Chapter 1618: Trancendent Battle Art

Chapter 1618: Trancendent Battle Art

What was a battle style?

Depending on the practitioner, the answer varied.

At the lowest level, a battle style was nothing more than a comprehensive collection of movements and steps aimed at giving the practitioner sufficient competence to engage in battle. A set of practices meant to encompass all possible combat situations, and arm the warrior with tools to solve them.

There were countless battle styles, some taught to groups of people, others formed from the personal habits and quirks of talented combatants. Some styles emphasized strength and strived to overpower the opponent, some emphasized speed and precision, some emphasized solid defense and waiting for a perfect moment to counterattack.

There were solid battle styles created with deep insight, and poor battle styles that were concocted without a real understanding of the fundamental laws of combat.

But that was only the most shallow layer of a true battle art. A person could practice a battle style without truly understanding its essence, but they would never be able to master it.

At a higher lever, a battle style was not only a set of movements, but also a formative philosophy. It concerned not only the body, but also the mind. A person who truly mastered a style had to possess a certain level of insight into the governing laws of combat. Knowing why each of the elements had been created and what its purpose was, they were not beholden to a predetermined repertoire of actions. Instead, they could freely improvise an actionable response to each situation..

If all movements could be improvised, then what was the difference between the various battle styles? It was their philosophy. The school of thought and the dominant intent, a unifying principle that guided the shape and direction of these improvised moves.

Therefore, even among those practitioners who had mastered both the body and the mind, there were still those who fought with domineering strength, swift precision, patient caution, or any other type of guiding intent.

These were the true masters of combat.

Sunny had become one of them — and one of the absolute best among them — a long time ago.

But now that he was a Saint, a whole new horizon had opened up before him.

He thought that he might have glimpsed what the next level of mastery was.

Saints did not exist in and of themselves, as sovereign beings. Their souls were vaster than their bodies, coming into contact with the world and the underlying laws governing it. Some parts of the world welcomed them, while others repelled them. That was why Transcendent beings were able to absorb the spirit essence of the world, as long as they were in their element.

For Sunny, that element was shadow. For someone like Saint Tyris, it was the sky, or perhaps storm clouds. For someone like Nephis... he couldn't guess. It might have been light, or flame, or something more esoteric, like inspiring longing in the souls of other beings.

Therefore... he guessed that what came after the body, the mind, and the souls was the world. Incorporating the world itself into one's battle art would probably make it a supreme battle art. That said, Sunny was not sure if it could even be called a battle art, at that point, let alone how to actually achieve something like that.

In any case, he was voraciously curious to witness and experience the battle styles of other Transcendent warriors. To learn from them, and maybe even gain more understanding about the path to supremacy.

Which was why fighting Nephis was a boon to him.

So... he definitely wasn't prolonging their clash simply because he missed her.

Why would he cut this duel short if humanity's premier sword savant was graciously allowing him to steal her achievements?

'I see... I see. No, I don't see...'

Deflecting a barrage of almost instantaneous attacks, and at the same time desperately preventing these attacks from dictating his next moves to avoid the countless traps Nephis constructed for him on the fly, Sunny carefully observed her movements, the flow of her essence, and the form of her shadow.

Pretty soon, he had to admit something to himself...

'What the hell has she been doing for the last four years? It's... damn incomprehensible!'