章 111: Gains and losses
The next day, Freon was the first to wake up. It was a little surprising considering that Iris had not personally tended to him. After all, she was the preeminent healer present. She did not find it in her best interests to treat him and left it to the care of the others onboard. When he first awoke, he felt a strange lethargy envelop him. Of course, the final wound that the emperor inflicted was not light, but that was not the cause. Instead, it stemmed from somewhere… deeper. He felt wrong.
Using his Magical Perception inwardly, he scanned his Core and Channels. What he found was enough for him to nearly cough up blood in frustration. He was aware of the risks in using World Energy and he was prepared to burn his life to kill the emperor, but this… This was different. Not only had he failed to do the deed, he had really made a mess of his Core and Channels. He found that he could only muster a mere fraction of the Magical Energy that he could before. He was already a Low Gaseous Fog and he was hoping to breach Medium Gaseous Fog in the next year or two. Now, his plans went up in smoke.
One had to know Freon was officially a student of the First Celestial Magic University, the foremost and prestigious of all ten universities in the Zino Kingdom! Although he had to serve in the military as part of a draft, that fact never changed! Of course, his enrolment had nothing to do with him. That was because of his sister, Ten Dawn Nassandra! Nassandra was the publicly acknowledged person with the greatest Arcanic Potential, greater than any of the geniuses before her. She had redefined the concept of genius! She had flown through both the academy and university in record-breaking time, becoming a Ten Dawn! Arcanic Potential was hereditary, so Freon was automatically enrolled into the university, in hopes of unlocking his true potential.
Unfortunately, reality was quite cruel. He could never progress through to Medium Gaseous Fog, breaking through that barrier. To compare, all his peers in the university were already past that level. After all, the condition to graduate was to reach High Gaseous Fog! Yet, Freon was not even at the starting line. Now, he was even further behind, so far behind that it was truly shameful. Interestingly enough, if Iris had treated him personally, she would have noticed something peculiar. However, he had no way of knowing now.
As if on clockwork, Shirley woke up. The first thing Shirley noticed was that her sense of color increased by a magnitude. It was like the world had gotten brighter. Furthermore, she felt the rocking of the ship so vividly. Every wave, every crest, and every vibration crashed into her body like a storm. All her five senses were hypersensitive! It was such a strange phenomenon that she was overwhelmed by the sensory information. Her whole world was spinning, and she felt like vomiting. It was really sickening!
And… she did just that. She vomited a toxic mess as she blacked out briefly. Her wounds had yet to fully heal, so when she vomited, it put pressure on her wounds causing immense pain. It was no wonder she lost consciousness for a second. Unfortunately, her sudden movements managed to open the sealed wounds, darkening her bandages again. She groaned loudly. She had no idea what was going on and her head was a total mess. Add the pain on top of that and Shirley was in a very bad mood.
When she was about to pass out again, her eyesight returned to normal. The rocking of the ship gradually disappeared. She blinked her eyes and tilted her head in confusion. Shirley did not understand. Attributing it to fatigue, she decided to forget about the strange matter. Her actions attracted attention, so physicians came to assess her condition. To be honest, they were surprised by her vitality. Their treatment was done a day prior, yet Shirley was already awake! It did not seem possible.
However, their jaws practically dropped to the floor when they realized Freon and Benedict were also awake. Contrary to Shirley, Benedict made no fuss. There was no strange sensory phenomenon with his body. He was perfectly fine, relatively speaking. He was resting in his bed, thinking about the battle with the emperor. He relived that final attack he did. In that instant, he could feel the sword's heartbeat! The sword's heartbeat, when referred to by swordsmen, was when a swordsman and a sword became one. In other words, he reached a state of utmost focus and precision to unleash unprecedented strength!
Emperor Lianghu was rightfully surprised by Benedict's performance. Although the emperor was old and out of practice, the fact that Benedict struck the tiniest of openings was worthy of praise! After all, a Perception Realm was a Perception Realm! They were symbolically hailed as apex combatants!
Right now, Benedict could feel endless inspiration flowing through his mind. All along, he was stuck with a poor understanding of the Hawken Swordsmanship Style. It was a highly complex art which when mastered, it could push Sir Roland into the Royal Guard. Benedict was scratching the surface. For years, it was like this. He could not push through to advance his comprehension at all. Yet now, he could feel… that various problems were made simple. It all seemed easy now!
In the face of death, people often pushed beyond their limits! But to do or die, many would falter and die. There was no shortage of people like that. In fact, out of every hundred people, ninety-nine would fall and perish. If that was not the case, then the world would be filled with Perception Realm experts or greater. Sir Winstin would not be stuck at the peak of Perception Realm! What did that mean? One would already be farfetched to survive in a life or death situation… Achieving enlightenment on top of that, was that truly easy? It was not! Only a fool would think otherwise.
Benedict was given a blessing, a truly rare miracle and one that he had to thoroughly digest and process. Of course, this flash of inspiration was not enough to push him into the top. Not even close. Transforming theory into practice was easier said than done. He would still need to practice diligently for months to come! But he was confident that his mastery of the sword would advance! And strength was the one thing that he desperately desired now.
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