Shen's already mixed foundational Concepts took in the other four, and everything turned into an indivisible mass.
Each Concept became impossible to separate or distinguish from the other. In fact, they became so well glued together that he couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. He had had that knowledge an instant ago, yet now it was simply gone from his mind.
When he thought of the words "war" or "combat," he thought of his entire Path, including what probably belonged to Flow or Arc Flash or Boundlessness. The specific meaning of each word, each Concept, eluded him.
Shen could already predict that it would make up for awkward conversations in the future.
That also affected his Zephyr-Gale Movement Art. He recalled changing the Elusive Gale Movement Art to also be based on Zephyr, but he couldn't find Zephyr in its moves at all. Oh, he could see hints of it here and there, but not the Zephyr he knew—the Zephyr that was now his entire Path.
He knew on an intellectual level that Zephyr, the actual Zephyr from the Laws of Wind, could be found in the Skill. But his mind felt repulsed by the idea of separating Zephyr from the rest of his Path.
There was no dividing the Concepts that he considered his anymore. Trying to split his Path, split himself, was just... stupid. An intrinsic part of him felt disgusted at the idea of not being whole, which was reflected in his Skill.
His Footwork was just... lacking.
In fact, Shen suddenly realized everything he did was lacking.
How could he even breathe like that? He was Feng Shen! He was his Path! How could he deny himself by being anything different?
He immediately changed the way he inhaled the air, how he circulated it in his lungs, how he applied qi to it, how the oxygen was absorbed into his bloodstream, how it circulated through his body, how his cells took it, and how he exhaled the air void of oxygen back into the world. The changes to the process were followed by a perfecting of the timing involved. His qi and aura started affecting the air from the first instant to the last, making the air run faster or slower whenever it should.
As soon as Shen was done, that breathing method became second nature to him. He didn't have to think to breathe correctly.
It was simply part of who he was.
And just like that, in a single instant, his new breathing became so effective and in tune with him and the Concepts he had borrowed from Reality that it doubled how much qi he absorbed from the environment.
Shen also wanted to change how he absorbed qi into his core. Unfortunately, he knew next to nothing about the Concept of Rainfall his cultivation method was based on. He felt he could—should, even—change the method but didn't have the time for that right now.
So he focused back on changing what he could.
His aura was next.
His aura had three parts: harmony, selflessness, and theft. Shen harmonized with Reality, but not one Concept at a time. His whole Path was around him, inside him, and himself. He didn't need to deny himself to become Reality incarnate; he was the Concepts that made his Path. Lastly, when he hijacked the harmonization to forcibly pull more of his Path from Reality and into his surroundings, it almost felt like Reality didn't fight back.
He understood why a moment later. Why would Reality stop its Concepts from manifesting themselves as strongly as they wanted, whenever they wanted? Shen was in such harmony with his Path that the Laws of Reality only realized he was not them and cut him off when he had already established too powerful a connection to the Concepts of his Path.
His aura range doubled to over six hundred yards, and he could now use sixty percent of his power anywhere he wanted—for free.
Sixty percent of his new power.
When Shen had been improving his breathing, he saw so many imperfections in his body that he almost threw up in disgust. Now, he remade himself with a thought. He imposed his will upon himself using qi and aura, changing everything inside his gross shell into the actual him.
He couldn't tell where his Concepts started or ended, but he made sure to make his body perfect for War, Combat, Sharpness, Flow, Zephyr, Arc Flash, and Boundlessness. Every cell of his body, which the Guardian System had already improved to the limits of the laws of physics, now stopped on the very line separating the physical from the ethereal. His mind became fit for thinking, strategizing, and making decisions fast. His body became the perfect tool for killing. His muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, and tissues were fine-tuned for sudden acceleration and deceleration, became aerodynamic to reach and maintain faster speeds, turned denser for extra weight behind his attacks, and shifted for slightly additional reach. His nails and teeth grew incredibly sharp. His body became extra durable. His nerves got even better and faster at sending information from his brain to his limbs.
A perfect killing machine should also be able to withstand the test of time, so he improved his health and healing efficiency next. His cells became overall healthier and better at mending. He modified his veins and arteries to pump more blood faster when needed. None of his Concepts could make him better at healing, but minor improvements were possible.
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| Max Health Points: 200 → 270
| Health Regen: 24 → 30/h
Shen had truly become a master of himself, of every inch of his existence, which allowed him to discover how the system removed everyone's need for nourishment. It injected calories straight into people's bodies. Stamina was nothing more than calories stored in one's body. He could see how it could be spent for extra power, thus explaining some Skills he had heard about, but now how it would be pushed outside one's body.
As he kept focusing on himself and improving his body, he found he couldn't force the system to give him more stamina. However, he could make his body better at storing it.
He could also change how his body took environmental qi and turned it into calories, improving his regeneration rate. He could make his body much more efficient at absorbing qi and stamina and better at using them.
He did it all.
| Max Stamina Points: 200 → 400
| Stamina Regen: 12/min → 25/min
Throughout it all, Shen was careful not to give up on his humanity. His species was also part of his identity, his Path. He became a few inches taller, and his arms got a few inches longer, but other than that, few would notice his fine-tuned and slightly repositioned muscles.
As an afterthought, he dimmed his skin's brightness so only someone looking for it would notice he now glowed. He didn't get rid of it, though; he was the part of his Path that brought the light as much as he was human.
Shen pushed his D+ strength, agility, and resistance to the very edges of what they could give him—and went beyond. His Path refused to be limited by anything as artificial as a "Guardian System." He might need to bow to the Laws of Reality here and there, and indeed, they determined he couldn't improve further without raising his cultivation rank. But within those boundaries, he was his own master.
He even tried to push against said boundaries, too. Alas, any change against Reality would require active and constant qi expenditure, just like with his Path Sphere, and Reality would actively push back. He couldn't withstand the weight of the entire existence for more than a few seconds.
Yet, Shen didn't mind the limitations so much. What he had done was enough.
His aura harmonized with his new body as soon as he was done.
Its range increased again to nine hundred yards.
Its effectiveness increased again to eighty percent of his improved power.
Yet, as much as he was happy about his new power, what made him ecstatic was finding that he couldn't be more of himself.
Shen being his Path had never been truer.
Looking at his arms, he saw not only biology but a conduit of his entire self. Everything he was, all his Path, could be found there. He felt his Concepts running through his body like the blood going through his veins.
And if he was his Path, and his aura was his Path applied to the area around him, how could his aura be separated from him? How could it allow something to get close to or strike at him unless he purposefully allowed so? His body fought invaders by itself; how could his aura be any different?
Shen's aura became innately linked to his mind and thoughts. He almost unconsciously detected everything inside his aura and categorized it as something to be ignored, attacked, or more attentively observed. He didn't need to consciously think about it anymore unless he so desired. Thus, he became all but impervious to any sneak attack unless they could fool his aura.
The D-rank gnoll getting closer to him was suddenly cut, crushed, blinded by bright lights, and exploded by sudden blasts. All attacks happened together and countless times per second. Each one of them had three-fourths of Shen's power behind them.
The gnoll died without Shen ever paying attention to them or wasting a single drop of his qi or willpower.
Then, Shen moved.
He ran toward the nearest gnolls. He barely slowed down enough for them to die under his aura's onslaught, then kept going toward the closest ones.
They died in droves.
He ignored the powerful gnoll in golden and white armor for now. She was running straight towards Yinhu Shuzui and had some way of denying his aura. He would rather not waste his time facing her until he was done saving everyone. The Yinhu dog only had to resist for less than a minute, then Shen would help.
As he moved, he perfected his footwork Skill. He would get to his spear art and cultivation methods when he had the time. Unfortunately, they lacked any of the Concepts in his Path. Therefore, he focused on the only Skill that had part of his Path.
Shen remade it from the ground up.
A step without his Path was not a step worth being made. Dodging with good form but no substance was worse than being struck and dying. He either showed himself with his every breath and movement, or he might as well just die.
Why bother living if he was just another mindless golem in an uncaring universe?
There was no existence without actually existing as his true self.
The Zephyr-Gale Movement Art was used as a framework for the Feng Shen's Movement Art. His aura killed gnolls while he almost absentmindedly moved around at Mach 14— No, 15— No, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22... At Mach 33 speed, after he perfected the basics of his movement art and his aura pushed him to his fastest without using qi.
Shen only consciously acted to get rid of the two remaining aura users—and only because he didn't want to waste time or focus on a battle of wills. They were so slow that each only took three seconds from him.
In nine seconds, the over six hundred remaining D-ranks were dead. His aura was eighteen hundred yards wide from one edge to the other, a little over a mile. He didn't have to run far to kill many gnolls simultaneously, and he didn't even have to focus on killing most of them. His aura did it for him.
After dealing with the gnolls, Shen stopped for three extra seconds to think.
That's how long it took him to complete the basic moves of the Feng Shen's Movement Art.
| Skill Name Change: Zephyr-Gale Footwork → Feng Shen's Footwork
| The Guardian System cannot estimate how your self-created Skill can improve and stay perfectly in tune with your True Path
| Feng Shen's Footwork (D+) removed from your Skills list
| Skill Slot freed
| Remaining Free Skill Slots: 2
Shen's new movement art was nowhere near as encyclopedic as the Zephyr-Gale Footwork. He got rid of countless moves. If something wasn't related to his Path, it wasn't worth having in his arsenal. He would rather die than deny himself in a movement to save his life, so there was no reason to preserve such abilities.
The basics of his new non-Skill were elementary. They let him walk, run, stop, turn, and evade in perfect sync with himself, using everything he knew of his mastered Path. Because he knew his body and mind's exact limits, the moves pushed him to the edge, making full use of everything he was.
Shen then turned to the strong gnoll invader, who was a few strikes away from killing Yinhu Shuzui.
He didn't even consider letting the D-rank kill the man to spare Shen the trouble. Shen wasn't one to use such pathetic subterfuge to deal with his enemies. He would kill Yinhu himself and let everyone know he had done the deed—or not. Neither his honor nor his recently self-accepted arrogance would see Yinhu Shuzui die at that invader's hands if he could do anything about it.
Shen rushed at their common enemy at once.