"What's wrong with my sword?" I grinned, looking straight at the dragon. This wasn't the reaction he expected from me. Look how he twitched all over. Did he think I would start begging him not to kill me on my knees?
"Since you don't know the secret of the blade yourself, I certainly won't reveal it. Besides, you're a weakling, even by human standards. If I were you, I would kill myself so as not to disgrace my legacy."
"How you all got to me," I grimaced. "You know, at first you seemed special to me — you are the first mystical beast I have met. I thought maybe a wise dragon lives according to the righteous laws of heaven. And you're just an overgrown lizard. No better than other people. It's disgusting."
"Do you dare to compare me with people?" he roared. "Stop it! Me, the true child of heaven, the lord of the deadly cold, the Great Xiu Xie?"
"Yeah. And also with lizards," I grimaced.
The dragon roared. The cave began to tremble from his anger, and the spiritual force went berserk. I was surprised to feel blood gushing from my nose—the anger of the heavenly monster alone was enough to injure me. The dragon raged for a good minute and clearly wanted to spit on everything and just kill me.
"You've only got three days, little man," he snorted. "I would advise you to start learning the technique as soon as possible. If you don't learn the heaven rank technique, I'll show you what dragon wrath is. I promise you'll be dying for a long time."
The dragon fell silent, but I could feel his gaze on me. I just snorted—I didn't want to talk to him anyway. A vile creature. Mean, but strong. I walked up to the column with the equipment and grimaced again.
[Black blizzard]
[Rank: Spiritual]
Summons a colossal hurricane of black ice, disrupting the flow of spiritual energy
[Cost of studying: 10000 Qi]
Yes, I may have had no idea how to read hieroglyphs, but the system coped with this task perfectly. But the dragon was overly cautious here too — the technique was of a spiritual rank, and it requires heavenly to study. I am completely silent about the fact that it belonged to the element of cold.
"I need Qi. A lot," I drawled, looking at the item with the cost of studying.
"There's a lot of it here, man, take it," the dragon laughed.
Well, yes, there was really an unrealistic amount of Qi around. Except it was all icy. The Song of Pure Flame simply couldn't capture even a spark of this energy. Hmm, what if…
Kai Shen once created this technique. I studied it myself, understood it to the last movement of Qi. Is it possible to reverse its polarity? Theoretically, nothing is impossible, but there is one tiny detail. I'm not a genius like Kai, but I have his brains, his body, and even his enemies inherited from him! And I'm not going to give up just like that! After all, I have a cheat in the form of a system and ram's tenacity with the famous folk wit. The latter helped me out more than once in my previous life. It will help out in this one.
The first thing I did was look into the ring and took out a scattering of spirit stones. I've never tried to absorb their energy, but what if it works? And as soon as I tried, I could barely resist slapping myself on the back of the head. The little crystals crumbled into dust, and my energy reserve slowly grew. Half an hour and now I'm full of Qi again. What an idiot I am, I could have done this trick a long time ago! It's a shame that I didn't move to the next level of Qi concentration. Fill in the reserve — please, but if you want to grow in ranks, then be kind — look for fire Qi.
Okay, and now the most important thing. I touched the pillar and closed my eyes. In a moment, my entire reserve goes nowhere.
"What did you do?!" Suddenly the dragon howled.
I didn't answer, just burst out laughing like a madman. After all, the system showed an updated message.
[Black blizzard]
"And the heavens will turn black"
[Rank: Spiritual]
Summons a colossal hurricane of black ice, disrupting the flow of spiritual energy
[Cost of studying: 110/10000 Qi]
It worked! I don't have to pour in all the required Qi at once! And I have a lot of spirit stones. Even too much. Half a million stones, the head did not skimp on them at all. Or maybe it's not much for him at all.
Anyway, then some kind of crazy assembly line began. Get the spirit stones, recycle the Flame technique, fill the column. Repeat it again. I did it all in six hours. As soon as the last drop of Qi left my body, the column began to crack. A flash of flame and I'm screaming in pain on the floor, and pure knowledge is pouring into my head. Patterns, movements of force, a completely unfamiliar concept of Qi. This technique was completely useless to me. Moreover, because it occupied one of the loci, it was harmful. Like the fifth wheel of a cart or junk that prevents you from parking your car in the garage.
I just don't have the ice Qi to nourish it with power. Let it potentially be an analogue of weapons of mass destruction, but not in my hands.
After recovering, I absorbed another portion of Qi from the stones and tried to implement the technique for the sake of testing. I was in pain again, and Qi seemed to have disappeared into nowhere.
"Impossible! What are you?!" The dragon roared. "What kind of technique is this?! I have lived for ten thousand years, but I have never seen anything like this under the heavens! Answer me!"
Ha, I've already started to forget about him. My grin turned into a grin, and then into hysterical laughter. It worked! I've done the impossible! Almost done.
My gaze caught on a pillar. Contrary to my expectations, it did not crumble into dust — only the outer layer flew off. Completely different hieroglyphs and diagrams were hidden under it.
[The Devourer]
[Rank: Heavenly]
"And the heavens will shake"
[Cost of study: 100,000 Qi]
A hundred thousand? The dragon continued to rage, and I carried out a simple mathematical calculation in my mind. If it took me about seven hours to fill the previous column, then this one will take me all seventy. I don't have that much time.
A memory popped into my head. I've wanted to check it out for a long time, but I didn't have the time or the opportunity. Now I have nothing to lose. I have started the spirit stone recycling pipeline again. Only this time my target was not the column, but myself. More precisely, one of my very specific techniques.
[A Song of Pure Flame]
[Rank: Spiritual]
Allows you to collect external Qi
Allows you to control various fiery manifestations
The flame of life cleanses the body and spirit
[Level 1/5 (0/1000 Qi)]
And it all worked! I was putting Qi into the development of my basic technique and at some point I got a fever. The pain was hellish, but I didn't want to show weakness in front of a raging dragon. So the only thing he heard from me was a long growl.
[The Song of Pure Flame has reached level 2!]
[The effectiveness of all effects has been increased!]
I didn't stop there. Another hundred stones flew out of the ring, and I went to a new circle. And it really became easier to absorb energy! The speed increased significantly, and I reached the next level almost faster than the previous one. As soon as the scale filled up, the feeling of heat came over me again. This time I couldn't help but scream. It felt like my insides were melting down and my blood was replaced by pure lava. I think I started vomiting blood, but that's not for sure. My mind was too clouded at that moment.
"Die! Die, spawn of the Phoenix!" The dragon raged, but I didn't pay the slightest attention to him.
When the pain receded, I could barely stand on my feet. My hands were shaking, and my spiritual body ached with pain. Apparently, the third level of technology required an appropriate stage of development. But it doesn't matter anymore. I survived, and the system confirmed it. That I didn't suffer in vain.
[The Song of Pure Flame has reached level 3!]
[The effectiveness of all effects has been significantly increased!]
[A new effect has been obtained:
The flame of life heals wounds]
Healing? From the fire technique? However, why am I surprised? If I survive, this ability will be very useful to me. A pain shot through my head, and I almost passed out. The next package of knowledge came to my mind with a slight lag.
Well, at least I have regeneration now. However, even with the knowledge I gained, I could hardly figure out how it would work.
I put my hand on the column with the equipment. There wasn't much time left, but I didn't have time to rest. Using Qi was painful, but surprisingly easy.
Several thousand spirit stones left my ring at once. With a wave of the hand, they simultaneously crumble into dust, turning into spiritual force. I didn't even completely absorb it, I just let it run along the very edge of the spiritual body. It was painful, almost unbearable, but it worked with a bang. The Qi meter began to fill up rapidly. I can handle it. I will endure it!
It took me a while to realize that it was over. The column was covered with a grid of scarlet cracks and burst into flames, turning to ashes, and in its place appeared a small, Qi-filled ball. I didn't even have time to notice the movement, and it already flew into my forehead. The last thing I noticed was the lizard's furious gaze. And then the world went dark.