Chapter 7: Azure Light Finger
This ring was said to be filled with secrets. However, how to unlock it was the real question.
Xue Wei was unsure, so he excused himself and went back to his room where he sat down on the bed and examined the ring from all angles.
It was a dragon that coiled itself around his finger, the eyes were two blue sapphires, and it looked very domineering.
No matter how Xue Wei looked at it, it looked like an ordinary ring, and no matter how much he attempted to stare at it, nothing happened.
"Uncle said that I needed strength to be able to unlock the secrets of the ring."
"Strength... Qi... Of course!" Xue Wei had an epiphany. "To unlock the secrets of the ring, I need to infuse it with Qi!"
Xue Wei did not waste his time and immediately infused his Qi into it. The moment he did, a brilliant light lit up the room.
As the light shone, the ring turned hot. Although it was scalding, no mark was left on Xue Wei's finger, and he was not in any kind of pain.
As he felt the heat, it grew stronger and stronger until it finally cooled off and Xue Wei saw how something was projected into the air in front of him.
As he looked at the projection, an excited smile appeared on Xue Wei's lips. These were all martial arts, and they were all of the superior grade – one of them was even profound grade!
Martial arts were split into ranks; the higher the rank, the stronger it was. The ranks went from low, middle, high, superior to profound ranked.
The higher the rank, the harder it was to train, but the more powerful it was as well. It was said that there were ranks above profound, but no commoners ever got into contact with these abilities.
To think that Xiao Lei had prepared so many superior and even a profound ability for Xue Wei made him feel surprised but also very happy. Although he was at a lower realm, if he managed to perfect these martial arts, then he would be able to fight the other geniuses in town.
Xue Wei did not want to lose even a moment, and his eyes roamed across the abilities in front of him.
"Azure Light Finger, a superior martial technique which allows for the finger to grow hard as iron and release ranged Qi attacks. Can be used in both close quarters combat and ranged combat."
"Shattering Mountain Fist, a superior martial technique which allows for the user to use their fist to shatter mountains. Can only be used in close quarters combat."
"Sacrificial stab, a superior martial technique that can only be used while wielding a bladed weapon. A cheap but effective killing move! Can only be used in close quarters combat. Sacrifices the soul of the wounded to the ancient gods."
"Inner Might, a profound martial technique that allows the user to shape the Qi within the body to any weapon of their choice. Can be used in both close quarters combat and ranged attacks."
“Forbidden Rush, a superior martial technique that allows the user to increase their speed and merge with the wind. A support technique.”
Having looked at quite a lot of the skills, Xue Wei had picked out those five to learn first. Although quite a lot of abilities were present in front of him, Xue Wei understood that if he bit off more than he could chew, then he would just not learn any of them entirely. Even five was pushing it.
He could no longer stay in his room to practice, or he would destroy all of the furniture if he tried. Considering for some time, he thought about the grounds at the back of the mansion where he had seen his uncle train from time to time, but he was unsure if it was okay for him to go there to train.
Leaving the room, Xue Wei went to look for Manager Su to ask for permission, and on the way he came across two maids who were cleaning together.
These two maids were both young women, and although they loathed Xue Wei, they had stayed because they had a dream of one day becoming Xiao Lei's concubines. By staying, they could get into his good graces.
These two women saw Xue Wei walking past them, but they both frowned. Although Xue Wei was never cowering or hiding away, he seemed different now. He had an aura that made these two maids breathless and a heroic air around him that was very different from what they were used to.
He seemed like a refined scholar who had understood martial arts, and although these two women loathed him for being useless trash, they could not help but gasp at the changes that were happening to him.
They both stared at him as he walked past them and down the corridor. It was not before a long time after that one of the maids regained her composure, and she nudged the maid by her side.
"That was the young master?" she asked, stunned, unable to comprehend what she had just seen. She did not even realize that she had referred to him as the young master and not ‘the useless trash’.
Xue Wei did not care about what they said or how they reacted, all that mattered to him was to find Manager Su.
He found him in the back garden where he was ordering a group of guards around, and when the manager saw Xue Wei again, a smile appeared on his lips.
"What can I do for you, young master?" he asked. He had previously seen that Xue Wei had left his room for a short while but reentered it, and he had expected that the young man would seclude himself for an extensive period of time, not that he would emerge from his room this fast.
"Manager Su, I am looking for somewhere to train some martial arts," Xue Wei did not beat around the bush and said so right away. He knew that Manager Su was an esteemed expert and that he had long since sensed the changes in Xue Wei, so hiding it seemed pointless.
The guards who were present were also all Earth Warriors, the rank above Ordinary Warriors, and they could also sense Xue Wei's cultivation base if they wanted to.
The guards looked at Xue Wei in surprise, and all of them quickly noticed the great changes that had happened to their young master.
Some were perplexed, others were disbelieving, but most of them were relieved.
They were working for Xiao Lei, but right now they had to take orders from Xue Wei. He was previously known as trash, but to reach the third layer of the Ordinary Warrior rank within three months was an amazing feat that only the proud sons and daughters of the heavens would be able to pull off.
"You can use your uncle's training ground I am sure," Manager Su said like a gentle old grandfather, and he nodded his head to the guards, "excuse me," he said and led Xue Wei towards the training grounds that were exclusive for Xiao Lei.
The private training ground was a lot smaller than the training ground for the guards. It had dummies made from black gold, which had the ability to restore themselves when broken.
Looking at these dummies, Xue Wei's usually expressionless face turned bright, and he nodded his head in approval.
He remembered the abilities by heart already. His mind was incredibly good at remembering things, and after reading through the five abilities he had picked four times, he knew them by heart.
"First, I am going to train the Azure Light Finger. When I finish that, then I will proceed to the Shattering Mountain Fist," he mumbled to himself and, without hesitating, and completely ignoring that Manager Su was still present, began his training.
Having decided on what to do, Xue Wei did not waste any more time. Instead, he rushed to the training field where he saw row after row of dummies.
These dummies were not ordinary dummies, made of black gold, a material which repaired itself after destruction. These dummies had been extremely expensive, but they were also very beneficial when it came to training.
Even Xiao Lei had been capable of using them. He was a Heavenly Warrior who was capable of cultivating to an almost inconceivable level, and for these dummies to be able to withstand his attacks showed just how potent their self-repairing abilities were.
Xue Wei had often seen his uncle train on these dummies and had often wished to be able to train himself, and now it was finally time.
Xue Wei tried to send the Qi to his finger a few times before he managed to successfully activate the Azure Light Finger. On his first attack the attack did not send, and exploded right on the tip of his finger, sending him flying backwards and landing with pain in both his body and his fingertip.
Second time the beam left his fingertip but started dropping instantly, flying straight to the ground instead of towards the dummy.
After this Xue Wei had one issue after another with trying to control the amount of Qi that he was sending to his finger. If he sent too much then he was incapable of controlling it, if he sent too little it would not even launch the attack.
After trialing and erroring a few times, Xue Wei finally got the hang of it, and he reached out for the Qi within his dantian and followed the superior technique of the Azure Light Finger. Suddenly, an azure light exploded from his fingertip; it was aimed straight at the dummy and landed with a clang.
The attack was not overly strong, but Xue Wei had only used a small amount of Qi, as he wished to be able to control it, and it had proven successful.
The more Qi he used, the harder it was to control this light beam, but making his finger as hard as iron was as simple as thinking about it.
Xue Wei spent the entire day in front of the same dummy, attacking again and again, using the Azure Light Finger’s over and over again until his finger became so sore that he could barely move it.
The martial attack should be rather difficult to learn since it was a superior-ranked martial art, but Xue Wei found that it was as easy as it was for a fish to swim in water. He had absolutely no problems performing this attack. The only thing he did have problems with was controlling when the beam of Qi got too strong.
Although the Azure Light Finger was a superior martial technique and not a profound ranked one, it was still very useful to someone who had never before cultivated.
Every single attack caused Xue Wei to use almost all his Qi, and constantly restoring it was causing his training speed to become many times faster than it was before.
The manager was stunned when he saw how simply Xue Wei was displaying his martial art, and from the aura of the attack, it was clearly ranked rather high.
The rumors about Xue Wei having cultivated spread through the mansion like wildfire and everyone came to the training grounds where he was training to see it with their own eyes.
Manager Su allowed for all of them to come and see him, but none of them were allowed to disturb him. They could watch, but if they said a word they would instantly be sent away.
Xue Wei did not really care about how many people came to watch him – all he could think about was practicing the Azure Light Finger.
He felt how he was becoming more and more proficient in it; his control grew better and better as he managed to use two attacks instead of one before he ran out of energy.
He would throw attacks at the black gold dummies before he would sit down and restore his energy while the dummies repaired themselves.
At the start, everyone had been watching, but as the hours went by, more and more had to return to their chores. For some reason, no one gossiped about Xue Wei and his new abilities. They all kept it a secret.
Not because they wanted Xue Wei to suffer from the bad rumors, but because all of them were eager to see the day that Xue Wei would shock the entire Tiankong City with a burst of power.
Unknowing of all of this, Xue Wei continued to train day in and day out. He ate a few meals a day, but apart from that he would spend all his time cultivating and practicing his Azure Light Finger.