Dont attack. Dont dodge. Violation of these rules will result in death. Funny, right? asked Vata. If you dont dodge the attacks, the slis kill you anyway. How does that make a difference?
Did anyone manage to pass through without attacking or dodging?
Yes, too many to count. They ran past the slis without attacking or dodging...
And?
...They still died. It seems that if you pass through the slis and enter Stone Forest, there is be a boss-level monster waiting inside.
Sila was positive that the one inside must be Master Viola and drank a Fountain of Life.
Sila, what are you doing? Why did you drink the potion for no reason?
I have a reason. I used up most of my magic power during the journey and want to play it safe. Its likely that danger awaits up ahead.
Sila circulated qi throughout his body. The rules banned him from attacking and dodging, but didnt ban him from using qi. Even though Master Violas trial would focus on his mastery over Orbiting Cosmos, Sila intended to use qi to support his actions.
Lets go. There is only a kiloter left until we reach Stone Forest.
Thats not it, Sila. Dont you rember what I said last night? The territory of Stone Forest has expanded. We only have five hundred ters left.
I see. Anyway, I will take the lead. Please follow slowly.
Why do we have to go slowly? If we hurry up, we can arrive at Stone Forest within just a minute.
Sila sighed, Im afraid a certain soone might regard walking in a hurry as dodging. Trust on this one, walking slowly will be safer for us.
Vata didnt ask him who the certain soone was and listened to what he said. She followed Sila from a short distance away because Sila had told her that he didnt want her to be hit by stray bullets. More importantly, he said, she was banned from lending him a hand no matter what happened.
Both people slowly took stepped forward. As his foot was about to step past the border, Sila activated Galaxy Eclipse to enhance his detection ability.
There are a lot of slis in this place and a trendous magic power waiting for us in Stone Forest, our destination, said Sila.
Whoosh--!
A red sli hopped out from a bush to attack him, but he had detected it beforehand so it wasnt surprising. Looking closely, he could tell that its red color didnt co from its body but rather a thin layer of aura around it.
As I thought, muttered Sila. He was one hundred percent certain at this mont that he was participating in a trial Viola especially designed for him. The first clue was that this sli attacked him even though he was also a sli. The other clue was that this sli was channeling fire through Orbiting Cosmos.
Sila gently swung his right hand and used the back of his hand to push the sli away. The Parry technique of Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws caused the small sli to miss its target and landed on the ground next to him. It looked at Sila with its doe eyes.
Parrying is one type of receiving an attack, so its neither attacking nor dodging, Sila explained.
Huhu. Sila, are you having a conversation with it? Vata mildly laughed.
In fact, it actually understood Silas words with his Way of Sli skill that had developed from Heart of Sli. The little sli canceled its Orbiting Cosmos, nodded at Sila once to salute him, and no longer attacked.
Vata looked at it and gaped. Really? Are you able to converse with it?
Its more accurate to say that we can understand each other without words. We are both fighters, no words are necessary between us. Just one exchange can tell a thousand words, right, little sli?
And the sli nodded again.
Sila continued walking without minding Vatas shocked expression. Well, she was shocked at first, but when the sa thing happened five tis, she lost her interest. Every sli had acted the sa toward Sila. They attacked him, paused, saluted him, stood still and let them go. In the end, she opened her system window and visited the ga community out of boredom.
The first phase of attacks was quite easy. At most, the slis would just attack difficult places to defend such as his back, ankles, shoulders, or head. However, as long as they ca at him one at a ti, Sila wouldnt even need to use Orbiting Cosmos. Just Tiger Dragon Qi and Formless Soldier were all he had used to receive the attacks.
The level of difficulty rose once he had advanced two hundred ters from the border. The frequency of the attacks increased and they were fiercer. In the end, just qi was no longer enough. Sila had to resort to Orbiting Cosmos to block the attacks.
Still, the slis attacks were ant to be educational rather than dangerous. Three slis jumped toward Silas head, left flank, and right ankle simultaneously. Usually, he would choose to move his head away to evade the attack, but he was currently banned from doing so.
There were three different elents imbued in his body. He blocked the attack at his flank with his right hand while slightly moving his head, not to evade but to manipulate the timing of the attack so it happened at the sa ti as the one against his ankle.
Sila exhaled to relax his body while it was rotating in midair. What he was doing was relying on the Spin and Migrate techniques to lessen the power behind both attacks without directly resisting the impact.
His body did an aerial sorsault once before landing on the sa spot. He still felt a bit dizzy from the attacks though.
The power behind the attacks were still there. It seems Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws is really hard for to learn. If it was Kawin instead, he wouldnt have received any damage at all, thought Sila. Though, if Kawin really were to take his place, he wouldnt perform such acrobatic actions like Sila, since the Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws book clearly stated that both feet must be firmly placed on the ground.
Well, Sila didn't care. He intended to develop his own version of Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws. The main teaching of his Flaming Cloud dojo was to not stick to the form. Teacher Mora always told him that arts are unchanging while humans are living.
Vata shifted her gaze from her system window to Sila for a brief mont before shifting it back and continued surfing as she predicted that there would be a lot of instances like this.
And she couldnt be more correct. Afterward, the attacks continued to co at shorter intervals and they were gradually becoming more powerful. Sotis Sila turned his body and sotis he did a sorsault. Sotis he lifted his knee to block and sotis he stepped forward to receive the attack. Both his hands and his feet were moving non-stop and showing different martial moves.
Silas body continued flashing from the clashes of magic power upon contact with the sli and a lot of bruises could be spotted.
Vata was very close to lending her hand to help him, but she stopped when she saw Silas eyes, full of determination.
Four hundred ters was a short distance for both of them, but they had spent almost two hours to travel that far. The attacks stopped for a while, so Vata insisted Sila take a short break.
Based on my observation, if we dont move forward, the slis will not attack us. How about we rest here for the ti being?
Sila didnt even have the strength left to reply as he collapsed and sat on the ground, his body completely soaked in sweat. Constantly receiving attacks was a new experience for him as he usually chose to dodge and would only defend when he had no other choice.
Sila sat cross-legged and circulated Tiger Dragon Qi to alleviate fatigue. The benefit of him taking the actual trial - mark II was him being able to have a chance to further learn and adapt Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws, the art that he had used the least, in actual combat.
Orbiting Cosmos was another skill that he had beco better at using. Training it himself and using it while exchanging blows gave him a different level of mastery. Sila was the type to learn faster in a crisis than in a peaceful mont of self-training. Now, he was able to hold up to five elents simultaneously. Just one more to go and he would be able to use Divine Raint.
Thirty minutes had passed and while his magic power still hadnt fully regenerated, he no longer felt fatigue. Sila drank another Fountain of Life and told Vata that he was ready to continue.
Hold on, Sila. What is this? Vata pointed her finger at her system window.
Um... I dont know? Thats Miss Vatas system window.
Vata just realized her mistake and summarized what she had read. There is breaking news that a man in dark green wuxia clothing broke the sli rock in Beginning Town yesterday and many players are hunting him down at the mont.
Sila was aware that he couldnt keep this a secret from Vata. She had seen him in this clothing so it was a matter of ti before she found about about it. Nevertheless, there was sothing that bothered him.
Why are they hunting ?
Um... there was an anonymous rchant who claid that he was a witness and saw you take sothing out from the giant sli rock. He said he didnt know what it was but he believed that it ought to be sothing very valuable. With his statent, many players are grouping together to take back the quest reward that you stole from everyone.
Stole? This thing? Sila took the tiny sli rock out of his pocket. This is not the quest reward. And even if it is, Im the one who broke the giant sli rock so it should belong to , right?
Um... What you said is true. But, in the community, it was theorised that Sila just got lucky because the condition to break the sli rock was hitting it a million tis. So, the reward should be shared with everyone.
There was no such condition. I really destroyed it... um... by myself. Sila decided not to tell Vata about Bow.
I know. I believe you. But, honestly, no one cares. This nonsense condition must be the work of soone hostile to you aiming to turn the public against you. Sila, do you have enemies?
Sila let out a sigh. A lot. Well, lets ignore it. Ill deal with this problem later.
And, since they are thinking that the reward you got is the special item that will enable you to break through Stone Forest, they ford a raid party and are heading to this place as we speak.
Ill care about them later. For now, Im more concerned about whatever is in front of us. Lets get going.
Sila decided to stop thinking about the problem Vata ntioned. Proceeding with carelessness in Violas trial could easily lead him to his death so he needed to concentrate.
In the last hundred ters, Sila couldnt detect any presences and there was no ambush during their journey. Vata let out a sigh of relief as she could finally see Stone Forest from this spot.
However, suddenly, Sila could sense seven energy sources from up ahead.
Watch out, Sila said to stop Vata from running ahead. Please wait here until I reach that spot. He pointed to one of the petrified trees.
Stepping forward slowly, Sila spotted seven slis ahead of him. Each of them was the size of a bowling ball and looked profoundly powerful.
Sila bowed his head to show respect, which they returned. Six of them hopped and circled around him while continuously unleashing the different elents of magic power; earth, water, wind, fire, lightning, and ice. As for the last one, it just stood there without moving an inch.
All of the six slis seed to excel in the elent they displayed. The magic power that Sila sensed from them was incomparable to the previous slis he had encountered. All six of them hopped around Sila back and forth to confuse him.
Sila decreased the radius of Galaxy Eclipse to less than ten ters to focus his concentration on their movents.
Holding magic power within his body, at long last, the number of elents in Silas body reached five, which was the maximum he could do.
All six slis simultaneously shot their bodies at him, each aiming for a different area; his head, back, chest, underbelly, knee, and ankle. With this, even if Sila was allowed to dodge, he wouldnt know how.
Tiger Dragon Qi was circulated to its limit and his internal organs were softened with Formless Soldier. Sila recalled the last part of the Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws book which ntioned the martial moves the user could perform when they had built up their inner force.
Sila didnt have inner force built up by practicing Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws over ti. Instead, he used Tiger Dragon Qi as a substitute for that. The power of extre softness silently flew within his body.
At this crucial mont, he had no specific thoughts. His well-trained body moved by instinct. Silas innate talent, which was his adaptive thinking, showed its brilliance in a crisis yet again.
The first attack ca from the wind-elent sli and it hit his back. Sila used his qi to block it and migrate the impact. He and his qi acted like a big boulder in a fierce river; in the midst of water currents, they were unmoving. Tiger Dragon Qi led the wind-elent magic power toward his ankle, which was about to be hit by the earth-elent sli.
It was Silas first ti utilizing the Combine technique of Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws; using an opponents power to work against them. Even though his body was in pain from having the power of soone else flowing in his veins, once said power clashed against the earth-elent attack, his pain was gone.
The remaining earth-elent magic power was strengthened by Silas magic power and moved according to his will, using his body as a bridge, to block against the lightning-elent attack at his underbelly. Afterward, the lightning-elent power was guided to block the water-elent sli at his knee and the water-elent power was later led to defend against the fire attack at his head. At long last, the rest of the power was guided to block the ice attack at his chest.
All of these attacks occurred in the blink of an eye. Once the six slis bounced off him, the last, seventh sli suddenly charged at his chest which was left defenseless by the last attack. Its body was covered in Divine Raint.
Nevertheless, Sila had finally comprehended Divine Raint and ca to an understanding of why his best attempt to do it only ended up with five elents at most.
He started by infusing wind within his body and began holding it while simultaneously changing it. Rather than changing the current elent forward to the elent that it was strong against, he moved in reverse. With this, instead of overpowering the weaker elent, the power within the previous elent supported the next elent.
Wind added to ice. Ice added to fire. Fire added to water. Water added to lightning. Lightning added to earth. And earth added to wind. They all enhanced each other in the reverse cycle and ultimately his body was covered in a white, sparkling aura; as if he was wearing an elegant raint made from heavens will.
The last slis body hit against Silas and bounced off. It hopped backward and all seven slis bowed their heads before opening a path between them.
Sila opened his palms and looked at his own body, feeling surreal.
That last attack... I didnt feel anything, He muttered.
And that is the ability of Divine Raint. Everything in the world has sothing that opposes and sothing that is enhanced by them. You are not alone in the world and stubbornly trying to beco stronger by yourself is not the correct answer. Sila, congratulations for passing the actual trial mark II.
A feminine voice could be heard from the top of a tree and Sila and Vata simultaneously looked in that direction. Up above, there was a woman in a light pink magician robe sitting on a branch of the tree. Her eyes were as red as fire.
Welco to the Sli Kingdom.
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