3 weeks before the end of the month.
In the usual bog inside Area 17, a small group of people sat on a small wagon. These people didn't wear nice clothes or rags but wore simple brown robes that were stained with dried mud and dirt.
"So our captain went mad?"
"No, I don't think so; maybe it's all part of a plan of some kind."
"You are just deluding yourself, he obviously went mad. If he didn't go mad, then why have us destroy and bury bodies in this swamp when he can cash them out for contribution points?"
Seeing his companion's loud voice, a man tugged his arm and shushed him.
"Bren, shut it! Even if what he's doing is strange, he's still our captain."
Even if these words sounded righteous, it was clear by the man's eyes and jumpy reactions that he said these words because he feared punishment, not because he respected his captain.
Bren didn't seem to mind his friend's words; even if Yun Qiang went mad, he didn't think he would punish him for just a few words. Instead, he turned his attention towards a sturdy man who was meditating nearby.
"Ehi, Alivar, you were there when it happened, what do you think about it?"
Alivar let out a long sigh. This was the third time today Bren had interrupted his meditation.
"For the last time, I don't know what he is thinking."
Even if he wasn't someone who liked to gossip, at first he had enjoyed the attention that came with being the only one who went on that scouting mission. In the beginning, he had even passionately retold his story in great detail, even adding his own opinions and thoughts along the way.
However, after an entire week, he had grown tired of his companions questions, and eventually he started answering them with short and brief answers.
A series of splashes in the mud attracted the passengers attention. Slowly, a thin bald man approached the wagon.
"I'm done. Bren, it's your turn to finish the left side."
As he spoke, the bald man nonchalantly threw a shovel at Bren before calmly sitting in the cart.
"And you, Aru, what do you think?"
Aru let out a tired yawn before crossing his legs as if he was about to start meditating.
"I think it helps him calm down. You know, training in a place filled with decomposing corpses can't be good for his mental health." Aru's voice was faint, as if he was about to fall asleep at any moment.
Alivar eyed him; ever since Yun Qiang taught them his cultivation method, Aru had completely fallen in love with cultivation. He barely slept anymore, and he slowly stopped caring about what happened around him.
He didn't care if Yun Qiang was mad or if the orders he received sounded strange; he only did them because after that he could cultivate.
Because of this, everyone had started to slowly ignore him while developing some kind of respect for the man's hard-working attitude. Of the group of seven, Bren was the only one that continued to talk and ask for Aru's opinion, occasionally bothering him even while he meditated.
"Nha, Aru, if burying the bodies of the deceased helped him, then it wouldn't make sense for us to destroy them before burying them."
Bren continued complaining while picking up Aru's shovel.
"Besides, what's the point of this? The graves we dug aren't even that deep."
"Oh, and don't get me started on—"
Aru interrupted him; Bren's voice had become increasingly loud, stopping him from starting his cultivation session.
"Bren!"
"Yes?"
"Dig"
Bren was stunned; he hadn't expected Aru to interrupt him.
For a second, he stood there, his gaze traveling from the shovel in his hands towards the mutilated corpses that were randomly placed around the bog.
"Umph, ok"
Bren let out a low curse before moving away, finally blessing the wagon with some silence. Finally, they could meditate in peace.
2 weeks before the end of the month.
Yun Qiang carefully regulated his Qi circulation speed. After two weeks of training, his control over his Qi had improved, and he could reach the end of the fourth step with no problem.
He took a long breath.
The fifth step was also called the "Forming step" and was extremely important. In fact, after the fifth step was completed, his Qi would take solid form and become an extremely sharp weapon to use in battle. This blade would have a small connection to its user, letting it absorb enough Qi to maintain shape and form.
In other words, the "Sacred blade" art was completely useless before the fifth step was complete. The usefulness of the art came from the fifth, sixth, and seventh steps that were related to shaping, throwing, and storing Qi blades.
After taking another long breath to calm down, Yun Qiang started shaping his blade. This step was a test of one's control and visualization skills and consisted of circulating one's Qi while visualizing the shape that was wanted. Basically, Yun Qiang had to visualize the weapon he wanted and then craft it using his Qi.
Yun Qiang wanted to start with something easy, so he visualized a simple short sword and started feeding his Qi to the small sphere that was floating in front of him. His eyes were closed; however, he could feel it, he had complete control over his Qi, and slowly the sphere was changing, forming the slight outline of a sword. Now he only needed to compress his Qi, and the sword would become solid, completing the fifth step.
His mind was a little anxious; however, as the blade he visualized started solidifying, he started to relax. He was almost there. The sword he had visualized was a simple sword; the pommel was round, the handle was smooth, while the guard was V-shaped; the blade was also extremely simple, with no details or decorations added to it.
In Yun Qiang's mind, this kind of blade was something that a blacksmith apprentice made to exercise themselves, something that they would never sell to a real client.
However, just as he was about to complete the blade, a scream came from the depths of his mind, and the vision of an extremely lifelike dragon made of swords appeared. The moment this sword dragon appeared, palpitations took over Yun Qiang's mind as the feeling of approaching death crashed down on him.
His eyes snapped open; his pupils were trembling while his heart was racing. Then the simple sword he created crumbled. He had failed the fifth step.
For a moment, he looked around in panic. Alivar and Lee were standing guard, Sun and the others were meditating. There was no danger around him, and no sword dragon was crashing towards him.
He let out a sigh of relief; the impending danger he sensed had completely disappeared when the vision had ended and the fifth step had failed.
After a small pause, Yun Qiang tried again.
1 week before the end of the month.
Yun Qiang looked with a pensive gaze at a small dagger hovering over his palm. After a week of trial and error, he had managed to complete the fifth step and have some success with the sixth step; now he could make a small dagger hover above his palm.
However, with this success came a series of concerns.
Firstly, the consumption of this technique was too high for continuous usage; he had tried striking a few trees with it, and he even asked Sun to strike it with a spear.
Each time Yun Qiang's blade collided with something, it would get damaged and required a quarter of his Qi reserves to repair itself. Besides this, it always required some Qi to maintain itself. Basically, he could use this blade to strike four strikes at most; after that, he would run out of Qi.
The second concerning thing was the casting speed.
Yun Qiang had practiced the entire week, and the forming step had become second nature to him; however, he felt like his casting speed was still too slow when compared to a Foundation realm attacking speed or a blade that was created by someone that had achieved the first level of Qi mastery like Sun.
The third and last concern was the strangest one: the visions of the sword dragon.
Every time he tried to visualize that specific short sword, the vision of the sword dragon and a feeling of impending death assaulted him relentlessly.
But the strange things didn't end here. Yun Qiang had experimented with the fifth step with other kinds of weapons; some were daggers, some were knives, some were decorated swords. All of them didn't provoke the sword dragon to appear. Only that specific short sword provoked the vision of the sword dragon to appear.
This by itself wasn't a problem; he could just summon other kinds of blades. However, Yun Qiang couldn't help but fear those visions. If that vision appeared while he was fighting, then he would definitely die.
For these three reasons, Yun Qiang had decided to use this technique as a support to his main weapon rather than using it directly as his main way of attacking.
A satisfied smile formed on his lips. After three weeks, he had made a lot of progress and he definitely felt stronger than before.
He stood up and started stretching, not minding the bog water that slowly seeped into his boots. As he stretched, he took in the newly prepared bog. He could easily notice the small lumps of dark earth where his subordinates had buried the bodies.
They really did a good job, huh?
As he scanned his surroundings, he felt delighted; his subordinates had done an extremely good job, the corpses were exactly where he wanted them, and the depth was just right.
A sly look flashed in his eyes before his expression returned to normal.
"Ehi, Sun, Lee, come here! Let's spar together!"