Chapter 242: Aspect Totem
On stage, Yi Yun’s Yuan Qi was circulating. His aura continued to rise, while his Thousand Army Saber began to emit a light sound as his saber truth screamed out.
Yi Yun’s strength was constantly condensing like a surging tidal wave!
Seeing Yi Yun in such a state, Chu Xiaoran wiped away the hair that was cut by the saber Qi and took a light breath.
“Your saber is very strong… but I will defeat you!” Chu Xiaoran said seriously.
She held her soft sword in both of her hands and she stretched it out. A bluish-white glow circulated on the sword’s edges.
Her Yuan Qi condensed and very soon, a layer of frost formed on her sword.
The layer of frost became thicker, covering Chu Xiaoran’s sword, her hand, eventually spreading throughout her entire body.
A chill that penetrated into one’s bones had spread in all directions. Even the audience, who were far away, could feel this bone-chilling coldness.
“Is this Frost Qi? She has Ice Elemental Yuan Qi!?”
Many people in the audience hesitated for a moment. A warrior’s Yuan Qi could have many types of elemental properties. It was not odd for some of them to have ice elemental Yuan Qi. This was not enough to be Chu Xiaoran’s hidden strength, as Yuan Qi with elemental properties were not that much stronger…
Ice elemental Yuan Qi was no sensation. Fang Jihai, who Chu Xiaoran had previously defeated, was a fire elemental warrior.
Yuan Qi with an elemental property was easier to convert into an attack than non-elemental Yuan Qi, but it was not that much stronger!
Just as the audience was in a confused state, Heaven Earth Yuan Qi slowly began to condense behind Chu Xiaoran, forming a phantom image. It was the phantom image of a white wolf.
It was large in size, about 4 meters in height and seven meters long. It stood majestically behind Chu Xiaoran and it gave a strong visual impact.
“Glacier Snow Wolf! An ice elemental desolate beast… This is… manifestation of Yuan Qi?”
Manifestation of Yuan Qi was the phenomenon of coalescing the Yuan Qi emitted by one’s body into a physical form. This was something almost any Purple Blood warrior in the Tai Ah Divine City could do.
Qiuniu’s final attack, Sky Ox Tyrannous Blood, also used the manifestation of Yuan Qi. It had unleashed the phantom image of an ox, but it was still slashed through by Yi Yun.
It was not rare to have a manifestation of Yuan Qi in the Tai Ah Divine City.
But… some rookies realized that the white wolf behind Chu Xiaoran was different. It had an inexplicable spirit to it. It appeared to have a telepathic connection with Chu Xiaoran, it was as if it was formed from Chu Xiaoran’s soul, containing a part of Chu Xiaoran’s life force.
Besides, this huge white wolf contained a surging Power of Desolates within it. This was the strength only desolate beasts could have, but it was present in the Yuan Qi phantom image behind Chu Xiaoran. What was even more surprising was that the white wolf did not seem to be formed from Chu Xiaoran’s Yuan Qi, but seemed as if it was a real desolate beast!
Could it be…
The rookies were uncertain, but the veteran cultivators had long since identified it. It was not the manifestation of Yuan Qi, it was something of a higher level. It was something that only Yuan foundation realm warriors could do, Aspect Totem!
“Is it really Aspect Totem? How is this possible!?” People were astonished.
In the Divine wilderness, humans and desolate beasts were enemies. Desolate beasts would often eat humans and there would be beasts horde from time to time. A large city of a million households could be destroyed in a beast horde, which would lead to utter misery.
Even so, there were times when human warriors could not separate themselves from desolate beasts, as they could borrow the powers of the desolate beasts. This could be explained, starting with Aspect Totem.
Aspect Totem was the symbol of a Yuan foundation realm warrior.
When a warrior was at the peak of the Purple Blood realm, they would condense all of their blood essence into their Dantian, forging their Qi and their blood foundation. This was the beginning of the Yuan foundation!
To build a lofty tower, one had to build a stable foundation. The Yuan foundation was the foundation of the path of martial arts and it was an extremely important step.
After condensing one’s Yuan foundation, a warrior could absorb the energies of Heaven Earth Yuan Qi and rank up. It was something that no Purple Blood warrior could match.
Just from this ability to gather energy, a warrior could gather the souls and Power of Desolates that escaped from a dead desolate beast that they had hunted in the wilderness. In the Yuan foundation, they would be able to gather and condense a Summon entity that belonged only to them.
When in a battle with others, they could then summon it, which would create a huge phantom image to strengthen their powers.
This Summon entity was known as the Aspect Totem.
Once the Aspect Totem was formed, it would always accompany the warrior. As a trademark, it was an important part of a warrior’s fighting ability.
Everyone’s Aspect Totem had a difference. They could grow continually, evolve and even morph.
Warriors above the Yuan foundation realm would often have to resort to using the Aspect Totem, when in a deathmatch with a difficult opponent, to increase their strength. This was the mark of a Yuan foundation realm warrior going all out in battle.
In the Tai Ah Divine City, there was a Heaven roll of honor. It was more important than the Earth roll of honor. The way that the Heaven roll was ranked depended on the number of desolate beasts one kills. The Heaven roll’s rewards were also the highest amongst the three rolls.
The warriors who charged up the Heaven roll would spend large amounts of time in the Divine wilderness killing desolate beasts. One of the reasons was to gain glory points, the second reason was to condense and strengthen their Aspect Totem.
The Aspect Totem could only be done by absorbing a desolate beast that one killed with their own hands. And it had to be done in a short timespan after the death of the desolate beast, because the desolate beast’s Power of Desolates and blood Qi would dissipate if they were not absorbed.
Before the Aspect Totem reached a bottleneck, one could form and strengthen their Aspect Totem by killing more desolate beasts!
Hence, the cultivation method of the veteran cultivators of the Tai Ah Divine City was to continuously hunt desolate beasts. It could increase their strength and also, it would earn them resources. It was like killing two birds with one stone.
As for Chu Xiaoran, having arrived in the Tai Ah Divine City three months ago, she never took part in the rookie jobs due to her outstanding strength. She only went into the Divine wilderness to hunt desolate beasts!
This meant that she had a head start on all the other rookies.
People originally thought Chu Xiaoran would, at most, earn more dragon scale runes; no one expected that she would condense a Aspect Totem!
“She… can’t be a Yuan foundation realm warrior, right?”
“Impossible! Even many of the cultivators who have been in the Tai Ah Divine City for 3-4 years have yet to break through to the Yuan foundation realm. Chu Xiaoran may be extremely gifted, but it can not be to the point where she can break through so early. Besides, if you reach the Yuan foundation realm too early, you might not be able to accumulate enough energy. And this is actually not beneficial.”
Many people discussed this. In the seats of honor, Elder Jian Ge stroked his beard and looked at Chu Xiaoran with surprise. “This is ‘Aspect Before Yuan’… The Tai Ah Divine City has not had a junior like this in a long time…”
Aspect Totem was something that warriors in the Yuan foundation realm could perform. But in this world, there were always some exceptions. Some people had a close affinity with Heaven Earth Yuan Qi or Power of Desolates. With excellent perceptivity, they could coalesce a Aspect Totem that belonged to them in the Purple Blood realm!
This sort of Aspect Totem was known as Aspect Before Yuan.
By being able to demonstrate a small portion of the strength of a Yuan foundation realm warrior, without being a Yuan foundation realm warrior, it was obvious how strong their battle power would be.
There were all sorts of specializations. Many geniuses had their own forte, but it was not easy to be good at everything. For example, Qin Haotian was an extraordinary swordsman, but even he could not form Aspect Before Yuan!
This meant that Chu Xiaoran had an extraordinary talent in using Aspect Totem!
The Aspect Totem was an important part of a Divine wilderness warrior’s battle power, it was really important for those of the Yuan foundation realm or above.
Obviously, the Aspect Totem had different strengths. The same Aspect Totem formed from the same type of desolate beast might have different powers, depending on the different warriors’ absorption of the Power of Desolates. This was related to a person’s talent and intelligence.
And there was no doubt that Chu Xiaoran was one of the best.
In the future, when she reached a higher realm, she would hold the upper hand against warriors of the same level. It was equivalent to her using a higher level Aspect Totem against others.
Cang Yan said, “To be precise, it is not a complete Aspect Before Yuan. It is just Embryonic Aspect, but that is still pretty impressive! I think there is a need to take this little maiden to the sword tomb.”
Cang Yan’s eyes glowed with excitement. His expression looked like a grave robber who had just seen a rare treasure.
Elder Jian Ge simply gave a deep sigh. Surprisingly, he did not oppose it. That was because none of the people who were able to create an Aspect Before Yuan lacked perceptivity. Indeed, she should enter the sword tomb once.
Jian Ge said, “This little maiden is also very sensitive to frost laws. Her Aspect Totem is also an ice elemental… She must have gained some insight into a portion of the ice elemental nomological truths. If not, it would not be that easy to form the embryonic form of Aspect Totem in the Purple Blood realm.”
The Aspect Totem could increase the strength of warriors, but it wasn’t just a mere increase in a warrior’s energy intensity.
Another very important point was that it allowed warriors to gain further insight into laws related to energy.
For example, Chu Xiaoran had a deep understanding of the hard-soft and frost ice laws.
The Aspect Totem she chose was an ice elemental in nature.
She had been continuously hunting ice elemental desolate beasts. The Power of Desolates that escaped from these ice elemental desolate beasts was also ice elemental in nature.
After Chu Xiaoran absorbed all of these ice elemental Power of Desolates, she merged them together into her Aspect Totem. Hence, her Aspect Totem was also an ice elemental.
As a result, when Chu Xiaoran enters a battle, just from the help from the Aspect Totem, she would gain bonus effects when she used ice elemental Yuan Qi.
It could be imagined as if Chu Xiaoran had brought a real ice elemental desolate beast, which had a telepathic connection with her, into battle against Yi Yun.
It was equivalent to fighting two against one.
“Is this Aspect Totem…? This is my first time seeing this… So that’s what it looks like…”
Yi Yun had no systematic study of martial arts. Even before leaving the Lian tribal clan, Yi Yun did not know what the realm above the Purple Blood realm was.
Although he later learned about the Yuan foundation, he did not know the hallmark of the Yuan foundation realm warriors, nor what special abilities they possessed. Yi Yun did not even know how to go from the Purple Blood realm to the Yuan foundation realm.
Yi Yun had not seen many Yuan foundation realm warriors before coming to the Tai Ah Divine City. Besides Lin Xintong, Yi Yun had never seen them fight.
And when he sparred with Lin Xintong, due to the great difference in ability, Lin Xintong naturally did not need to use her Aspect Totem.
…
Author’s Note: Many people asked Cocooned what martial art realms are there in “True Martial World”. About these setups, Cocooned has given them a great deal of thought. Different realms will not just have different names. There will be an essential difference. These setups will be written slowly as the plot unfolds. It will present an interesting and complete power system to everyone.