60. Concepts (Patreon)

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Dodging the incoming attacks was ridiculously easy.

They couldn't hold a candle to what Shen had gone through in the  second stage. There, he had had F+ stats and avoided projectiles from  beings with E- stats, including magic. Here, he had E- stats and dealt  with F+ at most.

Many arrows and bolts were shot his way. The system gave the marksmen  an infinite supply of them, but they were common wood with ordinary  metal arrowheads. The enchantments were in the bows or ballistae to make  the draw faster, take less strength, add speed to the projectile on  release.

Shen would get hurt if he was hit while close to the projectiles'  release, but the damage would be negligible at worse. His E- resistance  and qi-filled body gave him that much of an advantage. By regenerating 1  HP/s, he could get hit and not care about it.

Not that he allowed himself to get hit, of course. No need to tempt fate.

Spells were also hurled against him. It became evident very quickly  that Alicia's skill was on the upper range of regulars. The  fireballs—almost every magic coming his way was a fireball—were slow and  weak. Lightning was the second most used element, but it didn't cause  any pain even though he couldn't dodge some bolts. His soul and qi were  enough to dissipate all spells as soon as they touched him.

His clothes, unfortunately, fared a lot worse. Even weak lightning  burned them. Soon enough, he was only half-clad, and what remained was  charred.

He didn't care.

Shen dodged spells and rushed at the regulars. Then he bypassed their defenses to get at their long-range attackers.

Carnage followed.

The Concept of War proved its effectiveness repeatedly as he found  himself in the middle of countless enemies. The projectiles coming his  way now were much less than when he had run toward the regulars because  visibility was minimal for them after he got in their ranks. Still, War  let him be extra aware of his surroundings and dodge what projectiles  came.

The Concept of Combat turned Shen into death incarnate. War told him  who to attack and when. Combat showed him the way to triumph once he had  his target. Sometimes, Combat whispered different things from War to  him, but Shen let War decide. This situation was greater than mere  Combat, and he would do well to use the best tool for the job.

Speaking of the best tool for the job, Shen couldn't use three  Concepts at once, but he could do the next best thing: change the type  of qi he was using mid-fight.

The Concept of Sharpness was the perfect killing Concept. Therefore,  when things got simple enough, he would swap War for Combat in his mind  and use Sharpness on his spear.

His spearhead cut through armor like a phoenix feather going through  ice. He dismembered, bisected, beheaded, and impaled his enemies so  quickly that it even scared him. If this was a real battle, the scene  would be terrifying.

It still troubled him to see the fear in the eyes of his fellow  humans as he cut them down, to hear their screams of pain and anguish,  to cut them down like weeds. The system spared him from getting covered  in their blood and guts, but not the feeling of their flesh being torn  apart, as little resistance as if offered.

And for what? AP? Was it worth it?

Every time Shen found his resolve wavering, he swapped Combat back  for War in his mind, took Sharpness out, and filled himself and his  spear with Boundlessness.

The Concept of War also hardened his heart a little, but it was Boundlessness that really pushed him past his humanity.

He would not be stopped by his feelings when he had decided on the  best path forward; to do so was to be ruled by the chemicals in his  brain rather than rule them. He would not be bound by morals when his  enemy was in front of him; this was a do-or-die situation, and he would  succeed. It was him or them, simple as that, and he would not show mercy  toward those who would kill him if their positions were reversed.

Still, he never let Boundlessness take hold of his mind. He feared he might go too far beyond humanity if that happened.

Sharpness was the foundational Concept he used the least on his mind,  only when things were really easy. While it did make his mind sharper  in the figurative sense, it was not as good as Combat and War for  battle. He felt it would shine if he ever found himself studying  something though. Maybe even cultivating or training his martial  techniques. He would have to check.

But that would come later.

Now, he was a tool of death.

Shen struck, and death followed. His preferred tactic was to  infiltrate the center of his enemies' formations and take them all in a  swirl. A Sharp spear made it trivial. When that wasn't possible, he  struck incoming projectiles from the air, avoided the ones easy to do  so, and beheaded those in front of him.

His Gale Footwork was used to the utmost. Shen had never been in a  situation of constant progress and attacks that could ignore allies.  Sometimes the regulars sent spells at their friends, and they exploded  close enough to cause a couple points of damage. Shen had learned to  watch out for that too.

Some tried to stop him in close-range fights. He got rid of them  quickly or ignored them if that wasn't possible. His Sharp spear could  be halted by F armor or F- shields, so Shen Backstepped and either  killed them or focused on others. He had to kill as many as possible; he  couldn't waste any time.

He felt his usage of his spear art improving constantly. Infusing his  body and mind with different Concepts let him use his martial  techniques in ways he hadn't thought possible. It also showed him he was  lacking in something. His movements should flow better. They were aggressive enough, as befitting a Windstorm, but their fluidity—

That was it, wasn't it?

The missing piece was a Concept connected to the Laws of Wind. He  needed it to thoroughly understand the Windstorm Spear Art and use it to  the utmost. And he guessed he would also need a Concept connected to  the Laws of Water to master his Rainfall Cultivation Method. Also, only  with both Wind and Water, plus the Laws of the Spear, could he fully  showcase the might of the Hurricane Martial Art.

It was obvious in hindsight, but he had never even considered adding something other than the Spear to his Path.

Should he do it?

Shen wasn't sure, but he couldn't deny he was feeling his attacks  lacked fluidity. A Windstorm was aggressive and unstoppable but not like  a volcano eruption or an earthquake. It had a subtlety of its own. It  could also go through obstacles and fall them just by changing the  pressure of the air. It had its own characteristics.

Adding Concepts to his Path, as long as they weren't foundational,  wouldn't matter much. Shen could add as many as he wanted. He did know  it would make breaking through to the next cultivation realm harder  though.

Shen didn't fear hardship; he only feared an incomplete Path.

And he could tell his Path would be incomplete without Wind. His  spear demanded that, and his was the Path of Spear. How could he claim  to be treading such Path if he didn't give it what it needed to grow?

So Shen focused a little more on understanding the underlying  Concepts of his footwork and spear art. Gale and Windstorm. What made  them special? What made them? Where did they come from, and what was their destination?

He started flowing better as multiple insights came to him, but he  could tell there would be only one Concept related to the Laws of Wind  in his Path. More than that would push it too much outside the Spear's  dominion.

Was it Gale he wanted? Was it Windstorm? Was it something else?

Shen killed but wasn't considering the suffering of his foes any  longer. The terror of battle was muted by higher considerations. Such  was the cultivator way, so he found nothing wrong with that.

He killed and killed, and his spear got more aggressive. He brought  pain and despair, and his footwork became more effective. The end goal  was the hurricane. The apex would be reached when everything in his way  could no longer resist his power.

But when War came to his mind, it whispered to him he might not want more of the same.

The Feng Clan might pursue the Hurricane Martial Arts, but he was not  the Feng Clan. Part of his Path came from them, but his present and  future were his own. He already had four tools to crush opposition: War,  Combat, Sharpness, and Boundlessness. He didn't need to be pushed  toward greater extremes. Instead, he might want to focus on a subtler  Concept. As long as it came from the Laws of Wind, it would suffice for  better understanding his techniques.

Shen was currently geared toward frontal confrontation, but that limited his prospects.

He might want more of that, however. The decision was his to  make. The knowledge brought by the Concept of War only made him aware  that it wasn't the only option.

And when he used Boundlessness, even if not in his mind, it whispered the same; he shouldn't limit his options.

Combat disagreed. Only defeating the enemy mattered, and what was  better than overwhelming strength? All problems could be solved with  power. If it looked otherwise, you were only lacking in strength.

Sharpness didn't care; it only wanted to cut.

In the end, it was Combat's argument that made him decide. He agreed with it, but he was also choosing something about his Path.

A Path was the destination, but also the journey.

Shen didn't know what the future held for him, but surely he wouldn't  be able to crush all opposition as effortlessly as the regulars.  Overwhelming strength might always be an answer, but he would find himself said strength. Then, one extra Concept geared towards destruction might not make any difference.

His Path needed a little more balance, and shouldn't the Concept of  Combat also support that idea? Shen had learned with it that true  strength wasn't always found in pushing to the extreme; sometimes, that  would leave him vulnerable instead.

So he heard the whispers of Wind while he moved. Concepts from the  Laws of Wind had been used to create his footwork and spear art. He only  had to listen, and he would grasp them.

Shen's movements turned ethereal as the Wind. Not brutal like a  Windstorm, not unyielding like a Gale. He listened to the underlying  aspects of even those Concepts. Most winds started with a Breeze; what a  spark was to a flame. Not all winds did, and not always, but often  enough.

He pushed that idea more. A Breeze was gentle enough, but he sought more.

Shen's movements started changing. Where only there was rigid precision, he found subtle accommodations instead.

His ancestors had created martial arts that could be used in as many  situations as possible. They extracted as much power from physical  strength and qi as they could.

Yet, the ancestors weren't here.

They couldn't see how it would be wise to sacrifice the extra  strength of a perfectly executed movement for extra speed in a specific  situation. How perfect technique wasn't always the answer.

Shen almost felt Heavenly Lightning should strike him dead for such blasphemies.

It was one thing to realize his ancestors couldn't predict  everything; creating new moves because of that, as he had, was alright.  After all, martial arts served a purpose; they weren't all-encompassing  manuals of how to live.

But to change the moves themselves on the fly? To deliberately ignore  their wisdom? Wasn't that the same as slapping his ancestors in the  face and calling their foresight lacking? Wasn't it to arrogantly call  himself better?

Maybe...

...maybe not, the Concept whispered to him.

His Path was his own, it claimed, and his entire being agreed. If it  was better to be faster than achieve perfect martial movement in an  instance, why not do it?

He had to be careful and understand the moves well beforehand. Why  was he taught to push an extra centimeter instead of stopping early? If  he did stop early, what would be the consequences to the flow of the  entire movement set? What if a movement later required momentum that he  hadn't accumulated because of his changes? That would require more  changes, extra forethought, deliberate care.

Shen's fighting style changed in a way visible to the naked eye.  Where once his Windstorm Spear Art would focus on head-on conflict, it  became more elusive. More effective. Why complete a movement when he  knew it would be defended against? It wasn't just pulling back his  strength but changing the movement itself to put himself in a better  place for the next strike.

Shen's footwork changed too. A gale was fast, and dodging  required speed... Mostly so. Sometimes, he realized, he could just...  stop. Slowing down might achieve as much or more than a complicated  movement aimed at keeping momentum. Of course, it would change what came  next, but couldn't he plan for that already?

Didn't he draw from the Concept of War?

As he drew more and more from that subtle Concept from the Laws of  Wind, he realized something else. Such realization was made thanks to  the fact that he could use that Concept's knowledge despite not using qi  of its type.

Shen realized he had been outright stupid.

He had been using his Concepts as blunt weapons. He filled his mind  with one as if that was required to use them. He could imbue his qi with  properties from his Concepts, yes, but Concepts were more. They were also knowledge and connection to something greater. He didn't need to use his qi to use what the Concepts gave him.

Shen was his Path.

If his Path was War, Combat, Sharpness, and Boundlessness, he was  those things too, every time, always. His foundation, especially,  defined him in such an intrinsic way that they would change his very  self in due time.

That had been the very reason he had taken the Concept of  Boundlessness from his Path's foundations! It had affected him whether  he was using it to change his qi or not and was pushing him into a road  he didn't want to tread!

When had he started doing something so stupid?

The answer came at once: when he removed Boundless from the  foundation. It decreased its hold over him. He had unconsciously thought  of the next Concepts, despite being foundational, as detached too.

But that wasn't all of it, was it?

Shen realized it now: he wanted to be unique.

He couldn't accept that having three foundational Concepts was no  different from one. Thus, he had unconsciously made things harder for  himself to need to do something more. Having to pursue answers to grander mysteries made him feel special.

Fortunately, even in his stupidity, he had been using War in his mind  to feel connected to it, and it told him to keep balance. Fortunately,  he listened. Fortunately, he found a Concept with such nuance that it  sought to improve his movements and himself with minor changes and realizations, like the one about his stupidity.

That was the one that complemented his Path, then.

Shen opened himself to the heavens and welcomed the Concept of Zephyr.

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