Andric’s spirit energy coursed through his body at an insane rate. With all of his major meridians being open, he was able to move spirit energy throughout the core of his body in an instant. The movement of his spirit energy only became a little slower when it entered his limbs, where he hadn’t opened his minor meridians.
Having Perfect Circulation helped Andric’s spirit energy activation, but it couldn’t be forgotten that he had reached the Novice realm, which transcended the limits of humanity. Just from going from the Human realm to the Novice realm, his spirit energy circulation speed had doubled on a base value. Compared to himself in Einburg, his spirit energy was presently circulating almost one hundred times faster.
Farvald circulated the spirit energy inside his body, but his speed was much slower than Andric’s. He cultivated a meditation technique that was slightly superior to Andric’s, and he had opened his first meridian by sparring with the members of his town, but is martial realm was much lower than Andric’s. The gap between a Human realm martialist and a Novice realm martialist was much too large for a town youth without any backing to bridge. Only supreme martial techniques or experience could enable a Human realm martialists to beat a Novice realm martialist in a fight, but Farvald didn’t have either of those things.
Andric allowed Farvald to have the first move. A second after Andric began to circulate his spirit energy, Farvald charged toward him. Farvald’s instantaneous speed was within the realm of human capabilities, and he didn’t approach Andric very fast. In the time it took him to close the distance between them, Andric activated the Burning Palm Technique in both hands and raised them to meet the charge.
Farvald ended his charge with a flying kick, putting all of his momentum behind his leg. He aimed his foot at Andric’s face, and he jumped high enough to angle his leg horizontally. For a second, his first attack seemed perfect, as if he really would kick Andric in the face, but, at the last fraction of a second, Andric slapped Farvald’s foot and stepped out of the way of the kick.
A Novice realm martialist had twice the strength of a Human realm martialist, and their reaction speed was twice as fast. When Andric had fought against Veremund, he kept a long distance from him so that nothing could be done in a short period of time. Now, if he was faced with Veremund for a second time, he felt somewhat confident in being able to take Veremund in close-combat with spells before Veremund could reach him.
When against Farvald, the Human realm kid was simply too slow.
Andric backed away from Farvald, and Farvald jumped toward him with a flurry of punches. The first rank of the Burning Palm Technique used a small amount of spirit energy, so Andric could keep it up for a while, but it wasn’t something he could use for an extended period of time. Even when he was using the Silent Gallop Technique in the forest, he had to periodically stop and refill his spirit energy reserves.
Farvald’s punches were fast and randomly placed, but Andric was able to block almost all of them. Only a few punches slipped past Andric’s defences, but he got better over the course of the fight. In the beginning, he could only block three out of four punches. After Farvald’s barrage continued for thirty seconds, Andric managed to block seven out of eight punches.
“Three Horned Ram!” Farvald shouted, and he punched Andric with both fists directly in front of him. Andric rose his palms to meet Farvald’s fists, but he was utterly surprised when something hit his chest, in the center of Farvald’s fists.
Andric was pushed back, and Farvald didn’t give him a second to think about what had just happened before resuming his onslaught.
‘The Three Horned Ram attack was able to create a third point of pressure. I was able to block two of them with my hands, but the last one hit me,’ Andric analyzed while retreating from Farvald. He continued to block Farvald with his Burning Palm Technique, hoping Farvald would use Three Horned Ram so that he could analyze it a second time.
A few seconds later, Farvald backed up and swung a wide kick at Andric, who leaned back and used his palms to deflect the kick. Immediately after, Farvald followed up with a kick from his other leg. Andric allowed his spirit energy to surge, and he deflected Farvald’s second kick with the same move his used against the first kick.
However, this time, Farvald’s pant leg came away smoking. This development pleased Andric, who finally saw some improvement with his Burning Palm after several days of practicing. Farvald was only slightly stunned at his pant leg releasing light-colored smoke, and he continued attacking a second later.
Andric blocked Farvald’s next punch, but he didn’t feel like it has as much burning power as the palms he used against Farvald’s kick. Farvald wound up for a heavy punch, and Andric decided to flair his spirit energy at the instant when Farvald’s fist impacted his palm.
“Ah!” Farvald yelped and retreated. He held his knuckles with his other hand, soothing the pain. Andric grinned, knowing his Burning Palm had been successful.
The first rank of the Burning Palm Technique was capable of boiling water and charing wood. Only the second rank of the Burning Palm Technique was able to create actual flames, similarly to the Flaming Fist Technique, which had its first rank only practicable at the Novice realm.
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Andric didn’t advance on Farvald while he was nursing his burn. Instead, Andric thought about why his Burning Palms were more potent at the moment of spirit energy activation. Even if he had the same amount of spirit energy in his palm, the true burning would only activate if he had just circulated the spirit energy into his palm. When he supplied the spirit energy beforehand, the Burning Palm was much weaker.
‘Perhaps it has something to do with the micro-orientation of spirit energy in motion?’ he wondered, trying to think of a reason. If the theory was correct, it would mean he needed to constantly spend his spirit energy to have a martial technique primed for use. At that point, it was no different from continuously using the martial technique.
“Ha, ha, that was a pretty good attack,” Farvald said while clutching his hand. His face dripped sweat. Meanwhile, Andric was completely clean and hadn’t even begun to breath heavily.
“Your Three Horned Ram was also pretty impressive. I was caught off guard by that third impact,” Andric said, honestly evaluating the fight. Farvald’s enthusiasm was praiseworthy, but Andric’s true admiration was for the martial technique Farvald had used.
“Thanks, it was given to me by my parents,” Farvald said and changed his tone. The pressure he expended on his knuckles lessened, and he stared off into the distance for a second or two.
Andric had seen thousands of orphans in his previous life, and he had no sympathy for someone like Farvald who could live with his other relatives in a small town. When Farvald’s tone changed as he mentioned his parents, Andric instantly knew he was parentless. The truly unfortunate ones were those who were turned into slaves.
Andric didn’t have any reason to care about the people living in Radegart. Whether Farvald survived or not along his way to Hilzland was of zero consequence to Andric. The reason Andric offered to spar with Farvald was solely to practice his Burning Palm Technique, and his results were magnificent. After only a few minutes of fighting, Andric had discovered a way to bring out the full potential of the first rank of the Burning Palm Technique.
Farvald laughed lightly, then said, “It’s tough to find martial techniques. I’ve got my heirloom martial technique, but our town doesn’t have any others!”
Andric laughed with him, knowing how only a few martialists in Einburg practice martial techniques, and that most of them were heirlooms in their family. Also, he thought about the myriad of martial techniques in his bag of storage, making the laugh somewhat ironic.
Andric had meditation techniques, martial techniques, and coins. He only lacked experience and knowledge about the martial way. If he had a mentor, that mentor could’ve helped him use the Burning Palm Technique much earlier. But, if Andric did have a mentor, he wouldn’t be able to keep so many secrets. Andric had lived for far too long to believe that any wise senior would want to teach him the martial way for no benefit in return.
What were the chances of picking up a ring and finding a trapped Legendary realm martialist inside it? What were the chances of his mother’s necklace containing a god-tier inheritance? What were the chances of his bloodline awakening an ancient and powerful method of cultivating? Zero. The chances were zero.
Andric would never ask someone for help. If he needed the assistance of a second person, he would only try to put himself in a position where the other person asked him for help. When he first came to Radegart, he didn’t try to spar with anyone. Only when Farvald was acting tough in the tavern did Andric see an opportunity to take advantage of. If he had asked someone for a friendly spar, his opponent might’ve asked for some kind of compensation for their time. Andric had specifically made his offer sound like he was helping Farvald understand his limits. Farvald’s uncle had almost gotten in the way, but the sparring match still happened, and Andric owed nothing for it.
Farvald’s uncle had watched the fight from the side of the road. He said, “Did you learn anything from this? A Novice realm martialist is only one realm higher than a Human realm martialist, but they’re not something you can contend with. If you meet a Novice realm martialist in the war, they’re not going to only defend. Oh, and before you get any thoughts, he wasn’t defending because you were too good. Actually, I think it was the opposite.”
Before the fight began, Farvald’s uncle was worried that Andric would hurt Farvald beyond a reasonable level. It wouldn’t be strange for a young master from a sect or clan to visit the countryside to pick on weaker martialists who don’t have any backing. In demonic sects, there were sometimes requirements of having killed a certain number of people before being able to advance to a higher ranking disciple.
In the fight between Andric and Farvald, Farvald’s uncle had noticed that Andric specifically tried to block all of Farvald’s attacks and not mix in any of his own attacks. Farvald’s uncle was still under the impression that Andric had a powerful backer, and he didn’t think that Andric only knew one martial technique. He also thought that Andric had held back the power of his Burning Palm during the start of the fight and he only purposefully used it at full power twice.
Besides Farvald’s uncle, there were a few others townspeople who had exited the tavern to watch the fight. In short: they weren’t impressed. In towns like Radegart, there weren’t many options for entertainment, so people would occasionally get into fights. A fight wasn’t a true fight unless it ended with one of the participants bleeding, and Farvald had given up the fight after only burning his fist.
“Watching kids fight isn’t very entertaining.”
“What did you expect? Farvald only knows that one move. His parents might’ve trained him in martial arts, but what good is that stuff against an opponent who’s one realm higher?”
“At least the traveler could’ve used a few different martial techniques. He ended up only using that one.”
“And that’s all he needed. Farvald was too out of his league. So what about his day of adulthood? Still a brat.”
“Right, a brat.”
The consensus of the crowd was that Farvald lacked the skill required to defeat an opponent who had a higher realm than his own. Their conjection was correct, but none of them factored in Andric’s Perfect Circulation, which made his body much tougher than normal bodies. In the entirety of Hochland, there wasn’t anyone in the Novice realm who could compete with him in terms of spirit energy circulation speed or body toughness.