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(Yi Feng POV)
I stood on the training ground with a scythe in hand. I could feel drops of sweat trailing down my face. In fact my entire body had been covered in sweat, my skin glistened as the sun's light hit me.
I was currently in a training outfit which exposed my arms and legs. It gave me an excellent amount of movement unlike the free flowing robes with extended skirts and long sleeves.
I firmly gripped the scythe in my hands once more before I ran towards the dummy in the center. I leapt into the air while plunging the blade down diagonally. The dummy was simply made of wood and straw, splitting quite easily. But before the top half could slide off the dummy I used the momentum of my slash to spin around and slash it once more, this time horizontally.
The dummy split into four separate pieces and fell apart.
All this time I've been trying to figure out a set of scythe movements. Wide sweeping strikes, arching slashes, and puncturing stabs. I was trying to use the entire metal implement attached to the side of this pole. The double edged blade and extremely sharp point could be used, but since it wasn't like a spear I had to completely change the way I thought about using this weapon.
The way the weapon moved was almost like how people would use a large axe, the only difference was that this weapon had the ability to hook and pull. If I missed a swipe I could simply turn the weapon and pull it back to me, preferably hooking onto a part of their body or weapon along the way.
I could also try to use the bottom of the pole like those who practice the bowstaff, but
I felt that it wouldn't be a scythe fighting style anymore if I did.
Suddenly, a clear voice sounded out in the training grounds.
"Oh is this where my supply of training dummies have gone? Hmm, why does it look like you've destroyed each and every single one of them?"
"Ah-um! S-sister Daji, what a coincidence that you're here!" I spoke while trying to hide the large weapon I had behind me.
She slightly turned her eyes to my side before returning her gaze to me.
"Now about my dummies, you wouldn't happen to know why they are all here, in your training grounds do you? And all chopped up into several pieces either?"
"I-I Um… I'm sorry…" I loosen my grip and the scythe behind me fell into view, though I'm pretty sure she was staring at the large blade which was probably exposed from my side earlier.
"*Sigh* Sister Feng, why are you like this? You don't need dummies to hit, all you need is this courtyard to practice your moves in. Even if you brought some dummies over, did you have to use your sharp weapon to practice? Couldn't you have simply used a dull wood one instead?
Those dummies are for the mass training grounds, just look at how many you've taken." She pointed behind me and I turned with her.
There lay a large mound of similar dummies to the one I just cut up. It mounted up to be as tall as me if not a little taller, I think there's around 300 cut up dummies in there.
"Ha…ha…"
"Don't you just "Haha" at me! We only had around 500 in spare and you just cut that down 60%! From now on you don't get to have even a single one more! Those final 5 you have are the only ones you get! You can't just use my name to deplete my sect of resources!"
"But, But! I need them! I can't just hit nothing! I need to feel that I've hit something and gone through it! If I used a wooden scythe it just wouldn't feel the same! Please! Give me some more!"
"No! Why don't you go and train on something else instead then?! Something less violent and involving my dummies! And throw those broken dummies away! It's your job now since you broke them." Quickly she turned around and left, leaving me all alone with my large pile of dummy parts.
I turned around to look at my work. Heaving a deep sigh my head drooped as I thought about the task ahead. The work wasn't hard, but simply tedious. I couldn't even refute it since I was the one and only one alone who caused this.
'Another focus to train on huh? Hmm, now that I think about it I think I need to learn some spatial laws. It could help me escape that demon if I learned it, maybe I could have even escaped my death. I don't believe any of the women who were with me knew any. If they did, they should have been able to escape, right?
Even if she does have a way to lock down our spatial coordinates, having this skill would still be useful in other situations. If she doesn't then that just means I can escape whenever I want, or perhaps I could even use it to fight her. Ohh now that would be quite enjoyable if possible.'
I went over to the pile and piece by piece I took parts and shoved them into the spatial ring I had, but even when it was full to the brim the pile was still there.
As I removed ring after ring full of debris it was finally emptying out and the ground beneath it was gradually reappearing.
The plan we originally had to sneak into the sect was still something we would do, but first Li Daji had things to take care of such as how her sect would operate while she was gone. I welcomed it since it would give me time to practice with this new weapon of mine and get used to life again.
That time that I spent in that endless void was painfully long, I could practically feel every second of it pass. It's a little funny how even after I've died and came back to life I'm back to training. To surpass who I was in the past who I thought was pretty unkillable. When will I get to enjoy life?
Once that demon is gone, will I also have to deal with his sixth disciple, Li Daji? Fulfilling my revenge won't make me happy, at least not forever. My first love has done no wrong, simply not knowing doesn't mean I should fault him too.
If I was the one who managed to meet my love first before she did I could probably fulfill both my revenge and have a good reason to live onward. Even If I'm not as seductive as Sister Daji nor as elegant as that demon appears to be I hope he can accept me as he did back then. As long as I persist in my goal I'm sure I'll be able to reach him one day.
The current me isn't even comparable to them in terms of cultivation though, If I'm going to have a chance I'm going to need some kind of trump card.
'I'm going to keep working hard! Not even death can keep me down, how could I simply give up because of a mere difference in cultivation? Oh second thought, I can't even detect Li Daji's cultivation, I'll need to learn to be sneaky and stealthy.'
At that moment I felt an odd sensation and resonance coming from my scythe which I simply had tethered to my back, normally I would have it in the ring, but to make more room for the debris I took it out.
I immediately stopped picking up more debris and instead I took the scythe off my back. My eyes scanned the blade to see if there was any noticeable change when my eyes stopped at the blade.
There, like a translucent and thin film, a dark and eerie flame engulfed the blade. No heat was produced, instead I even felt a slight chill looking at it.
'What is this? I've never seen anything like it before.'
The black wisps from when I first acquired the weapon had never come out again after. It was almost like the entire process never occurred and I had simply come out of that building with a normal scythe. Now something occurred once again and I didn't know whether to be ecstatic or apprehensive.
'It doesn't seem like it'll hurt me, perhaps it's this weapon's ability? How did it come out though? Was there some kind of trigger? Hmm, I wonder if it was about Hard work?'
The intensity of the flame and color stayed the same.
'What about Cultivation?'
"..."
'No? How about Sneaky and Stealthy?'
"..."
'Maybe it wasn't some thought, but my actions? I have one more possible word, death.'
*Foosh* The flame intensity increased by a bit and the color became a bit more opaque.
'Wow, of course it's death and I had to have thought about it as the fourth one as well.'(4 in Chinese is very similar to the word death when spoken. It's also known as an unlucky number because of its similarity.)
Once again the flame increased in intensity a bit more and darkened too.
'Death'
Another time over it did it again.
'Death'
"..." I blankly stared at the scythe as this time nothing occurred.
'Four again huh? Damn, so that means I can't just infinitely say this word to increase it? Does this flame have any real purpose besides cosmetics? Also why does it resonate with me saying death? Hmm, actually this is my second life, maybe it's why this scythe picked me in the first place. Now let's see if this fire has any substance!'
I took a good look at the flame before looking at the remaining debris I had, the entire thing even happened to be flammable. When this flame first appeared it looked a little cute, but now with the intensity increased and color darkened it looks a little more fearsome. It's not at the level of magnificence yet, but if I could find a way to continue improving it it will be one.
I took slow steps over to the debris with anticipation and when I was in front of it I raised the scythe back before slashing a wide sweeping strike. A piece of the straw caught fire and the black flames began to spread slowly. It took minutes before it spread across the entire pile.
'Is this fire? Black fire? Is there any difference between this and normal fire? There has to be, why else would it respond to the word death? Maybe it's a hidden attribute?'
After some time of staring at the straw I noticed some changes. The originally bright yellow straw and brown wood changed into a gray-ish color, it was like the life of the object had left and it had gone through years of hardship.
'Is this the.. death attribute? Death Qi? I-I've only ever heard legends about this existing, it's of a mythical existence! I think I remember hearing my love say he had fought a user of Death Qi before, but I couldn't believe it.
This couldn't possibly be true Death Qi though, at least not yet. I remember that feeling I had of this weapon being able to upgrade itself. Currently it seems this scythe can use a Qi of the same type as Death Qi, Qi of Decay I believe.
With this I can compete with a number of those in a higher realm than I, but I still need to be able to control this. I'm not unstoppable with this power, but simply more powerful.'
As the pile turned paler by the second I felt my own energy being sapped from me. It used my Qi almost like a delayed transaction, only after some time would the cost be paid. But this meant that perhaps I would be able to pass my limit, but how dangerous would that be?
Feeling the drain it had on my Qi reserves I realized that I couldn't simply use this whenever I wished, at least not now. This would be my trump card for now.