Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Intent Mastery
"Mm," Lenora swung her spear in an arc, creating a trail of air sweeping as she aimed it at Sam's torso.
Sam used his own spear to try to block. When Lenora's physical strength channeled through her spear, a burst of wind crackled as Sam was pushed back a few meters, unable to fully block her attack.
"Ouch," the pain from that attack made his hands go numb. Even for a dragon with a powerful body, he still felt that seething pain as his fingers holding the spear trembled.
"Did I hurt you, darling?" Lenora asked worriedly.
"It's okay; it's not that bad. Did you use your full physical strength in that last attack?" Sam could feel that the last attack was definitely not the best Lenora could handle.
"No," Lenora shook her head. "I used about 70% of my full physical strength. I can even boost my strength if I enter into my werewolf form."
"Let's spar again, my sweet kitten. This time, use your full physical strength. I want to know how far off I am from cultivators in Spirit Severing realm."
They started to spar again, and this time, Sam was totally on the losing side. He couldn't even defend against Lenora's attacks effectively. Every time he tried to block her spear, he was sent flying, unable to defend against her full-power spear swings.
Soon, their sparring came to an end. Sam knelt to his knees on the ground as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.
"You are so strong, darling. With your strength, you can easily overpower someone in the middle stage of Spirit Severing realm while still being in the lower stage of Nascent Soul realm. And if you had comprehended the Spear intent, you could have matched me in strength with the spear."
"Actually, I've already comprehended four intents," Sam said casually.
"You did what?" The girls were dumbfounded.
How could someone comprehend four intents before even breaking through the Spirit Severing realm? It would already be a humongous task just to comprehend one kind of intent, and Sam, who is just in the lower stage, claims he comprehended four kinds of intents? It was pretty unbelievable.
Seeing that they didn't understand him quite clearly, Sam raised his hand and pointed his two fingers at a target placed a hundred meters from him.
A silver aura began to emanate from his body, slowly concentrating in his hand and then to his fingers.
"This is... Sword intent." Amelia had never seen anything more absurd in her life. She couldn't even find the words to express the feelings she was experiencing right now.
The other three women were in the same condition as her. They were even more shocked and surprised. They knew their man was probably the most talented in the world, but right now, they felt like even this title wasn't enough to describe his genius.
The sword intent grew more intense until it seemed like its lethality could cut through anything. Then, Sam made a cutting motion.
The silver aura formed by the sword intent in his fingers shot out, cutting through the air like an invisible blade being swung.
The girls, feeling the sword intent, sensed as if a bloodthirsty sword was held under their necks, ready to cut through their skin and taste their blood.
The sword intent in the form of an arc swept through the air and landed on the target, but there was no explosion—only an ethereal hum resonated from the place the sword intent landed.
Looking at the result of that attack, the girls witnessed the sword intent cutting the target in half smoothly like paper.
The cut was deep, and even from a distance, the girls could feel the remnants of the sword intent from the damaged target.
"D-Darling, that was sword intent," Amelia muttered, still trying to process what her darling had just done.
"Yeah," Sam nodded his head as he opened and closed his fingers like he was trying to understand something.
"When did you comprehend the sword intent, darling?" Lenora had already come to terms with the fact that trying to understand her darling would only cause a headache, so she chose to ignore the surprises Sam would give in the future.
In truth, when Sam was sparring with Amelia and Lenora, he had activated his innate ability, the Rumination Clarity, which boosted his comprehension and understanding levels to absurd heights.
This ability helped him comprehend the Sword and Spear intents rapidly. Honestly, he only activated this ability to learn and refine his sword and spear techniques quickly.
While he did achieve this, what came as a surprise to him was that he also unconsciously comprehended Sword Intent and Spear Intent.
The same goes for the Flame Intent and Ice Intent. He activated this ability when he was experimenting with his bloodline abilities, testing his control and mastery.
As he tried to explore all the ways he could use his bloodline abilities, he unknowingly comprehended the Flame Intent and Ice Intent.
Unknown to Sam, who believed that he only comprehended the Intents due to his Rumination Clarity, it just wasn't the case. The true reason he was able to comprehend the Intents was truthfully thanks to his physique, the Mystic Voidheart Harmonic Physique.
This was a special physique that had the ability to make its host master multiple daos at the same time with much comprehension, while increasing the speed of comprehension passively.
The only reason Sam didn't think that the Intents were thanks to his physique was that he didn't remember ever activating his physique, which was true because he never did.
The physique, without even needing to activate, assisted the Rumination Clarity ability to help Sam master the Intents at such an absurd speed.
"I comprehended the sword intent during my sparring with Amelia using my mock sword," Sam replied casually.
"How...how did you do it? Do you understand what it means to comprehend an intent?" Ophelia asked with a shocked expression.
Before we talk about the concept of intents, we first need to understand the cultivation realms after the Qi Condensation realm.
One could say that Qi condensation is like a test made for the cultivators. If one breaks through the Qi Condensation realm in one month, it's a sign that they might have a future in the path of longevity.
After the Qi Condensation realm comes the Foundation Establishment realm, or Foundation realm, as the younger generation prefers to call it.
When a cultivator breaks through to the Foundation realm, they form a pagoda in their inner world. After forming a perfect pagoda in their inner world, it means they have successfully reached the peak-stage Foundation realm and can proceed to break through to the Core Formation realm.
This pagoda they form in their inner world in the Foundation realm is called the Daoist foundation.
But there are some who decide to use their talent to the full potential or those who want to pursue power; they proceed to form more Daoist foundations in their inner world.
In the Foundation realm, the limit of how many Daoist foundations one could form is nine. Many could form one or two Daoist foundations; some talented ones could form three to four foundations, while the prodigies could form up to six or seven Daoist foundations.
There were very few who managed to form eight Daoist foundations, and as for the geniuses capable of forming nine-level Daoist foundations, they didn't exist.
Of course, this was until Sam showed up.
Cultivators like Sam, who were capable of forming nine-level Daoist foundations, were given a special status called Supreme Path cultivators.
Because only they could reach the supreme levels of each cultivation realm, it was a very prestigious title indeed.
After breaking through the Core Formation realm, a cultivator would form a golden core to reach the peak stage of the Core Formation realm.
Of course, the stubborn ones would use their talents to form more cores.
Like the pagoda, which was called the Daoist foundation, in the Core Formation realm, the cores were called Daoist Cores.
The stubborn ones, like in the Foundation realm, would form as many Daoist cores as their talent allowed them.
The limit of Daoist cores was eleven, including the golden core. As for the other ten cores, their colors were based on the ten elements of nature.
As a Supreme Path cultivator, Sam easily formed Eleven Daoist cores.
For breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm, one would need to form a complete Daoist Soul. The amount of Daoist souls one could form was Eleven Daoist souls, ten Daoist souls with colors each representing the ten elements of nature along with the golden-colored Daoist soul.
Now, the next cultivation realm, the Spirit Severing realm, is a little special. It needed a cultivator to sever their Daoist Souls formed in the Nascent Soul realm from their body to break through to the peak stage.
After this stage comes the Dao Seeking realm. This is where the intents play their role.
Now, what are intents?
Intents were like Daos but of much lower quality. If one wishes to comprehend a certain Dao, then they must master the intent of the same Dao.
For example, if one wishes to cultivate the Sword Dao, then they can only do so by mastering the Sword intent. We could even say that mastering the intents is the initial stage of pursuing the path of Dao cultivation.
To break through the Dao Seeking realm, one must form a Dao seal in their inner world by taking the path of Dao.
Now, there are numerous kinds of Daos one could choose to master. Some intents are relatively easy to master, while others are a mountainous task.
There are also grades of Daos: Supreme grade, Transcendent grade, Prominent grade, and Ordinary grade. Most cultivators usually form the Dao seal by mastering ordinary-grade Daos, like Sword Dao or Flame Dao.
Prodigies would use Prominent-grade Daos to form their Dao seal. The kind of Dao seal one forms would have a huge impact on their future cultivation and their body too.
The grades of the Dao were not based on their power but their rarity and the level of difficulty it takes to master such a Dao. Even a cultivator who cultivates an Ordinary-grade Dao can rival someone who cultivates a Prominent-grade Dao, as long as their mastery over the Dao is high enough.
"My sweet kitten, you've already reached the Peak stage of Spirit Severing, right? What kind of intent have you mastered for forming the Dao seal?" Sam inquired.
"I've already comprehended the Ferocious Intent, but I still have a long way to go before I completely master it," Lenora replied.
"D-Darling, what are the other three Daos you've mastered?" Yuna asked, still a little embarrassed addressing Sam as "darling," unlike Amelia and Lenora, who seemed to have no shame. MVLeMpYr-reader
"Other than Sword intent, I have mastered Spear intent, Flame intent, and Ice Intent," Sam replied, scratching his chin. "Among the four intents, I haven't mastered the Flame intent as much as the others."
((((((The character art for each character has been showcased in the Auxiliary chapters; please take a look and share your opinions.))))))
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