Unleashing the divine reaping scythe

"Severing All Creation. Reaping All Divines"

John had read these words before, which appeared at the very top of the page, but was still mesmerized by its grand boldness.

"I don't know what a Divine is, but claiming to sever all creation sure is a big claim to make."

John's mind felt enraptured by these words, and he read them several times over before glancing down to the next section of the page. He had read this page before when he was in the Dreadel Kingdom, but had come to the conclusion that he was too weak to study it back then. Now that he was in the Qi Condensation Realm, John wanted to see if he could start using the battle art.

He knew the immensely powerful Supreme Battle Art for his body cultivation, but had no grand essence attacks.

"The Myriad Annihilation Scythe had been a good technique to use in the Mist Creation Realm, but now that I'm in the Qi Condensation Realm, I'll need a new powerful ranged attack."

He continued to study the page.

"This page describes how the creator saw the essence of the scythe, and it uses those comprehensions to unleash a powerful battle art. However, this page only contains the first three steps, or stages, of the technique, and the rest is incomplete...but that should be more than enough for now."

John continued to read the familiar page, and his fingers traced each word as he read. He fell into a trance, and before he knew it, several hours had passed.

"Each step describes incredibly complex meridian and acupoint pathways for my Qi. I first need to use my comprehensions to convert my essence Qi into scythe Qi, at which point I follow the pathways throughout my body to unleash the technique. From what I can tell, the technique focuses on sharpness and speed, as the creator saw the scythe as the ultimate life reaping weapon."

He slowly but surely felt his scythe comprehensions improve as he studied the page for many hours.

Qi contained the myriad of universal laws within them, and cultivators had to use their comprehensions to isolate and refine the specific Qi they were looking for, at which point they would use that Qi in attacks. The more refined and pure the isolated Qi was, the more powerful the attacks would be.

With the many days of studying the technique in the Dreadel Kingdom, as well as today, John felt that his scythe comprehensions and understanding of the technique had reached a level that he could attempt to use the first attack.

"I can't unleash this technique indoors. Since Elder Ragur isn't back yet, I should head outside and look for a place to train this technique. He said as long as I stayed within the Enforcement Hall grounds, I should be fine."

John stood up and stretched his aching legs, as he had been sitting for many hours. He walked out of his room, before quickly leaving the building as well. The dozens of Enforcement Hall buildings stretched into the distance, and John walked until he found a wide open expanse of land between the buildings to practice his technique. Although many Elder and Disciples were seen walking about in the distance, this particular area seemed to be devoid of foot traffic, making it a good place to practice.

"This spot should do nicely."

A pitch black scythe appeared in John's hands, and he calmed his mind as he thought about unleashing the technique. Essence Qi began to build up within his dantian, and John did his best to isolate and refine it into scythe Qi.

He focused on this process for several hours, making sure to isolate and refine pure enough scythe Qi before attempting the technique.

"This technique has a very pure scythe Qi requirement to even attempt to unleash, otherwise it will fail and potentially harm me."

Many people of the Enforcement Halls had walked by, and had noticed the unknown newcomer stand there in complete silence for several hours. Since he had not made any external attacks yet, the disciples of the sect who had walked by had no idea what he was doing.

A small group of three male and two female disciples had stopped for a moment to watch what John was doing. They appeared to be around John's age, and wore the signature grey robes of the enforcement hall.

They had walked by earlier in the day and noticed him standing there, but had paid him no mind. However, they had just walked by him again, and noticed he was standing in the exact same spot.

"Look at this kid, he's been standing there for nearly half a day and hasn't moved a single muscle," one of the male disciples commented.

"Maybe he's slow in the head, although he does seem quite interesting for some reason" one of the female disciples commented as she chuckled slightly. She had long brown hair tied up into a ponytail, and was quite attractive. Her thin nose was raised slightly in the air, as if he was used to looking down on others.

One of the male disciples frowned for a moment before speaking up as well. "You're right, he's probably slow in the head given that he's only in the early Qi Condensation Realm despite being our age. I'll go "help" him."

The two other male disciples rolled their eyes at the words they heard. They knew exactly of the scene to come, as they had seen it many times before.

One of the boys turned to the girl that had just spoken and spoke to her in a slightly annoyed tone.

"You just had to mention that he was interesting huh? You know how Roy feels about you, and what he does when you show interest in other boys."

The girl feigned ignorance at the boy's words. Her eyes turned back to the scene of Roy approaching the newcomer, and a slight smile appeared on her face.

John's eyes were still closed as he focused on refining his Qi into a scythe Qi pure enough to unleash the technique. He had been completing this process internally for many hours.

"Now!"

His eyes quickly opened in delight, and John quickly raised his scythe before slashing it down with all his might. An incredibly sharp black and red scythe Qi gathered on his scythe's blade for a moment before flying outwards extremely quickly.

A sharp sound pierced the ears of all those nearby, and many of the nearby juniors felt their bodies tremble slightly as they stared at the Qi attack.

John's face lit up in delight as he watched the attack fly out rapidly. It was even sharper and faster than he imagined, and he was overjoyed with the result of his first attempt.

However, his delight quickly turned to shock as he watched the attack fly head on towards a boy walking directly towards him.

"Watch out!"

John called out loudly. He had been so focused in refining Qi and unleashing the attack, that he had failed to observe his surroundings. He had chosen this spot for how isolated it was, and no one had approached him all day, so John assumed it would be safe to unleash an attack as such.

Roy had been casually approaching John, when all of a sudden an attack was heading straight towards him. He was surprised that the newcomer would suddenly attack out at him, but was unconcerned given the weaker cultivation of the boy.

However, Roy's eyes quickly became grim as he noticed the attack made him feel a slight sense of danger, which completely shocked him.

Slice!

Roy quickly unleashed a profound movement technique, and just barely managed to dodge the attack, which grazed his robe and sliced off a small section on his sleeve. The Qi attack sailed downwards into the ground below, and quickly burrowed into the ground.

Both Roy and John stared in shock at the attack that cleanly cleaved an extremely thin but deep line into the earth for nearly one hundred yards before it finally dissipated.

Roy breathed out a sigh of relief, before turning to John and staring at him with cold eyes.

"You dare to attack me? If I don't break a few bones in your body, you'll be getting off lightly."