Concept Number 7  

Will shook his head like an intoxicated drunkard and focused his eyesight on the aftermath.

'That should be enough.'

Will had been given another assignment by Jingsung Ha, one which he actually looked forward to.

"There is one more thing you need to do while under Negative Feedback Adjustment to take advantage of the situation.

Use an attack to drain your body of as much energy as possible. Your control over your Area is at its weakest when you have a lot of energy within your body. But when you are empty, your intent doesn't have the burden of controlling the flow of energy within your body so it is easier to mould. This will allow you to condense your Area faster as well."

All of his actions so far had been discussed with the other higher beings just after the tournament, but now was the actual application of the skills. Jingsung Ha had a lot of knowledge regarding Intent, but his knowledge of the mind still fell a bit short of Narcissus.

"Hestia once taught me that the best way to empty one's energy reserves was through a guided strike. So I want you to apply the concept of a guided strike to concept 7. You are still under adjustment, so I doubt you can empty much of your reserve. In fact, I'm sure the Truth you produce will be of low quality, but that doesn't matter, because what you want isn't a strong attack, but to drain your dantian of as much energy in one swift motion as possible."

SSS techniques were called concepts and were numbered. Odd numbers were attacks. Even Numbers were defence. Prime numbers were special attacks that had support properties, even numbers after prime numbers were defence techniques with support. These were referred to as Secondary Numbers. Multiples of five had domain-type skills, those that end with 5 were support while those that ended with zero were defence or attack.

Normally when one made an attack, they would forcefully move the energy or matter they controlled to move a certain way. But there was another way of attacking. One in which one would create a path of mental energy the attack had to use. This was a Guided Strike. Concept number 7 was a Prime number and thus, it was going to be an attack skill with support properties. This was Will's second favourite skill in the entire SSS repertoire.

As soon as Narcissus' arrows had landed, he started his lecture through their telepathic connection, "As I said before, a guided strike is just changing the shape of your mental energy field from an area around you to a particular shape. Imagine the Area to be a malleable bubble whose form you could dictate. Since you are a swordsman, the best would be to change the Area from a bubble to a string of energy connected to your sword, somewhat similar to the ribbon of energy your unbound vector results in.

Will calmed his mind and grabbed the handle of his sword, "Now it's my turn, Lyra, make sure you're ready."

Lyra was in the tent with his hands touching the bare ground but he heard Will's words clearly and nodded as if he knew he was being watched. He continued to chant his spell and gather mana for his spell.

The generals and captains were befuddled as Will slowly took a deep breath. A surge of mental energy flooded into his body as he rapidly expanded his Area.

"Harmony in the mind, chaos in nature. The Dao begot one. One begot two. Two begot three. And three begot ten thousand things. The ten thousand things carry yin and embrace yang. They achieve harmony by combining these forces."

Will expanding Area caused the sensitive cultivators to feel as if a set of eyes were constantly on them observing their every move, while a current of World Energy surged into Will's body from the surroundings.

'This is…'

Gianluigi was in particular quite excited as he saw Will gather momentum with his chant. This was a skill almost everyone there was familiar with. Many types of higher senses exist, but only top-tier cultivation manuals had their own unique type of higher sense. And it just so happens that the Solitary Sword Sovereign manual was one of them.

"Solitary Sword Sovereign, 7th Concept, Breath of Solitude," Will muttered as he raised his sword.

His mental energy field had expanded and changed to a wire-like form that could be traced all the way back to the tip of his sword, stretching hundreds of kilometres ahead.

Only those with Truthseeking Eyes that could sense mental energy even had a chance to see what Will was doing. Will used this opportunity to bring out all the energy he could in one stroke. Due to being disorientated he couldn't open any doors or apply Truth perfectly. His Intent was strong, but his technique and output left much to be desired. Nevertheless, as a Natural Born Truthseeker, he still was able to pull out vast reserves of power.

The Breath of Solitude was one of the most famous types of Breaths there was. It carried the unique Solitude trait that only Solitary Sword Sovereigns possessed. Its abilities were not fully understood by the masses, but there was no doubting the destructive power of the skill.

Will did not wait for further instruction as he swung his sword with a vertical downward stroke. Truth escaped from his blade and escaped in the form of a guided green sword light that burst forth.

Whoosh!

Will felt an overwhelming sense of mental fatigue creep over him as he almost fell over. He stumbled to the ground and held himself up with one hand, observing his work.

The wave of Truth he released was like a curtain of destruction that cleansed the entire valley. The miasma that had been covering the area was completely consumed by the viral Truth.

"There is no mistake, this is a Guided Strike!" muttered Ulysses under his breath. Ulysses' words were met with sighs and exclamations. Guided Strikes could only be pulled off by warriors and mages with extreme control and sensitivity. It was a talent that one could only be born with and a sign of one's mind being at least at the S+ rating.

"Peerless has quite the subordinate." Exclaimed Mercedes as she watched the miasma disappear. The curtain of blade light released a shockwave that purified the area vertically and horizontally.

Lydia was quick to act and cast a light energy reconnaissance spell. In a fraction of a second, she had an idea of what had happened and relayed the results of her scan to everyone present, "His Truth has an incredibly viral property to it. This could be my conjecture, but it looks like it's consuming the poisonous miasma!"

Lydia's words received a variety of reactions, but only Mercedes' mattered to her, "How far has it spread?"

Lydia responded to Mercedes' words with a creased brow, "I'm not sure, but it looks like the area 4 kilometres ahead of us is clear."

All the generals and captains there had their own methods of achieving a familiar feat. So the act itself wasn't a surprise. What stunned them was the fact that he had achieved this while under adjustment.

"That's not all, " Lydia added, "My scans show that any Area cleansed by his Truth doesn't allow for the poison to re-enter!"

The greatest problem most adventurers faced when dealing with the problem wasn't cleansing it, but dealing with the poison's return, due to its viral nature.

"A viral Truth to deal with a viral poison. A truly useful skill to have." Laughed Gianluigi. Lydia calmly ignored him and asked, "Your Highness, I can understand why his Truth spread, but I have no clue why the Area it cleared remains clean of poison."

Natasha, who had been quiet for most of the time, finally spoke up, "He isn't affecting the poison. It's the space."

Lydia tilted her head in confusion. A light of understanding flashed in Mercedes' eyes as she said, "He isolated the space! It's the power of Solitude!"