After going through the attack manual, he learned five different attacks that were part of the 'Deathly Strikes: The Art of Deathly Assault'.
Attack 1: Necrotic Blast - Channel death qi into your palm or weapon. Release it as a concentrated beam of death qi.
Attack 2: Soul Rend - Focus on the enemy's life force. Unleash a slicing wave of death qi that tears through their soul, causing excruciating pain and damage.
Attack 3: Death Spike - Summon spikes of death qi from thin air, within a certain range of your body. Direct them to impale the enemy.
Attack 4: Wraith's Touch - Infuse your hands or weapon's blade with death qi. Strike your opponent, causing a decaying effect that weakens and withers their body over time.
Next was Attack 5, which had many versions, but he picked the one that had to do with a spear.
Attack 5: Grim Reaper's Spear - Manifest a spear made of pure death qi that is linked to your weapon. Swing it in wide arcs or pierce it forward, cutting down enemies with each stroke.
After going over each attack several times and getting the qi patterns down, Xander stood up, summoned his spear, and took action.
With a thrust forward, Xander shot out a beam of death qi that ate straight through a large tree.
With a slicing cut, he unleashed a wave of death qi meant to tear through a person's soul.
He brought down his hand, creating a spike of death qi that manifested itself 5 meters in front of him and 3 meters in the air, crashing down on the ground and piercing the earth.
He held his spear tight as he infused his hands and the tip of his spear's blade with death qi, ready to decay all before it.
Finally, he summoned a massive spear that was 5 meters long and as thick as a man's thigh, made of pure death qi, and began to swing his spear with the spear of death qi following along in front of him.
After going over each attack until he could consistently do it four out of five times, he finally moved on to the defense and movement manual: 'Eternal Guard: The Shield of Death' and 'Phantom Step: The Dance of Death'.
Defense 1: Necrotic Barrier - Creates a barrier of death qi around yourself. The barrier absorbs, dissipates, and kills all incoming attacks.
Defense 2: Shadow Cloak - Envelop yourself in shadows. The cloak renders you nearly invisible, allowing you to evade and escape danger.
Defense 3: Phantom Air - Raise a large area of death qi dispersed into the air that slows anyone or anything inside of it. It also acts as an attack, weakening and decaying all who enter.
Defense 4: Deathly Aura - Emit an aura of death energy. This aura, like the phantom air, weakens the attacks of anyone who comes too close and gives off a decaying effect.
Next was movement.
Movement 1: Ethereal Dash - Perform a rapid dash infused with death qi.
Movement 2: Wraith Walk - Walk on air as if it were solid ground.
After learning all the defensive and movement techniques, Xander began to study the jade slips religiously, not wanting to forget a single detail. The 'Deathly Strikes: The Art of Deathly Assault', 'Eternal Guard: The Shield of Death', and 'Phantom Step: The Dance of Death' could each be used for multiple different realms past G-rank.
Before long, after studying and even taking a little nap, the sun was up, and Xander knew it was time. So, he stood up and walked back to the library, where he returned the jade slips and found Russel asleep, uncomfortably sitting in a chair.
"Russel," Xander said as he shook him awake.
"Yep… I'm up… I'm up," Russel repeated, still half asleep.
"Russel, it's about time to leave," Xander said at the same time he started to hear a bell being rung.
"Clang!!" "Clang!!" "Clang!!"
"Clang!!" "Clang!!" "Clang!!"
"Clang!!" "Clang!!" "Clang!!"
After the bell rang 9 times, it finally stopped, and Xander said, "I think that means it's time."
Russel nodded his head, shook out his nerves, and said, "Alright, let's go."
After 10 minutes went by, Xander and Russel were in a small army of the Order of Death, with the head priest leading them down the mountain trail toward the first temple where Xander started his trial.
After a long 4-hour jog, they had made it, and boy, was it a bad sight.
All the buildings were destroyed, charred down to the foundation, and there were hundreds of dead bodies from the Order left out to rot after being burned naked and left to be eaten by the birds.
Xander could barely keep his bile down, but he somehow managed.
Xander, who was near the front of the small army, thanks to being one of the few priests, got a good clear look at the rageful and very pissed head priest. For a small old man, he exuded an aura of terror as he cussed every word in this language and a couple more for five minutes straight.
Finally, he stopped and yelled, "Ready yourselves, we march NOW!!" putting a huge emphasis on 'now'.
Xander was happy to leave the burned ruins behind, but he was unhappy when they traveled for three days straight, coming across four different Order of Death temples before they finally took a break.
Bright and early on the fourth day, the old and short head priest Xander had given the jade slip to walked up in front of the much larger army of Order soldiers with another slightly weaker E-rank head priest and yelled, "The Church of Everlasting Fire thinks they can just walk in and destroy our temples, they think they can stop the Lord's work, they think they can lessen our morale, they think…!!!" This went on for a while.
"But we will show them! We will march forward without stop until we reach the closest capital and burn their church to the ground with every one of them in it!!!"
And that's what they did. They marched and they marched for another five days straight. Through the mountains, two forests, three cities, and crossing five rivers, killing every member of the Church they found along the way.