Secrets of the Universe

The wind whistled providing the only noise in a certain courtyard.

Jake readied himself as he looked straight at his target, a metal dummy, 50 feet away from him.

"Whew!" he took a subtle breath and relaxed his muscles, feeling the wind on his skin.

The moment the wind settled down, Jake bolted at the dummy.

Like a predator, he sprinted, his legs making no unnecessary footsteps as he zoomed past his surrounding.

His legs were the cushion, his hands were the gliders, and they did well to increase his speed.

They glowed with blue lights as Jake strengthened his physical attributes with [Spirit Essence].

Jake moved so fast that if one were in the courtyard, one would only see a rapid blue blur due to the [Spirit Essence].

Five feet away from the dummy, Jake optimized his speed, his right hand reaching for his sword, trying to grab it while in motion!

Four feet away, his hands missed the pommel of his sword.

Three feet away, he reattempted and succeeded at firmly grabbing the pommel of the sword.

Two feet away, he infused [Spirit Essence] into his hands. Using the sheath as a guide, he drew out his sword. In a blistering motion, he swiped his sword at the dummy.

One foot away, the attack embedded itself into the dummy as Jake's sword returned to its sheath.

After the attack, Jake fell on his knees, gasping for breath, as he tried to recollect his composure.

"Wrong. This is all wrong! The timing was way off. My control of [Spirit Essence] was shaky. The swiftness was inadequate. My speed was too slow. Also, my hand-to-hand coordination was subpar," Jake criticized himself.

He stood up to check the result of his slash.

When he was dashing at the dummy, he struggled to decide on what basic sword attack he should use.

Ultimately, he chose the upward cut, aiming at the right shoulder, as that was the only one he felt comfortable using.

Don't get him wrong, Jake, despite not using any weapon in his past life, had mastered the basic moves of most weapons, including the Sword.

The problem here was the movement one second before the attack.

For the upward cut, all he needed was to drag his sword out and swipe at the right shoulder, attempting to cut off his target's right arm.

Meanwhile, for a different move like the abdomen cut or the wrist cut, Jake would need to deftly and delicately lift his sword with his fingers, and adjust his position before gaining back control of his sword.

It was like playing piano blind; it required a high degree of practice, and this was just Jake's first attempt at practicing.

Looking at the cut on the dummy's right shoulder, Jake commented, "I thought as much. It wasn't that successful."

The cut was a curvy arc on the shoulder, which was also quite faint, indicating the weak strength behind it.

Jake lamented on his poor first try as almost everything with the cut was wrong.

It wasn't straight and smooth as it should be. It didn't go deeper, indicating that it wasn't fatal.

Also, Jake only managed to make one cut in the span of one breath, which was quite poor.

One should know that to achieve an elementary progress stage in the technique, the user would have a total of ten slashes in one breath. Yet, Jake could only draw one!

Even at that, the slash wasn't streamlined. The purpose of a streamlined slash is to measure the speed.

A person or object could only move at its fastest speed when in a straight path!

Realizing his mistakes, Jake went back 50 feet away from the dummy. This time he was going to nail it!

After preparing himself, he dashed towards the dummy!

Once he got into an intimate gap between himself and the dummy, he lightly threw up his sword.

He spun 360 degreesOf courseght back his sword in time to slash an abdomen cut.

*Clink!*

The moment he made the attack, he made an upward cut at the left arm.

*Whoosh!*

Still, under the adrenaline rush, he conveniently made a slanted slash at the neck of the dummy.

Due to his reduced speed, he knew that was his limit and he stopped.

"Huff--Huff--- That was burning!" Jake breathed heavily.

He had thoroughly depleted his [Spirit Essence] at the last attack.

As he was still in [Realm 1], Jake couldn't permanently store his [Spirit Essence]. They would leak away after some time.

So, Jake had to be precise in his energy consumption. He had to make sure he possessed the required amount of [Spirit Essence] before an attack, or else he would injure himself.

The purpose of this was because the [Sword Drawing Technique]'s ultimate purpose is to harness a speed far beyond the reach of the human body, and even the body of cultivators!

Throughout that speed, one would possess a terrifying attack power, following the saying, "Extreme speed is the best attack!"

After a brief moment of recuperation, Jake checked the dummy to rate the success of his attack.

Inspecting it, he commented, "Hmm, this can be counted as okay. The cuts are deep enough, but could not decapitate the arms because of the material the dummy is made of."

A while back, Jake had asked the receptionist about the quality of the dummies, as he was skeptical if it was going to be useful.

She had replied that it was a complex structure made from various [Earth Rank] metals.

It was made to mirror the structure of the human body and its durability was equal to that of a [Realm-1 Stage-9] cultivator.

It also had layers of metal skins, to increase the complexity and durability of the dummy

So, it made sense Jake could not cut its body.

However, Jake was not defeated!

He went back 50 feet, and chanted to himself, "Again!"

...…

Five hours later.

The courtyard was filled with multiple bent dummies which made it look like a graveyard.

Sweats dripped down Jake's face due to the amount of time he had spent practicing.

Now, he had to face the toughest challenge yet. The dummy at the center of the pond

His eyes glinted as he adjusted his stance, counting in his mind, 'One. Two. Three!'

Like a punctured dam, he burst out in great strides, making loud sounds as he brushed against the wind.

The moment he got to the dividing line between the ground and the lake, Jake increased his speed.

He stepped on the pond, but before the water could drag him down, he took another step.

It was a mysterious phenomenon. The key to this feat was to back oneself with the force of speed and manage to move before the water surface tension disperses!

Of course, with his physical attribute, Jake could not achieve with pure physical attributes. He could only do this via the augmenting nature of [Spirit Essence].

It was akin to one wearing jetpacks to propel.

As soon as Jake got into a sizable gap between him and the dummy, he pumped up his speed.

With a calm mind, he slashed out with his familiar move, the upward cut.

*Zoom!*

His attack touched the wind barrier, which caused it to release a soothing noise.

Like a chopped log of wood, the arm of the dummy fell, but Jake didn't stop.

He proceeded to dish out a second attack, a side slash, with an even faster speed, building up momentum and speed with each attack.

Still not done yet, he went for a third attack, this time he could feel the time was not on his side as the water surface tension had begun to disperse.

*Whew!*

His third attack, a left wrist cut, came even faster due to the pressure and his built-up momentum.

The moment he was done with the third attack, he acrobatically flipped up.

Coming down, his deft hands made a left abdomen side cut, before flicking over to his right hand, which unleashed the final attack, a neck cut!

*Plop!*

Being drained, he could not retain his balance on water and fell into the pond, along with the sliced pieces of the dummy.

As a way to relax his body, he let the water take control of it as he floated above the pond.

"Perfect. I can confidently assume the success of the first stage," smiled Jake with his wet hair.

He had just made a total of five attacks in a span of one breath.

Ofcourse, that was from his perspective.

From an outsider's perspective, all they would see is a blurry swipe, which was Jake's first attack, and Jake miraculously falling into the pond.

They wouldn't know if Jake's second to fifth attacks!

That was what Jake wanted; his enemies unable to see him. That would be to his advantage in battle!

"Hahaha," victoriously laughed Jake.

He kicked his foot as he swam around the lake.

After this, he had no plans. All he wanted was to have fun.....and he earned it!