Training grounds of city of undead,
Sam along with ninety nine other undead were sitting cross-legged in a an open vast empty field.
Their eyes were closed, their breathing in tandem. Death essence energy were revolving around all of them in a similar fashion. Black runes were floating inside their body which moved to and fro everytime they breathed.
"Remember, you are a team! All of you will be sharing a single body from now on. Imagine yourself as a part of the body. Match your breathing and heartbeat with one another! Open your mind and heart to each other and become one. Unity is strength. This is the essence of the undead battle formation".
"Sam will be the core of team. Transfer your thoughts to each other and make a decision, and Sam will execute the move you decided. Develop a good understanding with each other. This is the key to use the undead battle formation to its full potential".
The Oldman said to the undead an Sam as he moved from one position to another surveying and correcting the undeads training on the ground. Once he was satisfied with everything, he returned to its position.
"Everything looks good now. You have your breathing and heartbeat under control. Now, try to assemble without breaking focus". The Oldman said after he was finished examining everything.
At this moment, all the ninety nine undeads and Sam opened their eyes at the same time. The death essence energy in the surrounding were sucked towards them as they all slowly started to float in the air.
"ASSEMBLE NOW! " sam barked out a command in loud voice.
The black runes flowing through the bodies of every undeads started to connect with each other developing a fully connected channel. Their bodies lit up as they were covered by death essence energies.
"NOW! " Sam who barked out another command at this moment.
All the bodies of undeads along with Sam melded with the death essence energy as a hundred meters tall undead warrior was now standing in their place.
It had the face and body shape similar to Sam's, sword shaped earring was even hanging from its left ear. It's whole body was now covered with black armor. It's eyes however was similar to undeads, black burning candle like flame was in place of its eyes.
If one could see through the death essence energy surrounding the hundred meter undead warrior incarnation of Sam, one would see ninety nine undead warriors sitting cross-legged surrounding Sam at the dantian position of the undead warrior reincarnation.
As the hundred meters undead warrior reincarnation appeared, the death essence energy became chaotic leaving a thunderous rumbling in the air. Sparks of black lighting showered in all direction.
Due to the power of the peak core formation realm cultivation of the undead warriors within the undead battle formation, it caused the battle prowess of the undead batte warrior reincarnation to rise, ematuating fluctuations despite not being of the martial soul realm, were strong enough to fight a martial soul realm cultivator!
Sam as the core of this undead warrior formation could harness the death essence energy from the cultivation base of all the ninety nine undeads who were part of this formation. As a result, he felt a never felt before power coursing through his body.
He let out a heaven piercing roar as he sent the formation incarnation flying in the air executing the sky floating technique to execute fist strikes that would shake everything in the area. Sometimes the formation incarnation would draw upon the cultivation base power power of the cultivators to perform martial techniques like death fist.
Sam could even form any types of weapons by refining the death essence energy in the surrounding. Forming swords and sabers, he could execute sword and saber techniques. Based on the power it's displayed, it was clear that it could fight toe-to-toe with even martial soul realm experts.
"All the battle preparation are done. With this battle formation and other trump card we have prepared, we are only a step away from victory". The Oldman said as he looked at the battle formation. His tone suddenly turned cold and sinister as he continued: "Venerable hallow, this time I will make sure that you never reincarnate by killing your soul. This intense desire for vengeance that doesn't extinguishe even after death, I will fulfill it".
With that, he walked away and soon disappeared from the training ground.
Sanchez who was always standing behind the Oldman felt his blood frozen for a moment. The coldness and bloodthirst that was eminated from his kind and gentle grandpa made his heart tremble.
At that moment, he felt like he was standing beside a berserk bloodthirsty beast which was ready to unleash slaughter on this world.
'Just how much hatred does my grandpa hold towards this venerable hallow? ' He thought to himself.
He always knew that there was blood feud between his grandpa and that venerable hallow after he had heard about the story of venerable twosword. But, at this moment he knew that he underestimated the hatred of his grandpa towards the venerable hallow and his love for the venerable twosword.
Two days later...
Sam, Sanchez and Oldman were seated inside a chair watching the city of dead for the transparent wall of the Oldman's room. There was a teacup in each of their hand. Their mood was relaxed and carefree as they enjoyed the scenery.
"We will attack the ruins of abyss tomorrow. Are you ready? " the Oldman asked.
"I am". Sanchez nodded.
"Ummm..". Sam replied.
"Be prepared for everything". The Oldman took a sip from his cup as he added, "Our opponent is a venerable sovereign, one of the rulers of this world. Even though, he is injured and only in his soul form, we can never predict what is in the store waiting for us. He has a evil army backing him up. Due to his injury, he will not be able to summon all of them but even those he summons will be a headache for us".
"The battle will be brutal. Many of us may die while fighting. We will fight with our life and soul to win the battle but if we lose in any case, I want you both to promise me that you will give priority to save your life first. Promise me!"
"we promise you!" Sam and Sanchez both said seriously.
The Oldman finally smiled. He looked at Sam and said, "Sam, you will be heading battle tomorrow. You maynot return alive. Do you have anything that you ask of me? "
"Not particularly",Sam smiled. "I would be more than happy if you could bestow some good fortune upon my friends who are inside the swordridge valley".
"Consider it done". The Oldman said, "Tommorrow will be a long and hard day. Go take and take some rest. Meditate and maintain your peak state".
Sam and Sanchez nodded and returned back to the cultivation chamber of the Oldman.
Sam had spent a week inside the city of dead. During daytime, he trained in battle formation and sky floating technique with the other undead. Meanwhile, during nighttime, he cultivated essence energy and pondered on his martial skills and movement techniques.
After cultivating for a week, he had cultivated two hundred more colourless essence cores, adding the total number of his essence core to eleven hundreds.
Furthermore, he also practiced his sword skills. After fighting with black scorpions and being trapped inside the myriad weapons killing formation, Sam was already on the verge of a breakthrough. After training, he made a breakthrough with his sword technique. He could now execute the second slash of the six sacred slash.
As for his saber skills, he had difficulty executing the first move. His cultivation was too low to make a breakthrough in his saber techniques.
'Seven steps to reach heavens' was a unique movement technique. After achieving first step, he could move freely within ten meters around himself. After second step, he could move freely within hundred meters around himself. If he could achieve the third step, he could move a thousand meters around himself. With his cultivation and essence energy, just executing the move once will exhaust the living daylight out of him.
He also had the death fist martial technique. He was working towards improving the death fist technique.
Sam had learned from the Oldman that life and death essence energy were opposite to each other but they always exists peacefully. Thus, he wanted to create a fist technique by using both life and death essence energy to execute it.
He had already used the life essence energy to execute the fist technique and created 'life fist'. It was simple technique which had healing effects on living beings while deals damage to undead and the likes.
The first attempt of Sam to create a new fist technique resulted in injuries. His arms had exploded when he could not maintain a balance between life and death essence energy while executing the technique.
Thank god! He had life essence energy to heal himself.
After training for seven days and inflicting sever injuries upon himself, Sam had made a small progress in his technique. He could now maintain a balance between life and death essence energy for a few moment but it was not enough to execute the technique. He wanted to finish his technique today so that he could have another trump card in the battle tomorrow.
Sam opened his palm as two kinds of energies floated above it. One was black and violent while other was green and gentle. As he exerted control, it started to rotate around each other. They seem to push away from each other yet they were strangely attracted to each other.
As the black and green energies rotated towards each other, they started to take the shape of fish: a black fish and a green fish. rotating around each other, they strangely started to give a sense of harmony like they were a part of nature. While looking at them, Sam descended into a strange state of concentration.
His eyes never left the two fishes. Slowly, his body also started to emit both life and death essence energy. One side of his body was shrouded in dark death essence energy while his other side was shrouded with green emerald life essence energy.
The essence energies around his body also slowly started to follow the similar path the two fishes in his palm were taking. A energy field was created around him a two large fishes: a black and green fish started to rotate around his body. It started bear a resemblance to ying-yang symbol.
Sanchez was awoken from his meditation when he sensed the change in essence energy in the room. He was surprised when he saw two fishes made out of essence energy revolving around Sam.
The Oldman also appeared inside the room. When he saw the condition Sam was in, he waved his hand and created a sound barrier around the room. He also send a sound transmission to Sanchez. "Don't make any noise. Let's leave the room quietly. He is a state of comprehension, a mystical state where someone is enlightened, a state many cultivators aspire to reach but could never reach. To make such great progress after hearing a few words, his talents even make me jealous".
The Oldman had Sanchez left the room. Only Sam was inside the room immersed deep in meditation.