Alex got into stance as golden light turned both of his hands into sharp animal-like claws. The tips of his fingers were now so sharp that he could dig them into stones and crush them from the inside.
Once both of the claws were set, he attacked Yao Jia. He dashed forward and got close to her. However, just before he reached her, he stopped and simply swiped high claws diagonally at her.
Yao Jia jumped backward to dodge the attack and then jumped forward to attack with her own claw. Alex brought his other hand from the side and attacked her claw with his own.
Yao Jia wasn't serious about the fight, so he could stop her attack without much effort. He then attacked with his other claw.
Yellow light flickered in front of him as a barrier appeared and blocked his attack. Alex didn't let that stop him, however. He retaliated with a barrage of claws that hit the barrier one after another, threatening to destroy it.
Yao Jia got rid of the barrier to emulate Alex breaking through it and continued the training.
Alex was starting to learn more and more about fighting with claws after training with someone who could use nothing but claws to attack most of the time.
He had come to learn of a few things that helped him understand more about using claws.
First of all, claws were different from punches. A normal punch, if strong, would usually send a person flying backward, in which case the attacker couldn't attack more than once. so most of the time the attacker would put their all into the punch.
However, claws couldn't do that. No matter how strong the claw attack was, it couldn't create a gap between the attacker and the target. So, with claws, it usually became a battle of attrition.
You had to stand your ground and attack multiple times before the opponent was so wounded that they couldn't fight back. At the same time, you also had to be strong enough to take a couple of hits or be fast enough to dodge the attacks using the least movement possible.
Alex was starting to get used to fighting with claws by now. To him, it wasn't just a fighting style, but an entirely new weapon in and of itself. It was a weapon he could use in case he ever couldn't use his sword.
He trained his claws for an hour before he decided to switch to the sword. While using claws and training was fun and engaging, he didn't forget about Sword Intent. He needed to improve upon it as well, so he trained with it on a daily basis.
He was now very proficient at using Sword Intent, and thanks to using his True sword every single day, he didn't have to worry about his Sword Intent having problems.
"How do your attacks keep getting stronger every day?" Yao Jia asked. "Did you breakthrough again?"
Alex stopped and the glow in his sword disappeared. "Ah, yes. Just yesterday I broke through to the final realm of Mind Tempering actually," he said.
"Woah! That is so fast. Does that mean you will enter True realm in a month?" she asked.
"Probably just a week actually. We humans can use pills and stuff to improve our cultivation bases, you know," he said.
"Dang it, and here I spend over 3 years just to go up a realm," Yao Jia said. "I wish I could have the same speed as humans."
"Um, I'm not sure if human speed is really a good idea. Besides, humans too have people that take forever to breakthrough. It's only a few that have learned how to breakthrough fast," Alex said.
"All they do is eat a bunch of pills and grow stronger. They don't know how to fight, how to use skills, and their cultivation base is really bad too. So in the end, it's you who comes out on top with your diligent cultivation," Alex said.
"Really? Oh, I guess I shouldn't get jealous then," Yao Jia said.
"Okay, can we end the training here? I'm way too excited to train anymore," Alex said as he was unable to hide his smile from deep within him.
"Sure. We can leave in a few minutes. Do you want to bring the child too?" Yao Jia asked.
"Oh yes. Let me go get him," Alex said. He left the palace room and went to the other room where Pearl was.
Pearl was currently fighting against a wolf who was nearly 5 times as big as him. Still, they were on equal ground as Pearl's strength was the same as the Wolf's.
Alex watched the back and forth for a few minutes before deciding to end the match.
"You can stop now, Pearl. We are going outside now," Alex said from the doorway.
Pearl who was fighting stopped and looked towards him. "Meow?" he asked.
"No, we're not fighting anyone. We are just going to go get some ingredients from the forest. And some Spirit stones if we can find them, but mostly just ingredients," Alex said.
"Meow!" Pearl was a little disappointed. He didn't really care about alchemy or spirit stones, and just wanted to keep training.
"Are you saying you don't want to see what it's like outside, and just want to stay here fighting?" Alex asked.
"Meow!" Pearl cried out loud saying that he did want to go outside. He was getting annoyed staying in this one place all the time.
"Alright, let's go then."
Alex and Pearl went out to the garden and waited for a few minutes. Yao Jia arrived not soon after with a few beasts to look after them.
"Do you really need this many beasts just for me? I won't run away, you know?" Alex said.
"They are not for you. They are here to look after the child. If anything were to happen to him, we would be in trouble," Yao Jia said.
"Oh, so you don't care if I run away?" He asked.
"We do. But I am more than enough to keep you in check," Yao Jia said.
"Sigh, I see. Can we leave now?" he asked.
"Okay, let's go."
The group then started walking out. A beast led the way as it walked in front of Pearl and the remaining walked behind him. Yao Jia was next to Alex who was holding Pearl in his embrace.
As soon as he walked out of the gate, Alex could see a massive forest that was so dense that the ground was nothing but shadows.
The shade made the surrounding considerably cooler and with it being the winter right now, Alex could feel the chill in the air.
Thankfully, as a cultivator, and even more so a body cultivator, the cold didn't bother him as much as it would a normal person.
He hadn't even walked past a few trees when his Alchemy senses started tingling, giving him the feeling that there were ingredients nearby.
Alex turned around and looked at the spots where he felt the ingredients from. "Oh, a Vengeful Elderberry. Those are so rare," Alex said as he walked up to pick it up. But suddenly, Yao Jia put her paw in front of him and stopped him.
Alex was surprised and confused. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"You were going to pick up something?" she asked.
"Yes, that fruit over there," he said as he pointed at the single reddish-purple berry hanging from a small bush.
"I see," she said and growled in a low voice. The beast at the very front walked away from the group and went up to the berry and smelled it.
Alex was still confused as to what was happening until the beast growled back.
"Alright, you can pick it up," she said.
"You lied, didn't you?" he asked as he looked at Yao Jia in shock. "You said they were here for Pearl, but they are actually here to keep me in check."
Yao Jia made a sad face and said, "Sorry. It wasn't my idea. Father forced me to bring them. That was one of the criteria for letting you go outside."
"But why? Are they afraid that I will poison everyone?" he asked.
"Hey! We don't have anyone who knows about alchemy, okay? All we can do is make sure you don't get anything poisonous. They are here just to make sure that happens. Other than that, you are free to get what you want," she said.
Alex didn't say anything for a few moments and shook his head. "Fine, do what you want," he said and went on to find more ingredients.
"That fruit, those green leaves, that one fruit that is different from the rest, that flower over there that has white petals, roots of those plants, the bark of that tree…"
Alex started naming one thing after another and the beasts had to run around trying to check everything he said.
That was his way of revenge. Every single ingredient he saw, he would let them know and the beasts would have to run around trying to figure out if it was poisonous or not.
Only once or twice did the beasts say the ingredient was poisonous, but most of the time, it was just a normal plant that didn't have any poison on its own.
After the third round of going around, smelling every single leaf, flower, and fruit, the beasts started to get annoyed.
"Alright, stop. You don't have to name anything. Just go pick them up," Yao Jia said with no other choice.
Alex's felt proud of himself for getting rid of his problems in his own way. After that, he freely went around gathering ingredients as much as his heart desired.
