Only I Am A Reader
chapter-414

Before claiming any further 'realized items', Leo did his best to remain calm and silently wait for a solid 5 minutes. Thankfully, the worst that he was preparing for didn't happen.

'So far… There seems to be no problem.'

To begin with, the Meridians that are commonly known in Murim were nothing but an invisible circulatory system that passed through the muscles, but through the power of 'Reality Reading', it was actualized in his body… It was even clogged at one point!

The passages of Sword Breath were just the same in that aspect, it came alongside the ability of 'Universal Sword Breathing' and became a part of Leo's reality. However…

'They are not the same.'

They were both called pathways, but as they both came from two different worlds, the two sets of containment and circulation systems didn't follow the same paths!

Of course, they were different in location by a very small margin and there were even turns or joints where they coincided, despite that, from what Leo could observe…

'They are in harmony, no… Unrecognition. '

It was as if each form of power wasn't even aware that there was something else that it crossed paths with.

The Progenitor Sword Fragments inside his body didn't react to the Dantian's sudden emergence either! Each system just perfectly worked on its own and stayed that way.

'In that case…'

Leo had been waiting to properly circulate Internal Energy through his body once more. Rather than the familiar meditation, he wanted to test something else.

'As expected!'

As he stood up once more, Leo's movements were no longer as awkward as they were before he went into the Reading Space.

Internal Energy Empowerment aside, Leo could already tell that his pure physical strength had increased once more even without looking at his Personal Book.

Just as was the case when he received 'Universal Sword Breathing' before, everything pertaining to the ability was retained.

Even if he didn't climb up step by step and repeat the advancement process up to the Peak Stage, the physical strengthening from these advancements was there!

Most importantly, once the Internal Energy Cycle went into full throttle, the sense of disorientation that had overcome Leo after changing bodies almost completely disappeared.

In this state, it would only take a few days of intense training to completely adjust to his current physical statistics!

'Last test.'

After confirming that there were no further unpleasant complications that came with the implementation of 'Scarlet Sky Breathing', there was only one more thing to consider.

Synergy!

The curve of expectations was always like that, one would imagine the worst and just hope to avoid it. However, once they passed the danger zone, they would slowly expect more and more.

Leo was no different. Since Sword Breath and Internal Energy didn't reject each other, what about combining both?

More intricate testing while using the full potential of his Sword Body would be required later, but Leo just wanted to test the very basic abilities of a Swordsman, applying Sword Breath to his sword!

A Swordsman's only ability, the one thing they could do was that. On the other hand, however, using Sword Qi or Sword Aura was an ability that was solely usable starting from the Peak Stage. So…

'What would it be like to apply both to the same sword?'

With more anticipation than hesitation, Leo grabbed the now unfamiliar grip of the Sword Breaker. After wielding the White Tiger for so long, it now felt like a completely new weapon.

What once fascinated Leo as a sword possessing a supernatural ability was now barely passable for a spare. If not for the fact that he was trying to keep things in order, he would have already taken out the White Tiger even for this simple test.

'First…'

Contemplating what to use first, Leo settled on covering the heavy sword with Sword Qi first as it was the more intricate ability before finally trying to envelop it using the more simple Sword Breath.

'Done?'

At first glance, the intangible Sword Breath seemed to smoothly climb the Sword Qi as if it was just part of the Sword Breaker, but it was hard to tell what was going on.

Would the Sword Breath completely disregard the Sword Qi and replace its effect with its own? If not, was it going to produce a flat addition effect of 1+1 or would the two complement each other to produce a multiplied effect?

There was only one way to tell!

Swish!

Slashing at the empty air once to get a general feel, Leo took two steps forward towards a large rock that he collected before he went to the world of Murim.

As a former fledgling Swordsman, he needed something to test his level of ability as he advanced through the stages, and now, it served an even greater purpose!

Without the aid of any supplemental ability, a weapon like the Sword Breaker would have smashed the rock into pieces. However, this time around, it simply slid through the rock like a knife cutting through butter.

Despite holding back his physical strength, the incredibly sharp, symmetrical cut had actually caused the upper part of the rock to slip and fall to the ground!

'Synergy… It's there!'

The feat of cutting through a rock was easily achievable by either Sword Qi or Sword Breath on their own, but to cut it this smoothly without putting any effort couldn't be achieved by any of them on their own.

Just by doing a quick mental comparison, Grade 7 Sword Breath still lost slightly to Sword Qi when it came to cutting characteristics. However…

Although the Sword Qi was the one that dominated the field in the end, it could only reach this level of sharpness thanks to the Sword Breath's augmentation! It was a shared effort!

Leo had just started testing, yet he had already found a method to combine the abilities that he obtained from both novels!

'If it follows that principle…'

Still, what truly fascinated Leo was how the Sword Breath behaved. If it recognized the Internal Energy that it didn't acknowledge before now that it took the essence and form of a sword…

'Then shouldn't that also be possible?'

While using it with a sword was more effective, the actual form of Sword Qi wasn't restricted to it. Its most pure form was basic Sword Energy!

As Internal Energy that has been refined to provide the characteristics of a blade, Sword Energy could be applied to hands or legs like Leo had already done before.

With that in mind, an even more ridiculous combination could be achieved!

'It works!'

After forming an Energy Sword around his hand, Leo attempted to guide the Sword Breath over it and received a positive reaction.

The Sword Breath directly perceived Sword Qi as a sword on its own, and because both of them were pure forms of energy that had the perfectly matching characteristic of a sword, they further pushed each other beyond their capabilities.

Just like that, Leo directly solved the Holy Sword School's biggest problem without having to undergo any form of mutation, using Sword Breath without utilizing a sword!

If the Sword Body was a creative workaround, then Sword Qi could be considered an unexpected match that was produced in a 'eureka' moment.

'Now, should we move on to the bigger guns?'

More excited by the possibilities promised by the rest of the items in his shopping cart, Leo held back on additional testing as he grabbed his book of purchases once more…