“This fog is actually made of countless tiny crystals...”

Dan Yang grinned as he straightened his back: “Meaning, those birds are mere shells of their original! After all, even if she can change the conformation of those crystals, she cannot change its overall mass!”

“As the quantity of crystals in the mist is just too small, those birds are all just a tiny percentage of the power of the original bird that had previously been on her shoulder! They are like countless origamis! Imposing, yes, but extremely weak, as well as thin as paper!” Dan Yang gave a light pull at the silvery strings: they suddenly hardened, as if they had become extremely thin, sharp knives!

“However, to change all of these small crystal grains into full-fledged birds, she must have exhausted most of her energy!” The old-looking, thirty year old man grinned and bent his legs, preparing to attack: “Which means… if I can destroy all these fake birds then find the original one and, finally, avoid its attacks… I win!”

Dan Yang inhaled and exhaled, the strings connected to his fingers trembled slightly before flashing and disappearing! Ten streaks of light sped towards the ocean of crystal birds.

Even though danger was approaching, the bird kept flying without a care. Their pattern was exactly the same, even the timing with which their wings flapped was identical.

It’s actually just a single opponent, the crystal bird! Although it is hiding in between all those clones, I can just destroy them all and lure him out! After the clones are gone, if I can avoid its attacks and then defeat its master, victory will be mine!

…

Fu Yin’s eyes glinted with appreciation: “Not bad! He had almost got it all figured out!”

Xiao Wu frowned. She had heard Dan Yang’s words however, although her conclusion was similar to his, they were still quite different. Yet, Fu Yin’s words had actually been in favour of the older man.

Xiao Wu sighed: was her theory actually wrong? Well, after all, it had sounded a bit too strange to begin with so she shouldn’t be too surprised…

“It is just too bad…” Fu Yin chuckled, his eyes glinting as he glanced at the frowning Xiao Wu “That he has misinterpreted the function of the original Crystal Bird and the role that the crystals within the fog play in all of this!”

Xiao Wu’s eyes lit up as she suddenly beamed: “Then, you mean…”

“Yes, the theory you had come up with earlier is indeed correct!” Fu Yin grinned and laughed heartily: “Had I not also found out about this beforehand, I would probably have discarded your theory as being utter nonsense! However, I also came to the same conclusion and I feel pretty sure about its correctness!”

Xiao Wu sighed as she looked at Dan Yang with pity: "I'm afraid, brother Yang, that no matter your efforts, it might be all for naught if you do not figure this out in time..."

...

Dan Yang kicked off the ground as he bit his thumb, drawing out a drop of blood! He then lifted his thumb above his head and let the drop of blood fall on his forehead.

“Nine Days Is A Single Minute!” He shouted as the drop of blood fell on the skin, forming a complicated tattoo. As soon as that happened, his body suddenly seemed to lose all his energy, as if something was draining it.

At the same time though, Dan Yang’s body suddenly began to give off a feeling of wisdom as well as unpredictableness. His eyes suddenly brightened as he laughed:

“Fang Lu, I will be borrowing your might for a short while!”

...

Hearing that, Fang Lu’s mouth twitched slightly as his eyebrows rose in surprise:

“You little… you actually dare use your ability to copy my battle prowess!”

The chubby youth sighed helplessly as he shook his head and waved his hands:

“Whatever, I guess… I guess now I can only receive this nine days worth of your life force and watch as you obtain my strength for a minute… it's not like I can do anything about it anyway...”

...

Fu Yin and Xiao Wu, on the other side of the arena, suddenly frowned.

“This…” the white-haired boy spoke in amazement: “What a remarkable ability!”

Xiao Wu was gaping as her green eyes glowed with a sharp, violet light. She turned to look at Sou Rou and asked: “That Dan Yang… sister, could you please explain what exactly is the extent of brother Yang's ability?”

Sou Rou smiled knowingly and smirked, knowing that, for once, she held knowledge these two monsters did not possess. She nodded and spoke:

”Nine Days Is A Single Minute is the name of a mysterious scripture Dan Yang’s master, Fa Guan, had stumbled upon by chance a few years ago. Dan Yang, who at the time had been a youth with above-average talent in the Inner Sect, was the only one who had a body compatible with such a scripture in the whole Sect!

“Thus, Fa Guan decided to take him in as a disciple. Of course, that would come with a cost: Nine Days Is A Single Minute was an incredibly profound scripture, sure, but it also had its shortcomings!”

“However, Dan Yang did not refuse. In fact, if I recall correctly, back then he even immediately began to cultivate following the dark method of the scripture as soon as he laid his hands on it!”

As Sou Rou explained, her expression suddenly turned serious:

“This technique is what allowed Dan Yang to keep his spot as one of the Nine Protectors’ disciple back when this Sect was still called the Mysterious Light-Shadow Sect. The reason was none other than…-”

Fu Yin cut off Sou Rou:

“The fact that it allowed to give up nine days’ worth of life force - in other words, nine days of his lifespan - in exchange for borrowing a minute’s worth of somebody else’s strength!”

Fu Yin’s hands were at his temples, his palms on top of the nails embedded in his head. His eyes had turned an electric-blue as the triangles in his pupils were shining eerily with the same lively, electric-blue light:

“This would include, of course, Cultivation as well as the target’s very Sensed Qi and even, to a certain extent, his Techniques!”

He pursued his lips and removed his hands from the nails as he spoke: “I also have a theory that one of the reason why Dan Yang is the only person capable of practicing this technique is because of the fact that he has a ‘vessal’ kind of sensed Qi...”

Fu Yin’s eyes went back to normal as he turned to look at the pondering Xiao WU beside him: “This allows any other kind of Sensed Qi to be compatible with his body, as long as it is not something beyond his understanding. This probably allowed him to utilize this technique to use other people’s Sensed Qi, despite it being different from his own!”

“...” Sou Rou paled as if she had seen a ghost.

How in the world did you know that? You couldn’t have deduced that simply by looking at the technique once, could you? Then again, he had figured out Te Rin’s technique with a single glance, so maybe that wouldn’t be too much of a far-fetched thought...

...

Meanwhile, on the stage, powerful winds were forming all around Dan Yang’s body. He could hear Fu Yin’s words of course and he could only smile bitterly as his very existence seemed to have been seen through by that pair of electric-blue, glowing eyes.

However, while he smiled, within he was also a bit anxious:

Sure, this technique is powerful, however it has many shortcomings! One of the most obvious ones is without a doubt the time limit: one minute is realy short! After the technique’s effect runs out, I will probably be unable to move even a finger for a few hours at the very least! It is also quite taxing on my body… after all, I did just sacrifice nine days of my remaining lifespan in exchange of power! This technique is to blame for my looking like a middle-aged uncle...

Dan Yang sighed as his aura kept rising, making the air tremble:

It also has a charging time, however its benefits are not inferior to its shortcomings! What's more, although the more the power I want to be able to wield in that one minute the more I’ll have to charge up, it looks like that Te Rin is unable to attack! She probaby has no more strength left after the ‘creation’ of all those Crystal Birds!

And this allows me to calmly borrow the strength of my target! Up until now, I had no problem borrowing someone’s power as long as he was within my same Realm of cultivation! Fang Lu… fortunately is no exception! I have to finish this fight as soon as possible, I cannot let her recover just to stab me in the back! Fang Lu, I will now use your power!

Suddenly, a bright symbol appeared in the air! It was a square missing one of its sides, more precisely, it was missing its right side: ‘匚’; in english, 'Wind'!

This was none other than one of the symbols making up the Pāramitān alphabet as well as one of the symbols that appeared on Fang Lu's scroll in the section of the 'Wind' element. There were no phonetics in such an alphabet, as it was not a language for man, instead it was for nature and nature alone! However, as humans were part of such 'nature' as well, they would not just be locked away from such power. Instead, users of the alphabet of the nature could simply shout it out loud in their own language…

After all, the heart of the technique was the symbol, while the spoken part would only act as a trigger to the caster. The strange symbol looked as if it was composed of many swirling hurricanes as it emitted a powerful pressure. Finally, as the symbol got clear and clearer as it floated in the air, Dan Yang gritted his teeth:

Damn… so, with only this amount of preparation, I am only able to use a single symbol! What monster, that Fang Lu, to be able to use more than five, maybe even six! This amount of energy will in no way be enough to blow away Te Rin in a single blow. Plan 'a' for direct 'attack is a no-go... I guess I’ll have to go with plan ‘b’!

“A Wind!” Dan Yang shouted, action immediately followed by the symbol emitting a bright, green light! As he breathed in, the green light then made its way into his body in the form of a gentle breeze...

He grinned and wiped his forehead from the blood as he pursued his lips.

Plan ‘b’… for ‘buffing’!