Modern Awakening - A cultivation, LitRPG, apocalyptic novel

Dodging the incoming attacks was ridiculously easy.

They couldn't hold a candle to what Shen had gone through in the second stage. There, he had had F+ stats and avoided projectiles from beings with E- stats, including magic. Here, he had E- stats and dealt with F+ at most.

Many arrows and bolts were shot his way. The system gave the marksmen an infinite supply of them, but they were common wood with ordinary metal arrowheads. The enchantments were in the bows or ballistae to make the draw faster, take less strength, add speed to the projectile on release.

Shen would get hurt if he was hit while close to the projectiles' release, but the damage would be negligible at worse. His E- resistance and qi-filled body gave him that much of an advantage. By regenerating 1 HP/s, he could get hit and not care about it.

Not that he allowed himself to get hit, of course. No need to tempt fate.

Spells were also hurled against him. It became evident very quickly that Alicia's skill was on the upper range of regulars. The fireballs—almost every magic coming his way was a fireball—were slow and weak. Lightning was the second most used element, but it didn't cause any pain even though he couldn't dodge some bolts. His soul and qi were enough to dissipate all spells as soon as they touched him.

His clothes, unfortunately, fared a lot worse. Even weak lightning burned them. Soon enough, he was only half-clad, and what remained was charred.

He didn't care.

Shen dodged spells and rushed at the regulars. Then he bypassed their defenses to get at their long-range attackers.

Carnage followed.

The Concept of War proved its effectiveness repeatedly as he found himself in the middle of countless enemies. The projectiles coming his way now were much less than when he had run toward the regulars because visibility was minimal for them after he got in their ranks. Still, War let him be extra aware of his surroundings and dodge what projectiles came.

The Concept of Combat turned Shen into death incarnate. War told him who to attack and when. Combat showed him the way to triumph once he had his target. Sometimes, Combat whispered different things from War to him, but Shen let War decide. This situation was greater than mere Combat, and he would do well to use the best tool for the job.

Speaking of the best tool for the job, Shen couldn't use three Concepts at once, but he could do the next best thing: change the type of qi he was using mid-fight.

The Concept of Sharpness was the perfect killing Concept. Therefore, when things got simple enough, he would swap War for Combat in his mind and use Sharpness on his spear.

His spearhead cut through armor like a phoenix feather going through ice. He dismembered, bisected, beheaded, and impaled his enemies so quickly that it even scared him. If this was a real battle, the scene would be terrifying.

It still troubled him to see the fear in the eyes of his fellow humans as he cut them down, to hear their screams of pain and anguish, to cut them down like weeds. The system spared him from getting covered in their blood and guts, but not the feeling of their flesh being torn apart, as little resistance as if offered.

And for what? AP? Was it worth it?

Every time Shen found his resolve wavering, he swapped Combat back for War in his mind, took Sharpness out, and filled himself and his spear with Boundlessness.

The Concept of War also hardened his heart a little, but it was Boundlessness that really pushed him past his humanity.

He would not be stopped by his feelings when he had decided on the best path forward; to do so was to be ruled by the chemicals in his brain rather than rule them. He would not be bound by morals when his enemy was in front of him; this was a do-or-die situation, and he would succeed. It was him or them, simple as that, and he would not show mercy toward those who would kill him if their positions were reversed.

Still, he never let Boundlessness take hold of his mind. He feared he might go too far beyond humanity if that happened.

Sharpness was the foundational Concept he used the least on his mind, only when things were really easy. While it did make his mind sharper in the figurative sense, it was not as good as Combat and War for battle. He felt it would shine if he ever found himself studying something though. Maybe even cultivating or training his martial techniques. He would have to check.

But that would come later.

Now, he was a tool of death.

Shen struck, and death followed. His preferred tactic was to infiltrate the center of his enemies' formations and take them all in a swirl. A Sharp spear made it trivial. When that wasn't possible, he struck incoming projectiles from the air, avoided the ones easy to do so, and beheaded those in front of him.

His Gale Footwork was used to the utmost. Shen had never been in a situation of constant progress and attacks that could ignore allies. Sometimes the regulars sent spells at their friends, and they exploded close enough to cause a couple points of damage. Shen had learned to watch out for that too.

Some tried to stop him in close-range fights. He got rid of them quickly or ignored them if that wasn't possible. His Sharp spear could be halted by F armor or F- shields, so Shen Backstepped and either killed them or focused on others. He had to kill as many as possible; he couldn't waste any time.

He felt his usage of his spear art improving constantly. Infusing his body and mind with different Concepts let him use his martial techniques in ways he hadn't thought possible. It also showed him he was lacking in something. His movements should flow better. They were aggressive enough, as befitting a Windstorm, but their fluidity—

That was it, wasn't it?

The missing piece was a Concept connected to the Laws of Wind. He needed it to thoroughly understand the Windstorm Spear Art and use it to the utmost. And he guessed he would also need a Concept connected to the Laws of Water to master his Rainfall Cultivation Method. Also, only with both Wind and Water, plus the Laws of the Spear, could he fully showcase the might of the Hurricane Martial Art.

It was obvious in hindsight, but he had never even considered adding something other than the Spear to his Path.

Should he do it?

Shen wasn't sure, but he couldn't deny he was feeling his attacks lacked fluidity. A Windstorm was aggressive and unstoppable but not like a volcano eruption or an earthquake. It had a subtlety of its own. It could also go through obstacles and fall them just by changing the pressure of the air. It had its own characteristics.

Adding Concepts to his Path, as long as they weren't foundational, wouldn't matter much. Shen could add as many as he wanted. He did know it would make breaking through to the next cultivation realm harder though.

Shen didn't fear hardship; he only feared an incomplete Path.

And he could tell his Path would be incomplete without Wind. His spear demanded that, and his was the Path of Spear. How could he claim to be treading such Path if he didn't give it what it needed to grow?

So Shen focused a little more on understanding the underlying Concepts of his footwork and spear art. Gale and Windstorm. What made them special? What made them? Where did they come from, and what was their destination?

He started flowing better as multiple insights came to him, but he could tell there would be only one Concept related to the Laws of Wind in his Path. More than that would push it too much outside the Spear's dominion.

Was it Gale he wanted? Was it Windstorm? Was it something else?

Shen killed but wasn't considering the suffering of his foes any longer. The terror of battle was muted by higher considerations. Such was the cultivator way, so he found nothing wrong with that.

He killed and killed, and his spear got more aggressive. He brought pain and despair, and his footwork became more effective. The end goal was the hurricane. The apex would be reached when everything in his way could no longer resist his power.

But when War came to his mind, it whispered to him he might not want more of the same.

The Feng Clan might pursue the Hurricane Martial Arts, but he was not the Feng Clan. Part of his Path came from them, but his present and future were his own. He already had four tools to crush opposition: War, Combat, Sharpness, and Boundlessness. He didn't need to be pushed toward greater extremes. Instead, he might want to focus on a subtler Concept. As long as it came from the Laws of Wind, it would suffice for better understanding his techniques.

Shen was currently geared toward frontal confrontation, but that limited his prospects.

He might want more of that, however. The decision was his to make. The knowledge brought by the Concept of War only made him aware that it wasn't the only option.

And when he used Boundlessness, even if not in his mind, it whispered the same; he shouldn't limit his options.

Combat disagreed. Only defeating the enemy mattered, and what was better than overwhelming strength? All problems could be solved with power. If it looked otherwise, you were only lacking in strength.

Sharpness didn't care; it only wanted to cut.

In the end, it was Combat's argument that made him decide. He agreed with it, but he was also choosing something about his Path.

A Path was the destination, but also the journey.

Shen didn't know what the future held for him, but surely he wouldn't be able to crush all opposition as effortlessly as the regulars. Overwhelming strength might always be an answer, but he would find himself said strength. Then, one extra Concept geared towards destruction might not make any difference.

His Path needed a little more balance, and shouldn't the Concept of Combat also support that idea? Shen had learned with it that true strength wasn't always found in pushing to the extreme; sometimes, that would leave him vulnerable instead.

So he heard the whispers of Wind while he moved. Concepts from the Laws of Wind had been used to create his footwork and spear art. He only had to listen, and he would grasp them.

Shen's movements turned ethereal as the Wind. Not brutal like a Windstorm, not unyielding like a Gale. He listened to the underlying aspects of even those Concepts. Most winds started with a Breeze; what a spark was to a flame. Not all winds did, and not always, but often enough.

He pushed that idea more. A Breeze was gentle enough, but he sought more.

Shen's movements started changing. Where only there was rigid precision, he found subtle accommodations instead.

His ancestors had created martial arts that could be used in as many situations as possible. They extracted as much power from physical strength and qi as they could.

Yet, the ancestors weren't here.

They couldn't see how it would be wise to sacrifice the extra strength of a perfectly executed movement for extra speed in a specific situation. How perfect technique wasn't always the answer.

Shen almost felt Heavenly Lightning should strike him dead for such blasphemies.

It was one thing to realize his ancestors couldn't predict everything; creating new moves because of that, as he had, was alright. After all, martial arts served a purpose; they weren't all-encompassing manuals of how to live.

But to change the moves themselves on the fly? To deliberately ignore their wisdom? Wasn't that the same as slapping his ancestors in the face and calling their foresight lacking? Wasn't it to arrogantly call himself better?

Maybe...

...maybe not, the Concept whispered to him.

His Path was his own, it claimed, and his entire being agreed. If it was better to be faster than achieve perfect martial movement in an instance, why not do it?

He had to be careful and understand the moves well beforehand. Why was he taught to push an extra centimeter instead of stopping early? If he did stop early, what would be the consequences to the flow of the entire movement set? What if a movement later required momentum that he hadn't accumulated because of his changes? That would require more changes, extra forethought, deliberate care.

Shen's fighting style changed in a way visible to the naked eye. Where once his Windstorm Spear Art would focus on head-on conflict, it became more elusive. More effective. Why complete a movement when he knew it would be defended against? It wasn't just pulling back his strength but changing the movement itself to put himself in a better place for the next strike.

Shen's footwork changed too. A gale was fast, and dodging required speed... Mostly so. Sometimes, he realized, he could just... stop. Slowing down might achieve as much or more than a complicated movement aimed at keeping momentum. Of course, it would change what came next, but couldn't he plan for that already?

Didn't he draw from the Concept of War?

As he drew more and more from that subtle Concept from the Laws of Wind, he realized something else. Such realization was made thanks to the fact that he could use that Concept's knowledge despite not using qi of its type.

Shen realized he had been outright stupid.

He had been using his Concepts as blunt weapons. He filled his mind with one as if that was required to use them. He could imbue his qi with properties from his Concepts, yes, but Concepts were more. They were also knowledge and connection to something greater. He didn't need to use his qi to use what the Concepts gave him.

Shen was his Path.

If his Path was War, Combat, Sharpness, and Boundlessness, he was those things too, every time, always. His foundation, especially, defined him in such an intrinsic way that they would change his very self in due time.

That had been the very reason he had taken the Concept of Boundlessness from his Path's foundations! It had affected him whether he was using it to change his qi or not and was pushing him into a road he didn't want to tread!

When had he started doing something so stupid?

The answer came at once: when he removed Boundless from the foundation. It decreased its hold over him. He had unconsciously thought of the next Concepts, despite being foundational, as detached too.

But that wasn't all of it, was it?

Shen realized it now: he wanted to be unique.

He couldn't accept that having three foundational Concepts was no different from one. Thus, he had unconsciously made things harder for himself to need to do something more. Having to pursue answers to grander mysteries made him feel special.

Fortunately, even in his stupidity, he had been using War in his mind to feel connected to it, and it told him to keep balance. Fortunately, he listened. Fortunately, he found a Concept with such nuance that it sought to improve his movements and himself with minor changes and realizations, like the one about his stupidity.

That was the one that complemented his Path, then.

Shen opened himself to the heavens and welcomed the Concept of Zephyr.