Chapter 19 – Gift From The Heavens
“Get rid of the twenty-third rune, swap the thirty-eighth and fortieth runes with the fifty-seventh and sixty-third one, also they need to be adjusted a little bit. Humm move them up a little more!”
Under Ye Wei’s supervision, Ye Zhong’s fingers started dancing in the air leaving shining trails of runes. Because he was very familiar with White Tiger’s Assault the efficiency he displayed along with his movements made it seem as if he was performing a majestic play. Since childhood Wei and Zhong have been close playmates such that they did not need to use words to communicate, Ye Zhong would know how his little cousin wanted him correct the rune halfway through the hints. They had a bond similar to dancing partners.
“Yep, just like that. Slow down! you don’t want to move it too much!” Ye Wei frowned now and then trying to feel the Qi flow.
There were one hundred and thirty-six complex runes in White Tiger’s Assault compared to Triple Tidal Palm’s thirty-six, finding a balance and an optimal route was therefore not as easy.
The cousins were making adjustments for half of the evening, Ye Zhong got pale from fatigue as Ye Wei got increasingly frustrated as the night progressed without significant progress.
Ye Wei was not only bothered by the lack of progress, his older cousin was only a four star Warrior and he was draining his Qi and will-force rapidly. He didn’t have enough to repeatedly perform a high level stance much longer if he kept going like this.
“Hey cousin Zhong, let’s take a little break? You should rest a little!”
Ye Wei was looking at his cousin, seeing droplets of sweat on his pale face that were vibrating due to his muscle spasms. Refinement was not a task to be taken lightly, even more so when Ye Wei was not correcting them himself but someone else.
“Yea, good call!”
Ye Zhong nodded and gave up being stubborn. His dantian still had some reserves left, but he ran out of will-force. His head got heavier and heavier causing him to lose focus very often during their attempts. With the back of his hand he wiped off the sweat then adjusted his breathing.
Crossing his legs he sat in the middle of the courtyard. With the Ye family’s Falling Star form running at full speed he regained will-force and Qi while the late night turned into early morning. The Falling Star form is one of the best formulas in Green Moon City, it only circulated for close to four hours, and Ye Zhong had already regained a big portion of his energy when the sun lit up the clouds while peaking above the horizon. Ye Zhong opened his eyes as the first drop of sun shone on his face, then he stood up and exhaled steadily.
“Let’s continue!”
With enthusiasm and a good amount of Qi to spend, Ye Zhong was determined to finish what they started, but his mental fatigue was visible from a slight frown. Ye Wei caught the small gesture on his cousin’s face and said, “The sun is coming up, can’t we just call it a night? I can just come back tonight instead?” Ye Wei was worried about his cousin’s health, as he looked up to the brightening morning sky and suggested.
Performing stances for the whole evening and through the night took a lot of energy and mental focus. The Falling Star form could indeed recover his body, a bit, but it takes time not training to regain freshness of the mind which is crucial to a productive training session.
Although there were still three days left till the fight, Du Han Yue was no ordinary opponent and Ye Zhong needed every second of training he could fit into his schedule to be able to compete against him. The refinement of White Tiger’s Assault could be the key to Zhong’s victory. Ye Wei had almost fully comprehend the Qi path of the stance and he was more or less sure he could refine it within a day or two. As such, there was no point in big cousin pushing his body to the limit when he could be resting and be in better shape for the next day’s training.
“I am fine, I know my limits!”
“Let’s try a few more times before calling it!” Ye Zhong was as stubborn as a bull. Though he was tired a whole night of training got him in the zone and he did not want to stop just yet.
“Well… a few more times it is then.” Ye Wei nodded reluctantly; he disagreed but understood his eagerness.
The next couple attempts showed progress. The Qi flow was much smoother, but the connection between the corrected sections was shaky, so close but yet so far.
Summer mornings in Green Moon City were very pleasent, hot but not scorching. The summer breeze brought the refreshing scent of soil and fresh cut grass. It woke up and refreshed their overworked minds a little.
“Get rid of the twenty-third rune and swap the thirty-eighth and fortieth with the fifty-seventh and the sixty-third!”
“Let’s try placing the hundred and third rune to the left of the twelfth rune as well.”
Ye Wei was nowhere close to being a martial arts expert, but he was very familiar to the structure of White Tiger’s Assault by now. The way it flowed was etched into his memory after seeing it repeatedly throughout the night.
Although their progress wasn’t a lot nor fast, the duo developed great synergy from the failures. Ye Zhong’s fingers reacted to his little cousin’s instructions almost immediately.
Ye Zhong followed the instructions, at this point his body’s movements were pretty much mindless. He finished drawing the hundred and thirty-sixth runes in the stance. The stance seemed to shine brighter upon completion.
A low humming noise erupted out of nowhere from the last rune he drew, its glow gradually intensifying as the tiger took shape. The brightness transformed into a silver spike on the forehead of the beast.
“Blazing Horned Tiger!?” As figure of a powerful spirit beast took shape it shook Ye Zhong. His exhausted mind was woken up by the beast’s cry.
The Horned Tiger stretched its muscular body and let out three roars from the bottom of its lungs. The sound wave slamming onto their ear drums shaking the ground like a small earthquake, the brown soil showed underneath little cracks between patches of green grass.
The terrifying pressure wave caused by the roar went through Ye Wei’s body, his inner-ears were being strained to their limits. Hearing and feeling the third roar he lost his balance and adrenaline sped up his heartbeat, but the paleness of his face did not reflect this. His fear could not suppress the joy erupting from the bottom of his heart smiling he thought, ‘We did it?’
From what Ye Wei could tell, the runes were now at the most optimal combination. The cold blooded tiger had became so powerful he thought it might have broken into the realm of being a forbidden spirit stance.
While the duo were recovering from both their shock and joy, a massive pillar of light descended from the sky and engulfed Ye Zhong.
The pores on Ye Zhong’s skin opened up bathing in the bright white light. His skin turned red and became warmer as the energy rushed through his body, rinsing his meridians and Sentient.
This pillar of light was magnitudes larger than when Triple Tidal Palm was perfected when Lin Zi Yan received her gift.
Lin Zi Yan’s Triple Tidal Palm went from a low level stance to a mid level stance. This time around, though, the Ye duo achieved the unimaginable and brought White Tiger’s Assault up a whole class. The cosmic energy that descended was several times the quantity of Zi Yan’s.
The vast amount of cosmic energy found its way into Ye Zhong and his body was trying to absorb it all, however, the rate of absorption could not keep up with the seemingly endless supply, as bolts of energy bounced off his body and were deflected in Ye Wei’s direction.
Ye Wei’s body was like a dry sponge. The cosmic energy was immediately soaked up by Ye Wei’s thirsty body. It was not a large amount, but for a two star Student this small amount was enough to fill his whole body. The energy worked its way from his skin into his meridians, then followed the meridians into his Sentient. It came to Ye Wei’s attention that the gold in his Sentient was starting to outshine the red…