In a dense beast forest to the Natural Order Sect's back, an odd scene could be witnessed. A young man with long flowing white hair that almost glowed under the winter night's moon stood with a spear in his left hand. His right arm was firmly tied behind his back as he attacked the den of Dire Wolves before him.
By now, only the den's alpha remained. Its coarse black fur raising as it tried to intimidate the young man. Truth be told, it was at least 50% larger than a common horse. For the young man to remain unperturbed by its attempts was a shocking matter unto itself.
The young man's spear shot forward like a pillar of light. If one ignored the fact he still held it in his hands, it was almost possible to mistake it for a star shooting across the skies. Neither the wet snow beneath his feet, nor the cold, piercing night's wind seemed to affect his strength.
A roar of pain shook the dark forest as the den alpha suffered a blow to its glowing yellow eyes.
In an instant, the young man shifted his position, his body becoming like the wind as the alpha's paw swing's air gently pushed him aside.
The den's alpha couldn't understand what was happening. It was a King of dozens of wolves. When it put its full power into a swing, how could a mere human treat it like a calm gust of wind?!
Unfortunately, it would never get its answer. The young man appeared below its large head, piercing upward with a seemingly bland martial technique that couldn't have been any more basic. Before the alpha could understand what happened, the light in its eyes dimmed just as the tip of the young man's spear exited from its lower jaw, through the top of its skull.
The young man shook his spear lightly, tilting the wolf's body to the side to stop it from falling atop of him. A turbid breath left his lips, steaming the cold air.
'I can just barely use a twentieth of my strength when restricted to one hand. If things keep going like this, I'll never be able to dual wield and live up to father's expectations at the same time.'
This young man was none other than Ryu. It had been eight months since he crossed into the Small Success realm of the halberd, and he had proceeded to do the same for the spear and glaive just days later. In fact, in this time, he had opened all six Qi Pulses and surged to the Peak Pulse Opening realm. It could be said that his gains were great, but he was wholly unsatisfied.
Although Ryu knew his initial goal was a bit foolish and fanciful, he still wanted to make an attempt. But, it seemed that infusing the will of a two-handed weapon into just one was a task too great for even him to accomplish.
Ryu shook his head as he looked toward his bloodied spear. The moment he untied his right hand and held it as a two-handed weapon should be, his aura skyrocketed. It was almost as though he became a completely different person.
The air around him trembled and the faint image of an Emperor appeared to his back. The illusory man was so vague that it was impossible to make out his features, but his imposing momentum was unmistakeable.
After months of contemplation, Ryu understood what this Emperor was. When one trained a Mortal Endowment of the Birthed Phenomena category, like the spear, glaive or halberd, there were innumerable paths possible. For example, if one took the sword, it was possible to become a master who was tyrannical, or it was possible to become a master who emphasized flow and elegance, even further, it was possible to emphasize sharpness or speed. Each one of these paths had varying difficulties unto themselves, but some paths were far more refined than others, especially those passed on as an inheritance.
As one might have guessed by now, the Tatsuya Saintly Weapons were such an inheritance. Although Ryu had never learned their Core Teachings, he was able to rely on the images of his father infusing this will into his basic stances to tap into it.
There was a reason this branch of Mortal Endowments was known as Birthed Phenomena. If such an inheritance was practiced to a high enough level, it was possible to evoke a Phenomena much like the Emperor that floated to Ryu's back. The greater the inheritance, the more quickly this Phenomena will make its Presence felt. For Ryu to have just barely started cultivating, yet to have already evoked such a matter, it was clear how great the Tatsuya Saintly Weapon inheritance was!
The trouble was that this inheritance was so great that a mere Ryu had no ability to manipulate it to his will. He wanted to fuse the quintessence of the inheritance with his weapon while using a single arm, but even after almost a year of attempts, he failed again and again. He thought that tempering himself with this beast forest was the key to improvement, but although his battle sense had improved by leaps and bounds, he had met a hard wall of opposition toward his true goal.
Ryu sighed, releasing his aura and allowing the Phenomena to fade. 'There is only one week until the Coronation Games. I no longer have the time to idle.'
If one could see the image of Ryu sighing at his lack of strength while standing amidst a pack of dead Second Order Beasts, they might faint in anger. To make matters worse, the den alpha was actually a lower Third Order Beast, yet it had been completely toyed with by Ryu.
The ranking of beasts was incomparably simple. The First through Twelfth Orders referred to the twelve stages of human cultivation. A First Order Beast was the equivalent of an Awakening realm expert while a Third Order Beast was the equivalent of a Qi Refinement realm expert. So on and so forth.
For Ryu to eliminate a den of dozens of Second Order Beasts supported by a Third Order alpha while restricted to just 5% of his strength… His improvement was clear. This matter only became more shocking when it was considered that he was a mere Peak Pulse Opening realm expert.
Looking down at himself, Ryu realized that he was still naked. He hadn't been able to find suitable clothes and was unwilling to wear the Natural Order Sect's disciple robes, so he simply trained in the nude. Considering the glow of his body, it wasn't very good for stealth in the night.
'These dire wolf corpses can make me some nice and sturdy leather robes. The defense will be decent as well…' Ryu thought to himself as he began dissecting the corpses.
Although he wasn't exactly an expert tailor, due to his inability to cultivate, Ryu often passed time in his last life dabbling in the Four Arts: Calligraphy, Painting, Music, and Domain. So, he was confident that with some practice, he could make something decent in a week.
Like this, his days of training were coming to an end.