Nine Paths of Asura-Original Wuxia

Chapter 44-Learning to Walk

Mei was adamant on this. While there were some special techniques which could traverse realms consistently and at great speed, the devour ability was not one of them. All it provided was an instant absorption of power, if used in excess, without a proper foundation it was not only worthless, it was detrimental! However, Mei did not stop Lineir from fighting the golems.

"Actually kiddo, go for it. The number of cores you will require to completely traverse this realm is insanely high, even if you were to consume seventh tier or higher cores. So it's fine if you eat a few now. Besides, you need to condense some rain in your Second Heart, that is the hallmark of the Raging Storm Stage, and a major advantage. Also, this is a fine opportunity to test your ability to avoid predictive movements. These golems act very much on instinct and themselves are quite predictable. Thus they are the perfect opponent to figure out how to outwit. Wander amongst them and destroy them without getting caught!" 

Immediately, Lineir charged in, he already knew how these golems thought, the only thing left was to see if his body could outwit them! Weaving in and out, Lineir moved at an incredibly high speed. He essentially abandoned stealth for speed, yet he did not completely go all out. Rather, it was like he was opening himself, if something wanted to come, it could, but it would not stop Lineir! Dipping in and out, he actually made it more than three fourths of the way through undetected, when finally the routes of the golems made them impossible to avoid. However, Lineir had planned for this, the two to discover him were two of the ordinary silvery golems! As they locked on to him, he charged straight between them, and whirled in a circle while still sliding forward with every step.

Shua!

Tap Tap

Clang! Clang!

 His sword cut both their legs, and instantly they froze as lightning locked them down. 

"Surge!" He straightened from his wild spin and continued to half walk, half run his way through. After making it through to the other side, he complained,

"Darn it Mei, these guys aren't even enough to pose a real threat to me, I can't enter the madness state and devour their cores!" Mei, however, quickly gave Lineir another task,

"You dare act as if you've accomplished something, go through this golem field ten more times first! You are still way too predictable!"

Down below amidst the lower levels, the various Patriarchs of the greater sects were all having extreme troubles going up the Pillar.

"What is this restrictive formation, so powerful, it feels as if my Second Heart weighs a thousand pounds!" The Patriarchs and elders were not flying, instead they were walking like ordinary mortals, and they sluggishly fought golems, attracting more and more. They didn't look much better at this point than their disciples they had left behind.

"The higher we go, the worse it gets, the oppressive aura here is as if the Heaven's themselves were pressing down on us!"

Patriarch Goldive had had enough. He was fed up with this slow progress.

"Enough, every sect must have come to the same conclusion, we must use our Sect Treasures to advance, all elders, activate your hidden treasures, we will be the ones to the top!" 

Instantly, the glows of hundreds of artifacts were lit up all across the lower levels of the pillars, and the speed of Patriarch Goldive and the elders greatly increased. Running past the golems rather than fighting them, they kept going up at a frightening speed. However, this speed came at great cost to all the great sects which were relying on treasures to advance. To use the last resorts of their sects, if they didn't gain something in return then their sects would have truly lost out this time.

Back up a few levels where Lineir was, he was almost about ten percent of the way up the visible portion. His speed had greatly increased after entering the Rising Storm Stage, and he was now fast enough to stun golems and evade them! In this way, his progress was simply incomparably fast to before, the work of weeks of backtracking now took days! A fraction of the time for the same distance! He was beginning to feel that things were going smoothly. In the back of his mind though, he still couldn't shake a feeling of pressure. But he certainly did not feel as pressured as the elders below, rather he positively flew around, madly dashing from point to point following Mei's specific instructions. He had been doing this for a long time now, and his mind had begun to think in strange ways. If anyone were to see him, they would be confused. His motions were very efficient, he covered distances with minimal effort, yet he would sometimes take odd paths which no one would expect at the strangest times. It would baffle even the most experienced fighters. He was becoming unpredictable.

Lineir had just finished navigating a huge field of over fifty golems! Not a single one had locked on to him, and he had walked through them as one might walk through a field of tall grass. His passage was indistinguishable from the passage of the wind, it was very hard to make out any discernible pattern in his actions. He simply walked. However, as he let a breath slip out, and was about to continue on his way, a noise which made him start for the first time in days came.

GRAAAAAAAAAAWWRRrrrrrrrrrr!!!.....

The shriek of that dragon was much weaker than before, and not very close, but he still paled and quickly ran away.

"She's still following me! Give me a break, I didn't do anything!"