“Here Master”
Xia Xuefeng, who was seated with her legs crossed on the flying sword and her appearance groomed into your typical maiden, offered a neatly folded thin blanket to her Master. She couldn’t help but still be amazed at how it was unnaturally capable of warming up her sleeping body within the harsh frigid winds during their travel despite its thinness.
Her Master accepted her obedient actions and slightly nodded his head in approval. He used his left hand to swiftly sweep up the blanket, with the same technique he used to save his disciple, into his divine sense then placed it upon the body of the sword.
“Master. What have you rushing to the point where you’re personally circulating the formation?”
“I told you at the start of…”
“My kidnapping”
“...our journey is of the utmost importance for both myself and your cultivation”
“Was kidnapping a fair maiden from the comfort of her own bed at midnight necessary?”
Her Master coughed in response with his right hand covering his mouth as he did so.
“So where are we headed?”
“I told you at the start of our journey.”
“Really? I only seem to recall defending myself against an assaulter while he forced me to sleep?” Xia Xuefeng said with the joyful expression of a pure child telling a story of their events with their playmates to their parents.
An awkward silence emerged from that statement that lingered for a moment which ended when her Master promptly coughed in the same manner as he did earlier.
Xia Xuefeng noticed that her master straightened his back and released a subtle dignified aura as he began to explain to her once again.
“I told you at the start of our journey that it is of the utmost importance for both myself and your cultivation. We’re traveling to the Kingdom of Swords to meet my Senior Martial Brother who was willing to impart some of his experience to you.”
“You have a Senior Martial Brother who’s still cultivating? Aren’t you the last of your generation?”
“Feng’er. Remember that there are always people who have walked further upon the path of cultivation. Even for one such as I.”
Xia Xuefeng could not help, but internally roll her eyes at the implausibility of that statement being true; considering the level of cultivation her master reached.
“And we’re in a rush because?”
“Senior Martial Brother has a limited amount of time within this realm and the favor he asked of me took longer than expected.”
Seeing an opportunity to spite her master in response. Xia Xuefeng clapped her hands together and raised her voice.
“So I was kidnapped because of your…”
“Feng’er!”
She jolted at the surprising harshness her Master said her name. Taking a moment before delivering an appropriate response in a more obedient tone.
“Yes, Master?”
Her master removed his hand from the flying sword, which reduced the speed of the flyings sword significantly, and turned his body towards his disciple. His once harsh tone returned to its gentler origins.
“Have you comprehended the mystic formation guides I’ve left for you while I was away?”
“...”
Xia Xuefeng closed her eyes halfway to glare at her master for the before breathing out a soundless sigh to recompose herself before speaking.
“I’ve only scratched the surface of the two mystic formations though I believe I have a deeper insight into the third one…”
Xia Xuefeng pulled back her right sleeve to her elbow to reveal her jade white skin, full of the luster of youth.
Though that changed when she willed the formation lying within it to reveal magnitudes of intricate lines and dots on her wrist, all the way past her elbow. The thickness of the lines was a mere 2 millimeters connect the dots, located on her acupoints, together.
Xia Xuefeng noticed that Master’s eyes widened for an instant with a glow in them which seemed like the raging waves of the sea before they returned to their calm. Now filled with a more stable sense of confidence, she began to explain the culmination of her 3 weeks of effort.
“I’ve deduced that the original formation you gave me was focused on putting as little strain on the cultivator as possible through utilizing all of the acupoints within the body…”
She then showed the palm of her right hand to her master. Where a spiral which seems like a whole circle was.
“...this was because the core of the formation was contained the compressor, former and the release.”
Using her left forefinger she began to point towards several acupoints on her right palm.
“While the core was made small as possible so that it would be hard to disrupt in battle, it placed a massive strain on these acupoints due to the number of formations being operated around them.”
She extended her arm outwards to her right but bent her elbow so that her right palm was on the level with her face.
“I took the liberty of separating the core formation into different parts so that there would be more acupoints for the formations to operate on and reduce the strain.”
Xia Xuefeng wore an “incredibly pleased with myself” expression as she began to gloat.
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“While the core formation was indeed complex, I’ve managed to successfully separate it into their respective segments due to the simplistic nature of the compressor and release.”
Though that tune quickly dampened “Although it reduced the strength of the formation when I compared it to the one you made 2 weeks ago… I imagine it was reduced to a mere 15% of the original formation”
That tune persisted when she activated the formation. A purplish blade of light extended from her the tip of her right forefinger. It was of finger width, extended only 1.5 centimeters from her finger and exuded a comfortable radiance.
Sensing his disciple's shame in her progress, her master attempted to comfort her and assure her.
“It’s alright Feng’er. There’s no need to be ashamed, I’m……..”
“However!” her somber tone instantly flipped as she returned into her original chirpy tone.
“Due to this, the strain was reduced many folds and the required amount of acupoints for Qi gathering was significantly reduced to where only the acupoints around my wrist are required to operate at the same level!”
Her eyes shined with a light of immense pride as she revealed the rest of the formations on her right hand’s fingers which contained identical formations as her forefinger.
“Though to replicate the effects to my other 3 fingers required more acupoints, up to my elbow in fact.” she said with significantly more life in her words and her body acted in a manner which exudes an aura so strong that one could physically see the words “Praise Me!” above her head.
Her actions led to her master familiarly rubbing his right eyebrow with his eyes closed, a weak grin on his face suggesting that his inner thoughts ran along the lines of “My worries were for naught” while his disciple animatedly explained her progress.
After he recomposed himself. He extended his right hand towards his braggart of a disciple to ask “Feng’er. Let me inspect your formation.”
“Yes!” Xia Xuefeng said with a confident zeal and enthusiastically extended her hand towards her master.
Her master secured a gentle firm grip on her right arm as he began to inspect the formation.
Xia Xuefeng felt her once overflowing excitement which bubbled through her entire being was cooled down by a gentle spring breeze, her body shifted and her face loosened itself until it was a picturesque example of mindless tranquility.
The comforting sensation Xia Xuefeng felt under her Master’s divine sense was a longstanding conundrum for her. She overheard her fellow Martial Siblings complaining about how they felt under their Masters’ divine sense always have this overbearing pressure which instilled a sense of anxiety and the traces of that sensation still remained even after their 3 years of cultivation.
Yet her master’s was completely devoid of that sensation from the moment they met in her clan’s estate.
Xia Xuefeng vaguely recalled his response when she asked him about that very thing as it was met with an egregiously long sermon on it which was too much bear for her younger self’s attention span.
Although during her recovery he shortened it to a vague “It’s a hug” which let her young mind, influenced by the theaters of young maidens falling for men rescuing them from danger, run rampantly.
“Feng’er.” She heard her Master say, rooting her wandering mind.
“Yes, Master?”
“Where did your mind wander off this time?”
“Whether or not my mother found someone to accompany her to the theater.”
“I believe your new sibling is with her.”
“She already has another one?!”
“Yes.”
Xia Xuefeng’s mouth gaped open, her eyebrows slightly twitching, as she laid in awe of her mother’s unrivaled vitality which left another lull which her Master didn’t let go free.
He moved his left hand to be under the back of Xia Xuefeng’s hand then placed his right forefinger on the formation core.
“Though I wonder why you’re using a lower tier demonic blood for this formation”
Xia Xuefeng felt a burst of qi entering her palm from her master’s forefinger into the core formation which instantly revealed an array of interconnected lines 4 mm thick that connected the rest of her body’s acupoints to the core of the formation.
“Master. Has anyone told you that it’s rude to dig into a lady’s secrets?” Xia Xuefeng said with slight traces of irritation.
“Doesn’t apply for my disciple.”
“And why is that?!”
“I’m your Master.”
“....”
“Have you use up all of the demonic blood I’ve provided?”
Xia Xuefeng let out a sigh before explaining.
“No. I felt it was a shame to use them. The formations would be regularly modified. So I requested for several barrels of the demonic blood from the inner sect as they burn off after the formation is activated for more than 30 seconds and are quite plentiful.”
Xia Xuefeng pulled her hand away from her Master’s grasp before pointing to the formation she explained earlier.
“I’ve used the demonic blood you’ve given me for this formation as it was resilient enough to make it thinner for the formation to the point where I had enough space to where I felt comfortable increasing the number of formations overall. Although...”
She began to softly rub along the thicker lines made of low tier demonic blood on her face. Under this motion the slowly began to fade away.
“Sometimes I don’t know if I should be angry or be grateful of Master...”
“Grateful.”
“It’s hard to be grateful when…”
Xia Xuefeng rapidly dropped her composed aura and unabashedly glared at her Master vengefully.
“YOU COULD’VE AT LEAST TOLD ME THE CORRECT FORMATIONS TO USE ON EACH ACUPOINT! Do you know how much sleep I’ve lost! You can’t just show someone the result of the formation once and RUN OFF IMMEDIATELY!”
“You’ve still created the formation correctly and now you’re deeply familiar with it. You also had the formation guide.” Her Master replied calmly without missing a beat as he placed his right hand back onto the flying sword to return it to the prior speed.
“I’m not sure if that GUIDE qualifies as a GUIDE! NOT A SINGLE WORD IS WRITTEN ON IT! No specifications! No instructions ANYWHERE! The formation diagram! ...while beautifully drawn admittingly. WAS A MESS! It was as if a toddler drew over the diagram! I could only tell what was what after personally testing the formation! And this disciple almost ruined her body because of it!”
“I trust the strength of your cultivation and you’ve reached the peak of middle stage essence because of it”
“I don’t need your dirty trust if it almost kills me!”
At the end of Xia Xuefeng’s rant, she was visibly trembling and panting heavily to the extend that her lungs might jump out of her throat to take in more air faster. Her master casted a mystic art on her to help her recover faster.
“Feng’er. Your formations are splendid. Although the one built from low tier demonic blood intrigues me. There are additional formations on the sides of your fingers which combine the might of the original formation you’ve devised, correct?”
Xia Xuefeng, who has mostly recovered from her earlier ravings, responded in an more amiable tone after she had fixed herself to her usual prim self.
“Yes, you’re correct Master. I predict it would exert 50% of the strength you shown with your formation.”
“Predict?”
“Yes. I haven’t activated it yet. I only recently drawn the formation and didn’t get the chance to test it as you’ve kidnapped me.”
“What’s stopping you?”
Xia Xuefeng let out a slight smirk before saying “I thought it would be impressive to show off to your Senior Martial Brother.”
“You figured it out.” Her master replied more bluntly than she expected.
“Well… You didn’t exactly make it difficult to connect the dots.” Xuefeng said with a slight loss of spirit.
“Feng’er. I’m proud that your confidence intact. Since we’re arrived at the Kingdom of Swords.”
Her Master said as he slowly decelerated the flying sword over a bird’s eye view of the kingdom for his disciple to appreciate.