“Mastery is often simply staying on the same path.”

Another couple of years went by, and the periphery of the forests surrounding the nameless village almost reserve squad’s own backyard.

In fact, there were fewer and fewer beasts appearing in the area. And this forced the Hunter squad to push further their hunting grounds.

Qai had been personally training under the waterfalls, as he hoped to. In a lotus position below the falls, he would spend an entire day enduring the pressure of the waterfall current.

Such a method of training had eventually pushed Qai’s body to the limits. And after two years of regularly doing so, he could finally feel that the distance from Silver to Gold rank is already as thin as a hairline. He just needed another day catalyst to trigger a breakthrough.

Qai, of course, was in euphoria knowing how fast his growth was. If he were in the empire, he would be deemed as a genius with the best potential. Who would thought that at the age of 9, a child could already attain the peak of Silver rank Knight?

‘I guess this world is just that, a haven for knights!’

Regardless, at the back of his mind, Qai could still perceive that his strength leaves much to be desired, knowing fully well that at the peak of this world was the presence of Spirit Beasts and Immortals—even if he just read about them in passing and couldn't ascertain their very existence.

This, he was convinced that only by becoming a Saint could he somehow match that power. But becoming a Saint is a different matter altogether; even achieving just the Master rank is almost a dream.

He once heard that to become a Master rank Knight, one has to attain the so-called ‘Intent’ that comes from a deep awareness of one’s weapon. Thus, the difference between the Gold rank and Master rank is like heaven and earth.

‘Gold rank. It’s still too far to achieve the peak of knighthood. I might not even attain it in this lifetime,’ he sighed.

But even if that was the case, he also knew that he had a strong headstart in the path of knights. It was rare to achieve what he already achieved so far. In the empire, his current accomplishment might have been the only one to be seen as the possible candidate for becoming a Saint of the current era.

In addition to that, there was also the fact that knighthood also granted him a dozen life years or so upon each breakthrough. So in some sense, even if Qai still had a long way to go, he also gained plenty of time to reach the peak of knighthood.

But the present Qai is not full of himself. He knew the difficulty to go further. Even at this point, he has no idea how to make it past Silver rank.

Again, he could only despair upon not learning any advanced technique. His blade skills, if any, were self-taught which barely aided his growth.

One day, when he got back home from the waterfalls, his father called for him inside the workshop.

Once inside, his father began to be melodramatic.

“Son, you have grown up to become truly strong. No one is like you in this village. And I know this village is not suitable for you. It limits your growth. And I can see that one day you will fly high in the sky.”

‘I wonder what this father of mine up to!?’ Qai thought.

However, he also felt that the words of his father were on point. He had that desire quenching in him to prove that there was more beyond the nameless village. And he wanted to see it for himself, it's just that he knew he wasn't ready yet.

“I’ve seen you use both spear and blade, so I thought if giving something to you.”

Right after he said those words, he picked up a long wooden box from the weapon stands and unlocked it in front of Qai.

“This weapon is actually a family heirloom. And there is none other in the entire village. And although I might be able to craft something like this, the materials used in this weapon are extremely rare.”

His father then spread the box open which bared a weapon—one that Qai had not seen before, not even back in the empire.

It looked like a spear as it had the same pole, but a bit odd because a heavy metal blade was practically mounted on the top end of the pole. In all, it had the length of a spear but the third portion of it is actually a curved blade.

Qai’s look was beyond astonished.

He didn’t know what kind of weapon it was, but he could feel that fate was somehow at work!

“Our forefathers called this weapon a ‘Guandao.’ I don’t know where its name came from but I bet there was a reason for it. Anyway, this hasn’t been actually wielded by anyone. You should know we are a family of blacksmiths, not soldiers nor hunters.”

Qai’s father looked into the horizon then sighed before continuing.

“Maybe it was crafted for someone else, who knows. I just know it is something handed down to the next generation. And now I’m giving it to you. And maybe in the history of our family, you will be the first and probably the only one who could use it.”

Qai wanted to sob—deep inside he was fully aware that his father’s true son was no longer there.

He was bursting with mixed emotions as his father handed him the weapon. Apart from him wanted to reject it, but another part of him was eager to take it.

“Guandao,” he softly uttered as he finally took hold of the weapon. “Thank you, father.”

“With this weapon, you can display your spear skills and hack all you want at the same time. You’ve been pretty famous in the village lately. I hope this Guandao can help you. Besides, it's much better that you use it rather than let it rot in the stands.”

Right there and then Qai deeply bowed before his father.

“I promise I will not fail our forefathers.”

In the courtyard of the house, he immediately performed the skills based on the ‘Fundamentals of Spearmanship’ but using his newly acquired weapon.

At first, it felt awkward having gotten used with spears for much of the time—not to mention the technique was really designed for spears.

However, Qai would not easily quit with such an excuse. For him, it was a trifling matter.

Perhaps it was because of the unbalanced weight of the weapon—of the heavy curved blade mounted on the top of the pole—that made it difficult to use.

It took him all almost three days non stop before finally getting the hang of it.

Of course, the moves were no longer the same—the strength, speed and even his bodily gestures had to adjust with them.

In a sense, Qai managed to alter, or more exactly, create new moves altogether. That was because in the 3 new moves, he also tried to apply the power of hacks and slash especially with the 2nd and 3rd move—Qai obviously wanted to maximize the blade attached on the pole.

As a result, the outcome was somewhat different. But the basics were obviously still based on the technique.

Whether the 3 moves will have the same, better or lesser effect remained to be seen. And Qai planned for that to have a training alone in the forest.

‘Maybe I should change their names as well. They just don’t fit right now,’ he thought.

Eventually for the ‘Spear Thrust,’ he named it ‘Raging Beast'—obviously inspired from the many wild beasts he encountered in this world.

As for ‘Double Slash,’ he thought it would be cool to call it ‘Nightfall,'—taken from the impression of nighttime with several moons.

And for the final move, ‘Spear Dance,’ the most potent of the three, he nonchalantly called it ‘Dance of Death.’

Qai went on to test his new skills some more until he achieved some level of mastery.

'Well, I guess I better see the elders first before I depart to the forest.'