28 Counterattack Begins (1/2)
Xue Wei was aware that he had limited time before he had to depart for the military camp. He knew that he had to have comprehended the ability before it was time for departure.
Most of the younger generation members had already picked the kind of weapon they preferred. Shen Mu was using a sword, Li Jian was using his fists and a saber, Luo Zhirou was using the fan, and so on.
Xue Wei had not been cultivating for long, and so far he had been focusing on increasing his strength alongside learning a few abilities that could save his life in a fight. He had not had the time to learn how to wield a weapon just yet.
”I do not want to be locked down with one specific kind of weapon,” Xue Wei mumbled to himself as he continued to stubbornly extract his Qi and try to shape it into the form of a sword.
”When I have understood and trained this ability, I will be able to change my weapon as easily as thinking about it. It will give me a great benefit in fights, and since it is made from Qi, I do not have to carry it around with me everywhere.”
”The downside is that it consumes quite a lot of energy to create these weapons, and every single clash will make me lose energy, yet the weapon will constantly increase in quality as my Qi becomes stronger and better.”
”But this is truly a profound ranked skill,” Xue Wei sighed in praise. ”Although I have had no issues learning the other ones, this one proves to be rather tricky. Well, I better take it slow and build the right foundations.”
Xue Wei knew that some things could not be rushed, so instead he sat down with his legs crossed and took a deep breath. He then spread out his hands. Following that, a long and thin streak of Qi appeared on top of his palms that slowly started wriggling and twisting as it tried to take on the shape of a sword.
The days trickled by one after another. On the first day, Xue Wei accomplished almost nothing. The second day, he managed to create the handle, but when he moved further down in an attempt to create the blade, the handle would become obscure and start to dissipate.
When he managed to make the blade and tried to create the handle, reversing the order of creation, the blade would similarly become transparent or dissipate. The sharp edge would not stay.
He had sighed at this, but Xue Wei did not give up. He was as if obsessed, staying seated in the same position day in and day out. His eyes were open and turned increasingly bloodshot, but he was not becoming less focused.
On the fifth day, Xue Wei managed to create a sword. This sword laid on top of his hands and felt as if it had been made from cold steel. It was firm and fit well in his hand when he grasped it.
Jumping to his feet, Xue Wei ran to the closest black gold dummy and got ready to attack. He stayed focused on the sword, ensuring that it kept its shape before he swung the sword diagonally from upside down.
The wind howled from the attack. Xue Wei did not need to inject his Qi into the sword, as the sword was already made from his Qi and was sustained by a continuous stream of energy that was flowing from his pearl-like dantian.
A loud clang sounded out the moment the two collided, and the recoil forced Xue Wei back a few steps. A smile was on his face as he saw a long gash on the dummy's chest, running down exactly where the sword had cut.
Qi weapons could be many times sharper than real weapons. Real blades could only be sharpened to a certain extent, as sharpening it further would mean the edge, while razorsharp, was too thin and would break or chip after one or two clashes with the enemy. Because of this, sharpness of real weapons had to be balanced with thickness and durability. However, Xue Wei was able to conjure insanely sharp weapons because the blade material was his Qi itself.
Although these black gold dummies were incapable of protecting themselves with Qi, they were sturdy, and their bodies were equal to a fifth layered Warrior.
Xue Wei was now able to cut open the body of a fifth layered Warrior with a single casual swing of his sword created by relying on Inner Might.
The sword dissipated the moment that Xue Wei had finished the cut due to a loss of focus, but he did not despair. Instead, he closed his eyes and imagined the sword once more, only to have the Qi shape itself into a sword almost instantly.
Having understood the principles of creating the sword, it was not difficult for him to recreate it. Although he now understood how to create the sword, he was not aware of how to fight fluently with it, and thus he began training with it. He practiced against the black gold dummies, his sword flashing time and time again. With each slash, a long wound appeared on the dummies.
Sometimes, the sword would vanish after a successful attack, and some other times it would last for three or four assaults before it disappeared. As time went on, Xue Wei got better and better at controlling the sword and eventually became able to maintain it in his hands for as long as he wished for it.
After feeling that he had mastered the sword, Xue Wei checked the time and realized that he had already spent more than five days on trying to comprehend the Inner Might attack. It was time for him to return to the herbal concoction.
After this, Xue Wei returned to the painful concoction and increased his cultivation base. He then began to cultivate the Inner Might again, and this time he tried to create a spear.
In the beginning, the spear looked rather pitiful, but as time went on, it looked better and better, and soon Xue Wei started training with the spear. Although it took time to practice and to get used to this kind of weapon, it was shorter than the time needed to learn the sword.