Second stage of qi condensation

Bai Yun knew from the beginning that he had no chance in hell of defeating the grey rock python. His energy reserves were low and none of his attacks were powerful enough to break the toughness of the python's scales.

Bai Yun had only two attacking moves he could deploy, Moonlight Sword and the Lions Roar. He had only mastered the first movement of the Moonlight word, while the Lions roar only had one punch. But the first movement of the Moonlight sword focused on speed and did not have much strength. On the other hand, the Lion's Roar got stronger and more explosive the more qi was added to it.

Bai Yun also knew that even if used all the energy in his qi spiral to launch lions roar, it would still not be enough. It would only hurt the python and not kill it. He also knew just how strong the scales of a grey rock python was. The only way to hurt the python was if he could somehow destroy some of the scales of the python.

Thus from the moment the fight began Bai Yun had two objectives, get strong enough to kill the python, and destroy some of its scales. The power of the Lion's roar was too dispersed, and straight forward, that he couldn't use it destroy the scales. The only way to kill it was by using a huge amount of qi, which he had to get his hands on. Then he also had to dislodge the scales.

His chances of running away on a wounded leg was next to impossible. He knew that victory was impossible even with his current strength. He needed more strength. And thankfully he was near a bottleneck in two of his cultivation paths. He also had the body fruit in his hands. But skin sewing took time, and couldn't be completed in a short while in the middle of battle. His only option was to get his hands on the qi fruit and use its strength to break through.

So Bai Yun made a plan even before he moved. The first thing he did was to send a tendril of his soul out and carefully allow it to approach the qi fruit. Then he made sure that the attention of the python was always on him and that the soul tendril was completely hidden.

When his soul tendril wrapped around the qi fruit, he knew that he had to do everything in his power to create a distraction. The grey rock python was a superior breed. It would notice if the qi fruit went missing. He also knew that if he got his hands on the qi fruit, the grey rock python would stop looking down at him.

So he had to distract it. And at the same time weaken it. So Bai Yun staked everything he had, and struck at the same point in the python's forehead with a tremendous force, at the intersection of three scales. But the result of this attack only broke three scales and bled the python a little. As the python was angered, Bai Yun quietly pluck the qi fruit and dropped it to the ground, a little far from him. If he had sent it flying towards him, the python would have noticed it and intercepted. Thus he used the python's attack to fly towards the fruit, and used the soul tendril to move it the final short distance to his hand.

The grey rock python was stunned. It turned to stare at the mutant weed in astonishment. Bai Yun's ankle had turned purple, and his head felt like someone was cutting into it. But he had no time to spare. He quickly ate the fruit while the python was distracted.

The python turned his head towards Bai Yun. The qi fruit turned into pure energy and flowed through him. He could feel a huge amount of power residing in him. Anyone else could only absorb as much as their body would allow them to and then let the rest of the energy flow out, letting a huge amount of the energy inside go to waste. But Bai Yun quickly used the god sense to trap as much of the power inside him as he could.

He allowed a part of the power to flow into his dantian, quickly replenishing his spend qi spiral. Once it was filled, he pumped more energy into it. He knew that with his leg being the way it was, he could not afford to move much. He quickly got into position, just as the python once again attacked him.

Bai Yun continued to send the python flying again and again, but this time adding some force to his strikes with qi. The qi spend was quickly replenished by the qi fruit. Soon a new rhythm of qi flow was set up inside his body, with the energy lost being replenished by the qi fruit.

Bai Yun could feel that the qi spiral in his dantian had been saturated, and he could feel it trembling, all signs of an impending breakthrough. During the breakthrough from the first qi stage to the second qi stage, the qi spiral would split up and give rise to two qi spirals.

The python stopped its attacks after figuring out that they weren't hurting him. As he watched, it slowly slithered towards him. Bai Yun instantly went on alert. He grit his teeth and once again send the power of all three soul tendrils into his sword.

The python struck forward with its mouth open. Bai Yun immediately used a ray of moonlight and struck at the place where the scales of the snake had been dislodged.

Just as his sword was about to hit its forehead, the snake turned its head away, and used the force of the sword to forcibly bend its body. As the snake turned, its tail lashed at Bai Yun. His eyed narrowed into tiny slits.

The most dangerous body part of the grey rock python was its tail. It contained a huge number of muscles, and the snake could use it to launch a terrifying attack that could crunch the bones of body tempering practitioners at the same cultivation level. Bai Yun knew that without enough energy to activate the false armor, there was a good chance that he would be severely injured, and soon after that, dead.

Seeing no chance to dodge, and his sword not having enough force to stop it, using his left hand Bai Yun immediately launched Lions Roar with every drop of qi he had. A pale yellow glow covered his left hand. The glow was barely visible, almost transparent. A moment later, his hand collided with the snakes tail.

While attacking, Bai Yun had launched backwards. The moment that his attack connected, a loud snap could be heard. Bai Yun found himself flying backwards quite far. He checked his left arm with his god sense. There were tiny cracks in every single bone in his body. Bai Yun knew that the only reason none of his bones had broken completely, was because he had distributed the strength of the attack evenly across his entire arm.

Just as he was about to curse out loud, he felt a snap coming from his dantian. His qi spiral had split. He had reached the second stage of qi condensation. Bai Yun quickly send all the energy the qi whirlpool could handle without rupturing into it.

Bai Yun landed on the ground and he used the power of the three soul tendrils in order to stabilize himself quickly. The python did not dawdle about this time, and had come chasing after him.

Sending all his energy into his right hand once again, Bai Yun thrust his sword at the python.

The python was mere inches away, it saw the sword coming towards him and used the side of its head to hit it away. The moment it did so the python realized its mistake. There was no power behind the sword. It had already left Bai Yun's hand and was now simply gliding past the pythons head, obstructing its vision.

A second later the sword passed by it, and what greeted it was the sight of a fist covered in a yellow glow.

The yellow glow, was different from the previous time. Even though it was nearly the same size as the last time, it was no longer spherical. The front of the glow was flatter, while its sides protruded out a bit.

Bai Yun had used the Lion's Roar with everything he had. His hand was clenched in a fist with his middle finger protruding out a bit. As he thrust his fist outward, two of his soul tendrils as well as much of the qi he could gather was firmly located in the protruding point of his middle finger. His third soul tendril was firmly locked onto the exposed skin on the python's forehead.

In an instant, his hand collided with the forehead of the python. He felt as if he had punched a steel plate. His middle finger had landed on the exposed skin, and perfectly went through it. His fist ripped the skin apart and quickly went through the skull and into the brain.

A moment later a scream could be heard coming from the clearing. It sounded as if it was coming from the depths of hell.

Bai Yun was lying on the floor. His entire body was a mess. He was struck by the backlash of his attack as well as the dying thrashes of the grey rock python.

His left ankle was throbbing in a painful purplish hue. The bones of his left arm had many breaks in them. His eyes were completely red and even had a few blood vessels ruptured. His muscles and veins were squirming like worms. A trail of bool could be seen at the corner of his mouth. His organs were shivering. His right hand had broken in many places. It was covered in blood. A few scales could be seen pierced into his hand. He could sense that one of his soul tendrils had been damaged slightly.

Bai Yun sat up with a frown. He had won and lived. But he knew that this was mostly due to luck, and the python underestimating him, as well as not changing its strategy quickly. He send the rest of the energy left in the qi fruit to his dantian, filling it halfway. He slowly sat up, vomiting a final bit of blood. After he put his sword back into his storage ring, it was too painful to hold, he walked towards the python.

Just as he was about bend over and touch the python, he felt his god sense scream danger. Not having any strength left, and his perception left barely flickering, Bai Yun simply let himself go and allowed gravity to do his work for him in getting him out of harms way.

Bai Yun hit the ground face first. Adding on to all the injuries he had, he felt pain shoot through his entire body startling him awake, yet left him wishing he had passed out.

As he fell, he felt a sharp object fly past his body. He knew that it was a dagger, and that someone had ambushed him in his weakest moment. So he knew that this wasn't the time to faint. Enduring the pain, he turned his head, and looked at the direction the dagger had come from.

The next instant a rage he rarely felt flooded his body.

Standing with his arm outstretched in a throwing pose, with a disbelieving look on his face was Bai Shan.