Chapter 350: Section 137: New Combat Skill Flowing Blade
“I… where am I?” The sailor groaned as he woke up.
He looked around and found himself in a dilapidated cabin.
The seawater had already flooded much of the cabin, and he was half-lying on a wardrobe, which was the only reason he was floating.
“I, I remember now!” The sailor clutched his head, bearing the intense pain, as flashbacks filled his mind.
He worked on the Pig Kiss, a cargo ship, as a sailor. However, they had hit an iceberg, and the ship began to sink. The sailor failed in his struggle for survival and got trapped on board. He watched helplessly as a limited number of lifeboats carried many sailors away.
“Please, don’t leave me behind!” the sailor begged, lying on the ship’s side.
No one responded, nor did any boat turn back.
As the sailor despaired, a group of sharks attacked. A great white shark smashed the lifeboats one after another, and the sailors who fell into the water became prey for the sharks.
The sailor was stunned as the Pig Kiss continued to sink, and the sharks entered the vessel.
Fighting for his life, the sailor eventually got trapped in this cabin.
“What do I do, what do I do? I can’t swim out, and that white shark must be waiting for me in the hallway!” The sailor was in utter despair.
He couldn’t find any weapon, and the water level was rising, slowly covering the door frame.
The sailor lay down on top of the wardrobe as the rising water level lifted him closer and closer to the top of the cabin.
He was at his wit’s end, the increasingly narrow space for survival leaving him gasping for air.
His despair grew deeper, and he started to yell desperately until his throat was hoarse.
He felt powerless and began to sob.
In his sobbing, he started to confess; he prayed to the gods for redemption, hoping his soul could ascend to the Divine Country after death.
“Great Mei Lan, my Lord, my utmost…”
“Wait, wait.”
After praying a few times, the sailor’s face showed a look of agony.
His memories became vague; he clutched his head, crying out in pain.
Bang.
The next moment, his entire head burst, with blood, brain matter, shattered skull, and hair splattering everywhere.
The rising water stopped, and the wooden wardrobe, the wooden cabin walls, and the ceiling all gradually dissipated, reverting to a rectangular operating table and metallic walls.
Hiss.
A light sound was heard as the cabin door slid smoothly aside.
Cang Xu walked in slowly.
He immediately used Undead Magic, trying to congeal the test subject’s soul.
He failed.
“It seems this captive’s original faith was profound. Even though I successfully altered his memories completely erasing any trace of his past, his original faith still persists and seriously affects his conversion to Mei Lan,” Cang Xu sighed.
Faith is the secret of the gods.
Although Cang Xu was an Undead Mage, a half-baked Desecration Priest, he was merely of Black Iron Level, far too distant from the Divine Level.
“In this case, the most suitable subjects are those whose original faith was shallow and unsteady.”
“Of course, it would be best if they were Non-believers.”
“Regrettably, Non-believers are too rare.”
After retrieving the Memory Creation Device from the wreckage of the Pig Kiss on Mysterious Monster Island, Cang Xu began researching Memory Crystals.
Following his acquisition of the treasure of a ship ghost in an underwater secret chamber, Cang Xu also started trying to become a qualified Desecration Priest.
So far, he had made some promising progress.
Yet…
“It’s still too slow.”
“I must hurry, I need to achieve true success as soon as possible!”
Cang Xu knew time was of the essence.
The events at the Sky Pillar Sea Eye would definitely erupt and could no longer be kept hidden; by then, all the survivors would draw the attention and pursuit of various forces.
For the Justice Pirate Group, troubles were not limited to this alone.
There was another huge problem—Mysterious Monster Island, related to the Legendary Mage, the Alchemy Grandmaster War Merchant, and several Divine Artifacts.
“Zi Di must have already contacted the Clan Leader of the Hundred Needle Family.”
“Looking forward to the Hundred Needle Family playing a decisive mediating role… that possibility is not high.”
“Self-rescue is the best way out.”
“I must succeed in my research, steal the Divine Power of Mei Lan, and replenish it into the Mermaid’s Fairy Tale to produce the Pearl Bubble!”
“The faster, the better!”
With that thought, Cang Xu quickly tidied up the cabin and then plunged back into a new experiment.
The nighttime seawater was icy cold and bone-chilling.
The Fishman youth quietly floated in the shallow waters.
He kept his body upright, his arm extended straight out, fingers icy, forming the shape of a knife-hand.
Silver Fighting Spirit continually circulated in his arm, and the surrounding seawater was influenced by the fluctuations of the Fighting Spirit, becoming increasingly turbulent.
“Now is the moment!” the Fishman youth roared silently in his heart, and suddenly opened his eyes.
Combat Skill—Flowing Blade!
Hiss.
Following a soft sound, the gleaming Silver Fighting Spirit burst forth from the youth’s forearm, instantly forming the shape of a long blade.
The hissing sound continued unabated.
“Success,” the Fishman youth jubilated internally. “To think I succeeded on my first attempt. Indeed, my intuition was not wrong. This is also one of the advantages that the Divine Bloodline brings.”
The Fishman youth had thrice dived into the seabed vortex, transforming Fighting Spirit. The combination of the Divine Bloodline with the Holy Domain Level spell yielded astonishing results, completely transforming his Blast Fighting Energy and turning it into the Light and Thin Fate Fighting Energy.
Taking advantage of the little time left, the Fishman youth began to practice Combat Skills.
He meticulously selected a few Combat Skills from Tower Spirit’s memory bank, all of which were particularly suitable for the Shark Blue Fishman Form.
The first Combat Skill he practiced was Flowing Blade.
While recalling the details of this Combat Skill, the youth had a strong feeling, believing that he could succeed on his first attempt.
Indeed, on his first try, he achieved results, demonstrating the Flowing Blade Combat Skill!
In the dark seawaters, the silver blade was exceptionally striking.
The youth scrutinized the long blade; the lower half of it was his forearm, extending from the front of his palm to the upper half of the blade.
The Flowing Blade measured about 1.5 meters in length, with a narrow, elongated blade tapering down from top to bottom.
The essence of Flowing Blade was not Fighting Energy but seawater.
The principle was to wrap a portion of the seawater with Fighting Energy, causing it to flow rapidly in a confined space. Thus, the hissing sound made by the Flowing Blade was in fact the noise of the water circulating swiftly.
“Perhaps it’s precisely because the blade is made of water, and since Shark Blue belongs to the Divine Level Fishman Blood, which is closest to water, that I managed to execute it on my first try.”
The advantages of the Divine Bloodline were immense, affecting many aspects, not just the cultivation of Fighting Spirit but also immensely aiding in the training of Combat Skills.
“Let’s test its power.”
The Fishman youth surfaced and quickly located a reef.
The Flowing Blade gently touched the surface of the reef, and with a hiss, the stone’s surface was scored with countless powders.
At first glance, the sides of the Flowing Blade seemed very flimsy, but its essence was the continuously flowing seawater. Thus, when it cuts, it is like a saw whirring rapidly. This undoubtedly added a lot of power to it.
The Fishman youth maintained the Combat Skill while rotating his elbow, allowing the Flowing Blade to gradually penetrate deeper into the reef.
Eventually, the Flowing Blade completely sliced through the stone, emerging from the other side.
Throughout the process, the Fishman youth did not feel any significant resistance, but the difficulty of maintaining the Combat Skill had increased considerably, and the Silver Fighting Spirit consumed much more during the cutting process.
“The key points emphasized in the Combat Skill make perfect sense.”
“The focus of the Flowing Blade Combat Skill lies in sustaining it. Because the blade is made up of swiftly flowing water, it is unlike ordinary swords and knives with a solid body. Once it begins cutting or collides with something, the water flow can easily disperse, and the blade can only be maintained through Fighting Spirit.”
“Hence, this Combat Skill demands robust, continuous output of Fighting Spirit as well as spirit. The stronger the spirit, the longer you can maintain the flow of Fighting Spirit both inside and outside the body.”
And the Fishman youth possessed both these qualities.
His vigorous Fighting Spirit needs no explanation—the divine-grade Bloodline paired with the Holy Domain Level spell, a combination that left most others far behind.
In terms of spirit, the youth had used numerous Soul Crystals, making him several times more powerful than fighters of the same level. As he continued using Soul Crystals, his spirit would only continue to rise.
In a word, the Flowing Blade Combat Skill was exceedingly suitable for the Fishman youth.
Dawn’s light shot from the horizon, and the sun gradually ascended, leaping above the sea’s surface.
The night had passed just like that.
“Time flies indeed, but I have garnered much this night,” the Fishman youth inhaled a breath of fresh air, watching the rising sun and then looking back at the Flowing Blade.
“Not enough!”
“There are many variations of the Flowing Blade Combat Skill, and I’ve only grasped the most basic form. There’s still so much more to become familiar with and to practice.”
“Sigh, the situation is too tense.”
“I can’t place my hopes on others.”
“I must seize these last moments of peace, do everything in my power to enhance my combat strength, to prepare for the upcoming great battle!”