Chapter 34: Eighth Rank


    Time passed quickly.


    The days till the Prodigy Summit creeped closer and closer. Sherfield City, the city hosting the summit, became busier and busier as the number of days began to get shorter.


    At this time, the information that Dayton Palmer had reached the sixth rank of the sky realm spread like wildfire throughout the wferry Prefecture. This obviously shocked countless youngsters and caused waves in the three academies.


    The Sixth Rank of the Sky Realm!


    For those youngsters, this was an incredible feat. There was no oneparable with Dayton Palmer in the wferry Prefecture.


    Inside the Inner Hall Division, In an Isted Courtyard..


    A sturdy bamboo pole stood upright in the courtyard. ude Rayforth grasped the sword in his hand tightly and focused on the bamboo pole, raising his aura to the extreme.


    "Invisible Sword Technique!"


    ude''s expression changed, and he suddenly swung his sword. He struck the bamboo pole at an inclined angle from a distance, and a section of the pole that was as thick as his arm was sliced off in an instant.


    "Shua! Shua! Shua!"


    ude quickly hacked out a few more times, slowly slicing away the bamboo pole one piece at a time. When the final strikended, the bamboo pole that was now way shorter than before, waspletely sliced off from the ground.


    ude walked to the spot where the bamboo pole was present, and began inspecting the sliced pieces. After inspecting the pieces for quite a while, he wiped the sweat off his face and muttered to himself, "The long distance method for the Invisible Sword Technique is shaping up to be a fine addition to my arsenal."


    After he decided to not devote too much time for the Beau Paradis Sword Technique, he immediately started to review all the Martial Arts Techniques that he had learned.


    He decided to not rush with learning new cultivation techniques that may be too difficult to learn, and figured that he might as well use this opportunity to strengthen and improve the techniques that he had already learned. He saw that he had not even begun to understand the essence of the Beau Paradis Sword Technique and had only scratched its surface. He was not able to use it as though it was a part of himself. With his current speed that he was learning the technique, he found that it was hindering his cultivation growth, slowing his speed down as the technique requiredplete focus in order to learn it as fast as possible. In the long run, the technique will definitelye in handy, but for now, he had to take it a bit slow, even though it might mean that he wouldn''t be able to use the Beau Paradis Sword Technique for quite a while.


    And so, the Beau Paradis Sword Technique was temporarily pushed to the side, as ude began focusing on the rest of the cultivation techniques.


    Thus, he wanted to focus on the Invisible Sword Technique and the Pure Iron Body Strengthening Technique.


    He cultivated the Pure Iron Technique in a quiet ce within the Gryfino forest.


    As for the cultivation of the Invisible Sword Technique, there were no major requirements for it. Thus, whenever he came back to his room, he would go into the yard to practice it.


    The Invisible Sword Technique was about doing everything in one breath without deviating from the sword y to raise the aura to the extreme, causing the umted energy would be released out explosively in the form of a de light.


    This was an extremely bold and powerful Martial Arts Technique. If he could execute it from a distance as well, turning the close range attack into a long range one, all while maintaining the explosive energy that is raised to the peak and increased by many folds, then it''d be an even better attack than before, effective as both long range and short range attacks.


    However, he discovered a problem  maintaining the explosive energy in the case of a long range attack.


    The aura would mostly be used up by the time it reaches the target, and it could not be used with the same effectiveness as it''s close range counterpart.


    Which was why he was training to maintain the energy and the aura. With the use of a Bamboo pole as a target, he practiced the Invisible Sword Technique everyday for a specific period of time.


    Within this extremely short period of time, what ude wanted to do was to increase the distance between him and the bamboo pole every time his strike reaches the same effectiveness as his close range strike, starting from the spot closest to the pole until he reaches the best distance he can reach.


    Initially, he had to be extremely close to the pole to maintain the energy, but after a few days of training, he was able to increase the distance quite a bit. Then he was able to continuously execute sword strikes from a long distance.


    The sunset dyed the clouds that filled the sky red, turning the entire sky a fiery color. ude''s clothes werepletely wet with sweat, and the soreness of his arms was all he felt.


    Without resting immediately, ude sat down on the ground cross-legged and entered into a state of cultivation. If one cultivated when the body reached its limits, then they would often experience an unexpected result.


    In just a few hours, the spiritual energy had circted for many cycles in ude''s body. Suddenly, he opened his eyes. The sweat in his body had already entirely evaporated into steam, the blood in his body was boiling, and the soreness in his armspletely vanished.


    "Boom!"


    In a split second, all the bones in his body gave off crackling sounds as a loud noise reverberated from him. After a while, he felt a veryfortable and invigorating feeling.


    "Finally! I''ve reached the Eight Rank of the Earth Realm!" ude smiled faintly. He was getting closer to reaching the Sky Realm.