Liu Yuan stood where he was, feeling the surging spirit power brought about by the completion of his sixth spirit ring. His heart brimmed with indescribable excitement and anticipation.
What skill will it be this time?
The thought had barely formed when the System's cold yet pleasantly crisp notification sounded once more.
[Ding!]
[God-bestowed spirit ring age confirmed: Sixty thousand years.]
[Analyzing spirit ring skill based on Host's Spirit Ability… Analysis successful!]
[Congratulations to the Host for obtaining the Mega Rayquaza Spirit's Sixth Soul Skill: Swords Dance!]
It's here!
Liu Yuan's spirits lifted instantly as he focused on the detailed description provided by the System.
[Skill Name: Swords Dance]
[Skill Type: Buff-Type Spirit Ability]
[Skill Effect: By performing a dance imbued with supreme sharpness, the user greatly stimulates combat instinct and offensive desire, highly condensing spirit power and converting it into pure physical attack strength. Each complete performance forcibly increases physical attack power by two stages.]
"Swords Dance…"
Liu Yuan slowly digested the information, and his eyes immediately lit up.
It was actually Swords Dance.
A god-tier skill.
His strongest buff up until now, Dragon Dance, increased speed and attack power by one stage each—a balanced and comprehensive enhancement, and one of his greatest trump cards when fighting above his level.
But Swords Dance was different.
It was extreme. Pure. Violent.
It directly increased attack power by two stages.
That alone was terrifying.
"Wait…"
"Since they're both dances…"
"Could I somehow fuse Dragon Dance and Swords Dance together?"
"With a single dance, increase attack power by three stages and speed by one stage?"
"…If that's possible, it would be insane."
Once the idea appeared, it spread like wildfire, impossible to suppress.
He recalled the core movements of both skills.
Dragon Dance imitated the posture of a divine dragon soaring through the Nine Heavens—coiling, circling, and flowing. The movements were elegant, agile, continuous, emphasizing momentum.
Swords Dance mimicked the instant a peerless swordsman unleashed a killing strike—bold, fierce, expansive, emphasizing intent.
Different styles.
Yet at their core…
Both used precise physical movements to guide and stimulate the circulation of spirit power, converting it into self-enhancement.
It really might work.
Act first, think later—this had always been Liu Yuan's style.
He glanced around. The forest clearing, emptied and ravaged by the earlier battle, was the perfect testing ground.
"Martial Soul Possession!"
With a low shout, emerald-green dragon scales surged from beneath his skin like a tide, swiftly covering his entire body.
His figure lengthened, growing taller and more refined. Illusory dragon wings flickered behind his back, and the majestic aura of the ruler of the sky spread outward.
Nearby, the Snow Empress had been absentmindedly kicking small stones when she suddenly sensed the change in Liu Yuan's aura. Curious, she looked over.
She saw Liu Yuan strike a stance, take a deep breath—and begin to dance.
At first, his movements were smooth and fluid, filled with the elegance and agility of Dragon Dance. His body coiled like a swimming dragon, stirring the surrounding air into spiraling currents.
But then—
His movements abruptly changed.
A bold, forceful motion brimming with sharp slashing intent was forcibly inserted into the flowing dance.
"Huh?"
The Snow Empress tilted her head, her ice-blue eyes full of confusion.
What… is he doing?
These movements looked awkward.
Like an elegant dancer suddenly throwing wild punches mid-performance—completely out of place and jarringly unnatural.
Liu Yuan frowned as well.
He immediately realized that things were far more difficult than he had imagined.
Dragon Dance relied on smooth, continuous spirit power circulation.
Swords Dance, on the other hand, emphasized explosive, point-focused output.
The moment he tried to blend these two completely different circulation methods, the spirit power inside his body clashed violently.
One force demanded flow.
The other demanded cleave.
They pulled against each other within his meridians, nearly disrupting his movements and almost causing him to lose his breath.
"No. Again."
Liu Yuan didn't grow discouraged.
He dispersed his spirit power, steadied his breathing, and started over.
This time, he slowed down.
He no longer tried to perform the entire fused dance at once. Instead, he broke it down—combining it move by move.
He began with the opening of Dragon Dance. When the spirit power flowed into his arm, he carefully infused it with the sharp intent of Swords Dance, then slowly swung his hand like a blade.
Swish!
A pale green wind blade appeared out of thin air, slicing cleanly through a massive tree several meters away.
"It worked!"
Liu Yuan's eyes lit up.
The circulation was still somewhat sluggish, but he had successfully fused aspects of both skills into a single movement.
Encouraged, he fully immersed himself in this fascinating exploration.
At times he circled like a swimming dragon; at others, he lunged forward like an unsheathed sword. Some movements flowed like water, while others erupted like fire.
At first, his motions were riddled with contradictions—clumsy and awkward, like a child learning to walk.
The Snow Empress watched from the side, utterly baffled, her small mouth hanging slightly open.
This guy… he hasn't gone crazy, has he?
She even began seriously considering whether she should knock him unconscious with a palm strike and force him to calm down.
But gradually, the confusion on her face gave way to solemnity.
Because with her perception far surpassing that of ordinary beings, she clearly sensed the changes occurring within Liu Yuan.
The spirit power aura that had once flowed steadily around his body became wildly unstable—sometimes violent, sometimes restrained, like a pot of water on the verge of boiling.
Yet instead of collapsing, these unstable fluctuations began to intertwine… to fuse… following a strange and profound rhythm.
The elegant, majestic aura of Dragon Dance and the fierce, razor-sharp concept of Swords Dance—two utterly different energies—were beginning to mesh.
The Snow Empress's eyes widened.
She saw that a single twist of Liu Yuan's body now carried both the winding dominance of a dragon and the strangling lethality of a sword.
A forward lunge possessed both the swiftness of a divine dragon and the unstoppable will of a blade.
Most striking of all—
The spirit power aura surrounding Liu Yuan was rising at a visible rate.
This wasn't a simple increase in quantity.
It was a transformation in quality.
His aura grew as heavy as a mountain and as sharp as a peerless sword.
"This guy…"
The Snow Empress murmured softly, her icy blue pupils reflecting Liu Yuan's increasingly fluid and powerful movements, her heart surging with shock.
"He's not just fooling around…"
"He's… creating an entirely new Spirit Ability!"
At this moment, Liu Yuan—completely immersed in his own world—was oblivious to her astonishment.
His eyes were closed as he moved purely on instinct and understanding.
In his perception, Dragon Dance was a complete, continuous energy loop.
Swords Dance was a series of explosive, sharp energy nodes.
What he needed to do—
Was perfectly embed those nodes into the trajectory of the loop.
He didn't know how much time passed.
But when the final once-awkward movement was performed with perfect coordination—
Buzz!
Liu Yuan's eyes snapped open!
A brilliant green light flashed through his pupils and vanished.
His entire aura exploded outward!
He slowly raised his hand and assumed the opening stance once more.
This time, there was no hesitation. No stiffness.
His body moved like a true divine dragon—spiraling upward with elegance and power—yet every twist and extension caused the air to emit sharp chi-chi cutting sounds.
His fingertips, elbows, knees—every part of his body—had become an indestructible blade.
This was a true fusion.
The elegance of the dragon.
The slaughter of the sword.
The perfect unity of Dragon Dance's momentum and Swords Dance's intent.
An unprecedented surge of power filled Liu Yuan's entire body.
He could clearly feel it—
His speed and attack power were skyrocketing, not through simple addition, but through perfect synergy.
"It…"
"It actually worked!"