The Birth of the Demon Sword
Helplessness
Chapter 8 - 08. Helplessness
Noah chose to sort through first the pile of sheets on the left, which had martial arts.
'Five sheets:
Balvan's sword style, the two-handed sword style created by the Balvan family, was balanced in attack and defense, suitable for soldiers. "Breath" would empower thrust attacks, capable of crushing a rock. rank 1;
Phantom sword style, a one-handed sword style made of strange movements that were difficult to defend, good attacks and poor defense. "Breath" can make one part of the body willing to disappear to catch your unprepared enemy. Stage 2;
Sword flow, a two-handed sword style that focuses on fending off the opponent's attacks and counterattacks at the right time, excellent defense. "The "breath" can create an air shield for a period of time. Stage 2;
Twin sword force, a one-handed sword style that uses two swords, focused on speed, can defend and attack at the same time. "Breath" will enhance the sword's perforating ability allowing the user to cut without the need to touch the blade. Stage 2;
Iron palm style, unarmed style that uses the hand as a weapon, excellent attack and maneuverability to attack. "The "breath" will harden the user's hand making him able to stop the sword or release shock waves to injure the opponent's internal organs. Hardening of the hands can be permanent with training. 2.' Rating.'
Noah was deep in thought.
"Master, why is there such a ranking on the art side?"
As if expecting that question, William seriously explained:
"Rank represents the potential of the technique when using" Breath ", essentially defining how powerful the effect and power of its breakdown are. There are ranks for every technique and magic and there are ranks even for cultivators, but I'll explain that part of the cultivator after your dantian is formed."
Noah began to think again, looking at the sheets in his hands.
'I guess I can already reject Balvan's sword style because it's rank 1. The style of the iron palm seemed cool, especially for the permanent hardening part, but I was quite familiar with the sword in these years so I had to keep using it.'
Saying so, only 2 pieces remained in his hand.
'The Phantom sword force was supposed to come from the shape of a snake wrist, so I actually benefited in learning this one, but it felt like this was a method of killing against humans, will the dragon fall for the invisibility trick?'
Like this, only one sheet remained in Noah's hands.
"I chose the twin sword style as a martial art."
William happily smiled and continued to nod.
"A good choice, since you need to use two swords, it will be a little more difficult at the beginning, but you will soon understand that it is a style that is suitable for every situation."
Noah turned his attention to the body's nutrition method group. He did not realize that the smile on William's face had disappeared, replaced by a worried expression.
'Mh, maybe I expected too much from a bunch of methods without the need for dantian. Each technique seemed similar to that of rotating Ice-Fire, they only added some oddities such as more power or more speed. At least they are all rank 2 so they should be better than me at the moment.'
He was almost ready to choose a nutrition method that would increase his speed when he reached the last sheet.
'Rank 3'
The worry on William's face grew, as he stared with begging eyes at the child in front of him.
'Please don't choose that one. It was not a technique but pure torture.'
"William, we have to respect his desires. If he gets in the guards and then finds out that we kept that method hidden from him, he might lose trust on us and revolt."
Such were the words his captain said to him the day before.
’Still, I don’t think that a kid can understand the kind of pain we are talking about here.’
While William was lost in worry and thought, Noah was reading incredible the rank 3 method in his hands.
’Forging of the Seven Hells, the peak body-nourishment of the ones that do not require a dantian, it equals the methods that require a dantian in terms of power, ' he said, so if the user survives the treatment he will obtain a rank 3 body capable of blocking rank 1 martial arts and rank 0 magic spells almost without harm. In addition, since it’s a body shaped by the "Breath", it will have a better attunement with it, speeding its recovery and its manipulation. The treatment consists of breaking a fixed number of acupoints in a specific place in order to create an absorption vortex that will force the Breath of Heaven and Earth to enter the body and reconstruct the acupoints. Then the man must rest and let the newly acupoints shape and nourish the body for a period of time. Then he must repeat the treatment 6 times. Warning: extremely dangerous, the user must not lose consciousness during the process in order to manipulate the "Breath" or else there might be an error in the reconstruction process causing permanent paralysis or death. Warning: extremely painful’
Raising his head, Noah finally noticed the worried expression of his Master.
"Master, I think that in order to choose appropriately I have to understand in a better way the difference in ranks between the different arts."
William tried to hide his sorry with a small smile and said:
"certain. Just look at it this way, the more variables you add into one attack the stronger it is. The weakest of all is the body, which consists only of reinforcement, such as strengthening the walls. Then came martial arts, which were a mixture of body and "Breath", so of course, its strength would be one and a half times higher than a simple body, which uses a certain element of "Breath" "You accumulate in your Dantian mixed with mental energy to create spells, so that they will be the most powerful and destructive. In general, the highest rank of a cultivator was body, while his cultivation level and mental energy were quite similar. For now, just think of the dantian level as a form of fuel: the higher, the stronger the effect will be used for martial arts and spells."
Noah turned his gaze back to the sheets in his hand.
'The advantage of this technique is quite admirable, I just don't know if it's worth the risk.'
"How much does it take a man with a dantian to get a rank 3 body in an orthodox way?"
William hesitated a little before answering, and then he chose to tell the truth.
"If from the beginning a man trained the method for a rank 3 body, without going through the 1st and 2nd rank method, it would take between 5 and 15 years."
"How high is my body now? How much does it take with the orthodox method after I get my dantian and while training the rank 2 method in the meantime? How much of this technique?"
A storm of questions came out of Noah's mouth. If he had to risk his life, he wanted to make sure that the benefits were much higher than the dangers.
“Currently, your body is below half rank 1, because your body is still growing and you are practicing with the method without the need for dantian, the results would be lower when compared to the benefits provided by the same ranking technique which otherwise required dantian. The same will apply to the 2nd rank method below you. If you start practicing at one right now, by the time you get your dantian, you will have a 1st half rank body, so say, say, and you will probably reach rank 3 in 5-9 years. If you use that torture instead, it may take you between 3 and 5 years to complete the process."
Noah was a little dumbfounded. The orthodox method does not seem to be too slow at all. He was confident that with his hectic schedule, he would reach the rank 3 body in the shortest time possible, wasting about four to five additional years, but also avoiding the extreme risks in his life.
He would reject the idea of going through the Seven Hells technique when he saw his Master's eyes that seemed to be filled with shame. Then he thought of something and asked with a bitter smile:
"How difficult is it to get the right 3rd rank body nutrition method?"
This time, shame plagued William for being discovered. He lowered his head slightly to recover his composure and then said in a soft voice:
"You must enter the inner circle to ask for it."
Still smiling bitterly, Noah handed the sheet to his Master.
"Then I chose the Seven Hells Forging method."
