Seeing the decimation caused by the boy's simple stomps caused the originally mocking face of the cultivator to be replaced with surprise. When the boy muttered, "We can fight for real now." he released the power he had been holding back. A formless aura belonging to a viscous beast was released from the body of an eight year old boy. This caused the heart of the man to freeze before the boy pounced at him.
Due to this momentary pause, the man could not avoid the boy's attack. He fell to the ground as the boy collided into him. He quickly activated a defensive armament given by the sect. As a transparent red colored dome covered him, he was saved from the ferocious punches of the savage boy.
The boy looked at this man whom Anya had called a cultivator with scorn. Anya had told him about cultivators before. They originated from China long ago. It is said that ancient cultivators could absorb the energy of the world which they called Qi to improve their bodies and attain great power. It was also said to have been able to increase longevity. But, this technique was lost as the world entered modern era as the Earth became polluted and the purity of the world energy was lost. After the apocalypse, the energy of the world had changed once again allowing humans to cultivate. Cultivation was very stringent in its requirements. This qualification was not met by Anya so she could not cultivate. But, so could still externally borrow the world energy to use magic. Just like cultivation, there was also body training and magic training for those who were unable to cultivate. These arts were however said to be much weaker than cultivation. But seeing this so called cultivator's performance till now, it seemed like Anya had greatly exaggerated.
The cultivator stood up and said to the boy, "It seems that I have underestimated you. Your strength should be the same as the peak foundation establishment realm. I should give you some respect and unleash my full strength as well. Just so you know, I broke through to core formation four days ago and have already stabilized my realm.
Anya had told him all she knew about the cultivation realms which wasn't much. First was body refinement, divided into muscles, bone, veins, blood, skin and meridian refinement realms respectively. Here, one strengthens their physical body from the inside out and then their qi circuits called meridians.
By taking in the heaven and earth qi or world qi, they establish their foundation. From the first wisp they of energy they take in, they enter early foundation establishment. Then, when their meridians are half filled with qi, they enter mid foundation establishment. When their meridians are fully filled with qi, they enter late foundation establishment. After which the energy they take in leaks into the whole body granting it a baptism. When the whole body is baptized, they reach peak foundation establishment.
Then more energy is taken in and then compressed into the pubic region where they say lay a virtual space to store energy called dantian. The gathered energy is compressed into a ball like shape and forced into the dantian where it forms a rotating spherical core allowing the cultivator to enter core formation. This illusory core is compressed further and further as more energy is added so as to not decrease the size of the sphere but make it liquid raising the cultivator to mid core formation. As more energy is added to the sphere making it more and more viscous until it solidifies into a dense mass of energy. This core is solidified and enlarged until it occupies as much space as the dantian holds and as dense as possible. When the dantian is completely occupied by the core, it signifies late core formation and when this largest sphere has been solidified to its limit, it is called peak core formation.
After core formation are: Mind refinement, Soul Formation, Nascent Soul, soul severing, divine mortal mergence and many more realms which Anya didn't know of. She did know that after mind refinement every realm would be accompanied by a tribulation which would cause the death of the cultivator if they failed.
As the boy remembered all this information Anya had so detailed explained to him, he felt that it was quite a boring topic. The man in front of him said that he was a core formation realm cultivator. If so then, he had just been able to make a core formation level 'expert' unable to defend himself despite having no cultivation of his own. Oh no not without cultivation, the man had said that his strength was equal to peak foundation establishment.
The cultivator looked at the boy who was staring into a daze before picking up his sword and revolving his core to send streams of energy into it. This qi made the sword glitter and glow as if its sharpness had increased by tens of times, in let out a slight sharp sound from its blade. Hearing it, the boy snapped out of his daze and got into a fighting stance. The man waved the sword at the boy releasing a sword light which flew towards him with a fast speed. The boy was surprised at the speed of the attack and couldn't dodge the strike completely resulting in a thin slice on his left thigh. The Blade light had actually torn through the dragon hide. By the time he composed himself, the cultivator had struck out four more times. Having no other choice, the boy immediately became prone. This caused the sword lights to all miss him. The cultivator slowly approached while continuing to send out streaks of light as the boy rolled to dodge before jumping up from the position and leaping towards him. As he jumped, two blades pierced through the boy's abdomen and ribs. He winced at the pain despite the wound healing almost instantly.
As the boy closed in, the same transparent red barrier reappeared to block him again. The boys punch was reflected as he fell backward. He finally had a grim expression, 'seems like it wasn't that much of an exaggeration either.'
He got up again and out of the corner of his eye saw his spear lying on the ground. As the next wave of sword lights came at him, he dove for the spear and avoided the sharp blades.
Picking up the spear, the thought of how the sword lights came about. They were released from the cultivators flying sword as he supplied it with qi. The boy thought to himself, 'Do I have a similar form of energy? No all my power comes from my body.' He closely observed the sword of the opponent as it continued to release blade lights which he avoided. The sword seemed to move on its own. The qi injected into the sword seemed to cause the sword to move according to some natural law which in turn caused it to release these sword lights. If that is so, then qi is not really necessary to release sword lights, instead it is the law that is needed.
Grasping that thought, the boy started to use his spear to block the sword lights as he tried to feel that law. After fifty or so blocks, he seemed to have sensed something as he moved the spear. He moved the spear according to his instincts and a thin dim white ray of light was release from the spear before dissipating.
The man stopped attacking stunned at the display. He had used up a lot of energy and if he had not broken through a few days ago, he would not have been able to continue for so long. Naturally he thought that the boy who had strength similar to peak foundation establishment would not be able to last as long as him. But to his surprise, instead of falling drained, the boy kept dodging and blocking the sword lights as if he had endless stamina. Now though, what he had done was unbelievable. The boy had conjured up spear light! This spear light was not produced by qi. So, it had to have been produced by spear intent. Comprehending any weapon intent was enough to be a called a genius. In his sect the only disciple who had comprehended a weapon intent was his senior sister. This senior sister was obsessed with knives and was something of a lunatic who gutted commoners and outer disciples for fun. She even cut herself multiple times just to get the feeling of the cold knife blade. Eventually she had comprehended knife intent after years of this behavior. Though she is no longer as crazy as she used to be, he still shudders when he thinks about how she had castrated all the males of the Garuda squad when an unknowing member whistled at her.
Getting back to his sensed, the cultivator thought, 'I can't let him comprehend spear intent. Else, I'm going to die here.' He condensed his qi into his free hand and made a ball of energy before throwing it at the boy.
The boy didn't pay any mind to the approaching danger but closed his eyes and moved his spear instinctively. The approaching qi ball was cut apart perfectly in the center by the dim white arc released by the spear. Not stopping, he continued to move his spear in a rhythmic fashion with his eyes closed. With his movements he continued to release spear light after spear light which flew all around him not targeting the cultivator who was preparing his qi for another attack. His movements became graceful like a dance following some natural law.
He lost himself in the drunk feeling of the weapon laws surrounding him. As the spear lights became more focused, they started to slice at the cultivator who could only defend himself. As the spear lights continued to slice, the moves started to become more and more intricate as the boy fused his skills into them. His way of the spear was always survival. He hunted to eat. He used his spear to hunt. He also used his spear to defend himself and attack his enemies. His path became clear to himself as he was immersed in the feeling.
The cultivator could not find a chance to attack and had to receive all the spear lights in order to survive. His qi was running out. Anymore, and he would fall from core formation back to foundation establishment. Though to get back, he would only need to absorb qi again without taking any detours, the amount of qi required could not be obtained in a short amount of time. He would require months to get back the amount of qi he had lost. So he needed to finish this fight fast.
The cultivator opened his palm to reveal a red ball. He gritted his teeth before swallowing it. His skin started to turn red and hot steam started to rise from his body. With sword in hand, he charged at the boy withstanding the spear lights coming his way. The deep gashes caused by them were healed immediately without him showing any sign of pain. As he reached the boy, he swung his sword and sent the boy immersed in his comprehension flying. This disturbed his train of thought and stopped the formation of his spear intent.
The boy fell into a crater he had created and spat out blood. He got up and wiped his mouth. The internal injury was already healing. He looked at the cultivator. His eyes seemed to contain spears as they pierced at the berserk cultivator. He looked down at the broken spear by his feet and revealed a slight look of sorrow. He charged at the cultivator with no techniques as the other party responded in kind. The cultivator swung the sword at him with no form or technique as he had slightly lost his mind.
The boy slapped the sword away causing it to fly out of the opponents hand and grappled with him. Their fight had devolved into a mindless brutish act of who can kill the other first. This type of fight was the one the boy was most familiar with.
After a few rounds, the boy's dragon hide was torn in many places as the cultivator also lost his cloak revealing a bronze armor beneath which was filled with cuts and tears. Both of them were covered with blood and their bodies covered with bruises as their rate of healing could not keep up with their rate of injury. The boy had the man in a choke hold as he tried to rip his head off while enduring the barrage of hits to his abdomen by the struggling man. With some more force, the finally succeeded in tearing it off. The boy then huffed and then looked to the sky before roaring to the heavens announcing his victory. Then he slumped down and passed out right beside the headless cultivator.