Before long, Aksai found himself surrounded by five demon tree guardians.
At this point, his body was a canvas of cuts, bruises, and the crimson stains of his own blood.
The fallen bodies of his Scarecrow Fiends lay scattered around him, their limbs torn, skulls crushed, and torsos shredded by the ferocity of the demon tree guardians’ assault.
Despite the carnage, five tree demon guardians still stood. It was as if the resurrection had not only strengthened their overall stats but also added an extra layer of ferociousness in their behavior.
‘Hmm. This is serious. I guess I can’t get out of this mess unscathed. I might as well go all out.’
With a deep breath, Aksai saved the Lian Flying Sword in his storage and squared his shoulders, ready to face the remaining guardians with nothing but his bare hands.
Then, all of a sudden.
The battle began with a flurry of movement.
[ Earth Control Spell ]
[ Wood Vines Spell ]
[ Sea of Flames Spell ]
Aksai launched into action. With his exceptional hand-weaving skills, he quickly cast a series of Spirit spells. This kept the tree demons momentarily at bay, allowing him to engage one directly.
[ Qi Flow Arts ]
[ Guardian’s Qi ]
[ Qi Palm Arts ]
Aksai channeled his qi into his palms, delivering powerful strikes that sent shockwaves through the metal rods embedded in the guardian’s bark-like skin. The vibrations loosened the rods, causing the demon guardian to falter.
Aksai hated the idea that he needed to engage with the opponents in an up-and-personal brawl to exploit their obvious weaknesses. However, he did not have any more spell-generated Array Formations to aid him anymore.
After all, he had never thought that fighting with a druid would be this difficult, especially when the latter was gravely injured by the backlash. What could the corrupted druid have done to Aksai if he didn’t have the backlash to deal with at this point? Aksai didn’t want to find an answer to this question.
While Aksai and his opponent battled, the other guardians did not wait. They tore through Aksai’s elemental barriers with their elemental attacks, launching a coordinated assault.
One guardian summoned roots from the ground that lashed at Aksai’s legs, while another unleashed a torrent of water in order to get rid of the effects of the Sea of Flames Spirit Spell.
“Aaaargh!”
Aksai gritted his teeth as the sharp claws of a third demon slashed across his back, leaving deep gashes.
Despite the pain, Aksai’s focus remained unbroken. He moved with fluid grace.
His palm techniques targeted the intricate network of iron vines within the guardians, disrupting their internal structure and causing them to halt in their tracks.
Swoosh. Zoom. Block.
He blocked an incoming strike from one demon, redirecting its momentum to crash into another. His hands moved in a blur, delivering qi-infused palm strikes that caused the guardians to stagger.
As the battle raged on, Aksai’s injuries piled up. Blood streamed from numerous wounds, and his breaths grew ragged.
But in this life-threatening situation, something within him awakened.
The Spirit farmer entered a peculiar state of heightened awareness, where every detail of the battlefield became crystal clear. His reflexes sharpened, and his body moved with an almost supernatural fluidity.
Bronze-colored qi enveloped his body, but now it was laced with silver highlights, a manifestation of the Celestial Harmony Body Cultivation Technique practiced till its Bronze Body Perfection realm.
Aksai channeled this newfound power, feeling a surge of strength course through his veins. His palm and fist attacks grew more potent, caving in the chests of the guardians and disrupting their elemental spells.
Aksai’s master-level martial arts executions were on full display. His attacks and overall movements started getting empowered by the martial intent he had.
In this heightened state, Aksai parried the attack of one guardian, using its limb as a shield against another.
He moved with such speed and precision that the guardians struggled to keep up. Each punch and palm strike landed with devastating force, shattering bark-like skin and tearing through the iron vines that animated the demons.
As the battle reached its climax, Aksai felt a profound change within him. The life-threatening pressure acted as a catalyst, propelling him into the 2nd Body Cultivation Realm – the Argent Body Realm.
In this state of martial epiphany, something magical happened to Aksai.
His senses expanded, allowing him to perceive the ambient qi in the surroundings with the same clarity as Spirit essence. He subconsciously harnessed this qi, infusing it into his attacks, which now glowed with a radiant silver light.
The bottlenecks Aksai had faced previously were not there anymore. His mind, body and Spirit felt liberated.
With renewed vigor, Aksai launched a final assault. His punches caved in the chests of the guardians, and his palm strikes shattered their limbs.
His reflexes were sharper, his movements swifter, and his power unmatched. Within minutes, three of the five guardians were destroyed, their bodies reduced to lifeless husks.
After a while, only two guardians remained, their vicious eyes glaring at Aksai. For some reason, they didn’t carry on with their attacks and created a safe distance from him. They kept Aksai in check and prevented him from approaching the druid.
“Silver Qi! That man really broke through the Argent Body Realm using our Martial Intent Diagrams,” the one-eyed man from the Grand Martial Hall said to himself with a complex set of emotions.
“Indeed,” the gray-haired woman nodded as she spoke.
“And he has achieved the Argent Body Realm while being a heretic martial artist. If my guess is right, he has created his own Martial Compendium to achieve this breakthrough this early in his life.
Another Martial Compendium has been added to the world of Sharang it seems. If we survive today, we’d need to report this to the headquarters,” she said after she cut down the tree devil in front of her.
An Argent Body realm martial artist was the cream of the crop in Martial World Sharang.
Aksai had become one of the very few people to achieve this status. His breakthrough was particularly unique due to the circumstances surrounding him.
Firstly, Aksai became the youngest martial artist in Sharang’s known history to reach the Argent Body realm.
Secondly, he accomplished this not by using any existing Martial Compendiums, but by creating one of his own.
What did the creation of a Martial Compendium mean?
It meant that Aksai was in the same league as the martial arts prodigies everyone in Sharang revered.