Heading back to the living room area of his courtyard where Moddy was at, his body couldn't help but exude an aura filled with strength. Of course, Moddy didn't ignore this aura and knew why Shi Li was engrossed in his thoughts a while ago while holding small beads on his hands. With a smile on its face, it then said, "Congratulations on breaking through nya!"
Shi Li looked at the 4 remaining Spirit Gathering Pills he had before hearing Moddy's words of congratulations, kneeling down and then patting Moddy in the head. "Thanks Moddy. Since I've broken through, I need to consolidate my strength and enhance it as well since I have to participate in a tournament."
"A tournament?" Moddy asked since it didn't know what tournaments were. "What's that nya?"
"Well..." Shi Li scratched his head for a bit before replying, "Think of it as a fight where multiple humans show their best in a series of tests where they try to stand at the top."
"Ah..." Moddy understood, but at the same time didn't. "I'll just understand it later nya."
"So back to where I was," Shi Li said. "Since I'm going to be cooped up in this courtyard for a few days, we won't be able to go to the clan library to grab you a cultivation technique, so let's grab it now!"
Seeing that its wish of cultivating a cultivation technique would be realized, Moddy became happy as it ran towards the entrance of the courtyard and shouted, "Well what are waiting for nya! Let's go!"
...
Within the clan library.
It only took Shi Li a few minutes to find the bookshelf that held cultivation techniques suitable for pets. Although Shi Li didn't consider Moddy as a pet but rather as a friend, he didn't have any choice since the only cultivation technique suitable for beasts were found on this single bookshelf.
The bookshelf only around 50 or so books, seeing how rare it was for a cultivator to tame a beast. Heading to the section filled with techniques meant for the Martial Novice stage, Shi Li looked at Moddy and said, "Go ahead and choose from the techniques you see. Once you find the one that suits you, just give it to me and I'll ask my father to let me borrow it so you can cultivate."
Moddy nodded after Shi Li finished saying what he had say and started to search through the books on the bookshelf, looking for the cultivation technique that suited its needs at the moment. As for Shi Li, he sat on a nearby chair and closed his eyes as he tried to comprehend the essence of the All-encompassing Sword technique his master taught him.
'The first level, Deflect. It focuses on reading your movements and deflecting them at the right moment, negating the damage the attack could possibly deal. Once trained to its peak, the need to look for obvious movements wouldn't be needed anymore, as the body would move on its own as it deflected the attack.'
'Of course, the first level is easier said than done. If I wanted to reach the level of not reading my opponent's movements, I would have to get hit thousands of times in order to get a hint in mastering the first level.'
'But master said that only achieving the first level is enough to defeat any opponent in the Novice Tournament so I'll just make sure to train hard enough to achieve just that.'
'There's also the [Energy Condensation Art] that could help me stamina-wise. I should try and push for the second level.'
While being engrossed in his thoughts, Moddy had finally picked a technique to cultivate. It then went closer to Shi Li and tugged on his robes, snapping him back to reality as he looked at the book Moddy grabbed.
________
[Roaring Hit Manual]
[Grade]: High Mortal
[Strength Increase]: 40 ren
A technique made for tamed beasts, it allows the beasts to have more force in their attacks, letting them use less hits while dealing the same amount of damage. Once cultivated to the peak of the Martial Novice stage, in other words Rank 3, the beast would attain a strength incomparable to other beasts of the same level.
________
Shi Li looked at Moddy nodded as he said, "This is a good technique. It allows you to have more force in your attacks, which means more force in your taps, allowing the sound to reach a farther distance."
"But as far as I've read, this is an internal cultivation technique focused on the soul. Are you going to choose a cultivation technique for your body as well?"
Moddy shook its head. "It's enough for me to cultivate my spirit nya. I'll have to recultivate anyways. Having to cultivate my body as well as my spirit from the start would suck so it's better for me to just recultivate my spirit nya."
Listening to Moddy's opinion, Shi Li didn't force it any further and headed out of the clan library.
...
For the next few days, the days passed by peacefully for Shi Li and Moddy as they continued to cultivate. Gaining his father's permission, Shi Li was able to let Moddy cultivate the technique it picked, allowing it to be busy for a while as Shi Li focused on cultivating to the peak of the 3rd stage while trying to achieve the first level of the All-encompassing Sword.
Of course, with cultivation being easier for him thanks to his constantly improving aptitude, he only popped two pills inside his mouth, easily cultivating to the intermediate stage of the 3rd stage for both his soul and body within 2 days.
With around 2 more days left before the tournament, he was pressed for time to become familiar with the All-encompassing Sword technique. Although he didn't want to it, he persuaded Moddy to help him train the All-encompassing Sword technique, to which surprisingly Moddy agreed.
At first, Moddy attacked Shi Li at a slow pace, with its movements being obvious, allowing Shi Li to slowly get used to reading the movements of enemies. After a few hours, he was able to read every movement at Moddy's current stage. Seeing that Shi Li was now used to it, Moddy then sped his movements up by a little while making its movements less obvious.
This continued on and on until only around 12 hours remained before the tournament. The sun was already setting as the moon gradually rose up to the skies.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sounds of collision between sword and paw reverberated around Shi Li's courtyard until gradually...
Bang!
With one swift slash from Shi Li's sword, the paw that Moddy sent to hit Shi Li from the back was deflected back, negating the force the paw had. Moddy looked at Shi Li and smiled. "You did it nya!"
After savoring the feeling of reading an enemy's movement and deflecting it, Shi Li obtained an epiphany towards the true meaning of the first level. Nonetheless, he kept it to himself as he sat cross-legged, looking at the time remaining before the tournament by looking at the sky.
"Around 12 hours or so..."
With 3 more Spirit Gathering Pills to use, he popped them all in his mouth at once and said...
"Let's cultivate one more time!"