Gu Qing Shan thought about it, then dejectedly answered: “I couldn’t catch it”
As soon as he said so, an intense pushing force was felt from his side.
Bai Hua Fairy had suddenly appeared next to him, and attacked with a palm strike.
Bam!
Gu Qing Shan was sent flying again.
But before he could regain his posture in the air, Bai Hua Fairy once again appeared next to him and struck.
Gu Qing Shan couldn’t even react and was sent crashing into the ten thousand flowers throne before stopping.
“Did you see it?” Bai Hua Fairy asked.
Gu Qing Shan looked at her in confusion, recalling the battle just now.
The battle ended too quickly, even if Bai Hua Fairy had limit herself to only Foundation Establishment realm, he still wasn’t a match at all.
“Last time, when my incarnation fought at the frontline, having seen the entire battle, did you know where the most important turning point was?” Bai Hua Fairy asked.
Gu Qing Shan thought about it, then said: “Divine Skill Forgetting River?”
Bai Hua Fairy replied: “Forgetting River takes a total of 81 hand seals to cast, if it weren’t for the fact that those demon beasts were too stupid, it wouldn’t have been easy to use”
Gu Qing Shan thought a bit more, asking: “The Great Dragon?”
“That’s not it either” Bai Hua Fairy said.
Gu Qing Shan carefully assessed, then answered: “I know, it was when you attacked Blade Emperor”
“Ah?” Bai Hua Fairy seems intrigued, “why do you think so?”
“Because they couldn’t predict that attack, they were afraid that something might happen to Blade Emperor, so they all showed themselves to attack you”
Gu Qing Shan became more convinced as he spoke: “They were lured by the illusion that you would kill Blade Emperor and got careless, giving you the chance to take all their Inventory Bag and lost their weapons”
“That’s correct” Bai Hua Fairy nodded: “Blade Emperor was afraid that I would kill him, so he hid behind all the demon beasts, unable to predict that I could suddenly appear in front of him”
“As I surprised Blade Emperor by attacking him, that drove all the other Beast Saints out, giving me the chance to take their weapons, and decided on how to close out the battle”
“Because of that, the real pivot point of the battle was when I used my speed technique to suddenly appear in front of Blade Emperor”
Gu Qing Shan praised: “Today I finally understood, so the turning point of that battle was in that moment”
Bai Hua Fairy smiled, saying: “Many of my spells and techniques have limitations, as well as requiring numerous years of study and the appropriate elemental root to understand, not to mention their complicated hand seals”
“Sword cultivation requires single-mindedness, if you are to learn my other techniques, it will definitely be an obstruction of your path”
“This speed technique, on the other hand, is very suitable for sword cultivator to use”
Gu Qing Shan asked: “Does the speed technique have a name?”
Bai Hua Fairy answered: “This technique is actually a Divine Skill, called Ground Shrink, and you’re the first person that I’ve ever taught this to”
“Thank you, Shifu” Gu Qing Shan said
Bai Hua Fairy threw him a jade tag, saying: “The specific methods are stored inside, if you have anything you don’t understand, just come find me”
“Remember also to not throw away your swordsmanship and bow skills as well, make sure to take the time and train all your skills”
“Yes”
That night.
Orchid Hall.
Gu Qing Shan looked at the jade tag in his hand, feeling a sense of warmth inside himself.
On the War God UI, a line of text was floating in place.
“Discovered Scripture: Ground Shrink. Skill level: Divine Skill. Do you want to comprehend it?”
“To comprehend the skill, Soul Points cost: 1000”
“Current Soul Points: 532/20”
Gu Qing Shan had already expected this, but looking at the cost to comprehend the skill, he still couldn’t help but sigh.
All the skills he learnt before, even Secret Arts only takes a total of 10 Soul Points.
But this single speed technique costs a whole 1000 Soul Points.
He sighed again.
During his escape from Shen Wu world, the amount of Soul Points he was able to earn was only a bit over 600.
But even that wasn’t enough for this Skill.
Gu Qing Shan scratched his head, regretful that he couldn’t go back to the frontline to kill demons for a few days and nights straight.
Both worlds have changed so drastically that if he doesn’t try his best to become stronger faster, some day he might just become food in a monster’s belly.
Then, how can he get enough Soul Points for this?
Gu Qing Shan thought hard, unconsciously touching the Earth sword.
Then suddenly he realized, remembering a certain something he had seen, joyfully exclaimed: “There is a way!”
Back in Shen Wu world, when he awakens his sword skills, the War God UI once said a certain thing.
“Detecting the user to have a deep understanding of these sword styles, the cost to reawaken old sword styles decreased to lowest”
That means, if he already understands a skill with enough depth, then the cost he needs to pay to comprehend the Skills would also decrease.
Then, if he really takes the time to study and understand the Skill, he should also be able to decrease the Soul Points cost.
Yep, that must be it!
Gu Qing Shan took up the jade tag, recording the information inside into his soul vessel.
As soon as he finished recording it, the jade tag crumbled away into dust.
Shutting his eyes for a long time, Gu Qing Shan finally stood up and mumbled: “The first step is to learn the 12 basic movements”
His body moved, rushing forward.
But if anyone is observing him right now, they’d see that although his movements are clearly forward, he was actually moving backwards.
While Gu Qing Shan moved to his right, he was clearly moving to his left.
This type of strange posture and reversed movement direction makes for an incomprehensibly unsatisfying sight.
Gu Qing Shan suddenly sat down on the spot.
“That’s not right, I made a mistake, let’s try again”
He said, stood back up and kept on practicing.
The night was lonely, the entire Orchid Hall was silent.
Gu Qing Shan was in a trance, constantly practicing the basic movements for Ground Shrink.
Whenever he faces a problem, he would frown, test it again and again until he could just barely do it.
The entire set of movement was really hard, even with Gu Qing Shan’s 2 lives’ worth of cultivation experience, he still took a while to fully understood all 12 movement sets and did them all in sequence.
He didn’t rest at all the entire night, if he gets tired he just stood still for a few minutes to rest; if his spirit energy wasn’t enough, he would eat a pill.
Morning.
Bai Hua Palace.
“Where’s Qing Shan? Why isn’t he here for breakfast yet?” white goose asked.
Qin Xiao Lou was surprised: “He’s always here on time, what happened today?”
Xiuxiu jumped down from her chair, saying: “I’ll go get him”
Then she quickly left.
Qin Xiao Lou saw Xiuxiu left, unconsciously spoke: “Xiuxiu seems to be very close to Third now”
“Hm, after the semester examination, she’s been sticking quite close to him” Bai Hua Fairy nonchalantly said.
Making herself a cup of juice, her eyes smiled ever so slightly.
Xiuxiu made a dash to Orchid Hall’s main gate, loudly called him: “Third brother, let’s get breakfast, today second brother made quite a big meal!”
No one answered.
Xiuxiu was curious, walked into Orchid Hall and looked around.
Only to see Gu Qing Shan was dejectedly sitting on the ground.
Seeing Gu Qing Shan like that, Xiuxiu immediately got worried.
“Third brother, what happened to you?”
“Hah, it’s nothing, it’s nothing” Gu Qing Shan said with a clearly pale face.
Xiuxiu isn’t that easy to fool, she immediately recognized there was something wrong with Gu Qing Shan.
Could it be, demonic possession? (1)
She heard that it’s very easy to get into such a situation if you’re not careful when cultivation.
Note:
(1) Demonic possession: the meaning is the same, but it doesn’t really explain the whole meaning of the phrase. The original term is 走火入魔, literally meaning Being Burned and Demon Possessed, it’s a term used in both Xianxia and wuxia novels, meaning you made a mistake when training, messing up the flow of qi in your body, thus potentially injuring you permanently. As well as when you understand something wrong in the method, and mess up your mind, making you go crazy.
