Lightning Chop

Qu Chu crouched down on the floor and watched Lin Mu Yu with eyes like those of an eager child looking to learn from a master. He was especially in awe at Lin Mu Yu’s skillful removal of the iron and rock layers from the Iron Pear flower. This was breathtaking for Qu Chu, as he had seen many alchemy experts in his lifetime, but never one who could use such skillful techniques in handling medicine cores like Lin Mu Yu. Not even the Medicine King level alchemist whom he met in the past had the same fantastic hand techniques as this young alchemist.

……

Seeing the restless Qu Chu sitting next to him, Lin Mu Yu couldn’t help but chuckle in his heart. Qu Chu was a strong warrior of the Saint realm and his position in this world was quite obvious. However, everyone must have a weakness. In Qu Chu’s case, his weakness was obviously his affection towards the alchemy arts. Thus, Lin Mu Yu smilingly said, “This technique is called the Essence Purification Technique. Hmm, do you want to learn?”

Qu Chu immediately nodded like an obedient puppy and replied, “Want!”

“Alright then, I’ll teach you.”

Lin Mu Yu frankly dusted off his hands and added, “But, there are some conditions.”

Qu Chu immediately shrugged and said, “Kid, whatever you want, just say it. As long as you will teach me alchemy techniques, I’ll do anything.”

Lin Mu Yu already had an idea. Slowly and deliberately, he demanded, “I’ll teach you the Essence Purification, but you’ll have to teach me your best fighting techniques. What do you think?”

“Teach you fighting techniques?”

“That’s right.” Lin Mu Yu scratched his head and said, “Elder Qu, honestly speaking, there are many bookstores in Silver Fir City that sell books about fighting techniques, but most of them are too expensive. To become someone’s apprentice would also be similarly expensive. I don’t even have close to that amount of money. Although you said you were going to train me, you’ve only helped me awaken my martial spirit and have yet to teach me any real fighting techniques. You can see as well, this Green Gourd spirit is suitable for defense but is lacking in offense. That’s why I want to learn some kind of offense type fighting techniques.”

Qu Chu muttered a sound and profoundly looked at Lin Mu Yu to say, “But I had long vowed to never take in an apprentice in this lifetime, or else I must die under my own sword!”

Lin Mu Yu faintly smiled, “I’m not hoping to be an apprentice. I just want to learn fighting techniques. Moreover, this is merely a single transaction. I teach you alchemy, you teach me fighting techniques. How does that sound?”

“Then…alright!”

Qu Chu really could not resist the temptation of the Essence Purification Technique, but he cautiously said, “But you must promise me that whatever skills I’m teaching you will never be taught to another person. Over half of the techniques that I have acc.u.mulated over the years have been my own creations. The world is chaotic and disturbances will never end, so I don’t want my skills to be used as murderous techniques. How about it, can you promise me?”

Lin Mu Yu immediately nodded, “I promise. I definitely won’t pa.s.s off your techniques onto anyone else!”

“Then, good!”

As he spoke, Qu Chu leapt back several meters and smiled, “I’ll show you three kinds of fighting skills. Just observe for now, then pick one to learn after.”

“Okay!”

……

Qu Chu planted his feet solidly in the ground and gave off a feeling that not even the crash of sky and earth could shake his form. His gaze was calm and unfl.u.s.tered as he let out a shout. Suddenly, purple lightning gathered within his slightly open palm. Piercing through the air, the lightning energy shot out as if it was a cannon and directly shattered the large slab of rock to the right of Qu Chu.

“That was Lightning Chop. By condensing the lightning energy in the nature, you can instantaneously attack a target from range. You can use it bare handed or in conjunction with a weapon. Come, again!”

Qu Chu was once again composed and let out another shout as his robe shook slightly. Suddenly, the surrounding earth trembled faintly as energy rushed out into the air. Rows of verdant green stone s.h.i.+elds appeared all around Qu Chu. In another blink of an eye, the s.h.i.+elds fragmented back into rubble.

“That was Verdant Sh.e.l.l, which gathers force energy to create a stone wall for protection. This is a skill I created that is most suitable for defense. You can also use basic energy to create the Verdant Sh.e.l.l, but the ones created from force energy are even more indestructible. One more!”

As he spoke, Qu Chu clenched his hands into fists and let out another shout. Aiming at the tree in the distance, he threw a single punch. Momentary, a ripple swept through the air and smashed into the tree trunk.

“Boom!”

It shook the branches wildly, but Lin Mu Yu did not see the tree receive any heavy damage, so he laughed, “Looks like that wasn’t able to do any in particular. Is that really it?

“Is that so?” Qu Chu smirked, “Why don’t you carefully look again?”

When Lin Mu Yu took a closer look, only to realize that the bark of the tree was cracked into pieces. Even the trunk was struck with such force that it had turned as soft as cotton. As the tree abruptly toppled down on itself, the noise startled the sleeping Tang Xiao Xi. Rubbing her eyes cutely, she sat up and asked, “What happened?”

Qu Chu laughed from afar, “Nothing is wrong, Princess. It’s still early so you can sleep a bit more.”

Tang Xiao Xi was just sleeping soundly, so she didn’t pay too much attention and once again fell back asleep.

……

“That skill is called Sonic Punch. Using the force energy’s meridian pathways, the skill creates an extremely strong ripple effect in the air. This creates a sonic boom to attack the target from afar. If your training is sufficient, it is enough to injure an opponent’s vital organs.”

Qu Chu smiled with pride and asked, “These are all my creations. What is it going to be? Are you going to choose Lightning Chop, Verdant Sh.e.l.l, or Sonic Punch?

“Sonic Punch!” Lin Mu Yu unhesitantly yelled out. That move was too cool to pa.s.s up.

TL Note: Was tempted to call it Sonic Knuckles.

Qu Chu knowingly laughed, “You surely can recognize what is good. It’s a shame though, because you will need a robust amount of energy before you can use Sonic Punch. In your case, perhaps in seven or eight years, you’ll be able to acc.u.mulate at least a little more.”

Lin Mu Yu was slightly disappointed, “Then…then I’ll just learn Lightning Chop. If I’m using my sword, the power output should be decent right?”

“That’s right. I also approve of you learning Lightning Chop.”

……

Thus, Qu Chu sat cross-legged on top of a giant rock and began to dictate the principles behind the utilization of Lightning Chop: First, one must learn how to meditate and learn to feel for the lightning essence in the air. If he or she could not even complete those two steps, then there would be no way for him or her to learn this skill.

Lin Mu Yu was naturally gifted and intelligent, only needing an hour of meditation before he was able to sense the irritable lightning essences in the air. As if they were living creatures, the essences swiftly avoided Lin Mu Yu as he tried to touch them.

Qu Chu smiled at the sight and imparted on the next step: The most crucial principle behind gathering lightning essences involves the word “attract”. The user must attract the lightning essences with the body’s energy. Lin Mu Yu practiced for a whole two hours before he finally learned how to release energy to attract the free lightning essences. The moment he was able to gather a dense cl.u.s.ter of these lively lightning particles into his hand, he was so excited that his heart was about to leap out of his chest.

The last step was comparatively simpler. He had to infuse the lightning particles into his weapon while identifying the best angle to slash down in the air. This strike must be both quick and accurate, and it must not be done sloppily. When the lightning essences create a shockwave as they pa.s.s through the air, this technique is considered complete.

……

Lin Mu Yu took out his steel sword and channeled the lightning essence from his arms into the weapon. The edge of the blade was wrapped in strips of electric energy. Although it did not look at intense as Qu Chu’s version, it still looked as if it had quite a formidable power behind it. Heavily slas.h.i.+ng down with the sword, the lightning essences rubbed against the air to create sparking sounds.

“Too slow.”

Qu Chu frowned and noted, “That didn’t sound right. If the speed of your swing is too slow, the damage of the attack will naturally decrease. The lower the sound of friction between the lightning essences and the air, the greater the potency of this technique!”

As he spoke, he raised his arm and lightly swiped in the air. It was near silent but a nearby small tree was bent over and snapped in half.

“Do you see? You’ll have to reach this kind of speed for it to be considered a real Lightning Chop.”

Lin Mu Yu had originally thought that he gotten at least a small achievement, but compared to power of what Qu Chu just used, he couldn’t even say he had accomplished the beginner level of that technique.

As a result, Lin Mu Yu continued to practice swing by swing and disregarded everything else.

Similarly, Qu Chu pulled out a branch of Iron Pear flower and sat down to practice using Essence Purification Technique to extract medicine cores. However, he was applying the technique so fiercely that the outer iron layer of the Iron Pear flower split open with m.u.f.fled explosive sounds. This meant that the extraction was a failure, since the Iron Pear flower’s medicine core had been contaminated and destroyed.

Lin Mu Yu watched from a distance and shook his head as if saying: Why can’t you even do this little thing? Qu Chu lowered his head in shame. His mastery over energy was far from Lin Mu Yu’s level, at least in terms of the utilization of the Essence Purification Technique. Extracting medicine cores require a balanced spread of power, where a little more power or a little less power would both result in failures.

……

It was at the wee hours of the morning when Lin Mu Yu was finally unable to continue. Lying down a short distance away from Tang Xiao Xi, he quickly fell asleep, only to be woken up by Qu Chu a little more than 3 hours later. Qu Chu was seemingly a person who never required sleep. He stayed up the whole night yet he looked br.i.m.m.i.n.g with vitality. Holding a pile of medicine cores, he excitedly asked Lin Mu Yu, “Look, look. What do you think about the purity of these medicine cores?”

Lin Mu Yu simply glanced over the pile and said, “They are much better than those from last night. Practice a little more and your Essence Purification Technique could be considered complete.”

“That’s right, how is your progress on Lightning Chop?” Qu Chu asked smilingly.

Without answering, Lin Mu Yu reached to pull out his sword. The second the sword had left its sheath, the blade was already coated in a layer of lightning essence. With a quiet friction noise, the sword slashed through the air and split a palm-sized rock cleanly in half.

Qu Chu nodded in satisfaction. “Not bad. At least it has a bit more presence now. If you practice more, the potency will naturally increase.”

Tang Xiao Xi gasped in shock, “To think that Mu Mu would be so unexpectedly awesome…”

……

Hastily finis.h.i.+ng breakfast, the three continued into the deeper parts of the Seven Star Forest.

They only had one goal: To find a fire element spirit beast of at least 2000 years of age. Using a spirit beast like that as an offering for Tang Xiao Xi’s advancement into level 30 was probably high cla.s.s enough for her.

It’s only a shame that life seemingly did not wish for them to come across the suitable beast spirit any time soon. In the morning, they had found 3 spirit beasts: a 1200-year-old green serpent that had scared Tang Xiao Xi to tears, a 2400-year-old bobcat that was unfortunately of the wood element, and the only fire element spirit was an Ardent Bear. Sadly, it was only 700 years of age, so they let that go as well.

“Elder Qu, I heard that these aged spirit beasts can all produce a spirit stone in their bodies. Since spirit stones can be sold for money, and you can easily hunt those beasts down with your level of prowess, so why is it that you are avoiding them?” Lin Mu Yu asked.

Qu Chu calmly responded as he sat on horseback, “Everything in nature has intelligence. They are also living beings that have the same rights to live as the rest of us. Unless it is necessary, I will never slaughter spirit beasts to obtain their spirit stones. Besides, gold Yin coins are but simple materialistic objects.”