After cleaning himself, he put on the clothes lying on the ground. The outfit consisted of two parts connected to each other: the chest part and the lower body part. The chest part was red and made of light fabric, while the lower part was yellow and made of thick animal skin. Additionally, the outfit included brown greaves, with only the boots visible underneath the lower garment. The clothes left his chest and arms exposed, revealing his more muscular body. He looked like a young warrior from a distinguished battle clan.
Looking at his reflection in the lake, Kaelen gave a satisfied nod.
"Very good, very good. Now, for my strength."
Closing his hands into fists, he glanced slyly at Old Dai, who was still looking at the sky. In a swift step, he disappeared into a crimson-gold flash. From his old position, he reappeared above the old Daoist. He extended his right leg in a downward chopping motion, and the air vibrated as his powerful kick broke the sound barrier.
"Fwoosh." He chopped at Old Dai with an overhead kick.
As if expecting the daring boy's attack, Old Dai, still with one hand behind his back, extended his other arm and pointed his left index finger at the falling kick. All this happened in a matter of two seconds.
As the kick clashed with the finger, a mix of purple and red energy encompassed the two figures for a moment. Then, a crimson-gold flash could be seen flying away at incredible speed, leaving sonic booms like shockwaves. The crimson-gold flash flew for hundreds of meters, crashing into trees, rocks, and land, before hitting a hundred feet tall wall, nailing a figure into it.
Not yet satisfied, Kaelen erupted with crimson-gold energy as he blasted the rocks tying him away. Free, he used the wall as a ground and bent into a squat position. Powerful energy erupted from his feet, crushing the rock wall.
"Boom, boom, boom."
As he accumulated strength, energy blasts erupted every second, causing more and more cracks to appear on the wall. Finally, he pushed himself outwards as he exploded towards Old Dai, leaving red circles of energy waves as his body traveled at a mind-blowing speed.
"Ahh!" As his body covered the distance in an instant, he made a fist towards Old Dai.
The latter received the fist, again with his index finger. This time, he flicked at the coming fist.
"Boom." Another explosion as the finger and the fist collided. It was as if all his strength had been sent back to him, as Kaelen used the propelling momentum to do a full-body rotation. He kicked once more.
"Boom." Old Dai easily blocked his kick, grasping it with his left arm, he took out his other arm, and flicked at the boy's forehead.
"Shit!" Not willing to take Old Dai's painful flick face-first, Kaelen made an 'X' shape with his arms to block the finger flick.
"Argh!" Despite blocking the attack, the rebounding energy still disoriented the boy, and his head suffered a slight concussion.
"Tap, tap." He took a few steps back as he prepared to attack again. This time, he pulled out his spear, coated it with energy, and activated the bronze spear spirit, giving the silver spear a crimson bronze hue.
Closing his eyes, he recalled the feeling he had when attaining the 'spear as an extension of arm' mastery level. The spear began to emit a 'buzz' noise as it shook in his hand. He abruptly opened his eyes, his amber irises flashing with a bright crimson light, and leaped forward as he thrust his spear, twisting the tip for deeper penetration.
The spear traveled through the air, powerful energy surrounding it as it destroyed the ground along the way, with dirt, grass, and rubble disintegrating, leaving a large trail on the ground.
"Oh? Has his spear mastery already reached that level?" Surprised at the coming attack, Old Dai praised the boy's talent in his mind. However, the boy is still a thousand years too early to leave so much as a scratch on his body.
Once again, he used his index finger to block the coming attack. This time, he condensed his energy into the finger, turning it into a metallic amethyst color. He pointed at the approaching spear tip.
"Clang!!!" The sound of metal colliding resonated through the air as the unstoppable spear strike collided with the immovable finger. A large energy blast erupted around the two figures as the ground surrounding them caved into a wide and dozens of meters deep crater. The cavity's edges radiated with displaced earth and debris as the depth of the hole hinted at the sheer destructive might being unleashed.
"Again!" Kaelen shouted as he unleashed all the foundational spear moves, focusing on the attacking one.
"Whirlwind Sweep." In a circular motion, he slashed towards the powerful old man with the blade of his spear.
As the latter easily blocked the coming attack, he sent out a different one.
"Piercing the Mist." He thrust out dozens of spear strikes toward the figure, sending out tens of crimson spear lights at him, which masked the true attack, a thrust as he dashed forward.
"Drilling Thrust." He spun the spear as he thrust forward at the old Daoist. With a wave of one hand, the old Daoist destroyed all the crimson spear lights, as he blocked towards the upcoming spear strike with the other.
However, a step or two before the spear reached him, the boy suddenly leaped meters into the sky, as he began to fall down, he spinned his whole body, accumulating energy as he sent out a powerful thrust towards the figure.
This was the last attacking move of the foundational spear technique 'Heavenly Descent'.
As he unleashed his most powerful move, crimson scales emerged right below his eye corners, as a beastly dragon might erupts from his entire body. A dark red energy coated the falling spear, and its power doubled in a flash.
"Crimson Dragons Heavenly Descent." A gorgeous, human-sized red dragon shadow coiled around the spear, its head at the tip, roaring towards the old Daoist. The scene couldn't be more aesthetic, as the dragon roared with tyrannical might.
Seeing the coming dragon, Old Dai's face showed a hint of surprise. "To be able to use Dragon Might immediately after awakening his bloodline, and not just that, but mix it into his technique for substantial power increase, basically creating an earth-grade martial skill; what a horrifying talent." He thought to himself, as the boy's talent shocked him once more.
"However, you should go back and cultivate for a hundred years, even with your talent, to hope to injure me," he said softly, as the old master coated his left hand with purple energy and simply waved at the coming martial skill.
A purple-colored Thunder Peng manifested from his palm strike as it clashed with the dragon. The dragon and the peng battled for hegemony in the sky as the spear collided with the palm.
"BzZZZ" An electric buzzing noise broke through the air as the clash formed a gorgeous purple-crimson sphere of light. The intense energy destroyed the surrounding trees and land as the sphere dissipated by diffusing the energy outwards, growing larger in consequences.
At the center of the clash, Kaelen put his all into the spear strike, but the old master's palm did not budge an inch. Instead, the silver spear began emitting cracking noises, as fissures appeared on its body. From the tip all the way to the tail end of the spear, the fissures grew, covering the entire spear.
"Clinggg!" The sharp sound of a metal object breaking resounded as the spear broke into pieces, not able to withstand the energy clash. It had to be said it was only a normal spear; its heavy weight in the thousands of pounds allowed it to withstand the clashes for a moment, but the energy being released at the moment far surpassed what it could bear.
As the spear disintegrated, the palm strike continued towards Kaelen, hitting him straight in the stomach. An explosive purple blast erupted behind his back as the old master controlled most of the palm's energy into an explosion outside Kaelen's body, avoiding severe injuries.
"Pwaa." Though it lost most of its energy, the impact of the heavy palm still caused him to spit a mouthful of saliva as he flew high in the sky, his body landing somewhere in the mountain.
Somewhere in the solitary mountain.
"Ouchh. I swear, though I get stronger, the pain from his hits hurts the same." Struggling to stand up, Kaelen cursed softly, pain in his stomach causing him to hold it while he stood against a tree.
"Humph. Of course; an unfathomable chasm stands between your cultivation level and mine." A timeworn voice came from above as the old master landed near him.
"You're getting stronger, however. With time, you will eventually reach my power level and even surpass me," Old Dai encouraged the boy, as he said softly.
A determined light flashed in Kaelen's eyes as he nodded approvingly. Then, looking up at the old man, whose height still towered over him by half a head, he asked, "Old Dai, what cultivation level have you reached?" Curious, he waited expectantly for an answer.
The old master scoffed at the question.
"If you can take a normal strike from me in a relatively serious state, you will find it hard to find a rival here."
However, he still gave the boy some parameters of strength that would be in leagues of his own. Hearing his answer, Kaelen thought for a moment. The answer didn't really give him a clear indication.
"What do you mean by 'here'? Are you talking about the Free Immortal Sect? The Southern Desolate Lands, or…" Needing some clarification, he proposed possible answers, but the last one scared him silent.
As he thought of the implied level of strength required to be considered a powerhouse only by taking a somewhat serious strike from Old Dai, Kaelen's mind can't help but shake.
"Is he talking about the entire True Martial Great World? If he is, then I can't even imagine."
Indeed, that level of strength far surpasses what the boy could currently picture. In fact, though he can tell Old Dai is powerful, the latter masks his energy so well that it is difficult or damn near impossible for him to assess the gap between their strengths. Initially, when he met Teacher Long, the sect master, and the others, he felt the energy they emitted was stronger than what Old Dai released, but even then, they were probably hiding their energy. Only when Elder Miao unleashed some of her aura when he was spying on her did he feel how powerful she was and the gap between them. At her level, she could probably kill him with a wave of her hand.
Yet, despite the evidence building more towards the teachers and Elder Miao being stronger, Kaelen knows that is absolutely impossible. In fact, judging from Teacher Long's reaction, he could tell Old Dai was possibly much, much stronger than them.
However, the old master didn't plan on giving the boy any clarifications.
"It's time to go back," he said as he enveloped the boy with his Qi, and they soared in the sky.
"How long were we here, Old Dai?" Since he didn't want to elaborate, Kaelen didn't force the man.
"Three days," he answered.
"That much? Well, I actually expected it to take more time, but my bloodline awakening accelerated the process quite a bit." As the two flew in the sky, Kaelen mumbled to himself.
"Hey, how strong am I now? I'm not yet able to gauge my own strength accurately. Though I roughly know I'm more than a few times stronger." he asked his guardian.
"Your physical strength should be around two or three hundred thousand pounds. Your full strength with Qi and activating the heart spirit and your spear mastery should roughly triple it. Your Qi brings you the most increase; about two times your normal strength, then your spear mastery increases the damage you can do by about fifty percent, finally your heart spirit brings you the lowest increase at about ten percent, but that increase grows as you increase its grade to silver, gold, black, etc. In total, your full strike should be about six to eight hundred thousand pounds. You should be invincible in the Xiantian realm, and able to fight most mid Elemental Resonance cultivators." the old master gave him an accurate description of his current strength.
"That strong!?" A bit surprised at himself, Kaelen looked at his hands.