The moment that single word left Violet Sunglass' lips, the figures of both Blissful Leaf and Graceful Rain flickered, before the sound of scythe colliding against gauntlet echoed throughout the martial platform.
The significantly larger weapon came to a complete and utter standstill against Blissful Rain's fist, as a formless, intangible glow flowed throughout her body.
"Strength Attribute and Qi Attribute?", someone muttered.
Blissful Leaf smirked slightly, noticing Graceful Rain's surprise, before pushing off, sending out a flurry of precise kicks and punches towards her opponent.
Graceful Rain spun the unique polearm in her hands, letting Blissful Leaf's punches collide with the staff, causing vibrations to bounce up her arms, disrupting her own internal qi and blood flow. Graceful Rain took several steps back, narrowing her eyes at Blissful Leaf, noticing the faint taste of blood on her tongue.
Some knowledgeable Fae Masters in the crowd watched their figures flicker once more, although Graceful Rain was definitely the one of the defensive.
"Strength Attribute Fae doesn't actually just focus on physical strength. It works around the notion of "strengthening". Technically, Fae Masters that specialize in this Attribute can strengthen not just themselves, but even things around them. They can strengthened their fellow Fae Masters, or even strengthen Laws or Intent to some degree. It can work both offensively and defensively, but its supportive capabilities aren't anything to shabby either".
The amount of force behind Blissful Leaf's punches and kicks were immense.
As a practitioner of the School of Techniques, an offshoot of the School of War, Blissful Leaf honed her martial arts from an extremely young age. The weakness of martial arts, which lacked ranged attacks could be fixed with some special types of Fae, although Blissful Leaf had some extra Fae which supplemented her weakness.
And against an opponent who also fights in close quarters, like Graceful Rain, she had the upper hand.
"Her kicks are like lightning striking the ground, and her punches carry the same weight as a spirit beast, whom normally possess higher strength than Fae Masters of the same Rank".
"Even against corpses and spirit beasts she doesn't need to fear them. Her defences are low but so long as she can just touch her opponent, they won't be able to escape her grip".
"I'm afraid that when combined with Qi Attributed Fae, the Strength Attribute truly blooms".
The Qi Attribute was something that despite all living things possessing, could only be truly harnessed by a member of the Myriad Races.
The Breath Race, which possessed innate Wind and Qi Attributes, could use this ability to the utmost fullest, producing extraordinary abilities and powers with their martial arts. Despite qi being within all living things, most Fae Masters don't train such abilities, obviously lacking the Fae, or the knowledge on how to refine it.
Qi is essentially the manifestation of lifeforce within a living creatures body. It is constantly active and growing until a person enters their twilight years, and can be grown and nurtured using martial arts, and specific breathing techniques.
When a person refines their qi to a certain point, it can actually positively affect their lifespan, or their physical fitness. However, that is only from a mortals perspective.
A Fae Master can use Fae to refine their qi and use combatable martial arts in order to enhance their physical and mental abilities. Furthering this, once qi reaches a density when it can be perceived with the naked eye, it can be used at range in order to fight opponents.
It was an extremely mysterious Attribute. With even more mysterious notions and Laws behind it.
Blissful Leaf let out a breath of glowing white qi.
The qi congregated around her fist, swirling like wind, but glowing like the rising sun. The brightly coloured aura was obviously noticed by Graceful Rain, and her eyes widened as Blissful Leaf smirked, extending her open palm forward.
"Qi Attribute Control Skill: Crushing Buddha Palm!".
A giant qi construct was sent flying towards Graceful Rain, the image of a giant open palm was sent flying towards her, as Blissful Leaf wiped a bead of sweat off her brow. Using such an Attribute Control Skill while only being a liquid ruby origin essence Fae Master took out a lot of her origin essence, but with such a skill, and its large area of affect, there was no way for Graceful Rain to-.
"Whirling Tide".
Graceful Rain just spoke those two words, before tapping the butt of her scythe on the ground, activating one of the Fae nodes within her Fae Weapon.
The dark blue coloured scythe started to rotate in front of Graceful Rain, spinning uncontrollably before releasing a seemingly endless amount of water.
The water gathered around the blades edge, spinning rapidly in such large amounts, that it formed a whirlpool directly in front of Graceful Rain. The eyes of several Fae Masters in the audience widened, as even Violet Sunglass showed an expression of awe.
Despite its size, the power behind that whirlpool wasn't by any means low. In fact, the rotation and the cutting power of the scythe was enhanced so much that it exceeded the limits of a Rank 2 Fae Master.
But that could only mean-.
"A two star Rank 3 Fae Weapon!?".
Dagen cried out, over the sounds of water rotating.
He watched intently, as the enormous qi palm strike came into contact with the rotating whirlpool. The qi was sudden absorbed into the centre of the whirling tide, before the scythe was once again clasped by Graceful Rain, whom also seemed significantly drained.
It was almost as if that single palm strike had never happened. It just came into contact with the whirlpool, before being diffused by the power of water.
Arthur's brows furrowed and even Vladimir seemed intrigued.
The Formless Night Shadow muttered something, so low that only Arthur could discern it.
"That power and its diffusion ability.... the creator must've at least perceive the first two levels of Water Laws. I wonder where this girl comes from exactly....".
Arthur had exactly the same thought.
'Water Laws and Water Attributed Forging.... In Human Heaven at least, I can only think of two, possibly three people that can do such a thing this early on. But given the time and the current year, they can't possibly be a Fae Immortal. They are Rank 5, Rank 4 at the very least....'.
Arthur remembered the Fae Weapon remnant that he found within the Winter Rain Mountain. The thought of getting that repaired had completed faded from his mind, knowing that finding a Fae Blacksmith that could restore this to even half its original calibre was almost impossible.
But.... in the future it wouldn't be impossible.
'They most definitely aren't a Rank 4 Fae Blacksmith. More than likely, this particular weapon is the very limits of their current potential. Perhaps, even if I can't repair this Fae Weapon myself, I can gift it away and forge some relationships with this unknown Fae Blacksmith....'.
Vladimir was also quite interested in this unknown Fae Blacksmith, and would undoubtably be reporting it to some of the Elders within his Sect.
Even if they would only keep an eye on this Fae Blacksmith, giving him some benefits in order to forge a relationship with him might be useful in the future.
Arthur took a half step forward, before noticing a figure flicker onto the stage. Noticing the familiar blonde hair and eyes, Arthur's eyes widened, and he turned to his side, noticing the Black Copy Fae standing beside him.
It was currently replicating all of Vladimir's cultivation base, emotions and presence to perfection. Even Arthur didn't notice the change in presence until he saw Vladimir's original body move.
"You-".
Arthur knew Vladimir better than anyone else, and knew that he valued talented Fae Masters. He picked him up out of a dangerous situation and all, and eventually allowed him to join the Nightime Demon Sect.
He had obviously taken a liking to this young woman.
Not her body or her personality of course, but her talent and background.
Seeing this unfamiliar man stand on the martial platform, even Violet Sunglass and Blissful Leaf felt shocked and fearful as Vladimir suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Neither his presence, nor his cultivation base could be discerned, but seeing his young face, it almost seemed strange that a such a young genius could remain hidden within White Corpse City.
The handsome possessor of the Formless Night Shadow bowed right in front of Graceful Rain.
"Good evening my lady. This may seem forward, but would you like to go out to dinner with me sometime?".