Three Percent

Xin Minxia had been the first person alive to master the three thousand scrolls of the Ashen Flange clan special techniques, the two thousand scrolls of the Ashen Flame clan history, and the one thousand scrolls of the Ashen Flame's connections to other sects and clans. But never, never in her eighty eight seasons of life had she ever set her eyes on this particular scroll. Lee Chun Hua raised a brow in confusion, then chuckled wryly and fiddled with her long hair.

"Uh, it's kind of an odd story?"

***

_zing_ zing_

Flashes of silver cut through the air in sharp and quick intervals. Wooden heads, splinters, and sweat flew around the room as Chun Hua increased her speed even more. It is said that one levels up an ability by overusing it, and the black haired jade beauty was planning on doing just that. Her arms moved faster, her hair flew higher, her body was thrown around farther with each strike, and the flashing of the silver blade became much more regular. She was moving so fast, that calling her a blur was a severe understatement. So fast, that even the sound of metal cutting through the air could not be heard anymore. She had passed the sound barrier, and only her hard breathing and her light footsteps could barely be heard. However, she was not satisfied.

"I have to move faster!"

Her arms were basically rolling freely in her sockets by now, as she had far crossed the boundary of human limitations, yet she forced herself to do more.

"Faster!"

Her current speed was no joke, even among the thousand season old elders, and the haughty sect heads.

"Faster!!!"

At this point, even gravity could not hold her down, as she lightly began to hover a few feet off the ground. The sword in her hand was moving so fast, that she herself could not even see it anymore.

"FASTER!!!"

However, at this point, going any faster would mean breaking the barriers of space and time. The female human cultivator at the early stage of the Qi reinforcement realm was by no means ready to slow down, but the Demon Level weapon in her hands could not bear it any longer. The fearsome katana she welded was created from the essence of a demon level beast capable of destroying empires, but even it could not handle the vicious power of a cultivator of the Qi reinforcement realm. No, it wasn't that it could not handle a person at the Qi reinforcement realm. Instead, the issue was that it could not handle this Chun Hua to be exact. The sword gave in, and its shattered blade flew out of her hand far faster than a sniper could shoot. Every thing it whizzed past in the large dojo was swiftly destroyed, and it landed on the wall opposite her.

"Damn it. That sword is too weak.."

"That's a demon level sword!"

"I know. You really ought to get better gear if you want to survive the Imperial bastard's trial something."

"Alright, that's the last time I'm letting you out."

A golden light glowed in her eyes for a second, and the malicious, bloodthirsty aura permeating the room died down a bit. Chun Hua was powerful, yes. But when her soul was split, one side ended up getting more of the body's innate power than the other. The other side of her did not need to train, her body was more than capable of destroying empires by itself using only it's innate ability, and the other side of her was perfectly capable of harnessing that amazing innate ability. But she, she had to train hard each and every day. She had to train, because she was only gifted with 3% of her own capabilities. The more she trained, the stronger the body became, and the stronger the body became, the more powerful the innate ability grew.

She had let her other side out, to see the full capability of her own body. The result was shocking, to say the least, but all it did was to inspire her the more. If her body was already capable of doing it at a hundred percent, then all it would take was a whole lot of hard work to be able to do the same thing at three percent, right? Of course, she could just merge together with her other persona, but that would make a calamity descend on the world, that humans were not yet ready for. The power her body held, if in the hands of someone like her other side, would spell doom for everything alive.

Anyways, she had practiced at her meagre three percent innate ability for a very long time after that, inspired by the amazing prowess of her other side, and soon she dropped on the floor, panting hard.

_huff_ huff_

The Imperial Sky Emperor's trial was not child's play, and she would need to get infinitely stronger before then. She staggered tipsily to her feet, her eyes bloodshot from the speed at which her body had been moving, buy she still had a smile on her face. Even though she did not surpass the absolute reach of gravity and levitate off the ground using her speed only, she had nonstop. to surpass the sound barrier.

"I tried my best, but that does not mean that I failed."

She was still alive, was she not? As long as she could breathe, then she would be able to perform at her best, even being under the restraint of using only three percent of her innate ability. She walked over to the sword blade stuck in the ten foot deep stone wall, and let out a deep sigh.

"Someday, I'm going to be this strong..."

"Ha, in your dreams-"

"Shut up!"

Her other side had been a lot more talkative in the past few days, and took every opportunity to either plead for her freedom, threaten to take over the body someday and lay waste to the world, or taunt her nonstop. The echo from her voice shook the already cracked wall, and the large stones soon fell one by one, revealing a secret room filled with hundreds of old scrolls.