24 Chapter 24 – Flash Unwind

'I need to take a few pills to strengthen my soul beyond my limits.'

He took out a translucent pill and played with it in his fingers, admiring the pill's beautiful appearance. Of course, his fingers were coated with Qi to avoid spoiling the pill. It was the Soul Strengthening Pill, made by extracting the essence of herbs that could affect the soul directly, thus its lack of color.

He spent the next month digesting and absorbing those pills. Although it was painful, it wasn't as bad as the cultivation of the soul. Each pill took him around 2 days to absorb, and only after fifteen of them, they finally lost their effect and couldn't strengthen his soul anymore.

'Now it's finally time to learn how to fight. I already memorized a few hundred techniques of the basic and sky ranks, it's time to make some for myself.'

He spent two weeks meditating and preparing his new techniques by combining the data he collected from all the others. His database included techniques from the lower Basic level to the higher Sky level. 

He started by picking his weapon; the rest of his techniques would have to fit his fighting style, which would change according to the weapon he took. Due to his large database of sword techniques and his personal preference, he didn't think twice before picking the sword. However, rather than choosing a normal sword, he wanted to fight with the complicated flexible sword.

'First I should make a sword technique. If a sword is sharp enough, it will penetrate and cut through anything. There's no need to even move if my sword is too fast for my enemy to dodge, and too sharp for him to block it.'

"Mom, Dad, do you know of a good place where I can practice techniques? Preferably an open space without many people."

"Little Ken, it's better if you have one of us or even another elder to teach you. Learning from someone would spare you a lot of time."

Haoran said worriedly to his son. He felt that Ken tried too much to do things by himself. He even made his own pills and only agreed to learn alchemy from Mei after she forced him to accept it as a condition to let him practice.

"Let him do whatever he wants. I'm convinced that he can manage without a teacher after teaching him alchemy. If you taught him something, you'd know what I mean. He doesn't even use the techniques I've taught him anyway."

Mei let out a defeated sigh when she thought of how Ken changed every technique she showed him and improved it for the better.

"Okay… If you go 15 km south from here on the edge of the forest, you'll reach a forest clearing that is surrounded by cliffs and a large waterfall. I used it to meditate sometimes when I was new in the sect, but you need to remember that it's very likely one of the top 300 disciples claimed it as his training spot. Just leave if that's the case and show Mom's token if they try to harm you."

The top 100 disciples were considered the core disciples of the sect and had their own training grounds, so they didn't need to wander in the forest to find a place for themselves.

Ken thanked his father and waited for the next day to visit the waterfall. The next day, he left Sol and Aaron at home and used a map his father left for him to find the place. When he reached it, the place was empty.

'I will call this art 'Flash Unwind'. It will be the art I open my battles with as I unsheathe my flexible sword.'

Although his sword could switch from flexible mode to rigid mode depending on the runes that he channeled his Qi into, he preferred to keep it in the flexible mode most of the time.

Like most other flexible sword users, he coiled his sword around his waist, disguising it as an innocent belt. This way, he could have an extra surprise effect when he unsheathes his sword.

Although there were other flexible sword users, they were rare because of the sword's complexity. The way it moved and changed directions wasn't only difficult for the enemy to predict, but also difficult for the user himself, so people preferred using spears, swords, or just fighting with their bodies.

The sword's sheath was used as his actual belt, while the sword was hidden inside it with its black hilt near his left hand.

He closed his eyes as he stood in front of a tree and sent his right hand to the hilt. He saw in his mind the technique he developed based on dozens of unsheathing techniques meant for normal swords and a few for flexible swords as well.

*Wishhhh*

A strong whistle resounded, and he found his sword pressed against the tree in front of him when he opened his eyes.

'There is a hole but it's too small. Judging by what I've read each technique has a few stages of mastery, but I'm still not at the basic level.'

The basic level was achieved when the cultivator could perform the sword's movement perfectly as plainly explained in the manual. Since his sword's stab didn't achieve the penetration power he envisioned when he made his technique, he understood he still hadn't mastered it.

'My arts are meant to kill, especially humans. It's too hard to understand the art quickly while attacking trees or inanimate objects. Even attacking animals can't help me like attacking a human would. Should I kill someone only for the sake of understanding my art?'

Ken struggled with the thought of taking a human's life for a relatively small benefit. 

'Humans die anyway, and everyone here is a cultivator. Cultivators kill each other for resources all the time, so why can't I do the same for practice?' He pondered on the issue, trying to be objective.

'It might cause trouble if I'm found, and I know it's wrong, even if I feel like it isn't.' In the end, he denied the idea of going to hunt others only to hone his techniques, and instead, he practiced in front of the tree.

He kept standing in front of the tree for three hours straight without leaving his spot. His technique included all his major meridians, all his minor meridians, and 36 collateral meridians.

Although he wanted to use all the collateral ones as well since he read it would make his technique in the Heaven rank, he didn't have any example of a technique that used more than 20 collateral meridians at once, so he was satisfied with a technique that used 36.

If he had to guess, he'd rank his technique at the higher Earth rank.

After three hours of training, the tree was riddled with holes around it. The newer they were, the deeper they went. He was all sweaty, half of his Qi was depleted, and he was hungry. He stopped after depleting only half as he didn't want to stay in the forest completely out of Qi.

'Time to take a break.' He sheathed his sword, sat down to take a break, and took out a piece of meat he brought with him. He planned to lay a basic Qi Gathering Formation to help him renew his Qi reserves before continuing. However, before he could even finish his meal, a visitor had arrived.

"Hey kid, what are you doing here?"

A young masculine voice came from the forest's direction as a young man came out of the woods. He looked around 20 years old, and Ken estimated he was around 25. Cultivators generally looked younger than they were due to their longer lifespans.

"Training, what are you doing here?"

"You can't train here; this is my training space. Scram."

The young man was around 176 cm tall, which was much taller than the 5-year-old Ken. He didn't take Ken's claim seriously as he thought a young kid like Ken couldn't train yet. He was sure it was just a peasant kid who got lost in the forest.

Ken's hand twitched on the sword's hilt, and his balance shifted to his toes as if he was about to sprint while his mind playing a scene in which he threw his morals and attacked. 

"Do you recognize this token?" Instead of listening to the urge to attack, Ken took out his mom's token and showed it to the man in front of him.

"The fifth elder's token? Why do you have it?"

"I'm her son, and I'm training here. Got any problems?"

The man looked at him with confusion for a few seconds then forced a smile and bowed to Ken. However, despite the bow being in his direction, Ken could feel it wasn't meant for him.

"Fifth Elder, I didn't know your son was playing here. I hope you can forgive me; I will take my leave now."

The man turned around and left Ken alone in the area. Ken shrugged and didn't care about the man's misunderstanding, he just felt something click when he imagined attacking the man earlier.

He got up and stood in front of a new tree, unwilling to lose his sudden enlightenment. He exhaled and placed his hand on the sword's hilt. A gist of wind made the tree's leaves shake as if the tree knew it was about to be damaged.

*Wishhh!*

The familiar whistle resounded around him, and his sword stabbed the tree all the way to the hilt.

'I got it!'

He mastered the basic level of a higher Earth rank technique in only three hours, an unbelievable feat for anyone of his rank with no experience in similar techniques before!

'Its power is great, and I'm sure I've mastered the technique. But for some reason, I still feel I can do it better.'

He understood this feeling stemmed from his understanding of the sword art. He felt that if he kept training, he would still be able to improve his sword art, going to the next stage of mastery.

'Improving my control over this technique can be left for later. For now, mastering a movement technique is more important since standing in place during a fight is not very practical.'

After eating and resting, he stood in an open space and closed his eyes. He had two movement techniques he planned to master - one for a straight dash, and the other for just being generally faster.

'Again, I need to face a human to do the last step. Dashing at the air feels pointless,' Ken sighed. Because of the mechanics of cultivation and breaking through to the fourth stage, his movement techniques were also based on the sword's motion.

It was the second day, and he still didn't get to the basic mastery level of his dashing technique. He created techniques meant to kill, and using them against air and trees was lacking the intent of the technique. Just when he was about to give up and go find trouble with random people in the sect like a normal young master, his training puppet arrived again.

"Kid, are you telling me that Fifth Elder has enough free time to take her son to a distant spot in the forest two days in a row? I don't believe it!"