Chapter 397: Wind
Deep within the Nine Dragons Mountain Range, beneath a waterfall, a figure hovered in midair, suspended in the void.
The turbulent water of the waterfall crazily battered against this figure's body, yet he remained firmly in place, his form utterly motionless.
True Yuan energy emitted a faint, fiery glow within the waterfall. Not far below, on a massive rock, a demon beast lay sprawled, staring blankly at the figure in the waterfall.
"Rise!"
A low shout rang out. The figure in the waterfall began to move, his body soaring upward toward the top of the waterfall. Upon reaching the summit, he descended again, sometimes swimming against the current, sometimes flowing with it.
After repeating this for a while, the figure would stop, stand still in the void, close his eyes, and quietly feel the rushing water of the waterfall, letting it wash over his body.
This figure was none other than Lin Feng. The demon beast lying on the massive rock was naturally Qiongqi.
"Roar..." A low beastly growl escaped its mouth. Qiongqi's body rose from the rock, then turned around. Its wings fluttered, and it shot off toward the distant mountain range.
Lin Feng paid no attention to Qiongqi, remaining standing in the waterfall. After driving the cat demon away, he had first allowed his body to recover, then chose not to leave in a hurry, opting instead to stay temporarily in this demon beast mountain range.
He stayed, only to improve his speed.
Through his recent battles, Lin Feng had deeply realized his inadequacy in movement speed. If your speed is inferior to another's, even if your cultivation is stronger, how can you fight if you can't even touch them? Conversely, if your cultivation is weaker and your speed is also inferior, you can only be dominated.
Training in the waterfall, letting the torrent wash over his body—this method seemed foolish, but its effectiveness could not be denied.
His body trembled, and Lin Feng shot out from the waterfall, soaring into the air. At this moment, without the impact of the waterfall's current, he felt an indescribable refreshment throughout his body, as if his body had become much lighter.
"That Qiongqi, he's really restless." Lin Feng glanced around; there was no sign of Qiongqi. A faint smile curled at the corner of his mouth. His body flickered, and he too flashed toward the demon beast mountain range.
A moment later, Lin Feng arrived at a dense forest within the mountain range. Towering trees blocked out the sun, and wild, powerful fluctuations continuously emanated from a certain location. The demonic aura was intense, and the sounds of cracking and breaking echoed incessantly.
"Qiongqi is fighting a demon beast."
Lin Feng's gaze sharpened. His body shot rapidly toward the source of the fluctuations. Soon, he arrived at an open space that was in complete disarray, with trees scattered everywhere.
Two demon beasts hovered in midair, confronting each other.
Lin Feng stood atop a large tree, watching the two demon beasts. One was Qiongqi, and the one confronting him was a bat demon—a black body with cyan wings.
A cyan-winged bat demon, renowned for its swift and agile speed. It flickered through the air silently and incredibly fast. Among demon beasts of the same level, few could match the speed of a cyan-winged bat demon.
Lin Feng looked at the cyan-winged bat demon. It was extremely hideous and ugly. On its black face, two sharp fangs seemed to protrude from its mouth, ugly and eerie. These two fangs, aside from its wings, were the bat demon's proudest feature—sharp, hard, capable of instantly biting through the arteries of other demon beasts and sucking their blood.
"This Qiongqi really knows how to stir up trouble." Lin Feng muttered to himself. Although the cyan-winged bat demon didn't have the fearsome reputation of an ancient ferocious beast, with its speed, it wouldn't fear any demon beast of the same level. After all, if you couldn't match its speed, what could you do to it?
"Squeak, squeak..." A piercing sound rang out. The cyan-winged bat demon's body flickered, its cyan wings flashing through the void, producing only the faintest sound, with not even a trace of light visible.
Fast, too fast. Lin Feng's eyes could barely keep up with the cyan-winged bat demon's speed.
Generally, the faster a person or demon beast moved, the greater the resistance. For example, when Lin Feng flew at full speed, he could clearly feel the fierce wind buffeting his body.
But now, the cyan-winged bat demon was moving faster than Lin Feng at his full speed, yet he felt no fierce wind. The other's body seemed incredibly light and agile, without any resistance, which struck Lin Feng as strange.
"Roar..." Qiongqi's body also moved. Its flame wings fluttered, and it shot forward extremely fast, directly crashing toward the cyan-winged bat demon, its sharp claws gleaming with a fierce light.
The cyan-winged bat demon didn't clash with Qiongqi. Its body spun, still so light and agile. Just as it was about to collide with Qiongqi, it suddenly shot straight up into the air.
Qiongqi looked up, opened its mouth, and spewed rolling flames toward the cyan-winged bat demon. At the same time, its fiery wings flapped again, and its body rose into the air like the bat demon.
"Although Qiongqi is also fast, speed isn't its forte. When it flies, you can clearly feel immense resistance. It's only its explosive power that overcomes that resistance, allowing its speed to reach such a terrifying level."
Lin Feng wasn't focused on their battle. What he observed was the movement techniques of the cyan-winged bat demon and Qiongqi.
Qiongqi relied on explosive power to overcome air resistance, achieving terrifying speed. The cyan-winged bat demon, on the other hand, had speed as its innate talent; when flying, it seemed to encounter almost no resistance.
"Different cultivation levels can unleash different speeds. With my cultivation unchanged, the maximum speed I can achieve is a constant value, but this maximum speed is almost impossible to reach. So-called speed improvement is about constantly approaching this maximum speed. What hinders me from reaching it is the resistance encountered during movement. If there were no wind resistance, my movement speed would equal the maximum speed."
A flash of insight arose in Lin Feng's heart. It was a simple principle. As a cultivator at the Second Layer of the Mysterious Martial Realm, his maximum explosive speed was fixed. What he could do was to infinitely approach that limit.
His eyes sank into thought, and Lin Feng once again entered a state of enlightenment. The entire world became exceptionally clear.
Because of his powerful soul and his Heavenly Radiance Martial Soul, Lin Feng's greatest advantage over others was not his cultivation speed, but his comprehension.
Many geniuses cultivated faster than Lin Feng and even had higher cultivation levels. But in a life-or-death battle, they might not necessarily win; they might even die at Lin Feng's hands.
A martial artist's comprehension is very important. With the same cultivation level, both being sword cultivators, the one with stronger comprehension could easily kill the one with weaker comprehension with their sword.
"No, that's wrong." Lin Feng's gaze sharpened, as if he had suddenly thought of something. A sharp gleam flashed in his eyes.
No, what he had just thought was incorrect.
Whether for humans or demon beasts, speed has no limit. It will never have a limit.
"When humans and demon beasts move, the wind is resistance, slowing them down. But if a martial artist can turn this headwind into a tailwind, they can break through their original limit, becoming faster, and even continuously increase their speed."
Lin Feng suddenly recalled his training in the waterfall. When he went upward, it was against the current, very slow. But when he descended, his speed was much faster because he was going with the flow.
When humans or demon beasts move, the wind replaces the waterfall's role; it is that momentum.
However, if you remove the natural wind, movement is always against the wind, unless you can control the wind and harness its power.
"Wind. The key lies in the wind."
Lin Feng's eyes grew brighter and brighter. The sword has its momentum; naturally, the wind also has its momentum. His footwork could reach the subtle realm, using an incredibly strong sense to enter the micro-realm, yet he had almost overlooked this point.
If he could comprehend the momentum of the wind, how could his speed not be fast?
With this thought, Lin Feng slowly closed his eyes. Everything around him remained clear, but it was as if Lin Feng could no longer perceive it.
He could no longer sense that this was the demon beast mountain range, nor could he sense that the cyan-winged bat demon and Qiongqi were still fighting. What he now perceived was only the wind, subtle to the extreme, blowing against him in wisps and then brushing past.
In Lin Feng's world, only the wind remained.
PS: First chapter delivered. Flowers have exceeded 200, reaching the bonus chapter count.