Agile Illusion Art
Zue Yin hung around the Battle Temple, since she was curious to see how Yaan had improved in terms of his battle ability. She also knew that the rules for inheritor candidates were different from others, so she wouldn't need to wait for long, because anyone challenged by Yaan would be forced to battle immediately.
However, the moment she arrived in the seating area beside Yaan's battle podium…
"Ah, the inheritor candidate!"
"I surrender!"
"I surrender!"
"I surrender, I won't fight!"
One by one, they began to surrender.
"…Well, it isn't too surprising. An inheritor candidate suddenly appeared on the 1st level, but he actually didn't make a move for two days. Everyone has had time to investigate this matter, they all understand Yaan's history by now, so they know they aren't his match." Zue Yin muttered to herself as three of Yaan's opponents surrendered in rapid succession.
However, her expression changed in the next instant.
"Begin!"
As the familiar voice that signalled the beginning of the match echoed out, the remaining seven individuals facing Yaan were all caught off guard. They didn't expect that the very instant the voice resounded, signifying the battle's commencement, that Yaan would disappear from his position!
In the next instant, their limp bodies all fell to the floor.
Yaan reappeared behind them calmly, not bothering to look back at their corpses. Everyone in the audience, which wasn't many people due to the match beginning instantly after Yaan issued the challenge, sucked in a breath of cold air.
Zue Yin trembled slightly, staring with wide eyes.
"So ruthless! He hasn't changed at all, but even this is…these people didn't need to die, right? They were clearly going to surrender anyway." She murmured, furrowing her brows.
"Should I really be working together with a person like this…?" She couldn't help but wonder, worrying for her future.
After Yaan obtained all ten of the top residences on the 1st level, he immediately issued a challenge to the highest ten ranked individuals on the 2nd level!
A very similar scene as before played out, but this time, only two individuals surrendered immediately. Clearly, Yaan acted too quickly following his victory on the 1st level, they had not yet heard of his brutal actions prior to their match.
Before Zue Yin even had a chance to say anything, she was shocked to watch as Yaan issued yet another challenge, this time targeting the strongest ten on the 3rd level!
None of these individuals surrendered right away, they all had their pride as the leaders of the 3rd level. At the very least, they needed to put on a show before giving in.
Whoosh…
News of Yaan's victories on the lower two floors had not yet spread, otherwise, these ten might have reacted differently.
Zue Yin's heart was still shaking as she watched, but this time, she did her best to pay close attention to the 'battle'.
She called it a battle hesitantly, as it was simply a massacre.
To achieve this on the 1st and 2nd levels was nothing much, it was only his speed that she found impressive. However, the top ten competitors on the 3rd level were all Rank 3! Four were 3-Star Realm demons, the other six were Qi Temple Realm and Qi Palace Realm Qi refiners!
And yet, they fell like pins the moment the match began.
Yaan travelled like a gust of wind. He left behind a faint blur, making it very difficult to track his movement. He moved directly forwards and his blade pierced directly through his opponent's forehead. His movement was extremely simple, but it was far too fast.
Yaan's entire form became almost entirely illusory during the assault, making it difficult to find where he was located along the straight line towards them.
Yaan was simply too strong.
In the True-False Illusion World, Yaan developed his Psyche Power, which allowed him to draw out vast depth of energy reserves from his body, letting him produce greater speeds and strengths than he would usually be capable of.
But right now, that wasn't the key point. The reason for Yaan's overwhelming domination against ten opponents at his own realm, was because his illusion dao had reached an exceedingly high level!
Earlier, when Yaan was assessing his own progress by himself on the 1st level, he spent quite some time contemplating his own dao comprehension. Unknowingly, during this period of contemplation, he ended up devising half a sword art - and now, during his first battle in quite some time, the first stage of that sword art had been fully realised!
Chi!
The first enemy was pierced through the head in Yaan's initial charge. After Yaan cut down the shocked foe, a gust of wind followed behind him, gently catching up to his blurred figure as he briefly paused before his opponent.
Ching!
The next three fell as he slashed out a single time. The blade that he borrowed from Zue Yin ripped through their throats as the illusion of a giant wave of blood spread out from their necks.
Bang!
The final six were hit by the massive illusory wave, still not having reacted to Yaan's movements. Five of them directly died, only one remained alive.
The remaining individual was yet another member of the Aztec Tribe. Yaan wasn't surprised, these individuals were more commonly seen on the higher levels.
As Yaan rushed towards him, the giant of a man struggled to climb to his feet, but Yaan didn't give him the opportunity.
"I-!"
Chi!
Yaan cut off his words, plunging his blade through the man's forehead. This Aztec man's skull and brain were far more durable than his previous kills…
Bang!
Suddenly, Yaan's body twisted slightly, resulting in the Aztec Tribesman's entire head detonating gruesomely. Those with keen reflexes and eyesight gasped as they saw the wave of blood slow down as it approached Yaan, before curving around both sides of his body, then erupting out in all directions.
From start to finish, Yaan used three moves to kill ten people at his own realm. Even though his actions were extremely savage, his robe remained completely clean.
Whoosh!
After the match, Yaan headed to his highest quality 3rd level residence immediately, where he found Zue Yin waiting for him outside of his door. She had anticipated that he would come here first, since it was his highest value residence. Her expression was somewhat solemn, whilst she looked apprehensive and serious when facing him.
Unlike when they met earlier, she did not continue leaning on the wall when speaking to him. She quickly stood up straight, facing him with no arrogance, only caution.
"Why kill them all?"
"Just a deterrent." Yaan replied emotionlessly after casting her a brief glance.
Zue Yin's eyes flashed with understanding, but even so, even after all she had experienced, she felt shocked in her heart.
"You killed 25 people as a deterrent to others? Because of the inheritor candidate rules?"
Yaan nodded.
Indeed, at first, he only planned to kill one person on the 1st level so that he could gather some resources and a place to stay. But, after giving it some thought, he changed his mind.
Regardless, he needed to train. However, due to the inheritor candidate rules, it was possible for others to challenge him and force him into a battle abruptly. If this happened during his training, it could be potentially fatal.
Originally, Yaan planned to stay on the 1st floor as he felt that even if he was pre-occupied, it should be difficult for any 1st level resident to harm him. After some thought however, he realised that there were certainly methods, such as the use of expendable resources like powerful poisons or lengthy spells, that he would be unable to defend against if he was preoccupied.
In the end, he decided that the best way to ensure his safety, was to deter others from challenging him in the first place. Suddenly killing ten people on each of the 1st three levels should be enough to achieve this.
At the very least, this shocking feat should buy him some time.
In the end, Zue Yin silently followed Yaan into his new home, a simple three floor temple with prayer mats and a table in the centre of the lower floor. They took their seats, before Zue Yin proceeded to make some tea for the pair of them, utilising her innate flame abilities that she had developed over the past nine years of refining her bloodline.
Seeing this, Yaan raised an eyebrow.
"Is that your bloodline power?"
"Mm. After refining my phoenix bloodline to a certain extent, I became able to manifest flames directly from my bloodline, without the usage of Innate Qi."
"Impressive."
"No, what's impressive is your new sword art." Zue Yin replied dryly, still feeling a trace of shock as she thought back to Yaan's earlier battle. She was very familiar with Yaan's abilities and knew that he utilised sword arts to a high degree in battle, but the art that he displayed just now was new.
"Oh, do you like it? I created it myself." Yaan replied casually, but Zue Yin's eyes widened and her shock deepened.
"You created a sword art? Is that what you spent these past nine years doing?"
"No, I was busy with something else." Yaan shook his head.
He didn't mention that he conceived this sword art in a short few hours…however, saying that also wasn't quite right. Whilst it might seem like he had conceived this sword art too easily, it was really the result of his various dao comprehensions reaching a certain level, as well as his high proficiency in sword arts.
Sighing as she realised that he truly had no intention of explaining his absence, Zue Yin asked:
"This new sword art, what is it called?"
"Hmm…" Yaan pondered for a moment.
This was the first technique that he had created, yet he hadn't even considered giving it a name. However, he supposed that naming his first self-created technique appropriate.
Actually, when Yaan thought about it, he realised that he had first used this technique before his entry into the True-False Illusion Formation, but he used an unrefined version of the technique in the heat of battle thanks to a mixture of his resolve and luck. It was only after going through the illusion world and gaining a deeper understanding, not only of his sword arts as he re-experienced his life, but also of the dao of illusions, that Yaan gained a solid understanding of this new sword art.
It directly made use of the dao of illusions, combined with aspects of the dao of air. Originally, it was something like a variant art that arose from his continued combination of other sword arts, until it became its own, superior method.
A sword art created by oneself could always be used more perfectly than an art created by another. Yaan wouldn't dare claim that his self-created sword art was superior to any of the other decent sword arts that he had practised, but since he had a perfect affinity with his own art, he could display more power with this method than with anything else.
In terms of speed, his sword art was actually better than the other arts he knew. At least, it was faster than the stages of those arts that he had mastered.
And since this art was based upon illusions and air, perhaps the two daos that Yaan seemed to understand best right now, it really was suited to him.
Using this sword art, he was able to produce a sudden burst of speed towards his opponent. For an instant, his body even turned partially illusory, making him near impossible to trace and counter.
Of course, this phenomena only lasted for an instant, whilst the art itself was extremely limited right now. For now, it could only really be used at either the start or end of the battle, as a means to catch the opponent off guard and end the fight in a single exchange.
Yaan wasn't surprised that his first self-created sword art had turned out like this, however.
Sword arts could be split into two categories. Arts such as the Agile Sword Art, which included a full comprehensive battle system which could be adapted for various combat situations, were called 'general sword arts'. Those like the Agile Illusion Art, where each stage was defined by a single, powerful move, were known as 'specific sword arts'.
Since they were more simple, specific sword arts were much easier to create compared to general sword arts, so it was normal for his first sword art to fall into this category.
After pondering for some time, Yaan finally came up with a name.
"Agile Illusion Art."
This was the name that he settled on.
Yaan did not possess the latter stages of the Agile Sword Arts. He did not know if he would ever learn these later stages, or if his progress with this art would end here. Still…he decided to name his self-created sword art with his introduction into the world of sword arts in mind. Besides, the name was certainly fitting.
The foundation of his self-created sword art was the footwork that he learned by practising the Agile Sword Art. The word 'agile' was also a word that commonly symbolised air, making it quite fitting for this art.
As for 'illusion', the basis of this sword art was his comprehension into the dao of illusions, so including 'illusion' in the name was essential.
From now on, his first created sword art, the Agile Illusion Art, existed in this world as a specific sword art with a single stage. Whether or not future stages would be developed in this art was yet to be seen.