Seeing how she looked both brilliant like sunshine, yet also seemed to be a little girl with a broken heart, I was unable to say anything at all, I was caught completely off guard just now, the passage had been blocked, the girls' brother kept on yelling for her from the other side .
It seem that the guards or whatever their job was kept on trying to pull him out of this place, his yelling kept getting further and further away, until it had finally and completely disappeared, whether because he was pulled far away successfully, or the ruckus that kept falling cut his voice short .
In the end, all that I was left with was the girl who were starting to cry and a situation that was already on the verge of exploding, I wasn't able to say anything comforting, cause all that I was forced to focus on was charging a stronger strike that should allow us to survive the next barrage of attacks .
The shockwave from before was already a warning that the next barrage of attacks was coming, now with all that had happened and was how shaky the cave had become, it was clear that the next barrage of attacks will be as stronger as the one that left this place become a purgatory .
" Stay close behind me, okay, can you hear me .
The little girl who had now collapsed on the floor had completely lost all her senses, she sat there blankly staring at me, so I already seeing that she was unable to respond, had to find a way to reach her, but no matter how I tried to do so, I found that she was completely unresponsive, if not for her faint breathing sounds in the silent here, I would really think that she was a corpse .
As I was trying to think of a way to make her respond to me an energy blade was shot vertically towards us, a Horizontal energy blade was coming at us, I couldn't help but wonder if that Feather had some conscious, this attack was too much of a coincidence .
Seeing the incoming finishing blow, the blade was cutting through air while barely gliding atop the cave, if one were to jump, he might actually be able to evade it cleanly, at least that what the situation made it look like, but jumping was not that much of an issue, the issue lied in the fact that to jump, one would need to get close to it first .
Once I get close to those energy blades they will locked the air around me, then I would be at most able to get slightly less injured than before, now that my Flesh had thickened more after the breakthrough, but that wasn't an option now, due to the burden that I now was forced to carry .
I'm not sure why did she did that and why she said what she said, all I'm certain of was that I can't leave her to die here like this, I guess at some point I would have needed to use that anyway, I guess .
The reason to why the book Tiger's Force was so big was because it contained a thoroughly explanation about the fundamental nature of that strange force and how that energy moved inside the body and affected the world around it, the book also contained notes on how to use Crouching Tiger and Charging Tiger together to maximize the effectiveness of these movements skills .
The Tiger's Force booklet was an Internal Martial Art Technique, the weird Force that Dragon-Tiger Transformation was mentioned at the booklet but it was vaguely mentioned as a seed of some sort, the book also gave a glimpse of what I can do after practicing that Tiger's Force to the Great Success and how to achieve that quickly .
The whole 3 Martial Arts actually work together to achieve one thing, nurturing that weird seed inside my Dantian, the dangers of practicing this technique actually led to severe consequences like getting crippled instantly and death was even gave as a concern for those who practice this method .
What made me took over an hour before I finally manage to inscribe every words in that book was the weird state of concentration I achieved, otherwise I believed that it might have taken me an extended period of time before managing to succeed .
The gains that I already got this time, should allow me to deal with the situation with quite ease, the only issue appeared when a new variable was introduced, the stubbornness of that girl, made me uncertain whether should I use what I think had mastered after finishing that book, or should I act more cautious around her .
But now that we were in such a tight situation, I through all the caution I had out of the window in my mind, I decided that to survive today, it shouldn't be an issue for her to see some of my secrets, I wasn't cruel enough to let her die, not to mention that was her current Mental state, I doubt that she might be able to recall anything that happens here .
The energy blade was closing on us, I put her on my back and marched towards the Energy blade, completely discarding my initial plan of meeting it head on, I now planned to evade as much of those blades as possible first, then after parrying all of them, I will see my chances of acquiring that weird Feather .
Crouching Tiger won't do alone, Gliding Swallow won't be any different, Charging Tiger alone can't enable me to do it cleanly also, but all the three together, they should be enough to create miracles, normally using different skills required different circulation pathways of Blood Qi .
Shifting between one skill and another required acute control and understanding of the skills I'm using and my own Blood Qi, any mistake could lead to me getting severe injures on my internal organs, ones that would take years to heal without consuming medicine and months even with medicines .
But all that didn't matter to me in the slightest, the effect I desire would be the effect that will appear, thanks to the Panel, all the worries about slight mistakes disturbing the process were vanquished .
Using Crouching Tiger allowed me to cover the distance I needed and gather enough momentum to then use Gliding Swallow to propel myself off the ground, this was an indication of Gliding Swallow reaching Great Success realm, just slightly before the blade lock on me, allowing me to pass it by a hair distance .
As for the need to mention Charging Tiger, it had the most important role in all of this situation, the leading role, as expected just as I propelled myself with enough speed and momentum, I managed to evade getting hit by one of the energy blades that was aimed at me, then came the barrage of attacks, vertical energy slash came right after I evaded the first one .
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Urging my Blood Qi and switching to use Charging Tiger, resulted in all kind of notifications suddenly going off in my mind, I wasn't clear about what the content of these notifications were, all I was sure off was that the Panel hadn't let me down .
The Charging Tiger allowed me to kick the air beneath me one time, a way to maneuver in the air, a way to evad the onslaught of this barrage of attacks I was under, a certain method that should allow me and the girl on my back to survive .
Shuttling from one side to another, repeating the process for who knows how long, I kept on evading every blade that came towards me, but I was still get hit by a few blades that bounced off the walls, but thankfully these attacks already lost a considerable amount of power, which did some damage to me but thanks to the sense of pain nullification that my Mental Energy and my current situation blessed me with, through gritted teeth I still prevailed .
The bounced off blades all came towards my back, their target would have been the girl behind me, I had some evil thoughts that assaulted me during these moments, these evil thoughts were telling me that my chances of surviving would increase, if I were to just let her get to shield the blow for me, but I couldn't help but recall the stronger enemies that might be waiting for Zi Xue .
If they came for her while I was present, should I just let go of her then too, it would indeed increase my chances of survival, the answer that I came to, was definitely not, I wasn't that kind of a guy who would just let other people suffer in my presence, not to mention the dear people to me, that's why I won't be failing to save this girl behind me no matter what happens .
The evil thoughts that I was suffering from, vanquished after the first deep cut that I got on my chest that went all the way to my stomach, before that bounced off attack would have at least broken a rib or two or even puncture a blood vessel, but other than a clear wound on the flesh, there was nothing else .
I survived the onslaught that carried on for 8 minutes straight, with my Blood Qi reserves, I completely ran out just as the barrage of attacks had finally came to a stop, I was unable to keep myself standing any longer, the strain I kept on feeling as I forced my body to move uncountable times had exploded suddenly, I found myself falling into the floor and no matter how hard I tried, I was mentally and physically exhausted and lost conscious .
After losing conscious, I was still able to feel that the weight on my back suddenly got lighter until I was no longer able to sense anything at all, after who knows how long, I hoped that I won't already be dead, I saw lights at the end of a tunnel and almost got jolted awake, but then my senses came back like a rushing wave and I felt my ears buzz with the familiar sounds of notifications going off .
Telling me that I was currently swallowing a Blood Qi Recovery Pill, but the feeling I got on my lips wasn't anything like that, it was the feeling of being kissed, thinking like that I was about to deal with it out of habit as nothing but a dream, but recalling what kind of situation I was, the sounds of notifications, last but not least who was still around me in the cave .
I forced myself to wake up and when I did, I saw the solemn filled with sadness auburn eyes from before, Ji Xi was crying and shedding tears as she kept apologizing over and over and over while also praying for my health and safety, her mask had already fallen off and I saw the ugly scar she supposedly tried to hide, it was weird how the scar made her look more charming to me .
It's strange how people tend to perceive beauty standards differently here and even back in my old world, the girl in front me looked like a mature beauty portraying untamed stubborn and compassionate maiden, one that could carry all the troubles of the world with nothing but a smile on her face .
Maybe I was just hallucinating due to just waking up, but I saw that her cheeks were now pink in color, her cherry lips also were weirdly moist, I couldn't help but recall what I felt before and surely she mustn't have done what I was thinking of, yes surely she mustn't have, wanting to get the truth out from her own mouth, I said :
" I'm alive, thank you for your prayers, but what did you gave me earlier .
The girl who heard this, suddenly beamed with happiness as she directly embraced me in a tight hug while continuing to apologize and saying things like :
I'm sorry for being nothing but a burden earlier, I hope you can forgive me, I'm happy that you have recovered, if you hadn't waken up, I might have buried myself here with you .
And other things that were almost identical to this and she kept repeating them on and on until I broke the hug and the stimulation that seemed to come to her after the hug was broken, finally made her come back to her senses .
She said that the had given me a few Blood Qi Recovery Pill, the Flesh Mending Powder which helped in mending my physical wounds, her face was getting more and more red, seeing her like this, I didn't grasp what she was flushing for until I saw the current state of my clothes, the taters left of it at least was still helping in preserving some of my dignity .
The girl clothes was fine, but the robe she wore could be said to be already revealing enough, I don't know what kind of standards did this world set for attires, but I thought that this might have been the reason to explain her weird reaction, that was at least what I kept on telling myself .
I had no idea regarding the girl's actions, I'm unable to think of anything to say and she already aware that I have already had someone special to me, so this must be dealt with as her just trying to save me and me become indebted to her and nothing more, right .
She no longer dared to look at me, so I too feeling the chilly wind here said :
" I will change to another set of clothes, don't turn around okay ? .
The girl weakly nodded her head and stood up and made a distance between us and kept staring at the ground, putting the matters that happened aside while changing, I was now glad that she at least returned to be a bit more cooperative, it would be too much of a trouble if she hadn't came back to her senses just now, I might have ended up dying here .
I'm able to tell that she had some troubles of her own, that time she lost all her senses before, could have been due to her being under so much stress, stress that was removed when she saw my state, for that I'm glad .
It wasn't without any gains, getting all those hits I mean, I may have already confirmed a crazy possibility of mine, the reason why my body wasn't severally injured before didn't merely lay in the fact that the power contained in the bounced off attacks was less dangerous, it was one of the reasons, yes, but the main reason was actually the intervention of Tiger's Force .
The attacks that hit me were turned into energy and like what happened with the green shards before and the wisps in the start, they were completely and thoroughly devoured by that strange force inside me .
The connection between the three Martial Arts couldn't have become any clearer to me, Dragon-Tiger Transformation had been active all this time, using the three methods together allowed me to actually have a slight ability to interact with that strange force .
That ball of light inside my Dantian, the seed was the energy that covered my body like an invisible armor just now, but different than Mental Energy, it was both visible and physical solid as well, but it didn't have much of defensive capabilities, all it have as I found out was the ability to eat the energy here to feed itself .
That connection I had made, would have costed me 10 years of lifespan, it wasn't by the the minute, but by the second that the 3 methods were running, Crouching Tiger had reached Great Success, Charging Tiger barely touched the threshold of the Small Success realm, Tiger's Force, well I believe that I'm now on the Great Success realm .
The last one was due to the fact that I made a slight weird connection with the seed inside me, to reach the perfect stage, I will need to actually keep nurturing the seed until it sprout, which should have been impossible due to the huge cost that came with keeping the three methods running at the same time .
But impossible for others seemed quite possible for me who had already achieved a lot of impossible things, with the information and notes acquired from that booklet, I should be able to make all the three methods achieve a breakthrough to the Perfect realm of mastery in the shortest period of time .
Here is the perfect place to nurture that seed, since it can absorb the power here, then when the connection I established with it become stronger due to achieving the Great Success realm at least with all the three, currently I was short of only one method, then I should be able to safely approach that Green Feather without feeling much threatened by the energy blades .
All I can do now is hope for my calculations to be correct, I still hadn't reached the situation where I can completely unlock the secret within these Martial Arts, but it should be more than enough to allow me to solve the troubles here, but I will need to be quick with my actions .
Swallowing another Azure Wood Pill, the aching in my body disappeared and I had finished putting a new set of clothes and saw that the girl who were standing like a statue began to quiver slightly, I thought something was wrong with here, so I called to her and said :
" I'm done, you can turn now .
But she didn't turn around, she just stretched her hand and said :
Couldyou please pass my mask to me ? .
So that was why she was acting like this all of a sudden, I bent down and saw that her mask was indeed next to me, I made the mask flew to her hand, but once she received it, I find myself saying :
" I'm not trying to impose my own opinions on you, but I do like how you looked without the mask on .
After saying this I directly sat cross-legged on the floor and started to try and improve my own Mastery over my skills, unaware that my words had kept on resonating in that girl's mind .
Just as I closed my eyes, I couldn't help but sense something was off with my body, what's with this weird but familiar feeling ? .