The sword in Luke's hand began to glow with Qi—an aura only visible to him.
The offensive power was the same as the previous basic technique, but it consumed double the amount of Qi. He started channeling more Qi into the sword to increase its offensive strength. When he managed to double the offensive output, he realized he was already using more Qi than he had initially calculated.
While this wasn't a problem for Luke due to his vast reserves and passive absorption of Qi—which was still more than enough to sustain the Qi Sword without even decrease his reserve, he began recalculating the amount needed for prolonged use.
After breaking the basic sword technique's limit using the Qi Sword technique, Luke realized that Qi usage did not increase linearly. When using the basic technique at its highest capacity, he only needed to use 10% of his passive Qi absorption to support this particular low-quality practice sword. However, when using the Qi Sword an advanced technique at the same power level, he had to spend 20% of his passive absorption.
When he increased the offensive power, his expenditure rocketed to 90%, which was not what he calculated. He calculated that he would need to spend 40%, like double the initial, but it increased differently. When he crossed the Basic Technique limit by a small margin, it only cost double the amount of Qi, but after that, Qi expenditure increased rapidly.
This is why others didn't use advanced techniques like Qi Sword because it would dry their reserves in a few minutes. In Solomon's case, when he used the Basic Technique, it looked like he used a little more than he passively could recover. So using Qi Sword is doesn't do good to him
When using a sword made of rare quality materials, the Qi needed for the Basic Technique only increases slightly—or sometimes stays the same—but it provides more offensive power. Either way, when only using the Basic Technique to its limit, the sword will crumble after a few clashes. So, when using the Basic Sword Technique, cultivators typically apply around 75% enhancement to effectively use the sword without it crumbling.
But when using the Qi Sword technique, the sword doesn't crumble and delivers multiple times the offensive power; however, it requires a massive amount of Qi. Luke could even cut through a rare-material sword augmented with the basic technique using an ordinary sword empowered by the Qi Sword technique without his own sword crumbling.
Luke stopped channeling Qi, and the sword, once brimming with energy, slowly dimmed and returned to normal.
I can utilize an advanced technique from the beginning, something even experts must carefully consider before using. That's a huge advantage for me.I can easily reach 200% of the sword's offensive limit, while others struggle to reach even 100%.I need to keep practicing this technique to reduce the time it takes to activate—then I'll be able to fight efficiently.
Without sleeping, he continued training throughout the night.
Only six days remained until the trial.