Landing on the barren dirt below, Krysfer looked to his left. Seeing Sophia, nodding, he switched his focus to the stone humanoid up front. Doing the same, Sophia kicked the ground, not waiting for Krysfer to engage, brandishing her greatsword, trying to crush the figure with the weight alone.
Seeing Sophia swing her greatsword downward, Krysfer did not feel like lagging behind, taking out his two black daggers, he too rushed forward!
Feeling their speed, the two of them almost tripped on the ground, luckily they were already getting used to it after sparring from time to time.
As Sophia's greatsword landed on her opponent's skull, she was about to celebrate the easy victory when she saw her prized great sword shatter into pieced upon impact!
At the same time, on her right, Krysfer's daggers also suffered such a fate, snapping the moment he stabbed the figure's neck.
Quickly dodging backward, retreating before the figures' claws could lash at them, they heard Alexander's voice.
"Did you guys even listen to what I said? They are natives of a higher world! Do not use your dog shit weapons!" Shaking his head, Alexander could only lament.
'Did I give them too much information too fast? Or are they just plain dumb?'
Not knowing what his master thought of him, Krysfer threw away his now sad excuses for daggers to the side, rushing ahead once more, this time preparing his right fist. Having been reprimanded already, Krysfer started to think for a change, circulating his Qi to the best of his ability to fill his entire right hand. Just as he arrived, he punched the figure's stomach, making it take a few steps back this time, however Krysfer did not seem happy about this improvement.
'Still too weak, it's just too hard to move and circulate Qi at the same time!'
Turning his head left, Krysfer could see on Sophia's frowning face that she probably had both the same idea and result.
Shaking his head Krysfer waited for the stone humanoid to approach him before kicking the ground with his left foot the moment he judged the distance just right. The stone humanoid, having closed the distance with his unmoving target, was surprised to see Krysfer move to its far left, before he saw that same human kick the ground once more, this time with both feet.
Rushing at maximum speed, Krysfer arrived to the figure's side almost instantly, circulating his Qi while letting his body turn somewhat relaxed, he punched with his fist imbued in a small amount of Qi.
Feeling the powerful wave of raw might, the stone figure could only flinch before being blasted away, a spiderweb-like crack spreading from the left side of its ribs.
Seeing this, Sophia managed to quickly dodge her opponent's claw before pushing it backward, taking a few steps back, the figure was about to attack Sophia again when it suddenly turned its head left, but all that it could see was a dark blueish grey lump of stone filling its field of vision.
Not having enough time to dodge, Sophia's opponent was sent flying to the side by the already flying stone figure that was Krysfer's opponent.
Seeing this result, Alexander nodded.
"Not bad! Though they won't die from this."
Listening to their master's words, they immediately got back into position, both of them looking at the small cloud of dust now in front of them.
Rushing ahead once more, both Sophia and Krysfer did not seem to be playing fair this time, with Sophia arriving first, kicking away the stone figure on top, before sending another kick to the lying stone figure below currently facing her. Her kick crushed its thin right elbow until it could not stay attached anymore, sending half the right arm into the distance the next moment.
Surprised, the figure tried to grab Sophia with its left arm by getting back on its bottom quickly, however, it quickly realized its fatal mistake as it saw Krysfer's glowing right fist in the corner of its eye.
Already in motion, it was too late for the figure to retract its arm, ending up being hit on the left side of its head by the fully charged punch of Krysfer. With time to focus on it, a large part of his Qi was being used in this single attack, multiplying the magnitude of power!
Using his Divine Sense, Alexander saw the decapitated head of the stone figure crashing into many stone trees to his left, below the platform.
Like this, it did not take long for the combined attacks of Krysfer and Sophia to take care of the last stone humanoid.
Teleporting them on the platform, Alexander congratulated them.
"Nice teamplay! You managed to use your Qi really efficiently Krysfer! What you just did could be considered a half assed martial art, but still a martial art nonetheless!"
Alexander was quite impressed by such progress, managing to use Qi so well while moving and focusing on other things was one of the first hurdle a cultivator must go through.
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Before, Alexander thought that Sophia was in the lead, but now, it was Krysfer that seemed to be the better one!
While he did not care about such things, it was still natural for him and them to compare one another.
"As rewards, I will give each of you a simple martial art!"
Krysfer, a big smile creeping onto his face, was quite curious.
"Master, what are martial arts?"
"Did I not mention it?" Thinking back, Alexander could not remember himself talk about martial arts to them, at least not to the point they would know what it was.
"Alright then, let me explain, I won't go into details too much for now though, so I'll just talk about Qi related martial arts."
"Martial arts are techniques using Qi to produce something specific. In a simpler way, it is the use of Qi in a certain pattern to obtain a certain result. For example, Krysfer, you filled your fist with Qi, this is the process, the specific pattern, with the certain result being the increase in durability as well as damage output of your fist!"
Nodding, both Krysfer and Sophia seemed to understand the concept.
"Alright, now take these!" Handing over a thin book to each of them he explained.
"For Krysfer, the 'Mountain Fist Art'! A martial art made to turn your fist into a mountain."
"And for Sophia, the Brutal Leg Art! A martial art designed to have your legs and kicks brutally dismember your opponents!"
With shining eyes, the duo rushed to the middle of the platform faster than during their fight, sitting cross-legged right after.
Seeing them drool over the books he gave them, Alexander sat at the entrance of the cave cross-legged, waiting patiently, admiring as the sky turned red while red colored droplets fell from the clouds, taking in the beautiful scenery.
-----
A few hours later, deep within the stone forest, Martial King Gregory, along with his group of warriors, was marching forward, exterminating every stone humanoid he and his group could find.
Looking around cautiously, Gregory heard a voice from behind.
"Sir, should we set up camp? We had a few casualties and some of our warriors are getting tired."
Thinking for a bit, Gregory turned to look at the hopeful eyes of some of his warriors, contrasting with the rest of the group, having only the flames of battle burning inside.
Taking in a deep breath, calming his mind from his bloodthirsty state, he nodded.
"It's a good idea, finding somewhere suitable for fortification would be great." Ignoring the pleas of rebuke some were making known, Gregory marched once more, this time in direction of a mountain.
-----
Back on the platform, Alexander suddenly opened his eyes, with a grin forming onto his usually expressionless face.
Seeing this, the duo stopped trying to understand their new book before Sophia asked.
"Master? Is something..."
Looking around her, taking in the beautiful scenery along the many stone trees below, she turned her head back, facing Alexander.
"...going on?"
Watching the curious duo, Alexander nodded before standing up, entering the cave behind.
Before they could say anything, Alexander's voice sounded again.
"Come inside! We have visitors!"
-----
After half an hour of march, Gregory and his group managed to reach a mountain suitable for setting up camp, it was high up, enhanced by a rocky platform hanging at the front.
Smiling at his good luck, Gregory was about to continue forward when he and his group heard a booming voice.
"You guys, where are you going? Don't tell me you want this cave?"
Feeling the oppressiveness of the voice, Gregory could not help flinching for a moment.
Looking up at the cave's entrance, he saw a young man with long, straight silver hair. Yet despite their disheveled state, it gave the youth a unique aura. His white, loosely flowing robes fluttering in the wind, were very clearly untainted by the faint bloody rain. On his right, a young man with dark blue hair and on his left, a white haired young woman, her long hair in a braided ponytail resting on her left shoulder.
At this sight, Gregory started tensing up, cupping his fists with haste.
"Sir, we didn't mean that, we just wanted to find a place to rest. Noticing this cave, we thought it would be perfect, if we have offended you, we apologize. This Gregory knows he is wrong!"
Hoping that his kind and respectful words would maybe even make Alexander let them in, he could only wait in anticipation.
Alexander's answer, however, was not what he first expected.
"Well if you know you are wrong, how about you fuck off? You might as well leave your stuff here, my disciples need some new weapons you see..."
Seething with anger, Gregory's group could hear his cupped fists cracking as he clenched his fists out of anger.
'How can someone be so shameless?! I even went and gave you so much face, just to have you spit at me in front of my warriors?! I won't let that slide!'
Calmly relaxing his body, Gregory lowered his arms, drawing the thin ornate sword on his left. Looking up above at the platform, he said, with a face red from pure anger.
"Since sir doesn't want to give this Martial King Gregory even a bit of face, then this great one won't stay polite!"
Draining some of his Qi from his abyssal reserve, Gregory jumped, his feet shattering the earth below, his sword brandished behind his back.
His momentum ending a few meters higher than the platform, he looked calmly at Alexander and the duo below him, and while floating along with veins bulging from his forehead, he raised his sword high into the sky before shouting.
"Take this! A sword splitting the sea!" Swinging his sword downward, a white slash of pure Qi was unleashed as if a flexible extension of the sword, splitting apart everything in its path, scaring the duo from the raw power contained within this single strike.
This was the battle prowess of a powerful Martial Ancestor!
However, the battle prowess of a Martial Ancestor was still nothing more than a light show in front of Alexander.
Since the Martial Ancestor Realm was the equivalent of the Qi Master Realm of cultivators, being the fourth major realm, how could it even compare with Alexander's cultivation, being almost thirty whole major realms higher?
Not bothering himself, Alexander simply willed the Qi between him and Gregory to stand still.
Gregory on the other hand, could only look at the scene below with bulging eyes, his powerful martial art, as if frozen in time, stood unmoving. He had depleted over ten years' worth of Qi on this single strike, yet it was stopped effortlessly by the young man.
Watching this, Gregory had almost fainted!
But before he could regain his senses, he was pulled down by Alexander, his face crashing onto the platform, his nose bleeding before hearing Alexander's bright voice.
"Alright~, let's talk, shall we?"
Raising his head to look at the big smile that Alexander gave him, Gregory meekly opened his mouth.
"Yes, good idea."