Chapter 8: Weapon Mastery

On this day, Lance was sitting on a highest mountain on the island and was pondering. He had reached the early skin stage and tempered his skin the black gas. To break through to the early stage he had tempered his skin once. Middle stage would require him to temper his skin again. To reach the peak, he would have to temper his skin 4 times.

But each tempering gets harder and harder as the skin is already saturated with essence energy. Harder would have been fine as it can be supplemented with herbs and medicine filled with essence energy but Lance cultivated the element of destruction. It was especially painful to temper his skin on his face. Lance felt like hundreds of ants were biting every inch of his face. He somehow rode his feelings of rage into the early level but cultivating now was even more painful.

Earlier his skin was only being gradually filled up with the element but now he had to replace it with even denser energy.

Lance let out a sigh as his mind wandered for the thousandth time. Again, the memory of his sister haunted him, he felt like he was seeing her death all over again as he shook. His eyes blurred with unshed tears, as sobs tore their way out of his throat.

He lay on the ground as tears flowed down his face no matter how much he tried to stop them. His fists clenched as that rage again bubbled out of control, it threatened to consume him as a voice in the back of his head said, 'It was your mistake for being too weak! This world is unfair, but you have the power to take revenge now. Unleash that power, the destruction of which you are capable!'

The essence energy around him was forcibly converted into his element as black gas gathered around him, his energy slowly was released from his body as it mixed in with the surroundings. The gas slowly spread as everything was destroyed. Boulders and plants only left black ash after the energy corroded them.

Animals cried out as an instinctive fear of death seemed to overwhelm them. Even spirit beasts with cultivation far higher than him

"Lance! Stop it!" A voice came from far away. The energy in the surroundings seemed to have been mobilized to fight against his element as the destruction slowed down. Then even more energy fought against him as the destruction came to a standstill.

"Lance! Calm down, everything is fine!", a voice seemed to resound in his head. He slowly opened his eyes to see a woman rushing through the black gas to come to him. She immediately took him into her arms and hugged him tightly.

"Calm down." Her words seemed to soothe him as the energy around him stopped its rampage. She wiped the tears on his face and stroked his hair.

His heart too calmed down but even then, the essence energy around him didn't dissipate.

"Control your anger, don't let it control you.", she said calmly.

"I may have been able to stop it but even cultivators 2 stages higher than you would have been annihilated. If you continue like this you will destroy your body because it isn't strong enough to bear that much energy.", she shook her head and softly continued, "The cultivation world is cruel, power sometimes corrupts minds but it can also give birth to righteousness. It depends on who uses that power. Do you want to become another general Qin?"

She spoke softly but her voice seemed to resound like thunder in his head, especially her last words.

"No!", he roared as he clutched his head and wrestled with his element. The essence energy slowly condensed around him and flowed into his body. He closed his eyes as he forced the energy to calm down.

"Thank you, teacher", he said sincerely as he opened his eyes to look at her.

"I am your teacher, it is my duty." She smiled at him as she stood up and motioned him to follow.

She took him to the small clearing as she looked at him and said, "It is time to train you weapon skills. Call out your swords."

He concentrated on the rings on his fingers. The rings slowly melted into a black liquid as they flowed into his palms to form two swords.

After the liquid reached his palms, the twin swords materialized in his hands. He observed them properly for the first time since he had gotten them. Both were black double-edged blades made of a slick and smooth metal.

"Come attack me.", she said as a golden spear came into existence in her hands. A dreadful aura emanated from it as she twirled it in her arms.

He didn't anything but instead he directly lunged at her with an overhead swing. At the last second, she deflected it and the stab from his second sword and instantly nocked both his swords out of his hands.

"Too slow! Come again!", she shouted loudly while laughing. He was just about to attack again as he felt the swords in his hands move towards each other, he was curious as he let didn't obstruct them. The hilts of the swords connected as they seemed to transform. A spear formed, but it had a blade on both sides instead of the usual spearhead. The spear landed in his hands, but even though it was 6 feet long it wasn't heavy enough to be unwieldy nor was it too light.

"Just right", he said as he admired the spear in his hands. Then he suddenly lunged at her again.

Two people were seen battling throughout the day in the clearing. Even though Lance was losing with every exchange, he felt his mind clearing and his heart beating faster.

"Weapon mastery has stages too. It has 6 stages- Rookie, Initiate, Elite, Master, Grandmaster, Legend. But after that comes the Sword God realm.

"I want you to reach the initiate realm in 5 years!", she shouted while fighting.

"Yes, teacher!", he shouted as her words ignited a fire in his heart.

'I will not disappoint you, teacher!', he thought.