heavenly ruler’s third use

"Isn't metal element one of the main elements? Old man! Why is there no metal element skills in my jade slip, is it broken?"

"Hahaha, Little Fourth, it took you longer to realise than I thought. Metal element is a special one which is why it's not on the jade slips.

Have you met any metal element cultivators that used skills yet?" The old man asked Fang Qiu in a calm manner.

"Not really, I killed the one girl in the forest which cost me my arm and at the sect entrance examinations there were plenty but None of them used any skills."

"Head over to steward Chen's desk, him explaining things to you will be easier."

Arriving at the counter where steward Chen was seated...

Turning towards Fang Qiu with a big smile

"Did you manage to find the skills you wanted?

"Not yet"

"It should be your first time choosing skills right? Make sure to think about it carefully since this choice will decide your future cultivation path."

"Actually, I kind of know already which paths to take, but in order to be fully certain I decided to look at some other elements and noticed metal element not having any mention in the jade slip.

The old man... *cough* ...my master told me to come ask you about this."

"Hahaha I think I know why the wine loving old man asked you to come to me."

Fang Qiu didn't like the steward acting so mysteriously but he decided to bite anyways.

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Well, I am a metal element cultivator, so I think that should qualify me to explain this to you.

Of course, your master can explain you aswell, but he probably thought showing you is easier than explaining."

Signalling a Chen clan cultivator to take over for a bit at the counter, he took Fang Qiu to a small side building which had a large courtyard apparently meant for practising or demonstrating skills.

____

"The reason metal element skills are not in the jade slip…is because the metal element has no skills!"

"What! How can there be no metal element skills? Or do you mean to say the Chen clan doesn't own any?"

"I will try to explain it to you in a simple way. I am a sword user so I will use the sword for my example."

After which he proceeded by drawing his sword and slashing the air in front of him. Nothing seemed special about the slash, it didn't make any sound at all which was weird in and off itself.

At first Fang Qiu didn't notice anything special about the attack, but when he looked at the rock wall in the direction of the slash...

In large bold strokes he could see the number fifty-five carved into the rock wall.

"What the...is there no limit to being a showoff? Not only did he cut the wall from multiple meters away without a sound, he even wrote a number! What's next? An entire poem?" Fang Qiu thought to himself, secretly jealous of the man's talent in showing off.

He knew he was being baited into showing interest once again but he couldn't help himself.

"What does the fifty-five stand for? And what is this slash supposed to explain me? If this is your way of explaining that there are no metal element skills then you're doing a pretty bad job! Wasn't that a skill you just used?"

"What I used just now was one of my Chen clan's sword manuals called [myriad sword slash] the yellow rank version, if mastered allows one to slash out once but create three sword marks. The mortal rank version allows up to nine slashes. The earth ranked version allows one to slash once and create twenty-seven sword marks. The sky rank version can create eighty-one sword marks if fully mastered.

The reason I am showing you this is to show the difference between manuals and skills. And to use this manual as an example for my explanations in a bit

Do not underestimate these sword marks. Every single one can contain divine spirit realm power if I used my full power in the one sword slash. Since this is merely a demonstration I obviously held back or I would have destroyed a good part of the city.

But before I continue let me ask you, do you know about the heavenly ruler core spirit?

_____

After several minutes of explanation Fang Qiu got the gist of it. The tenth rank core spirit called heavenly ruler could change something below heaven, of course it had limitations but these were unknown.

It had been used thrice so far that people know of.

The first time it was used to protect the future owners of the ten great core spirits like Fang Qiu. They cannot be divined or recognised by normal means. The way his master found out was still a mystery to Fang Qiu.

The second time it was used to remove the ninth rank core spirit from existence. No one even remembers its previous owners or what the ninth rank core spirit could do because of this.

His master never revealed what happened the third time, turns out it was related to the metal element!

A previous owner of the heavenly ruler according to legends wanted to create a battle element suited for conquering the world, which could use skills without needing elemental powers or comprehension, but he needed a medium for this.

So he tried changing the metal element since it was closest related to weapons and fighting, but apparently what he asked for went beyond the limits of his ability so it only worked partially.

What steward Chen showed Fang Qiu was not a skill but a sword manual.

The main difference between a manual and a skill is that a manual purely used neutral qi whilst a skill transformed one's qi into the respective elemental qi in order to use a skill.

When a cultivator cultivates they absorb the qi from the surrounding heaven and earth and condense it inside their dantian.

This qi has no specific element.

A skill draws the neutral qi into their core and converts it into elemental qi of the cultivator's element. Then it is formed into the skill's final form using the elemental comprehension and mastery and used in an attack through any body part.

A manual can be used by cultivators of any element and draws the neutral qi directly from the dantian in order to fight without it going through the core to convert into an element.

Basically a manual is the way of using the weapons to their maximum potential using qi, and the skills allow the attack to increase in damage and do magical or supernatural things.

If a fire element cultivator were to use the earth rank [myriad sword slash] manual to slash out and create twenty-seven sword marks with a single slash, they could potentially combine this attack with a fitting fire element skill in order to have every single sword mark carry fire element power.

Master Chen also explained this using an example. There exists a fire element skill called [blazing dragon destruction] which transforms a sword attack into a fire dragon lunging at an opponent.

This was a very popular skill amongst fire element users.

If it were to be used together with the earth rank manual [myriad sword slash] instead of a single roaring fire dragon there would be twenty-seven dragons!

So to cultivators it was important to master strong skills and choose a good path, but it was also important to find some fitting manuals to maximise their attack's power.

A skill could allow Fang Qiu to do incredible damage with a single arrow, but an archery manual would allow him to perfect every shot and find ways to use the bow in order to make his skills even more potent.

Metal element cultivators could only use manuals since metal element Qi got removed from existence. The metal element itself still existed and Steward Chen's core was of the metal element. But qi could not be converted to metal element anymore because of the heavenly ruler. Hence why there were no metal element skills and paths anymore.

Of course the heavens were fair and the heavenly ruler's usage still partially succeeded. Metal element cultivators could no longer use skills but instead they could master manuals way faster than even the greatest geniuses of other elements.

For this reason metal element cultivators were often called battlemasters. They were the best teachers for teaching manuals in sects and were often the best weapon users.

Metal element users were not any weaker or stronger than other elements. They were just different from the other elements but not necessarily in a bad way.

The final thing the Steward told Fang Qiu in his previous explanation was that every metal user awakens a weapon shaped core spirit. In the past this wasn't the case, but because of the heavenly ruler metal element cultivators would only awaken item shaped core spirits and they would all be in the forms of weapons.

These weapons were even stronger than battle spirits like Su Meimei's lucky cat and could not be damaged in battles even by higher realm cultivators. This was a major advantage compared to other cultivators since their core spirit could not be destroyed in battle and their spirit ability could always be used.

"But, if they can't have skills then do metal element cultivators still choose paths and develop an elemental seed?" Being intrigued Fang Qiu felt he had to ask.

"Yes and no. We also have to increase our comprehension in order to advance realms, but this is not the elemental comprehension system anymore. But this is not something that is of importance to you now and you will certainly learn about it in the future, so do not worry just focus on improving yourself for now since you just started cultivating less than a year ago"

After the entire explanation he gave Fang Qiu a couple of minutes to digest it all before continuing.

"There was probably a second reason your master wanted you to come to me. First is because I can easily explain the metal element things to you, but the second reason might be because he wants me to help you find suitable weapon manuals.

So, tell me. Which path do you want to choose and what weapon will you be using? I will help suggest and pick suitable manuals for you"

The path I will be choosing is ...