Thunderbolt phantom slash flashed, a large cut through the snake's abdomen. Snake wails and stops moving. Lestes had used all his strength in the last blow. After constantly fighting and recouping he already had broken through the fourth layer and entered the fifth layer of the body refining realm. His Thunderbolt phantom slash had reached second-phase mastery. Thunderbolt Phantom Slash had a total of three phases to its perfection, the first phase was single strike mastery, channelling lightening qi into the sword for enhanced speed and sharpness that performs a single sword strike with speed and control, enough speed to live an after image, which Lestes gasped very shortly after learning the technique.
The second phase is to create multiple phantom strikes simultaneously. That is create multiple vivid after images with sword qi or lightning qi, making it harder for the opponent to distinguish between fakes and real swords, catching them off gourd. Now, He could create four after images simultaneously.
After cleaning the battlefield, Lestes left.
As his technique mastery increases, his gasp over sword qi becomes more obvious. He needs a few more practice to grasp sword qi perfectly. 'Sword qi', the first step into sword dao, Sword Qi is an externalized form of Qi, swordsmen channelled through their swords. With the manifestation of sword qi, the sharpness of the sword increased many times, depending on a swordsman's comprehension.
With an increase in sword sharpness, its lethality and attack range also increased. Swords can easily cut through most tier 1 demon beasts. Sword qi is the foundation of one's sword dao.
There are eight phases of sword Dao, the first phase is awakening the sword, its most basic and foundation, learning sword stances, slashes and defensive moves, and the basic moves. Building the foundation for strength, speed and precision.
Lestes found a cave to rest and recoup. Now, his thunderbolt phantom slash was at the second phase he didn't need any attack technique for now, as for defence in Lestes's terms attack is the best defence. What Lestes currently needs is a movement technique to increase his mobility so that he can avoid attack and escape if the opponent is too powerful during his last battle Lestes found that although he could confuse demon snake with afterimages, it was a narrow escape from its retaliation. He recalls a movement technique he comes across while shuffling books on a bookshelf in the cave, 'Lightning Dance Mirage'.
'Lightning Dance Mirage' was a mid-tier lightning movement art. This movement art would allow Lestes to have rapid, unpredictable mobility with lightning speed and agility this technique is also the same as Thunderbold slash which uses multiple swords after images to distract the enemy. This technique uses creating afterimage to confuse the opponent. With this, he wouldn't have to fear multiple enemies.
The main advantage of practising Lightning dace Mirage was that this technique relies on chaotic movement which makes the user unpredictable and lightning amplifies the user's speed and reflex and also instantaneous bursts of motion, enabling the user to dodge even the fastest projectiles or melee strikes.
At advanced levels, the technique generates semi-physical afterimages, each carrying traces of energy, acting as a decoy to confuse the enemy, luring the enemy and creating an opening for the user to attack. With lightning-fast movement closing the gap and catching off guard the enemy dodged attacks, disrupting the enemy's rhythm. These all were the features depicted in the book.
Practising Lightning Mirage was not without disadvantages, it required a large amount of lightning qi constantly and a powerful physical body as it causes fatigue or injuries also at lower level experience fighters might recognize patterns and adapt.
Lestes body was very strong as Heavenspan cannon provided body refining, at a higher level might not match those of divine technique for body refining but in the body tempering realm no one was his match on the same level. Although he is only at the fifth level of body body-tempering realm his physical body can match those in the seventh level of the body-tempering realm so he qualifies in this category. currently, his opponents will be those in the body-tempering realm, they won't have much experience and at a higher level Lestes, with his experience, knowledge, wisdom and comprehension ability won't take much time to master it perfectly. The only problem was qi supply, Lestes was just in the fifth level of the body tempering so he didn't have much lightning qi. With Current strength, he could only use it for 15 minutes if he only used Lightning Dace Mirage but time would become shorter with the Thunderbolt sword only five minutes but it was enough for him.
The sun was high in the sky, after mastering Lightning Dance Mirage in the initial phase, lestes left the cave and started looking for the demon beast. After walking for a long time he still didn't encounter a single demon beast. He walked patiently for a while, but his luck didn't disappoint him soon he heard the roar of a beast from ahead. From nearby, Lestes saw by a river bank, two demon beasts fighting one was an app and another one was a fire wolf. He used a rock nearby to cover himself.
The Ape clashes with the fire wolf, the ground trembles as the ape roars, and the ape's mighty slams into the wolf's head, The wolf falls 10 meters away, but it stands again and jumps towards the ape with all its strength. It seems they had been fighting for a while as both Ape and Firewolf had serious injuries.
'What would make them fight like life is on the line' Lestes thought. He searched, and he saw not much away there was a green tree and five green fruits hinging on it full of spiritual energy. 'Green spirit fruit' Lestes remembers reading in sculpture that green spirit fruit, a type of spirit fruit that can help to tier one beast in the transformation to tier 2. Now Lestes understand. Lestes saw those fruits with greedy eyes he wanted to fish in trouble. He decided to wait patiently, till both beasts had used all their strength or killed each other it was even better for him.
Not long after app killed the wolf but he was also seriously injured, falling on the ground with panting. Lestes grips his sword takes a deep breath, and activates Lightning Dance Mirage with all his mighty, reaches above ape, and swings his sword thunderbolt phantom slash with everything he had, he doesn't want to strike a second time. Ape saw Lestes, he already used up all his strength fighting the wolf, still, collect's remaining strength to defend, the sword fell, and the ape roared as it was unconvinced but too late. With the fall of the sword, the ape's head falls off its solder.
Lestes didn't turn to see the ape, he moved fast first he collected fruits. He heard the roar of the approaching beast. Initially Ape and Firewolf had created too much commotion. It attracted many beasts. But they were still afar. Lestes didn't delay he collected wolf and ape corpses and ran along the river not too far was the river fall. Demon beasts chase after Lestes, Lestes activate the lightning dance mirage and runs without even looking back. After reaching the cliff. he jumped down from Clif directly into the river fall.