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The Science of Cultivation - Chapter 220: Elemental Superiority
🕑 Added 2025-01-13 23:35:39 +0000 UTCWith Li Lang clearing away from the scene, Long Yi was left to face the oncoming beetle-type Qi beast alone. It left him frowning. He could barely make out its figure in the distance, but it had the power to snipe him from range!
The two Nightmoon Valley disciples had also distanced themselves, so the beast naturally focused its next attack on Long Yi. Another stream of unidentified liquids shot forth across the mountain range. It traveled so fast that Long Yi could barely react despite expecting it.
He dove low toward the ground, but the attack unexpectedly followed his course! He never expected a Qi beast to exert such precise control at such a distance. He reflexively summoned his green broadsword and cast his Terra Moon Slash to intercept the attack. Although it was only a rushed move, the flurry of stone managed to disperse the stream of viscous liquid. If one was watching carefully, one could even see that some of the liquids had been absorbed into the Terra Moon Slash.
“Hmm, is that elemental affinity at work?” Li Lang muttered.
It wasn’t the first time Li Lang witnessed a fight at this level. He had firsthand experience from the incident where he had been ambushed just around these mountain ranges. However, during that incident, the two parties involved employed techniques of the metal affinity and the earth affinity.
According to the destructive cycle of the five elements, the metal element was overcome by fire, but it could overcome wood. As it had neither advantages nor disadvantages against the earth element, nothing notable could be observed in the previous fight.
However, the same couldn’t be said for the current fight. The water element is overcome by the earth element. When two Qi attacks of these natures collided, the upper hand leaned toward the earth element. The distance also likely had a part in it, but the elemental advantage still allowed Long Yi’s makeshift move to overcome the beetle’s.
“This is a good matchup,” a feminine voice resounded from above the Skyrunner. “That Qi beast should have recently broken through to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, but the elemental affinity should make it more even. It seems we won’t have to intervene anytime soon.”
“Isn’t it s-still a little dangerous to allow someone with s-so little combat experience to fight against a beast with a h-higher cultivation?”
Li Lang nodded at Wei Ping’s words.
“That’s right. Long Yi also doesn’t have any utility artifacts to support him. Not even a skysword to close the distance.”
“You will have to suffer the same disadvantages if you choose to participate in The Dark Sea Arena unless you find something on the way. It is better to experience what you are currently capable of against a Qi beast first rather than an intelligent cultivator.”
“Sounds like we’ll want to take the procurement of artifacts a lot more seriously.”
“No need to worry so much,” Zhu Yi continued. “The disadvantages are there, but they aren’t that bad. Fights are never simply about who can hit harder or move faster. Stratagems and martial intuition are all important factors that can play a huge role.”
Her words caused Li Lang and Wei Ping to direct their attention back to the fight.
They knew Long Yi to be someone who had always been talented in frontal combat, so they weren’t surprised when he moved to take the initiative after realizing his elemental superiority. At some point during their conversation, he had managed to create an earthen wall that hovered in front of him.
He used this wall as a shield as he flew as fast as he could toward his foe. It caused the Qi beast to try to curve his shots around the shield, but it was only too easy for Long Yi to adjust his cover.
After firing off a dozen shots, the beetle seemed to realize the futility of its actions, so it began to take flight! The two flew straight at each other without relenting.
Just as it seemed it was inevitable they would collide in a dramatic fashion, the Qi beast made its move first. Its wings flapped as quick as a motor and maneuvered itself around Long Yi. Despite being a beast, it didn’t mean it was dumb enough to ram headfirst into the large earthen wall Long Yi had erected.
It tried to flank Long Yi from a tricky angle, going from below, but just as it was about to come into range of its human enemy, the earthen wall above exploded! Of course, it wasn’t a natural phenomenon. Long Yi had purposely orchestrated it.
Now that he was cultivating an Earth-grade cultivation technique of the earth element, he had a lot more freedom of control with anything earth-related. Specialized techniques like his Terra Moon Slash continue to be the more powerful and efficient application of his energy, but he could employ a lot more tricks now. Exploding the earthen wall was just one of them.
Without anything obstructing his view, Long Yi was easily able to spot his enemy, who had backed away a few paces to get away from the debris. He knew his arsenal of moves was underdeveloped for the moment, but that meant he didn’t have to think too much about it before he slashed down with his sword again to unleash another Terra Moon Slash.
Quality had always been more important to a cultivator than quantity. Even back when he was a mortal, he had trained his signature technique thoroughly. His efforts carried over in his new realm. Except the power he could exert was a whole order of magnitude higher!
Without holding back, the next slash he unleashed covered ten times more area than it previously had. The slash was so wide that it seemed as if it could cut off the top of an entire mountain.
Long Yi had opted to make his attack as big as possible. He had seen the maneuverability of the beetle. It was common knowledge that a Qi beast with wings was much more agile in the air than those without. It was one of the reasons human cultivators invented skyswords, to match this natural superiority.
Without a skysword himself, Long Yi had to ensure he could definitively land a blow to hinder its movements.
With that said, a slash was still a slash. It could cover a great distance on one axis, but there were still two directions it could dodge toward. That’s why Long Yi immediately followed up with a second slash to cover this opening. His two slashes created an ‘X’.
As he expected, the beetle dodged the first hit, only to be clipped by the second one. As if the goddess of luck was smiling upon him, this attack just happened to strike its wing. Everything seemed to be leaning in Long Yi’s favor now.
His opponent’s mobility had been hindered, he had the elemental advantage, and all initiative was on his side. He just needed to keep his distance and whittle down his opponent.
He pressed his advantage against the Qi beast that desperately wanted to close the distance to take a bite of him with its imposing mandibles. As he kited the beast, it suddenly veered in the opposite direction, distancing itself from Long Yi.
A split second later, it opened its mouth and shot out another jet of liquid. With how close it was this time, Long Yi wasn’t able to form another wall or dodge out of the way. The stream of supposed acid landed squarely on Long Yi. Smoke could instantly be seen as it melted through both his clothes and skin.
Judging by the speed at which it melted his clothes, Li Lang grimaced. He was experienced enough with acids to tell it had the strength to melt even his bones with just a casual splash. However, the aftermath wasn’t as bad as he had feared. Only the outer layer of his skin had been dissolved.
“Hmm, the defenses of a Foundation Establishment cultivator really are incomparable to an Energy Gatherer.”
“Of course,” the woman from Nightmoon Valley answered. “How could you possibly compare a mortal with a true cultivator? A mortal could fire as many arrows as they want at us, but as long as the attacks aren’t infused with Qi past a certain level, it could never harm us.”
Li Lang sighed at the unreasonableness of his fellow cultivators. He had observed this phenomenon a long time ago. It was one of the reasons he never pursued the creation of repeating crossbows or even firearms. As long as he was not too demanding, it wasn’t impossible to create such weapons, but their effects were less than satisfactory.
Without imbuing Qi into an attack, it was utterly useless. It could catch some Energy Gatherer off-guard if they didn’t put up their defenses, but that was no longer true for those at the Foundation Establishment Realm or above. Even in their sleep, they would be impervious to these mundane attacks.
Hmm, but beast cores are what controls the Qi of an artifact. Does this mean it is possible to make an artifact crossbow or gun? Come to think of it, I’ve never seen an artifact bow before or any ranged weapons. Is it even possible?
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Comments
Axelios
disperse the stream of attack. -> disperse the attacking stream. (Or perhaps “disperse the stream of liquid”, or “disperse the attack”)
Axelios
> He reflexively summoned his mundane sword Did we forget his artifact jade-green broadsword?
Scrutinizer
It was common knowledge that a Qi beast with wings was much more agile in the air than those /who did not/->[without].
Scrutinizer
Sounds like a problem that Li Lang's artificing method could solve. Maybe an AI that computes optimal trajectories to shoot an arrow and the optimal amount of Qi to infuse?
