Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

Portals were dangerous. Going through a portal was different than getting moved by a Thunder Translocation Talisman. They just moved you across space at great speed with powerful magic, while stepping through a portal was a great risk. If the structure inside wasn’t reinforced and the other side wasn’t clear, you could literally end up in many different places at once. One piece here, one piece there, and some blood elsewhere.

It was a terrible way to go.

That was one of the reasons a Portal Nexus was so damn expensive to build. It was possibly the most expensive project a Sect could do. They were also weak points, that’s why they weren’t made inside the Sect. Any foe that got hold of the other side could send armies or weapons through and arrive at your doorstep in an instant.

That’s why they were also so well protected from outside attacks. They had to be guarded at all costs! Too bad Gerald came through before it was finished and destroyed the one of the Brilliant Sword Sect. Those guys were pissed!

But even after so many months, they didn’t yet know who was responsible. Though even if they didn’t know, many suspected the Myriad Beast Sect. They were enemies after all. Both Sects were old and constantly expanding. It wasn’t the first time the two engaged in bloody conflict over the decades. They just weren’t yet ready to declare a full-out war.

Not yet. But soon… maybe. They just needed to prepare. A few more decades perhaps. They could afford to wait that much.

Gerald trained with Shao Lin for two months already. About 70 days, or something like that.

To learn new moves, a person didn’t require much time. Most of what was learned happened in the first 24 hours. Now he was just honing his skills, getting used to the movements, and training his mind to become efficient and his body to move without thought.

Every split-second mattered in a high-intensity fight between Cultivators. A weird thing happened sometimes. He wasn’t yet quite sure how, but sometimes, when he was in the zone, time seemed to slow down, and he could more easily maneuver around Shao Lin’s golden arrows. He couldn’t willingly replicate it, but as he pushed himself, it began happening more and more.

It was a curious thing.

He rarely got hit anymore. Unless he went for a mutually assured strike, he could avoid all attacks. Unfortunately, his opponent had a close-range attack that somehow reminded him of a Rasengan, or magic similar to it.

It was a small ball of Qi that always ravaged his chest when it hit him. It tore his flesh and bones as if they were made of paper. He was certain that if he wasn’t so focused on defense, and had extreme regeneration capabilities, he would have died each and every time the attack touched him.

Shao Lin was truly a master of combat, and especially after breaking through to Golden Core Third Layer, his abilities improved drastically. Gerald thought he was closing the gap, and just when he thought he had him, the man jumped so far ahead that he once again struggled to keep up.

But that was back then. He could nearly touch him again. But he once again missed. The barrier a Golden Core Cultivator could create was no joke. If you knew how to use it, of course. Because some people had no clue how and would lose conviction as soon as it was struck a bit harder, letting it collapse.

He was sure that’s what happened against that group of four Cultivators. They had no clue how to use their powers, allowing him to prevail.

A stubborn attacker will always win against a frightened defender. That’s just how the world worked.

But what if the two were equally stubborn? Then they would clash until one of them eventually gave up due to exhaustion. And Shao Lin versus Gerald was exactly that. A battle until the end. A fight that Gerald always lost.

The first few dozen times were fine, but after achieving the same result over, and over, and over… It became a burning bonfire in his heart that urged him to strive for greatness. Some might find it hopeless and give up after so many repeated losses, but Gerald just used that as motivation to go even harder next time.

He couldn’t be hurt anymore anyway, not really, and so his fighting style changed to adapt to that fact. He became aggressive, fast, and full of explosive movements with limited care for breaking his own body. All that mattered was extreme power in search of victory.

Gerald grinned like mad as the golden claws on his hands came millimeters away from Shao Lin’s chest. He abandoned physical weapons long ago as they only served to hinder his movements. The ability to instantaneously conjure a weapon from his hand was much more useful than swinging a heavy metal blade around.

He was so close! Just another swipe…

Gerald’s claws extended as he brought his hand down at the opponent amid a victorious scream.

Shao Lin’s pupils shrunk as the golden blade reflected in his eyes.

A small circle flashed around his hand, and a ball of chaotic energy formed, bubbling unstably. He hastily lifted his hand to block, and as the two energies touched… Boom!

Chaotic annihilation blasted the two apart. Shao Lin landed on the ground gracefully while panting heavily. Despite the increase in Cultivation, his body wasn’t as fast to adapt and he realized that. He just needed a few seconds of respite to catch his breath to be able-

[Wooooooo!] Gerald roared as his hands and feet struck the ground as he galloped like a tiger across the arena, his eyes focused on a single target. He jumped. His golden claws extended.

“Shit!” Shao Lin’s heart skipped a beat. Sweat poured down his face and his Qi reserves were nearly empty. He was exhausted. The enemy was too close, his mad eyes lusting for his blood more than a deranged pervert lusting after a girl.

He was going to lose.

Never! Shao Lin’s Soul pulsed as the single thought echoed in his mind.

“Stop!” He roared.

Gerald completely froze mid-air and his bloodthirsty claws sailed harmlessly mere millimeters from Shao Lin’s neck as he went tumbling helplessly on the ground.

[Really?] Gerald grumbled as he stood back up after the momentary mind control was broken.

“Sorry, I… panicked.” Shao Lin gasped and collapsed to the ground.

[Giving up already?] Gerald questioned with a raised brow. Surely he was joking. He was just about to win too!

“Yes, I’m done. You win.” Having resorted to a mental attack, Shao Lin was truly on his last legs. He couldn’t take it anymore. As such, he admitted his own defeat.

[Just like that?] Gerald started at him wide-eyed in disbelief. [Maaaaaan… That’s no fun.] He really wanted to punch this guy at least once. Such a victory felt hollow.

“I can’t… I just can’t. I’m completely spent. How the hell do you still have the energy to fight?!”

[Eh…] Gerald shrugged his shoulders. It was funny how he actually enjoyed the thrill of battle. After his death, he thought the shadow in his heart would drag him down for the rest of his life. Instead, when it was finally gone after a few long months, he felt better than ever.

The fact that his survivability seemed almost infinite probably helped with that. As long as he didn’t do anything too stupid, he should be fine.

He took a few light steps and held out a hand to help his sparring partner back on his feet.

[Now that I beat you, it’s time for you to teach me that technique like you promised.]

“Which one?”

[The energy ball thingy.]

“Qi Blast? Did I really promise that?” Shao Lin asked with suspicion. “How come I don’t remember it?”

[It definitely happened! Would I have any reason to lie to you?] Gerald protested. It happened once after a long and hard fight when he kept bugging him to teach him the move that Shao Lin finally gave in and said he would do it after he beats him.

It might have been just to get Gerald to shut up, but a Cultivator’s word was his bond.

“Hmm… Alright, fine. Just… give me a moment to recover.”

I waited expectantly as I sat on the ground in the arena. Slowly but surely, Shao Lin’s Qi recovered as he absorbed it from the surrounding air.

It was so difficult to recharge higher grades of Qi compared to the base one. There you didn’t have to do a thing, just breathe and you would be recharged in mere moments. Well, for me at least. Now it took hours to do the same.

The main issue was that Base Qi had to be converted to Nascent Qi by the Soul, and depending on its strength and size, the process would vary greatly in speed. Mine was luckily on the large side and was excellent at its job, but I similarly had exceedingly large Qi stores, waiting to be replenished.

At least an hour or two had gone by before Shao Lin opened his eyes, seemingly somewhat refreshed.

“Alright. You ready?”

I excitedly cracked my knuckles. [Let’s go! I’ve been waiting so long for this.]

“Good. So, let’s begin by recapping Chaos Magic first…”

Chaos magic, also called Null magic by yours truly. It is the same thing only with a different name. I accidentally discovered it when messing around with magic in my early days. It is basically a chaotic mess of Qi that makes it difficult for spells to form, or if they already exist, they became unstable and collapse.

Chaos magic was actually a better name after all. Because it truly created chaos. If we imagine spells like different frequencies of Qi working together to transfer the information, aka the effect, then this form of magic is something akin to noise, or static.

It disrupts whatever is there.

Very simple concept, I had to admit. But just like the ratio between noise and signal was very important in electronics, it was the same here. If the two were on the same level, a spell made of Nascent Qi and Chaos magic of Nascent Qi, it would be difficult to tell who would win, though destroying was often times easier than creating.

Similarly trying to disrupt someone of a higher Realm was the most worthless thing one could do as it would have basically no effect. And it was the same in reverse. Trying to resist Chaos magic from someone in a higher Realm was suicide.

It was basically the reason Shao Lin’s Qi Blasts always took me down so easily. He made them from Chaos magic so they disabled all my defenses, leaving my body exposed. Once again, good thing I focused on defense so much. Basically, 75% of all Essence went to making my body tougher.

After refreshing the knowledge on Chaos magic, Shao Lin proceeded to explain all the steps required to form a ball of Qi that you could throw without it dissipating into nothing in mere moments.

You would think it’s easy to make a ball of Qi and just toss it, but nope. That’s Chaos magic we are talking about here. It is the most complicated, unstable, and dangerous way to make a Qi Blast.

But that’s exactly why we started with it. After mastering this, everything else should be easy peasy. I intently listened to his explanation for half an hour and made sure to remember all the needlessly complicated steps in building a sphere of Chaotic Qi.

Obviously, all of that had to be made in less than a second or the stuff would go haywire. And even after the final form was complete, the instability of the spell would guarantee for it to decay and collapse in ten seconds tops.

Did I mention that a sphere was apparently the easiest geometric shape to build? Maybe someone that was really good and had the patience of a saint could make a cube, but anything more would be just asking for trouble.

Making glyphs and Runes out of Chaos magic was basically suicide, and the least you could expect was to lose a finger or two when the thing inevitably exploded mid-creation.

So, yeah… I followed his instructions to the letter, and only a week later, I had a small, walnut-sized grayish-yellow sphere in my hand, flickering dangerously. I only blew up my hand once during the entire learning phase too. It was a great success!