After briefly running over all the information he just received. One question kept on running through Chu Feng’s mind, without holding back he asked Chu Hai.
“So how are you planning on awakening my martial spirit?”
With a smug smile on his face Chu Hai answered
“How else I’m going to fight you in a real death match, I’m going to push you to your limits and hopefully that does the trick. If in the face of death your spirit does not come out then you are spiritless.”
Chu Feng looked at him with an indifferent expression on his face, it was as if he didn’t have a soul. Which once again took Chu Hai by surprise.
I mean who would be so indifferent when they are told that their life would in extreme danger, shaking his head Chu Hai displayed a different emotion, one pity and sadness.
In his mind he could not think of how a young man no older then sixteen, a kid still so young would have his life destroyed, for what for the pleasure of some scumbags.
In front of him was a living human being yet when you look at him, when speak to him it was as if you were speaking to a corpse.
He was emotionless, quiet, without care for his life. And back when Chu Hai saw his naked body, it was riddled with scars and burn marks.
It was evident that this boy has been to edge of life and death many times, and along the way has killed many.
His killing intent was strong and heavy. It carried the soul of those he killed and those he lost, he was baptized in hells bloody river.
Sighing Chu Hai once again broke the silence.
“Pick a weapon on the wall we will begin shortly after you do”
Along the walls of the training room were all kinds of weapons some were real others were clearly meant for training.
Without any hesitation Chu Feng walked up to the closest wall and selected a sword. The sword he selected could categorized as a Chinese katana hybrid.
The blade was the size of a Japanese nodachi, but the hilt was that of a Chinese double edge light sword. After a few swings Chu Feng nodded his head in satisfaction.
In the meantime Chu Hai also did the same and selected his weapon. Along the walls many of the sword were classic Chinese swords.
The sword he selected was the same model as the one he uses on the battle field, it was a massive single edge curved sword.
It was a basquashdao sword. Chu Feng recognized it from the history books he read. Nodding Chu Hai started walking towards Chu Feng.
His entire demeanor changed in an instant. Chu Hai became like a hungry beast in front his prey, in a cold voice he said to Chu Feng.
“Let’s begin, and remember this is life or death come at me with your life on the line. If not then you might die.”
As if the temperature in the room suddenly dropped, Chu Hai involuntarily shivered. He was shocked for a second.
But when he noticed the demonic smile on Chu Feng face he realized that he was the one that needed to be careful or he would be the one lying the ground.
Without a moment of hesitation both of them ran towards each other at breakneck speeds, for a moment Chu Hai was speechless.
He was using his spirit energy to increase his speed and also used lightness and movement skills to arrive top speed. But in front of him Chu Feng was equally as fast, yet he wasn’t using any skills.
It was pure physical, and raw speed. Yet it was frightening, how can he achieve this? who the fuck is this boy?.
All these question ran through Chu Hai’s mind. Calming his mind Chu Hai focused on the task at hand. Without delay both swords clashed.
The force that transmitted though the sword and to Chu Hai was enough to make his hands go numb for a few seconds, not only that he was also pushed back a few steps.
Again with eyes wide open, Chu Hai looked at the boy in front of him in disbelief, but he once again recovered.
They continued to clash again and again. And with either Chu Hai being pushed back a few steps, or Chu Feng.
But most of the time it ended up in both fighters holding they’re grounds. Minutes, hours went bye with no clear winner.
Chu Hai was forced to use all of his experience and techniques gain over his military lifetime, yet he could not breakthrough this boys defenses.
It was as if he was constantly three steps ahead of him, he would anticipate and counter him with precise and deadly accurate moves.
When Chu Hai used brute force, he would use techniques to negate the strength then launch a deadly and precise counter.
When Chu Hai used speed, he would also speed up, then would slow down and throw his timing off. Then would once again accelerate and deliver vicious bone crushing strikes.
Almost everything was a notch above Chu Hai, speed, strength, technique, precision, angles, and most importantly perception.
The only reason why Chu Hai was still fighting on equal grounds was because of his experience on the battlefield.
Chu Feng was trained in every aspect of warfare but in his world, war was mostly fought with guns and other advanced weapons.
But in Chu Hai’s world, combat was up close and personal, melee combat was the universal way. Yes long range warfare had its use.
With archery and other ballistic weapons but war was won using cavalry and infantry troops. And most of the time generals would challenge each other in a one on one duel in order to determine the winner.
Using all of his accumulated experience Chu Hai was able to neutralize most of the deadly strikes aiming for his life.
But soon realized that after hours and hours of combat not only was he not able to pressure Chu Feng but he himself was getting weaker and weaker due to exhaustion.
And in the flip side Chu Feng was getting stronger and stronger, which meat that this battle of attrition was nearing his end soon.
And that he would be on the losing end of the spectrum, he decided to put some distance between them.
Once he, he took a breath and said
“Wow I did not expect you to be this talented, and so strong. Well anyway play time over, in order to force your spirit out I need to really pressure you.”
Soon as he finish his sentence the air in the room rose and became extremely hot. A beast spirit aura emitted out from his body.
Flames roared out all around the room with Chu Hai in the center of it all. Soon the flames materialized and an extremely powerful Scarlet flamed Black Tiger showed up and hovered over his back.
It looked menacing, its fangs bearing out ready to shred Chu Feng apart like scraps of meat, yet even looking at this beast Chu Feng didn’t panic one bit, he did at least he didn’t show it.
And the reason why he didn’t show it was because he had long entered the zone while fighting Chu Hai, because he took this fight seriously, he used all of his training against him.
Looking at the scarlet flamed black tiger, then looking at Chu Hai, Chu Feng couldn’t help but be amazed at this sight. After that he said
“Well I guess that is your martial spirit huh, it looks strong. And I don’t even know crap about spirits but I can feel that this one is seriously strong.”
Smiling Chu Hai answered him.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“You are indeed right this my spirit it’s called ‘flare tiger’ and it is a second rank martial spirit, anyway ready for round two, but this time it won’t be melee combat. ”
Once again his face was adorn by that trademark smile of his. Right after that layers of raging flames materialized from thin air and enveloped Chu Feng within itself.
Having his body covered in a nearly lethal scorching energy, Chu Feng eyes were wide open but he didn’t say nothing.
He didn’t utter a single sound, instead he stood with his back erect, and sword in hand. Looking at his figure one could say he resembled those heroes in the fantasy stories.
Slowly but surely the temperature kept climbing up. If anybody else was in the center of this fire storm they would have long since thrown the towel in defeat.
But Chu Feng was different, having gone through the augmentation procedures his body provided him with incredible resistance towards heat.
While it was not comfortable, it was uncomfortable either. He could endure it, and his skin would not burn, nor would it affect his organs.
At least not at the current temperatures. It would take far more to do damage to him, but Chu Hai wasn’t aware of this.
In his mind this boy was nothing more than a monster in human skin. He even though that the boy was using his martial spirit to resist him.
But after further review and the spiritual fluctuation in the air he dismissed that idea, feeling extremely gloomy he kept on increasing the temperature.
As the temperature increased around Chu Feng, slowly but surely his clothes started being affected. Due to Chu Hai precise control of his flames all the heat was directed towards Chu Feng alone.
The room and the items in the room were unaffected, after an hour of climbing temperature, Chu Feng felt as if he was swimming in a sea of lava.
The scorching sensation became increasingly intense. And Chu Feng tightly clenched his teeth, the pain was equal to that of his augmentation.
But having gone through what he had in life by no way would he screamed in pain. He took a deep breath and once again calmed himself.
Now that he had prepared himself something else happened. Suddenly a foreign energy in his body began to circulate.
Slowly but surely it became stronger and stronger, soon his whole body felt many times stronger, and that he was invincible.
After his whole body from head to toe was powered by this foreign energy, it started to migrate and gather in front of his chest.
Soon his entire body was wrapped in a pitch black aura, and his eyes began to glow with a dark red light, if one were to see him now, they would think he was the grim reaper himself.
Slowly but surely the heat didn’t affect him, he once again stood there as if nothing happened. Chu Hai somehow noticed.
And with a loud roar the tiger once again spit out a chuck of flames, and the intense roasting once again picked up but this time the intensity was worst.
Before he got to the point where he would have to kneel on one knee or have both arms planted on the ground.
Right at this moment that an electronic tone sounded in his mind as an illusory gate was unlocked. Following that, a delicate voice called out
“Uwa. Too hot, too hot…big brother please have mean uncle over there stop it.”
Closing his eyes, thinking that maybe he was hearing things. Or that it was a figment of his imagination, Chu Feng saw a tiny succubus like fairy flying back and forth in his mind.
He abruptly open his eyes and what he saw shocked him silly. This little devil even crossing over into the real world.
Speechless Chu Feng kept on staring at the little devil with mouth agape. Noticing his lack of response she called out.
“Big bro, what are you doing? Quickly ask that old man to stop! He is going to roast the both of us to death! What is a cannibal?”
This devil was about 20cm tall and wore a set of black and red lingerie, with matching set of stockings with high heels.
Although she only had a 20cm tall body, she still had her share of long slender legs and well-endowed bosom.
Her face had a devilish charm and looked familiar to Chu Feng. Running through his memory bank he quickly realized who she was.
She was the system aid back when he was in covert training. When they were sent in a VR game for infiltration and covert training.
Each men were given a system aid. His was a succubus, and her name was Jo, his brain once again raced at one-hundred miles an hour but his only question was.
Why was Jo from the game in this world? He unconsciously cried out her name in head
“Jo “
And without a moment of hesitation she looked at him with a big bright smile plastered on her face, as if she was truly excited to see him.
Chu Feng realized that he could telepathically communicate with the system fairy, and that Chu Hai could not even see her or as much as hear her for that matter.
He quickly asked, “Jo, old man Chu Hai over there wants to force my martial spirit out of my body. What is my martial spirit? Can you randomly take something out to at least get him off my ass?”
Flapping her wings, while flying circles around Chu Feng. The little devil seems to in deep though, then she stopped a few inches away from Chu Feng’s face and said
“Big bro, you were mostly assigned to non-combat roles such as merchant, alchemist, doctor, and weponsmith therefore you never had nor came in contact with any martial spirits.
Matter of fact only a few classes in the game had the martial spirit feature, so I do not blame you for not even knowing how to cultivate nor about martial spirits for that matter.”
She sighed and then continued her rant.
“It’s not that I don’t want to help you awaken your martial spirit, it’s that you do not have one to begin with big bro”
She shook her head after saying those lines and went back to flying around in circles. And after hearing those words Chu Feng actually felt a little depressed.
He shook his head and dispelled any thoughts out of his mind, because Chu Hai did say that it was common for some people to not have one.
Abruptly Jo stopped and said
“Wait… ah big bro there is still hope. Remember that book you purchased at the al-heim auction in the game, well it is a spirit encyclopedia.
In it are the information and soul of every beast in the game. With my abilities I can refine a beast spirit, and bond it to your soul making it your martial spirit. ”
Chu Feng ran through his memory database, and a mental image of the extremely thick book popped in his head.
The book was the size of a grown man while standing up, and when Chu Feng purchased it in the game it was deemed a worthless item.
It was a limestone ranked item, he bought for 1 copper coin. The reason why it was worthless was all the information in the book where available to the player via appraisal.
And appraisal was free to all players, it unlocked as soon as a player creates his or her character. But Chu Feng purchased the book in order to sell his cover story of a prodigal son of a merchant.
“Whatever is fine! I just need a spirit to keep this asshole of me anyways. So pick a spirit from it already Jo, this heat is annoying”
With a few beeping sounds Jo began to work, after a few seconds she finished her refinement task, now it was time to bond it to Chu Feng’s soul.
“Big brother Feng get ready, this will only hurt for a few seconds ok”
Chu Feng nodded and replied in an excited voice
”Got it”
Suddenly a crack of pain split across his skull. It was as if someone hit him over the head with a baseball bat with full force.
But he forcefully endured it, and continued to stand up straight like a soldier at full attention. As soon as the pain came it vanished just as quickly.
The next moment, a cool energy rushed out from his body. With a shout, Chu Feng forcefully released this “martial spirit” from his body.
With a deafening roar a ten headed snake like creature emerged from behind Chu Feng, the roar was so loud that it shook the whole mansion.
With hurried footsteps every guards and combat personnel rushed to the training room, Shun Pei and Bi Qing Han however were the first to arrive on scene.
Chu Hai on the other hand was speechless, his mouth was wide open. So wide in fact a bird could fly straight through it.
The reason why his mouth was like that was fairly simple, in front of him stood a Ten-headed snake like beast with four legs and a tail. its skin was make of obsidian scales, each one of its ten heads had different colored jewel embedded on the forehead erea.
Yes it was a ten-headed Hydra.This martial spirit was incredibly rare to this day it was only rumored to exist.
Each of the ten heads, can use a different ability fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, light, dark, blood, poison and finally sound
In addition it could also use combination attacks, an attack formed by the combination of two different system is not simple as 1+1=2. Its power would rise exponentially.
For example if he combine water and wind he will get ice, but if he use fire and earth that will result in magma.
Speechless absolutely, Chu Hai has received one surprise after another. And just when he thought he was used to it he receives another big one.
At this moment every man and woman in the estate had encircled the training ground, without a moment’s hesitation.
Shun Pei, Bi Qing Han and a group of ten soldiers entered the room, thee ten men were the swords of General Chun Hai.
They were men under his command from when he first started his career, they have been to hell back with him for over twenty years.
“How is this possible? A ten-headed hydra as his martial spirit?”
Shun Pei’s voice broke the silence. Everybody present were shocked, Bi Qing Han could not believe her eyes.
The other men were also speechless, their eyes open wide as they gazed at the majestic beast in front of them.
They all had one thought
‘The future of the Chu clan will doubt be brighter than the sun’
With a loud and hefty laugh Chu Hai was almost as loud as the roar earlier.
“HAHAHAHAHA OH MAN, HEHEHEHEHE. NO TIGER FATHER COULD RAISE A DOG SON”
After several minutes of laughter he finally calmed down. And again spoke to a much confused Chu Feng
“Feng’er your ten headed hydra is a first grade martial spirit, each one of its head represent an elemental system. Right now you can cultivate everything from fire to blood and poison.
Anyway tomorrow we will continue our lessons and what not, sorry every one for the disturbance. Shun Pei, Bi Qing Han please once again follow me to the study.
Kin Mou, Tou Gan, Gi ka, Fu Ki, Ten Bou, Han Mon, Sei Yi, Shou Ji, Bu Rei, Do Kin the ten of you also follow me
And Feng’er here is the key to the library, like promised you can spend as much time as you want in there.”
Along with everybody else Chu Feng left the training hall, because of the display earlier. Everybody now looks at him in a different way.
Some looked at him with awe and respect, other with fear. But regardless of their gazes Chu Feng kept a calm look on his face. But inwardly he was having a one on one with this little devil.
“Jo thanks for the help but don’t you think that this was an overkill”
With a lazy expression the pint size devil laughed and replied, in a wronged manner.
“Big brother what are you talking about, this martial spirit of yours is not even the strongest one in the book, I didn’t they were going to make such a big fuss over it.”
“What not even the strongest?”
In a lazy manner she once again answered
“Yea its only classified as an S ranked beast, in the book there are SS, SSS beasts ahead of it and not only that in the S rank category the ten headed hydra is a mid-tier S beast.
The only reason why I chose it for you, was because out of all the other beasts it boasted the most versatility and that could come up handy. ”
For some unknown reason Chu Feng felt his scalp go numb, a gritted his teeth in disbelief. Sighing he said
“Jo thank you very much”
Giggling she said
“Your welcome big brother, anyway I’m going to go sleep I’m tired. Good night big brother”
“Good night Jo, wait Jo it’s not even night yet what do you mean good night?”
Without even giving an answer she disappeared like smoke leaving Chu Feng frustrated.