Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 509: Learning

Chapter 509: Learning

Without a word and still circling Dasha, Igor sheathed the wind blade and rolled his shoulders. Another weapon—a broad glaive—slid from his back with a heavy thunk. Dark brown, the weapon sang with the essence of earth, solid and unyielding.

Igor charged. The earth cracked under his feet with every step, stone splinters flying into the air. These splinters did not come from the floor but from the heavy glaive itself.

Dasha danced forward, using his newfound understanding of the wind’s leverage to push himself farther, faster than before. Still, the sheer weight of the glaive made it difficult to get close without risking a devastating blow.

’The shrapnels...’

Thirty rapid thrusts to cut the shrapnels that chased him.

Igor spun the glaive with impossible speed, carving out a sphere of space that even Dasha couldn’t immediately penetrate. More stone shrapnels broke out and chased.

The older man came again—high sweep, low thrust, overhead smash—every strike carrying the force of an avalanche. And anytime he wanted to come close, he had to pierce every piece of stone away and when he was finished with that, Igor was rearing for his next blow.

Something was off. Dasha was a breath behind, a heartbeat slower.

But step by step, clash by clash, he learned.

’The force lines. The recoil of weight. The rotational inertia of a heavy weapon...’

In the span of a dozen blows, he memorized the momentum, the breathing patterns, the slight overextensions inherent in such brute force combat.

The next time Igor swung wide, Dasha slipped inside the guard, his Qi Blade slicing a shallow cut across Igor’s ribs. He had to break away from the planted feet of Aeolus’ Step, then slip back into it in order to gain distance. Wind whipped from his feet as he glided.

Igor did not hesitate to hurl the giant glaive at him. Dasha blinked twice and smoothly ducked under it.

Igor whipped out dual daggers crackling with lightning. Instantly, this fighting style provoked Dasha’s senses. Igor’s muscles, they were twitching. His breathing increased.

Then Igor disappeared and reappeared to strike at him. If Dasha hadn’t already lifted his guard, that might have spelled a dangerous injury.

Just how many weapons and fighting styles did this man possess?

Igor’s daggers flickered in and out of vision, striking from angles that seemed physically impossible.

’Speed-focused style now.’

It didn’t end. The daggers came like twin vipers, striking at joints, arteries, soft tissue. It did not feel like twin daggers, not with the added lightning. It felt like twelve different blades coming at him. Dasha’s Qi Blade blurred, parrying, deflecting, but the lightning. It was too fast and unpredictable for him. He felt the sting of a few shallow nicks along his arms and shoulders.

Until finally, a fountain of blood broke from his side.

Igor got him.

The crowd roared. The fight wasn’t done but the climax was here.

But inside the storm, Dasha’s mind was utterly, perfectly calm. He adjusted, flexed, mirrored.

Adapted.

He started to absorb the lightning. His parries became counters. His footwork shortened. His Qi Blade sharpened into a needle instead of a broadsword, tailored for the sudden, razor-thin defenses needed against a dagger fighter.

A feint to the left, a real thrust to the right—Dasha’s blade slid along the curve of Igor’s inner elbow, nicking tendons, forcing the man to drop one of the daggers.

A climax indeed.

Igor staggered back, breathing hard, grinning despite himself.

He wiped blood from his mouth and stared across the arena at Dasha, who stood straight and unbothered, only a few shallow cuts marring his figure. Dasha could no longer heal with his Golden Pellet acting as his heart. His ability to use Tu Na Breathing was likely weakened too.

Indeed, in these brief moments, the Cultivator’s breathing patterns went to the Tu Na Breathing. A Qi Blade was known to be a costly and highly skilled weapon to wield. But with one lung, just how much could he truly breathe in?

So Igor charged. He fought. He pressed his supposed advantage.

"The heart," Igor kept murmuring in his head. "Without his heart and lung, he’s as weak as he’ll ever be. No Tu Na Breathing in combat and no healing either! His side is still spewing out blood too!"

He threw everything at him. Every anti-magic smoke bomb, every sword, every spear, every style of fighting. He shot him with twenty-three types of arrows. Most failed to work. Others did what they had to do.

The tiniest advantage mattered. The lowliest injury was a step forward.

The crowd loved every single one of it. They wanted the battle to keep going.

Until Dasha asked when he brought his anti-magic knife, "Is that your last weapon?"

And then—understanding bloomed in Igor’s eyes. A cold, chilling understanding.

"You bastard..."

Dasha had been using him to learn more and more. He wasn’t fighting to survive or to kill but to take. To steal.

[ Congratulations on mastering 180 different martial arts! Receive the pinnacle of martial arts: The Master Martial Artist Class! ]

Master Martial Artist Class. Defeat 10,000 individuals in a martial arts duel or master 180 different styles. Not learn—master. To have been recognized by a master or by the System, whose criteria. Right from the get go, Dasha Pang had already mastered one-hundred-and fifty martial arts. That left him to perfect thirty more.

In this battle, he had added another thirty. By observing another master of many. Dasha lucked out that the System did indeed confirm his mastery.

Automatically, the superior class was equipped, replacing the Intermediate Martial Artist Class.

"Just what have you gone and done?"

Counterflow Stance, Master Mixed Martial Arts Proficiency, Stamina Surge Lv. 10, and Burst Lv. 5 were the four Class skills gifted. Igor sensed the sudden power blessed to him.

But it didn’t end there.

’It is done.’

Igor sensed it. A shift. A dramatic increase in Qi.

"Don’t tell me—"

Dasha had finally reconstructed his heart. His Golden Pellet returned to his Lower Dantian, between the soul and the physical body.

"Haah..."

Breathe in, breathe out. Tu Na Breathing combined with Stamina Surge. Dasha’s Qi kept climbing up and up until Igor had to take a step back.

The black energy oozing off of his opponent was too much. Far too much.

"Oh god...it’s like he has a fully formed Golden Core...!"

The weapons. The skills. The mastered class. Everything was coming into place.

’Your skills, your knowledge, and your most precious items. Rest assured, it will be used for the greater good; for me.’

"Greatness stands on the shoulders of the greatness that came before it. I thank you."

Dasha disappeared into his own shadow.

"...!?"

Igor was able to hear his heart rip from inside him.