Wellp, chapter 2 out of 2. Since school is starting next week, i don't have time to write a whole day. My goal during school period will be to release 2 chapters a day, maybe three on some days.
Also, got my first 1k views, (yay me). What surprised me though is that it's on chapter 7 while the other chapters half approx half of that...
Anyways, enough rambling.
Enjoy
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Chapter 9: Phantom Song Sutra
When he read the introduction to Phanom Song Sutra, Nalser was dumbstruck. From Tobias he had heard, attacking , movement and cultivation techniques were all categorized differently and rarely would there be a Sutra where all were present. Usually the ones that had all were inferior to custom made ones, where you picked a body cultivation of one type, movement from a second type and attacks from a third one. Nalser's opinion differed from the standard point of view, in his opinion it was the other way around, "Every technique has a different flow pattern for Mana, the ones from the same type have better synergy between them than custom made ones."
It was actually logical, Sutras were originally created around the same point, so the flow of Mana to execute the techinque's was similar and had better synergy. In the current days the "Custom made Sutras" were all the rage, since everyone could pick different types to cover their weaknesses better. It wasn't rare to see a heavy sword user darting around like a gymnasist.
From the introduction Nalser could see that this technique was worthless when split into different categories. He read through the entire jade slip and commited everything to his memory. When he was done, he had a rare smile of excitement on his face. "If you broke this Sutra apart, you would get 3 mediocre techniques. If you practise the Sutra as a whole, you get a strong kit. Body cultivation, give you a strong foundation that synergizes well with the movement techniques and attack techniques. Movement techniques, when trained to a high degree leaves after images where you get hit, also allows to move at a speed that would seem like a teleportation. Attack techniques don't have a set pattern nor do they have fixed combo sequences. This Sutra is built up on a person comprehension and imagination. Since there are no set attack patterns or sequences a person can create his own. I can combine the teleportation with drawing a blade and will get a quick draw technique that will be hard to catch with the naked eye." While musing to himself about the potential of this Sutra, he felt more and more respect towards the person, who had created this Sutra.
This Sutra didn't have an elemental affinity, a non elemental, so to speak. There were 5 elements here Fire, Water, Wind, Earth and Thunder. Everything else was categorized as non elemental. In Nalser's mind however it should be categorized under the Darkness element. But Light and Darkness weren't considered elements here, so he could only shrug his shoulders to that. He decided to start training in the Phantom Song Sutra. Before he could start training the movement and blade techniques, he had to reach the second level of body cultivation.
The body cultivation part was named : Illusion Demon. It was divided into 4 levels:
1. Refining Mana.
2. Refining the bones.
3. Refining the flesh.
4. Refining the skin.
This cultivation method's unique point was to refine the Mana to a specific quality. When using this specific Mana, his movement and attack techniques will have a smoother flow and a lower Mana cost. When the refining of skin is completed, you go back to refining Mana step. From then on, you slowly accumulate a bigger Mana pool with higher quality mana and do the process all over again and again until the end of time. This was another unique aspect of Phantom Song Sutra. The more cycles you complete the stronger you become, there wasn't a definite cap to it, if you were diligent enough you could complete up to a 100 cycles and grow stronger every time. After the completion of each cycle, the next one will be twice as hard to complete.
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"This cultivation technique is seriously broken...." This was the thought that ran through Nalsers mind when he read that there wasn't a cap to how many cycles he can complete. He also memorized the method for injecting Mana to his blade to make his attacks faster, stronger and sharper.
The one he was most puzzled by was the movement techniques. They were divided into 3 categories:
1. Shadow step, training in it will leave a afterimage. Mostly used in dodging the attack of an opponent.
2. Illusion step, mostly used for escaping, can create afterimages to run in a different direction, the afterimage will have a built in instinct at creation. the number of afterimages depends on the users proficiency.
3. Phantom step, the user can move at extremely high speed, that it can be considered a small distance transportation, range depends on the users proficiency
The more he read about the techniques and thought about their possibilities, the more he thought that either he stole someones luck or that something extremely bad is going to happen in the future... Since luck as good as this, to stumble upon such a technique, usually meant that in the future, the luck will be taken back with twice the interest.
In the Illusion Demon, was written in great detail, how to gather and refine Mana and etc. When a person first learns a body cultivation technique they unlock their Mana Palace. After they unlock it, a person can peek inside his own conciousness. In the beginning, it is a blank, void space, as the cultivation technique progresses, the more things will be added to Mana Palace. How it will end up, depends completely on the cultivation technique.
Seeing that the sun was setting, he decided to find a cave to pass the night in. Soon, he found an abandoned cave that was completely void of life and hidden pretty well, if he hadn't heard an animal passing and ducking down, he wouldn't have even noticed it. He had gathered a few pieces of dry wood along the way. He first put an illumination stone in the cave, to lighten it. Next, he started a small fire inside the cave. Due to the draft the smoke was pulled outside. These were all the skills, he had learned in his special ops days. He had been through swamps and mountains. Survival in the wild, was one of his specialities. It was a lot easier now though. after the fire was lit, he got a small disc out of his ring, on it was inscribed the Tranquilty and Illusion formations. "This world is a hell lot more convenient, just have to find a place to stay and you can practically create your own world..." While sighing to himself, he looked at the disc with a complicated look. He set up the formation disc and after eating and settling himself in, he decided to start cultivating according to the Illusion Demon technique. After completing the first round, he would be able to see inside his own conciousness. This piqued his intreest quite a bit.
After 3 hours of trying and failure, he was about to give up when he felt, he got past the spot that he had failed nearly every time. Feeling joy, he continued practising. He practised until the sun started coming up again and right at that moment, he succeeded. The first rotation was always the hardest to pull off, after wards it's ten times easier. It's like riding a bicycle, after you succeed the first time, following times will seem like a walk in the park. After he had completed the first rotation and refined a thread of mana, he was happy.
The method to boost one's speed through Mana varies on the type of Mana one trains in. The method he used before to boost his speed was actually suicidal. He took the raw, non refined Mana from the air and used that. Had the fight last a minute or two longer, the outcome would've been him ending up as a cripple in a best case scenario. The other thing no one told him was that to complete the first cycle of any body cultivation technique takes atl east 2-3 days. His perception and the ability to make adjustments was greater than most people.
Feeling happy having completed the first rotation, he eagerly went to check his own Mana Palace. The method to do that was, to take a sliver of conciousness and merge it with insert it into Mana. He felt as he had always known how to do it. When he opened his eyes, his conciousness had arrived in his Mana Palace.
The scene in front of him caught him by surprise. What awaited him there, wasn't a completely white, void space but burning right in front of him was a black flame with a tinge of red and yellow mixed in. " What the heck is this..."