Chapter 91: The Art of Mastering the Wind

Of course Wei Cheng hoped that someone could guide him. He had even thought of seeking advice from Xu Shan.

But that woman was far too shrewd. Though trustworthy, the question of whether he could cultivate two professions at once still needed more consideration.

After all, this was one of his lifelines. And human hearts were hard to fathom. Wei Cheng could not be sure that Earth’s people would truly prove united as one. If a demon from the outer realms had infiltrated among them and meant to cause trouble, what if Wei Cheng became its primary assassination target?

He did not want to be the first man up the ladder, the one who drew all the eyes.

Better to keep a low profile and grow in the shadows.

“My name is Qi Mei. I live nearby, Uncle. What about you?”

The little girl was earnest, or perhaps simply inexperienced in the ways of the world.

“My name is Cheng Wei. For the time being, I live nearby too.”

“Good. Then let’s begin. Actually, my understanding of the Spirit Swallow profession may not be entirely correct, so I’ll just say what I think. Uncle, take it or leave it. If something goes wrong in the future, remember not to blame me.”

As she spoke, the little girl could not help but look Wei Cheng up and down several times, even comparing their heights. Though her face was covered with a towel, he could still see her struggling to hold back laughter.

“Uncle, with your build, your edges, your bearing—if you don’t go into Mountain Mover, what a waste. Honestly, I don’t think you’ve even grasped the true essence of Spirit Swallow. It’s hard to imagine you’ve actually cultivated it all the way to the Three-Hundred-Year level.”

“Do you know? Right now you’re like a bookworm: you know a lot, but you can’t apply it. Mountain Mover would suit you so much better. Absolutely maxed-out sense of security.”

“You talk too much.”

“Fine, fine, let’s get to the point. Before understanding Spirit Swallow, I think we need to understand why the Trial Immortals established these three professions in the first place: Spirit Swallow, Violet Cloud, and Mountain Mover.”

“Granted, Mountain Mover excels in defense, Spirit Swallow in agility, Violet Cloud in offense—but that’s only the first layer. In my view, there may be some deeper underlying principle. If Mountain Mover represents the earth and Violet Cloud represents fire, then Spirit Swallow represents wind!”

“So the true Spirit Swallow should learn to command the wind, to become part of the wind, rather than trying to learn to be a swallow. In the end, that only turns you into either a sparrow or a penguin.”

“The fundamental idea is wrong from the start. Just as Mountain Mover should imagine the earth, Violet Cloud should not imagine drifting sunset clouds, but raging flames.”

“Honestly, it’s kind of funny. I told my brother that, and he still wouldn’t believe it. He kept saying how romantic and beautiful Violet Cloud is. What an idiot. Did he think he was a princess? He doesn’t even stop to consider: what power could drifting clouds possibly have? The overwhelming damage output of the Violet Cloud profession suits blazing fire perfectly.”

Wei Cheng listened in silence, automatically setting aside Qi Mei’s judgments of the other two professions. If one had not personally experienced them, one had no right to speak.

But what she said about Spirit Swallow being aligned with wind truly opened his eyes and benefited him immensely.

Then Qi Mei went on, “The inner power of Spirit Swallow has an extremely high affinity with wind. In fact, when you circulate the Spirit Swallow heart method, you can sense a cool breeze passing unobstructed through your body, as though your whole self has become part of that breeze.”

“Of course, that’s just how it feels to me while cultivating. Uncle, you don’t have to force it. If you can do it, wonderful. If you can’t, that’s fine too.”

“But you can try moving in that direction.”

“Especially in combat and while moving, don’t deliberately force the Spirit Swallow inner power into circulation, and don’t keep thinking about how to do this or that. First, imagine yourself as a strand of clear breeze. Let things happen naturally; everything else will follow of its own accord.”

“Like this. The wind rises, the wind falls.”

At that very moment, a evening breeze happened to drift by. Qi Mei truly did not borrow much force at all; her body simply floated away naturally.

“See? I didn’t expend much Spirit Swallow inner power just now, and I could still do that. If it were you, though, I’m afraid even three-hundred-year Spirit Swallow inner power would be exhausted very quickly.”

“Even in battle, it’s the same. Don’t force speed, or flashy moves, or excessive grace. Natural, real—that’s better. It can even reduce the target’s perception of me.”

“I think the Spirit Swallow profession can double as an assassin with no pressure at all.”

“That’s enough for now. The rest depends on your comprehension. If fate allows, we’ll meet again!”

With that, Qi Mei drifted off into the distance. After a few light bounds, she vanished without a trace behind the greenery of the residential complex. Quite cautious, too.

But she was right. The way she moved was remarkably natural. If Wei Cheng had not locked onto her with spiritual power, he would have lost her trail very quickly.

Another talent.

Far more outstanding than Xu Shan.

Perhaps, in her eyes, Xu Shan was merely a sparrow of poor marks.

Wei Cheng smiled soundlessly and did not dwell on it. He left the complex and began jogging along the edge of the road, no longer deliberately circulating Spirit Swallow inner power, only to feel the evening breeze brush his face.

Traffic still surged through the streets. The different vehicles speeding past stirred up different currents of air; the collisions and intersections of those currents formed yet more currents. Added to the naturally blowing evening wind, this seemingly ordinary city street had become unexpectedly rich and varied.

Before he knew it, the way Wei Cheng stepped forward, the coordination of his limbs, the angle of his body, his state of movement, even each point where his feet landed, had begun to adjust naturally.

Although he was not circulating Spirit Swallow inner power, he was sensing the changes in the currents and allowing his own movements to blend into them, so that the airflow no longer became a hindrance but an aid.

On this alone, Wei Cheng gained enormously.

All right, truth be told, he had cheated.

Even if that little girl Qi Mei came herself, she might not have been able to sense as clearly as he did the changes in the currents within a radius of several hundred meters, then anticipate and adjust accordingly.

It was simply because Wei Cheng’s spiritual power was too formidable.

He used that power to sense the currents, then made minute adjustments to his body.

This was, in the strictest sense, an unorthodox shortcut.

But it was also the foundation of his rapid mastery.

By the time he had run in one breath from the northern suburbs to the southern suburbs, then from the southern suburbs to the western suburbs—one circuit after another, more than a hundred kilometers in all—

as dawn began to break and a strip of red glow rose along the horizon, Wei Cheng suddenly had an epiphany.

The Spirit Swallow visualization diagram took shape at last, and behind Wei Cheng appeared the phantom of a Spirit Swallow, wings spread as if ready to take flight, nimble beyond compare.

In the next instant, Spirit Swallow inner power moved with the wind, and this great emperor penguin at last could rise with the breeze, floating lightly over a dozen meters and landing without a sound.

This was Wei Cheng replicating the earlier windborne movement pattern Qi Mei had demonstrated.

Only, he had managed to reproduce roughly half of it.

Even so, that was enough to lift him out of the level of a fat penguin and into the rank of a poor sparrow.

And the Spirit Swallow inner power consumed in the process had dropped by more than three to fourfold.

At this moment, Wei Cheng finally understood why, after returning to Earth, he saw no one from Mountain Mover or Violet Cloud showing off their skills, while those who did were all from Spirit Swallow.

Because once one had entered the door, the consumption of Spirit Swallow inner power was truly negligible.

The end.