Chapter 63 – True Flowing Water Realm!
“Reach the Flowing Water Realm?” Wu Xiaoxiao blinked her eyes in disbelief. However, when she looked at Shi Feng’s expression, it didn’t seem like the other party was joking with her. Then, revealing a bitter smile, she said, “That is indeed a good solution, but reaching the Flowing Water Realm is easier said than done, Instructor Shi. I might have reached the Refinement Realm for some time already, but I have yet to reach the Flowing Water Realm’s threshold.”
Wu Xiaoxiao naturally yearned to reach the Flowing Water Realm. After all, Refinement Realm experts were merely considered entry-level experts in the various superpowers. Only after reaching the Flowing Water Realm would an expert be regarded as a mainstay by the various superpowers and granted important tasks to handle. This was because Flowing Water Realm experts could single-handedly influence the outcome of a battle involving thousands of ordinary experts.
However, reaching the Flowing Water Realm wasn’t an easy feat.
The Flowing Water Realm’s principles could be regarded as an upgraded form of the Refinement Realm’s principles. To reach the Flowing Water Realm, a player would need to extend the range of their control past their body and onto their opponents. Essentially, one would have to predict the opponent’s movements and respond using the most efficient method, and the whole process had to be completed in one go. It could be considered an extreme way of utilizing the Refinement Realm’s principles.
This was why the various superpowers believed that the Flowing Water Realm was a realm of painstaking effort. So long as a Refinement Realm expert invested enough time and effort into training, they would be able to reach the Flowing Water Realm without fail.
Meanwhile, according to the evaluation Wu Xiaoxiao received from Blue Gown, the head instructor of Crimson Emperor’s special training, she would need to train hard for at least half a year before she could reach the Flowing Water Realm. It might even take her up to a year depending on the circumstances.
“The fact that you haven’t touched the threshold yet shows that your training method is wrong or that you’ve taken a detour,” Shi Feng said as he called up the classroom’s virtual interface. “I will set up some arrow attacks now, so try to dodge and block as many as you can. We’ll see where your problem lies.”
Other than having the function to simulate in-game characters, the super-large classrooms also had the function of setting up a variety of training methods.
A moment later, 30 holographic archers appeared around Wu Xiaoxiao, each archer having Strength that was 30% higher than Wu Xiaoxiao’s. The advantage in Strength made it difficult for the testee to block them, and this could be considered one of the most rudimentary methods of testing one’s dodging capabilities.
After setting up the test, Shi Feng looked at Wu Xiaoxiao and said, “If you have no more questions, we will begin now.”
After sweeping a glance at the archers around her and memorizing their positions, Wu Xiaoxiao nodded and said, “I’m ready.”
At this time, everyone else in the classroom also started paying close attention to the podium. They were all curious to find out how many arrows Wu Xiaoxiao could dodge at a time.
This arrow-dodging training method was very common in God’s Domain. Faced against archers with superior Strength Attributes, classes other than the Assassin class would have difficulty achieving a good result. It was especially true for magical classes. Within the standard 30-yard range, even a magical class expert who had reached the Refinement Realm could, at most, dodge 12 or 13 arrows simultaneously when they were at Tier 3. After all, the arrows were incredibly fast. With the arrows needing to cover a distance of only 30 yards, even if one managed to predict where the arrows would come from, there was still a limit to the responses one could make with a Tier 3 physique.
“We’ll start with five arrows for the first round,” Shi Feng said.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Immediately, five arrows launched into the air, each flying toward Wu Xiaoxiao from different directions. This drastically reduced the space Wu Xiaoxiao had to maneuver around, and she would have no choice but to improvise if she didn’t want to get cornered.
However, Wu Xiaoxiao didn’t even blink when facing the five arrows. Calmly, she did a sidestep followed by a turn, her actions resulting in the five arrows grazing past the edges of her robe. The degree of control she had over her body had already reached a perfect level, and she did not execute even a single unnecessary movement.
“What a beautifully executed evasive maneuver!” Liang Feng marveled.
Is this Wu Xiaoxiao’s current strength? Chen Ziyou clenched her fists when she saw the unfazed expression on Wu Xiaoxiao’s face. Although she had already reached the Refinement Realm, she was still nothing but a joke compared to the current Wu Xiaoxiao.
After Wu Xiaoxiao successfully dodged the first volley of arrows, the second volley of ten arrows quickly followed.
Meanwhile, the sight of ten archers firing their arrows at Wu Xiaoxiao simultaneously stressed Wu Lingling and the other spectating students. Such a situation was even scarier than getting surrounded by ten monsters.
After all, even if ten monsters surrounded them, only a few of these monsters could attack them at a time. However, that was not the case for the arrows launched by archers. Moreover, with all ten arrows coming in from different directions, even if their minds managed to perceive the trajectory of these arrows, their bodies wouldn’t be able to execute the necessary amount of responses to dodge all of them…
However, unlike Wu Lingling and the others, Wu Xiaoxiao still didn’t feel pressured when faced with the ten oncoming arrows. Similar to before, she moved about the podium leisurely as if she was dancing, her movements resulting in the arrows missing their mark and harmlessly grazing past her robe.
It wasn’t until the fourth volley of arrows that Wu Xiaoxiao got hit. Faced with 20 arrows flying at her simultaneously, Wu Xiaoxiao could no longer dodge all of them perfectly. So, she chose to block a portion of them using her staff. However, in doing so, the resulting impact forced her body out of position, and she ended the round with three arrows in her body. The test also came to an end along with the fourth round.
Even so, Wu Xiaoxiao’s performance had stunned the spectating crowd, and everyone couldn’t help but applaud her in admiration.
“Seventeen arrows! Wu Xiaoxiao is truly a terrifying genius! I was nowhere close to achieving such a result when I was still at the Refinement Realm,” Qi Lianshan exclaimed.
The arrow test was one of God’s Domain’s more notorious strength tests.
Typically, those capable of dodging 12 arrows were experts who had already reached the Refinement Realm, while those capable of dodging 18 arrows were Flowing Water Realm experts.
The fact that Wu Xiaoxiao had managed to dodge 17 arrows proved that she was already at the peak of the Refinement Realm and that she was only half a step away from reaching the Flowing Water Realm. Her previous statement of not having reached the Flowing Water Realm’s threshold was definitely false.
“This is my current limit, Instructor Shi. May I know if there are any problems with my training method?” Wu Xiaoxiao asked Shi Feng as she got down from the podium.
Wu Xiaoxiao felt that she had already done her best in this test. During the fourth round, she had perceived the trajectories of all 20 arrows. She had also executed all of her movements flawlessly. Yet, she simply couldn’t dodge all of the arrows. She found it hard to imagine what else she could’ve done to evade more arrows.
“The problem is massive,” Shi Feng said, shaking his head as he looked at Wu Xiaoxiao. “The reason why the Flowing Water Realm is called as such is because the practitioner needs to keep their heart as calm as water and their body moving like flowing water. You’ve gotten the calm part down, but you’ve never even considered the other part. Rather than a player, you’ve treated yourself as a Great Mage instead.”
“But how can I possibly block those arrows…” Wu Xiaoxiao said, feeling somewhat unconvinced.
She had tried blocking those arrows before. However, it was precisely because she tried to block them that she ended up breaking her stance. After all, she was only a Tier 3 Great Mage, not a Tier 3 Berserker.
“Is that so?” Seeing that Wu Xiaoxiao looked unconvinced, Shi Feng put on the auxiliary guidance helmet and said, “I will demonstrate it to you only once. How much you can gain from it is up to you.”
The super-large classroom’s auxiliary guidance helmet allowed instructors to directly manipulate their students’ in-game characters. Although the character’s handling wouldn’t be as smooth compared to a character controlled using a virtual gaming cabin, the owner of the controlled character could get a first person’s point of view of their character’s movements.
Upon receiving the prompt to share her character’s control, Wu Xiaoxiao accepted it without hesitation. She was curious to see how a Swordsman like Shi Feng would control a Great Mage to dodge all those arrows.
“Let’s begin!”
After taking over Wu Xiaoxiao’s character, Shi Feng promptly started the test again.
Immediately, five arrows launched toward Shi Feng. However, instead of taking evasive maneuvers like Wu Xiaoxiao, Shi Feng swung the staff in his hand horizontally. Then, at a speed invisible to the naked eye, the five arrows bounced off course and struck the ground.
Following the five arrows were ten arrows…fifteen arrows…twenty arrows…thirty arrows…
Even though the arrows he faced kept increasing, Shi Feng did not move an inch from his position. He simply swung around the staff in his hand, knocking down every oncoming arrow before they could land on him. Moreover, his movements were so fast that they were practically invisible to the naked eye. It simply wasn’t a speed the average Tier 3 Great Mage could achieve with their weapon.
Even until the end of the test, Wu Xiaoxiao’s character remained standing in its original position. The only difference was that a large number of arrows had appeared around its feet…
