Soul Venerable (Re-written)

Cultivation cannot be all about fighting or closed doors contemplation, there has to be balance between the two. For most warriors or fighters of the martial occupation, experiencing their martial arts through their bodies directly is oftentimes more beneficial than contemplating in closed doors.

Of course, that did not discredit closed door cultivation for martial artists. Sometimes, an abstruse martial art concept needs to be pondered deeply before the said martial artist progresses to the next step. Other situations that forced martial artists to cultivate in closed doors also occur occasionally, such as being wounded. Higher ranked martial artists possessed stronger bodies, making the process of healing not as simple as healing mortals.

On the other hand, some also possessed special requirements for combat. The most perfect example of this situation is Kubikiri Shirogane. During peacetime, she has to accumulate [Ruthless Sword Emotion] so that during combat, she wouldn’t be affected by external stimuli. Due to this reason, she could not unceasingly practice with live combat.

As for magic casters, combat is something that literally burns their assets. Most if not all magic spells require ingredients to be casted and magical ingredients cost big money. If a magic caster only knows how to battle, they most probably will be piss poor with relatively smaller options of what spell they could use. Therefore, magic casters are the type of cultivators that are inclined towards closed doors cultivation more than actual live combat.

Still, there are some magic casters that, due to the support of the powers behind them, allow themselves to focus on combat while not worrying about their resource expenditure. The most perfect example of this was the Great Archmage. During the height of his power, every single rank 6 spell he used was worth the GDP of Hartina Kingdom for several years while some rare ones could not be purchased even if Hartina Kingdom was sold.

Of course, it was unfair to compare mortals of the secular world with a demigod, but the logic was applicable to all cultivators.

Sumire was an ‘enslavement-path’ magic caster that preferred to cultivate behind closed doors instead of live combat. Resources of various kinds, especially food that support spiritual force and mana pool condensation, are continuously being sent towards her room thrice every day, while the person in question did not leave the room even once. 

On the contrary, Shirogane was making several trips to the gym to exchange some notes with her teammates almost every day.

Today was one of those days.

A bruised, black haired youth was gasping air like fish pulled out of water. “Sis, your combat ability has increased significantly again this time… I am in awe.” 

Kubikiri Kurogane cultivated in strength-path, the cuts and bruises on his body soon disappeared as his healing methods activated one another. Every time he breathes out, his nose produces faint wind snakes. 

“Your methods are also getting better.” Shirogane said coldly, her tone cold and unfeeling like a robot. It was one of those rare moments when she was not affected by emotion and able to speak normally. However, she was uncomfortably unfeeling, this was the form of Elegant Blade Shirogane in public.

The wooden katana in her hands could not penetrate the skin of a mid-stage rank 0 martial artist like Kurogane, but her sword-path methods allowed her to cut iron plates with twigs, leaving the two surfaces as smooth as mirrors. Needless to say, if she uses a true katana with strong destructive power, she could cut the defensive ability of someone whose level is higher than herself.

“I could block 12 degrees of damage with my methods, but your attack dealt 16 degrees of damage!” he complained. 

A ‘unit’ of damage was the standard calculated after the energy combustion of 1 gram of mana crystal when used in a spell or in this case, 1 degree of damage is roughly equal to 100 kilogram of force behind Kurogane’s first, it might be more or less depending on the force distribution, but a mortal would generally die with 10 degrees of damage dealt to their body, though the real world is not cold math, it wasn’t that rigid.

For experts like them, killing mortals could be achieved without a high damage rating as long as they strike the proper weak points. Specifically, Shirogane did not even need to exert 1-degree worth of damage to kill a mortal with her finger. Experts like her consider ‘critical hits’ in their foe’s weak points and damage distribution instead of pure power to kill. Therefore, one’s killing power wasn’t dependent on one’s physical ability alone.

When she releases attacks that deal 16 degrees of damage to her brother with a wooden katana, it shows the technique behind her attacks are exceptional. The wooden katana would probably break if someone used more than 10 degrees of force, yet she was able to utilize her method effectively to deal far more damage than what her weapon could endure.

Kurogane completed his healing in a short time, showing the specialty of strength-path. “Against the Blue Wave team, metal armor would compromise my defense. If not for [Rubbery Skin], I’ll be fried in a few exchanges. Thankfully, you helped me in getting used to the new rune, allowing me to adjust my methods…”

Kurogane merely glanced at her little brother, “What stage is your [Regeneration Factor]?”

Regeneration Factor is a torso-slot body rune that amplifies one’s recovery speed. It is a miraculous body rune that covers the aspect of recovery and cultivation at the same time. It grants both passive and active self-healing rate and could be refined up to ten times. 

The miraculous part of this body rune is not only the ten-stage refinement, but the fact that it can be refined further to rank 1. 

This made the rank 0 body rune [Regeneration Factor] a must-have for strength-path martial artists, or martial artists in general.

“Stage seven.” He answered honestly. “You can take a look at my ID card if you’re wondering.” Kurogane produced a metal card issued by the Hunter Association.

Shirogane was indeed curious as to why her attacks were not as effective as they should be so she accepted the metal card. The ID card was an artifact given to all members of the Hunter association the moment they registered, it was engraved with a permanent information-path method, [System Interface].

Activating the artifact with her inner energy, she scrutinizes the information within.

  

Attribute Statistics

Name: Kubikiri Kurogane
Title: N/A
Race: Human
Occupation: Brutal Swordbreaker
Rank: 0

 

Physical Attribute

Strength: 4.4
Endurance: 5.9
Agility: 3.9
Flexibility: 2.6
Perception: 2.8
Reaction: 3.1

Energy Attribute

Internal Energy Development Quotient  : 59%
Internal Energy : 3.1/5.9

 

Extra

Body Runes (15.8/16 slots used)
- Head: [Lesser Steady Brain (Rank 0)] (2)
- Torso: [Rubbery Skin (Rank 0)] (4), [Regeneration Factor (Rank 0), stage 7] (2.8)
- Back: [Lesser Swordbreaker (Rank 0)] (3)
- Arms: [Grip of Stonecrusher Gorilla (Rank 0)] (2)
- Legs: [Lesser Land Strider (Rank 0)] (2)

 

 

[Lesser Steady Brain]

Rank 0, Strength-path

2 head slot rune 

• Stun, thought interference, confusion, dizzy, hypnotic, disoriented resistance +10%
• Recovery rate from being affected by the status effect +10%
• For every point of Endurance, further increase status resistance and status recovery rate by 1%
• For every rune slot used for strength-path body runes, further increase status resistance and recovery rate by 0.1%

 

[Rubbery Skin]

Rank 0, Strength-path

4 torso slot rune 

• Skin-type body rune, incompatible with other skin-type rune.
• Automatically reduce lightning-path damage below 8 degree of damage by 25%.  
• Automatically blocks 2 degrees of damage from rank 0 lightning-path methods.   
• For every rune slot used for strength-path body runes, further increase lightning-path damage reduction threshold by 0.08 degree (1%)
• For every rune slot used for strength-path body runes, further increase lightning-path damage block by 0.02 degree (1%)

 

[Regeneration Factor, stage 7]

Rank 0, Strength-path

2.8 torso slot rune 

• For every stage, increases rune slot allocation by 0.4 
• For every stage, passively amplify strength-path self-healing methods efficiency by 10% 
• Can be activated to receive a surge of self-healing according to the refinement stage and Endurance attribute, after the activation, halves self-healing amplification rate for 24 hours.  
• For every rune slot used for strength-path body runes, further increase self-healing amplification rate by 0.01% per stage

 

[Lesser Swordbreaker]

Rank 0, Strength-path

3 back slot rune 

• 9 slot core rune, incompatible with other core runes
• +6 Brutal Swordbreaker Slot Efficiency, reduce slot usage by 6 for Brutal Swordbreakers
• Automatically reduce sword-path damage below 18 degree of damage by 25%.  
• Automatically blocks 4.5 degree of damage from rank 0 sword-path methods.  
• For every rune slot used for strength-path body runes, further increase sword-path damage reduction threshold by 0.36 degree (2%)
• For every rune slot used for strength-path body runes, further increase rank 0 sword-path damage block by 0.09 degree (2%)

 

[Grip of Stonecrusher Gorilla]

Rank 0, Strength-path

2 hand slot rune 

• Grant the grip strength of a Stonecrusher Gorilla, allows two handed weapons like Greatsword or Tower Shield to be held with one hand.
• Passively increases hand strength by 1
• For every rune slot used for strength-path body runes, further increases had strength by 0.01

 

[Lesser Land Strider]

Rank 0, Strength-path

2 hand slot rune 

• Reduce weight encumbrance by 10%
• Increases balance and movement affecting effect resistance by 10%  
• For every rune slot used for strength-path body runes, further reduces weight encumbrance by 0.01%
• For every rune slot used for strength-path body runes, further increases balance and movement affecting effect resistance by 0.01%

 

 

Shirogane was inwardly surprised at her little brother’s attributes. No wonder her damage output was less than she had expected, most of his runes are defensive. 

“This is the first time we’ve talked to each other without Sumire, I’m glad that you’ve paid more attention to me…” Kurogane confessed happily. “Big sis, I’ve never thanked the captain for her deeds, and I’m probably too shy to talk to her since... since…” he blushed, “Anyway, just know that her presence is the best thing that ever happened to our family.” he tried to hide his red face.

“Kuro…” Shirogane’s gaze seems colder than usual, it was laced with light killing intent. “The captain is mine. Don’t ever think about her.”

Kurogane sighed in defeat, “I know, I know.” He didn’t want to pursue the topic any longer. “Now that you’ve seen my attribute card, what do you think about it?”

“The card did not show your strength-path methods, but it was alright. According to my experience fighting the Blue Wave team’s second-in-command, his water-path method wouldn’t be able to reach qualitative change with their captain’s lightning-path method since you possessed [Rubbery Skin]. If you can endure their attacks for ten exchanges, I’m confident that I can defeat their support members.”

She continued expressing her thought, “Though, as a tank, I’m sure the captain will ask you to be more aggressive. After all, a good tank must have the ability to manage the opponent’s agro. If you only have great defense but cannot draw the enemy’s attention, then you’re basically a punching bag without function, you’ll fail as a tank.”

“That’s what I thought so too! That’s why I’ve been practicing my heavy greatsword skills.” He went to the corner and dragged a pair of 100 kilograms heavy greatswords, leaving a trail in the dirt floor.

“The blade is too dull, too thick and too heavy to be utilized as a sword. The craftsmanship is crude, it was made out of pig iron, the damage rating is too low...” As a sword-path cultivator, she was able to see the quality of the sword with a glance.

“It doesn't matter! My strength will compensate for the dull blade. Getting hit with these would be far more painful than being sliced by your main weapon.” Kurogane claimed confidently.

“It’s good that you’ve found your personal combat style.” Shirogane tried to express happiness, but she was unable to feel under the influence of Ruthless Sword-emotion.

Of course, Kurogane was not that braindead to not see her sister’s effort. He was also happy from the bottom of his heart. It has been a while since they manage to converse like this. In her usual condition, it would be extremely difficult for her to not stutter since she was insecure and anxious. If it wasn’t for Sumire finding a method to suppress her condition, it would be impossible for her to function normally.

“Now, show me what you’ve got!” Shirogane could not conceal the desire to fight Kurogane with his weapon.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Fighting spirit seems to burst forth from his eyes. Kurogane possessed two greatswords and two tower shields that can be used according to his needs. Fighting against his sister, he wields the heavy greatsword on each hand, showing his wild recklessness. 

Kurogane’s attack produced heavy wind pressure thanks to the strength behind him, yet none connected to his sister. Shirogane moved elegantly, her heart and soul is like an ice block, cold and unfeeling. Her movement was mechanically elegant, not a single energy was wasted. 

The wooden katana in her hand slashed toward the heavy greatsword. According to logic, a wooden katana could not slice metal swords, needless to say it was a greatsword designed for durability. With Shirogane’s sword-path methods, it was also impossible for her to strengthen her wooden katana to cut her brother’s blade, therefore the intent behind her attacks was to divert the raw force of the dull blade.

The ground quakes every time Shirogane deflected Kurogane’s attack towards the floor. He showed the specialty of strength-path with the custom-forged durable weapon. Unfortunately, his opponent is the greatest combatant in the Violet Sword Blaze team, none of his attacks could touch the edges of her clothes. 

With a chain of stabs as if the wooden katana was a rapier, Shirogane managed to penetrate Kurogane’s heavy defense. Seven weak points were stabbed, inflicting heavy internal injury. Shirogane’s wooden katana showed signs of breaking, yet Kurogane was like a wild iron bull, he merely shrugged it off as if it was a minor wound. 

“Stop it, you’re pushing yourself.” 

“No! Let me show you my trump card, [Power Overwhelming]!” 

The moment he activated his move, the strength behind his sword amplified greatly as the runes on his body shone with faint white light. Through sheer raw power, he forcefully moved his slow body like an agile warrior. The lethality behind his attack was brutal, it wasn’t wise for Shirogane to accept it even with her full armor. She got pressured badly as she lost ground. The Elegant Blade wavers as she couldn’t allow her wooden sword to touch her brother’s blade. 

The countless thoughts within her mind continued being expended. In moments like these, Shirogane’s weakness was bare to see. The [Ruthless Sword Emotion] within her sea of consciousness could not completely resist the wave of anxiety she experienced. After all, she was still a human. Seeing the unfavorable situation, she couldn’t help but feel disturbed.

“Let’s… st- stop.” She retreated a few steps as a great sword stopped two centimeters away from her neck, her wooden sword exploded when it tried to block the dull blade.

“Haaahh-” Kurogane breathed out dense white steam. His body followed suit, water vapor was released from all parts of his body. 

“W- was t- that. Your t- trump card?” 

“Haha! Yes. I’ve never felt so much power bef- Ouch!” His hand unwillingly dropped the weapons as muscle tissue all over his body was torn apart, sweating blood in every inch of his body. “[Power Overwhelming], I finally managed to release this move… even if I can only last for thirteen seconds…” He smiled as he enjoyed the excruciating pain due to the backlash. 

Kurogane’s hands were trembling, the muscles on his fingers were the most damaged parts since he had to grip the hundred-kilogram greatsword with so much force. “Sis… I think I wasted my fingers…”

“...” 

“It’ll heal in the afternoon, don’t worry about it hehe.” he chuckled as he groaned in pain. 

“Your combat system is almost similar to the Undying Juggernaut, Yurnero, during his early days.” Shirogane commented as she regained composure.

“I am a fan.” He honestly replied. 

The rise of an expert often dictates the popularity of a certain path or combat system. The Undying Juggernaut was famous for his dual greatsword and brutal ferocity. Although his fighting style is not unique in the history of Morgen world, he was the one who brought the combat style into a new height.

Large numbers of strength-path martial artists would follow his lead by fighting against foes with greatswords on each hand, leaving magical armor, body runes, strength-path methods, and their own supernaturally strong body to fend off attacks.

Shirogane doesn't have any meaningful input for his brother. The two walked different paths, after all. She focused on sharp, brief attacks whereas Kurogane chose to be a durable warrior that protects his teammates. Furthermore, Shirogane wasn’t the type that liked to talk about what’s on her mind, it was difficult to get her to answer questions.

“Since it’s like that, I have nothing to say anymore. We’re done for today.” She said.

“Okay.” Kurogane put his weapons where they belong, “Sis, do you want to grab a bite? My treat.”

The coldness within her eyes melted, replaced by a rare joy. “S- sure!”

 

…

 

In another private sparring gym, similar to the ones where Kurogane and Shirogane fought. A pair of youth were resting; multiple weapon parts were scattered all around them.

“You sick fuck.” A petite elf youth cursed, his hands were shaking as blood dripped from his fingers. He forced himself to move, but the paralysis poison within his body was too potent, he could only let his body work itself in time.

“AHAHAHAHAH!” Yamamura laughed crazily. “Thank you for the compliment.’

“Tsk. This is why you don’t have a stable relationship with a girl… and why am I still friends with you.” Ramiel sighed. 

Yamamura took two blades from the pile of junk. “With this, that bitch’s head will be mine.”

“Keep boasting.” Ramiel cursed. “You are truly a bastard. Even with that kind of skill, you’re still playing dirty. Despicable!” 

“AAHHAHAHHAHA” Yamamura laughed again, “A victory is victory. I can’t eat or fuck honor, can’t I? It’s better if I beat that bitch to the ground then fuck her while she’s still down.”

Ramiel messaged the spot between his eyebrows as his hand started gaining control. As the scout, he wasn’t as gifted in combat as the three crazies of the team. His specialties are related to sniping, reconnaissance, counter reconnaissance and the usage of contraptions.

What made him suffer from a long term headache is the fact that this Yamamura is skilled in poison refinement as good as his skills with the two swords. 

Ramiel usage of contraptions and hidden weapons such as hidden needle launchers, hidden crossbows, smoke bombs, shurikens, kunai and other weapons might seem like an excellent set of skills, but those are perishables. The more he used it, the less there was.

Yamamura however, was truly despicable. He had hidden his poison refinement skills so deeply that only Ramiel and perhaps his captain, Sumire, were aware of it. 

“Of all the girls that I’ve been with, there’s one that I always wanted…” He honestly confessed as he produced a small potion bottle with pink liquid inside.

“Bro…” Ramiel shook his head as he had already known this. “Don’t try to be funny. She’s really dangerous.” 

“Of course, I know that. But… are you really a man? After seeing the captain and didn’t get hard, you might need to check if that thing down there is still functional.” Yamamura did not try to filter his words. 

“Is your brain filled with hormones all day long? Maybe the poison you refined messed up your mind. Do I need to remind you that we’re all in this together? She was the one who scouted me, her observation skills were too high for me to conceal anything. You might want to rethink your goal…”

“No.” Yamamura bluntly denied. “She knows already…”

Ramiel was shocked, but he didn’t take his words at face value. “Really? I find that hard to believe.”

“I’m getting the feeling that not only is your limp dick is not working but your pea-sized brain is also malfunctioning.” he cursed. “Can’t you even guess why she recruited me in the first place?” 

Yamamura’s words made a little bit of sense to Ramiel. Amongst the Violet Sword Blaze team members, he was the second last who got recruited by Sumire. He thought that the team did not lack another ‘dps’ since Shirogane and Sakuya were there. After listening to Yamamura’s words, he realized that the captain must’ve had other thoughts than using Yamamura as a damage dealer.

“Are you implying that she was recruiting you for your poison-path attainment?”

“Heheh.” He chuckled. “Poison and medicine are the different sides of the same coin. I can choose to heal or kill others with my concoction depending on the need. Our team’s poison supply was all from me…”

“Our team did not utilize poisons while our potion expenditure was not that high...” As the scout of the team, Ramiel was very knowledgeable about the team’s inventory as he was the one who usually made the camp and erased the tracks for counterintelligence.

“Oh…” Yamamura paused, then looked at Ramiel contemplatively. “Captain is smuggling poison...” 

“Don’t think too much about her. She has a lot on her mind, your poison must’ve been used for other things.” 

“Still…” Yamamura shrugged his shoulders, “She always prioritizes the team over anything. I never saw my poison in the black market and they are an assassin’s best friend but... we don’t have a ‘true’ assassin in our team.”

“Violet Sword Blaze eighth member?” The two looked at each other and wondered about the question deeply.