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'It's time to cultivate more diligently. During my time in the sect, I had to spend a lot of time concocting pills to instigate this war, but now that I don't need to concoct pills for hours every day, my cultivation's speed can finally increase.'
Ken thought to himself as he remembered his time in Phoenix Feather Sect. It took him a whole year to advance from the low substage to the intermediate, but now he could focus on cultivation instead of concoction and fooling around with Annie.
'First, I should improve my mastery of my techniques. I've improved a lot during my fights since the time I got to the Small Success mastery realm.'
Ken could afford only one month in the training rooms while being there for 16 hours per day. He planned to use the sturdy rooms for practicing his techniques and then go back to his house and cultivate his core in the confines of those walls.
He could do triple fifth-rank formations of a very high caliber, and the results won't be too much behind the double sixth-rank Qi Gathering formations in the training rooms.
He entered the training room again, paying 5 MP per hour. The room was spacious enough to practice in it, 8 meters in width and 8 meters in length.
Ken took out a new pill from his storage ring; its name was the Surging Sword pill. Its effect was to flood the consumer's body with Sword Qi, making it easier to execute sword techniques and feel closer to the sword.
The disadvantage was the painful state it'd put the user in and the toll it took on one's body. Ken only made it for training rather than boosting his power in a fight.
The Sword Qi used in the pill originated from sixth-stage cultivators; Ken still had a small stock of those that he purchased in advance from his sect. Ken could never generate such powerful Sword Qi on his own before advancing, so it was a good way to empower his affinity with the sword temporarily.
'Let's remember the situation from the cave.'
Ken closed his eyes as he stood in the room and remembered the moment 10 peak fourth-stage disciples rushed into the cave to aid their seniors.
*10 disciples rushed inside the cave with their weapons in their hands. They instantly felt their body turn sluggish and unresponsive to their minds. Before they could adjust themselves to their new condition, Ken attacked.*
'But what if they were scattered across the room instead of being so close to each other? I wouldn't be able to take down 5 of them with Flash Unwind, its range is too short.'
Ken pondered on the problem and soon knew he had only one attack that could send middle-range attacks, and it was Slash.
'But 9 in 9 is too weak, while 9 in 3 would only kill 3 disciples. I want to kill them all at once.'
Ken saw the situation clearly in his mind as he used One Step and landed in the middle of the group. Only two people were in close range, so Flash Unwind didn't fit the bill.
He used Slash 9 in 3, killing three disciples at once, but only a frown appeared on his face.
'Not good enough!'
Ken replayed the same scene in his mind over and over again, reliving that moment. His body moved inside the training room accordingly to the scene that appeared in his mind. He moved, dashed, and slashed. The training room walls were protected with sixth-rank formations, and they absorbed the impacts easily.
'Since I squared the attack once, I can do it again!'
In that instant, 81 slashes came out of his sword, hitting the walls around him. Ken managed to pull off 81 in 81, making his Slash much more powerful.
Ken envisioned the 10 disciples rushing into the cave while he was standing nearby. He used One Step and landed among them. Only two people were in melee range, and he couldn't use Flash Unwind. This time, he performed Slash, 81 in 9, cleaving 9 people in half.
'This is the power of Big Success mastery realm with a top-notch Heaven-grade technique.'
Ken thought to himself. The power was amazing and allowed him to slaughter his enemies. Until before his 9 in 1 attack was overwhelming for people of the same stage, and from now on he will be able to send 9 of those simultaneously.
Flash Unwind also became nearly unstoppable in the Big Success mastery realm; rather than send a fast slash in a straight line, he could curve the strike, making it possible to go beyond the enemy's block.
To improve a technique, one would first master them to the Basic mastery realm. In the Basic mastery realm, one could keep improving the effects of the technique, experiencing a quantitative improvement. Once they hit a bottleneck, they might be able to get to the next mastery realm, thus gaining both a quantitative improvement and a qualitative one by adding a new effect to the technique.
Ken continued working on his techniques by envisioning the situation he faced back then in the cave, but instead of replaying the original scene, he changed the setting ever so slightly to fit for his other techniques.
For Snake Thrust, which was a great single-target technique, he imagined fighting with the fifth-stage cultivator head-to-head instead of ambushing him. He imagined similar scenes for each technique until they all were raised to the Big Success Realm, other than Sheathed Man and his bloodlust techniques, for which he had to find a different way to practice.
'I might be able to fight Miles on equal grounds now.'
Ken thought to himself with satisfaction. Even if his raw power couldn't match with Miles', his techniques were superior. He estimated that Miles' mastery of his techniques should also be in the Big Success mastery realm, and probably not all of them.
'Now time to increase my core's power.'
Ken returned to his house that day to resume his cultivation. For 3 months, he sat 16 hours straight every day and absorbed Qi into his core, taking breaks only to eat and sleep.
Miles made sure to leave enough food for the day outside his door, and Ken took it in the morning before going back to his cultivation.
'Finally, I'm ready to break through to the next substage.'
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