Kai tried to concentrate as much as possible on this barely perceptible feeling. Just before the Fury King's attack, a slight urge to kill flashed in Kai's perception area.
It was as if a dim glow of a firefly flickered for a second in the pitch darkness. But immediately after that, followed by a blow to Kai's body!
The difficulty was also that the Fury King was constantly attacking from different sides and striking from different angles. All Kai had to do was just take the blows and occasionally dodge.
Right now, he wasn't able to parry even one of the lunges.
"Bitch... I'm going to get you now..." - Thought Kai, with a wicked grin.
He stood in this strange space, completely disconnected from his senses of perception. Kai waited for a new signal, as he thought of something interesting.
After a few seconds, Kai felt that elusive sensation of the Fury King's aura again.
"Now!" - Shouted Kai in his head!
At the same moment, the Astral Sacrifice Fire erupted! He had specifically anticipated the attack. It was at this moment that he released his fire to the maximum, and it began to spread out in all directions around Kai. He immediately felt the Fury King's aura change slightly and he instantly disappeared!
"Hehehe! I have some defence now!" - Said Kai in his mind.
Before the strike itself, the Fury King instantly retreated. The Astral Sacrifice Fire was a Heavenly Fire, it was not to be underestimated! The Fury King's fighting methods were categorised on close combat. Thus, Kai limited the functionality of his opponent's capabilities, creating space for himself.
"Erm... What's this?" - Without realising thought Kai.
He felt a very strange feeling that he hadn't noticed before. The Astral Sacrifice Fire felt to Kai like an intangible part of his body. Although he knew he had perfect control over it, he didn't realise that he could literally use it as another sense organ.
Previously, the world's standard senses of touch had drowned it out. Sight, hearing, smell, and others, were too familiar and acute. Because of this, in contrast, Kai didn't understand the full functionality and capabilities of his Spirit Sea and Astral Sacrifice Fire.
After merging with the fire, Kai became its central and sole consciousness. That is to say, they literally became one.
Spreading the fire around, it was as if Kai began to sense his surroundings. While this was much less keenly perceived than the tactile sensations of skin, it had its advantages in this situation.
But it was strange that although Kai could feel the Astral Fire of Sacrifice burning around him, no light was being emitted. He was literally blind right now.
"Danger!" - Kai realised in an instant and raised his hand in front of his face.
A second ago he felt the lust for killing in the distance, and afterwards like something flying through his fire. And the trajectory of the movement was aimed straight at his head.
It was done very quickly! Kai had minimal time to react. He realised that there was no way he could dodge or block the blow, so he simply raised his hand.
"Blade!" - Instantly Kai realised.
He felt the pain in his palm, and how something ran down it, tickling his skin slightly. Quickly groping with his other hand, Kai realised that his left palm was pierced through with a hiltless blade.
Kai quickly pulled it out of his hand without even grimacing. At the same moment, the skin began to slowly heal. A few minutes and the wound would be gone....
"The bloodline I got from this beauty is unbelievable!" - Kai thought, remembering about Kessia.
He could now feel his arm stop hurting and start to itch a little. It seemed like the regeneration process had been accelerated several times faster. It was hard to imagine that this was a human body....
"More!" - Subconsciously shouted in Kai's mind and dodged.
Now the Fury King wasn't going to approach him and just started attacking from far away. The blades flew at Kai with short intervals. But now, in the symbiosis of the Spiritual Sea and the Astral Fire of Sacrifice, Kai slowly began to adapt to this strange situation.
......
- Haaaaah! - Inhaled deeply, Kai opened his eyes.
Sitting on the floor in the lotus position, he was covered in sweat and incredibly tired. His energy was at zero and his temples felt like they were throbbing. It was obvious that he had worked his arse off.
Adapting to the fight, he even started throwing his blades back. Whenever he sensed a hint of the Fury King's aura, he would throw a blade there. But still, after a long time, Kai's body was severely exhausted. Because of this, it needed more time to heal the wounds.
Eventually, due to too many wounds and bleeding, Kai simply collapsed to the ground. The Fury King never once approached him, but simply tortured him to death from a distance.
- Damn... That was really tiring. But I enjoyed it! - Said Kai with a smile.
Kai's manic desire to develop in martial arts, was sometimes frightening... When he realised how much there was to learn, regarding perception, and control of the Astral Sacrifice Fire, his eyes lit up. Kai seemed to have found inspiration and ground for new ideas.
"Alright, now let's not delay the energy build-up..." - Kai thought and activated the Eyes of Essence.
At this moment, his energy was at zero, so he needed to recover. Now, he would not rush back to Asura's Inferno, but rather focus on expanding the Energy Vortex qualitatively and systematically.
The Cloud Sphere was within reach, he needed to make a final push. But it was unclear how long it would take.....
Kai watched carefully as the energy entered his body and travelled smoothly along all meridians. Over the years he had learnt to absorb energy as efficiently as possible. Now he was more focused on point improvement. He was no longer improving the path and movement of energy, but its transformation at a specific point in the body.
In the end, it all came down to an Energy Vortex. The processed energy would enter it and begin to join the movement. This process was truly mesmerising.
Kai's Energy Vortex was a dense black colour and recently, some changes had begun to happen to it. It seemed like it was starting to move faster and faster.
What surprised Kai the most was that the vortex was starting to thicken. Visually it was even starting to get smaller. But Kai could clearly feel that the energy in it was becoming more and more....
"Amazing... I wonder how my vortex will look like on the Cloud Sphere?" - Kai wondered.
As he absorbed the energy, he watched the changes in the Energy Centre, in the area just below his navel. That was where everything was happening....
"Hmm... Why have I never thought of this before... But why is the next stage called the Cloud Sphere?" - Kai suddenly thought.
Catching himself at that thought, he even wanted to laugh. Kai himself didn't understand how it was that in all this time, he hadn't asked about it.
"Alright, no need to think about it. I had too many other things to worry about... Besides the Cloud Sphere, I had enough to think about." - Voiced in his mind, Kai calmly continued to absorb energy from the outside environment.