Commanding Wind and Cloud

The elder’s ear twitched; a surprised expression overtook the bright smile on his face. With his toes pressing on the ground, he lightly bent his knees and pushed himself backwards. The stick made of wet clothes barely missed him; it struck the elder’s nose but missed by half an inch. The wind that was created as the by-product of this strike was powerful as well; the elder felt like knives were cutting on his skin when the wind blew by.

After Qian Jin missed the first strike, he stomped on the ground forcefully and leapt forward like a hungry tiger. He leaped about six meters; his physical strength with his warrior power was quite explosive. It instantly left a deep mark on the ground and cracked up the firm and frozen soil. Some soil that was as firm as rock was sent into the air, and Qian Jin looked like a heavy armored cavalier who was charging forward on a war horse that had iron horseshoes.

The water in the stick made of wet clothes flew out under the quick strike towards the elder’s ear. It felt like a hard rock.

“This aggressive? Sure enough!” The elder raised his eyebrows as he jumped back like a monkey; his ears shook as he listened carefully to the sounds coming from Qian Jin’s strike. More joy appeared in his eyes as he vaguely heard sounds of the fierce wind.

“This... this is the sound of a storm from the Wind and Cloud Power Training Scroll!” The elder dodged Qian Jin’s strikes repeatedly. A more serious expression appeared on his face; if he got hit... the damage...

Bam! Pia!

The stick made from his wet clothes smashed onto a rock. The stick immediately exploded, as if a dozen monkeys tore the clothes into pieces with their sharp claws.

Although the stick exploded, the rock didn’t end up any better. As the thunder-like explosion sound resonated around the lake when the two items smashed together, the rock broke into several pieces. Some pieces of the chipped rock struck into the lake and created several waves on the calm lake surface.

The small pieces of clothing were still in Qian Jin’s hand; they were no longer as hard as before. Qian Jin let go of the soft and saggy clothes from his hand and suddenly formed two claws with his hands. He struck at the elder’s throat directly like a huge eagle. The wind created by the strike made an air-piercing sound. Qian Jin’s strike was so powerful that the sound from the wind had the sense of an eagle cry in it.

“Thunder Eagle Fighting Technique?” The elder’s eyes lit up again. He could tell that Qian Jin hadn’t spent too much time on this fighting technique, but the damage from this strike had increased dramatically by the explosive form of the Wind and Cloud Warrior Power to a degree where the elder couldn’t even ignore it.

“It won’t land! This strike will never land!” As soon as Qian Jin moved, he was carefully calculating everything. When both of his feet landed on the ground after he jumped, the muscles in his lower body quickly twitched: his toes, ankles, hamstrings, knees, thighs, butt, waist!

The warrior power also rotated in his body; the speed of the rotation immediately peaked, and he let out an explosive force that he could never imagine before!

His muscles immediately twitched, and his body instantly changed directions. As if he teleported, Qian Jin somehow appeared to the elder’s right, and his forceful claws made an eagle cry in the air again! The elder was shocked! Goosebumps appeared on his body, and his pupils immediately contracted to the size of a pinhead. He shouted in his head, “What kind of footwork is this?”

Pia!

In this critical moment, the elder twisted his head and Qian Jin’s claw strike struck onto a tree behind the elder. His thumb, index finger, and middle finger stabbed into the tree forcefully! He dragged, pulled and twisted his arm, and the chipped wood pieces flew everywhere! Qian Jin’s action made the tree shake non-stop as well.

As Qian Jin fought, the rotation speed of the warrior power in his body got faster and faster, and the explosive force from his strikes became stronger and stronger as well. After he broke the trunk of the tree, Qian Jin stared at his fingers which weren’t harmed at all in surprise. “I shouldn’t be this much stronger, even if I reached the Stone Body in the Wind and Cloud Golden Body... If I actually grabbed onto someone’s neck, does that mean that I could easily crush it into pieces?” he thought.

“Only missing by a little bit...” Qian Jin sighed as he shook his head continuously. If he was able to shift his body twice by using [Innumerable Shadow], then he might actually have had a chance at touching the elder.

The elder also looked Fei, who stopped attacking, in surprise. That movement was way too strange! It wasn’t just the speed of the movement that surprised him; the whole process of how Qian Jin moved was very strange! Danger! At that moment, the strong sense of danger made the elder feel a chilling sensation go done his spine.

“What strange movement method was that? How did you do it? What is that fighting technique?” More and more confusion appeared in the elder’s eyes, but he was inwardly praising this movement technique.

Qian Jin scratched his head as he forced himself from collapsing onto the ground. Although that movement was powerful and gave him a result beyond his imagination, but his legs were on the verge of failing because of the sudden and strong explosive force. He was lucky that he was only having a hard time not falling down, let alone walking.

“Uh...” Qian Jin smiled bitterly as he scratched his head more. “What kind of fighting technique is this? This isn’t a fighting technique at all! It was just a forging technique that old Blake taught me.” Qian Jin thought to himself. It would be strange if anyone recognized it.

“Uh...” Qian Jin couldn’t ignore the “desperation and desire” in the elder’s eyes. He said lightly, “It is called [Innumerable Shadow]. I’m still practicing it.”

“Innumerable Shadow... Innumerable Shadow...” The elder murmured to himself several times. “You should practice this [Innumerable Shadow] more when you have time. Although I don’t know who you learned it from, it is a rare movement technique! It’s a top-tier technique for both dodging and attacking.”

Qian Jin couldn’t do anything but agree and smile bitterly. He said to himself, “It’s going to be hard to practice less even if I wanted to. For the next few weeks, I probably won’t learn anything new from Blake. Just the [Innumerable Shadow] and the Second Hammering Technique from the Eighteen Blade Elevating Strikes were enough for him to practice for a while.

“Oh, right.” The elder pointed at Fei as he said, “How did you feel when you used warrior power?”

“I felt unexpectedly strong,” Qian Jin said as he raised his eyebrows. “I want to grab onto some stones just to test my strength out.”

“Even stronger than the descriptions you read about Demon Fighters, right?” The elder walked up to Qian Jin; as he was looking at a tree that had a big piece of its trunk ripped off, more praise appeared in his eyes. If this strike landed on someone’s neck, he knew that Qian Jin could easily rip the bones out of one’s neck and kill that person immediately!

“Yeah.” Qian Jin stretched his hands and his ten fingers as he nodded, “I feel like I’m stronger than what the books described; a lot stronger, actually.”

“Of course.” A proud expression appeared on the elder’s face as he said, “Other people only know that Demon Fighters represent power and strength, but they don’t know that there are nine levels of Demon Fighters. We just call that the [Nine Levels]. Normally, when a Level 10 Warrior advances to a Demon Fighter, he or she is usually level one. We call these people Level 1 Demon Fighters.

A realization flashed through Qian Jin’s head. He looked at his fists and asked, “So you mean that I’m not a Level 1 Demon Fighter despite just advancing?”

“Yes!” The elder nodded in delight, but then he sighed and shook his head. “I didn’t expect that you would be in this situation after you just advanced from a Level 10 Warrior. I thought that you would easily walk over the threshold of Demon Fighter and advance to a Level 1 Demon Fighter. I didn’t expect you to advance to the peak of Level 3 Demon Fighter.”

“Level 3 Demon Fighter?” Qian Jin frowned. “How could you distinguish between the levels?”

The elder knocked on his own head and said, “My bad, my bad. When I talked to you, I always felt like you read a lot of books and knew about a lot of stuff. However, I forgot that a normal warrior like you could only read about stuff up to the point of a Demon Warrior. You can’t read things about Demon Fighters, so you don’t know about these things.”

“It is easily to distinguish between the levels of Demon Fighters: volume, quality, and the rotation speed of warrior power! You can feel your warrior power rotation speed. A Level 1 Demon Fighter can only rotate their warrior power about ten times for a minute at his peak; a Level 2 Demon Fighter can rotate their power somewhere between ten to twenty rotations per minute; a Level 3 Demon Fighter can rotate their power somewhere between twenty to forty rotations per minute; a Level 4 Demon Fighter can rotate their power somewhere between forty to eighty rotations per minute; a Level 5 Demon Fighter can rotate their power somewhere between eighty to a hundred sixty rotations per minute; a Level 6 Demon Fighter can rotate their power somewhere between a hundred sixty and three hundred twenty rotations per minute; a Level 7 Demon Fighter can rotate their power somewhere between three hundred and twenty to six hundred and forty rotations per minute; a Level 8 Demon Fighter can rotate their power somewhere between six hundred and forty to a thousand two hundred and eighty rotations per minute; finally, a Level 9 Demon Fighter can rotate their power somewhere between a thousand two hundred and eighty to two thousands five hundreds sixty rotations per minute! Of course, some people refer to the rotations as cycles in different parts of the empire.”

Qian Jin concentrated onto rotating his warrior power throughout his reservoirs. As he quietly counted the rotations, he became more confused.

“Forty rotations is the peak of a Level 3 Demon Fighter?” Qian Jin stopped moving the warrior power in his body and asked the elder, “But I clearly felt that I have a rotation speed of about sixty rotations per minute...”

“What?” Like a cat that had its tail stepped on, the elder jumped into the air as he stared at Qian Jin; he couldn’t believe what Qian Jin was saying. “You said that your rotation speed is about sixty cycles per minute? How is this possible? I have somewhat measured your power volume and quality, and they are both at the peak of a Level 3 Demon Fighter! If we use stricter criteria, your power volume barely passes the peak of Level 3 Demon Fighters, but your power quality is actually at the peak of a Level 3 Demon Fighter...”

Qian Jin listened to the elder as he had no knowledge of the levels after a Level 10 Warrior; none of the books that he had access to talked about it, so he had no point of reference. The only way for him to get more information was to leave this valley and get to an advanced warrior academy. He could enter the advanced library in these academies and read up on the knowledge that he missed out as a Demon Fighter.

“A strange situation... a stranger little kid...” The elder walked around Qian Jin for a few minutes before he finally asked a question, “Are you sure? Can you cycle your warrior power sixty rotations per minute? That’s the peak of a Level 4 Demon Fighter! You must know that even if your warrior power rotation speed is less than sixty cycles per minute, your strength as a peak Level 3 Demon Fighter is already impressive! Even bloodline warriors need to have good talent, a ton of hard training, and a ton of energy stones to advance as fast as you! Putting other things aside, just in terms of warrior power rotation speed...”

Qian Jin shrugged his shoulders as he said helplessly:,“Yeah, of course. I do have a warrior power rotation speed of sixty cycles per minute. If I ty a bit harder, I might even reach sixty five cycles per second,” he replied.

Uh... god!” The elder rubbed his temples as a painful expression appeared on his face, “What is going on? Discrepancies in power volume and power quality have appeared before in history, but such a huge increase in cycling speed is unheard of...”

Qian Jin looked at the elder who looked so painful; it almost seemed like he had lost all his belongings, including his underwear in a bet. Qian Jin sighed as he said, “Come on, master... Don’t sigh so much...”