Shadow Slave

What was a battle style?

Depending on the practitioner, the answer varied.

At the lowest level, a battle style was nothing more than a comprehensive collection of movements and steps aimed at giving the practitioner sufficient competence to engage in battle. A set of practices meant to encompass all possible combat situations, and arm the warrior with tools to solve them.

There were countless battle styles, some taught to groups of people, others formed from the personal habits and quirks of talented combatants. Some styles emphasized strength and strived to overpower the opponent, some emphasized speed and precision, some emphasized solid defense and waiting for a perfect moment to counterattack.

There were solid battle styles created with deep insight, and poor battle styles that were concocted without a real understanding of the fundamental laws of combat.

But that was only the most shallow layer of a true battle art. A person could practice a battle style without truly understanding its essence, but they would never be able to master it.

At a higher lever, a battle style was not only a set of movements, but also a formative philosophy. It concerned not only the body, but also the mind. A person who truly mastered a style had to possess a certain level of insight into the governing laws of combat. Knowing why each of the elements had been created and what its purpose was, they were not beholden to a predetermined repertoire of actions. Instead, they could freely improvise an actionable response to each situation..

If all movements could be improvised, then what was the difference between the various battle styles? It was their philosophy. The school of thought and the dominant intent, a unifying principle that guided the shape and direction of these improvised moves.

Therefore, even among those practitioners who had mastered both the body and the mind, there were still those who fought with domineering strength, swift precision, patient caution, or any other type of guiding intent.

These were the true masters of combat.

— and one of the absolute best among them —

was a Saint, a

the body and the mind, available only

It was soul.

She has changed…

in a ferocious dance of steel, Sunny couldn't help but feel amazed. She had always been a true genius of the sword, and since he knew her better than anyone, he had expected this fight

like him, Nephis had four long years to perfect her technique. As the vanguard champion of Valor, she had gone through countless battles. She had also come into her

beast, and the difference between them and their lessers was not only a question of raw power. Sunny had already glimpsed that chasm when he and Nephis fought Dire Fang, but only now that he was a Transcendent himself did he truly understand

very proficient in using it to deliberately and efficiently augment their bodies in combat, but Saints were capable of elevating these rudimentary essence techniques to a completely

had to be tailor-made for a single user. The difference that mastering such a technique could make was truly striking, and therefore,

was not

user, there was an additional step to be taken. And that was

the complete integration of

such a personal transcendent battle art for himself in the past four years. He had already formulated its principles,

the process

thought that he might have glimpsed what the next level

than their bodies, coming into contact with the world and the underlying laws governing it. Some parts of the world welcomed them, while others repelled them. That

someone like Nephis… he couldn't guess. It might have been light, or