Chapter 57 Choice
Three days later, in the training chamber, Fang Xingjian’s silhouette turned into an incessantly flickering blurry grey shadow, as he moved about.
In the spot where he was standing, threads of black light were flying across the space, directly piercing into the ground.
It was the Ox Hair Needle Huang Lin borrowed from the military, a kind of standardized weapon with extreme speed and power.
As the last one thousand Ox Hair Needles were fired, Fang Xingjian halted his movements, removing the earplugs from his ears and feeling his eyes.
On the other side, Jack and Anthony put down the needle box they were holding, stuck out their tongues and said,
“This item is quite overwhelming. If one fires a volley of needles at close distance, even a Knight would fall prey to it if not cautious.”
Anthony spoke, “This was originally something that the army developed to allow ordinary soldiers to restrain Knight opponents. However, if the Knights are expecting them, these needles would barely even pass through the Reduced Force Field. But if they fire the needles intermittently, in large quantities, it’s sufficient to exhaust a large amount of the Knight’s energy.”
Jack gazed in Fang Xingjian’s direction as he asked with deep concern, “How is it, Xingjian, did you succeed?”
“Mmm.”
Fang Xingjian took his hands down from his eyes. He had gained one more speciality – High Agility Motion Vision, which increased his the rate at which optical signals were sent, strengthening the practitioner’s motion vision.
Relying on his attributes, which were sufficiently high, he had been training frenziedly for the past few days. Very soon, he completed the 0.1 second reflex for ten thousand times, and dodged ten thousand high speed attacks before he gained the specialities High Agility Motion Vision and Heightened Reflex.
In truth, these two specialities were also the two specialities that Knights usually had a hard time gaining before their first transition.
For Knights who had completed the first transition and who were powerful enough, or for the majority of the Knights who had completed their second transitions, both Heightened Reflexes and High Agility Motion Vision were the compulsory specialities they had to master.
Knights who had yet to complete their first transition generally did not have sufficient attributes, and so it was more difficult for them to gain such specialities.
However, this was obviously not a problem for Fang Xingjian. He took a look at his specialities, feeling a fiery energy surging from the muscles throughout his body, and unceasingly breaking through limits.
“Perfect Muscles… I’m going to obtain it soon.”
Standing at the side, Jack asked, “Xingjian, is it in time? How confident are you in defeating Kaunitz?”
“It’s a small issue, no need to be concerned.” Fang Xingjian’s eyes were vacant, as though his spirit was on a journey in another dimension. “You guys can leave, I want to go proceed with my sword practice.”
Jack and Anthony locked their gazes, as they slowly turned to take their leave.
Jack exhaled and said, “What did you sense? The pressure Xingjian is giving off is getting increasingly stronger.”
“Mmm.” Anthony nodded in agreement. “The feeling he gave me was stronger than the one I sense when I’m facing some of the instructors.”
Within the training room, Fang Xingjian suddenly started walking in circles unrelentlessly, his speed faster and faster. In the blink of an eye he turned into countless afterimages.
Simply walking about like this, Fang Xingjian’s muscles, vessels and bones all over his body started moving according to the principle of sword arts, equivalent to him constantly practicing his sword techniques at all times.
Tens of sword techniques circulated restlessly in his mind. Fang Xingjian had taken nine months in order to master what others had taken decades to achieve. In terms of sword arts, he could already be considered a master of his generation.
But now, he had run into the same problem as any other master.
“Using sword techniques to unceasingly move the body, enhancing the Waves…
“The Waves are circulating perfectly…
“But during the change between sword stances, I only feel imperfection.”
Fang Xingjian’s gaze stiffened. The powers circulating within his entire body had undergone a slight transformation.
His breathing seemed to have lightened slightly, and the blood flow on his right shoulder and elbow had also slowed down a teeny weeny bit.
Among such minute changes, Fang Xingjian saw the Mistral Windgod’s Wave on his Stats Window start to turn slightly blurry, as though it would become something else in the next moment.
“According to my intuition, the strength in each moment of the circulation should feel more natural and fluid.
“But the Waves also underwent a transformation because of the changes in strength, resulting in changes to my breathing and blood flow…”
Unexpectedly, Fang Xingjian noticed that when he wanted to make changes, the Waves would not stop circulating, but rather they would change the Mistral Windgod’s Waves into another type of Waves.
‘Should I do it?
‘Follow my intuition and cultivate a new type of Wave? This might even affect my first transition.
‘Or should I just stick with the Mistral Windgod’s Waves and transition into a Windstorm Sword Hero?”
Fang Xingjian instantly came face to face with a dilemma.
Because each person would only be able to cultivate a single type of Wave, if one were to change to cultivate another type of Wave, for most cases, one had to follow their chosen path to the very end.
This was because a person’s vital frequency was incapable of abruptly undergoing a transformation. If someone had already fully adjusted to the new wave, reverting to the original Wave would take a very long time.
Time flowed by, and in the blink of an eye, it was one day before the duel.
The rumours about Fang Xingjian which were spreading throughout the academy had gotten increasingly unfavourable, the main reason being the fact that even up until this moment Fang Xingjian had yet to enter the secret realm and go through his job transition.
To majority of people, Fang Xingjian was someone with absolutely no hope of going through the job transition.
Fang Xingjian stood within the training room as he looked at his Stats Window, which now had yet another speciality. Perfect Muscles: muscles gain the incomparable endurance of a marathon champion’s muscles, along with the strong explosive bursts of energy of a short distance sprinting champion’s muscles; strength and agility attributes also increase by 10% of the endurance attribute’s value.
During this time, Fang Xingjian had integrated his sword techniques into every action of his daily life. This method of training his sword techniques for twenty-four hours a day had also allowed him to perfect all the sword techniques which had not reached the maximum level yet.
In addition, with the help of the Nurturing sword techniques circulating in his body everyday, tempering the attributes of his physical body, Fang Xingjian’s current stats had become:
Name
Fang Xingjian
Age
16
Occupation
Warrior’s Squire
Level
9
Strength
48+4
Agility
61+4
Reaction
47
Endurance
41
Flexibility
41
Nurturing Sword Techniques
31 sets
Training Sword Techniques
4 sets
Specialities
Genius Swordsmanship,
Elementary Survival Instinct,
Internal Healing，
Internal Training，
Sword Specialist,
High Agility Motion Vision,
Heightened Reflexes,
Perfect Muscles
Potential
8,500 point increase/day
Waves
Level 1 Mistral Windgod’s Waves
Mental Cultivation Method
Level 1 Ice Age Meditation Art
The attributes above come into effect once the Mistral Windgod’s Waves is activated.
Due to Perfect Muscles, +4 in strength and agility (10% of the endurance attribute)
In his current state, regardless of his attributes or specialities, he had exceeded the requirements for the Windstorm Sword Hero. If he were to enter a secret realm and to undergo the job transition, there was a 99% probability of him successfully becoming a Windstorm Sword Hero.
However, he continued to stare at the words ‘Mistral Windgod’s Waves’ on his Stats Windows which fluctuated between blurry and clear, in deep thought.
He was still hesitant.
Fang Xingjian’s mind involuntarily brought up the Tempest Overlord and the other two’s experiences.
‘The three of them were facing their peers, their sword arts practice companions, watching as the others advanced, learned new techniques and trained new specialities, simply following the pre-assigned routes for their transition. In comparison, they spent over twenty years to learn basic sword techniques, incorporating Waves into their sword arts, and then the sword arts into their body. During this process, how much hesitation and helplessness did they feel? How much scorn and sarcasm did they have to put up with?’
It was an extremely difficult task for one to persevere in one particular area for over twenty years.
And what that was even more upsetting was that they did not know if the abilities they were training in were right or wrong, nor did they know if they were to succeed or fail.
‘What was the reason that made all of you persist so stubbornly?’
The information on the many generations of the Empire’s geniuses flashed through Fang Xingjian’s mind once again.
Fang Xingjian did not know what the reason for their persistence was as they created new Waves, new mental cultivation methods, and thus, new jobs.
However, he knew that the reason why he was so hesitant was because the level of his sword arts was high, and he had absolute confidence in his control of the sword arts.
‘I believe that as long as I change the Waves according to my intuition, my body will definitely gain strength.
‘I believe that after I make the changes to my sword arts, since the Waves rely on the sword arts to be displayed, they will become more synchronized with my sword arts and my body.
‘Because my talent in sword arts is unrivalled.’
Waves of self-confidence glowed in Fang Xingjian’s eyes as he started circulating once again, practicing his sword techniques and circulating his Waves.
At midnight that day, Fang Xingjian and Huang Lin appeared before the secret realm at the west of the academy.
It was a white stone palace about thirty meters in height, with thick stone pillars, and fragmented marble. All of it stood as proof of how ancient the palace was.
Huang Lin said, “At midnight today, out of the academy’s seven secret realms, the ether particles in the Saint Hall will be the most active.
“Are you ready?”
Fang Xingjian sighed, his eyes looking as if they were filled with sword light as he said, “I’ve been waiting too long for this moment.”
Seeing Fang Xingjian slowly step into the pure white palace, traces of nervousness riddled Huang Lin’s expression.
A few moments after Fang Xingjian entered the palace, an old white-haired elderly appeared beside Huang Lin.
