Chapter 15: Mysterious Book
[I'll be changing Dao fetus realm to Dao Comprehension realm.]
***
"Another victory for the Sect Masters new disciple. Will she continue to fight? She will! Number two let's see if you can keep your win streak."
A thin man who looked like the wind would blow him away walked upto the stage. Looks weren't everything though, the aura this man gave off was nowhere near the other two, he was in a league of his own.
'Peak Nascent Soul!'
This would no doubt be more challenging than the other two battles, I've been matched with two cultivators who focus on speed previously this one would definitely be different.
"Begin!"
I waited for my opponent to make a move before I decided to do anything else. The temperature in the arena dropped drastically, it started snowing around the entire arena.
The snow didn't do any damage but I could feel my joints getting stiff, it would become harder to move the longer this dragged out. I didn't waste time and immediately used <Empty Void Steps> to close the distance. As soon as I appeared next to him and slashed my nails at his throat he stepped away and shot ice needles towards me. I moved back to the other side of the arena where more ice needles were rapidly shooting towards me. I moved again only to see the same thing happen. No matter where I moved there would be an attack coming towards me rapidly, any time I tried to attack he would take a step in the opposite direction.
It took me a moment before I realized that he was keeping track of my position through the falling snow. I was certainly physically faster than him but his reaction speed was above mine. The only choice I had was to rapidly change positions while attacking to try and catch him off guard while he was dodging an attack.
I put my plan into motion and went on the offensive. I attacked from the left only for him to step to the right, I immediately stepped behind him and he stepped forward. I didn't waste time attacking this time and stepped infront of him while he was dodging. Instead of using my nails I threw a fist at his face to buy more time to attack. He might have seen through my plan because as soon as I did this my fist met a solid piece of ice, I could feel some of my knuckles break on impact. The ice almost didn't hold up and started cracking, I had to move away before he countered. As soon as I stepped away my shoulder was impaled by an ice spike. I hadn't been defending myself with qi as I was so focused on attacking and dodging.
My blood was starting to freeze and I was getting light headed, I had used almost all of my qi just jumping around the arena. If I couldn't finish this in the next move I would probably lose. I didn't have any long range attacks yet so I could only try and close the distance.
My last attack was easily dodged and I was hit on the back of the neck. My vision went dark after that, I had never lost before and had grown complacent thinking that people a single realm above me couldn't compare with me just because I had a rare affinity. The taste of defeat was bitter like medicine, I didn't like it but it would only help me in the future.
When I woke up I was back in my room. My shoulder and fist were covered in bandages but had no blood on them.
'You're up?'
"Yeah... why am I wrapped in bandages?"
'It is better to have scars to remember why you lost in the first place so you won't make the same mistakes again.'
"Is that true?"
'Hohoho of course it is. The best warriors are covered in scars, that is proof of their hard fought battles and the improvements they make to not make the same mistakes again.'
"If you're a strong warrior then wouldn't you have no scars because your enemies couldn't damage you?"
'If your enemies couldn't damage you the reason is because they were too weak. Would you believe a man who said they had fought in hundreds of fierce battles but was undamaged? And would you believe a child who said the same but was covered in scars? Anyway the point I'm trying to make is that scars are proof of your hard work.'
"That makes sense." Having scars didn't really bother me if it could serve as a reminder of the difficulties I had overcome.
My battle with the peak Nascent Soul cultivator was an eye opener. I couldn't only rely on close range attacks, they were predictable and could be dodged easily. If someone was able to sense my arrival and could react fast enough I wouldn't be able to land a single hit like what happened in my last fight.
"How long was I asleep?"
'About a year.'
"WHAT?!?!"
'Hahahahaha you're reactions are always so funny, it's only been a week.'
Masters sense of humor was really bad. I felt like I really lost a year of my life after hearing that.
I needed to quickly get stronger so something like what happened in the arena wouldn't happen again. If I had been fighting an enemy I would probably be dead or maybe worse.
I had gotten out of bed to look at the other techniques manuals I had received from master. There were four books other than the one I had already learned, one of them was a cultivation method so I threw it over my shoulder. I already had a breathing method that was infinitely better than that one. The other three were a sword art, a palm technique and a body strengthening technique.
I needed a way to attack at a long distance so I put the body strengthening manual to the side.
I had to choose between the palm and sword technique. I was already used to using my hands to attack so I leaned towards the palm technique more. I decided to look at the description before choosing one over the other though.
<Absolute Void Palm> the void can be used as a means to attack. A palm strike through the void will instantly connect to the opponent shattering their organs.
It was pretty straight forward if I attacked through the void it would be almost undetectible and could instantly arrive and strike the enemy.
<Reality Slicing Sword> Nothing can stop a slash that tears through reality itself. Slicing the area between the void and reality will destroy anything in its path.
The palm art was a really strong technique that out classed the other ones I knew by far but this sword technique...
"Master what is this technique?"
'Hmm? That old blank book? Master had studied it for years saying there was something special about it, it was his most prized possession. He said that he'd be invincible if he ever figured out what was written there, he said he felt a faint connection to it. You can just lay it to the side, I only gave it to you because those were my instructions if I ever found someone with the same attribute as master.'
"Where did it come from?"
'Master had said that while he was walking through the void he just found the book floating there. I'm not sure if that's true because it isn't called the void for nothing.'
I could definitely feel a connection with the book but it wasn't faint. This must be the work of fate.
I was excited to learn such an invincible technique myself, I couldn't stop myself from reading it. I opened the book and started reading it. It was written in a language I had never seen before but I could still somehow understand it. I read the first sentence in the manual and my head started throbbing, it felt like my brain was swelling and getting ready to explode. I kept trying to read the contents, a few more words in and my nose started bleeding. I felt nauseous and tired but couldn't pull myself away from the book.
I had read two lines so far but I couldn't even remember what I had read. As I started the third line I felt a pain worse than anything I had ever felt. I started convulsing on the spot. I had finally dropped the book back onto the pile where it came from but it didn't help. My eyes were rolling into the back of my head and I was coughing up blood. There was blood coming from my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. By now I was still convulsing, only I was now covered in blood. The pain I felt was excruciating, I felt like I was being trampled while on a bed of red hot nails. It was like this for a few minutes before I finally passed out.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone