Chapter 407: Battle Prowess

Chapter 407: Battle Prowess

The stone archways lit up. White light beamed, filling the stone arches from left to right. Hui cut a surreptitious glance around him, then nodded and stepped inside. Here we go.

White light filled his vision. He closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he stood in a massive, simple stone room. Stone stretched high above him, and all around him, in every direction. The room easily stretched a thousand meters by a thousand meters, if not larger, so large that the walls faded away. A sparse net stretched halfway up the room, connecting all sides of the room together.

Hui looked around. Plenty of room to maneuver in here. And the net is that just to remind us that were in All-Heavens territory, or does it have some purpose?

Qi pulsed. The chains clanged. From out of the walls, blank-faced figures in white robes materialized. Hui whirled, quickly counting his foes. Ninety-nine one hundred. So I have to defeat a hundred enemies! Alright. Their realm

Hui licked his lips. They match my realm? Not ideal, not ideal. He jumped in place, shaking out his limbs. Okay. Life qi for battle. How does that work?

Overgrowth? Thats the most obvious attempt, but do these constructs have biological properties? Experimentally, Hui sent a strand of life qi into the nearest construct and pumped life qi into it. The construct shuddered and began to glow gold, but nothing else happened.

Hui twisted his lips. Hmm. Not great. Well, I cant expect a sects expendable battle constructs to perfectly mimic a human body, after all. The kind of attacks that life qi can make internally in the human body are the exact kind of attacks that a construct like this would be immune to. Although I can sense rudimentary vital organs, situated to allow an assassinator or poisoner to still effect these constructs, they arent recreated in sufficient detail for my life qi manipulation to destroy them. The real issue is that they have no growth mechanisms in the first place, so that stimulating them with life qi is a dead end.

What else?

Putting aside life qi, I do have all the treasures I profiteered off ofahem, received in honest payment from those cultivators I healed. But then again, All-Heavens Sect specializes in life qi. I should focus on showing off my strength in life qi in this battle!

The constructs drew their swords. They knelt, readying attacks.

Hui closed his eyes and clenched his fist tight. He opened it, revealing a handful of lotus seeds. Gold light glowed over the seeds, and they burst open, blooming into small lotus clones. Huis eyes gleamed, and he boldly shouted, Go, my minions! Protect me!

Five lotus clones rushed off in all directions.

Phew. That felt good. Ah, its so nice that no one can see or hear me in here. I can shout all the embarrassing lines that Ive always wanted to shout. What else? What should I shout next? He drew himself up to his full height. Go forth and destroy!

Yes, yes, that feels right! Hmm, anything else?

--

Hui frowned. This much pain for twice as much power? Twice? No, no. At least at least ten times! He unwound the muscle and tried again, twisting it even tighter this time. His nose wrinkled. No, not enough. More! Im not doing this to do it halfway!

The lotus clones drew a line around him, keeping the constructs away from Hui as he reformed his body. The constructs slashed at the lotus clones, and often sliced into green flesh, but the lotus clones healed faster than the constructs could damage them. The lotus clones, on the other hand, slowly wore down at the constructs, who had no inherent healing powers.

In the center of the lotus clones, Hui began to emanate a gold glow as he desperately concentrated life qi into himself, reforming his muscles and bones, forging them a hundred times stronger than theyd been originally. The gold glow grew stronger and stronger, until it grew blindingly bright. The glow swallowed the entire room, until nothing else could be seen but the gold light.

Hui shouted and leaped up from his sit. His entire body glowed with life qi, every shred of muscle and bone and tendon reformed from scratch and optimized to the ultimate degree. He flexed his arms. Im so full of energy! Lets go!

The lotus clones turned, looking at Hui. He tore past them, beating the nearest construct with his bare fist. The construct flew backward and smashed into the wall, crumpling to the ground. Hui dashed around the room, and the constructs smashed apart behind him, his fists moving too fast to be seen. The lotus clones cried out, startled and amazed.

Hui came to a halt. He clenched his fist. That was too easy. Is this body really so amazing? I should've done this ages ago!

One of the lotus clones walked over to him and raised its hands. Hui looked at it. Do you want to be refined, too?

Another lotus clone ran over and raised its hand, then another and another, until all five of them clustered around Hui. Alright, alright! Give me a moment.

Hui glanced around. A single construct remained, rushing toward him with its sword raised high. He darted over and disarmed the construct, then darted back over, setting its arms on the ground beside him. He glanced back. The construct stumbled along, harmless as it was armless. At a guess, theres waves in this battle. After all, whats a battle prowess trial without waves for the protagonist to blast through? If I defeat this construct, Ill probably have to take on the second, more powerful wave, but Id be better off fixing up the lotus clones so they can fight at this new level Ive discovered alongside me, rather than taking on the entire battle alone.

He nodded at the clones. Okay. Itll hurt, but

The lotus clones raised their hands again.

Shaking his head, Hui reached out. Life qi glimmered in his palms. Dont say I didnt warn you!

The lotus clones began to glow gold as well. They cried out in high-pitched voices, but none of them moved away from his hands as he reshaped their bodies.

At last, the gold light faded. The lotus clones stood taller than before, still not the height of an adult man but at least chest-height now. They flexed their newfound muscles and grinned at one another, all bold and proud. One darted off and hauled back their fist, punching the head off the final construct.

Ah, dont Hui sighed. He shook his head and stretched, preparing for the next wave. Oh, well. Wed have to kill the final construct eventually. I wanted to take a moment to strategize, but its too late now.

Lets go! On to the second wave!