Siyuan sunk into a defensive stance, holding his weapon out in front of him.

  Something that can bridge the gap between our constitutions…I need to find something like that as soon as possible.

  His mind went back to the few combat lessons he had back when he was still a student in the Lower Reaches. And the first thing that came to mind…

  “Remember, the best thing that one can have as a fighter is the initiative! Even should you face an opponent slightly superior to yourself, you have nothing to fear if you can hold onto the momentum of the battle!”

  Fingers were raised towards a long, stringy mustache.

  “Now, all of you do 50,000 side jumps! You have five minutes!”

  Ugh, now Siyuan was reminded of why he stopped going to those combat lessons. At least now, he had a kinda better idea of what to do next.

  Despite what his instincts told him to do…he dashed forward right at the man.

  “Oh?”

  He looked more surprised than anxious, if anything. Siyuan didn’t mind it, however, as he continued dashing forward.

  Once he got into range, the larger man swung his large blade at Siyuan. The cultivator ducked out of the way, just barely managing to avoid it before swinging his own blade at the larger man. The man brought his blade back quickly enough to block it. Blade pressed against blade as the two locked against each other.

  Siyuan was easily pushed back, the other man’s obviously superior strength winning him the bout. The cultivator, however, continued to press forward.

  An aura of fiery qi surrounded the man’s blade before he swung again. Siyuan’s eyes widened right before he instinctively jumped.

  A flaming slash swept the ground underneath him, just narrowly missing. When Siyuan touched back to the ground, aiming his blade at the man in front of him and swinging it at him. The man brought his flaming blade up, blocking the slash before swinging it downwards at Siyuan. Siyuan hopped backwards as another large flaming slash slammed into the ground where he once stood.

  Large flames followed the trail of the blade, stretching past the blade’s range and shooting into Siyuan’s body. The protective layer of qi enveloping his upper body sparked as the flames slammed into him, launching him backwards once again.

  Ah, how could I be so stupid?! he thought as he scrambled back onto his feet. Of course he’d know ‘Sword’ as well as qi reinforcement! How could something like that slip my mind?!

  “Sword”, the sister skill to basic qi reinforcement. By projecting qi outwards at the time of an attack, the user would be able to let the qi explode forward, greatly increasing the attack’s range and power. It worked on mostly the same concepts that “Arrow” did, though it required the user to be able to deeply understand the concepts of qi reinforcement. Even in the Lower Reaches, only the more talented and accomplished of students, including Luo Han of course, were able to ever get a grasp of qi reinforcement, much less “Arrow”.

  Why hasn’t he used that before? Was he intentionally holding back? Crap…

  The man barreled forward, a grin on his face, as he swung his flaming sword at Siyuan again. And just as before, a massive flaming slash shot towards him, one that was too fast and large for him to dodge. Siyuan raised his arms in a block as the flames slammed into him once again. His qi armor sparked, still able to hang on, but just barely. He was sent right back to tumbling along the ground, rolling backwards.

  He aimed a finger at the man, attempting to fire several Arrows at him. The man just simply swung his blade downwards at Siyuan’s direction, releasing another large slash of flames. The stronger qi easily dissipated Siyuan’s Arrows before, once again, hitting Siyuan full force.

  This time, his armor didn’t hold. It absorbed some of the attack for Siyuan one last time before shattering into many shining, golden sparks as he was sent flying backwards once again from the impact of the attack. Siyuan landed on his back into a small batch of the flowers, some of which had been charred black at this point.

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  Ah…dammit…the strength gap is too large…

  He groaned in pain, feeling the impact of the man’s heavy attack. The front of his robes were scorched and there was a noticeable burn along his abdomen where he was hit. As he heard the heavy thumps of the man’s footsteps near him, he slowly got up, a hand to the spot where he still felt the searing burn of the man’s previous attack on his abdomen.

  “Too bad, kid, you should’ve just let my men knock you out when we first got here,” he said with a sigh as he continued forward. The tip of his flaming blade scorched some more of the remaining flowers in the patch they were in. “I’d absolutely hate to take the life of a young’un such as yourself, but you did kill one of my men. And I can’t just let that go so easily.”

  The man neared him. Siyuan raised his blade, but the motion itself felt useless. As he slowly raised his sword, the man raised his in tandem, the flaming blade pointed up at the sun.

  No way, am I really going to die here?

  As if his brain had also come to that conclusion, his life began to flash before his eyes.

  He had heard about that phenomenon from his relic smithing sensei one day, back when he was working on a project and his sensei had started up some small talk. Siyuan didn’t wholly believe it at the time. In his mind, it would only make sense that, as someone faced certain death, all they’d be able to think about was the fear that came before death. Of course, he hadn’t known at the time since at that point, he had never came face to face with a situation where he had never come face-to-face with death like that.

  Then there was his encounter with the Tier 5 demon. Before he blacked out, charging an Arrow with qi taken directly from his nascent soul, the core of his vitality with the demon’s sharp tail speared right through his abdomen, all he could think about was Luo Han, his best friend. His solemn hope that his efforts would allow his best friend to get away…and live to fulfill that potential everyone in the sect, including Siyuan, could see in him.

  Perhaps…that phenomenon had happened at that moment. Siyuan couldn’t remember.

  But now, he could vividly see it. From the moment he had first laid foundation and become a cultivator, all the way to the moment that he woke up to his mysterious new master who had saved him from the brink of death. He felt the deep sorrow in his heart, the disappointment in himself that here, underneath the blade that would take his life, he had wasted his master’s efforts and his resources.

  It was at that time that his eyes fell upon a singular, purple flower. A single sharpshooter flower, of which his master had told him to use as training, standing amidst a patch of other charred flowers.

  Then something strange happened. He couldn’t quite explain the feeling. The closest thing he could relate it to…was like seeing a sudden spark of light within the darkness of his mind.

  This feeling…he had felt this before. A long time ago, seemingly an eternity ago, when he first decided to forge his own body and nascent soul into a relic. And again, when he finally found out just how to do it.

  The bulky man in front of him finally swung his blade down on Siyuan as the cultivator broke out of his ruminations.

  Then, with the speed that had been so characteristic of him, he immediately raised a finger and, mustering a bit of the remaining qi in his reserves, he charged an Arrow…and shot it right at the ground at the man’s feet.

  The man’s eyes widened as he disengaged his swing and brought it down to block his feet just as the projectile reached its target. Golden light exploded against the man’s bright flames as he was pushed backwards from the force of the blast, though not hard enough to even knock him off his feet.

  Siyuan didn’t pay that any heed, however. He wasn’t even looking at his opponent, who held the very weapon that could bring about his death.

  In his eyes, all he could see was that single purple flower.

  Yes, I get it now. I finally understand the key detail that I’ve been missing.

  He closed his eyes. In front of him, the man raised his flaming blade once again before barreling forward like a burning, fiery force of nature. And when he does bring that blade down on Siyuan, it would release yet another powerful blast of searing hot flames that would leave Siyuan like the many flowers that had become collateral against the man’s powerful attacks.

  All this time, I’ve been trying to force my qi to move as quickly as possible from one place in my body to the other. No, that is the wrong way to look at this. I shouldn’t be forcing the flow of my qi to change its own direction. The correct way…

  He leaned forward, reaching out his hand.

  …is like how one would redirect a river.

  The man finally swung his blade down at Siyuan, sending a powerful blast of white-hot flames at Siyuan.

  To “guide” it, rather than force it.

  A torrent of golden qi, the remainder of what he had left in his meridians, suddenly exploded forward from Siyuan’s fingertips. Much larger and faster than the man’s fiery Sword. It ripped through the flames with ease, like the rays of the sun piercing through the clouds.

  The man’s eyes widened. However, that was all he could do before the golden, metallic qi punched right through his body.

  When Siyuan opened his eyes, there was a single, purple sharpshooter flower pinched between his fingers, its petals still intact.