*Angry muttering*
After numerous failures at climbing the spirit sword mountain, Jai had come up with a solution to his problems. By using the qi technique he had developed to magnetize objects to his hands, Jai would have his feet stick to the mountain wall, allowing him to walk up the mountain. Though, there were a few issues with this method. Jai's technique was designed for small handheld objects, preferably though not entirely limited to that of a metallic variety. So, trying to use it on a mountain was a little tricky. He definitely did not have the qi reserves to turn the whole mountain into a magnet, and the mix of different minerals and ores inside it could make things a bit tricky even if he could. So, he had to alter his technique a bit from what he was used to, by restricting the electrical current to only affect the area around his feet. The energy consumption was also slightly higher than usual as the area was still much larger than what could fit in the palm of his hands. However, there was another flaw with using this method.
"Tsk! This is taking too long!"
If he didn't want to fall off the wall again, he needed to make sure the wall could hold his weight when he stepped on it, which takes time. If he steps on it too early, the wall's magnetic pull might not be strong enough to keep him from falling off, but if he tries to speed up the process by shoving more energy into the ground, the wall could become unstable and break apart instead. That said, he was steadily making his way up the mountain, and a few painfully slow hours later he had managed to get to the clouds he had spotted Nox crawl into from afar.
"I'm going to tear out her eyes! She better not have made it to the top, or I swear I'm going to …"
Jai started grumbling to himself, muttering curses and threats while thinking of ideas to get his revenge against Nox once he catches up to her. However, after several hours of walking, there was no sign of her, but even stranger was …
"How tall are these clouds! I feel like I have been walking for ours, and still I have yet to go above them."
*Rumbling*
"shit, shit, shit, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! SOMEONE STUPID GET IN MY WAY!"
*Bang*
"UGH!"
Suddenly, as there was a flash of light ahead of him, followed soon after by the sound of thunder, a sizzling multi armed Nox came falling through the foggy heights, dropping right on top of Jai before he had the chance to move out of the way.
"Phew! That was a close one! Hey thanks for the save thunder sweat! Gotta go! See ya!" Nox said, as she used him like a springboard, her enchanted locks of silver hair latching on to nearby swords as she Tarzan-ed away before Jai had the chance to activate his lightning weapon.
"GET BACK HERE YOU!" He shouted as he swung his lightning storm blade in the direction where Nox had jumped in, sending strikes of lightning through the fog as he followed after at a snail's pace.
Unfortunately for Jai, he lost track of Nox very quickly, due to the fog obstructing his one good eye. Fortunately for him, she came back.
*Rumble*
"Weeee!"
However, this time she had not fallen on top of him, but had used her elongated hair like a whip to latch on to a sword within his range of vision to swing herself back up. Jai had followed after, and finally he left the fogy clouds behind as he exited the layer of mist. Unfortunately, further up ahead, he saw a mass of intimidating thunder clouds awaiting him, which had likely been what the flashes of lights he saw were. Fortunately for him, he was a lightning cultivator, so walking through a thundercloud wouldn't be all that dangerous for him, but before that, he took a look down where he had come from.
"You got to be kidding me! THAT'S WHY?!"
As he looked back down at where he had been, he realized why he hadn't reached here sooner. Directly above the sea of white clouds where a roof of spatial distortions as far as the eye could see. Every time he had gotten close to reaching above those clouds he had unknowingly walked straight into a portal connecting to somewhere further down the mountain. However, the place he had just walked through was the only hole in that roof of spatial distortions, which was slowly rotating around the mountain's surface. If he had not followed after Nox, there is no telling how long he would have been stuck in those clouds. There is a good chance he might have run out of qi before wondering through that opening by share coincidence.
*Crackle*
*BOOM**BOOM**BOOM*
Suddenly, he heard the sounds of thunder from above. As the dark clouds above lit up with each lightning strike, the shadow of an eight limbed woman could be seen moving across the cloudy canvas. Shortly after, rubble and legendary blades began to rain down from above.
*Swoosh**Swoosh**Swoosh*
*Clang*
"HOLY SHI-! COME ON! GIVE ME A BREAK!" Jai screamed as he pulled out the Roaring Thunder Sword to deflect the weapons threatening to run him through on their way down.
As the ceaseless rain of stone and legendary grade swords continued, Jai started accumulating more and more cuts and bruises, as he struggled to accurately deflect all the debris heading his way. To most people, what Jai was doing would have been considered rather impressive, as most lack the dexterity to fend off a rain of attacks as he was doing at this moment to the extent that he was. However, to anyone familiar with Jai's preferred style of swordsmanship, this is not an accurate representation of his true skill with the blade.
Jai's brand of swordsmanship is the type that uses nimble and quick footwork to move around, preferring to evade rather than block an opponent's strikes, while delivering a swift barrage of swings imbued with lightning qi to increase the area of effect of his attacks to make up for a lack of precision. This makes him very ill-suited to dealing with the kind of situation he currently finds himself in. His movements are too restricted for his footwork to be of any use at this moment, and because all the weapons flying at him are of the legendary grade, they won't shatter from merely grazing his sword like normal ones would, meaning he has to precisely strike them out of the air to escape death. Jai's ability to manage this despite being ill-suited to the task is a result of his share talent and over a century of experience. Had he been in peak condition, he'd likely walk out of this with only light wounds. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
*Swish*
*Cough*
Jai had lost an eye, and although he could compensate with his 6th sense, he was still injured. Nox's strikes had done some serious damage, even if not too apparent at first. He was bleeding internally in multiple places, and one of his kidneys had stopped working. Additionally, he has accumulated mental fatigue from having to adjust his technique to let him walk on walls, while slowly exhausting his qi supply. Jai had been powering through on stubborn rage up until now, but that was nearing its limits, which is why he failed to deflect the blade that just sliced through his side.
"Argh! That hurts!" Jai grunted, grabbing at the gushing wound in the side of his stomach, while trying to defend against the oncoming storm of weapons.
*Clang**Clang*
*Swish*
Jai tried his best to grit his teeth and bear with the pain to focus on the incoming swords, but the more injured he got, the harder it became. By the time the rain of blades ended, Jai had a deep cut in the right side of his stomach bleeding out, a hole pierced through his left shoulder, and was now missing his right ear, in addition to being covered in countless cuts and bruises. If not for the fact he was a nascent soul cultivator, he would likely be dying of blood-loss right now. Though, his wounds weren't necessarily fatal, they were serious nonetheless. In his current condition, continuing his climb would be suicide. Any person in their right mind would turn back at this point. Fortunately, or unfortunately for Jai, he was not in his right mind at this moment.
"THAT SON OF A BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!"
During the hail of deadly weapons, Jai had caught a glimpse of his situation. It was of course Nox. She was hopping around, dodging a hail of lightning bolts as the thunderclouds seemed to be actively targeting her, and whenever the thunder struck the mountain wall, chunks of rock and swords would fall off the mountainside. Though it usually missed as Nox would actively try to wall-run near swords that could act as lightning rods to throw off its aim, whenever she ran out of swords she could use to draw away the electricity, was to slow to reach her next lightning rod, or the one she ran by just wasn't good enough to attract the thunder away from her, she would fall off the wall. This was not because she was hurt by the lightning or lost her grip since she can use her aura and spirit core to direct the pathway the electricity takes when traveling through her body to minimize the damage. The reason why she kept falling was because whenever she was struck by lightning, the wall she was sticking to would crumble away and she'd lose her footing, sending her tumbling down until she managed to latch on to something to stop her fall. The sword that had pierced through his shoulder earlier was one he had witnessed Nox rip out while swinging herself into the mountain wall to stop her fall. The fact that Nox had caused the hole in his shoulder, only added fuel to the fire in Jai's heart and he bolted up the wall.
Previously, he had moved at a snail's pace, to avoid falling. However, in his current state of mind all caution had been thrown out the window as the only thing he could think of was tearing Nox limb from limb. Instead of carefully adjusting the voltage on his feet to avoid destroying his footing, he drastically increased his output to speed up the process. Fortunately, the rate at which he was moving was faster than the speed at which the wall was crumbling, allowing him to sprint up the mountain side leaving a trail of falling debris in his wake.