Tower of Heaven

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When the huge impact rang out once more, both Atlas and the bull went stumbling backward in different directions. Atlas felt a great pain in his knuckles that told him that he had definitely broken a few bones, but he didn't mind it.

He felt clearly through that impact the complete shattering of the bone structure he hit. The bull was stumbling with hazy eyes, puffing out steam as it tried to locate Atlas. It hadn't taken significant damage to the body, but its brain was rattling around in its half-broken skull, making it unable to move as it wished to.

Its body stumbled back and forth as it desperately tried to control its own legs, but they only moved to a portion of its orders. It had never felt something so disorienting before in its short life.

The beast was not on death's doorstep because it was dying. It was on death's door because it had lost the ability to defend itself.

"Haa…haa…haa…"

Atlas had never felt this winded before in this life. He breathed in heavily, but it felt like nothing he did would bring air into his lungs. He looked at the beast across from him knowing that if he left now, it would not chase him.

However, he bit his tongue until he drew blood, steadied himself, and slowly marched towards it.

He was the one who started this battle, so he was going to be the one who finished it.

He arrived in front of the beast and dropped his fist on its side as it stumbled into him. His own steps were light and contained no weight, so he was dragged along with it as they drunkenly attempted to catch their balance.

"Huu…"

Atlas took a deep breath, pushing against the bull's side to support himself, and drew his chain sickles.

He found the beast's neck and held his hand up to it, manifesting qi as precisely as he could in his current state. That only meant creating a blade that spewed out qi inefficiently, but it was enough.

The beast's tough hide lost a lot of its strength after so many impacts. When Atlas raised a chain sickle and stabbed it down into the bull's throat, it was able to cut through the skin that was too hard for it only minutes ago.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Blood fell out of the bull's body and painted the ground red. Gritting his teeth as his arm was covered in the warm liquid, Atlas wrenched the sickle sideways and then twisted it once more, digging further into the beast's internals.

OOOH–!

The cry it let out had more power in it than the weak cries it had been uttering thus far. All of the power in its body was gathered for the purpose of uttering that cry because instinctively, it knew that there was nothing left.

It was not an honorable kill so to say. Atlas ended the beast's life while his body was draped over its own like a blanket. He was unable to support himself either, so when the beast fell down to its knees and collapsed on its side, he also followed.

Blood stained his arms, legs, and chest as the beast became a corpse. Only his face was saved by his mask.

Nevertheless, Atlas didn't have the mental strength to think about it. He stayed there on the beast's corpse and used it as a bed for another half hour before he was even able to think properly again.

"Haa…Haa…Haa…"

Only the sounds of his breathing filled the newly created clearing of destroyed dirt and trees.

'It wasn't that hard, so why…?'

It was the thought he wanted to entertain during the battle, but he was only able to think about it now.

'I did not fight any differently from my usual techniques and skills, so why?'

He pondered it as he shakily stood up and cleaned himself off. Using qi, he was able to remove all of the bloodstains from his body quite easily.

With that done, he went and sat against the nearest standing tree stump. It was a much better resting place than a corpse.

With his legs crossed in a meditative position, Atlas closed his eyes and surveyed his internal body.

'As expected, there aren't necessarily any changes.'

His body was working exactly how it expected it to and looked exactly how he'd seen it before. Nothing in particular had changed…

'...except for the amount of qi I have remaining.'

Though there wasn't any qi naturally produced by the pagoda, this was only to stop him from staying in the pagoda eternally and cultivating without experiencing the outside world. If he only wanted to replenish the qi he used in battle, the pagoda was more than willing to help.

As Atlas simulated the action of circulating qi so his own storage would refill, he was able to see just how little was remaining in his body.

'It happened unintentionally, so I didn't immediately realize, but seeing this makes it easy to understand.'

The bull was very strong. It was much stronger than most of the people and beasts he'd fought thus far. Barring the chimera beast in the mystic realm, Cain was the last equal opponent that Atlas fought to the death with.

Essentially, Atlas hadn't gotten used to using his full power.

'Using the qi of one Dao while also using neutral qi to support the body and weapon is normal. That is a level of qi expenditure that everyone must become acclimated to, and that is the level of expenditure that I have always trained my qi control to be aware of.'

As such, even in the current day and age, Atlas used his qi as if it was only flame qi and neutral qi.

But that wasn't it anymore, was it?

'I am using four types of elemental qi as well as the neutral qi for my weapon and body. My fighting style has become much more discreet, but my fatal attacks are still as explosive as they used to be. In general, rather than fighting in a more conservative way, I am using much more qi through my current style.'

He had to retrain his qi control so that he could replicate the same efficiency using four types of qi that he had when he was using one. That would take much more work than what could be accomplished in two years, but Atlas thought it was also good to set long-term goals.

'I am exhausted because my body's energy is almost entirely expended. If I am left in this kind of state when I am fighting someone who can truly match me, then I will die without question.'

It was an unexpected problem that stemmed from the fact that Atlas was almost always stronger than the people around him.

As a cultivator who could fight above his stage, he always found himself on floors of the Tower where people who had the same strength as him passed through years before he ever arrived.

He never had the chance to find this problem, so how was he supposed to address it before?

Finding it during his very first battle on this training expedition was something that could only be attributed to Atlas' talent, but it would be a very good thing for him.

After all, he was now entering the wider world scene. He was not going to only be interacting with people who had the same strength as him, and when he met his seniors in the future, not all of them would be as kind or welcoming as the ones Atlas had met thus far.

'Good.'

Though the results of the battle were a bit disappointing, it was a form of disappointment that Atlas didn't mind.

Because of it, he learned exactly where he needed to improve while he continued to better himself.

Really, as his current desire was to train with his whole heart and mind, he couldn't have asked for anything more.