Chapter 104: Martial Meeting Begins (5)

Chapter 104: Martial Meeting Begins (5)

Ever so slowly, Lan Xiaohui makes it to the center of the waterfall where the Icy Sword Qi is the strongest. My owner is almost completely immersed in a shower of sparks that appear as a result of her own Qi countering the impacts.

This progress is not directly a result of her improved Sword Qi control, but rather an increase in efficiency due to becoming more familiar with the problem. Intuitively, she begins to understand the physics of the waterfall and is able to achieve greater results with less effort.

Even though, at this time, she is still only able to counter twenty to thirty attack points simultaneously, she delegates some of her defense to the protective layer of Qi over her body. Beyond this, she allows a small number of impacts to land on her body, and with her improved Physique, she is able to withstand them without any lasting issues, only temporary discomfort.

As a result, the Waterfall flow automatically adjusts to Lan Xiaohuis improved defensive capabilities, and the flow increases from 7% to 15% of its normal velocity.

This results in a near-constant stream of sparks to fly off Lan Xiaohui who now sits cross-legged in the center of the waterfall, in that state of martial trance.

Very quickly, over the course of two hours, the waterfall flow increases to 18% and that is a direct result of Lan Xiaohuis improved control, and she is no longer in danger of spontaneously disintegrating unless a distraction breaks her focus.

Around this time, Lan Xiaohui switches from using Heartless Blood Lily to generate her sword energy and Qi, to Fractured Sword, and the difference is immediately noticeable.

Thanks to this Waterfall, I am able to measure the direct increase in efficiency, calculating it around 340%, because the flow of the Waterfall swiftly accelerates to 60% of its normal output.

Teaching Lan Xiaohui the Fractured Sword method confirmed some of the suspicions I had. Lan Xiaohui and I share either the same or a very similar Sword Law because she is as suited to practicing it as I am.

Fractured Sword utilizes the same kind of space-warping effects as Lan Xiaohuis Domain, which is immediately noticeable when the Icy Sword Qi no longer creates as many sparks as before, but instead produces a shimmer in the air as the two Qi collide.

With her Domain deployed, I notice that it not only possesses a more powerful effect of slowing down the incoming Icy Sword Qi but also creates a curvature that causes some of it to simply miss Lan Xiaohui.This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.

Now, where Lan Xiaohui sits, the Waterfall shoots off her in sheets and ribbons, as if it was a high-powered jet striking a flat surface all because of the strange curvature of space around Lan Xiaohui.

I observe the sword above her palm, directing my consciousness to look at it from multiple directions. It is not that it is translucent, I realize, but that the light bends around it in rather strange ways. It also feels heavy.

Good work, I tell her. I am impressed, of course, but this is nowhere close to enough to be useful to me. The sword I produced to impale the snake with was hundreds of times bigger and is devouring almost my entire reserves of Qi.

This drain on my Qi reserves is offset by the sheath that Lan Xiaohui made for me, and my [World Eater] constantly operating at 7% which produces a slightly noticeable effect on the Qi around me, however, it is a necessary risk.

Lan Xiaohui smiles and nods.

[ SECOND LAYER: CHALLENGE STAGE BEGINNING. ]

Without any warning, we suddenly find ourselves at the central plaza. Hundreds of cultivators surround a large Pagoda in the center of the plaza, and this structure climbs for hundreds of floors, its peak high above the clouds. Not even I can measure its height, from the ground.

Lan Xiaohui immediately assumes a defensive posture she has long suspected that the second layer challenge will involve fighting her fellow cultivators but once she realizes that she is the only one in this stance, she relaxes slightly.

You are new here? a cultivator next to Lan Xiaohui asks.

My owner nods in reply.

The cultivator next to her is a short man with black hair and black eyes. Everyone who is new assumes that well be fighting, but thats not the case not always, he says.

The cultivators words make me question several assumptions I have made about this internal world. It does not seem to have appeared with my Devoured Worlds Sphere and may have been operating, independently, for quite some time.

The tower is the challenge, the cultivator says. Good luck.

With those words, the cultivator steps on the stone platform in front of him and disappears.