Floor 10
Focused Strike, right into the throat. He yanked the spear back and twisted as he did it, twisting as he did so to widen the hole as the weapon exited. The alpha jenglot staggered back, clutching at its neck. It bounced off the invisible barrier that had appeared, enforcing the rule that one could not go backwards to floor nine once one entered ten.
Once Arthur had realised that had happened - a situation that had occurred when his poor spear had nearly been bounced right out of his hands when he overextended a lunge - he had ruthlessly exploited it, using wide sweeps and threatening attacks to keep them moving, stumbling over each other, corpses and the barrier when they tried to back away.
Now, the bodies were piled up before him, all but one on the right side of the barrier. He bent low, using the harvesting knife to acquire the necessary monster cores before he sat down, against the side of the road, back against the stone arch. Cool stone pouring into his body, chilling him off, helping some of the blood in his wounds clot further.
He let himself catch his breath, a half-dozen times, breathing in and out, slowing his heart rate down, calming himself down and waiting for the trembling, the nerves and jitters to end. Then, slowly, Arthur began to shift his breathing again.
In. Out. With each inhalation, energy pouring in from all around him, with each exhale, dregs of power pouring out of him that he didn't need. Yang energy, filtered away by his cultivation technique to give him the Yin side of the equation. Not that he only needed Yin energy, of course.
As he cultivated, he felt the energy coursing through him, felt the way he changed Yang into Yin energy, turning it from one side to another, over and over again. They were two sides of the same coin, and so all one had to do was just... turn it.
Yin-Yang Energy Exchange (100%)
He felt when it happeed, when the technique switched on fully. Arthur was wracked with shudders, his body clenching and releasing over and over again, Yang energy suddenly forcing itself out of his body. Skin paled further, as he broke out into sweat, traces of blood and oil seeping outwards from his skin.
Moments later, he opened his mind to the Tower, feeling the information course through as the Tower filled him in on things he had missed, on how the technique was meant to work. What it could be used for. At the same time, he knew his cultivation techniques had progressed, faster than ever, the Night Emperor cultivation method being refined by the Yin-Yang Energy Exchange.
Yin-Yang Energy Exchange was the methodology he'd studied under Uswah, and it had bounced up and down for a while as he got used to the Night Emperor technique, as one technique supplanted another. However, it was not just a cultivation technique - otherwise, it would have disappeared entirely - but a skill technique.
He'd understood that, because even a Yin body was still filled with Yang aspects. You could not, after all, function without some aspect of either form of energy. In particular, the Yin-Yang Energy Exchange tapped into the body mass, the formed energy that was his body, and allowed him to utilize that as a last minute trade off.
It basically meant that he could, at the cost of his life and limbs - or, smarter wise, organs - trade out for more Yin energy if he needed it. Of course, he hadn't actually done that yet, but that was the new information poured into his mind by the Tower. More importantly - and generally useful - was that he could also adjust some of the Yang energy that floated inside his body, in his meridians and dantians and even, within the refined energy coming from monster cores.
Now that he had learnt it, not only had his own cultivation ability increased, it also increased his refinement ability. Or, if he wanted to, it could eke out a little more efficiency during a battle - though, in some ways, that felt even more dangerous than using his body. After all, if he leached out all the Yang energy from his Yin chi, he could fall over and collapse.
There were other additional benefits too, from finally understanding and having the Tower provide these details. For example, he could switch back to Yang energy as well, which would help during second transformation if he ever reached that, to help deal with the pain when it tried to 'balance' him. Or, conversely, fight the change powered by the Tower.
The techniques also gave him a wider understanding of Yin and Yang energies, the various ways they worked. Not just the obvious - life/death dichotomies, or healing/rot but also the elemental levels of the pair, the associations involved and how they worked together. While it was not a guidebook, it gave him an understanding of things like his Refined Exploding Energy Dart, of his Imbued Poison that he might further refine and alter.
All that, of course, was for later. When he had the time and energy to do that, rather than spending his time leaning against a stone arch, waiting for his body to heal and recover and while he cultivated more energy to refill what was incredibly low reserves.
Cultivation continued to dominate things, force him to only focus on that. The rush of untamed energy into him did not allow him to pull other forms of energy away, even with a second dantian in play. He knew he wanted to learn to cultivate and utilize his energies, but now was not the time.
After all, doing so would be a good way of leaving himself damaged and crippled while roaming monsters still existed.
Instead, he kept focused for hours, pulling enough energy in that he was content with his supply before pulling up his status screen in full to see the numerical achievement.
Cultivation Speed: 2.943 Yin
Energy Pool: 22/30 (Yin) + (7/7)
Refinement Speed: 0.1614
Refined Energy: 0.17 (40) +(0/3)
Attributes and Traits
Mind: 15 (Multi-Tasking, Quick Learner, Perfect Recall)
Body: 25 (Enhanced Eyesight, Yin Body, Swiftness, Fast Twitch Faster, Lightning Reflexes, Explosive Strength)
Spirit: 15 (Sticky Energy, From the Dregs, Strengthened Aura)
Techniques
Night Emperor Cultivation Technique
Focused Strike
Accelerated Healing – Refined Energy (Grade III)
Heavenly Sage’s Mischief
Refined Energy Dart
Steel Skin (102.3%)
Seven Cloud Stepping Technique (211.4%)
Pocket Simpanan Tua (147.2%) (Refined Exploding Energy Dart 99% Integrity)
Imbued Strike - Yin Poison
Yin Aura (Level 1) (128.3%)
Yin-Yang Energy Exchange
Partial Techniques
Simultaneous Flow (229.7%)
Yin Poison Darts (50.4%)
Shadow Sense (59.7%)
Slow improvements, at least in those techniques he had utilized. Others, like the Yin Poison Darts had sat entirely unused, because he couldn't afford the time to practise them, not in the middle of a fight. In time, perhaps, he would get around to utilizing it, but he doubted it would happen in the Tower.
On the other hand, with the new information about energy types, he had a feeling he would have some significant improvements the next time he had a few minutes to practise.
That wasn't going to be now.
Content with how much basic Tower Energy he had, he extracted a monster core and began the process of refining it. This was going to take longer, a full hour by itself, but being a core from the ninth floor, it would give him just over 0.09 points in an hour. Enough for 9 REEDs. More if he had time to train, or empower himself. If he didn't worry that another group of wandering monsters would find him.
Two or three of these would have to do, he decided. Enough to give him a fighting reserve, for the last trial of the tenth floor.
He just wondered what his particular trial was going to look like.