Master of Kaidan
Chapter 228: Is there a possibility that you cannot move not because of fear?

Chapter 228: Chapter 228: Is there a possibility that you cannot move not because of fear?

Blue skies, white clouds, snow mountains—a painting-like scenery unfolds.

This scene, rarely witnessed by urban dwellers except in visual media, truly exists in some corner of the Earth.

Liu Qi stands under this blue sky, his steady breathing influencing the air around him.

Three months of trekking have brought significant changes to his condition; living in the elements hasn’t treated his skin kindly, and his already long hair is now a chaotic mass.

His windbreaker is covered in various scrapes and tears, yet simply standing there, he exudes a sense of tranquility that one can’t help but feel.

At this moment, his legs are slightly apart, arms naturally hanging down; he seems to become one with his surroundings, like the rocks and the pines, even perceptive birds land nearby without caution.

But as a breeze passes, his still body suddenly springs into action.

Bending his knees to gather strength, twisting his waist, his right arm whips out like a lash, punching upwards toward the sky.

The gentle spring breeze comes to a halt, as a tremendous power surges towards the heavens.

The next moment, the clouds in the sky shift.

"I did it! I did it, Master! I succeeded!"

Seeing the clouds scatter from his punch, Liu Qi’s sage-like demeanor collapses instantly, followed by a crisp sound on his forehead.

"Successful my ass! The wind blew them away! Didn’t you see the nearby clouds move too? How many times have I told you, the inner strength and skill in this technique are just aids; the focus is on honing your will!"

Feng Xue looks at Liu Qi, whose punch had only stirred a breeze, and she shakes her head speechlessly, then flicks her finger causing another crisp sound on his forehead.

"Ow!" Liu Qi covers his head and starts the daily routine of dodging his master’s flicks.

After three months of trekking, Liu Qi’s foundational qualities had improved significantly. Although he hadn’t learned any advanced techniques, with his hearing and sight, he could catch finger-force bullets close to machine gun speed, and with his basic light skills, he could dodge most attacks.

Feng Xue nods inwardly, her left hand’s inner strength ripples out, sending an invisible, silent wave of energy at Liu Qi, who, while dodging, suddenly tightens his face, but before he can fully react, his knees buckle.

"You’ve detected the wave motion bomb and took a hit while standing firm; your base and awareness aren’t bad, but your reaction is a bit slow."

Feng Xue’s smile widens as she speaks, suddenly raising her arm, Liu Qi, seeing her stance, cries out in fright:

"Master, no! That’s uncalled for!"

"There’s nothing uncalled for, take this!"

Feng Xue, under the rebellious influence of modern fashion yet showing a deeply weathered face, lets out a hearty laugh. Twinkles of starlight condense on her right arm, guided by some force, forming the phantom of a killer whale—

"Eat my Killing Whale Dominating Fist!"

"I’m gonna die! I’m gonna die! Move, move it now!"

Liu Qi watched as the "Killer Whale" lunged towards him, a strong sense of fear instantly spreading throughout his body, as everything in front of him seemed to slow down, his spirit more focused than ever before.

Adrenaline secreted in large quantities, and amidst the stimulus of a death crisis, Liu Qi’s spirit actually calmed down.

But no matter how urgently he urged them, his legs seemed to have rooted themselves into the earth, deeply embedded and showing no intention of moving.

"Eating this move will really kill me!" Having witnessed Feng Xue blow a hole through the clouds with a punch, Liu Qi knew all too well how terrifying this move was.

Yet even if his spirit was now running in overdrive, and even if everything before him had slowed down to a nauseating extent, his legs still refused to move an inch.

"This foolish kid..." Feng Xue, seeing Liu Qi completely unaware that his legs had been acupunctured, staring eye-to-eye with the slowed-down Killer Whale, twitched his mouth slightly in amusement.

"Forget it, maybe it’ll be safer to entrust that martial arts to such a blockhead." Feng Xue shook his head, looked up at the sky, his complex feelings slowly dispersing.

Although he had always felt the hype was somewhat overblown, standing under this blue sky, the feeling of merging with the universe indeed brought a spiritual baptism.

"Ah, right, right, right."

He suddenly issued an abrupt response to Liu Qi, leveraging the characteristics of Little Bei to momentarily divert his disciple’s attention away from himself; then, he casually found a rock to sit on, continuing to polish his mental state amidst this natural setting.

As his breathing gradually became calm, a crimson sphere constructed of Killing Intent Fluctuations materialized above Feng Xue’s hands held in front of his knees; if thrown, it would become the legendary "Wave Motion Fist."

However, Feng Xue did not do so at this time. He merely maintained his mental state, separating a sliver of consciousness to sense and gradually enter a sympathetic state with his main consciousness, shifting from movement to stillness.

Upon reaching this step, he slowly guided that sliver of consciousness into the Killing Intent Fluctuation; instantly, a sense of frenzy surged up from his divided consciousness straight to his spirit.

Thankfully, having trained many times before, Feng Xue easily withstood the first onslaught, but as the Killing Intent washed over the separate consciousness, the strength of both fluctuations also simultaneously decreased.

On the day he had entered the repository, Feng Xue had successfully completed the training to quiet his divided consciousness and had managed to develop a counterpart to the "Killing Intent Fluctuation," the "Serenity Wave."

Logically, after reaching this point, he could try to immerse the consciousness into pure "Identity." But after several failed attempts, Feng Xue realized the problem—

Once the separate consciousness quieted down, its strength was insufficient.

This caused it to infect at a slower rate than Feng Xue’s own efficiency after passing through the protective shell.

Nevertheless, this result was actually quite good, as the consciousness sent inside could be "mass-produced." As long as there were enough divided consciousnesses, Feng Xue could simultaneously immerse thousands of "Identities."

But Feng Xue was somewhat stubborn and was not content with producing just a half-finished product.

Thus, after slowly imbuing each "dice" he brought with a divided consciousness, he wholly threw himself into refining consciousness—

Just as optimizing aerodynamic design through wind tunnel tests, by colliding "Serenity Wave" with "Killing Intent Fluctuation," he simulated the attrition of consciousness, relying on such bidirectional wear and tear to enhance the structure and optimize both the strength and resilience of the consciousness carrier.

Constant optimization and refinement, even attempting to coat the Wave Motion Fist with a Killer Whale shell, resulted under months of work from Feng Xue in the refinement of consciousness being somewhat secondary; instead, it significantly enhanced the power of his basic boxing technique.

While tranquility and killing intent were intertwining as usual, Feng Xue suddenly felt something, raised his head, and before he could even focus his gaze, a loud shout rang in his ears—

"This is the struggle I make to survive!"