Night fell like a slow breath.
The stars blinked overhead as the wind wandered through the scorched ruins of the hut once known as Elder Yan's home. The crater from the lightning strike still pulsed faintly with residual spiritual energy—just enough to feel like the gods were still watching.
Shadow stood at the edge of the wreckage, silent.
The fight had ended. Ren Kai, unconscious. The courtyard, hushed. Whispers were already spreading.
But none of that mattered now.
He moved calmly, gathering splintered wood and scavenged cloth from nearby storage huts, and within an hour, he had constructed a **modest tent** beside the ruined hut. Not much—just enough to shield him from the wind and provide cover.
He laid the old, faded cloth of his master's banner over the frame and knelt on the earth beneath it.
Before him rested a single item:
A **rusty sword**, worn from years of disuse, its edge chipped, its hilt wrapped in faded red cloth.
> "Your blade, Master," Shadow whispered. "It's time I give it purpose."
He sat cross-legged, placing the sword across his lap.
His breathing slowed.
His thoughts sank inwards
Understanding the Flow: Foundation of the Heaven-Stealing Sutra
The Heaven-Stealing Sutra did not guide Qi like normal cultivation methods. It **stole**.
Where others refined and harmonized energy, Shadow's dantian forcefully absorbed ambient Qi. It didn't resonate. It **devoured**.
His body could no longer circulate energy along traditional meridian lines.
Instead, stolen spiritual energy swirled within him, untamed, lightning-like, chaotic.
> "It's like thunder bottled inside a paper lantern. Always ready to break free."
Shadow had spent hours observing how this energy behaved after battle.
And now, kneeling in meditation, he focused inward.
His dantian was flickering, lightning arcs dancing within the spiritual core. His body trembled slightly as the energy tried to escape, lashing against his inner walls.
> "If I don't direct this... it will consume me."
> "If I force it into martial form... I can strike using its flow."
He gripped the sword.
> "A technique that guides no Qi... but executes through presence and timing."
---
Forging the Concept: Sword Flash Art
He envisioned it.
A single movement.
A burst.
**Not a style of many strikes, but one. One precise blow.**
The essence of his battle philosophy. Observation over power. Timing over technique.
> "If I'm close... and I can see their weakness... then I don't need strength. I only need to **touch** the flaw."
> "This will be called..."
> **Sword Flash Art**
Not a flurry of attacks.
A **surgical blow**.
As long as Shadow was close enough, and his body charged with stolen energy, the blade would strike like lightning—fast, unexpected, and always toward a vital point.
He raised the sword slowly, positioning it in front of his chest. The air around him shifted as stolen spiritual energy curled from his body and into the blade. The metal vibrated slightly, glowing faintly blue.
His hand trembled.
> "If I fail... this blade may explode in my grasp."
> "If I succeed... it becomes an extension of my intent."
---
In the first Day Shadow started by Binding Thunder to Steel
He began testing.
Swing.
Stab.
Parry.
Each time, he funneled a small thread of spiritual energy into the sword.
The blade cracked with sparks, but didn't break.
> "Not guiding. Just loading."
The technique would not involve maintaining a continuous flow.
It would use a **pulse**, a **burst**, drawn directly from the dantian into the sword at the **moment of the strike**.
Each failed attempt helped him understand the timing. Too early and the sword exploded with energy before it reached the target. Too late and it remained a dead blade.
By midnight, his arm was numb.
But his mind was sharper than ever.
> "It's like holding a storm. I must become the silence before the thunder."
He collapsed, exhausted, the blade resting beside him.
---
And The Process in Day Two it was Channeling Intent
The next morning, he awoke with the dawn.
The tent glowed dimly with early light.
He knelt again, the sword in his hands, eyes closed.
> "No technique survives on mechanics alone."
> "It needs **intent**."
His intent was clear: **end battles before they begin.**
He practiced footwork now. Movement. Approaching unseen. Striking from angles that opponents couldn't predict.
The energy refused to stabilize unless his **mind** and **body** were aligned in purpose.
He recalled his fight with Ren Kai.
The elbow.
The wrist.
The angle of his fall.
> "I don't need ten steps. I only need three."
> "One to close distance."
> "One to align."
> "One... to strike."
And with that, he launched forward.
The blade shimmered.
A bolt of stolen thunder lashed through the air.
It struck a training dummy he had carved from the hut's shattered beams.
**The entire top half exploded.**
The blade in his hands sizzled, but remained intact.
Shadow exhaled slowly.
> "This... is the foundation."
> "Sword Flash Art."
---
Finally created ⚔ Sword Flash Art – Description
- **Type**: Burst Martial Technique (Close Range)
- **Energy Use**: Instantaneous Thunder-Based Pulse (Heaven-Stealing Conversion)
- **Requirements**: Clear vision of opponent's weakness / precise timing
- **Execution**: Blade is loaded with one pulse of stolen Qi. The user closes in and releases the energy at the moment of contact, striking at a vital point or structural weakness.
- **Result**: One lethal strike.
> "One breath. One step. One strike."
> "That's all I need."
---
That evening, as the stars returned, Shadow stood at the center of his quiet camp.
He practiced the form slowly now.
His foot forward.
His blade low.
Eyes on a target only he could see.
> "Step. Align. Flash."
And in the whisper of steel and silence, a new art was born.
Not one taught.
Not one remembered.
But one **forged from silence, pain, and stolen light.**
> "This is my path."
> "And it begins with a single flash."
---