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Translator: Tamon
The training grounds on Argent Mountain’s northern slope.
Wang Qi was facing off with a huge centipede. The late Awareness Stage demon was six meters long, half a meter wide, and a gruesome sight to look at. It had a black head and scarlet back plates, with the tens of pairs of fangs and claws on its sides a blend of white and black, clear signs of carrying potent poison.
It was common knowledge that any poisonous creature had a shoddy constitution. Upon developing poison, the creature relied on it to hunt and attack, finding no pressing need to toughen up. Demonization wasn’t particularly fond of this norm. This centipede, for instance, developed a much more potent poison and a hardened exoskeleton after demonization, to the point that a same-level Qi Refining cultivator was no match.
Not that Wang Qi didn’t have his ways.
Confronting the demon, Wang Qi took out a dagger. The Immortal Institute offered all freshmen who got a great art to choose a low symbol magic item. Having ruined his magic clothing and flying sword against the entropy amplification devil, he was left with this dagger as his only magic item.
A purple spark twisted around the blade, blending with saber energy into an attack as he went for the centipede. It left a purple glow behind as it trailed the air. The dagger struck the demon’s shell with a muffled sound.
The centipede brandished its many legs and fangs in retaliation, but Wang Qi used the recoil to help with his retreat. The demon lunged in the air, raising its upper half to eye level, and swiped with its poisonous claws.
Wang Qi used the first strike to follow through with the second slash.
Whoosh!
The strike was much stronger, yet it only left a flesh wound on the centipede’s underbelly. The transparent blood seeping out was vaporized with Wang Qi’s electrical discharge. The centipede was enraged, swiveling its head as it went on the offensive. Wang Qi used the Book of Geometry to flash past it and strike a third time.
The first two blows’ strength was added to the third, evident by the gaudy purple glow around it.
Bam! The centipede’s back armor was chipped.
Wang Qi used the recoil to enact the fourth strike and take out a few legs.
Then came the fifth, sixth, seventh…
Wang Qi’s strikes built on all the ones before it, amplifying the electrical power each time. By the ninth slash, the blade was surrounded by deadly purple lightning, and the added saber energy was more than enough to cleave the centipede in two.
The youth inspected his results. “Nice, by following through nine times in a row and adding each strike’s strength to the next, I can now say that I have a full grasp of Purple Lightning Seven Strikes’ Mad Thunder Shuddering the Ninth Heaven.”
The flat tone made it obvious the statement was a boast of one’s undeniable genius.
Zhen Chanzi whined. “What kind of corny fairytale name of a move is that? Thunder Resonance Blade Art can be stacked endlessly, so using ‘nine’ is meaningless. On top of that, why in heaven’s name would you waste energy on using Celestial Hymn Odyssey just to change the lightning’s color?”
Wang Qi curled his lip. “It’s called romance!”
Why call it Purple Lightning Seven Strikes to begin with if you’d use blue or silver lightning? Besides, with its color being a matter of light’s frequency, Celestial Hymn Odyssey’s influence on the electromagnetic light and heat around it made it a cinch to adjust the color.
Since Divine Province had no infinite flow system, Wang Qi couldn’t get the skills used in manhuas. The Purple Lightning Seven Strikes was just one of Thunder Resonance Blade Art’s applications. (Tamon: Weapons of the Gods reference.)
Myriad Arts Sect’s grand arts had positive and negative usage. Positive would be extrapolating one’s art into all, while negative was one art to break them all. For instance, Wang Qi’s other choice, the Minor Measured Blade Art of White Marsh True Array Divider, used saber waves to form an array in its positive application. The negative form would be White Marsh Array Breaker severed arrays with a strike. Thunder Resonance Blade Art was the same.
It used Fourier Expansion. The algorithm turned all periodic functions into trigonometric function variants. For this blade art to use the breaking arts aspect, it relied on ‘resonance’ to pry into the opponent’s magical arts and magical power’s cycles to cut the ‘string’ tying them together. In the case of extrapolating into other arts, the ‘thunder’ aspect was involved. With electromagnetic waves and sound waves as representatives, any and all concepts defined through waves were mediums to propagate one’s blade, so long as the waves harmonized to amplify their power.
Wang Qi’s plagiarized Mad Thunder Shuddering the Ninth Heaven made use of this aspect.
A few of Immortal Alliance’s staff walked into the arena to clean it up. Another Foundation Establishment cultivator returned the immortal tag with its updated merit count to Wang Qi.
This was a freshman-exclusive privilege, a combat trial. Merits were to be made just by defeating demons in this arena.
The Immortal Alliance staff member said harshly. “Junior Brother Wang, the demon combat trial is not meant for killing them like this. Keep this up, and sooner or later the Immortal Institute will put on hold freshmen’s admittance to the combat trial.”
Wang Qi said, “Don’t say that. Look around you; there are still plenty of Foundation Establishment practicing with Accretion demons.”
The staff member was still in distress. “They’ve bought their entry into fighting them.”
Wang Qi laughed. “Come on, Senior Brother, don’t go picking on a freshman just for not knowing Immortal Alliance’s rules.”
After the Immortal Alliance was established, no being could become aware without explicit approval. If a beast outside the protected area happened to awaken and end up discovered, the Immortal Alliance’s law was enacted with impunity. The peacekeepers patrolled their designated areas and brought back the docile and harmless demonized individuals deemed fit for reeducation. As for the wilder specimen not bending a knee, it would either be put down or captured. A minority of them would be sent to Heavenly Spirit Range for academic research, while the rest to arenas such as this one as glorified punching bags.
The man in charge of the trial area sighed. “The surviving demons can grow to reach Accretion Stage, then be sold off for a pretty sum…”
Wang Qi flashed his immortal tag. “Hey, Senior Brother, I plan on continuing for today; bring a few more over.”
With the arena pristine of all the gore and blood from its last victim, a cage was brought over holding a bear demon.
A strong light flashed across the area, followed by a distorted roar. “Heavenly Crystal Sword’s first move, Glorious Life! And the second move, Flashing Thunder!”
The cultivators present raised an eyebrow, making guesses as to which sect or power the disciple that gave such a name to his move belonged to.
They weren’t privy to Zhen Chanzi’s ridicule. “That’s just a blade art…”
Having had enough of abusing the small fries, Wang Qi rushed to the Immortal Institute amidst the biting cold wind. Being December, he could still feel the bone-chilling coldness despite having magical power shielding him from it.
It had been three months.
In October, Wang Qi breezed through another challenged Foundation Establishment teaching assistant that threw in the towel, finding no reason to die, and got the White Marsh Array Breaker. The two blade arts, built on Laplace expansion and Fourier Expansion respectively, were exactly the algorithms he knew best back home. Once he passed the first two stages of the arts that acted as their foundation, the rest was a piece of cake. To speed up his already insane power-up, he’d been spending most of these three months in a whirlwind of training.
Once he reached a basic understanding of them, he’d come to the combat trial area every day to refine his skills on the demons while earning merits on the side.
As for the dreaded monthly examination of all freshmen, [This is a true bookworm we’re talking about here!]
