Chapter 226 226: Preparing For Future Troubles



Yoze's eyes twinkled with multi-colored sparkles as he could imagine how he could easily lock his enemies into his chain of attacks by adding variety to them. For example, he could start a chain of attacks using a leg technique before switching to a first technique in the middle of the combo and ending the battle with a completely different martial art technique.

By taking this approach, he could better solve the problem of his enemies getting too comfortable with the chain of attacks and beginning to calculate the holes or patterns within the chain of attacks. In addition, he could still remember clearly how Martial Silver Thunder took advantage of the weaknesses in his Twin Fists and other basic martial art techniques.

He could easily imagine the result of that fight would have been drastically different if he and Martial Silver Thunder had similar physical prowess and he couldn't use spiritual attacks. The result would be that he would have lost easily.

Not only was he able to poke holes in his attacks, but Martial Silver Thunder's martial art techniques were incredible and powerful. Pairing up with his ability to send his inner vigor outside his body only enhanced the effects of each of his terrifying offensive martial art techniques.

While there wasn't much expectation from Yoze that he would meet an opponent that not only was physically superior but also had better martial arts and was able to use spiritual attacks, he knew that it wasn't impossible. In fact, the more he experienced, the more he felt that a day would come when he would be at a heavy disadvantage.

His enemies could be demons who not only have powerful bodies but developed techniques similar to human martial arts or immortals who have spent centuries perfecting their martial arts techniques while also finding ways to make their bodies incredibly powerful. There was also a possibility that an abnormal entity could bring new or strange phenomena into the battle that could eliminate his advantages.

"I wonder how Blood Master Steel is doing? Is he still trying to become stronger by fighting Martial Grandmasters, or is he trying to figure out a way to deal with his abnormal entity?" 

As Yoze's mind wandered to abnormal entities, he remembered that Blood Master Steel seemed to be haunted by one. Even though he hadn't seen what it looked like or its true abilities, he knew that the benefits it offered Blood Master Steel allowed him to make much quicker progress than he would have with his talents.

It wouldn't be a stretch to assume that Blood Master Steel might not even be the only person affected by abnormal entities or events, as they are not uncommon. However, after doing some research, he found that many strange events happen every few years around New Swampscott City.

From strange rocks being suddenly given a breath of life, villages that seemed to be haunted by ghosts and ghouls, and the occasional appearance of zombies that eat the living. A whole host of strange events occurred that the City had to deal with before they became too problematic.

Even though Yoze suspected that many of these strange events were caused by demons and immortals, he still was extremely interested in the ones that seemed to come out of nowhere. One of the stories he found interesting was there was a witch who was plotting against a young woman who was known to be beautiful.

Every day she would talk about her scheme in front of a tree outside the young woman's house. For more than three decades, the witch planned and planned before taking action, killing the young woman and burying her body below the tree.

Completely satisfied with the accomplishment that she had dreamed of for many years, the witch visited the same tree every year during the anniversary of the day she killed the young woman. Then, one day while the witch was pouring boiling oil on the young woman's grave, one of the tree roots came to life and grabbed the witch's limbs.

Terrified, the witch's heart nearly exploded from shock as she saw the young woman's angry face imprinted onto the tree as it crushed and ripped apart her limbs from her body. If it wasn't because a group of soldiers was happening to pass by and hearing the witch's despair-filled screams, she would have died a brutal death that day, and this story wouldn't have been known at all.

Though this was a decades-old story, it was verified by the City that this did indeed happen and that the tree that seemed to have been infused with the young woman's spirit still hasn't been caught and killed to this day. After reading this story, Yoze's mind whirled with possibilities of how the young woman's spirit could have fused with the tree.

The first thing he thought of was that the young woman's anger towards the witch was so intense that it allowed her spiritual energy to endure the harsh outside environment and eventually allowed it to enter the tree for protection. Finally, after many years the tree and the young woman's spiritual energy fused and allowed the tree to move.

After spending several hours thinking about it, Yoze eventually gave up since he knew that he would never get the right answer unless he encountered that tree and examined it. But it did remind him of the rule that once something was killed and guaranteed dead, it would no longer be able to cause problems for their enemies no longer was a hundred percent.

There could come a day when everyone and everything he had killed might come back as a ghost and make his life a living nightmare, so he had to make sure that his enemies had no possibility of ever coming back to life. And that abnormal entities and events are simply extremely difficult to guarantee would never be able to do him significant harm, so he had to figure out a better method to protect himself.

"That decides it. I will temporarily not train in Iron Body until I have created the advanced version as well as upgraded my martial art techniques. My body is currently powerful enough to deal with the enemies I currently have. Right now, I need to start preparing for the future." After making up his mind, Yoze wiped off the dust on his bandages and planned to go to Regi's home to look at all the martial art techniques he had gathered from the Martial Wheel Sect.

As he walked downstairs, Yoze saw that Tiki and Dreyer were sword-fighting with the Crystal Sword in Tiki's hand. Even though both of them had no experience in sword fighting, he could tell they were fast learners.

With a powerful sword in her hands, Tiki could easily knock back and even damage the iron sword in Dreyer's hand while she looked for weak points in his stances to attack. Meanwhile, Dreyer was using his training in the Sinking Swamp body cultivation method to hold onto his sword and keep himself steady. 

Paired with his talent to multiply tasks, he could keep up with Tiki's attacks, focus on his footwork, and even examine Tiki's fighting style to adjust his defense and counterattacks. If the outside world saw that a fierce battle was occurring between a witch and an immortal cultivator with swords, they would be puzzled about their strange choice of attacks.

But Yoze knew that it was because they wanted to get used to using weapons before learning offensive martial techniques that use weapons. As for why Tiki was still in possession of the Crystal Sword even though he had returned, was because he didn't need it currently.

After returning from the trials, he examined it and didn't notice any spells or anything particular about the crystal sword. So there were no traces of evidence that suggested that the crystal sword would pose as a signal for the immortals or that it was dangerous.

Of course, he recognized that if an immortal wanted to hide that kind of thing, there wasn't much he could do to detect any of the spells unless he became more skilled in immortal-level spells. But at the current moment, it didn't make much of a difference if the crystal sword was in his or Tiki's hands.

At most, the crystal sword would have some use in Tiki's hand as she got better at fighting with the crystal sword and her various spells. He could also use her as a reference when he used his spells while in battle.

As Tiki and Dreyer were deeply absorbed in their practice battle, Yoze turned his attention to Leah, who was busy crushing a bunch of herbs into a paste with his hooves before putting the paste inside a pot to ferment. Recognizing that this was the beginning of making the medical paste that would cause his skin to itch while it helped him heal, Yoze couldn't help but take a deep breath to savor the disgusting smell.