Meanwhile, the Sword King was sitting around on a rooftop on the Yunyun Stronghold, carefree and relaxed, as he snacked on some peanuts. It could be said that Lanar adopted his leisurely attitude, or perhaps the other way around. Although he was genuinely devoted to reaching the apex of swordsmanship, he was not blinded by it. He would not squander his newly-attained youth from reaching Instinct Realm. Elizabeth explained it eloquently. His entire personality and sword style could be summarized into 'taking it easy' and 'doing whatever he pleased'. He lived the good life.
However, he was not idling about today since he came to investigate a few potential seedlings. Looking down at the courtyard below, four people were busy training. Who else could it be besides Elizabeth and her friends? Of course, none of them noticed the Sword King. Ever since their conversation ended the other day, the Sword King grew interested in them. He thought there might be more than meets the eye. Not to mention, there was his third disciple, Benedict, too. Was the boy any closer to Sword Intent? While he could have used his senses or True Perception to watch them from afar, old habits died hard, especially now that he was almost one hundred years old. Some things never changed. That was why he wanted to see if the children below could be the change he wanted.
Elizabeth, Benedict, Shirley, and Freon were still recovering from the aftereffects of the Battle of Liguang, so they could not push themselves too much. Without their mysterious helper who saved them from the battle, their corpses might be pushing flowers right now. There was also the problem of their newfound strength. Elizabeth became a Half-Condensed Drop Arcanist mid-battle, Benedict a Fundamental Realm Master, Shirley a Half-Perception Realm, and Freon a Peak Gaseous Fog. Everyone went up another level, and their abilities did too. They needed time to properly acclimate and consolidate everything. It was slow and painful, but necessary.
On one side, Elizabeth was conducting a familiar training exercise. She stretched out her hand and constructed a Magic Circle from her ring. A small metallic bell began to rise and revolve around in the air soundlessly. Unsurprisingly, it was harder than it looked. A little too fast, and the bell would rattle. A little too slow, and she would exceed the time limit. She struggled with this exercise for months before, but she seemed to do it easily now. Ten complete revolutions! Her Half-Condensed Drop Core was not for show! It meant that her magical control and density had reached the prerequisite level to begin coalescing into a single drop. She was one step closer to becoming a full-fledged Condensed Drop Arcanist!
Elizabeth's face dimmed when she glanced at a second bell though. It was ten times the size, and ten times the weight of her first bell! It looked like a small melon, and by merely sitting on the ground, it created an indent in the dirt. It was easy to guess how heavy it might be! Her current task was to levitate and revolve this bell, much like the first one, yet the power, dexterity, and control required was on a whole other level. Her pseudo-Core would have helped here, except it was destroyed in the Battle of Liguang, leaving her to struggle. She could barely move the bell! Assuming she succeeded, the task afterwards would be to control both bells simultaneously. However, as everyone knew, a spell could not operate on things differently. It either was or it was not. There was no in-between. Therefore, to control both bells simultaneously meant double-casting! Elizabeth sighed. That distant and legendary technique was finally within reach!
Benedict swung a wooden sword in broad, but powerful strokes, and then simple, but precise strikes in one corner of the courtyard. Although the two styles contrasted one another, he seemed to blend them together in a natural way. They were the Cloud Sea Style and the Hawken Style! The Cloud Sea Style, developed by Sword King Sin Quelldown, focused on pure offensive power while the Hawken Style, developed by generations of the Hawken Household, focused on pure defensive power. Originally, blending them together was a feat beyond his skill, but he seemed to grasp the essence of swordsmanship better from the Battle of Liguang. His flow of Martial Energy also grew much smoother than before, allowing him to execute martial techniques much easier and he advanced to Fundamental Realm Master too. His level of improvement was astonishing!
Currently, his mind was abuzz with all sorts of different weird and exciting ideas that he needed to try out. Most of them might be worthless, but who knows? There might be a shining gem hidden in the pile! He also needed to sort out the final technique he used in the battle, Autumn Hawk. Perhaps his extreme blood loss affected his memory, but he could barely remember it anymore. Like smoke fading in the air, all he could gather were bits and pieces. It would take him a long time to fully digest all his inspirations from the battle and consolidate his swordsmanship. However, Benedict was confident that this was the key he needed to break into Perfect Sword Form and Half-Perception Realm. From then on, it would not be long before he reached Sword Intent and Perception Realm! The future was within his grasp!
On another side, Shirley held a wooden sword and inhaled. Prior to the Battle of Liguang, she struggled to grasp Martial Energy. It was like an illusionary feeling, one which disappeared as soon as you got close, just barely out of reach. She could never make that final step forward, making her understandably frustrated. For example, when she trained to use flying strikes, her success rate was less than one in a hundred. It would take several days and hundreds of attempts to succeed once! The Battle of Liguang, for better or for worse, forced her to mature or die trying. Now… she raised her sword and swung down. Whoosh! A flying strike emerged to split a nearby rock perfectly in half. What was once a struggle to her became as easy as breathing. She could hardly believe it herself. It was no wonder she became a Half-Perception Realm. Her mastery of Martial Energy had grown by leaps and bounds!
Her next training was inspired by Elizabeth: to increase her overall control and familiarity. She had power, but that was all. An egg would explode with too much pressure, and the same could be said about her. She needed to properly regulate and control her strength, otherwise, her days would be numbered. To that end, Shirley had an actual melon in front of her. She needed to control her Martial Energy output enough to pierce through the skin, but not enough to touch the flesh underneath. In other words, she had to peel the fruit without touching it! Piles of mangled melons showed how difficult it was. Shirley felt exhausted since every flying strike used up Martial Energy. It was no different from sprinting for hours on end! Still, she persisted because she had a feeling this was her final challenge before Perception Realm!
Freon was perhaps the most ordinary of the four as he sat quietly with a book in hand. This book described most of the major spells being used in the world today, as well as how to reproduce them, up to Peak Gaseous Fog Core Level. Of course, the more powerful, obscure, or dangerous spells were not recorded within, such as the Ten Dawn's large-scale tactical spells. Any written records of them were locked away from prying eyes. As for why Freon was reading up on spells, the reason was simple: he realized his weaknesses with the Battle of Liguang. His abilities were too lopsided and gimmicky, focusing on sheer destructive potential with his Bloodline Ability. He did fix this somewhat with the partial transformation he developed, except he wanted to shift his reliance off his Bloodline Ability and back onto his normal spells. His Bloodline Ability should stay as his final trump card.
He memorized the spell on the page and slowly recreated it with his wand. The Magic Circle flickered in and out of existence like a dying candle to the wind; however, nothing else happened. It was clear that his energy was insufficient. Freon exhaled and intensified his energy output by two-fold! Finally, the Magic Circle flared to life and formed a very pale green fire when boom! The spell exploded in his face and knocked him over. Thankfully, the force was not very powerful, due to his overly cautious energy output, but it did little to sooth his mood. This spell was too tricky and outside his expertise. In fact, the same scene repeated tens of times today alone, numbing his friends from the shock. They were used to it now. Nevertheless, Freon firmly believed this would increase his combat potential by a large margin. He needed to improve for the battles to come!