A Failure's hopeful Journey

Just as the sun rose in the sky, spreading its shimmering warm embrace, You Xi Wang also stood up. He yawned and stretched his stiff muscles. He spent the last night monitoring the surroundings and staying alert. He looked toward Snow who was still sleeping and said in a loud yet calm voice, "Wake up Snow, it is time to rise and shine."

Snow opened her eyes slowly and sat up. Her long white hair fell on her shoulder like a river of snow. She yawned behind her veil and stood up. Following this, they both ate some meat they had stored earlier.

Snow spoke, "Let's start sparring."

You Xi Wang nodded and stood up too. He took out brawler gloves from his storage and wore them, the gloves had alloy studs over the knuckle area, they were black while the glove itself was white.

Snow took out her sword, the sword had a snowflake pattern over its body, the blade also had a blue gleam. Snow took a stance, with her sword held with her right hand and pointing towards You Xi Wang. Her body bent slightly forward and she placed her left foot forward by a few inches.

You Xi Wang put his left foot forward and held his fists closer to his body leveling them with his shoulders, his body was slightly facing sideways placing his left shoulder forward, he shifted his weight on his toes. He intended to practice his boxing skills with Snow.

A breeze blew around them, causing a leaf to fall from the tree. Just as the leaf slowly drifted through the air and came to rest on the ground, both Snow and You Xi Wang moved. They charged at each other with no hesitation. Snow brandished her sword and her blow was tackled by a quick jab from You Xi Wang, which deflected the sword. You Xi Wang took this chance and moved in. He delivered a punch to her gut, Snow saw this and she gracefully used her left foot as a pivot and rotated on her toe, deflecting his blow. She brought her sword down on You Xi Wang with her rotation, making a slash from his right, the latter bobbed his head down making the sword miss its target, and struck Snow in her gut again, but this time she did not rotate but moved back distancing herself from him. Although they were both having melee combat she could not use her sword skills because You Xi Wang was just too close to her. It stopped her from generating power in her sword attacks.

They both continued attacking each other, They would deflect each other's attacks with no damage done at all, Snow would distance herself as soon as You Xi Wang was in range, while You Xi Wang would jab her slashes or guide away her stabs. You Xi Wang was very frustrated because he could not catch her off guard, so he came up with a different idea. Just as he reached his attacking range he went prone on the ground and using his hands as pivot points he swung his legs and torso making a semicircle, it was like a tail swatting things away, Snow had not expected such a sudden change in style and before she could retreat, You Xi Wang kicked Snow in her left making her fall on the ground. He then appeared next to her with his fist on her cheek.

Snow said, "Your win. But what was that move?"

You Xi Wang replied as he stood up, "I call it tail whip."

Snow nodded but before she could say anything You Xi Wang took out a square of paper from his storage and folded it into a crane. he then said to Snow, "You practice in crane style sword art. This paper contains the permutations and combinations of moves of the crane. I will drop a hint. Crane sword style is not only about the nose or book."

After this, he went back to his meditation and continuing to fill his sea of consciousness with spiritual energy. He reflected on his spar right now. He realized that infusing different styles and attacks can take the enemy down with surprise. Just as he was thinking of this he remembered how destructive was the might of his all element spiritual energy.

'System, can I refine my Spiritual energy more? Can I make it purer?' he called out for the system.

[Yes, you can. The method is simple. Cover yourself with a layer of all elemental spiritual energy. Then as you absorb the energy from the surroundings, it will purify after passing through that layer.] The system replied.

You Xi Wang was ecstatic he was about to proceed when the system said, [Make sure you maintain the balance in that layer or you are dead if it gets unbalanced.] the former nodded and proceeded as discussed. After 5 minutes he was covered in a faint golden glow. Just like the system had told him, the energy flowing inside him now was much purer.

It worked like this, the destructive power in the all elemental spiritual energy layer burned all and any impurities from the outside allowing only our spiritual energy to flow inside the body. This will allow You Xi Wang's energy to be stronger and better in quality than any other person in the same realm. Also, he will now have more energy than others.

As he sat refining spiritual energy, changes occurred in his physique. His skin became healthier and tougher, his hair now had luster, his bones and muscles were also getting stronger. By the time the sunset, he was on the brink of a breakthrough to the third level of the spiritual formation realm.

He opened his eyes and the golden luster around him vanished. His Holo-phone vibrated. He had just received two messages. One from his sister and the other from his friend Richard Blake, the Kingpin of Sahasa town. It will soon become clear, if Snow Wistrom was worth trusting or not. He was more curious about what Richard had to tell him.