A deep weariness settled over him, so Long Huang decided to retire for the night. Before lying down, he gently pulled back the flap of his tent and peered into the moonlight. There, curled in a soft patch of grass, was the little deer. The sight was a small, simple comfort. He finally turned in, hoping for a peaceful night.
But his hope was in vain.
AHHHHHHH!
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Long Huang jolted upright, his heart hammering against his ribs. His robes clung to him, drenched in cold sweat. He tried to calm himself after the nightmare, which had been anything but pleasant. It was a hellish scene filled with torment just like he had witnessed in the Archdevil Scripture.
The screams of agony of lost souls, along with blood and destruction, replayed over and over in his mind, accompanied by the constant urge to kill.
Long Huang took out the Archdevil Scripture and began cultivating it to calm his mind. Just then, his Chaos Battle Dragon breathing technique activated on its own and began devouring the Archdevil Scripture cultivation technique.
In long Huang's body, a battle between a dragon and a devil ensued. The battle was fierce, but in the end, the dragon won and devoured the devil, which caused a devilish draconic aura to burst forth from his body. This aura scared the Nine Element Spirit Deer awake it causing it to run away frantically.
"Hehe!" Chuckling softly, Long Huang worked to soothe the little deer, his movements gentle. In that quiet moment of connection, he felt the two arts within his mind truly become.
"Now that it has become a new technique, it's time for a name change."
"Let's call it the Chaos Battle Devil Dragon Art."
After a while of familiarizing himself with this new cultivation art, Long Huang stopped practicing, as he didn't want to scare the little deer.
So he turned his attention to the rest of the Archdevil Scripture. Recorded in the Archdevil Scripture was a dual blade combat art that seemed to be created specially for the Blades of Slaughter, called Archdevil Limitless Blade Art, and there was another combat art called Void Tearing Claw Art.
There were a total of 24 moves in the Archdevil Limitless Blade Art, further divided into 8 Layers, each with three moves, whereby Void Tearing Claw Art had fewer, only five moves and two Layers.
Going through both sets of combat arts once, Long Huang understood the Archdevil Limitless Blade Art more easily, which prompted his decision to practice the blade art first, as even the first layer of the Void Tearing Claw Art required understanding the laws of space first.
As compared to the first layer of the blade art, where only physical strength and a bit of qi to required.
Coming out of his tent to an open field in the forest, under the dappled sunlight of the clearing, Long Huang summoned the Blades of Slaughter, their obsidian and crimson surfaces glinting ominously.
He recalled the illustration, visualizing the movement and intent behind the first attack. With a swift, practiced motion, he swung the blades.
Archdevil Limitless Blade Art, First Move: Blade Storm.
Instantly, dozens of blade images materialized, swirling and coalescing into two small cyclones that zigzagged violently within a three-foot radius around him.
Recalling the drawing depicting the first attack's movement and intent, with a wave of the blades, dozens of blade images emerged out of nowhere, rotating and gathering into two small cyclones that zigzagged within the perimeter of 3 feet from Long Huang.
The air hummed with energy as the cyclones carved erratic paths, their edges sharp enough to rend flesh from bone.
This technique was designed to counter overwhelming numbers, creating a whirlwind of destruction to fend off encircling enemies.
However, Long Huang's first attempt was fleeting; the cyclones lasted only a single breath before dissipating into the ether. But even just a single breath was able to drain Long Huang. This move was easy to master as it required strong physical strength, balance, control, and stamina.
After the first attempt, Long Huang did not swing the blades again but reenacted the motions inside his mind. An endless array of swirling cyclones that engulfed everything in their path. Although sporadic, the trajectory of the blades was mapped out in his head.
Half an hour later, Long Huang suddenly moved; his hands swung out as he wielded the blades. This time, eighteen blade images appeared out of nowhere, rotating in constant motion, drawing air drafts to form two cyclones that doubled the size compared to his first try.
When it ended, he once again stood motionless, recollecting the sensation when the Blade storm formed, the way it swirled, and the way it rotated as it moved according to a predetermined trajectory, and lastly, its direction.
Another hour later, Long Huang slashed out the Blades of Slaughter once again.
And so the process repeated, over and over again.
Every time after he slashed out, he stood immobile on the spot like a statue, comprehending the essence of the move before attacking again. But still failed to meet the minor completion of the first move.
From morning until noon, and then evening arrived as the last rays of sunset were about to disappear, Long Huang felt tired. He decided to circulate his breathing technique to recover some energy.
Just then, the black and red blades in Long Huang's hands swung out.
Two gales of blade images spun out, rotating endlessly with the wind, whistling akin to mournful whimpers that crawled out from hell, causing hearts to palpitate while listening to it.
Long Huang's current Blade Storm could last for 3 breaths' time for the time being.
"Why was I so dense? The Blade Art had to be supported by killing intent."
Long Huang felt dumb being stumped by such a problem.
As he listened to the faint hellish cries of Archdevil being emitted by the Blade Storm, Long Huang let out a breath of relief. According to the Archdevil Limitless Blade Art, once the Blade Storm issues faint hellish cries, then it is considered as reached the minor completion stage!
If Ren Sun knew that Long Huang only used two days to reach minor completion in Archdevil Limitless Blade Art First move: Blade Storm, he would be dumbstruck and speechless.
In fact, if any member of the Archdevil race who cultivated this art witnessed Long Huang's progress, they would be stunned.
Ren Sun, who was already at the peak of the Meridian Tempering Realm, required five months of practice before he could produce the hellish cries and a blade storm with 20 blade images.
But Long Huang only used two days and was still at the Skin Tempering.
Combat Art mastery was not solely reliant on one's bloodline grade, for it relied on individual ability to comprehend and what weapon the bloodline had an affinity with, as there were also weapon bloodlines, but they were super rare.
Thus, it was not something inconceivable if someone with a high-grade Blade bloodline needed just days of practice to achieve the minor completion stage in a Combat Art.
But Long Huang's bloodline had nothing to do with blades, which is what made it shocking.
Seeing the sky grow darker, Long Huang stopped his training and entered his tent, where he sat cross-legged on the cold jade bed, running the New cultivation technique to practice his qi.
Ever since he advanced to the first stage Skin Tempering Realm, his Ancient Chaos Battle Dragon bloodline has not evolved, but its physical size has gone up a notch.
At the time when Long Huang's bloodline had just awakened, it was a snake with little horns and was only half a meter long. But after evolving, it became an adolescent dragon with four limbs and 3 claws and was 2 meters long. Now it was 3 meters long, and its horns grew larger.
The Green and Grey Dragon hovered behind Long Huang with its jaws stretched open, devouring the spiritual energy that came pouring down from the world.
After he had broken through to the 13th stage of the Skin Tempering Realm, the spiritual energy he absorbed doubled, and the qi flowing in his body became thicker and purer.
From the bloodline shadow of the Ancient Chaos Battle Dragon bloodline, an innate oppressive aura of a dragon race's prestige exuded.
…..
Time flew by very quickly. The days gave way to a month, and every day was a grueling regimen of repetition and refinement. In the past month, the little deer had gone farther away from the camp due to Long Huang's aura.
Apart from practicing the Archdevil Scripture, Long Huang every morning would allocate practice time to hone his mortal grade combat arts, Wind Deer steps, and Ocean Wave Fist art.
With the help of the little deer, Long Huang's Wind Deer steps broke through to the perfection level, while the Ocean Wave Fist was almost at perfection, reaching the peak of the third layer.
As for the Archdevil Limitless Blade Art, after one month, the blade images emerging from his attacks had gone up to 40 from the initial 20. Even the sizes of the cyclones generated by the Tempest of Hell had more than doubled in size.
Long Huang's strength also grew from this insane month of training, increasing his overall combat strength from 24,900 pounds to 25,000 pounds. Even though it was just an increase of 100 pounds, it meant Long Huang broke through the limit of his realm.