"As someone willing to abandon your friends at the drop of a hat, doesn't do much to increase my trust in you. Regardless, working with you should have some benefits." Martial Silver Thunder mused to himself.
He was interested in what kind of challenge Yoze would place upon him, was it going to be a battle of wit, knowledge, taking one of his attacks, or doing something to gain his trust?
"That's fine that you don't trust me much, I don't trust you at all either. If you weren't a Martial Grandmaster I would have killed you a long time ago." Playing up his role as a ruthless man, Yoze simply told the truth.
If Martial Silver Thunder wasn't a Martial Grandmaster who is incredibly good at martial arts and could be a great practice partner Yoze would have killed him as soon as he got in his way. He wouldn't have even bothered to learn his identity just like how he bulldozed through those five Tree Sect Blood Masters.
The Tree Sect Blood Masters were strong but at the end of the day they were still Blood Masters and he could have easily killed them with a single finger. However, they still have a good possibility that they have great talents that he would like to copy which was why Yoze didn't end up killing them after they fell unconscious.
If Martial Silver Thunder wasn't the first Martial Grandmaster that Yoze had met and wasn't strong. What happened to those five would have been what happened to him. Even if Martial Silver Thunder was as strong as a Martial Grandmaster, he wouldn't have been so reluctant to use his spiritual energy.
However, while Yoze was telling the truth, Martial Silver Thunder wasn't bothered by what he said. Instead, he fully believes that Yoze meant what he said because he would have done the same thing if Yoze was any weaker than he was right now.
"Okay stop trying to act tough and tell me this challenge so I can prove myself and we can begin working together." Martial Silver Thunder said.
"It's quite simple, we will resume our fight from earlier if you can defeat me then that is all the proof you need." Yoze smiled under his helmet as he watched Martial Silver Thunder immediately turn into a pillar of white light as soon as he finished speaking.
Without having to think at all, Yoze dodged Martial Silver Thunder's rapid attacks that filled his vision with white bolts of lightning. The deep crackle of electricity made Yoze excited as he finally found his chance to strike.
Clenching his hand around his sword, Yoze slashed at Martial Silver Thunder's neck, cutting it right open. The slash was so fast and clean that not even a single drop of blood got stuck on the blade.
This successful strike should have ended the fight immediately with Yoze as the winner. But not only did he not feel like he won, he instead felt uneasy as everything seemed too easy.
It was like he wasn't fighting Martial Silver Thunder but a weak clone of him. With this odd feeling and noticing that Martial Silver Thunder was simply ignoring the cut on his neck and continued to act as if he was never cut.
"I didn't even cut him. Something is wrong with my senses."
Noticing that something was wrong wondered if there was something wrong with his senses as he had felt the sensation of cutting through flesh.
In an attempt to figure out if his senses were truly tempered, Yoze focused on Martial Silver Thunder's spiritual energy and noticed that at some point his spiritual energy had been transferred into one of the dozens of spear attacks that was covered in thick white lightning.
"Found you,"
Yoze's eyes immediately turned toward a thunderbolt that had a Green Thunder Cloud floating above it and attacked it ignoring the others. The full-powered slash of the Armored Swordsman Slash drew up a windstorm that threatened to tear the thunderbolt to shreds.
"Clang! Boom!"
The moment the sword touched the thunderbolt the loud clang of metal colluding with metal erupted before being overpowered by the explosion that came from their powerful attacks. The force of the explosion was so powerful that it sent Yoze and the Thunderbolt flying in opposite directions.
As Yoze was flying in the air, his eyes glowed with colorful lights, as he landed on the ground safely. By the time he recovered, he saw that Martial Silver Thunder had recovered and was looking at him with surprise.
"You are extremely powerful, that strike alone could have killed the majority of Martial Grandmasters if they were not guarding themselves." Martial Silver Thunder's murky white eyes smiled as he complimented Yoze.
"But your technique is just too poor. Are you even trying? How could you use a martial art that hasn't even reached the Blood Master level to challenge a Martial Grandmaster?"
"Anyways, that's enough playing around. I'm going to use everything I got so be careful not to die." Martial Silver Thunder lightly tapped the ground with his spear five times.
With each tap, thick silver lights exited Martial Silver Thunder's heart and entered his silver spear before heading straight into the earth. After all five taps were done Martial Silver Thunder grabbed his spear with two hands and use the same silver light to completely cover his spear.
"What is this energy that Martial Silver Thunder is releasing in such large quantities? It seems familiar. It must be his inner vigor but I didn't know Inner vigor could act so freely outside of the body." Yoze's mind spun as the revelation that inner vigor could leave the body cleared up many things in his mind.
Memories of him walking through Jade City's martial courtyard quickly flashed by as countless books of martial body cultivation manuals that seemed to have magical effects seemed more reasonable and were giving hints of what a martial artist could accomplish when taking to the limit.
"Solar Illusion Set, this complete martial arts technique set has three Fists techniques, one leg technique, and force distribution techniques. Once users master all techniques in the set they will be able to form life-like after images with just pure speed."
When Yoze remembered the solar Illusion Set that claimed to have the ability to make the users do so fast that they could form life-like afterimages he felt that he could predict what that set of martial arts could do once taken to the limit. Once used and practiced by a Martial Grandmaster it might be able to allow them to make clones out of inner vigor.
His mind was combining multiple concepts, sightings, books, and experiences to form the idea that all martial art body methods lead to the user eventually using inner vigor outside of their bodies. The martial artist realm is what starts the production of inner vigor and creates a solid foundation for the Blood Master realm.
During the Blood Master stage people will integrate their inner vigor into their blood which they could use as a medium to use their inner vigor outside. The Tree Sect was the most prominent in Yoze's mind as they were able to create this mystical trap with just their Inner vigor controlling their blood.
However in the end using your blood to hold your inner vigor and use that to fight wasn't a good idea against peers and stronger opponents. Just like what happened with the Tree Sect members due to not being able to retract their blood in time they ended up falling into a deep unconscious state.
From what Yoze could tell from his brief encounter with Martial Silver Thunder, it seems that the next step was to bring Inner Vigor outside of the body. It was almost as magical as crystal energy or spiritual energy.
It could be possible that in the future or at higher levels inner vigor would be just as magical as crystal energy and spiritual energy. However, Yoze wasn't able to think further as the ground below him began to shake as a deep rumble came from the earth.
"Rumbling"
The deep rumbling coming from the earth reminded Yoze of a sleeping giant in the earth's core that was beginning to wake up. The earthquake became worse with time as everything began to shake, from the sheer scale of the earthquake Yoze was worried that it would be something he wouldn't be able to handle.
He wasn't someone who liked to stand idly doing nothing so Yoze took the initiative and launched dozens of slashes at Martial Silver thunder who simply blocked or dodged every single one of his attacks with ease.
"Ding Ding Ding"
Each slash of his sword was met with a spear attack that sent electric shocks into his arms causing a numbing sensation to spread across his arms and chest. Even though Yoze seemed to be in a disadvantaged position he wasn't feeling anxious but felt thrilled.
With every hit could feel himself improving his combat skill and his Armored Swordsman Slash and Shuffle were rapidly improving at the same time. He started to adapt to the electric shocks and the numbing sensation was slightly relieved.
An hour passed by quickly as the rumbling had grown to an unbelievable state of electric lines coming out of the ground an inch thick. Each one of these electric lines could have stopped the heart of any animal but Yoze was experiencing the shock equivalent to 10 of those at a time and was able to continue to fight.
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