As Will heard Modus mention intent, he could not help but gulp. This is what he had been waiting for. He more or less understood energy, so Modus' explanation on that was Will's secondary objective. His real target was to hear Modus talk about intent. However, thanks to his explanation Modus had answered a few of the questions that had been pestering Will. Yet, even more, questions were created.
"Intent is very difficult to describe or explain, especially to those who have not yet experienced it. However, luckily you have quite an experience with it already. It's just that you did not realize It." said Modus with a cheeky grin.
At this point, Will had more or less recovered quite a bit so he was able to sit up straight. Even as he sat up, his eyes and focus never stopped paying
attention to Modus.
"Wait...could it be bloodlust?" said Will with some uncertainty.
"Exactly! Well done. To be honest you were very close to that conclusion yourself, however, I decided to give you a bit of a push. Before we go into bloodlust, let's go to the basics of martial arts.
As I am sure you have noticed there are far more than 5 senses. One of those senses, which you people on earth commonly referred to as the sixth sense, is actually the intent sense. Once every creature reaches a certain level of sentience they gain a certain level of intent sensing ability. Giving out intent is something we are all capable of doing from the moment we can think. Even a dumb animal like a snake releases killing intent unconsciously.
The intent is simply the physical manifestation of one's will. Thoughts, emotions, feelings, these things sound intangible but they actually have the ability to affect one's environment, if the source is strong enough and wise enough. By wise, I mean if the source has been enlightened in the Dao.
Bloodlust is the most powerful incarnation of killing intent. Killing intent can take many forms, with sword intent being one of them, but bloodlust is without a doubt the most powerful and potent. It cannot be sought after, only chanced upon through insight.
You might not realize the importance of intent, but I assure you it is of the utmost importance to cultivators, especially in the later levels of cultivation. Your intuition to avoid using bloodlust was correct. Not only will it prevent you from understanding other intents, but it can also overwhelm you. Normally a mortal isn't supposed to have some top-tier intent like bloodlust in the first place. Another danger is that it can become addictive. The intent is a representation of its owner's character.
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Any person who has bloodlust has the potential to become an asura, a killing machine devoid of positive emotions who merely seeks more death.
Those with bloodlust are people who are innately attuned to killing and can derive pleasure from it. Many martial artists have lost their way from overusing bloodlust, so make sure to keep it in check. At least until your will is able to keep itself in check. I will inform you when the time is right. It's pointless for me to talk about bloodlust since you can't bring its true power out in your current form so let's talk about what's useful for you right now.
The intent is highly dependent upon purpose. As I am sure you surmised... the purpose of a sword is to kill. The purpose of a sword is to cut. The purpose of a sword is to be swift. Swords have many purposes so there can be many different types of sword intents. You have chanced upon the kind that is for killing and being sharp. That is not true sword intent because it does not encapsulate all that a sword is. For it to be true sword intent it has to represent all that a sword or your sword, in particular, means.
The five material elements, water, fire, earth, wood, and metal, are the basis of all intents. They are the bridges that allow intents to materialize. For example, sword intent comes into being due to its relationship with the Dao of metal and the Dao of wood. In your case, it is metal which is more prevalent as you lean towards killing. This means you have a chance of also understanding metal intent but due to the fact that it's a basic element, its Dao is very broad and difficult to comprehend.
With your abilities, you can also understand water intent. Like metal, its intent is far more profound than sword intent but also far more powerful due to its properties. For your own benefit, I will not go further into water intent but I am confident that with your abilities you will figure it out.
That's my gift to you, for now, I have explained as much as I can. Now I'm sure you have questions to ask, but that right is not part of your prize. Goodbye and keep grinding!"
Before Will could do anything, Modus snapped his fingers and the former
had disappeared from sight.
The moment Will disappeared, Adelda immediately appeared next to Modus: "What a frightening young man..."
"Indeed. I had to get rid of him... before he could truly see just what he had done!"
Will had been unconscious for quite some time, and during this time it had snowed once again. The snow had avoided Will's body as if it was sentient; however, the rest of the environment was covered in snow.
Modus took a step forward. It seemed like a normal step but it swept all the snow away for as far as the eye could see.
Such a thing was something even Adelda could do, so she did not even bat an eyelid at his actions.
A few moments later, however, shock covered her face. Why? Because, starting from the corpse of the Warhawk, a fissure that seemed immeasurably deep kept going on into the distance...
This fissure had without a doubt split the earth into two halves and kept getting wider the longer it became and, just like the effect of Modus' step, it stretched on as far as the eye could see...
Even, if such an eye was hers.