Flight of the Butterflies

"What do you know? This is my way of tempering my path of body strengthening!" Zhao Yunxiao answered.

"Even if you want to temper your body, this is definitely not the best way to do it..." Gu Qiansi felt the corner of her lips twitch.

Unless Zhao Yunxiao already had a high level of attainment in the path of body strengthening, this would only be akin to asking for a beating!

Or perhaps that's what Zhao Yunxiao was looking for?

Was he secretly a...?

Oblivious to Gu Qiansi's imagination going wild, Zhao Yunxiao called for the second level of the array.

Bang-! Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!

This time, Zhao Yunxiao could no longer stop a puppet with just two punches.

Not only did he have to employ proper techniques from the Xuanwu Fist Art, he even needed four consecutive punches at full power to stop a single puppet.

It did not take long before he was drenched in sweat, clearly exhausted by the intense level of energy required.

Even then, he refused to change up his methods, and stuck closely to his plan of direct physical confrontation.

It might be true that he was being stubborn, but he was being stubborn for good reason.

The vision that he had for his personal combat style required improving himself in three main aspects.

To drag out a fight by taking hits better.

To drag out a fight without having to take as many hits, or any at all.

To be able to reliably strike his opponent despite being spent at the end.

Acquiring the Earthen Clone Technique and the Unyielding Stone Bind was Zhao Yunxiao's way of working on the latter two aspects.

As for the first aspect, that was something that Zhao Yunxiao would have to work on slowly and steadily.

After all, physical endurance was not something that could be improved overnight.

Even with a powerful defensive technique, it was unlikely for one to be able to sustain it for long without a good physical foundation.

That was why Zhao Yunxiao wanted to take this opportunity to test his limits – to understand the main weaknesses in his defence.

Only by fully understanding his exact strengths and shortcomings would he be able to know what to work on next.

And to do that, Zhao Yunxiao wanted to see just how far he could push himself in a pseudo combat situation.

Since testing this out in an actual combat situation would be far too risky, this was the best alternative that he could think of!

[Immovable Shell]

Bang-!

Confronted with these wooden puppets that had been strengthened by the array, even the heaviest punch in the arsenal of the Xuanwu Fist Art proved lacking as Zhao Yunxiao found himself stumbling back a few steps.

The skin on his fists was already starting to tear by now, with fresh blood showing on the surface.

"Isn't this enough?" Gu Qiansi called out with a frown. "We still have the recruitment test tomorrow! Don't overdo it!"

Zhao Yunxiao ignored her, though it was not on purpose this time.

Instead, he could feel that he was nearing his limit, so he simply could not afford to be distracted anymore.

Zhao Yunxiao had to channel every last bit of his concentration and energy into defending himself, or he would never be able to find out where his true limits lay.

And if he failed to find that out here, then all his prior efforts would have gone to waste!

Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!

Despite his depleting reserve of essence energy, Zhao Yunxiao continued to defend himself with all his might.

That was, until one of Zhao Yunxiao's punches finally came up short.

Thud-!

Zhao Yunxiao's punch connected with an oncoming puppet with nowhere near the same power from before.

He was able to perform the same move in a physical sense, but his depleted reserve of essence energy prevented the punch from displaying the same strength that a normal Immovable Shell would have.

And this lesser version of the Immovable Shell was not nearly half as strong as usual.

Unaffected by this weak punch, the wooden puppet continued forward unabated this time, slamming directly into Zhao Yunxiao.

Bang-!

Zhao Yunxiao was sent flying in an instant, even rolling for a good few metres before finally coming to a stop.

"Stop!" Zhao Yunxiao hurriedly called out, even before he had fully come to a stop.

With a low rumbling sound, the emblem of light on the ground dissipated, and the spirit stones resting along the fence dimmed.

Huu-!

Zhao Yunxiao lay on the ground for a good few minutes, looking up at the clear blue sky as he thought back on what happened.

His entire body was drenched, and there was not a single spot on his body that was not aching like crazy.

His fists were bleeding, and even his jaws were aching from having clenched his teeth too tightly. He had subconsciously done so in his bid to resist the mental pain, forcing himself to throw punch after punch without rest!

His dantian was completely depleted as well, though that was only to be expected. Otherwise, he would not have failed to draw out any essence energy for that last Immovable Shell.

Yet despite his sorry state, Zhao Yunxiao was satisfied.

He had tried his best, and he had gotten the answers that he had wanted.

In the end, it was his energy reserves that failed to keep up. Apart from that, he had managed to maintain a clear state of mind, and was even able to forcibly move his body against this extreme physical exhaustion.

This cleared things up for him.

As expected, both his physical and mental endurance were good. Now, it was just a matter of making sure that his energy reserves could keep up.

But how so?

He could only think of two simple ways.

The first way was to directly expand his energy reserve. However, this only sounded simple, but was far from that in reality. After all, everyone would be seeking to do this if it were so easy to achieve.

Rather, the second way was far more feasible, and that was to further refine his energy control. If he could be more efficient with the way that he used his energy for each move, then he would naturally be able to do more with the same amount of energy reserve!

On top of that, this also proved that it was the right choice to not just focus on increasing his defences.

There was definitely a limit to how much punishment a person could take.

In the end, it was the right approach to have acquired the Earthen Clone Technique and Earth Burrowing Technique!

"Are you all right, Senior Martial Brother Zhao?" Lu Zhiying's voice snapped him out of his daze. "Do you need me to bring you back to the Medicine Pavilion?"

"No, I'm fine," Zhao Yunxiao slowly stood up and brushed the dirt off his body, though he could not help but groan a few times due to how badly his body ached.

"I have to admit that you lasted a lot longer than I thought you would. But is this really necessary?" Gu Qiansi remarked with a sigh.

"You will never be able to understand the thoughts of the greats," Zhao Yunxiao answered while exiting the array. "This is an important step to the path of greatness!"

"Right..." Gu Qiansi said patronisingly.

Seeing that Zhao Yunxiao did not intend to share his reasoning, she decided not to probe further, either.

In any case, she would be able to find out in time to come.

"It's finally my turn now!" Lu Zhiying excitedly entered the array. "Let's begin!"

Upon her confirmation, the array buzzed into life as the puppets started moving once more.

Lu Zhiying's eyes sharpened immediately, her earlier frivolous expression vanishing without a trace, replaced with a confident smile.

Her last visit here had left her battered and bruised, and she was determined to change the narrative this time!

Despite having entered the Foundation Building realm, she was still unable to use spiritual sense – an ability reserved for cultivators like her two senior martial disciples who had reached the Essence Gathering realm.

Therefore, she still had to rely on her physical senses to keep an eye on her surroundings at all times.

[Xuanwu Movement Art – Snapping Burst]

[Xuanwu Movement Art – Shifting Sands]

...

With a combination of speed bursts and directional changes, Lu Zhiying weaved in and out of the puppets without problem.

Unlike the last time she was here, these techniques that she was executing were no longer mere lesser adaptations.

They were the real thing now, fueled by world origin energy.

This gave these techniques the explosive power that they had lacked in the past, allowing Lu Zhiying to perform her evasive measures with even greater finesse.

At the same time, it was not as though she was just blindly using these techniques to move as far away from the puppets as possible.

Instead, she kept her movements to a minimum, constantly taking only the shortest and most efficient paths to get out of the way of the puppets.

With that confident smile on her face, Lu Zhiying continued to dance around the puppets with a seemingly unrealistic level of grace.

Yes, dance was the right word.

If this scene were to be played out at a festival, nobody would have doubted that it was a genuine performance!

"Why do her movements look so familiar?" Gu Qiansi mused.

"...Flight of the Butterflies," Zhao Yunxiao answered hesitantly.

"Flight of the Butterflies?" Gu Qiansi repeated his words in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said," Zhao Yunxiao replied while continuing to closely observe Lu Zhiying's movements. "Haven't you recognised it yet? This is her dance routine for our second song – Flight of the Butterflies."

By that, he was referring to one of the three songs that the Flying Shell Performance Group had performed at the New Year celebrations.

<Flight of the Butterflies> – a calming song about the natural beauty of butterflies.

Just like the song itself, the dance focused on the concept of simplistic grace as it tried to portray the organised chaos to which a group of butterflies would adhere when flying around in the wilderness.

Lu Zhiying had brought this dance to life back then, taking the entire sect by storm.

And now, she seemed to have managed to do so once more.

The current Lu Zhiying resembled a playful butterfly that was dancing around in a prairie, casually toying with the various wooden puppets and their overly optimistic attempts to capture her for themselves!

"Really?" Gu Qiansi asked doubtfully upon hearing Zhao Yunxiao's analysis. "You are telling me that Junior Martial Sister Lu is dancing right now?"

Gu Qiansi couldn't even believe the words that just came out of her mouth.

How could someone be dancing in the Hundred Puppets Array?

This was a training ground for a reason!

Even if there were people capable of doing so, it would have to be someone at a much higher cultivation level, such that they could afford to completely ignore the threat at this difficulty level of the array.

But Lu Zhiying was definitely not someone like that.

After all, she was only at the Foundation Building realm!

Shouldn't she be struggling instead?

Yet despite her thoughts, Gu Qiansi could not help but acknowledge the truth behind Zhao Yunxiao's words.

She had not recognised it before since the sheer absurdity of the situation prevented her from even considering such a possibility. But upon hearing the reminder from Zhao Yunxiao, the similarities immediately became clear.

There was no doubt about it.

This was Lu Zhiying's second dance – <Flight of the Butterflies>.

In her hands, an innocuous dance had been completely transformed into a set of evasive techniques characterised with grace and elegance – one that was fully capable of rendering her numerous opponents desperately grasping at straws!