He Shan frowned the more he read about the traceless leaf gliding movement art, but more than that, there was a fire lit in his belly, and he swelled in anticipation.
The Traceless leaf gliding movement art was versatile and had a tonne of variations which worked well with his combat style, which was sporadic.
He used arrows when convenient, switched to flying daggers when he finished his arrows, and worked with the axe when it came to close-quarter combat, though he was comfortable with a small sword just the same.
With how much he switched his weapon of choice depending on the battle needs, he required a movement art that could complement his fighting style. It was for this reason that he never practiced any of the movement arts that his grandfather bought for him. None of them fit his needs, but the Traceless leaf gliding movement art finally did.
The goal of the movement art required one to have the finest control of their body parts to the point they could use a single part to support the whole movement of the body. For example, using just a single toe to move the body while using minimal energy to the point they would not leave a trace on the ground hence the name traceless.
The technique placed great emphasis on the lightness of the step to achieve great agility, whether you were on solid ground, muddy ground, rocky ground, or even a pure water surface. As long as you practiced the technique to perfection, you could traverse all the grounds with the same relative ease and speed. One could even use a falling leaf as a springboard to launch themself.
The variations of the technique deeply marveled He Shan, and the fact that it erased someone's traces was an added bonus to him as a hunter.
"The examiner did say we can keep the cultivation art and use it even if we don't make it through the examination. While I'm sure it's impossible to achieve great mastery over it with the short amount of time we have for the exam, maybe later, with a few years of practice, I could do it.
Its relevance even extends to the core formation realm. The examiner sure is generous." thought He Shan.
He immediately scattered any useless thoughts he had and poured himself wholly into studying the basics of the movement art.
Zou Yi and Zou Liqin also began to study their individual arts while Yu Mei went to the alchemy table with her booklet in hand.
"It says for maximum efficiency with the meditation art, I need the blind serenity lotus root.. I think I saw it here based on the illustrations.." muttered Yu Mei as she carefully looked around at the earth-rank herbs provided.
She carefully went through each of them before her eyes lit up when she saw a long cylindrical root that looked like that of a cassava, except it was white and spongy, looking like it was filled with fluid and a gelatinous coating.
Yu Mei carefully scrutinized it as she compared it with the drawing in the booklet before she nodded in satisfaction.ραпdαs `n?ν?| сom
She took the root and went to the combat partition and sat in a lotus position, and immediately put the blind serenity lotus root into her mouth and gently chewed on it.
The gelatinous coating broke easily with her chewing, and a sticky liquid came out of it. It was sweet and had a cold stinging feeling to it. Yu Mei didn't swallow it but let it remain in her mouth as she chewed on it every four seconds.
Around the twentieth second, the sweet cold, sticky sensation turned to vapor that seemed to use the roof of her mouth as a path to reach her brain. She felt like multiple strings were cool to the touch and were attaching themselves to every cell within her brain.
She immediately took out her booklet and started chanting the mantra of the blooming tranquil lotus meditation art. At first, it was all gibberish to her, made no sense, and sounded like she was chanting words that required one to have a lot of salivae and a swollen tongue to pronounce, but with every cell that got touched by the cool string, those words started to sound familiar with every syllable uttered.
Unbeknownst to herself, a few minutes after she started the chant, her eyes turned pure white like she was blind, and her mouth stopped moving. Yu Mei thought she was still chanting the mantra out loud, but it was all happening in her mind.
The rest of her teammates had no idea what was happening with her as they were all busy trying to study their own cultivation arts.
Twenty minutes went by with none of them moving before. Finally, He Shan got up with eagerness in his eyes.
Zou Liqin and Zou Yi had their eyes closed as they internalized and replayed the moves of their respective techniques in their mind.
He Shan tensely walked over to the combat segment and made an effort to put as much distance as he could from Yu Mei, who was in silent meditation.
The combat area was the largest area, covering about four acres. This provided enough space for any of them to practice independently without interfering with each other.
He Shan took off his shoes and any other equipment he had on him till all he was left with was his beast hide clothing. The first step of the art was familiarizing himself with his own overall body weight, and from there, it would move to him realizing the weight of each body part and for him to be able to have as little on him as possible.
He gently jumped up and down a couple of times to get a feel for his body. Then he moved on to breathing. Breath control was one of the crucial parts of the technique.
The underlying concept in its foundation was simple enough, which was just inhalation and exhalation and making sure they were measured and in sync with each other.
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