For the entirety of the next 3 hours, Alex and Yao Jia trained for as long as they could. It was an intense training session for Alex, but to Yao Jia, it was just a simple bout, as if she was playing with a child.
No matter how much speed, strength, or surprise he put into his attacks, there was nothing that she could do that wasn't better in all aspects.
Alex was sure that the only thing that could bring the slightest bit of result in this training was Heaven's Impact. However, that wasn't a skill suitable for training practices.
He kept to with his normal skills, but even his teleportation skills were being bested by her with her speed. He couldn't even sneak attack.
His fist and palm attacks were doing nothing, so he decided to use the one technique he had come upon his own.
Yellow light floated in the air as it slowly came together on his arms and coated it golden. Yao Jia's eyes shined when she saw this.
Alex dashed through the air and punched towards her. She casually brought forth her paw and stopped it. Even as she thought it did, the yellow light exploded, attacking her paw once more.
"Woah, Woah, Woah, stop!" she said. "What was that?"
"What? My skill?" Alex asked.
"Yes! That was like… where did you learn it?" she asked.
"Nowhere. I came up with it on my own," Alex said.
"On your own. Wow! That technique is so close to one that the White Tigers have too. It's called the White Tiger's Golden Claw. The King had it, and it was one of his strongest attacks I was told," Yao Jia said.
"White Tiger's Golden Claw huh?" Alex asked.
"Yes, it was one of his strongest skills. Honestly, your skill is very lacking compared to his, but that's understandable. However, since you said you came up with this on your own, maybe you can improve on it," Yao Jia said.
"Improve my skill? How do you suggest I do that?" Alex asked. Golden light flickered around him once more as they slowly coalesced on his right arm to form a golden fist.
He kept it there for a bit and listened to what Yao Jia had to say.
"There's an obvious answer, honestly," she said. "Instead of a fist, make it a claw. Make it sharp so that it can cut through things. That will deal a lot more damage than just regular punch, don't you think?"
"Hm… claws. I can't have nails coming from out between my fingers, so I guess this is my only choice," Alex said. Slowly, he opened his golden fist and loosened his hand.
Then, more golden light appeared around his that started converging on his hand once more. Only this time, they were sticking to his fingers, making each one of them sharp like claws.
He turned his hand around and looked at it. He was genuinely impressed with what he had come up with.
'I can't use it the same way I use the punch though, right?' he thought. 'The punch is meant to be a one-hit attack, but this one will have to last me several bouts. So, they must be quite durable.'
"Hey, that's pretty good," Yao Jia said from the front. "But you know what's better than one claw?"
Alex chuckled. "Two claws, huh?" he said and formed a golden fist on his left hand that also soon changed to claws.
"That looks much better," Yao Jia said. "But you know what's better than two claws?"
"I'm not making claws out of my feet," Alex said as he laughed.
"Whatever, that's your loss," Yao Jia said. "Okay, come attack me. Let's see how well they perform."
Alex didn't really have any claw technique to fall back on, so he had to go in on the attack blindly. He dashed forward the same way he would during normal punches and started slashing when he got close.
The attack procedure felt incredibly inefficient as his claws didn't really hit the targets properly. Yao Jia was also quick and dodged most of his attack.
The only time he genuinely got to test the claws was when she would use barrier skills and he would get to freely attack them
For now, he had realized that his claws weren't durable at all, but he had some idea on how to fix that. If he could give them a base to form upon, for example, long nails, then they would surely be more durable.
'Although I won't be able to rely on pill always. I will need to make them stronger just as is. Maybe I should use True Qi. Those would certainly be stronger,' he thought.
He let go of his golden claw and reformed it while using True Qi this time. It looked far more brilliant in color than it did with common Qi and felt a lot stronger as well.
He checked the claws for a few seconds and remembered something from a few months ago that had given him the idea for his golden fist in the first place.
He seemed to recall a skill to the same effect as what he had now being used by Pearl back when they were stuck in that formation.
"Now that I think about it, part of the reason I came up with the golden fist technique was that I saw Pearl use it actually. He used it against me during one of our training. After seeing that, I came up with the idea to use it for myself as well," Alex said.
Yao Jia who was getting ready for the next round of fights stopped as her eyes went wide.
"What?" she asked. "The child can use that already? Dear lord, I must let the elders know about this."
"Wait, what's wrong with him using it? It's a White Tiger's skill right?" Alex asked.
"Yes, but the child hasn't been through the ritual yet. His being able to use skills before the ritual is not something I know is possible. I must let the elders know to see if this means anything. Come, we can end the training here."
Alex nodded. "Yes, let's end it here. I'm quite tired too," he said.
Yao Jia briskly walked out of the room with Alex following behind her quietly. He wondered if he had made a mistake by telling her that Pearl knew the technique.
The older folks already knew that Pearl knew the White Tiger's Dominating Body. If they now knew that he also knew White Tiger's Golden Claw skill, they would put more importance on Pearl, which would always mean a good thing for him.
However, it was also possible that they would force Pearl to go through the ritual before he was even ready to make him the King of this place as soon as possible.
That was the reason he did not feel like revealing that Pearl had also used another skill back during their training, one that he used to block Alex's sword completely with no damage.
Pearl was done with his training in the other room and jumped onto Alex's embrace as soon as he saw him.
"You okay, buddy? How was your training?" Alex asked.
"MEOW!" Pearl once more complained about being left with strangers, made to fight.
Alex chuckled a little and said, "I'm sorry that keeps happening, buddy. But you will have to do that if you want to get stronger. Also, I will stay with you, for now, so cheer up."
Alex bowed a little towards the snake and the deer that were training with Pearl. From what Alex could see, the snake didn't even seem to have fought that long. As for the deer, it was in an absolutely disheveled state.
Pearl surely made some work out of him.
"Let's go back," Alex said. While Yao Jia went to report on her findings today, Alex took Pearl back to his room to rest.
Once again, there was nothing for him to do so he went back to his room to wait around.
"Well, the training session itself was quite intense, wasn't it?" he asked. "I think I should ask her to help me train tomorrow as well. What do you say, buddy?"
"MEOW!" Pearl refused.
"You will come around to it, surely," he said. "Right then, I think it's time."
Alex then opened up his status and clicked breakthrough.
