Chapter 93

Chapter 93: Little Sis, You Still Need More Practice

Two hours later, Immortal Lord Chang Li arrived on time. Seeing how fast Shen Sang Ruo had improved in such a short time, he could not help smiling.

She lowered her fan and greeted him: “Immortal Lord Chang Li.”

He did not waste words: “Ready?”

“Mm,” Shen Sang Ruo said, gripping the Luan Feather Fan as she stared at him. She did not know how he would test her, but she was eager to see the result of her practice.

Immortal Lord Chang Li’s lips quirked into a wicked smile. [Wait, I’ve seen that smile before.] A bad feeling surged in her chest.

In the next moment, he raised both hands from his sides. Countless fireballs bloomed behind him and, with a sweep of his arms, poured down like a storm, lighting the whole training ground.

He said with a straight face, trying not to laugh: “You’ve mastered the basic Spellcraft. Use it to deal with these fireballs.”

Shen Sang Ruo stared. [How is this different from sending a brand-new player to solo the final boss?] She looked at the fireballs flying at her like raindrops and really wanted to “greet” her soon-to-be grandmaster. [I knew it. He totally held a grudge from before and is getting revenge!]

She clenched her teeth and drew on every bit of strength to face the rain of fireballs. She flicked the fan once, trying to scatter the closest cluster, but their speed only dropped.

Immortal Lord Chang Li’s voice drifted over: “These are special fireballs I made just for you.” Each one was tuned so that she had to use her full power to shatter it. That way she would burn through Spiritual Power without getting hurt. The strength was just right, enough to leave her dazed but not injured. It would simply tire her out like a dog.

Thanks to Immortal Maiden Azure Luan’s training, Shen Sang Ruo already had a good grasp of the Power of Wind. Her light body let her dodge more easily. There were too many fireballs, so she could only shatter some and dodge the rest.

Immortal Lord Chang Li sat to the side, sipping tea, watching her weave through the fireball storm in a very messy way. His mood was great. When she glanced over and glared at him through gritted teeth, he thought: [Seems it’s not her limit yet if she still has time to glare.] He set down his cup and summoned even more fireballs.

Shen Sang Ruo’s vision went dark for a second. [I am so getting you back for this.] Then she had to focus everything on survival.

Half an hour later, the endless fireball rain finally stopped. Shen Sang Ruo was exhausted and collapsed on the ground, but her eyes never left Immortal Lord Chang Li. He walked up and raised a hand to her, saying: “No, I’m not apologizing. Little sis, you still need more practice.”

Shen Sang Ruo, very used to this by now, took out a Spirit-Replenishing Pill and swallowed it. Energy returned and she managed to stand. [No wonder Immortal Lord Chang Li and Immortal Maiden Azure Luan get along. They use the same tricks.]

After she recovered a bit, Immortal Lord Chang Li asked, “From that test, did you discover anything?”

Shen Sang Ruo calmed herself and replayed the battle in her mind. She made a guess: “Immortal Lord wants me to focus on single-point attacks?”

Just like Immortal Maiden Azure Luan, Immortal Lord Chang Li’s moves looked like payback, but each had a purpose. The Sunset Glassfire Art was an area attack, yet he had raised the strength of each fireball to force her to break them one by one.

He nodded: “Exactly. Don’t only chase wider range and ignore the quality of the attack.” A fan sweep that throws fire a thousand meters looks amazing, and it is easy to think you are improving fast. But it might only look strong while doing little damage.

He gave the path plainly: “The way to raise the Sunset Glassfire Art is to specialize in a small area first. Refine the power in a small space until you can call a fire cloud, then spread out from that point to widen the range.” The art had three stages. The first was where Shen Sang Ruo stood now. The second changed from summoning fire with a fan sweep to summoning a fire cloud above, then dropping Glazed Flame. The last stage was one fan sweep causing a heaven and earth phenomenon, with fire clouds covering the whole sky so that between heaven and earth all was falling Glazed Flame.

Going from the first to the second counted as getting in the door. From the second to the last looked like a single step, but it actually held nine tenths of the art’s true content, and the difficulty shot up. Even Immortal Lord Chang Li had spent over a thousand years understanding it before he could wave that fan on the mountaintop the way she had seen.

He concluded: “From now on, do the same. Raise the single point, then grow it outward. That builds the steadiest foundation.”

Listening, Shen Sang Ruo fell into thought. She had indeed gone a bit off track by only chasing a bigger area and ignoring the strength. But she also felt his way might not fully fit her. [What if I can grow the range and hold the quality at the same time?]

As if reading her mind, Immortal Lord Chang Li said, “You can’t become a giant in one bite. You can’t have everything at once. With your current strength, it’s hard to raise both at the same time.” Then he changed tone: “But you can try.”

“Thank you for the guidance, Immortal Lord Chang Li,” Shen Sang Ruo answered, eyes bright. “I still want to try my way first.” If it failed, she could switch back to his method. They were still in the early stage of understanding the art. Trying more had no downside. There were many paths to the Dao. Even with the same technique, different people reached different insights. As the pioneer, his path was good, but her own understanding mattered too.

She knew that trying to raise both at once might demand more Spiritual Power than she could carry. But from the start until now, whether it was the Red Peak Fire Sea, the Slanting Mountain Icefield, or the Wind-Moon Spirit Ruins, every trial had been like that. [Heh, I like to push the limit.]

Immortal Lord Chang Li was not angry. He was only offering a direction. He nodded: “Go try it. In two hours, this Immortal Lord will come test you again.” He admired people with their own ideas. If you only repeated others without your own view, you would not go far. In cultivation, the most important thing was your true heart. He was also curious what she would do next.