeting the leader. She did not attack the other Earth Swamp Tortoise.

Roch did not tell her to hunt the spiritual beasts and she also did not have the heart to kill an intelligent being unprovoked. She was only training herself with beasts in the wild and the leader of the Earth Swamp Tortoise is enough.

Though, she could also challenge her limits by attacking the other Earth Swamp Tortoise, however, that would be for later.

Zemirah felt an intuitive dangerous feeling, so she immediately changed her position using her footwork technique. Sure enough, an attack from the ground came.

It was the Earth Swamp Tortoise's offensive skill, the [Earth Spike]. Continued earth spikes emerged from the ground, not leaving Zemirah any breathing time. Every spike is more than a meter tall, like a sharp spear that grew from the ground, it aimed to kill its enemies.

Zemirah can see that the leader's Earth Spike skill have reached a high level of proficiency, thus achieving the current state. The spikes don't look like they came from the soil underneath her feet but are made from a sharpened stone.

Just looking at the sharp tips of the earth spike made her wake up from her somewhat relaxed state of mind.

She shouldn't be facing her enemy with the thought of just training her skills and knowing that her life will never be endangered so she did not give in her all.

Zemirah's eyes turned calm and determined, her pink-tinted eyes appearing cold. 

The sword in Zemirah's hand finally made another move, using her sword techniques as she mobilized her spiritual energy in her dantian.

The star power in her spiritual energy gave it a unique characteristic, making it unpredictable.

A feeling of falling stars of sword emerged to everyone seeing the scene. The sword lights cannot be seen clearly, just giving the watchers a feeling of watching the unreachable stars in the sky fall into the world, attacking all of the living beings.

Continuous sword moves attacked the leader, making it roar in pain. It activated its second skill, the [Hard Mud Shell].

The surrounding mud from the ground seems to have been commanded as they squirmed to the leader's side. The mud climbed his huge tortoise body and settled on the dark turtle shell.

The shell's patterns turned into a more mysterious appearance that gave Zemirah the feeling of an unbreakable shield. It seems that no one can easily break the tortoise's determination to protect its clan members, just like its current shell.

Zemirah smirked, taking this momentary busyness of the tortoise leader when forming the [Hard Mud Shell].

She flashed repeatedly, intending to get closer to the tortoise leader. Just as Zemirah waved her sword in hand for another sword attack, something unexpected happened.

A painful stab on her side made her lose her composure. Followed by a hard impact of a tail smashing her fiercely away from her target.

Her attack was disrupted and she was also injured. Zemirah's stomach was stabbed but her robe artifact has a defensive function, saving her from serious injury. The tail attack was aimed at her head but it managed to attack her shoulders, making her feel like her shoulder bones were broken.

"Ah," Zemirah wanted to shout that it hurt so much, but she bit her lip to stop the words from coming out. She still has a battle on going, how could she do any unnecessary things in the middle?

Zemirah quickly stood up, her right hand holding her sword while her other hand pressing on her painful stomach while trying to ignore her painful shoulders.

She gritted her teeth while murmuring, "I miscalculated." 

Zemirah thought that this battle was only with the Earth Swamp Tortoise leader, so she unconsciously ignored the other Earth Swamp Tortoise, leaving her sides unguarded.

It was a foolish thing to do.

And she just realized it.

'How could I have thought that these spiritual beasts would be so kind.' 

Zemirah sighs inwardly at herself, realizing that no one in this world is simple and naive. Everyone was trying to improve their cultivation while fighting for opportunities. 

Along the way, many died while few managed to succeed. However, everyone was still trying to be one of the few even with the risks laid out in front of their faces.

Zemirah has sufficient resources for herself and the people around her because of her system and because her talisman skill is a lucrative profession.

However, her existence is a unique one in this world.

"Alright, I will beat you half-dead even if I end up the same." Zemirah huffed as she started to fight again.

However she still did not use any offensive talisman, only her sword skills to attack.

She still kept in mind that she is training right now. And swordsmen trained their sword skills by fighting with their lives on the line.

Zemirah felt this when she killed enemies on the flying ship before.

She stopped her scruples and started attacking with the intent to kill.

This change was also observed by Roch who was hiding in a tree, watching over Zemirah. Since he decided to let Zemirah train after seeing the opportunity, of course, he would oversee the whole process. Aside from the fact that he wanted to ensure her safety, though he knew she could protect herself just fine, Roch intended to see how to help Zemirah's skills improve.

He did not have a deep knowledge of talismans but he himself practiced the way of the sword. Though he can't say he is a master of it, he is sure that on the whole Bright Light Dynasty, his skills were at the top.

Bright Light Dynasty practices the way of all arts, mostly the Four Divine Arts of chess, painting, calligraphy, and musical instruments. People who practice the way of the sword are rare in Bright Light Dynasty.

Roch is one of these rare swordsman cultivators, though his path doesn't mainly involve the way of the sword as the young master of the Whitelock House.

He saw that the sword technique that Zemirah practices is quite good, at least a Black Grade technique. It involves the power of stars, just like her cultivation technique, letting him have a guess on her identity. He did not intend to expose her though and did not intend to delve deeper of her identity.

Her power of stars gave the characteristics of being unpredictable, a rare one as it gave Zemirah more opportunities to develop it.

However, Roch noticed that although Zemirah is quite good at swordsmanship, her control of the sword lacks something important. It was the intentions, her sword intention was vague and nowhere near forming at all.

Her skills are good, but it will probably stop there if she still won't figure out her intention with the sword at hand.

Sword intent is a unique trait of sword cultivators. It gave them the power to kill beyond other cultivators. Sword intentions are formed in various ways, but it was mostly from the will and realization of the sword cultivator.

Roch's sword intent was formed years ago when he was practicing on the bitter mountain while training his special physique and skills. His sword intent is sharp and cold, the sharpness can cut everything blocking his way and the cold can freeze even the mysterious soul.

When he saw Zemirah ignoring the other Earth Swamp Tortoise as she became immersed in fighting the leader, he frowned, almost revealing his figure when he saw her get hurt.

His little lady got hurt before his eyes, making Roch also feel painful in his heart. The urge to cut the damn tortoise in two was palpable but his rationality held him back because he knew she needed to experience all of this.

It's better for it to happen now under his watch than later when she is out of his sight.

When he saw her eyes showing a brilliant light as something changed in her way of thinking, he sighed in relief as he smiled happily for her.

"Sure enough, she's the person i like."

[AUTHOR'S NOTE]

I feel like I'm going crazy, I want to read beast-taming novels or apocalyptic ones. Please recommend some for me!