No later than the next day, the elder delivered the goods. Black armbands with enough space and locks to fix thirty spatial rings onto them. And of course, the rings that came with it filled with five origins element in their liquid forms. There was also a dozen more rings for their fingers.

Jin only picked seven of them, giving up on two earth element and one water element. He didn't want to wear a ring on thumb fingers due to needing them free for his spear manipulation and he already had one ring with his things. Having two rings on a single finger could create inconvenience when in the midst of battle after all. If he tried to send his energy into the ring to get the element out and ended up sending it in the wrong ring due to being to focused on the fight...

Anyways, he kept it like that for the moment. He tried to use them right away starting from the second battle. Things went rather well. He could summon those elements much more easily and battle against the opponents with them. He was covering his spear with liqui thunder and wind, who benefitted from the spear's power. He was sending out some long-range attacks too from time to time but had more difficulties with it. He was simply more used to fighting at close range at the moment.

Still, the time problem to summon those elements no longer existed.

After finishing the rounds for the day, he went straight to the training grounds and tried to apply the elements to techniques he had seen. It didn't go well when it came it to technique to reinforce himself. He couldn't place the fire on his body, let's not even talk about using to reinforce his insides. He was being burnt. And it was the same result with the other elements.

The spiritual energy penetrated his body accordingly to the techniques but it didn't take the elements along. No longer being held back by his energy, they became wild ones once more and he had to bear the brunt of the mistake. Which was painful for sure.

Needless to say, the healing elders decided to camp at the training grounds after witnessing him come to them with an arm that was half-melted.

From there, he managed to understand that only external techniques making use of the elements could be replicated. Of course, this was already a good thing. He could keep using the principle of Fine Tuning to boost his internal self while making use of the elements in his attacks and defenses.

From then on, every day, he trained in such a way and little by little became proficient in the use of said elements.

After six months went by, Jin's strength had undergone a very large change. He was no longer losing every single battle horribly quickly and easily. Now, he could rival the others for a few rounds. Depending on the opponent, he could last for dozens of minutes.

Hae-Hyuk was very satisfied about such a progress though he considered it not enough.

That day, he was facing an elder from a random clan who used mostly lightning in his moves. They were fighting in close range as he used a sword. Jin was using his spear coated in energy and surrounded by liquid earth to deflect the opponent's sword.

They exchanged dozens of hits as they kept sidestepping and dodging each other's moves. The elder summoned thunder from Jin's dead angles while Jin levitated liquid shield-shaped shields around to protect himself. After more rounds, Jin began to use more spiritual energy by taking out different elements. Fire, Water, Lightning and Wind made their entrances and began to pound on the elder.

The man defended himself as best as he could while being pushed back. He was forced to focus on defense as Jin actively sent more and more attacks onto him. He focused on having the elements wave here and there, hiding the real attacks within fakes.

He made a breakthrough in his enemy's defenses as a small flow of lightning spiritual energy separated in two with one baiting the elder. He managed to achieve a hit from there. Lightning however did not affect the elder much as he was a lightning cultivator. The shock of the hit did and from there, more and more hits succeeded.

The elder was being battered but remained calm as he kept defending and waiting for a chance. There never was as Jin began to intricately send the energies to barrel into him. The spiritual energy was moving erratically around as if mini-eels. Sometimes they went straight, sometimes they curved... There was no pattern as Jin kept controlling them in different ways.

After a moment, the energy began to take the shape of a spear and it seemed as if dozens of colored-spears flew around the both of them in random patterns. They multiplied by separating themselves. And sometimes they grew by fusing with each other. After a time, different elemental spears fused with each other to create mixed-element spears. Fire and thunder, Wind and water, Fire and Earth, Thunder and Water...

So many different mixes made it harder and harder for the elder to comprehend. And the risk of the real spear in Jin's hands was quite real too.

After long minutes, the elder couldn't keep up and Jin's spear went through his stomach. Then, dozens of elemental spears hit him. A torrent of elements devoured the poor man.

As Jin jumped back and the smoke due to the numerous elements colliding dispersed, a mangled corpse was all there was. The elder was still alive but his body was in very bad shape. He was bloodied all over with many burnt and frozen spots. Bones could be seen here and there and one of his leg was even cut off from the rest of his body.

He asked for help from the healers. He only got a guard who sent him outside the arena like a ragdoll. A different elder went after the corpse and quickly helped him heal while he screamed at the guard: "Why aren't you healing him?!"

The guard chuckled as he said: "We heal our own, why should we care about the injuries an outsider incur?"

And from then, the perception of the event changed into the minds of the masses. It was no longer an easy risk-free way to obtain techniques...