Black String of Fate

"Greetings, child. Are you the disciple of Rahan?"

"Yes sir, I'm Zorak, the disciple of Tower Master Rahan and the Vice Tower Master of the Blue Tower."

Zorak replied with an extremely polite and respectful attitude, completely opposite of the earlier demeanor of an expert he showed to the guildmaster.

The receptionist standing at the back was completely flabbergasted. A master and a grandmaster were in their city. It was a big thing that had never happened before.

"Grandmaster Arkhan, what brings you here?" Zorak asked with a slight hesitation. Arkhan noticed his nervousness and laughed light-heartedly.

"Haha, I was simply roaming around and checking in on the training arenas all around the country. It's a complete coincidence that I stumbled upon this little child a while back, and now I'm just staying here for a few days, at least until he completes his training.

"He? Do you mean Xavier? The one staying here?"

Arkhan looked over with an eye raised in slight surprise.

"Yes, this child right here. He's a prospective swordsman, how come the Mage's Association has business with him?"

"Well, Xavier is an adventurer who recently went on an expedition to explore some newly discovered ruins. Unexpectedly, he recovered some artifacts of the Elemental King, and now I'm representing the Mage's Association to buy the artifacts from him."

"Ho? This child solved the puzzles of the Elemental King? He's much more incredible than I thought.

You came at the right time, I think he'll be done with his training in about half a day. You can talk to him then."

"Excuse me? Half a day? But I-"

Zorak was about to say something about meeting earlier, but Arkhan looked at him with stern eyes. He swallowed his words and went silent.

"I know that you're busy, but I cannot allow you to interrupt him in any way. He's in a crucial period of his training. Come inside, but keep quiet."

Zorak indicated with his hands to the receptionist to leave them alone. The receptionist, who had successfully minimized her presence in front of these giants, quickly left after being given permission.

Whatever that was happening was way above her pay grade.

Inside, Zorak finally saw who this hot-topic child was. A small kid with raven black hair, who looked slightly malnourished, was standing completely still with an unsheathed sword in his hands. He was so still that it was hard to tell whether it was a living person or a statue.

Zorak was confused as to why he was standing still when he was supposed to be training. Arkhan saw the confusion in his eyes and said,

"I've been watching this child for the past three days. He is basically living with a sword in his hand, only stopping to eat and stay alive, and that too every 2 days. He would swing his sword, eat, faint from the need to sleep with a sword in his hands and wake up to start swinging his sword again.

While I would usually say that this is completely destructive behavior, his body is tough enough to handle that stress. This schedule, it has been going on for the past week. But, since yesterday, he has been completely still."

"...Why is that so?"

Arkham replied with a deep look in his eyes,

"From what I've seen, this child has been trying to create a foundational sword art. One greater than any this world can offer him. He has taken the Foundational Sword Arts as the base and integrated multiple different foundational arts that train completely different aspects of a warrior.

As a result, he has prepared a foundational art for himself that specializes in every single base quality of a warrior. In your mage terms, he has been creating a magical foundation capable of specializing in every single element out there."

Zorak was speechless upon hearing this evaluation from the Grandmaster. Arkham continued, with a hint of amazement in his eyes.

"All this time, he was trying to find the right balance and harmony between all the conflicting aspects. With every swing, he improved dramatically. I was starstruck watching the progress of this genius on this path that has been long considered impossible. Finally, in his mind, he has found the perfect balance, and he has been preparing this whole day to execute it.

It's a moment I can't afford to miss. Sit down, even though you may not understand, it'll be a waste to miss this."

The two high-ranking pathwalkers sat near the gate, watching a perfectly still Xavier. While Zorak, being a mage, was not that interested in this, he still stayed just because the Grandmaster asked him to.

After an hour, Xavier suddenly opened his eyes. The Grandmaster watched with bated breath, as Xavier prepared his perfect execution of the foundational arts.

He took a deep breath, taking in as much air as possible. He was going to set his foundation with this dance, and this was a special moment in the journey of any swordsman.

This was a method that was not well known to the masses. A few lucky ambitious warriors, for a better starting point, restructure their bodies and cleanse them of impurities to better suit them to handle qi in the future. This could be achieved by consuming rare natural treasures or having a high-ranking warrior, like their masters, cleanse them with their energy.

What a few, even among that minority, did, was master a foundational art. Some of the high-quality foundational arts, like the Foundational Sword Techniques, had a secret method of cleansing the impurities from the body. They had to take in huge breaths, rush their blood, and perform their Arts as if they were using qi. This allowed them to clean out the impurities from the future qi paths.

Such a method was unpopular due to the fact that it came with many limitations. First, the talent ceiling was ridiculously high. This method was expecting people with amateur experience to perform a sword art to near perfection. If it was sloppily executed, it would leave a lot of impurities behind, making the whole ordeal a total waste.

Also, the quality of cleansing also depended on the type of art it was performed with. Unlike treasures or assistance that clean the whole body, one who performs this art with, for example, a strength and endurance based foundation, would later find it extremely difficult to practice something that requires speed or dexterity. His qi paths would only be clear for the Strength and Endurance arts.

Since it had so many drawbacks, only those who were absolute geniuses and had already decided on their whole path used this method.

Xavier, however, had created his own foundational arts superior to the Foundational Sword Techniques. Rather than having no specialization, it specialized in everything, so the whole body would be cleansed thoroughly with this. Plus, there was no need to say anything about his talent.

He didn't plan to do this when he first regressed, but now that he's completely starting over without his Supreme Demonic Arts and possessing a higher enlightenment of the sword, he might achieve better results than the original plan of consuming a very high-quality natural treasure.

*Woosh*

He started his sword art, rushing his blood and clearing out his qi paths.