Ling Xu's feet moved and with them came the wind, following its path as it not only increased its elegance but his speed and flexibility. Now he would be able to change his movement direction flexibly to help him increase his movement variety.
With this improvement, he would be able to have a wider range of attacks he could use against an enemy since he could use this method to flexibly change directions while the enemy is blocking the former move.
"Ugh!" he groaned since he fell to the ground with his head. "I thought that I would be able to change my direction like with the skill but it seems that it isn't that way. At least not now, since there are a few more levels to this movement technique."
Trying to change directions while in the air, Ling Xu realized that the Gale Wind movement technique wasn't the same as the high grade Gale Steps. It had already surpassed the Swift Steps but there was still something left before he could use it the same way he used the skill.
"It seems that this flexibility doesn't allow me to suddenly change directions while I am already moving to another one. I also can't change directions in the air like before." he realized that he still had a bit before he could reach the same level as the skill so he continued training.
Having reached perfection in the Formless Qi Breathing cultivation technique, now Ling Xu had gotten the time he used in the morning to train free. So now, instead of practicing in his sword and movement technique from the afternoon until the sun was gone and the night came, he decided to move it to that space.
While changing his routine, he also had to move the hours he spent refining his formless qi into his acupoints, strengthening it until he completed the stage and he was able to breakthrough once again. So he moved it towards the afternoon and he would end when the night had fallen for a few hours.
Unfortunately, until he had the chance to enter the enlightenment once again, Ling Xu would have less time than before to refine qi into the body since he was using almost half the day into the practice of his two techniques. This was within his expectations since he already felt that he was going pretty fast compared to the rest and he preferred using his energy more in his combat techniques until he completed the Flowing Stream Sword which was just one level away from perfection.
Still, with his high level of mastery in the Formless Qi Breathing, he estimated that it would take him less than ten days before he broke through once again. This was still much faster than any other disciple since his perfected cultivation technique truly had an astonishing effect in speeding the rate of refining qi and strengthening his acupoints.
Every time Ling Xu would breathe in the air, it would go through the dantian and he would be able to refine a small portion of formless qi which would be later used to refine his opened acupoints.
The sun set off and with it night came, bringing in the chilling cold from the moon as the wind breeze flew and there was no outer disciple outside the zone where he resided.
On the other side of the outer sect, there is a man seated in the lotus position refining qi into the body as he was about to break through. His mind moved and he gathered all the energy that was outside from his body, preparing to advance as he was deeply focusing on having all his qi at his disposal to open as many acupoints as he could.
The energy that was exerted out from his body was a sign of not having a strong enough control over his qi since his cultivation technique had yet to reach the proficient level of mastery. This wasn't good since once you were in the middle stage of Qi Refining you would need to at least have this level so your control over your qi was strong enough.
Also, this would greatly decrease his refining speed of qi making it harder to progress once he advanced. But this was something that happened often within the outer sect since almost every outer disciple focused first in his cultivation stage and second in his level of mastery over the cultivation technique.
It wasn't that they didn't want to receive the benefits from the effect that they would get from the increase in mastery, since their qi would strengthen the breathing method's characteristic but because the majority of the disciples felt that the progress was extremely slow.
This was the normal trend since only few disciples had a strong enough talent to feel the rapid progress over their cultivation technique and even less dared to spend their time practicing in something that they didn't feel was improving for a long time.
With his energy circulating every time faster within his body, this outer disciple who was in the fifth stage of Qi Refining was now advancing to the sixth since his acupoints had already loosened up as much as his qi allowed him to do so. The sharp qi circulated through the meridians and once they passed through his acupoints they continued non-stop until they encountered the first unopened acupoint.
Time slowly passed and after he had finished his breakthrough, he made the count of how many acupoints he had opened after feeling the changes in his body. "I have finally entered the sixth stage of Qi Refining, I can't believe it took me such a long time to complete it. It seems that I will have to practice in my cultivation technique otherwise I won't be able to reach the seventh stage." he said with a bit of preoccupation since all he wanted was to continue progressing in his realm, ignoring the importance of having a high level of mastery in his cultivation technique since he wanted to reach the Foundation Building Realm and become an inner disciple.
"At least I have opened another nine acupoints and now I have thirty-eight opened ones in total. With this new advancement in strength I will be able to move with more confidence compared to before." he thought since he was a bit dissatisfied with a few senior disciples who called themselves senior only because of a one stage difference.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A knock on his door was heard three times before the person inside responded. "Who is coming at this late hour? It seems that there are people who don't understand that they can't call a man at night."
Opening the door from his room, he saw the person outside and his expression of discomfort changed completely. "Senior brother Xie Jian, what brings you here? I believe you have already managed to punish the person who dared to harm my fiancée."
"Lu Wenjie, how dare you lie to my face, I now know who you truly are!" Xie Jian said extremely angry as he pointed towards his junior brother. "I believed in you and thought that you were a man of integrity, but now I understand that you move while stepping over our fellow disciples." He said, having already figured out everything that happened between Ling Xu and him.
A day before, he had found Lu Wenjie's subordinate and forced him to tell everything that he knew, getting to know about him attacking Ling Xu by surprise after he had a fight in the arena with Sun Qinglan. This was also explained since his subordinate told Xie Jian that it was all a misunderstanding and that the reason behind her being upset and getting into a fight was because she just found out about her arranged marriage.
That day, she had gone to his house and confronted him, asking him to cancel the marriage since there was no affection between them. But seeing Lu Wenjie's act of surprise as if he didn't know anything she was furious. Sun Qinglan had already known for years since she was a child that he liked her, although it was very disgusting to her since he never looked at her face, showing lustful eyes towards her body.
Only after getting more mature did he stop looking at her that way, but she knew that this was all a facade and that he was still the same person with ill intentions only planning to have fun with her and then use her to unite both families and make it so the Lu Family becomes the ruler at Bright Moon City.
After Xie Jian barged in the middle of the night and talked with such a tone showing an imposing attitude towards him, Lu Wenjie responded. "Humph! Don't think that just because you are in the sixth stage of Qi Refining that you are a big shot or anything. I have officially entered the sixth stage and now I don't need your help anymore, let's see how he manages to save himself once I try to put my hands on him."
With the last words from his junior brother, Xie Jian didn't react for a few breaths as he was very surprised by his true self. "This isn't the junior brother I met an year ago." He thought.
"Very well, then. Now we aren't brothers anymore, so don't try to come to me for anything again since I won't even hear you out." Coming out furiously, Lu Wenjie remembered something as he turned back. "And don't think that I will let you have your hands with brother Ling Xu, he is a new disciple and I won't let you step over him like you previously did with the rest."
Now coming out, Lu Wenjie was left on his place as he had a vein popping out from his forehead. The sword energy that had become stronger because of his breakthrough and opening more acupoints gushed out since he lost control over his emotions and his body stopped restraining it inside.
"If you think you will be able to block me in my path you are very wrong. I will show you how easy it is to make him go on a mission once I apologize to him." He said to himself, being all alone in the room with the opened door as the cold wind entered.
The following day, Ling Xu was coming out of the forest after practicing in both combat techniques as he was still making quite the fast progress in his movement technique, advancing after a few hours of training 10% in it. Its speed couldn't be comparable to the previous one as the difficulty in the small success was much harder than at the entry level.
Now, Ling Xu could only advance 10% after six hours of training in it, which was also thanks to his formless qi helping him speed up the progress thanks to the increase in control over it.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 2nd stage of Qi Refining (24%)
[Cultivation]: Formless Qi Breathing (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (46%)
[Techniques]: Gale Wind (small success 10%), Flowing Stream Sword (great success 5%), Three Purities Sword (perfection), Blood Thread Transformation (completed)
Observing his status panel, he was very pleased as he felt that everything was progressing smoothly. Even though his progress in his sword technique barely advanced a two percent, this was only normal since he had already reached the last level of mastery before perfecting it.
Ling Xu traced back his time at the Formless Sword Sect and counted the duration he had been here, which was less than a month and a half. In that period of time, not only had he reached the Qi Refining Realm but he had even broken through the second stage and perfected his cultivation technique as he was now about to perfect the Flowing Stream Sword.
Heading to the dinning hall to eat since it was the only place in the outer sect that he could eat for free, apart from the usual energy grains that he would receive for free once the month ended, Ling Xu walked automatically as he was thinking deeply about something he had forgotten since he entered this world.
He had yet to receive them since he had been here for less than a month and there was still time since once you became an outer disciple, the salary was given every month and not every week.
Tracing back, he recalled how he was rewarded an enlightenment chance as a price for defeating the mutant whirling ape and the technique that he had created through it after fusing three of his skills before they were all erased when entering the Skyless Realm.
As he was pondering over it and what it was about, his mind returned to his body as he heard someone calling him by his name.
"Junior Ling, it's nice to se you here." Hearing this from the person he saw in front, Ling Xu was surprised as he maintained a composed expression, not showing any ripple of emotion.