Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 274: Techniques

Ruanfu had both wings and a long flexible body. She could learn both sets of techniques that King and Sage devised. The ideal goal was for them to come up with something that all three could use as beasts and also in their human forms. They didnt want to spend their time training and perfecting a move that only had limited usage. Sage wanted to have something he could still use even if he were to undergo metamorphosis again, and King wanted something to pass down to his descendants. Given his now prolific breeding habits, he needed something easily adaptable, and Ruanfu was the main test.

He brought out many skills from the Timeless Masters library, taking turns to let King browse through it as well. Their goal was to use the skills as inspiration. They studied the methods in which each technique gathered Qi, circulated it, and then how it was used. Different body motions combined with the specific combinations of Qi Pores the energy was released from and the direction of the energy as it left the body. There were so many different variables involved in the usage of a combat technique. They mostly focused on unarmed techniques, but then they branched out into the weapon techniques. Most of them involved infusing energy into a specific shape of weapon, but some methods could even be used without a weapon. In those cases it was still useful to study how they operated. Other weapon techniques were also looked at when the weapon was similar to their bodily features. King particularly liked browsing the Saber techniques. He said they gave him insight towards using his wings as blades.

Sage, on the other hand, didnt search based on outward appearances or uses. Instead he read a little into every technique he could. He wasnt looking for the best way to use the external and physical forms, but the internal. No matter what technique he chose, if it was focused on utilizing the physical body, it would need to be adapted to whatever form the prospective user had. In essence, he wanted to find a physical technique that was more of a Qi technique.

To that end, he had already found a few viable options. The first was a spear technique. Ghost Vortex Spear. It wasnt the most elegant of names, but the technique itself was quite interesting. Within the Qi channels and meridians, a cultivator had to slowly rotate their Qi like a whirlpool. Not just inside the dantian, but within the main channels leading down their arms and into their hands. It used the other nearby meridians to feed and power the whirlpool of energy. When used, this swirling column of energy was sent down the spear and used in conjunction with a fierce twisting of the wrist, shoulder, and waist. It created an invisible vortex of energy around the spearhead that not only pierced like a drill, but it also drew in nearby objects with a sort of suction force.

The second was called, Six Dreadful Inferno Finger, and despite its name, it was not a flame related technique. It was his own internal translation, as the name actually referred to a sort of fiery hell. It had six different main maneuvers, but that was not the interesting part. While it had an imposing name, the technique itself had nothing to do with the presence, or absence, of any sort of afterlife. Instead, it was poetic license. The Six Dreadful Inferno Finger was actually a secret method of detonating Qi. It could only be used with a single finger, because of how terribly destructive it was for its own user. The user destroyed a portion of their own cultivation to create an intensely powerful point of energy at the tip of their finger. The short lived spark of power was tens of times more powerful than normal. Each of the six finger moves had a slightly different variation on the amount of power it consumed, the duration it lasted, and the strength it could output. The final finger move would drop the user a full stage when it was used and completely detonate their own finger at the same time.

The third technique he experimented with was named: Eight Jointed Leg. The initial stages of the technique didnt seem like anything special. Teaching a bunch of kicks that made it seem like the user had somehow gained a bunch of extra joints in their legs. The intermediate stages were more interesting using Qi to actually bend and warp the bones so they could curve, reducing predictability and multiplying force. The highest level of mastery was what caught Sages eye. Qi was gathered into a large bundle and then send down the leg in perfect timing with the whip of the foot. Like a wave carrying weight, the wave of energy and wave of physical momentum struck at the same time. The resulting forces were magnified and a kick that cracked the air with a whip like sonic boom was just the beginning.

Cosmic Traction was an ancestral technique, something built into the very fiber of his being. It not only required knowledge, but also a special body. He couldnt just teach any random person to use it. It would require the expenditure of energy and focus to utilize, but because of its inherent nature, activating it was an innate talent and not a skill. The skill came in how exactly to utilize it. King already had quite a few methods, but they were those passed down by his ancestors. He could ignore wind resistance, stab his claws through most defenses, and even flap his wings to send out blades. Unfortunately, most of those skills didnt quite translate over to a human form. A birds body was far more aerodynamic than the human form, so avoiding wind resistance expended far too much energy. Sage didnt have wings in either form, but on the plus side clawing space was pretty useful.

Sage had claws in his true form, and he could use a Tiger fist style to use it as a human. It was actually quite impressive, if unwieldy. When he struck he condensed a little energy at his fingertips using Cosmic Traction and he could drive his fingers into a piece of stone. The downside being that he had to add a little shake of his arm at the last instant or hed get stuck. The thrust of his fingers dug perfect holes through space, so he had to slightly widen the holes before his force dissipated, or else it would be like someone had cast his fingers into a stone mold. He had to smash the rock apart with his other hand, or expend a large amount of Qi to weaken space enough to slowly drag his fingers back out. The technique was useful, but besides the terrifying penetration ability it was otherwise unwieldy.

Sage attempted to modify the techniques, and then teach them to Ruanfu. In order to teach someone else how to do something, it required a certain level of mastery. It also forced you to reflect upon the how and the why. Without sufficient understanding, it was impossible to transfer the knowledge to another. It also helped to push your thinking into other avenues. If an initial explanation was insufficient, you had to come up with new methods which in turn deepened your own understanding. Being taught by someone else also had similar benefits. Individual attention meant the freedom to ask as many questions as you needed and you could move at your own pace. The teacher could observe and provide help when you deviated from the correct path. Sage chose to have the three of them act as teacher and student to the others in order to accelerate their training as much as possible.

They only spent a few hours each night trading notes and instructing each other, but they had the rest of the day to contemplate. During the Ebb and Flow training, Sage performed the same exercises over and over again. It was a great time for him to ponder the development of their martial techniques. Many days, he also used the new technique as the method to expend all of his Qi, performing a technique over and over again to build his familiarity.

He only spent a few hours a day in the Universe Ring. Every morning one of his Falconers would send him a message, reporting on the affairs of the Jade Horde and the current events in the Dou Kingdom.