That evening, the two boys talked to each other for a long time. Of course, it was mostly Cai who spoke. Although Shuo's lines were short, they always fully expressed his position or question.
Late at night, Shuo suggested that Cai stay in the guest room. They wanted to start their sparring sessions at dawn. It would be very inconvenient if Kai had to go back to Shadow Palace since it was quite far away.
Although the Lone Buddha's house wasn't a huge mansion. But there would definitely be a few spare rooms there....
As soon as the first rays of the sun rose, Kai instantly opened his eyes. He wasn't sleeping, he was just in meditation. Therefore, he instantly reacted to the dawn.
In the Cloud Sphere, Kai hardly needed sleep anymore. Except when he was truly incredibly exhausted. Ordinary fatigue, and even fatigue from training, could be compensated for by meditating and absorbing energy.
- Good morning Brother Shuo! - With a smile, Cai shouted out, walking out of the house.
At this moment, a guy with a staff was already standing in the square. His body was covered in droplets of sweat. From this fact, one could tell that he had been training for some time now.
- Good Brother Kai. - Shuo calmly replied.
- Shall we start right away? - Kai asked with a smile.
- Sure. Why waste time. - The Lonely Buddha replied.
Kai didn't hesitate and drew his daggers at once. Doing so, he leisurely advanced to the centre of the arena.
In a second, the fight had already begun!
But this time, Lone Buddha was prepared for Kai's strange ability. He realised that his opponent was incredibly sensitive to energy.
Now, not only was he standing in defence and counterattacking, but he was also attacking himself! In this fight, Shuo displayed a few more of his techniques.
His staff was now also covered in golden light, and six dots lit up on his bald head. They were arranged vertically, three dots in a row.
Kai didn't really understand exactly how this helped Shuo. But just by the increasing pressure on himself, he realised that it wasn't that simple....
'Damn... He's really strong...' - Defending himself, Kai thought.
Even limiting his cultivation level to the initial stage of the Cloud Sphere, Shuo had left Kai no chance.
Almost every round of their sparring, Kai lost cleanly!
- You have a lot of gaps. - Shuo calmly said as he looked at Kai sitting across from him.
A moment ago, Shuo's staff hit his opponent's chest hard. And he flew a few metres away, landing on his heel.
Breathing heavily, Kai asked:
- It seems like yesterday you were giving in to me. - Kai said with a smile.
- No. I underestimated you. In a real battle, that would be my personal mistake.'' - Shuo said.
- It's amazing how strong you are, even at the initial stage of the Cloud Sphere. - Sincerely replied Kai.
- ''I said earlier. We have a huge difference in experience. Even more so, even though I'm limiting the amount of energy. Still, my techniques are already at a higher level.'' - Emotionlessly replied Shuo.
This played almost a key role in their fight. Even if Cai wanted to limit his energy to the level of a Cultivator. It didn't mean that he would be able to roll back his Invisible Kings Torture Technique progress a notch lower. It worked similarly with the Shadow Mark Dance.
In turn, the Lone Buddha similarly couldn't limit his skills. Most likely, even his golden cocoon was much weaker at a stage lower. Simply restricting energy would no longer do the trick. His techniques were qualitatively on a different level.
Even so, Kai felt that he was losing to Shuo in movements. If one remembered that Kai's techniques weren't exactly ordinary either..... One could surmise that he should be able to at least be able to stand up to the Lone Buddha a little bit.
- That's right... Your movements are much more deliberate than they might seem at first glance. - Agreeing, Kai said.
- I've improved through fighting. I've had a lot of experience fighting a variety of masters. You seem to know how to fight with different types of weapons too. But that's not enough. - Shuo calmly explained.
It seems that with Lone Buddha's experience, he immediately saw this trait of Kai's. This was indeed true, as Kai had trained with the Envy King for a long time. The latter was constantly creating new weapons and changing his battle strategy. In doing so, he showed incredible skill in each instance.
But it was Shuo's last sentence that interested Kai.
- Not enough? Why? - Kai asked with interest.
- I don't know how to explain. You only know how to fight against weapons. - The Lone Buddha replied vaguely.
- What's that supposed to mean? Hehe. - Laughing, Kai interjected.
- ''We are martial artists. We use a variety of techniques and energy. - Shuo began to explain.
Suddenly, it was as if Kai realised something! Something that was on the surface, but he hadn't noticed it before!
- You mean... - Kai mumbled in thought.
- Don't interrupt. - Shuo said calmly, interrupting Kai's words, 'Each type of weapon has its own techniques to suit it. Masters who specialise in defence or overwhelming strength will not use daggers. In turn, those who specialise in agility will not use a heavy hammer. You only understand the dry methods of weapon combat. Also, you know what variations of movements and techniques can be applied. - The Lone Buddha explained systematically.
Already now, Cai realised what Shuo was getting at! King Envy didn't use any energy-based techniques! He only created weapons from bones and used them incredibly skilfully and cunningly.
But now, Cai finally realised that his real opponents, would not only use their weapons... They would use a variety of techniques that enhanced their type of weapons!
In the battle with Shuo, he had already noticed one of these. When the Lone Buddha's staff was covered in golden light, it became more elastic, which slightly changed the normal trajectories of the strikes. Also, at certain moments, it could lengthen slightly, which also took him by surprise.....
- Your knowledge is not enough. You need real combat experience, with martial artists. You know how to resist a staff, but you don't know how to resist a martial artist's staff. - Shuo explained calmly, -I must admit that it's strange. But I will stay out of your business Brother Kai. - Lone Buddha added honestly.
Shuo was alluding to the fact that although Kai was from the orphanage.... But somehow knew how to fight with different types of weapons. Where did he find so many skilled mortal warriors to learn this from? To any person with logic, it would have seemed strange....
But he realised that it was not worth digging into someone else's past. If a person doesn't want to tell his own story, it's not worth it to pry into his soul.
- Now I understand Brother Shuo...' Cai replied thoughtfully, 'Thank you for opening my eyes to this problem. Somehow I had overlooked it altogether... - Kai answered honestly.
Sometimes you need an outsider's perspective to see even an obvious problem. People tend to fixate on something, based only on their own chain of inferences. To get out of this vicious circle, you need someone from the outside.
Thinking about it, Kai wanted to continue this conversation.....
'So how can I find out more information but not give away my secrets? Exactly!' - Kai suddenly thought of an idea.
He decided to just present the information a little differently. From an angle that was both true, but also didn't reveal too many details.
- Brother Shuo... I once found an amazing array that sends you to another, strange space. And there, I could fight to the death, constantly getting incredibly injured... Everything felt like it was live there... Even the pain! - Suddenly, Kai started talking.
- It's like a training array. But a more complex version of it. - A little thoughtfully, Shuo replied.
Kai decided to go in from afar so as not to reveal too much information. He realised that there were a variety of training arrays available. But to enter such a state at will, as in the case of the Torture Technique of Invisible Kings... That was too much!