The First Peak of the Force

by Yuri Ajin

  “Hell yeah! Sounds fun!” Kai grinned back. Tai Go stared at him in surprise and then burst out laughing again.

  “Haha! I like you more and more, kid! All right, then I’ll start first! Oh, by the way... Did I mention that I’ve never lost?!” he growled through a wild smile.

  Straining his muscles as much as possible, Tai Go swung with his right hand. He used not only his arm strength but also all of his muscles, including the legs, to push off the ground with his entire weight.

  The hit felt like colliding with a boulder rolling down a mountain at full speed. Everyone watching was sure that they wouldn’t have survived the hit even with the help of all the techniques and items coin could buy.

  Tai Go’s fist collided with Kai’s head. The ground under his feet cracked and trembled. The earthquake could be felt even in the nearby arenas. A cloud of dust hid the two fighters.

  “Holy Heavens!”

  “Damn! Tai Go is crazy!”

  “Kai’s corpse will be unrecognizable after that!”

  “Ugh, now I don’t even want to look there…” one of the girls groaned in disgust and looked away.

  Others, however, waited for the dust to settle to see what had happened.

  “Impossible!!” the audience shouted and gasped, unable to believe their eyes.

  Kai stood with his head turned slightly to the side, and a red spot quickly disappearing from his cheek. Spitting some saliva mixed with blood, he smiled. “Damn, I bit my tongue.”

  Tai Go was numb with disbelief.

  Cracking his neck, Kai squatted slightly, bending his right arm at the elbow. Through the slightly open collar of his robes, one could see the tightened chest muscles. He hadn’t used a drop of energy.

  At that moment, the ground caved in under him as if he instantly became heavier. Tai Go felt a shiver run down his spine. All the color was gone from his face and he could swear that his hands and feet had never been heavier or colder. So heavy that he couldn’t move.

  “Well,” Kai smiled, “seems that it’s my turn.”

  Chapter 29

  LIMITLESS

  A year and a half ago

  It had been a little less than four months since Kai was forced to leave the land of the Thunder Serpents clan. He was already more or less comfortable in the Far Wasteland, although he still needed to be on the lookout for both beasts and humans all the time.

  A month ago, he finally reached the Spinal Cord Endurance level. However, a certain amount of time had to pass before starting the next phase. So, he decided to devote his time to studying the Path of the Sword. Fortunately, he had the necessary Particle.

  He spent weeks meditating, occasionally going hunting in order to put his new skills and knowledge to a test. With each passing day, his understanding of the Path of Sword deepened, but he was still far from reaching his main goal — understanding the Force of Form.

  After another five months, he felt that the moment when he could begin to transition to the last level of the Mind Stage was close. He had to prepare for it by collecting many useful Plants. He hoped that this would give him enough momentum to get close to the Seer Stage.

  However, he faced failure. After six weeks of hard work and relentless training, he still couldn’t so much as scratch the surface of Forces on the Path of the Sword. This almost messed up his entire plan but he persisted, shutting himself into his soul world until he was done. He came out of meditation extremely angry at himself. He wanted to release these negative emotions as they’d do nothing but impede his progress, so he left his hiding place and went hunting.

  When the eighteenth, Soul Stage monster dropped dead, Kai finally managed to calm down. Feeling like he was wasting time contemplating the Sword Forces, he went back to training. In addition to improving his swordsmanship, many styles of which he remembered from the days when he had rented scrolls from both the Sect and the Serpents, he decided to revise the unarmed style that Rune’Tan had helped him with.

  There was nothing more efficient for calming down than physical work and training.

  He knew that after completing the Body and Mind Stages, the human body could no longer be strengthened in any way. The problem lay in the fact that the body had its limits, Just like it, cultivators had their physical limits as well — the Brain Endurance level. The latter, unlike the former, could still get stronger as they developed, but only due to their ki and prana, and not their bodies. Thus, for someone at the peak of the Mind Stage, training their body would yield no results.

  Kai trained for pleasure and relaxation, which was why he never expected that he’d get the following message.

  [Power]: + 0.1

  [Stamina]: + 0.1

  Attention!

  You have discovered one of the hidden abilities of your bloodline: [Limitless]!

  [Limitless]: The sky’s the limit! Your body develops as you do, unless stated otherwise by the laws of this universe or some higher force.

  ***

  Kai’s muscles were as tense as they could get. His fist shot forward, as if it was fired from a cannon. At the very last moment before the impact, Tai Go managed to force his body to move and used a defensive technique. His body was instantly encased in a golden shell.

  A powerful explosion thundered, and a quarter of the arena shook. The shockwave attracted the attention of the nearby fighters, and even managed to throw a couple of them off balance. Several duels came to a sudden halt as their participants turned to see what was going all.

  Almost everyone directed their attention to the fight between Kai and Tai Go. The latter had been thrown back and was now sitting on the edge of the arena, looking in confusion at the fading sparks that had once been his shield. Had it not been for the dome surrounding the arena, he would’ve probably flown into the stands and continued through them.

  Both of his forearms were bruised and bloodied and he was certain that he had fractured a bone or two. His clothes, although of peak quality and Silver rank, were tattered.

  Kai, worried that he had gone too far, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Tai Go was conscious and that his heart was beating regularly. A skillful healer would get him back to his feet in no time.

  Those who had previously thought him a wimp and a lucky bastard, immediately fell silent, mouths slightly ajar.

  “What was it that you said? Crush him like a bug he is before he knows what hit him?” one of them managed to say.

  ***

  The first day of battles was over. Of the five hundred and eleven participants, only sixty-four passed. As there was no need to divide them further, there were thirty-two fights planned for tomorrow.

  Kai was seventh, which meant that he had time until after lunch. However, he never found out who were his opponents. Having defeated Tai Go, he left the arena in order to acquire recordings of the top-ten battles, engraved in special Memory Crystals. Among the potential winners of the Tournament were Shacks, Shin Sei, Yan Liang, Jiang Yong, Lei Shen, as well as Lily and Ivsim. Kai was happy to see them come so far. He hoped that they wouldn’t have to go against each other.

  Having gone over the recordings and analyzed the most interesting of battles and fighters, instead of sleeping, he meditated for a couple of hours. To him, time flew faster in the soul world than it did in that of dreams.

  ***

  He took Julie with him the next day as there were seats reserved for family members to watch the Tournament from the first rows. She wished him good luck and gave him a hug before he left to take his place in the arena.

  The audience was silent when he assumed his position. A part of the spectators didn’t know how to react to a strange guy and the other who just read a brochure, just like those the day before, thought him a lucky bastard who had by some miracle managed to get to the third stage.

  “Oh! It’s Kai’s turn!” said one of the viewers who had watched his fight with Tai Go.

  “Sweet! He’s crazy strong. I wonder what he’ll do this time.”

&nbs
p; “I don’t know, brute strength won’t get him too far. Tai Go’s an idiot. He underestimated his opponent and decided to show off rather to use his head. He didn’t even bother to think of a strategy or use his energy. It’s no wonder he lost.”

  “Yeah... Worst of all, he’ll probably remain disabled for life because he was being a show-off. The Tree of Life Clan may be the best healers on the entire Plateau, but I doubt that even they’ll be able to fix him. Not to mention that this will seriously dampen his progress.”

  “As I said — stupid.”

  “I dunno about Kai… I feel like that wasn’t all that he can do. Perhaps he has a couple of aces up his sleeve?”

  “I doubt it. See, I got curious so I asked around about him. For starters, he isn’t even from here, but some village in the middle of nowhere. Someplace further away than the Lowlands. He joined the Serpents more than two years ago...”

  “Are you serious? Further than the Lowlands? Are people practicing cultivation there too? But how? There’s so little external energy there!”

  “Hold on, I’m not done. There’s more. As I was saying... He joined their clan and became an inner-circle student. There was nothing special about his test results or anything. The clan members also didn’t notice anything special about him. He disappeared for two years in the Far Wasteland and came back as if nothing had ever happened. Is he good? Yeah. Is he the best? Eeh, I don’t think so.”

  “Then why do you know so much about him if he’s so average?”

  “What do you mean why? Betting! Starting today, we can bet on the participants and their results!”

  “Have you placed any bets?”

  “Yeah! Thousand pieces of hardened gold that Shacks will get to the finals! It’s much more profitable to place a bet immediately than to wait for him to reach the semi-finals.”

  “I see... And what about this Kai guy? Are people betting on him?”

  “One to two.”

  “And his opponent—”

  People began to shout and holler. Out of all of them, the Serpents were the loudest.

  “Well, well… We meet again, you asshole,” Lei Lo said wryly. “Will you ask for forgiveness? Or will you give up right away?”

  “Umm, sorry,” Kai said, smiling innocently and rubbed the back of his head in confusion. “Have we met before?”

  “Don’t you fuck around with me! You know damn well who I am! I won’t go easy on you! I thought you wouldn’t get this far, but I’m glad that I was wrong. Now I don’t have to chase you. You’ll need more than brute force to defeat me. I’ll make you pay for humiliating me!”

  “You talk too much. Like a parrot...” Kai yawned. “Honorable judge.” He turned to the Exorcist standing nearby. “Are we holding a debate or are we fighting?”

  The man looked at him and nodded. A barrier appeared over the arena.

  “Just a reminder,” he said, interrupting Lei Lo who was about to start shouting. “The fight goes on until one of you surrenders or can’t continue. Get ready... Start!”

  Lei Lo leaped into the air. His original plan had been to show just how superior he was by destroying Kai slowly, but he changed his mind. He wanted to deal with him as quickly as possible.

  Using the third stage of his family technique, Six Storm Flashes, he sped up. His plan was to catch Kai off guard.

  I’ll cut off his hand. If he doesn’t give up right away, then I’ll cut off the other one too! He grinned and retrieved a sword from his Ring. Idiot! He’s just standing there! I’ll end h― Huh?!

  He was an inch away from Kai when the latter’s figure rippled and disappeared. In the next moment, Lei Lo felt something incredibly heavy hit his left shoulder. Turning around, he immediately activated the Six Storm’s fourth stage and backed away. He had avoided a deadly attack but his left arm hung limply.

  Biting his lip in pain, he glared at Kai who was standing in the same place again.

  “What happened? You were on your way to me but then you suddenly backed away...” he asked, feigning confusion.

  The audience stared in bewilderment.

  “What happened? Why did Lei Lo back down?”

  “Maybe he sensed some kind of a trap?”

  “I don’t know… Did anyone see anything?”

  “I didn’t. That Kai guy’s good.”

  “I did,” said a young man with short hair and dark circles under his eyes. “I’ve seen everything. He launched a counter. And he did it very quickly.”

  “What? When did he do that? I didn’t see anything!”

  “Seriously? Isn’t the Six Storm Flashes Technique one of the fastest on the Plateau?”

  “It seems that the bookies were wrong about the odds,” the dark-haired young man muttered to himself.

  Lei Lo was no less bewildered than the audience was. Like many others, he was convinced that the Battle Array had adjusted to Kai’s power. That was why he thought that he could easily defeat him. But now… Now he didn’t know what to do. His first attempt to get close and attack made him realize that Kai was, indeed, dangerous. He didn’t want to risk losing his right arm, too.

  “Well, since you don’t want to come to me, I’ll come to you.” Kai smiled, slowly walking forward.

  “Thunderous Cascade!” Lei Lo shouted, swinging his sword.

  Hundreds of large sickles, woven from energy and Forces of Lightning, rained down on Kai. It was one of the clan’s strongest techniques, designed to defeat a lot of enemies at the same time, but he directed it at one target. It required a considerable amount of ki, however, so it cost Lei Lo at least a half of his reserves.

  “Take that!” He grinned, exhaling heavily.

  Kai just chuckled. Surprising both Lei Lo and the audience, instead of dodging, he leaped up toward the attack. It didn’t seem like he was using a technique, but he was as fast as Lei Lo at the third layer of his Six Storm Flashes.

  But that wasn’t all. Finding himself near the sickles, he dodged a couple of them. He had gotten accustomed to the strain of saturating his body with energy so he had no trouble doing it on the go. The audience, on the other hand, was shocked.

  “Idiot!” Lo smiled, having finally regained his composure. He can’t dodge all of them because I can control the blades! he thought and held his sword in front of him. The blades suddenly changed their course, targeting Kai.

  In an instant, several sickles surrounded him. At first glance, it seemed like there was no way out; however, he managed to dodge. Some of the sickles collided with each other and disappeared.

  But Kai didn’t stop there. He kept dodging, showing phenomenal control of his own body. No matter how hard Lei Lo tried, he never managed to hit his opponent. Each time, the attack would miss Kai by the width of a hair. It was like he knew where the blades would go even before they moved.

  Before Lei Lo could react, Kai broke through the storm of blades. Dodging the last sickle, he dashed toward his opponent, rapidly closing the distance between them.

  Lei Lo froze for a moment in disbelief but immediately came back to his senses.

  “Don’t underestimate me!” he growled, deactivating the Six Storm Flashes technique. “Sky Guard Armor! Seven Thunder Spheres!”

  The first technique enclosed his body in what looked like armor made of thunderbolts, which dramatically increased not only his strength and speed but also improved his defense. With the second technique, he created seven fist-sized spheres that started to rotate around his shoulders.

  He waited until Kai approached and swung his sword. At the same moment, one of the spheres merged with the blade, covering it with crackling lightning.

  Kai swung his fist in response.

  Ha! Is he going to fight me with his bare hands?! Well, say goodbye to them then! Lei Lo grinned.