Chapter 208: Sword Essence
The fragment of memory ended, and Yale recovered his senses, it had only passed a second in the real world while he was seeing that fragment.
“Sword Essence… If even that guy who my past life considered untalented was able to surpass ranks to fight thanks to a bit of comprehension of the Sword Essence, I shouldn’t be less.”
The essence comprehension was something that surpassed the powers of reincarnation; reincarnation would have an easier time comprehending it again, but that knowledge was impossible to inherit for the next life.
Essences were far too profound; even Liye had only comprehended the Sword Essence completely, he had been unable to do it with the Life Essence and the Death Essence; he comprehended a lot about those essences, but he was still far for a complete understanding. After all, compared with swordsmanship, death and life were concepts much more difficult to understand completely.
Usually, even seeing memories about Sword Essence, it would be difficult to even reach the same level as that disciple because the essence couldn’t be felt in memories.
However, when Yale experimented that fragment of memory he sensed the Sword Essence; it wasn’t that his memories were special, but that the Sword Essence had appeared in his body and coordinated to his memories giving the same feeling.
The only way to inherit the comprehension of essences was though a Condensed Essence; it was a type of legacy that an expert on the verge of death could give only once to someone else. It could also be given without being at the brink of death, but as it was restricted at only once, that wasn’t very common.
However, such Condensed Essence needed to be absorbed immediately and couldn’t be given away to someone else after receiving it. Thus, there was no way to manage to pass that Condensed Essence to the next life; usually, the experts expect that the one who received their Condensed Essence reach their same level of comprehension as them using it and create a new Condensed Essence for the reincarnated expert’s new life.
Of course, usually, the Condensed Essences were incomplete, created just with the incomplete comprehension of their creator, even with people at Liye’s level comprehending a whole essence was still difficult because that was the first step to reach even a higher realm.
Liye could be considered a true genius as he managed to comprehend the whole Sword Essence while being just a Law Master. However, just a few people knew about it because when he comprehended the Sword Essence, it forced his breakthrough; that wasn’t the usual way to advance, but the effects of comprehending a whole essence were far too high. However, although the essence was the first step to advance again, it wasn’t the only condition, and such a breakthrough was difficult to even him.
Someone who obtained a Condensed Essence wouldn’t understand it immediately, but through using it while training, the speed of understanding that essence would surpass those who didn’t have it. Moreover, the main bad effect of it was that each soul is different, and the comprehensions of others might have a lowered effect, but Yale had the ones of his past life, so the compatibility was perfect.
That knowledge appeared all into Yale’s mind after finishing to see that memory fragment, but there wasn’t any explanation for the reason why the Condensed Sword Essence was hidden inside the Last Wish System although that should be impossible.
The Condensed Sword Essence was the reward for the sub-quest he had just completed and the reason for awakening some memories.
“My past life managed to find a way to do it? Anyway, I doubt my understanding after sensing it will be inferior to what the guy in the memory had obtained. Although this battle has more restrictions as it is a battle of pure swordsmanship, it would be shameful if I lose right now.”
Yale stood up, but he didn’t have any intention to give up like before, for the first time in that battle, he had intentions to win.
“Selenia, if we had finished the warm-up, can we start the real battle?”
Yale wasn’t injured nor tired, he stopped Bloodline Force before the charge for his body was unbearable, and with Auto-regeneration he got rid of tiredness very quickly. Of course, he didn’t want to use it again in the battle as his body had been pushed to the limit with the previous use.
“After that hit, are you still well and capable of battling? It seems that your defenses are even better than your attack power.”
Yale just laughed in reply to that, with his Auto-regeneration it was difficult for him to be seriously injured even if the opponent was Selenia; Yale didn’t fear attrition battles.
“I have one request before we start the true battle.”
No one expected that Yale was to ask something at that point.
“A request? I don’t plan to go easy on you, but ask.”
Yale had a great idea for that battle, but that would break the rules, and he didn’t want to win in that way.
“I want to use my Spiritual Sense, my true swordsmanship uses it, but it is forbidden by the standard rules. I think that is foolish because the Spiritual Sense combined with swordsmanship it is still a way to use swordsmanship.”
Usually, the people in Sword City just trained the Warrior Path, so the Spiritual Sense part wasn’t important for them, but as Yale had said, it was a great complement, and there were a lot of sword styles that included Spiritual Sense.
“Do you want to use Spiritual Sense? So are you also training the Magus Path? As long you just used it to complement your swordsmanship I don’t have any problem. Anyway you can just convince Lar and Wyba easily, and the rule would be changed quickly, there is no reason to oppose your idea.”
With Yale’s current influence on the city, changing that rule would be easy; even the Larken Clan ordered their kids also train the Magus Path in order to have a better Spiritual Sense to combine with swordsmanship.
“Thank you. Now, we can start the real battle!”
After Yale uttered those words both of them attacked, and although Yale’s strength was far weaker than before, he wasn’t sent flying.
“A second sword? You weren’t boasting about being only warming up before.”
Selenia started to grow excited, she hadn’t expected a lot of the battle, but at that moment she felt that she had greatly underestimated Yale.
“The user reached Origin Level 24.”
Yale had a wide smile on his face; he still had a long way to reach the 4-star Apprentice, but thanks to the Sword Essence he advanced after a mere exchange.
“I don’t know until when this bit of Sword Essence I comprehended would push me, but with this, I am sure the day we can see Aiwai again will be nearer than before!”
The increase in Yale’s aura was felt by everyone in the Sword Arena; a breakthrough in the midst of a battle wasn’t exactly usual, but that was something which had happened before.
“So, you were borrowing the pressure of the battle to advance to the 4-star Apprentice, but that won’t be enough against me!”
Selenia attacked a few times, but Yale’s two swords managed to block them. Although it seemed that Yale’s strength was enduring the attacks, he was using the swords in a way to redirect the strength of the attack making it easier to endure. That capability strong enough to balance the big disparity between ranks was something obtained from the Sword Essence and the reason why Liye was sure that it was enough for his disciple to win that battle.
“The user upgraded the Passive Skill [Martial Arts Mastery] to Master Level 1.”
Using swordsmanship was also related to martial arts, and the Sword Essence also had some influence on it when swordsmanship was used in a melee battle, although it couldn’t compare to a specific Martial Arts Essence.
Yale threw one of his swords towards Selenia while he took out another; he was using the swords forged by Aiwai and not his Space-time Judgment Sword.
Selenia blocked it without difficulty, but Yale threw four more. Selenia was about to told Yale to stop wasting time throwing swords when her face changed as she was almost heavily injured by a sword. That sword had come from behind her.
“So, that was the reason for asking to use the Spiritual Sense.”
Yale was controlling five swords with his Spiritual Sense and redirecting them non-stop to attack Selenia. Such control was similar to controlling arrows, but it surpassed the limits of the expert stage.
“The user upgraded the Passive Skill [Archery Mastery] to Master Level 1.”
Yale smiled as he had guessed correctly that by using swords as arrows the Sword Essence would also influence Archery and it would also be powered up.
Yale started to combine his physical attacks with the flying swords. At that moment, the advantage Selenia had in the whole battle disappeared; she was having a difficult time with Yale’s strategy.
“The user reached Origin Level 25.”
Yale advanced again after all those exchanges, and that time everyone was shocked. After all, one breakthrough could be because he was already on the verge and used the battle to advance, but advancing again meant that he increased a whole level in the midst of the battle. That feat was unbelievable, but they saw it with their own eyes.