42 Show and Tell Part 3

"It's your turn now Ye Xiu." San Guo gestured for Ye Xiu to step forward so that he could demonstrate his abilities just as his friends had before him.

Ye Xiu was in deep thought because he knew that if his techniques didn't impress San Guo he'd probably be in for a beating. The knowledge of the bloodlines gave him a nasty shock because he didn't think that there would be so many benefits from having a bloodline in the first place.

He was still curious as to why his Master didn't bother to put that information down but he can't blame him. His master can't think of everything or maybe it was because his Master had thought it was common knowledge just like San Guo said it was for him. He was calming himself down before his showcase so that he could do his best to impress San Guo.

After he took in several deep breaths, he proceeded to run forward at San Guo. He was planning to catch him off-guard with something that nobody else had done in the fights previously because they didn't use the weapons he did. As he neared closer towards San Guo he took out his whip from his dimensional storage and whipped it out to catch San Guo's legs.

The speed of the whip was slow with the gravity bearing down onto it. Ye Xiu's training under high gravity environments had allowed him to attack at fast speeds with his whip but the gravity slowed it down tremendously. San Guo jumped up to dodge the whip but Ye Xiu had it follow him closely and managed to wrap it around his ankle. Ye Xiu pulled on the whip so that San Guo would be closer to him before taking out his katana out of the sheath for a quick slash.

His slash was relatively fast after years of training in iaido starting from when he first picked up the katana and until now under high gravity environments which helped him improve in his iaido technique. The speed that the katana closed in toward San Guo was fast but he was still not panicking. With a smooth swipe of his hand, he had stopped the advance of the sword and he was able to push back on the sword to flip himself backwards away from Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu was confused as to what had happened so he backed off and turned on his observation technique to see the situation. He noticed a white vertical line the length of the distance that San Guo's hand had travelled. Ye Xiu concluded that it was some technique of his to stop the attack from going through.

Whilst he was observing the fading vestiges of San Guo's technique, San Guo had managed to retrieve his wooden stick from where Shi Die had flung it to. He was approaching Ye Xiu at the speed that Shi Die had attacked him with and was about to attack when Ye Xiu looked up from his observation before raising his katana to block the incoming overhead strike from San Guo.

He used the basics of quarterstaff blocking a sword strike in this instance so that the force was distributed all along the katana. This meant his katana would take less damage and it would also prevent him from flying off if the attack was extremely powerful. This left him a chance to counter-attack by thrusting the katana into San Guo's stomach.

San Guo had fortified his clothes to be even sturdier than what Shi Die had managed to break through before, leaving the katana to bounce off when the attack met the cloth. Ye Xiu quickly manoeuvred out of San Guo's striking range with his 'Swallow Mirage Steps'. This allowed him to get out of range without San Guo being able to predict where he was going.

Ye Xiu brandished his whip in his left hand and swung it towards San Guo in a weird motion. The whip was constantly moving in different directions as San Guo dodged the whip from getting close to him. San Guo was intrigued with the whip's behaviour and was planning to ask Ye Xiu about it later.

San Guo tripped on a small hole that was on the ground which allowed the whip to catch up to him and wrap around him. The whip tightened and even through the fortified clothes, he could feel that the whip was constricting his movements and was breaking down the fortification on the clothes through unknown means. He dropped his stick so he was unable to use it to help him escape.

Ye Xiu was concentrating madly on the many Qi thorns that he had managed to form on the whip. His skill with the 'Thorny Rose Whip' was not great and he had a hard time forming and holding the Qi thorns from a far distance. Usually, his control under normal gravity would allow him to hold the amount of Qi thorns he had easily but here in a higher gravity zone, it was much harder because he sent his Qi at a much slower pace than usual.

San Guo tried to spin his way out of the constriction but only managed to make his defences get torn down at an even faster pace. Realising that the whip probably had abilities similar to thorns, spinning was a stupid idea on his part. Instead of forcing his way out he decided to come up with another method.

Whilst San Guo was thinking of a method, Ye Xiu let go of the whip and cut off part of the whip so that it could continue the constriction on San Guo. Putting his whip back into his dimensional storage, he arrived at the front of San Guo in a burst of speed due to his movement technique, 'Basilisk's gaze.'

With San Guo still trapped, he started to pour Qi into his katana so that he could use 'Solitary Stand.' The attack boosted his attacking power by twice his usual strength and would be considered a finishing attack due to how long it took him to activate and charge. 'Solitary Stand' was only the first attack of the 'Lonely Peak of Thirteen Dragons' technique and he had yet to even master it. To move onto the next attack, he would have to be able to use the first attack in an instant.

Ye Xiu used 'Solitary Stand' in conjunction with 'Tyrant's Physique' enhancing the strength of his arms. This would help him attack with higher strength and 'Solitary Stand' would boost that strength as well.

It took him three seconds to fully activate the technique and for San Guo, three seconds was enough for him to quickly come up with a plan to escape. As Ye Xiu's attacked neared him, he observed the areas on the body that the attack would hit and focused all his Qi into fortifying those areas. His plan was that instead of him doing anything to break free, he'd use Ye Xiu's attack to cut the whip whilst he took no damage. He knew that it would work since his strength was leagues above Ye Xiu's.

The attack hit the fortified areas as predicted by San Guo, allowing him to escape. With his arms free and the attack finished, San Guo enhanced the defences on his hand so that he could grasp onto the katana without injury. Doing exactly what Shi Die did, he flung the katana out of Ye Xiu's grasp so that he had no chance of getting it back.

He instantly pinned Ye Xiu down afterwards by the throat for a few seconds before letting go. "That was an admirable attempt but when you ask an observer how it went, they'd probably say it was horrendous. They were many good things I can say that you did well in that fight but many mistakes as well."

"You managed to do well by trying to get out of the way once you immediately noticed the attack had failed. You thought of restricting my movements at first before you struck was smart because most opponents rely on their legs to evade most attacks instead of taking hits straight on. Going with a quick strike of your katana afterwards was smart too because they would have no time to erect their defences to block the attack."

"Your speed with your katana was fast even under a high gravity zone which I have to appreciate. Your body isn't as terrible as I thought it was but it could definitely be better. The attack would've definitely worked on those with a lower cultivation than the third realm because they would be unable to use only their Qi to block an attack. Most people at that stage can use their Qi for defences."

"You might think it's weird for us to know how to attack with our Qi before defending with it but it isn't that strange. Most attacks with Qi is just releasing the energy to injure an enemy whilst some do have a physical solid form to do damage. That swipe of my hand was an advanced technique that you won't have to worry about for years to come because it requires years of training to get a solid form like that."

"With good enough Qi control, you'd be able to make it invisible so that your enemies are caught off-guard if they are unable to see or sense it. The same goes for invisible attacks, which is why being able to observe the movement of Qi in your opponents is very useful. I personally can't do it that well but I am able to sense the Qi well enough for me to dodge most attacks."

"Your thorns on the whip were a smart move to stop me from escaping and to shred through my defences at the same time. If they had a physical form, the damage would've been disastrous. I was lucky that you can only use the Qi to shape it into thorns to deal damage to things which contain Qi. This is damaging enough so it's definitely useful."

"The movement techniques that utilised should be continued to be practised because they are very good. I can't say anything about flaws in them because the execution made me unable to see any weaknesses in them. Your usage of the techniques was smart to use them in different situations. One to escape and dodge whilst the other to close the distance."

"The final part of the battle had the most flaws. You managed to make a small pothole so that I would trip and then used to your advantage to trap me. You probably used your whip to make that hole as it was chasing me right? I'm definitely interested in how you managed to make your whip move so weirdly but that can be your secret. That was definitely something that would catch a lot of people if their evasive skills were any poorer."

"Your final attack took too long to charge and if it was in a real battle, a person would've taken that time to get out already. If you plan to use that final attack again, I'd expect you to manage to get the activation time to down to one second at maximum. Next, you shouldn't have even been attacking from close range. You had me trapped there and you should've continued to use your whip to wear me down. I was still able to put Qi to fortify my clothes if I had to so you should've just been whittling me down instead."

San Guo took a deep breath and sighed before speaking again. "Anyway good job, tell me what other things you know so that I can come up with a training plan later."

Ye Xiu was internally sweating from the harsh beratement of his decisions but tried his best to speak anyway. "I'm a rank 2 Alchemist just like Shang Yang but in a week's time, I'll be taking the rank 3 examination which is why I asked for that week of training to prepare for it. I'm the best out of the entire group when it comes to Qi control, I'm also a rank 1 Smith but definitely nowhere as good as Xiao Tu is."

"I've another whip style that I could've used against you instead of charging at you but I forgot about it." He started to scratch his head in embarrassment. "Besides that, I don't really have many other notable skills beside my eidetic memory."

San Guo sighed. "Instead of having everyone tell each other their weaknesses now. Reflect on what happened today and we'll convene with each other once Ye Xiu has finished his examination. By the way, Ye Xiu I need you to come with me so I can awaken your bloodline. The rest of you just go rest for now."

San Guo led Ye Xiu away to his office.