Five Forms of Momo's Cultivation

Despite Cifer's loss to Sana, the degree to which he had been able to fight her and the domineering ease with which he had beaten both Kaito and Taichi had left a deep impression on everyone who watched. Including Deacon Gorou, who declared that Cifer had earned the full points despite the loss as the fight with Sana had actually been the 4th fight and wasn't included in the entrance exam.

Because of Cifer's condition and his flying colors pass, Deacon Gorou took him to be treated, along with Kaito who had not been able to handle his own injuries with meditation and recuperative Cultivation. He returned after a quarter of an hour to resume conducting the other entrance exam.

Which meant that it was Momo's turn for the combat portion of the exam. Having watched closely, Momo had a pretty good understanding of just how strong Cifer was compared to her forms. It was exceedingly clear that she would be crushed if she fought him with her weakest state, but Momo had 5 states in which she could fight.

She mentally reviewed the approximate level of each of her forms compared to Cifer and the people he'd fought. She'd had the time to consider it carefully while Deacon Gorou was gone, and had the intention of controlling the show perfectly.

Her Tyranny form was the weakest. None of her other Cultivations would be accounted for when she used this form in battle, meaning it actually had the strength common to a Intermediate Broken Origination. Kaito could beat her if she insisted on using only this form right now.

In Momo's Famine form she had the combined strength of her Tyranny and Famine Cultivations, which resulted in a massive boost. In reaching Intermediate Stage Momo had crossed through Inital, Early, Beginner and finally was in Intermediate. Stacking those on top of her current progress would mean breaking through Intermediate, Advanced and pushing the very limits of Transformation. Momo estimated that as of now she'd probably be stronger than Cifer using this form, but still weaker than Taichi. The reason that Taichi had suffered so brutally was simply that Child's Fist was vastly superior to Death Palm, and not because Taichi himself was weak.

If Momo chose to make use of her War form she'd possess the strength of three Cultivations. There was a void between Broken and Bottom tier that required some of her progress to fill, but Momo had 3 Stages of Cultivation to handle that task. This allowed her War form to come out around an Inital Bottom Origination in the end. Stronger than Sana in terms of pure, raw physical capabilities, but not strong enough to actually win against the genius's many Techniques in a fight. Not even close to being enough if Momo were to say it clearly.

Death was the last of the Horses given to her by the Ring of the Horses, and the strongest of her additional Cultivations since it used all the preceding forms as well. That meant Momo could use 4 of her 5 Cultivations layer together in this form. With the larger gaps in strength that a Bottom Origination had between Stages, Momo only made it from weaker Initial Bottom Origination in her War form to a powerful Beginner Bottom Origination in her Death form. At this level Momo believed she could bully Sana with her Cultivation, leaving no chance at all to her.

Her original Mercy cultivation had the strength of its own Cultivation in addition to the strength that she has in her Death form. It was in a very real way her true form and was by far the strongest with all five layered Cultivations. This built up, to her now shocked realization, to mean she had strength that was awkwardly between Advanced and Transformation Bottom Origination when she used everything she had. True, she didn't have Techniques that matched so the strength she could showcase was more limited and she'd absolutely lose to any actual Advanced Bottom Origination as a result.

But she should have the speed, strength, toughness and senses of nearly a Transformation Bottom Origination if she held nothing back, and that would be enough for her to OHKO somebody like Sana. Enough to potentially best a human Cultivator who was Intermediate Bottom Origination, an entire Tier above her Cultivation level!

Now Momo had to decide which of these forms to use in her own fighting in order to earn a pass into the Skull Sect without tipping her hand. After all, without knowing that she was hiding a secret every bit as huge as Cifer's Striped Green Manifestation, who would really believe that a girl with a Sky Blue Manifestation and such low progress for her age was actually strong enough to fight evenly with people who were an entire Tier above her?

Even a super genius like Cifer couldn't do that! Revealing too much of Momo's abilities would screw them over just as bad or worse than revealing too much of Cifer's real Potential. With that in mind, Momo decided to use her War form to fight.

She wouldn't have Cifer's insanely strong Technique, or any unarmed Techniques other than the Bull's Rush she was just studying. But with a much better all around physical ability Momo could rely on the power of her body to dominate three fights without getting herself targeted to much. Especially since she would control her strength carefully.

After all, she thought as she walked onto the arena, she didn't want the spotlight. Only to stand in Cifer's shadow and keep him safe until they were strong enough to reveal their true strength. It was just that in order to do that she had to win enough to hold onto him and get into the Skull Sect herself.