She glanced out her window towards the courtyard where Benedict was training. The boy inhaled and felt the cold winter breeze brush his cheek. A familiar warmth emerged from his body as he circulated his Martial Energy. At the same time, the wind swept up the loose leaves off the trees and they danced in the sky. A myriad of colors instantly filled the courtyard! Benedict then pushed his Martial Energy into his eyes. Mock Perception! His eyesight instantly enhanced to an unbelievable level, flooding his mind with a tsunami of information. The world was revealed before him! Time seemed to slow down for a fraction of a second, enough to make the airborne leaves move at a snail's pace. He shifted his Martial Energy and his sword erupted with blinding speed. Cloud Sea Style! Slash!
Time resumed and the leaves fell to the ground. Looking closely, around two-fifths of the leaves were split perfectly into two, another one-fifth had a mess of random cuts, and the remaining leaves were left untouched, causing Benedict to sigh. This was far from what he hoped for. Although he managed Mock Perception using Martial Energy, it was a cheap imitation. Shirley could genuinely use Mock Perception without Martial Energy, which stood to reason since she was bordering Half-Perception Realm now. Benedict's awkward reliance on Martial Energy impacted his combat strength since he could no longer fully invest his energy into offense or defense. The multitasking required and shifting of energy were also glaring issues. In a battle where life and death could be decided in an instant, he could not afford to mess up!
That was why he was doing this training because his swordsmanship was reaching a bottleneck at the Major Sword Form stage. Between Minor and Major Sword Form, the difficulty was not so exaggerated, but moving from Major to Perfect Sword Form was a huge jump in difficulty. It would not be fitting if perfection was anything less! There was no need to talk about Sword Intent, which was another stage above Sword Form. Currently, Benedict believed that his Martial Energy mastery and his bodily control were the major factors hindering his progress. If he wanted to move forward, he needed to advance to the Perception Realm! He needed to further familiarize himself with Martial Energy and master it. He needed to use Martial Energy without thinking, as if it were his own hands and feet. He needed to summon it on command with turbulent force like a storm or gentle force like a breeze.
In the end, that was what really divided Rank 1 Mortals and Rank 2 Lords. Fundamental Realm and Gaseous Fog taught the basic skills required to harness and manipulate their respective energies. Rank 1 Mortal was the introductory rank, the starting point for everyone. Rank 2 Lord was the grand dividing line that thoroughly demarcated the average from the talented. It symbolized that their mastery over energy was making a qualitative and quantitative transformation! For Condensed Drops, it appeared in the form of condensing their Magic Energy into a concentrated droplet. For Perception Realms, it appeared in the form of their senses explosively increasing in capability. Therefore, Benedict training his Martial Energy was equivalent to advancing to Perception Realm!
After doing this exercise for two months now, he felt that the flow of his Martial Energy was growing smoother. It was identical to Elizabeth's situation! He inhaled and drew the air deep into his lungs, revitalizing his tired body. With every breath, he could feel his body brimming with power, ready to burst out with fearsome might. His eyesight sharpened, his hearing amplified, and the rest of his senses were improving too. When he clenched his fists, popping noises could be heard! As of right now, he was a Fundamental Realm Expert, but he felt extremely close to the boundary of Fundamental Realm Master. Once he made that step, he would stand alongside the likes of his brother, Sir Lorenzo, a Great Knight of the Realm. Coupled with his Martial Energy, he could become a Rank Transcendent Lord, capable of toppling Grand Knights! Benedict exhaled and repeated his routine again. There was still time until sunset!
Shirley was elsewhere in the courtyard with a wooden sword in her hands. In front of her was a standing post with a lit candle on top, placed an arm's length away. The gentle and consistent flame seemed to mock her efforts, but she completely ignored it. Even the sound of the wind, the biting cold, the looks of curious servants or soldiers, she discarded everything as her concentration approached its zenith! Nothing else in the world mattered! This feeling of absolute focus was exactly the same feeling she had when she first grasped Mock Perception. Back then, she was pushed by the circumstances in a life-or-death situation to breakthrough and reverse the odds. Despite that, the current situation was not the same. She stood in a basic sword stance and inhaled. Her legs shifted back, her shoulders straightened, and her arms held high above her head, her movements were extremely clean. It was clear that she practiced hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Her entire body was like a bound spring! In her mind, nothing existed except her sword. Her sword was her world!
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, and she unleashed the strongest attack she could. Her sword came flying down like a meteor! At the same time, she focused on her body, trying to detect the movement of Martial Energy. Mock Perception! There it was! Shirley was elated because she could feel the faintest feeling of something inside her body. According to Benedict, it was her Martial Energy! Contrary to Magic Energy which only resided in the Core, Martial Energy was something that permeated the entire body. Many people called it willpower, stamina, or internal energy because of this reason. Every action, regardless of how trivial it may be, utilized some degree of Martial Energy. Martial Energy acted on the internal, while Magic Energy acted on the external. Everyone could use it subconsciously, and the mark of a true martial artist was being able to manipulate it at will.
Through her efforts, Shirley could feel that 'something was there'; however, her attempts at controlling it failed miserably. If she had to describe it, it was like trying to move her neighbour's cat. That cat was so lazy that she could pet him, play with his feet, or give him treats, but he would only glare at and ignore her. He would feel too apathetic to bother with her. Shirley spent a lot of time playing with him when she was younger, trying to see what she could do to get reaction out of him. However, the more she tried, the more the cat would ignore her, as if stubbornness was rooted in his bones! Shirley felt that her Martial Energy was the same. She could not even muster up her Martial Energy, much less project it into a flying sword slash to douse the candle's flame. It seemed like a fool's errand no matter how much she tried. The worst part was that… once in a blue moon, she would actually succeed!
Two days ago, her Martial Energy erupted with monstrous potency and amplified her sword strike, completely bisecting the candle and the stand together! This was not the first time this happened. Shirley looked back on the past month and realized that every few days, one of her hundreds of strikes would contain earth-shattering Martial Energy! Unfortunately, that feeling was as intangible as air itself. She had no idea why it happened and no idea how to repeat it. Even with Mock Perception, the result was the same. It seemed random! At least with the cat, she enjoyed herself, but this frustrated her to no end. Shirley sighed and decided to take a break. Despite the cold winter breeze, she was drenched in sweat from training the entire afternoon, so much so that her clothes were beginning to stick to her skin. It was a disgusting feeling. Furthermore, she was exhausted.
Regardless of the outcome, Martial Energy was being used in some form or another. Adding to that her extensive usage of Mock Perception, which required her peak concentration, then it came as no surprise that she was tired. However, Shirley could feel her improvement with every passing day. In the beginning, she felt like an idiot swinging her sword around, hoping to learn Martial Energy that way. It was embarrassing enough, having to weather through the peculiar glances from the servants and soldiers. It took her a long time before she began sensing Martial Energy inside her body, and longer still for her miraculous one-in-a-thousand flying sword strike to appear. Some might think that her progress was painfully slow, including the girl herself, except it could not be further from the truth. In the human world, the number of people that could produce a flying strike was likely less than ten. Less than ten and Shirley was close to being one! She was already a Fundamental Realm Master. When she finally learns Martial Energy, she would officially step into Half-Perception Realm!