Groggily waking up, Xie Tian thought back to what he guessed was yesterday.
Having no sun or moon to guide your time, does that to a man.
He was quick to stand up and spread his Internal energy through his sole and legs and took a resolute step.
Just as he remembered yesterday, with one step, he arrived at two steps ahead.
"I knew It wasn't a dream!"
Xie Tian laughed as he repeatedly executed Steps of the Wind God, but after the fourth time, his Dantian was almost empty, and his bones were aching.
"Looks like I need to advance my Martial Prowess to use it more freely."
Sitting down and circulating his internal energy to replenish it, he thought of the combat arts.
Having achieved novice proficiency in a movement technique, the only thing missing for a good start was a combat technique.
Opening his eyes, he stared at the two books laying before him.
"I was a sword user before."
Thinking about what he was used to, the sword would undoubtedly be the easiest to use but was that really the correct answer.
Looking a bit further away, there stood two lonely weapons against the rock wall.
One was a magnificent looking sword, and the other an ordinary Sabre.
"I have nothing to do with who I was in the past, I am now Xie Tian, and I am carving my own path."
He said out loud as he moved towards the weapons and picked up the saber.
Swinging it a few times to get the hang of the different weight, the saber being a much heavier weapon.
With only one side sharp and used for slashing and cutting, the other side blunt.
A weapon perfect for people who can harness great strength.
The saber is a weapon that is barely used in the world currently, where the most used weapons consist of sword, spear, and fist.
As the righteous faction thought of all other weapons as barbaric.
He picked up the Heavenly Demonic Blade Art and read it thoroughly a couple of times before even trying to follow it.
In it, where twelve simple movements and someone not well versed in martial arts would think that made it a much easier martial art.
For normal people that is understandable, as some of the famous techniques in today's age, consist of 46 all the way to 98 movements.
But is It really the best for combat efficiency?
Xie Tian left those thoughts in the back of his mind as he went to practice the first movement.
It seemed like a completely normal downwards swing, but as he tried it, something felt wrong.
"It's to open."
It was the only thing he thought of as he tried the first swing tens of times.
His body felt too stiff as he swung his saber in a downwards motion, something that would get him killed if he couldn't understand what was wrong.
He tried all the other movements as well, but the same thing was plaguing his mind as it simply felt wrong.
Thinking it was no use to continue trying with it, he sat down and meditated over the issue.
It took him several days of meditation and rereading the book before something dawned on him.
Thinking back to his time as an assassin, one of the most important lessons he learned was about compatibility.
"There is no way, right?"
His own guess almost made him condemn himself as stupid, it was something that was unheard of.
He stood up and started using his breathing technique and gathering his internal energy, but not just standing still.
Xie Tian started slowly moving around whist keeping himself in a meditative state of gathering internal energy.
"How in the world have he created something like this?"
What he was doing right now was something unheard of in the entirety of Jianghu.
He was gathering and circulating his internal energy at the same time, and whilst moving at that.
That would make it so his internal energy would dissipate at a much slower rate than any other usual martial artist.
Soon he tried to move about faster or do more complex movements but was not ready for it.
"Kehk!"
Falling to the ground and clutching his heart, he was panting and almost shaking from the pain he was suffering from.
Slowly composing himself he concluded that it took an incredible toll on his heart.
"This is going to be painful."
He thought with a pained and tense expression on his face before continuing the grueling training of moving around whilst in a conscious meditative state.
Taking just over a month, he had succeeded in being able to move around normally, sprinting and complex movements in that state.
So, he quickly decided to try what he had been thinking a month ago.
Entering the conscious meditative state, he executed the first simple movement of the Blade Art.
With an ecstatic expression on his face, he kept repeating the first movement with a downward slash.
Laughing out loud as he tried the other movements as well.
He could actively complete up till the seventh movement before it took a toll on both his heart and muscles.
Another issue was his pathetic amount of Internal energy, which meant he had to incorporate increasing his internal energy to his routine.
Xie Tian finally found out how he should train for the remainder of the time.
Spending the longest time in training since entering the cave, he spent half a year following the strict routine.
With each day passing, Xie Tian felt himself become more and more ecstatic with the feeling of improving constantly, it was something he was becoming addicted to.
Feeling around his body as he completed the last and twelfth movement of the Heavenly Demonic Blade art, his emotions were elevated to their absolute max.
He had gained a novice proficiency in the Blade Art and Intermediate in the movement technique.
But that was not what made him the happiest, he had also advanced to an advanced prowess.
Everywhere he went, he would be welcomed as a first rate martial artist, that is if he wasn't going to revive the Demonic Cult.
Something else he reacted to was that he had almost double the amount of internal energy compared to when he was a first-rate martial artist in the past.
He wasn't sure if that was because of the Rejuvenation pill or the new breathing technique, whatever it was, Xie Tian was happy about it.
Having decided to finally enter Jianghu again, he brought all the marital arts books with him before bowing one last time towards the text in the wall.