Annihilation and slaughter," Kaelen mumbled.
"Yes. When you reach the Elemental Resonance realm, you will notice the difference in your dragon might. Dragon might is just like Qi; you need to awaken your element or attribute when you reach Elemental Resonance. You will naturally learn about it after you sense it. For now, you only benefit from the power boost," Long Aotian said.
Kaelen listened attentively.
"Alright. Let's begin." Long Aotian stood up from his cross-legged position, grabbing his spear. His bare-chested frame stood tall as his right hand held the spear vertically. He flipped the spear and tapped the ground with the heel. Suddenly, a blue orb of light appeared at the intersection between the heel and the ground. The orb quickly grew in size, covering Teacher Long's whole body, then expanding outward, quickly covering Kaelen and Yu Hao.
The moment the blue light covered Kaelen, his entire body suddenly felt like it weighed a hundred thousand pounds. Unprepared, he collapsed forward.
"Stand!" Seeing him fall under pressure, Long Aotian shouted.
"Agh." Kaelen struggled to get up but managed to do so. Physical strength was his forte, after all.
Despite getting up, Kaelen still felt the tremendous gravity weighing on him. He tried jumping and could barely manage a foot, before he would soar into the sky.
The blue orb quickly covered the whole courtyard and then the entire mountain.
"You will be practicing under intense gravity for the next week. Doing so will help forge your bodies and increase the progress at which you learn the techniques by increasing your efficiency."
"Yes, master." The young man and the teenager both said in unison.
"Brother Hao, do you also practice the true dragon stances?" Seeing Kaelen also bearing the terrible gravity, Kaelen asked.
"Of course, though it's mainly a spear art. Most moves can be applied to swords as well, keeping at least eighty percent of the art's power. Though it may not have its full strength under a sword master, it still reaches high stellar grade no problem," the latter nodded as he forced a smile under intense gravity.
"Oh. You seem to be struggling as well, senior brother. I sense the gravity is around a hundred thousand pounds stronger. Shouldn't this be light work for you?" Nodding in understanding, Kaelen changed the subject.
"The pressure is in relation to the people subjected to it. It's about a third of your total strength and endurance, so yours is two hundred thousand because your limit strength is about three times that. Mine is a million," he explained, gritting his teeth as he struggled.
"Kaelen, begin demonstrating the stances you managed to understand," Long Aotian asked.
Kaelen immediately took out his Blood Swallowing Spear and started from the first: Heaven Ending Stance.
His entire body began radiating a gorgeous yet perilous dark crimson aura as dragon might coated his entire body. He felt significantly lighter as he waved the spear around beautifully, warming up to the first move: Annihilating Thrust. A destructive intent filled the air as he gathered strength, a very vague crimson dragon gathered around his body. He wielded Dragon Might to unleash a drilling thrust forward. The dragon coiled around him, slithering around him as it coiled towards the spear.
"Boom!"
Where he struck, a small explosion occurred as space seemed to have been disturbed by a bomb. A dragon-like spear qi traveled through the air.
"Second move of the Heaven-ending stance; Soaring Decimating Pierce." He masterfully retracted his spear, then did a dash forward sweep of his spear before stomping the ground. With the help of Dragon might and his Qi, he managed to soar meters into the sky. Up in the air, he retracted his spear, his elbow bending completely while he gathered Qi and Dragon might for the next attack.
"Bzzz…"
The spear in his hand began buzzing. Kaelen injected his vigorous Blood Qi and Might into the spear tip, forming an illusory dragon head. The air around him vibrated violently as red aura wisps diffused from his body.
"Soaring Decimating Pierce!" He mumbled, unleashing a powerful straight thrust towards the ground, poking a dragon form a meter deep hole into it.
Coming back down, Kaelen prepared the last move; Heaven-Ending Strike.
For this one, he condensed his blood qi and dragon might into the spear body, took a large step back before thrusting at lightning-fast speed in quick succession, unleashing a barrage of destructive strikes.
Five strikes, ten strikes, twenty strikes, thirty strikes.
Only when he reached thirty-three strikes did he stop.
Dozens of red awns still floated in the air where he struck.
Before continuing, he stopped for a minute to catch his breath. His whole body was now drenched in sweat as he struggled to stand under the intense gravity.
"Teacher, give me a moment. Using dragon might under this much gravity is seriously draining. I thought I could demonstrate the complete three stances I learned in one go, but I will need to gather back my strength for the next one, especially since it has twice the number of moves." Gasping, Kaelen used his spear as support as he pleaded while he took time to recuperate.
Looking at the tired boy, Long Aotian smiled.
"The reason why you're so tired isn't that you're using dragon might under gravity, but because you waste too much Qi and power on each strike and with every step. You must learn to concentrate your strength; doing so will not only make you less tired but will also increase your power output. Watch." He grasped his spear firmly and demonstrated the heaven-ending stance.
He pointed his Azure Dragon Crescent Spear forward, and a lifelike azure dragon aura coiled around his form, then slithered through his arm towards the spear and fused with it, making the spear shine dimly. The moment the spear and the dragon aura fused, a heaven-crushing might erupted from his body. He masterfully demonstrated the first move; Annihilating Thrust. With a light forward dash, he crossed a few meters in distance, his figure turning into a flashing green light for a second. When he reappeared, the spear was thrusting forward at a seemingly slow speed.
"!!!" As he fully extended his arm in the thrust, the void in a circumference of about a hundred meters trembled violently in the direction of his attack.
Like this, he demonstrated the next moves and stances: Life-Stealing Stance; Soul-Devouring Serpent Sweep, Life-Draining Tempest, Death-Reaper Whirlwind, Origin Swallowing Cascade.
With dragon might and Qi instilled into the spear, he did all the attacks of the Life-Stealing Stance, unleashing a masterful array of sweeping and slashing attacks. Since he wasn't facing an opponent, he couldn't make a show of the special 'Swallowing' nature of the attacks, but just the artistic form and expert control of his energy were a sight to behold.
Next, he showed the Chaotic Dragon Stance and its moves; Coiling Pandemonium, executing a series of twisting and coiling spear strikes.
He then chained the next moves; Discordant Dragon's Fury, Chaos Warding Shield, Entropy Embrace, and Cataclysmic Spear Barrage.
He stopped the demonstration after completin the Cataclysmic spear Barrage.
Kaelen, who was watching him perform, had a completely amazed look on his face.
"If you want to reach high-level spear mastery - Spear Intent, you must learn to condense your excess energy within the spear, as spear intent is the culmination of a concept, spear Qi, and your own energy mixed into an Intent of some shape. You previously mentioned the nine stances seem to follow complex concepts in the execution of the spear skills; those are spear intents formed of destruction, swallowing, and chaos concepts. Each stance forms a different spear intent when mastered, the first three being; the destructive spear intent, the swallowing spear intent, and the chaotic spear intent. Reaching intent mastery of the stance will tremendously increase the power of your techniques, and will mark your mastery of that stance." Long Aotian explained.
"Yes, master," Kaelen shouted as he received the teachings.
"Yu Hao, how's your progress?" his master then turned to Yu Hao.
"I've yet to master the sword intent of the fifth stance," the latter answered.
"Alright. You practice under gravity for the next week or so. You may spar when you need an opponent to test your skills. Hao, you will refrain from using elemental energy and spirit Qi when sparring with your junior brother, so you have less of a strength difference," he instructed.
"Understood." The two said at the same time.
"Kaelen, you must grasp the techniques and learn to control your strength to the best of your ability. In a week, you will have to go fight into the forest of the mountain. I have gathered a dozen powerful elemental grade beasts and few spirit grades that should give you a challenge. You will have to defeat them all before you can go back to see your friends," he said before disappearing from their view.
"Oh?" Hearing what his master said, Kaelen's eyes brightened in excitement. He grasped his spear as he immediately began his training.
He started from the first stance once again but greatly reduced his power and speed to practice his control and be able to do the next three stances. While he managed to demonstrate some of the techniques before, it was still his first time executing the skills. When practicing, you must slow it down to perfect every move.
Slowing down, especially under the intense gravity, made his moves very slow. It took him an hour to finish the three stances.
After he did the last skill, his body collapsed on the ground. The area where he was practicing was covered in sweat, making the ground a bit muddy.
He turned on his back to watch his fellow apprentice practice his sword.
Not far from him, Yu Hao was waving his sword skillfully. Though Kaelen was not a sword user, he could tell at a glance that his senior brother already mastered the 'intent' as his sword was also coated in a light jade glow as he slashed and stabbed.
Kaelen noticed Sword intent and Spear intent were highly similar but gave a small different impression. Sword Intent gave a sharp, agile and tranchant impression. While Spear intent gave a poignant, piercing and mighty impression.
As the young sword expert executed his moves, Kaelen could recognize the nine stances of the true dragon's techniques.
When unleashed by a sword master, the tyrannical nature of the art changes into a more reserved nature. If under Kaelen's hand, the art is like an angry dragon rampaging through heavens, then under Yu Hao, it is like a nimble dragon traversing the sea.
Kaelen admired his senior brother's skillful representation of the first three stances, even gaining some inspiration as he watched. He could feel that he seemed to get a better grasp of masterful control that does not decrease power but increases it instead.
He could also see him practice the next two stances but having not seen or read about them, Kaelen found it hard to appreciate the technique as much and could not get any inspiration from them. He could only praise the technique from an aesthetic and power point of view.
After watching for about ten minutes, Kaelen stood back up and continued his practice.
This time, he was a bit more skillful and managed to complete the first three stances in under an hour and was less tired.
He recuperated for a a bit less then ten minutes before starting over again.
A day passed, as the sun and moon changed places twice.
The next day, Kaelen and Yu Hao were still practicing. Both would practice for as long as they could before collapsing and take a few minutes to recuperate. Yu Hao, who was used to the process, could train for much longer periods than Kaelen while keeping a relatively short break time of around ten minutes for every five-7 hours. Kaelen, who has progressed significantly since the precedent day, could now practice for two hours and rest for five minutes. His tyrannical energy was a bit more condensed into the spear when he released the spear moves.
The two practiced in their corners for two more days.