At the bottom of the lake formed at the base of the waterfall, was an underwater cave. Within that cave was a young man, dutifully training his sword technique. This cave did not exist when Will first arrived here; he had dug it out to make it his temporary home.
The creatures above ground were far too strong for him to fight constantly. Will had no idea where Modus had sent him, but he knew this was definitely a higher level area. The average creature here could easily give the Storm Wolf King a good fight.
Thus Will decided to create a hideout for him to rest after a good day's adventuring. The inside of the cave was large, about 800 meters in diameter. The entrance to the cave itself was not that large and was usually frozen shut. Will would only create an opening while he was leaving or entering.
Within the cave was a small lake with a somewhat large patch of land in the middle. From above the ground, it looked like the letter O with the water constantly moving around the center. The entire wall of the cave was lined with water, to prevent any damage from affecting the cave. This was not ordinary water, but the water that had been infused with Will's concentrated yuan.
When Will left the cave he would freeze the water lining and unfreeze it
when he came back. The circular river he had created would only move while he was there. And it, just like the wall lining, was made of highly compressed water infused with Will's concentrated yuan. Will would also freeze this water the moment he left because he knew that if he got out of range of control the while the water was in its liquid state it would instantly decompress. In its frozen state, this rate was much slower allowing Will to spend a lot of time outside.
Both the wall lining and the circular river had a purpose, which was to train Will's water abilities. At the beginning Will could only create a True Strike once every hundred strokes, but as time went on this rate improved. Now he could produce a True Strike every two or three attempts. Will felt that his swordsmanship had vastly improved but he was unhappy with his water manipulation.
Will also knew that he was quite far from truly understanding water intent. Thus his next goal was to improve his knowledge in the vast Dao of water. While he was there the circular river was constantly active. It was Will's attempt at recreating a river. He had also tried to make the river as perfectly circular as possible and as symmetrical as possible. Will himself didn't quite know the reason why but his instinct told him that this was the right thing to do so he did.
Currently, Will was also close to completing his True Strike quest. He was only left with 5 strokes until completion. The debacle with the spiders had occurred when Will had decided to adventure outside for a bit before completing his task. Right after his AOE attack, Will quickly descended underwater and headed straight for his cave.
Due to the fact that his attack contained qi and intent, it also counted as a True Strike, thus Will only had four more left to go.
True Strikes: 9996/10000
As Will looked at the numbers at the top right of his screen he shook his head and smiled. It had been a long journey to arrive at this point. Yet the sad thing was Will knew he was not going to get a reward for this. Will looked at his rusty katana and his smile became even wider.
The strength should be reward enough.
"Hah!"
With a stroke, Will unleashed yet another True Strike.
'Hmm? Something is different?'
Will tilted his head in thought and looked at his sword hand. Something had felt different in the last strike. Will wasn't quite sure what it was, but there was definitely something different.
'Let's try this again.'
"Hah!"
Normally Will's True Strikes would be stopped by the wall lining. At the moment of attack, Will would concentrate most of the lining at the point of impact to resist the attack. Will also intentionally weakened his attacks to make this so. Yet the moment he struck out, Will felt the energy in his body quiver and he releases far more energy than he had anticipated! The result was obvious. His water wall could barely hold the attack.
'My body didn't just release more energy. There was something else, something different. But I just can't put my finger on it!'
Will shook his head and decides to focus.
"Hah!"
This time his body not only drained even more energy from his body, but there was also an odd sensation of resistance as Will tried striking as if he was pushing against something extremely heavy.
The water wall was like paper in front of this attack and crumbled, resulting in a large gash within the wall itself.
Will once more looked at his sword, this time hesitation flickered within his eyes.
Following the previous pattern, something strange will happen with the fourth strike. The first one my body felt off, the second strike I got drained of yuan, the third time I felt resistance as I moved. What will happen next?
True Strikes: 9999/10000
As Will looked at the numbers, multiple thoughts ran through his head but he still could not understand what was happening. Remember, at this point, Will still could not properly understand the SSS manual and he had no teacher. He only had a very basic understanding of cultivation and was no different from a blind man walking by feeling the ground.
When Will braced himself for his last stroke he could feel something was about to happen. But he did not waver. Yes, he was somewhat afraid but he was also excited.
Just what would happen next?
"Hah!"