Liu Xun took the ax art to the elder at the entrance.
The elder just gave a slight glance and nod before returning to his book.
"One month."
Liu Xun heard as he walked away.
That must be the loan period. I don't need that long for such a simple book.
Liu Xun then slowly walked out of the building.
As he passed the doorstep, he slowly recalled the fact that he had not done today's sign-in yet.
Even though signing in is a troublesome event, he would rather sign in himself than let a certain someone else do it for him.
"System sign in."
Liu Xun's voice was soft but still audible.
He did this just in case anyone was looking at him, so they would not suspect that he harbored any vile intentions or such.
[Signing in...]
[Congratulations Host Liu Xun for signing in at the “Liu Family Skill House”. You have obtained the grey prize - a roll of toilet paper!]
Liu Mushang Affection +100
Liu Ruanfeng Affection -100
Liu Muyue Affection -100
Ru Xi Affection -100
Liu Chengmo Affection -100
Gan Xinjian Affection -100
.
.
.
The Million Suns nods in approval. You have been given a small pill (5 points)!
The Most Ancient One says that you will not be caught off guard now. You have been given a small pill (5 points)!
The Thousand Deceivers laughs out loud. You have been given a mantou (1 point)!
Liu Xun's face cramped up.
It was not like he was expecting anything special.
Maybe a book without any relevance to skills. Even plain paper will do.
Is the system trying to anger me?
[The system is neutral and fair.]
She says such, but system why are all the grey prizes so infuriating? At least the great ones were entertained and gave some tips.
[The great ones like to be entertained, they have set aside many joke prizes just for the laughs. Most of these joke prizes cater to many scenarios like this one and are mostly useless thus being in the 'trash' category.]
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It is already the third time he signed in, most would probably know Liu Xun by now. Considering he did pull a treasure in his last draw and caused a small commotion in the city.
Toilet paper huh.
Who even takes a shit in cultivating novels.
Most higher realm cultivators do not even need to eat.
They probably just sweat out all their impure waste.
Looking back at the desk counter, Liu Xun could see the elder giving him a slight glance.
Liu Xun just shrugged his shoulders before returning home.
--
The walk home was smooth with ease. There no real commotion, unlike the previous sign-in.
Some of the people in the family gave Liu Xun a weird look, but that was all.
Li LangSheng even met him on the way and continued blabbering his mouth.
It was random stuff from important family events to random stuff like whose dog is pregnant. Apparently, he also had insider information on what color are the underwear of certain maids in the family. He is basically a mixed bag of everything parrot.
By the time Liu Xun has reached back home, the sun was already hung high above the sky.
On his table lay his new skill booklet and his lunch. It consisted of a chicken drumstick, a bowl of rice, and some soup. Simple but filling.
Liu Xun slow dug in and then went to the bed to cultivate after his meal.
After a short while, he grabbed the book on the table and gave it a closer look.
Crimson Beheading Dragon Axe.
Five basic forms and one advanced form were written on it. Beside it was six illustrations of a figure that was making various postures.
Dragon Slaying Smash.
Rising Serpent Uppercut.
Tiding Storm Slashes.
Blade Shaft Guard.
Wild Ravager Aura.
Crimson Whirling Tomahawk.
The skills all sounded very impressive, but the insights regarding each skill were very superficial.
The swing posture and movements of the skills were visually illustrated.
There was slight mention of how the qi should flow and but did not mention effectiveness in different scenarios.
The author probably was either a bad writer or was an observer to the user of this skill.
There was no doubt that his insights and illustrations were still helpful to Liu Xun though.
Liu Xun grabbed his old rusty ax lying in the corner along with the red book and moved to the courtyard.
Smash down from head above, imbuing qi at blade tip early swing.
Liu Xun tested out the Dragon Slaying Smash.
Crack
The ground produced a small fissure upon impact, it was larger than a normal ax smash but nothing impressive.
That is weird, the booklet says that the impact should be greater. There must be more steps to this.
Maybe my posture is wrong? Or perhaps the qi flow must come from the Wild Ravager Aura for this skill to be effective.
Some skills just require basic qi to function normally. Others may require refining qi into other forms before showing effectiveness. According to Liu Xun's acquired knowledge, many of the weapon arts at the higher levels required refined qi to perform unique maneuvers. There are both costs and benefits to it. Refining may be complicated, time-consuming, and hard to control. Likewise, it harder to counter while facing such enemies as one cannot simply just redirect a foreign form of qi refinement. The complexity is also the reason why most lower leveled cultivators choose to use basic qi weapon arts. It is a faster and more reliable alternative before advancing to higher stages and switching weapon arts.
It definitely is a pretty strong weapon art if it requires refined qi, not to mention for an unconventional weapon.
Wild Ravager Aura.
Redirect qi around the apertures and meridians, refine it using savage beast qi. For maximum effect, it is required to be bathing in demonic beast blood to attune the body towards beast qi.
What the heck, so I require preparatory steps before this skill could become really effective.
The lower part of the comments also mentioned how demonic cultivators who slay humans would be able to develop a stronger bloodthirsty aura variant which strengthens the skill further.
How troubling. I have no plans on committing evil acts as a cultivator. I could still somehow manage to obtain demonic blood, but the quality would affect the effectiveness of the skill. This is not easy.
Liu Xun took a short moment to consider his available options. He could slowly obtain savage beast qi by hunting weaker demonic beasts and normal wild animals, the latter giving very pitiful amounts. He could also buy savage beast blood or other materials to bathe in to increase the progress.
All in all, this won't be easy, Liu Xun thought to himself.
It is quite impressive that Liu Xun could gather up such knowledge as a beginner qi gathering disciple. Some of his insights regarding the skills and the usage of auras plus their origins are knowledge that cultivators painstakingly develop over the years. It could possibly be said the Guanxin Knowledge Pill was a blessing in disguise, allowing him to save some of the arduous efforts in comprehension as a cultivator.
He continued his attempts to master the skills.
Even without the savage beast qi, he could possibly gain proficiency in the ax movements. By practicing each move, he could still utilize it at a lower level. This is still effectively a weapon art, just a partially functional one. Sometimes he imbued his ax with qi, other times he just repeated the motion without any.
Rising Serpent Uppercut.
Lowering the blade to the ground, gather the qi at the base of the hand. Produce a diagonal upward swing with appropriate momentum. While swinging upwards, divert the qi from hand to ax blade three-fourths of the way, ensuring may qi conversion by impact. Additional forms observed involved channeling qi to divert air resistance and also variants that use qi to propagate ax while swinging.
It was really a detailed senior cultivator's note who observed the art rather than practiced it. He must be quite familiar with the practitioner to gain this degree of insights, one must admit.
Tiding Storm Slashes.
A successive ax swinging attack. There are two visible variants. The whirling swing ax involves the entire body swinging and the tiding wave ax which involves dealing blows in a smooth manner. Each has its own function, one is an omnidirectional attack and defense skill, the other is a uni-directional charge. Both still have the ability to build momentum, dealing heavier blows after each attack.
This is a pretty interesting skill. Multiple uses and for different scenarios that I could imagine. It is definitely a must-have to master.
Blade Shaft Guard was probably the simplest skill on the list. It was just a common weapon art that changes an offensive weapon into a defensive by diverting qi to various weak spots on the weapon to divert aggressive impacts. There also seems to be a parry section. However, it formed a minor section of the booklet considering the Crimson Beheading Dragon Axe is largely an offense-based weapon art.
The last skill was probably the most complex and least explained.
Crimson Whirling Tomahawk.
Based on the name itself, one could tell it involved throwing the ax with qi. Most cultivators are familiar with sword manipulation arts, the most famous being flying swords. This advanced art revolved around ax-throwing and there was different physics between both types of weapon. There are also apparently various forms of qi control to direct the ax in arcs and even boomerang back. However, the booklet stated no such experiment data as the user was not a practitioner of the art. Different axes would also have different weights and blades, making it difficult to assume an ideal formula for such a skill. It was likely to be a trial-and-error for Liu Xun.
All in all. This red booklet may be useless to other disciples out there as the skills are both unsuitable and difficult to comprehend. To Liu Xun who has been swinging an ax for seven years on trees and with extra knowledge, this was a golden opportunity.
The Peerless Jade Scabbard is impressed by your efforts. You have been given a small pill (5 points)!
There are other ways to get points, it seems. Still, suffering seems to be the most effective.
Liu Xun continued to practice as sweat drenched his body.