Chapter 38: A Myriad of weapons.
Yao Jun slowly picked himself up from the ground. The pressure was bearing down on his bones, causing them to creak with every move he made. The pain caused by the pressure was still there, but Yao Jun could withstand it now.
Despite his body slowly strengthening, it still took him almost five entire minutes just to stand up and straighten himself. After he stood up, he turned his head and surveyed the hammers struck into the ground around him. He examined all the hammers for a short while before shaking his head and taking another step forward.
When he took the step forward, the hammers struck into the ground turned fuzzy and vanished. What replaced them were large spears stabbed into the ground. There were a myriad of different spears, each one unique and different from the rest.
When the spears appeared, the oppressive force changed once more. It was no longer as heavy as it was before, but it had gained an additional piercing feeling. Small stab wounds started appearing all around Yao Jun's body, but he simply ignored them and closed his eyes.
When Yao Jun closed his eyes, instead of just focusing on absorbing the energy that the oppressive force brought with it, he also studied the piercing energy that the surrounding spears produced.
Yao Jun had a hunch that this test was not only used to test the determination of the participant, but was also used to strengthen the body of the participant as well as let the participant choose the weapon that suited him the most.
Some people did not believe that one could reach the peak if they only focused on one thing, instead choosing to focus on many weapons and techniques at once. But Yao Jun firmly believed that it did not matter if one focused on just one thing, or if one focused on many things, all that mattered was that you wholeheartedly pursued the peak.
Yao Jun had no interest in pursuing the peak of strength and technique. If he could provide his parents with a good life, find a wife and live his life in peace, he would be happy. But he was not stupid, he knew that this was a dog eat dog world. If he wanted to protect his parents and his future wife, he needed strength, this was the entire reason he bothered training in the first place.
Yao Jun stood still and bore the piercing oppressive force for another five minutes. After five minutes, all the small holes that had appeared on his body had closed up, his body getting slightly strengthened once more. Yao Jun opened his eyes and scoured the myriad of spears one last time before taking another step forward.
He had to admit that the spear was rather suited to him. He mostly focused on rapid attacks that quickly decimated his opponents. The power and strength that the spear brought with it would allow his strength to grow to another level.
But he found that he could not connect with the spear. In his hands, the spear would just be like a long stick that had a pointy end, it had no heart. When he used the longsword that he had gotten from his father, he felt like the sword was just an extension of his arm.
He could control the sword with just the slightest intent of his heart, it would move and jump like it was a living creature. His longsword moves were unpolished and clumsy, nowhere near the same level as a true swordsman like Yun Yantian. But they were his longsword moves. Each move he made with the longsword was his own, they all contained a little piece of Yao Jun's heart and soul.
Yao Jun was already mostly certain that the longsword was the weapon for him, but since he could not control which weapon would show up next, he could only continue walking forwards. This also had the added benefit of slowly strengthening Yao Jun's body, as well as letting him experience the majesty and prestige of the many other types of weapons.
Yao Jun had never faced a true master of the hammer. But he was certain that if he ever faced someone who had truly mastered the hammer, each attack that person produced would bring about the same oppressive force that Yao Jun felt when he entered this forest of blades and was surrounded by hammers.
As Yao Jun took that next step, the spears turned fuzzy and vanished, the piercing force vanishing with them. What took it's place was a constricting force that twined itself around Yao Jun's body, slowing down his movements and even making it difficult for him to breathe.
With a turn of his head, Yao Jun examined the weapons that had appeared around him. A myriad of whips had appeared around Yao Jun, each one bringing with it a constricting and suffocating pressure. Some whips were made out of leather, some out of soft metal, some were adorned with spikes or other items to enhance their power.
After the constricting force took hold of Yao Jun's body, a myriad of different forces started invading his body, wrecking havoc on his insides. Since each whip was made out of different materials and adorned with different items, each whip brought with it a different constricting pressure.
Yao Jun closed his eyes once more and focused on experiencing the myriad of different pressures. To experience each pressure properly, he focused on separating each pressure. He spent a little time experiencing a constricting pressure that had a sharp feeling to it, after that he would spend a little time experiencing a constricting pressure that had a piercing feeling to it.
Like this, Yao Jun slowly dissected the myriad of pressures, taking his time to experience each and every single iteration. After spending almost half an hour dissecting the myriad of pressures, Yao Jun once more opened his eyes and took a step forward.
The next step took him out from a world filled with a myriad of pressures, and brought him to a world containing only a single tyrannical pressure. The pressure contained both a slicing and a crushing feeling, bearing down upon Yao Jun like a mountain of blades.
Yao Jun did not even need to turn his head to know what type of weapon had appeared around him. Thicker and longer than a normal blade, a slight bend to it's edge that made it curl upwards. A weapon that resembled a sword in nearly every fashion, but focused on speed and power where the sword focused on speed and flexibility. The saber.