Chapter 635: Epiphany

The black serpent felt the air change and quickly stopped its attack and backed up. It did not know what Kana was about to do, but it felt whatever it was might be dangerous. It watched as the debris from Kana crashing into the ground began to rise up off the ground floating in the air. Ako, who was watching, smiled brightly because she knew what was going on. "Master is having an epiphany!" 

Having sudden insights into certain aspects of the dao in a world where cultivation ruled was a blessing to a cultivator. Such things could make a cultivator rise many cultivation stages all at once or open up a new path for them to train in. For Kana, it was the latter. 

As the air around Kana grew more chaotic, the surrounding land began to take a beating. Sword scars as if someone had slashed the surroundings with their sword over and over began to appear in the ground, rocks, and trees in a few meter radius of Kana. 

The black serpent seeing this was glad it did not continue its attack. Such wind at its current cultivation would have easily cut its tail off or even its head, while rendering its poison needles useless. 

While the wind surged, Kana was watching Shi Yu's handy work as she sent out sword beam after sword beam in her mind. Kana had trained in many weapons and mastered them all to her world's standards. But this went beyond just mastery and delved deep into the dao of the sword. Sword intent was not an easy thing to master, and Kana could already have been considered as someone who was already at stage one sword intent when she first came to this world, while Shi Yu would be at stage two, but now this was about to change. 

*Boom!*

The wind that was wrapping around Kana suddenly dispersed, blowing everything around outwards. At the same time, Kana's eyes slowly opened, and a sharp glint flashed through her eyes as she stared at the black serpent who was cautiously staring back at her. She raised her sword and slashed down. A greyish beam of light shot out and flew towards the black serpent. This caused the black serpent to panic as it watched the ground where the edge of the light was touching seemed to slice up the land as it flew towards it. Not daring to try to block the attack, the black serpent quickly dodged and then sent out tens of thousands of poison needles towards Kana.

Kana was ready this time and swung her sword a few times, sending out more sword beams. They cut through the incoming poison needles creating a hole. The poison needles landed in the surrounding area around Kana, not a single one touching her. Kana did not stop there as she sent out a few more sword beams and began to charge in behind them. 

"You!" The black serpent roared in rage as it knew Kana was copying its earlier move! With no choice, the black serpent went on the defensive, using its poison needles as a shield. As the sword beams and sword needles hit, they caused an explosion in the air which Kana ignored and ran right through. She could still feel the spiritual qi in her body flowing rapidly, smashing into the blockages in her body that were keeping her from reaching stage five of body fortification. 

The battle raged between Kana and the black serpent, but it was clear that Kana now had the advantage. She never let up on sending sword beams out. But she also could not get in close. The two were fighting to their utmost limits that their bodies could handle. Every attack and dodge was by a narrow margin. The black serpent had thousands of years of battle experience, so it was not going to go down easy. 

But because of this, Kana's understanding of her sword intent second stage was growing by the second, and she could feel that she was on the verge of breaking through to body fortification fifth stage. The battle raged on for almost half a day until finally, Kana felt a surge of spiritual qi in her body breaking through a blockage and everything part of her body being baptized in spiritual qi. Her strength grew even more and a bright smile formed on her lips as she yelled out. "I did it!"

Hearing the joyful yell, the black serpent let out a sigh of relief. It was already running out of stamina, and the spiritual qi in its body was almost depleted. Kana joyfully hopped over to the Black serpent and bowed to it. "Thank you very much. Because of you, I was finally able to breakthrough. I also broke through on my sword intent as well." 

The black serpent looked at the young woman with complex emotions. While she was thanking it, it was because of her that it lost thousands of years of cultivation. But while it was full of grievances and really wished to eat this little girl, it was unable to, not with the demon slime not too far away. 

Ako saw the battle was done, and Kana was hopping around happily and quickly made her way over. But as she reached Kana, Kana's body suddenly gave out, causing Ako to panic. "Kana!"

"It's not surprising she had taken many hard hits. Her body has yet to heal. But it was all necessary for her to breakthrough." The black serpent did not want Ako to suddenly turn her anger towards it, so it could only hope its explanation would keep Ako from killing it. 

"Humph. If not for my master's orders, I would skin you alive and cut you up to make snake soup to nourish my master. But because you helped her breakthrough, I will let you go. You better hurry to the inner rim before you get eaten by other demonic beasts." Ako waved her hand at the black serpent shooing it away. Its purpose was done with so she did not wish to see it any longer. 

Those were all the words the black serpent needed before it took off as if its tail was on fire. It did not wish to stick around near this slime girl any longer. Ako held Kana in her arms. She brushed the sweaty hair that was hanging over Kana's face back and bit her lower lip. Kana's face was stained with blood, and her robes were tattered to the point that only her important bits were still covered. 

The little worm that was sitting on Ako's shoulder looked at Kana with concern as it said: "You should take her to the spirit spring not far from here. It is hidden away. I am not sure if it is guarded though, but it should be able to heal her wounds."