Zu An laughed. âThatâs more than enough for now. This skill will probably grow together with my cultivation.â
In the beginning, just using Grandgale once would have exhausted practically all his ki.
Yet now, he could use it many times in succession, and the distances he could blink across had become greater and greater as well.
The mind-control ability of Hundredwarble would only grow stronger as well.
Mi Liâs expression grew serious. âYou shouldnât dismiss this so casually. The spirit element is rarer than other elemental abilities. It comes with its perks, but itâs also a double-edged sword. If you use your skill on someone who is way stronger, or someone who is mentally tougher, you could easily suffer a backlash, and suffer a severe injury instead. In the worst case, even your very soul might be eradicated! Youâll turn into a human vegetable without any intelligence.â
âRelax, Iâm not that dumb. I wonât use it against anyone whose cultivation is much higher than mine.â Zu An knew that what she had described wasnât something that would affect him, as this skill wasnât tied to his own consciousness. He couldnât quite explain why this was the case, though, so he told Mi Li what she wanted to hear to placate her.
Mi Li finally nodded in satisfaction. âAll right, letâs see you throw a punch.â
Zu An gave her a bewildered look.
âUse all your strength. I want to test something out,â Mi Li said.
Zu An was slightly worried. âWhat if⦠what if I hurt you?â
He felt as if he was full of explosive strength right now.
He wouldnât be worried at all if she had been in peak form. He would not have been able to injure her then, even if he possessed ten times his current strength.
However, she only had a soul body right now, so she was far weaker. Of course he was concerned.
Mi Li smiled confidently. âDonât worry! You canât injure me. Hurry up!â
Zu An could only sigh when he heard her say this. âFine then. No one has ever asked me for something like this in my life. Iâm great at following orders, so here I go!â
He swung at her fiercely as soon as he finished his sentence. All of his ki was transferred into his fist, whipping up a tremendous gale.
Mi Liâs face turned red. She dodged to the side and said, âYou damned brat, you couldâve punched me anywhere else! Why did you aim for my chest?â
You have successfully trolled Mi Li for 33 Rage points!
Unfortunately, she had misunderstood Zu Anâs intentions. He had targeted that area because it wasnât a vital spot, and she even had layers of fat there to protect her. If something really went wrong, he would not have ended up injuring her significantly.
Zu An was surprised to see the Rage points flow in. Why are you getting angry when you are the one who told me to hit you?
Mi Li took a couple of steps back, then she extended a fine white hand to catch his fist.
Zu An felt as if his fist had sunk into a ball of cotton. All his strength dispersed into nothingness.
What shocked him even more was that Mi Li was clearly a soul body, and yet the sensation at contact wasnât very different from what he would have felt if heâd hit an ordinary person. The physical feedback was the same, and her palm even held a bit of warmth.
Mi Li released his fist and sighed contentedly. âI see.â
âWhat do you mean?â Zu An was curious.
Mi Li said, âI felt something strange when we fought in the dungeon. Your strength was somehow far greater than your level of cultivation. I thought that it might have been just the boost that the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra afforded you, but this does not seem to be the case at all.
âYou arenât currently injured, so this should be your baseline strength. However, when you strengthen yourself with ki, your power and speed are both higher than what a cultivator at the fourth step of the fifth rank should possessâmuch, much higher.
âFrom that test just now, your ki density can match that of an early sixth rank cultivator.â
âEarly sixth rank cultivator?â Even Zu An was shocked. Even though heâd always felt like it wasnât too difficult to beat someone who was at a higher rank, he never had a good gauge as to how strong he really was.
âItâs probably due to your Phoenix Nirvana Sutra. This really is a miraculous technique.â Mi Li continued, âHowever, with these advantages come disadvantages. From what Iâve seen, your cultivation advances much more slowly than an ordinary personâs. You have transcendent level aptitude, so this shouldnât be the case.â
âThatâs what Iâve been saying!â Zu An shouted. For every rank, the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra would create nine formations, and each formation required many more Ki Fruits in order to fill. The first three ranks had been manageable, but the requirements for subsequent ranks only became more and more ridiculous.
For example, the fifth formation of the fifth rank would require 2,178,309 Ki fruits, and each Ki Fruit could be obtained with, on average, 1000 Rage points. This meant that he would need 217 million Rage points!
Even in his best moments, he could only farm around 20,000 Rage points. He had no idea how many years it would take to gather such a crazy amount of Rage points.
He felt an immediate sense of relief when he heard Mi Liâs explanation.
Mi Li found his mental state admirable. âYouâre not discouraged by this at all?â
âWhy would I feel discouraged? Isnât this the mark of a protagonist?â Zu An laughed loudly.
Wasnât this the hallmark of all the main characters in the web novels of his previous world? The main characters always level up at a slower rate than others because of various reasons, but every single level they gained would grant them better powers than anyone else. Finally, they would always prevail against those ranked higher than themselves.
âProtagonist?â Mi Li frowned. She didnât really understand what he meant, but she was already used to Zu An spouting nonsensical words.
âBy the way, I was observing your battle against Old Mi. I noticed that the reason you were caught, apart from your gap in cultivation, was because of the movement technique he taught you. You could only split into two copies, so he could just catch both. If you could split into three or more images, it would be much harder for someone like Old Mi to catch you again.â
Zu An smiled bitterly. âTwo is the best I could do, even after practicing like crazy.â
âThat was because your cultivation was too low,â Mi Li replied. âNow that youâre at the fifth rank, you should be able to make three. Watch closely!â
As she spoke, she fetched a stick of bamboo from goodness knows where and struck him with it.
âOw, ow, ow!â
Zu An immediately felt a scorching line of pain when the bamboo stick had thwacked him, and he screamed in pain.
Even if a normal person hacked at him with a blade, he wouldnât feel any pain, thanks to the Primordial Origin Sutra. Who knew that a random stick of bamboo in Mi Liâs hands would be so deadly?
âYou are not allowed to strike back. You can only use your movement technique to dodge.â Mi Li paused, then added, âOf course, it wonât make a difference even if you try to retaliate.â
Zu An cursed inside. Is she using this chance to get back at me?
However, the bamboo stick flashed at him again, and he couldnât afford any more distractions. He quickly used his modified Sunflower Phantasm to split into two copies.
Unfortunately, he was forced to let out another pitiful scream. Mi Liâs bamboo stick thwacked him with absolute precision on his backside.
âI donât want to play anymore! Youâre cheating! I learned this movement technique from you, so you can easily guess where I would dodge!â
At least Old Mi hadnât known about his modified movement technique. Mi Li could read him like a book!
Zu An rubbed his butt cheek while he stared at her. Did this woman have some weird fetish? Her looks, paired with that bamboo stick in her hand, made her look just like a dominatrix!
âI wonât be able to hit you if you manage to split yourself into three.â Mi Liâs lips curved upwards. Why did whacking this kid bring her so much⦠joy?
Her bamboo stick flicked out again as she said this. Zu An yelled immediately and dodged to the side when he saw that she was being serious.
Miserable howls echoed again and again in the wilderness.
âAh!!â
âAh, ah!!â
âHuh? AH!!!â