16 Second stage of qi condensation (1/2)

Bai Yun knew from the beginning that he had no chance in hell of defeating the grey rock python. His energy reserves were low and none of his attacks were powerful enough to break the toughness of the python's scales.

Bai Yun had only two attacking moves he could deploy, Moonlight Sword and the Lions Roar. He had only mastered the first movement of the Moonlight word, while the Lions roar only had one punch. But the first movement of the Moonlight sword focused on speed and did not have much strength. On the other hand he Lions Roar got stronger and more explosive the more qi was added to it.

Bai Yun also knew thateven if used all the energy in his qi spiral to launch lions roar, it would still not be enough. It would only hurt the python and not kill it. He also knew just how strong the scales of a grey rock python was. The only way to hurt the python was if he could somehow destroy some of the scales of the python.

Thus from the moment the fight began Bai Yun had two objectives, get strong enough to kill the python, and destroy some of its scales. The power of the Lions roar was too dispersed, and straight forward, that he couldn't use it destroy the scales. The only way to kill it was by using a huge amount of qi, which he had to get his hands on. Then he also had to dislodge the scales.

His chances of running away on a wounded leg was next to impossible. He knew that victory was impossible even with his current strength. He needed more strength. And thankfully he was near a bottleneck in two of his cultivation paths. He also had the body fruit in his hands. But skin sewing took time, and couldn't be completed in ashort while in the middle of battle. His only option was to get his hands on the qi fruit ,and use its strength to break through.

So Bai Yun made aplan even before he moved. The were first thing he did was to send a tendril of his soul out and carefully allow it to approach the qi fruit. Then he made sure that the attention of the python was always on him and that the soul tendril was completely hidden.

When his soul tendril wrapped around the qi fruit, he knew that he had to do everything in his power to create a distraction. The grey rock python was a superior breed. It would notice if the qi fruit went missing. He also knew that if he got his hands on the qi fruit, the grey rock python would stop looking down at him.

So he had to distract it. And at the same time weaken it. So Bai Yun staked everything he had, and struck at the same point in the python's forehead with a tremendous force, at the intersection of three scales. But the result of this atatck only broke three scales, and bled the python a little. As the python was angered, Bai Yun quietly pluck the qi fruit and dropped it to the ground, a little far from him. If he had send it flying towards him, the python would have noticed it and intercepted. Thus he used the pythons attack to fly towards the fruit, and used the soul tendril to move it the final short distance to his hand.

The grey rock python was stunned. It turned to stare at the mutant weed in astonishment. Bai Yun's ankle had turned purple, and his head felt like someone was cutting into it. But he had no time to spare. He quickly ate the fruit while the python was distracted.

The python turned his head towards Bai Yun. The qi fruit turned into pure energy and flowed through him. He could feel a huge amount of power residing in him. Anyone else could only absorb as much as their body would allow them to and then let the rest of the energy flow out, letting a huge amount of the energy inside go to waste. But Bai Yun quickly used the god sense to trap asmuch of the power inside him as he could.

He allowed a part of the power to flow into his dantian, quickly replenishing his spend qi spiral. Once it was filled, he pumped more energy into into it. He knew that with his leg being the way it was, he could not afford to move much. He quickly got into position, just as the python once again attacked him.

Bai Yun continued to send the python flying again and again, but this time adding some force to his strikes with qi. The qi spend was quickly replenished by the qi fruit. Soon a new rhythm of qi flow was set up inside his body, with the energy lost being replenished by the qi fruit.

Bai Yun could feel that the qi spiral in his dantian had been saturated, and he could feel it trembling, all signs of an impending breakthrough. During the breakthrough from first qi stage to the second qi stage, the qi spiral would split up and give rise to two qi spirals.

The python stopped its attacks after figuring out that they weren't hurting him. As he watched, it slowly slithered towards him. Bai Yun instantly went on alert. He grit his teeth and once again send the power of all three soul tendrils into his sword.

The python struck forward with its mouth open. bai Yun immediately used a ray of moonlight and struck at the place where the scales of the snake had been dislodged.

Just as his words was about to hit its forehead, the snake turned its head away, and used the force of the sword to forcibly bend its body. As the snake turned, its tail lashed at Bai Yun. His eyed narrowed into tiny slits.

The most dangerous body part of the grey rock python was its tail. It contained a huge number of muscles, and the snake could use it to launch a terrifying attack that could crunch the bones of body tempering practitioner at the same cultivation level. Bai Yun knew that without enough energy to activate the false armor, there was a good chance that he would be severely injured, and soon after that, dead.

Seeing no chance to dodge, and his sword not having enough force to stop it, using his left hand Bai Yun immediately launched Lions Roar with every drop of qi he had. A pale yellow glow covered his left hand. The glow was barely visible, almost transparent. A moment later, his hand collided with the snakes tail.