The Deity of War

That night, Qi Ying didn’t retire to his room to sleep as he usually did. After Mother Yu went to bed, he cleared out a patch of empty space in the courtyard, before laying the shattered bricks on top of one another. After about two hours of effort, a crude wall had reappeared. All of the flowers and vegetable seedlings had been uprooted, while a small pile of soil had been piled up next to the broken stone table and chairs.

The courtyard was still broken and dilapidated, but it was no longer a pile of rubble. Qi Ying stood in the newly “renovated” courtyard and slipped off his silver glove as he basked under the light of the stars.

After a few seconds, a layer of purple True Energy appeared around Qi Ying’s right hand.

He raised his hand and thought back to the True Energy manipulation method that the academy teachers had imparted upon him. Gradually, the purple True Energy began to converge toward his palm before becoming more and more concentrated, and finally condensing to form a small purple ball.

‘Hmm? That was really fast as well!’

The most basic method of manipulating True Energy was to force it out of one’s body and change its state.

Regardless of whether a warrior wanted to unleash battle techniques or use True Energy to form a defensive barrier, learning to manipulate the energy was the first step.

Qi Ying discovered that his proficiency in using True Energy was incredible. He had seen other rookie Energy Martial Stage disciples cultivating in their battle techniques; it took most of them over a week just to be able to manipulate their True Energy. Take Duan Renshan as an example. Learning to manipulate True Energy and mastering the Gale Monarch Fist battle technique took him about a month in total.

However, this was the first time attempting to manipulate True Energy and he was already able to form a ball!

Bam!

The purple ball hovering above his palm suddenly dissipated.

The spatial ring on his left hand flashed and a thin book appeared in his hand.

Yellow Tier Intermediate Rank battle technique, Dark Falcon Illusionary Claw!

During the day, he meditated with his cultivation method and reached the first Energy Martial Stage.

It was deep into the night right then, but he was too bothered by his thoughts to be able to sleep, so he decided to cultivate in his battle technique instead.

After mastering a battle technique, a warrior’s offensive output would multiply by manifold in power. If Qi Ying were to master a battle technique, he would be able to unleash powerful attacks even without relying on his left hand.

Furthermore, the process of cultivating a battle technique was quite a good exercise to help improve the usage of True Energy. On some levels, it could even accelerate one’s progress in cultivation base.

The Dark Falcon Illusionary Claw satisfied all of Qi Ying’s needs. The power it could unleash wasn’t very explosive, but it could allow him to create claws of True Energy that were quite lethal. That allowed him to strike extremely quickly, making it particularly effective against warriors who were slow in their movements or reflexes.

Additionally, Qi Ying had already learned the Falcon Claw Fist, which was centered around attacking the enemy’s vital regions from uncomfortable angles, traits which worked to complement the Dark Falcon Illusionary Claw quite well.

Qi Ying quickly scanned through the Dark Falcon Illusionary Claw and within fifteen minutes, he had attained a rough understanding of the battle technique.

Whoosh!

Qi Ying thrust his right hand out violently and at the same time, True Energy circulated through his meridians, rushing quickly toward his fingertips. Five purple streaks instantly appeared in the air, carving out five curved trajectories.

However, they did nothing aside from stirring up gusts of wind. Not even the leaves fluttering down from the overhead tree branches had been severed by his attack.

‘Huh… I thought I would be able to instantly master this battle technique as well…’

A self-deprecating smile appeared on Qi Ying’s face.

It had been an extremely smooth process from sensing the vital energy of heaven and earth, to then guiding the energy into his body, progressing to the Energy Martial Stage, and finally to utilizing his True Energy. This had instilled a false sense of confidence in him, producing the notion that he could do anything instantaneously.

Cultivating in a battle technique didn’t seem to be all that simple!

Qi Ying continued to circulate his True Energy and the energy vortex within his dantian began to accelerate in its rotation. Wisps of purple True Energy flowed toward the meridians in his right hand, before being expelled out of his body.

“Form!”

All five fingers on his right hand were completely covered by purple energy.

More and more True Energy converged toward his fingertips, forming hooked claws.

Whoosh!

Qi Ying leaped into the air and swept his claws toward a drifting leaf!

Whoosh!.

Five more streaks of silver light flashed past. However, the True Energy covering his fingers was far denser than last time, and possessed offensive power. Thus, the falling leaf was instantly ripped to shreds.

Bam!

Qi Ying landed on the ground and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

Even though he had only achieved the most basic step, creating an effect that was merely akin to lengthening his fingernails, it was a start nonetheless!

With more practice, he would be able to improve his mastery of the Dark Falcon Illusionary Claw.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Qi Ying continued to practice his battle technique in the courtyard and streaks of purple light flashed through the air. As time passed, the claw projections materializing on Qi Ying’s fingers became more and more substantial, and began to bear some resemblance to the claws of a Dark Falcon.

Finally, after one final swipe of his hand, purple claw projections erupted from his fingers, before quickly expanding in size to form a set of massive falcon claws that were each a foot in length!

Whoosh!.

The falcon claws screeched as they flew through the air.

‘I can just barely unleash the Dark Falcon Illusionary Claws now.’

Qi Ying didn’t dare become complacent and he continued to practice in order to consolidate his new skill.

After that, each swipe of his claws sent purple claw projections hurtling through the air. The projections struck the ground within the courtyard, sending clumps of dirt and debris flying in all directions.

After practicing for about a hundred times, Qi Ying was suddenly struck by a sense of dizziness.

‘This left hand is acting up again!’

Qi Ying’s brows furrowed and he immediately pulled out a jade vial from his spatial ring. He opened the vial and swallowed one of the Energy Containment Pills within.

The pill melted into its elixir form upon entering his mouth and its essence was quickly absorbed by his left hand as energy.

However, his dizziness was only alleviated marginally as a result and did not completely disappear.

Gulp! Gulp!

Qi Ying had to swallow two more Energy Containment Pills to rectify his condition.

‘After progressing to the Energy Martial Stage, my demand for pills has further increased! Even worse—whenever I circulate my True Energy, my left hand always absorbs a portion. This significantly increases my energy expenditure, so I have to constantly make sure that I have enough pills at the ready.’

One Energy Containment Pill per day was no longer enough to support his left hand.

Using his internal inspection skill, Qi Ying discovered that the energy vortex in his dantian had slowed down in its rotation and there was also less True Energy circulating through his meridians.

Qi Ying sat down and activated his Purple Energy Cultivation Method.

Whoosh!

His body began to absorb purple energy into his meridians from its surroundings, before converting it into True Energy… Moments later, his energy vortex was rotating at a steady speed once again, and his meridians were filled with purple True Energy.

‘At the First Energy Martial Stage, I don’t have a lot of True Energy, so I can’t unleash my battle technique too many times.’

Qi Ying shook his head with a sigh.

It looked like he had to use his battle technique conservatively, in case he overexerted himself and fell prey to his left hand.

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to Qi Ying.

‘I only tried to use the Dark Falcon Illusionary Claw with my right hand before. What will it be like if I use my left?’