[Author's Note: I would love to have anyone that can please contact me at YuStarrunner173@gmail.com to give me some feedback on how I have been doing. I have some hang-ups about how some things are going but don't want to make a large change without at least someone's opinion. I really need a second person to run some things by… I have been trying to get feedback through comments but apparently that does not work. Please do not be afraid to contact me, I promise I don't bite.]
After Qing Shan helped Qian Zhen off the stage, only one thought rang through the audience's mind.
'What the hell was that?'
Everyone had noticed, in some shape or form, how Qing Shan suddenly changed during the battle. His movements in the beginning had looked well-refined and practiced to a high degree, yet when this change had happened it was as though he became an entirely different person. For one, his attacks and movements were all faster and stronger! He had begun moving fluidly, like every single movement was unified together. It was as though every single fiber of his body moved at the exact same time…
While some were able to comprehend the change that came over Qing Shan a bit more than others, no one could say for sure what had happened. All they knew was that they had witnessed Qing Shan growing in real-time, and that was frightening.
As Qing Shan was walking back onto the stage, the official came up to him.
'Before you challenge another person, I would like to tell you to do it at the Inner ring. You have taken far too much of these people's time.'
Although the man seemed angered, Qing Shan could tell that he was thinking about everyone else here, which was more than Qing Shan could say for himself. He exited the arena, and followed behind a few young adults like himself that claimed to be from the building that he had just taken the top ranking of; 18-A.
Other than Qian Zhen, Qing Shan did not bother to learn the other's names. He was not planning on staying in section 18 for very long.
At this time, it was late in the afternoon. Qing Shan had been fighting for most of the day. It was good that he had had the foresight to tell Tang Hua that he would not be able to make it to the forge today.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, Qing Shan did not immediately enter the ring once he arrived at the location of the Inner Ring. He took a moment to observe his surroundings. The Inner Ring was at least five times the size of the Outer Ring, and the stage seemed as though it was three times larger. The number of buildings easily made you forget that the Inner Ring was not really near any sort of other civilization. However, Qing Shan found that one thing was a little strange.
Qing Shan tapped the shoulder of a man in front of him, before asking his question.
"Why are those buildings much larger than the rest?"
He pointed in the direction of said buildings.
"Those are the buildings that contain the Origin Soul cultivators. Those buildings are sections 1 through 7 and 8-A."
"Why only 8-A?"
"Well, 8-B has the best Peak Formation Soul Cultivators like us, and everything above them is Origin Soul."
'Ah, to that's what it was. I guess everywhere you go will give better accommodations for the strong.'
After looking around, Qing Shan finally stepped onto the stage. Instantly, Everyone's eyes were on him.
Surprisingly, a young woman also leapt onto the stage.
"I, Qian Yong, the highest ranker of section 17, challenge Qing Shan to a duel."
Everyone, including Qing Shan stared at the girl. Although there were no rules against it, it was practically unheard of to challenge someone with a lower rank than you.
Qing Shan nodded curtly. He had been about to challenge her anyway.
"You just beat my brother, so now it's my turn to take a stab at you."
'Ah, so she's Qian Zhen's sister.'
"Fair Enough."
An Elder walked on stage to officiate the match.
"Fight!"
Neither Qing Shan nor Qian Yong moved as they seized each other up.
Unlike her brother, Qian Young used a weapon much more familiar to Qing Shan; a spear. That meant that this would be an amazing test of how far he had come. After all, he had only just started using a spear in comparison to this girl, who had most likely been using it for her whole life.
Qian Yong darted in first, a confident smile on her face. As far as she could tell, Qing Shan was relatively inexperienced with the spear. She instantly let out a quick barrage of thrusts, which Qing Shan only barely managed to deflect. That opening attack of hers was much deadlier than Shen Yi's.
Fortunately, there were less attacks than Shen Yi's combo, which made it easier for him to dodge. Qing Shan whirled to his left, a loud sound of metal on metal ringing out as he blocked a slash. Qing Shan kept his leftward momentum while thrusting backwards with his spear, and knew that he had hit Qian Yong in one of her legs. Qing Shan finished turning around while bending over slightly to dodge another thrust at his head.
Once Qing Shan was facing his opponent once more he began his own attack; he sent a strong thrust forward at an angle that allowed him to deflect another slash with the shaft of his spear. Qing Shan took his chance while Qian Yong was dodging to dart in closer with Spring Motion, and swung his spear at the girl's head. The girl dodged the attack by utilizing her small, thin frame, to duck down and move even closer to Qing Shan.
Once she was practically inside the crook of Qing Shan's arm, the butt of the girl's spear was firmly planted in Qing Shan's stomach.
Qing Shan stumbled backwards, surprised by Qian Yong's tricky move. Qian Yong did not let Qing Shan regain his balance easily, and she rushed in, sending another flurry of attacks at Qing Shan. Unlike her earlier combo, this was a combination of not only thrusts, but slashes and swings as well.
Qing Shan found himself having to resort to using a technique he was still learning, which was something that could barely be classified as a Martial Skill. The technique was called Micro Shift, and it allowed Qing Shan to dodge attacks in a small time frame by dodging as little as possible. This technique was not a commonly used Martial Skill due to its difficulty and impracticality. The technique essentially allowed someone to speed up on section of their body for a tiny fraction of a second. It was considered impractical because someone needed to have an amazing reaction speed and perception in order to utilize this small fraction of a second. Even for Qing Shan, the window of enhanced movement felt like a half-second feels for normal people. The only upside of the skill was that it did not require anything too difficult in terms of Qi manipulation.
Anyways, Qing Shan used his Micro Shift to seamlessly dodge Qian Yong's flurry of attacks. Unfortunately, he was too focused on dodging her spear and thus did not see her foot flying at his side until the last moment.
Qing Shan utilized Micro shift to minimize the damage, but he could tell that he would be getting a large bruise in both his stomach and right side later.
Qing Shan fell to the ground.
"I concede."
Qian Yong smiled smugly, in a way that Qing Shan could not help but admit was attractive. He raised a hand, as if to say that he did not need help, and stood, before bowing to Qian Yong.
"Thank you for the fight. You have given me a lot to think about."
Qing Shan walked away, waving off the man that asked to take him to the infirmary.
"I am fine. There will just be some bruising."
Qing Shan walked into the building marked '18-A' and walked up the stairs to the first-ranker's room. He entered the room, leaned his spear against the wall, and entered the Primal Pocket Dimension.
'So much for those bruises.'
Qing Shan exited the Primal Pocket Dimension and decided to sleep. He had fought far too many battles today to forgo that.
Qing Shan woke up early and walked to the individual training halls that were adjacent to the Inner Ring. He could immediately tell the difference in quality between the two halls. The potency of the runes seemed to be a small amount higher than the ones on the second floor of the Open Hall, which was a surprise. The room was also twice the size of the training halls open to the people of the Outer Ring, which was quite nice.
Qing Shan sat down, and began training his Micro Shift technique. When training the technique, he only had to move his mana in a different way, which caused the speeding up of his body momentarily. For this motion, he had to stop his flow of mana through one mana loop for a very small amount of time. It was as though he was sticking his finger into a stream of water, then pulling it out as fast as possible. This act caused a lump of Qi to gather, making a stronger pulse go through his Qi loops. This could also be used to give him a burst of strength. The Micro Shift technique was actually possible without the usage of Qi, considering Qing Shan's perception of time, however he still did not have enough control over his muscles and all parts of his body for this to be reliable. In order to use the technique without Qi, he would have to be able to tense and unclench his muscles in a time less than a tenth of a second. This technique would become much easier once Qing Shan reached the Origin Soul Realm and became able to control Qi outside of the spiritual level of his body.
After training that technique, Qing Shan sat down to do some visualization training. Because he was not actually fighting anyone, nor did he have a sparring partner, visualization training was much more time-efficient than fighting the air.
In his mind, Qing Shan compared his spear technique with that of Qian Yong. He created a sort of model of himself moving with the spear how he normally did and placed it in his mind. Because of his perception of time, it had always been relatively easy for him accurately play out real scenarios in his mind in detail. Next, Qing Shan created a mental image of Qian Yong with her spear and placed it in his mind. He then had that mental image begin moving how he remembered her moving. He kept tweaking her style with the spear until he felt that his model was an accurate representation. Qing Shan then began to compare the two styles of combat.
Generally Qing Shan's combat a mixture of three moves when he was using the spear. He had his thrust, the slice from one side to the other with the spear, which was usually diagonal from his top left to his bottom right, and a swing which attacked with the shaft of his spear. He used these three attacks primarily, but did slip in some tricks occasionally, such as a thrust with the but of his spear. Even without comparing his spearmanship to Qian Yong's, Qing Shan could make out a few flaws in his fighting style.
For one, he lacked originality, which made him very predictable. His slash could be used in any direction, yet he almost always used it at the same angle. The largest flaw was the huge opening he exposed while executing the swing. Thanks to his time perception, he was passable in terms of dodging and blocking, but he truly needed to work on stringing together combos like Qian Yong and Shen Yi. Those two girls made a string off attacks seem like one attack, while Qing Shan's fighting seemed to be more like multiple simple attacks executed in an order.
Qing Shan looked at his replica of Qian Yong's spearmanship and saw that most of his thoughts had almost covered everything. However, he putting the two models side-by-side, Qing Shan saw just how much work he had ahead of him. All of Qing Shan's attacks were much slower than Qian Yong's, and this was to an easily discernable degree.
Qing Shan exited out from his trance, suddenly realizing that he was drenched in sweat, and his head was pounding. However, he felt satisfied about realizing his weaknesses.
'Why hadn't I done that earlier?'
Qing Shan did not know that the reason he had had not done this until now was only for the sake of the work count.