A crisp metallic clang rang out, as if striking steel. The Momei Sword left only a faint mark on the spirit wood before being bounced away.

Charles Black was startled. She couldn’t even cut through this spirit wood with a single strike—she had only barely managed to slice through a bit of the bark.

“Is it because I’m injured and my strength is lacking? But it shouldn’t have dropped this much. I’m a mid-level martial artist, and I’ve trained in advanced martial techniques. I’ve already mastered the entire set, so I should be able to unleash their full power!”

Charles Black’s expression darkened.

“Feather Spirit Slash, Second Form: Merciless Falling Feather!”

She refused to believe it and continued hacking at the spirit wood.

She kept at it for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, using different moves, slashing nearly a hundred times, and only managed to make a notch an inch deep. Her expression grew more and more dejected. At this rate, she wouldn’t be able to fell even a single spirit tree in an entire night—how could she possibly build a spirit wood fence and set up a cave camp?

“It’s over! I can’t even build a spirit wood fence to keep out the sea demon beasts. Looks like this county lord is going to die on this island. I’m not willing! I haven’t found my grandfather yet, I haven’t even started cultivating immortality—how can I die on this wretched island?”

Charles Black was utterly dejected, lips pressed tight, eyes reddening, on the verge of tears.

James Carter had been watching from the side, the corner of his eye twitching.

He noticed that only a very few of Charles Black’s moves had reached the “proficient” level; the rest were basically “terrible.” In short, Charles Black’s swordsmanship was “very weak.”

“Sigh, I’d better do it myself!”

James Carter sighed inwardly, stuck the torch into the ground nearby, drew the Azure Edge Sword from his waist, and swung it hard at the trunk of the spirit wood.

“Wave-Cleaving Slash—!”

A loud shout.

Bang!

Wood chips flew.

The Azure Edge Sword in James Carter’s hand let out a piercing whistle as he delivered an almost perfect strike, cleaving deep along the grain of the spirit wood and leaving a gash a full inch deep.

“It can be cut! This spirit wood really is incredibly tough, almost comparable to the shell of that juvenile demon crab. Although the spirit wood is extremely hard, as long as I chop it down inch by inch, it can still be cut through.”

James Carter thought to himself.

Thinking of the threat from that juvenile demon crab, James Carter increased his strength and continued hacking at the same spot.

After a short while and dozens of strikes—

“Crack~ crackle~!”

“Boom—!”

A thick, first-grade spirit tree was chopped down, slowly toppling with a thunderous crash, sending a spray of dead branches and dust through the jungle.

“It takes about twenty or thirty Wave-Cleaving Slashes to cut through a spirit tree several dozen inches thick! If I keep this up, my ‘Wave-Cleaving Slash’ will turn into a ‘Wood-Cleaving Slash.’”

James Carter shook out his wrist, feeling a slight ache.

Fortunately, he practiced the Wave-Cleaving Slash thousands of times every day, so chopping spirit wood wasn’t too difficult for him.

“You cut it down? So fast! What level have your martial techniques reached?”

Charles Black was completely stunned.

Using the lowest-level “Wave-Cleaving Technique,” in just a short while, James Carter had actually chopped down such a thick, iron-hard spirit tree. She found it unbelievable.

“I’ve practiced the first move of the ‘Wave-Cleaving Technique’ for ten years—a total of ten million times!”

James Carter said.

“You practiced such a simple chopping move a full ten million times? You’ve trained a single move to the level of turning the ordinary into the miraculous!?”

Charles Black was shocked.

In terms of martial technique proficiency, practicing a move ten thousand times is considered “terrible,” the most basic level. Practicing it a hundred thousand times is “proficient,” a modest achievement. A million times is “masterful,” considered first-rate. Five million times is “peerless,” top-tier. Ten million times is “miraculous,” the stuff of grandmasters.

Martial techniques are all about proficiency.

The more skilled you are, the greater the power.

Most martial artists, after a lifetime of practice, only reach the “masterful” level with their techniques, because there are many moves in martial arts—dozens at the least, hundreds at the most. To master them all takes at least a decade of hard work.

No martial artist would ever train the lowest-level move to the “miraculous” level.

Her set of “Feather Spirit Sword Techniques” had over a hundred moves, and she’d only practiced each one a little over ten thousand times. The best-practiced move was only at the “proficient” level with a hundred thousand repetitions. All her moves combined only added up to a few million repetitions.

Compared to James Carter’s single move at the “miraculous” level, her sword techniques were far less powerful.

Charles Black was shocked, her phoenix eyes fixed on James Carter as if she were looking at a grandmaster-level expert… even though this grandmaster only had one move at the miraculous level.

Chapter 10: Crimson Blood Vine Body Tempering

Under Charles Black’s astonished gaze, James Carter spent a little less than half an hour using the “Wave-Cleaving Slash” to fell seven or eight tough spirit trees.

“Is this enough?”

James Carter asked.

“It’s enough, it’s enough! The two of us just need to use the spirit wood to build a small cave camp.”

Charles Black snapped out of her daze and nodded quickly.

“Alright!”