Impenetrable Dungeon - Chapter 19

The Formless Sword Art. Mention its name and many warriors would know of it. However, only a few would know its movements and even fewer would practice a broken version of it. This was a sword art made famous by a nameless person dressed in green robes and a conical bamboo hat. He had a single curved blade that was claimed to be sharp enough to be able to cut the Heavens open. He was a rarely seen fighting but he has seen millions of battles and his ability as a swordsman was never once put to question. Anyone who did question his ability was personally challenged by him and disappeared the very next day. It wasn’t hard to guess where these people went; they could easily be found if you went six feet beneath their house. This man was loyal to one and worked as a mercenary. He charged extremely high prices which could easily be seen as taking advantage of his employer. But not a single person dared to complain about his prices nor did they have reason to complain. Furthermore, he received lots of jobs and his success rate was 100%. He had long disappeared, many say that he has died while others say he was reclusion in some secluded place. However, no one would ever forget him. That was because all his fights were won in a single move. Moreover, never once did he draw his blade but there would always be a sword scar on the ground wherever he fought. This was also why there were little records of his fights, they ended far too quickly. What most people didn’t know was that this man was a Primalborn moreover he was Marcus’ teacher. He had introduced Marcus to the Path of the Sword and he was responsible for many of Marcus’ early successes in the Path of the Sword. He told Marcus many things including his Formless Sword Arts but never did he tell Marcus his name. According to him, “I lost my name when I created the Formless Sword Arts. Full mastery of the current Formless Sword Arts leads to a cold-blooded life of loneliness. I lost myself when I had created this sword art but I was able to perfect it when I met you. Thanks to you I was able to complete the Formless Sword Arts. However, I won’t tell you the full Formless Sword Arts as that would defeat the purpose ultimately it is formless and will adapt to the user’s wishes.” Marcus was also able to achieve full mastery of the Formless Sword Arts but he was able to do something that his master couldn’t do, he truly completed the Formless Sword Arts. What his master found was the solution and not the formula; what he found was the formula then the solution. After completing it Marcus never used the sword art again and instead made his own that was more suited to him. However, he never forgot about finding a suitable candidate for it. He happened to find a suitable candidate for it amongst his Honour Guards, Asura. Asura’s katana was the perfect weapon for this Cultivation Technique since this technique put heavy importance on the speed of the draw. The faster you could draw your sword the higher the chances of killing your enemy in a single strike and in the shortest possible time. Once mastery is achieved, one can simply use Sword Aura to kill your enemy without even touching your blade.

The Luo Sacred Art is also very well known but it is more infamous than famous. This because the arts come from an infamous clan that excelled in assassinations. This clan has assassinated everything from commoners to kings and emperors to even Gods! Their act of assassinating a God had bolstered their fame. The Gods were bewildered at this news and decided to investigate its authenticity. They found out that it was true furthermore there was no assistance of poisons! This terrified the Gods with some of them screaming hysterically the moment they found out. They hastily sent out their soldiers to decimate the clan’s base of operations and commit the genocide of the Luo Clan. From then on the Luo Clan became known as the Luo God Clan and their fame skyrocketed despite no longer existing. During his travels, Marcus had gone to the remnants of the Luo God Clan and found the inheritance of one of their ancestors. This person had recorded all of the Luo God Clan’s techniques and wished for the fateful person who found the inheritance to take revenge for the Luo God Clan and bring them back to their former glory. Marcus resolutely accepted the inheritance without caring for the ancestor’s wish. After all, he already had to take revenge for his race, what more would one clan add? In fact, Marcus had found many clans, powers and races that had been annihilated by the Gods, Devils or Buddhas and he swore to take revenge for them as well. Since he already had so many enemies what would one more cause? It certainly wouldn’t cause a disaster since he was already in one. Marcus decided to give this to Azzid as he felt that it was a perfect fit for him. The Luo Sacred Art was supposed to be used with single or dual daggers that could be curved or straight. It unsurprisingly focused on assassination techniques since the Luo God Clan was renowned for their assassination techniques. It also had some Martial Skills meant for head to head battle but they were much weaker and definitely weren’t peak level Martial Skills. So Marcus decided to patch this shortcoming by adding a few of the Martial Skills that he had created which worked well with assassination techniques. Although it was a good idea to have a different set of skills as an assassin and as a normal warrior, it wasn’t wise to put them in the same Cultivation Technique. The moves in a Cultivation Technique must always flow from one to the other and they must support and complement one another.