003: Techniques
Divyat groaned in annoyance as he and the rest of disciples made their way towards the scripture pavilion. When he thought about the day he would finally be able to sense Qi, he never for once thought a massive migraine would accompany it, but it did, and everything hurt like a bitch. And he was not the only one, Zhao Min followed behind him, looking like she had spent the entire night partying, and her chubby body did not help matters either as she seemed more like a penguin than a human as she swayed from left to right.
The scripture pavilion was 16 stories tall, while a lot of it was restricted, it held more than just techniques. It was Library with a smattering of knowledge, and Divyat had spent many days and night studying here under the watchful eyes of the librarians. But that was within the bounds of the first three floors, were common knowledge, and basic martial arts techniques could be found. Of course more than just common knowledge, advanced studies on things like geometry, architecture, farming, military tactics, strategy, city planning and anima husbandry amongst other things. He had great love for geography and spent some of the time dreaming about the hundreds of places he would like to visit when he finally got the chance.
Either way today was a new day, and they would be able to go up higher in the pavilion, heading straight for the 4th floor where all things related to the Foundation Establishment stage could be found. All the disciples streamed into the pavilion, most going straight for the massive central pillar that had a floating platform with 16 glowing sigils that would take you to each of the floors if your were authorized. Divyat and Zhao Min amongst many others took the stairs, the platform would be too crowded on this day and they would never be able to get anything done if they used that to move around. But the anticipation was not any lesser using the stairs, with each landing they passed Divyat could feel his heart pounding hard enough that it almost escaped his chest, but he held on until finally he got to the fourth floor.
"meet back here in 10 minutes." He said to Zhao Min who nodded and went in a different direction, getting lost Amongst the throngs of shelves that stretched as far as eye could see.
Divyat and Zhao Min like many of the disciples who had been born and raised in the sect, already knew the techniques they wanted. This was the advantage they had over those who were just allowed into the sect. Over the years, Divyat and Zhao Min have had the chance to go over and refine their choice of techniques, over and over again, making sure to choose what would highlight the little skills they have been able to build during their body Refining Realm stages. But first thing first, Divyat had to pick his cultivation technique.
Having foreknowledge of where things were in the library helped, plus he has spent enough time in this place to have seen it's blueprints, layout sheets and content scrolls, mastering the positions of the techniques he knew would serve him well. He found the [Tai-Chi Theorem] quickly enough, successfully holding himself back from opening it right then and there to see what laid within. He could not afford to get waylaid, he only had ten minutes and most of the skills he had chose where on completely opposite end of the floor. So he moved, dodging enthusiastic disciples who were either excited about what they were seeing, or just could not decide what was good enough for them.
Each of the techniques here had an Attunement spell on them; it would glow the color of your element to show whether or not you're attributed to it. Divyat found it funny when someone picked up a water attributed technique, only for it to glow green and yellow to show they had a wood and earth dual attribute. But after that it left a butter taste in his mouth as the bugger had two attributes and he didn't have a single one. If Divyat said there weren't times when he was immensely jealous of other people with attributes, then he would be liar. More often than not he felt bitter about his situation and it took a lot out of him just to keep a positive outlook on life and keep moving forward, some times when it got dark enough he wanted to hurt them, even if he knew one of them were at fault.
He shook his head and quickly made it to the fist category, he was originally torn between getting a leg unarmed technique, but considering his choice of a weapon, it would be better if his hands could do good enough damage in close quarters. The sect would allow him pick a secondary weapon once he got to the Qi condensation stage, or if he was able to master his current weapon to the point he would be considered an expert in it. Either way [Rain Dancer Fist] was in his hands a minute later. A water attribute technique, and while he would be unable to bring out the best of the technique in the absence of not being attribute to it, it very much matched his [Tai-Chi Theorem] having aspects of both softness and hardness, going from slow to fast, and fast to slow and sudden impacts in-between.
The next stop was his movement technique, and for this Divyat gave himself a challenge. He chose what was probably the hardest of all the techniques with the foundation establishment stage, especially since the technique itself was said to be a nascent soul realm technique, but it could be practiced from the foundation establishment realm. The only problem is even with those having the elements attributed to it, nobody has ever been able to cultivate it past the Qi condensation realm, this technique is [Sylph Strider]. A wind attributed technique that incorporated elements of summoning into it, and summoning was an elusive and lost art of cultivation, there are very few summoner in existence and even at that, not many of them could even bring to bear the amount of power and destruction other cultivators could, so it was a mostly forgotten art.
However Divyat was still looking for a way to advance, to strengthen himself, plus this was just him being stubborn. With everyone always looking at him with pity, always complementing his talent and hard work, yet saying how it's such a pity that he would not be able to amount to much on account of his lack of an attribute. Either way by perhaps mastering [Sylph Strider] he would shut all his doubters up, and maybe he would be the person who would discover the secret to summoning and push past the barrier of the Qi condensation realm. He quickly wrapped that up and went to the areas where weapon techniques were located.
[Heart-Seeker] a wind attributed bow technique. He had spent much of his childhood looking for herbs and hunting small animals in the Ghadovara mountains. And that was from training with the bow, it was what he was most familiar with, except of course for the short sword and longsword that his brother used interchangeably. But even at that, he and his brother had spent countless hours mastering use of the bow, both at a distance and in close quarters. But with Qi involved, damage from common arrows left something to be delivered, and that's where [Heart-Seeker] comes in. It was a single strike technique with three moves that were all one kill hits, perfect for snipping enemies before they got close enough.
Divyat nodded his head, took a deep breath and ran straight towards the entrance to the stair well, where Zhao Min was already waiting for him, with her own choices held tightly to her bountiful chest. Divyat coughed and quickly looked away as she gave him a knowing smile, causing him to blush in embarrassment before she called out to him.
"Well what are you waiting for? Let's go cultivate!"