Chương 37: 23.2. Hiding Snakes and Rising Dragons

"... A glaive technique… Based on the markings left by the Bloody Glaves immortal sealed over a million years ago…" Faust read the page. The next few pages were a transcription of the markings left by the immortal. He looked through them, at first it was random scribbles, after some more careful analysis though, Faust found it was random scribbles. He rubbed his head. He guessed the study was made based on the aura and remnant energy of the markings rather than the shapes themselves.

The basic description was that it was a pure Qi technique based around thrusting. Specifically, combining piercing force with movement. From the recreations of the technique, Faust felt it had more in common with a movement technique than a glaive technique.

"HAAAH!" The enthusiastic Emerald Blade sect disciple sprinted forward. Tao leveled his glaive towards them, then stepped forward— He burst out with incredible speed, pushing the tip of the glaive towards his opponent. The Emerald Blade Sect disciple's eyes widened and they twisted their blade to deflect the thrust with the flat of the blade. But Long Tao didn't stop, he continued forward with the same momentum, kneeing the disciple in the abdomen, sending them tumbling across the stone arena.

Tao prepared to rush them down again, but seeing him rush up, the Emerald Blade sect disciple hurriedly raised both hands.

"Another victory for the Clear Mirror Sect!" The announcer shouted. Tao was about to rush off the stage as the previous contestants all had, but he turned and saw his opponent struggling to get to their feet. He was about to ignore it, but at the last moment turned towards them. They looked startled, raising their blade, but Tao quickly grabbed them by the arm and pulled them to their feet, helping to rush them off the arena.

"Ah— Thank— Thank you, brother Tao." The disciple weakly cupped a fist. Tao looked at them for a moment, then turned away, walking through the massive corridor at the bottom of the arena and following the path back to the stands.

"Hmm…" He paused in the stone corridor, then pulled out his notebook.

'Good deeds = good karma?' He wrote down, scratching his head.

"It depends on the path you follow." The old ghost appeared, looking down at Tao's notebook. Tao tilted his head, "Is that so." The old ghost brushed his beard.

"The heavens will always be on the side of the heavens favoured, but the Earth is a different story. The depths below the earth as well. In essence, it's best to keep your karma positive." Tao shook his head and rejoined Foria and Aneroze in the stands. Names continued to be called out and people jumped from the stands to the arena. A woman with a bow fired arrows at a man holding a spear.

It was a poor matchup and since they jumped in from opposite sides of the massive arena, the spearman gave up after two arrows embedded themselves into his arm and leg. A man controlled flames and shot them at his opponent who dodged by a hair's breath, moving slowly while making hand signs. Then, the spellcaster threw his hands into the air and then brought them down. Their opponent was smashed into the ground unceremoniously, the balls of fire around him extinguished in an instant.

"I thought you couldn't move while spellcasting?" Foria said.

"You can't move much. Spellcraft involves manipulating the Qi around you instead of your own. So you can't move all over the place, but it can still allow for a bit of movement if you're skilled enough." Tao listened in while he watched the next fight. Two swordsmen rushed each other. The blades clashed and the two disciples fought for nearly an hour from one side of the arena to the other, until one disciple was forced too far over the edge and lost their balance, falling off the arena. Hundreds of fights passed.

Tao watched intently, never breaking his eyes away even as Foria and Aneroze started losing interest.

"I wonder if my brother participated in the last Rising Dragons and Phoenixes tournament?" Foria wondered.

"My, Who knows?" Aneroze shrugged.

"Though we could check the sect records."

"And with that, the first round has been concluded! The elders wish all two thousand four hundred participants good luck on their path, however, only twelve hundred of you will pass." The announcer's voice concluded the matches as the sun began to set. Tao finally looked away from the arena. Violet and orange hues lit up the clouds and looking around he realised the stands had gone from packed full to mostly empty.

Even Foria and Aneroze had long departed, leaving him the only one within a hundred meters still watching. He scratched the back of his head and pulled out his notebook, "Keep an eye on surroundings." He paused. Was that right? He looked around again, those who were standing up to leave all wore serious and contemplative faces. Tao stood up too.

Instead of returning to his abode however, he walked down the winding path from Diamond Mountain and found one of the empty stone platforms that branched out from the path towards the Outer Sect courtyard. He had always known his own fights lasted scarcely a few moments, but he hadn't known if that was true for all fights at his level. There was also the sheer variety of techniques. He had never seen most of the combat methods used before.

It was mostly demonic beasts and demonic cultivators who used their hands or a blade. While there were no official complete techniques, or at least none considered rare or profound within the Grand Archive, the shelves held, what Faust estimated, was millions of outdated and incomplete techniques. There were also countless works that analyzed those rare and profound techniques or which imitated or copycatted those techniques. Faust hummed at one he was looking through. Most of the copycat techniques were garbage.

Even an amateur could probably see through their quality. But if they were any good, they probably wouldn't have been brought here to the Grand Archive. Rather, they would be jealously guarded. Their value lay mostly in their analysis. Moreover, there were still outdated techniques which were still considered profound despite losing their edge. There were also ideas. As Faust flicked through work after work, his brows rose higher and higher.

His shoulders also felt looser and his brow was less scrunched up in thought. It wasn't enlightenment, but he realised he had been closed minded. The number of approaches to the same problem was staggering. Faram Platier's famous method of working out what qualities of Qi to use without interfering with previous qualities of Qi already being used always produced a correct result. Even if the matrix multiplication became tedious as more and more differing qualities for differing streams of Qi were used.

But there were other methods that produce different, but still valid results. One copycat technique reconstructed its original by taking an initial guess and then simulating their interactions with an artifact. Then adjust each Qi stream manually until they get a valid result. Then they twisted the streams into patterns to reproduce the original technique. It was a brute force method.

But for more than six or seven streams, Faust guessed it was probably faster than finding the determinant of a six or seven dimensional matrix. Another method he saw was even stranger. It found spirit herbs of similar qualities to the ending technique and put them together to make a kind of formation. Then, when one plant started wilting due to the formation the author would identify what exactly was causing it and replace it with a herb that countered that effect.

Repeating the process, they would end up with a stable formation of however many spirit herbs, which would then be used to determine the qualities for each Qi stream. Faust closed another book and leaned back into his chair, letting the cool air flow through the dark isles between the densely packed bookshelves. The current of air and smell of wood was overwhelming, making even the enclosed space smell fresh. For a while, he stared at the ceiling. He closed his eyes briefly. The dream he had back then.

Dominating a Golden Core whilst still in the Open Palace realm. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The technique he was using then, which was blurry, suddenly became a bit clearer. Or rather, he had a clear vision of how to reach it. As well as what it did. Removing the advantage a Golden Core powerhouse generally has over lower realms by suppressing all Heavenly Qi with the Earth's Qi, overturning Heaven and Earth as it were.

It was a suppression technique. Faust thought about the gap between Golden Core and Open Palace. There was still the quantitative difference in Spirit Qi. But a quantitative difference could be made up for with quality. At the very least, fighting a third rate Golden Core… It didn't seem as impossible as he thought. He opened his eyes, looking back down at the desk, now piled up with books. Even the floor around him.

"..." He hoped the librarians were attentive, because he certainly didn't recall the exact places he took all these books from. The Clear Mirror Sect's Starry Mountain Arena was even more crowded than the previous day. Foria had stuffed some cloth in her ears to block out the sound of the crowds as their group shuffled through the isles between seats. Banners were being flown and sect members in the same uniform were grouped up together.

"Why is it so much worse than yesterday?" Tao asked Aneroze, who led the group through the sea of people.

"Don't you think the outer sect battles were a bit boring?" Aneroze responded casually. Tao strained his ears to hear her through the noise. Foria hadn't spoken a word since stuffing cloth around her ears and tying a band around her head to keep them in place.

"No?" Aneroze looked back at Tao briefly, smiling, "my, you're quite studious then. Most people find them rather boring." Tao looked at her oddly for a moment, before she continued, "Open Palace realm techniques are more flashy and their movements tend to send them all across the arena, unlike yesterday where most of the time was disciples running across the arena to fight each other." Tao couldn't relate. He had gone on plenty of sect missions now and traveling was just part of the fight.

He wondered if it would change once he got his hands on a flying sword. He briefly looked between Aneroze and Foria. Both had flying swords already, though Foria still couldn't use hers properly due to her lower cultivation. It really was great to have backing wasn't it? He looked under his robes, where several spatial bags were hanging and pursed his lips. Why did all the people who came out and ambush him have spatial bags but no flying swords?

The group found a place to sit among a large group of other Clear Mirror Sect Disciples.

"Would you like some spirit beast skewers?" A pot bellied disciple in the grey peripheral disciple robes was carrying a large box offering skewers to the people nearby.

"Only half a silver stick!" Tao felt some saliva drip down his lip and checked his spatial pouches. After a few moments, he froze. Not a single coin. He heard Aneroze snort gently in amusement, "Something wrong Tao?"

"..." Tao looked up and met her eyes as she hid her smirk hiding behind her fan. His eye twitched, "how did you know…" Aneroze raised an eyebrow, "Yesterday morning when we were at the market together. Do you know how much you spent?"

"Seven— silver?" Tao tried to recall. He remembered buying a lot of interesting items and things that could be useful in the future.

"Seventeen gold. Then you begged to borrow some silver from Foria."

"..." Did I spend that much? Tao wondered.

"I wouldn't beg…" Tao protested, he then looked to the side and whispered, "Old ghost."

"We were getting ingredients for a medicinal bath, remember? For your body tempering?" The old ghost's voice floated by. Ah. Tao suddenly remembered the massive list of items the old ghost had wanted him to buy. He hadn't thought much of it.

"Remembering something?" Aneroze asked.

"A little." Tao flipped open his notebook, searching for any reminders he might have left himself. There were none.

"Um… How much do I owe?" He asked hesitantly.

"You owe me twenty seven gold and Foria six gold."

"... It can't be that much…" Tao thought, writing it down in his notebook regardless.

"Oh?" Aneroze pulled out a jade slip and Tao felt her Qi searching through it before tossing it to him. Tao took the jade slip with some trepidation and sent some of his mind into it. -2 gold lent. Long Tao buys Bloodroot oranges. -20 silver lent. Long Tao buys Firesprout herbs. -6 gold lent. Long Tao buys high-grade Body reinforcement pills.

"..." Tao looked through all the records, ignoring all the ones not including his name, adding them all up. I've borrowed this much? What happened to rolling in wealth? I swear I had more… Aneroze delicately snatched the jade slip back. Tao stared listlessly. Where did all his money go?

"Now! For the first fight of Open palace realm disciples!" The announcer's voice suddenly sounded out.

"Fire Emblem sect's Core disciple … Versus Clear Mirror Sect's Inner Disciple, Damarius!" From one side of the arena a young man shot into the sky before landing gently in a spout of flames. On the other side, from somewhere near Long Tao, an Inner Sect disciple with a black mane for hair, flitted from the edge of the stands to the arena, holding pitch black spear.

"Begin!" For a moment nothing happened. Tao watched as the two disciples sized each other up. The Fire Emblem disciple moved first, swirling his hands briefly before fire erupted from his body, spreading hundreds of meters as it rushed towards Damarius. Damarius looked at it lazily as it approached rapidly. He twisted his spear, raising it slightly before— disappearing.

"Huh?" Tao blinked.

"I yield!" A fast squeak was heard and the wall of fire slowly fell apart, dissipating into smoke. The Fire Emblem disciple had his hands raised, head tilted up a bit to avoid the tip of a pitch black spear. Damarius stood right beside them, glancing at them briefly before lowering his spear and walking a few steps away before dashing back off the arena.

The Fire Emblem disciple didn't delay too much either, taking a few deep breaths before shooting into the sky with a burst of flames and landing back in the stands. Tao unconsciously brought a hand to his chin. What happened?

"My, looking so confused. Damrius is considered the strongest disciple of the Inner Sect." Aneroze supplied, grabbing Tao's attention.

"The next fight will be more normal." Tao gazed at her but seeing no intention to elaborate he turned back to the arena.

"Clear Mirror Sect Disciple Sirius! Versus Verdant Blade sect core disciple…"

"Sirius?" The name rang a bell to Tao and he twisted his face in thought.

"The short pink haired disciple who claims to be close to Foria's elder brother." Aneroze reminded him. Tao bobbed his head up and down as he kept his eyes fixed to the arena. The pink haired girl in question jumped down from the stands holding a saber that seemed a little big for her stature. On the other side a disciple in green and gold robes drew an emerald green sword. The two faced each other down for a moment before the Verdant Blade sect disciple rushed forward.

Sirius didn't idle either and rushed forward to meet them. The two swung their blades. They struck so fast that their follow ups came before Tao could process the first clash. Sirius abused her light body to be flung up into the air, a brief step of light appearing near her foot to push off as she swung her sword down. The Verdant blade sect disciple jabbed his sword forward where Sirius no longer was, but morphed the move to raise his sword and spin his body to face Sirius.

Both of them missed, but their follow ups didn't. Their blades clashed and the granite arena shattered beneath their feet. The two remained like that for scarcely a second before they exchanged a dozen more moves every second. Tao followed with his eyes, but the next strikes happened before he could process the previous one. He could see it but not react. The old ghost appeared beside him.

"They're both very good. They've reached the third realm of combat." He commented.

"The third realm of combat?" Tao repeated.

"A brute like you knows about the realms of combat? My. Color me surprised." Aneroze chimed, making Tao wince. He didn't really know what it was about. He had only heard the old ghost mention it a few times.

"What is it?" Tao asked, not letting his eyes leave the two disciples clashing constantly in the arena. Each strike left cracks on the ground, while many of their strikes outright missed each other.

"The first realm of combat is just reacting to your opponent's attacks and responding with your own." Aneroze began explaining, even as she watched the first nearly as intently as Tao.

"The second realm is attacking your opponent without always reacting to their moves."

"The third realm is making your next attack before the first is finished." Aneroze gestured towards the fight.

"See how their both missing strikes completely? That's because they're making their follow-ups before they even think about it." Tao widened his eyes and opened his mouth a bit. Now he understood why the fight looked a little strange.

"It takes a truly overwhelming amount of training to reach that point for most." The old ghost added.

"Going beyond the third realm turns someone from a normal person into a prodigy." He stroked his beard.

"... Wait, isn't Faust at the fifth realm or something?"

"Fourth realm. He can predict his opponents' attacks and react in advance."

"Isn't that the same as the third?"

"No. The third realm is the realm reached by those who put in the effort but don't have the talent. They make their follow up attacks on trained reflexes rather than consciously choosing them based on what they predict their opponents' next attacks will be." The old ghost shook his head.

"How could you tell Faust was in the fourth realm?" Tao asked, watching Sirius and the Verdant Blade disciple make their strikes fast but to constantly miss each other.

"The first realm waits for the opponent to attack first or attack cautiously at first. The second realm always tries to attack first like you do. The third realm is faster than you can react but also has a lot of missed strikes. The fourth realm of combat is all in eyes and posture. I could see it in his eyes back during the sect Recruitment test. When that demonic cultivator charged. He hardened his gaze for a moment, but then relaxed after seeing through their every possible move."

"..." Tao briefly glanced at the old ghosts' pale and transparent form hovering beside him, then back to the arena. Sirius's sword was suddenly thrown out of her hands and a trail of blood spilled on the ground. She raised a hand, yielding, while her other was quickly drenched in blood. Faust closed another book. A small plume of dust came out. He wanted to stay in the Grand Archive. But his hands were itching to put his new knowledge and notes to practical use.

He had lost feeling in his fingers from all the coarse paper and the overwhelming scent of wood and ink had given him a stuffy nose after however long he had been here. He breathed heavily as he made the final new notes on Heavenly Axiom Theory. One of the topics he originally came to brush up on. Then after several days, perhaps over a week, he began making his way out of the archive. He turned one aisle. A body flew past him, a few inches in front of his face. CRASH!

"..." Faust's eyes lost their joy and returned to his normal expression of apathy. He sighed deeply even as he leaned back to avoid an axe-like hand chop past where his neck had been a moment ago. He had almost forgotten about this ill luck of his ever since he got involved with Playboy Tao.