The Call of the Forces

by Yuri Ajin

  However, he had to postpone training the young cultivator as he was too injured to do anything but meditate and focus on getting better.

  Strengthening his defenses with what little strength he had left, Kai focused. A powerful burst of Force that took the shape of a needle burst into his soul world with a deafening whistle. But before it could do any damage, it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  “Not bad.” Rune’Tan nodded. “You did a lot better this time!”

  “Yeah...” Kai answered shortly, exhausted both physically and mentally. For five days now, he had been training with the old man without a break.

  “However, your defense is still poor. You haven’t learned to support it subconsciously. C’mon, remember what I’ve taught you.”

  The first thing that the redhead had taught him were the basic principles of spirit attacks, to which telepathy that Liu used in the hive was partly related. Almost all of them were carried out using auras and were aimed only at the Shell. The Spark remained invulnerable, and soul energy practically couldn’t be exposed to external influences.

  Not all soul techniques required energy, however. For example, Spiritual Connection, which was also a form of telepathy, needed only very skillful handling of one’s own aura. This could be done by cultivators at the Holy Lord Stage or well-trained Soul Masters.

  After that, Rune’Tan explained to Kai how the spirit attacks were carried out. The target had to be within the aura’s reach in order to be influenced. There were also attacks based on one’s spirit mark, but that was a lesson for another day.

  In general, it was better to keep one’s distance from a Soul Master, so as not to find themselves too close to their aura. In most cases, a cultivator had no chance against a Master unless they had special items with spirit marks.

  To make things worse, those Masters who had reached the Walker Stage and started using their Soul Sphere, could materialize their attacks to a degree, which allowed them to use spirit techniques like ordinary ones, thus surpassing the limitations of one’s aura. This was how Rune’Tan attacked Liu as he didn’t want to reveal that there was someone else’s aura in Kai’s body.

  He also told Kai that, usually, a Master could pierce through their enemy’s soul world with their aura, even if it hadn’t yet been opened. That was why only those who had discovered their soul worlds could defend themselves and why those who specialized in the Path of the Soul were among the strongest cultivators. However, this Path was an extremely difficult one, and required not only great talent but also a predisposition for aura control.

  Spirit techniques were divided into three categories — control, attack, and defense. The first was aimed at influencing the Shell. Among its uses were telepathy, illusions, and mental destruction, but for the most part, a Master used them for two purposes: healing and mind control.

  Attack techniques were used to kill the target by destroying or inflicting damage on the Shell. They were extremely ki-intense, which was why Rune’Tan had to eat the Fruit’s seed in order to create his attack using his spirit energy, which was more effective than just using ki.

  Defense techniques needed little or no ki. The most important things were one’s willpower and the proper attunement to a soul world. This was to be one of Kai’s last lessons.

  As willpower and its development depended on the cultivator, Rune’Tan couldn’t do much to help Kai with his, so he focused on the other issue. He decided to teach Kai the main three types of spirit protection — those of perception, mind, and Shell.

  They started with that of perception, with which Kai was already a little familiar. In the future, he should be able to use Ultimate Focus for fighting instead of blocking the Master’s Will.

  After that, they moved on to studying how to protect one’s mind, which was more difficult. To protect it, one had to roll it up like a scroll, and then create a rather complex Cover around it.

  As for the Shell, its defense was the most difficult type to master, even though the process was similar to most techniques. For this, Kai needed to learn how to fill it with ki. He found the process difficult even though he was very good at controlling both ki and prana since the Shell had to be handled with utmost care.

  By the end of his training, Kai was able to create a weak Cover around his Shell, which was riddled with holes and cracks. He’d have to spend a lot of time working on this skill before he could put it to use. But perception and mind defense skills could be filled with energy, so theoretically, he could even block a Royal-rank spirit technique if he had enough ki and willpower.

  “Well, I think we can call it a day,” Rune’Tan said. “Don’t overstrain your soul, otherwise, you could damage it.”

  “I’ll try not to. Thank you, Rune’Tan,” he said.

  “Till next time, then.”

  An hour and a half of meditating and recovering later, Kai headed for the shower. Not that he needed one, he just loved the sensation of warm water on his skin after a good training.

  Once he was done showering, he got dressed, and walked over to the large mirror in the corner of his room. A tall man with long, dark hair stared back at him with violet eyes. Turning around a couple of times, Kai observed himself. He never noticed that he still looked sort of lanky despite training so much.

  I’d look ridiculous if I was super ripped, though... So this is good, he thought to himself. Now that I think about it... A lot of cultivators look like this... Tall and handsome... Must be a side-effect of cultivation...

  Having finished looking at himself, he summoned the robes of the Seven Blades Clan from his Ring. Stylish and comfortable, Kai wore them often, preferring them to regular clothes. In addition, these robes were Gold-rank artifacts, albeit of low quality, which made them incredibly useful.

  Washed and dressed, he headed to the training complex with the intention of mastering new techniques and skills. His body had finally recovered, so he was allowed to do some physical training again.

  Over the past couple of days, in addition to regeneration and training with Rune’Tan, he had been engaged in a special kind of meditation, in which he kept going over his fights with Alexander and Liu. For Kai, fights weren’t just a test, but also an opportunity. An opportunity to get stronger and to better understand cultivation.

  He had given himself three tasks. The first two were to find and correct the mistakes he had made in his fight against Liu (which he had done yesterday), and to understand Alexander’s techniques. The last one was to get comfortable with the new level of the Forces of Sword, which he had gained from the Spirit.

  The other two, he’d get done today.

  He summoned the Forces of Space. Closing his eyes, he concentrated and made a replica of Alexander’s techniques, and then he started modifying them, adjusting their power to himself. After six hours and a dozen destroyed training dummies, Kai received several messages.

  You have unlocked [Weight Distortion Technique].

  Rank: Gold

  Quality: Peak

  Progress: 100%

  You have mastered [Night Space Technique].

  Rank: Gold

  Quality: Peak

  Progress: 100%

  You have unlocked [Gravitational Break Blade Technique].

  Rank: Gold

  Quality: Peak

  Progress: 100%

  You have unlocked [Advanced Distortion Barrier Technique].

  Rank: Gold

  Quality: Peak

  Progress: 100%

  As the name suggested, the first technique allowed the user to control the weight of any object. Kai had already mastered the Zero Gravity Step, which had a similar effect, but which also had two major drawbacks — it could be used only on the user and the things that they had touched. Also, you could only decrease their weight.

  The Weight Distortion Technique didn’t have these drawbacks. However, without the Zero Gravity Step, Kai wouldn’t have been able to form this new technique, since he had to combine it with one of Alexander’
s to get it.

  Kai intended to use this technique for improving the speed of his movement and decreasing the weight of his swords in order to increase the power of his attacks.

  The Night Space Technique would have to be used if he had to fight against multiple, rather than just one opponent.

  The last two were also modified versions of Alexander’s techniques, which Kai had improved upon and adjusted to himself.

  The Gravitational Break Blade Technique had become his new attack skill, designed to be used with swords in mid to close-range combat. The Advanced Distortion Barrier was the result of mixing Distortion Barrier with the basic elements of the Offset Step.

  Having finished with these techniques, he moved on to the Forces of Sword. He spent about eight more hours meditating, interrupting his contemplation only to practice more. The result of his efforts was an improved form of the Blade Release Technique, which was his main attack skill. Its forms hadn’t changed, but thanks to new grains of understanding of the Forces of Sword, he was now able to improve them, making them a little more powerful and more economical in terms of energy cost.

  Satisfied with the results of his training, he opened the stats menu.

  Stats

  Age: 20

  Race: human

  Status: Mortal

  Stage: Soul Stage

  Level: Source Creation

  Characteristics

  • [Power]: 111,45

  • [Speed]: 106,97

  • [Endurance]: 112,63

  • [Stamina]: 125,02

  • [Mind]: 80.46

  • [Energy]: 332.62

  Available points: 0

  Abilities

  • [Low-rank Techniques: View]

  • [Earth-rank Techniques: View]

  • [Blade Release Technique] Rank: Gold. Quality: Peak

  • [Five Weightless Steps Technique] Rank: Gold. Quality: Peak

  • [Unbreakable Ice Technique] Rank: Gold. Quality: Peak

  • [Frosty Touch Technique] Rank: Gold. Quality: Peak

  • [Space Destroying Sweep] Rank: Gold. Quality: Peak

  • [Seven Blades Technique] Rank: Gold. Quality: Peak

  • [Weight Distortion Technique] Rank: Gold. Quality: Peak

  • [Night Space Technique] Rank: Gold. Quality: Peak

  • [Gravitational Break Blade Technique] Rank: Gold. Quality: Peak

  • [Advanced Distortion Barrier Technique] Rank: Gold. Quality: Peak

  Forces

  Path of Sword (Hearing Stage): Reflection Force, Speed Force, Endurance Force, Strength Force, Slashing Force, Piercing Force, Intent Force

  Path of Sword (Seer Stage): Force of Form

  Path of Space (Hearing Stage): Force of Repulsion, Force of Attraction, Force of Creation, Force of Destruction

  Path of Space (Seer Stage): Force of Form

  Concept of the Cold Void: average understanding of the third layer

  Features and Equipment

  [True Descendant of the Nine-Headed Heavenly Hydra]

  [Six Gates of the Body]

  [No Limits]

  [Life Rampage]

  [Phantom Yin-Yang Tattoo] - Progress: locked

  [Oath] given by Rune’Tan Shakwir. Possibility of refusing.

  [Favorite of the Forces]: You are able to see what is invisible to others.

  [Small Energy Cover]: Physical characteristics increased by 10% of the total energy reserve.

  [Manifestation of Soul: Ultimate Focus]

  [Full Aura Disguise]

  [Silver-rank Items. View]

  [Gold-rank Items. View]

  [Twin Blades of the Grizzly Mountain] Rank: Royal. Quality: Low

  [Mature Sword Spirit] Development progress: 24%

  Achievements

  [Great Growth! (7)]

  For the simultaneous achievement of 7 levels of Body Endurance, you get 7 free points of characteristics that you can distribute as you wish.

  Minimum division: 0.01 points

  [Quality Leap!]. Based on your previous successes in the study of Forces, as well as the sharp increase in the amount of Soul Energy, you receive the trait [The Favorite of the Forces].

  [Overcoming Mortal Boundaries! (1)] For a victory over the Master (initial-level Exorcist), while being under-leveled (Soul Stage, Source Creation), you get a [Memory Jade] (automatic selection).

  Tasks

  [Search for the Ancient Truth]

  Find out the reason for the disappearance of the Divine Empire of Belteise.

  Reward: ???

  Should you fail, you will receive a fine of 1,000 units of each of your characteristics or death.

  Remaining time: 9,995 years

  In addition to the increased number of mastered techniques, his physical stats had also slightly increased. His body had become stronger due to the pressure that had been put on it. Like a lump of coal, under stress and duress, it became a brilliant diamond.

  Still, not all of it was good. Because he had to merge with the Spirit, its development was currently stuck on twenty-four percent instead of forty-six. He had spent almost half of what he had achieved during the previous year and a half in a matter of minutes. And now he’d have to wait even longer before the Spirit matured.

  With this, his training came to an end, and he hurried back to the others. In a few hours, they’d be on their way to Russia.

  Chapter 20

  THE FLIGHT

  Kai and his friends were heading to the airport, where a small military plane was waiting to take them to Russia. To Novosibirsk, more precisely.

  Shacks and Diamond were getting ready to fly with their own groups. The latter had been appointed the leader of the mission, as well as the Union’s representative during the negotiations with the Russian authorities.

  The idea of sending one of the two Exorcists to the other side of the planet might’ve seemed like a bad idea, but the Union was well aware that this was nothing in comparison to the invasion that awaited them if they didn’t get to the Gates in time.

  In less than ten minutes, their new journey began.

  ***

  The flight was dragging on even for those who were deep in meditation and contemplation. Even worse off were those from Earth who, unlike their friends from Saha, weren’t the type to meditate, so they had nothing to do other than stare at the ceiling or the floor and count the screws that held them together.

  As for Kai, he was studying the Jade. From the moment he had gotten it, he was interested in it and the Crystal and wished to study them in-depth, but he just hadn’t had the time to do it properly. What he had learned about them during the trip to the hive were only the basics. He had just barely scratched the surface of the mysteries that surrounded these items. Fortunately, he now had nearly twenty hours to spare.

  After six hours of meditating upon the Crystal, he opened his eyes and sighed.

  This trinket is rather interesting… It’s able to pass any knowledge hidden inside to anyone in an instant… It’s a pity that I just can’t seem to be able to change the information in it...

  Returning the Crystal to his Ring, he took out the Jade.

  Having surrounded it with his aura, he was able to study it with his energy vision. Not wishing to miss anything, he carefully examined every inch of the artifact. And when, after five hours, he began to think that he was wasting time with this, he finally noticed something.

  I’m an idiot for not seeing this before. I don’t need to change anything; I just have to create what I need from scratch! Instead of trying to change Luke’s sealed Shell, I can use my own spirit mark. Those can also be filled with memories!

  Nodding to himself, he took out the Crystal again, and then, focusing on it, opened the Mind Gate.

  First things first, I have to disconnect this part of the Shell from the rest. But how do I do that without damaging the artifact? He wondered. Hmm... Like this maybe? Ha-ha! It worked! Good, good... I knew it. The Forces of Space only temporarily disabled this part.
It doesn’t seem to be damaged... That’s good... Now, for the core. What did the old man say about it? It’s a fragment of the Shell, transformed by the System into a more convenient form... In that case, I can modify it. First, I have to remove this one in order to make an identical copy, but from pure energy. Then, I need to fill it with my spirit so that there’s information in it. But how do I do it correctly?

  Kai pondered for another hour, carefully going through all the options. By the end of it, he had come up with three methods, at least one of which, in his opinion, should work.

  To carry out his plan, he needed two more Crystals. Luckily, Diamond was kind enough to lend them to him. The information recorded on them was practically useless, so no one was in a hurry to use them.

  After trying out the first method, the artifact quickly cracked, and its usual glow disappeared. Everything in the Crystal’s internal structure was almost completely destroyed since its core had disintegrated.

  Discarding it, Kai took the second one.

  Having erased the fragment of the Shell that had been transformed into a symbol, he began to create a new spirit mark, at the same time recreating the core.

  This time, the Crystal didn’t crack and its structure remained intact. However, since it had stopped working, it was now useless.

  Fuck! cursing, Kai winced. Now I have only one left. I have to be as careful as possible. This better work...

  He was about to erase the Shell when Rune’Tan intervened.

  “I don’t think that that’ll work,” he said calmly.

  “Oh! Old man! You finished your meditation already?” Kai asked, delighted to hear him.

  “Yes,” Rune’Tan answered. “And I think that I can help you.”

  “I’m all ears!”

  “I’ve noticed that during your first two attempts, the structure begins to collapse as soon as you erase the part of the Shell enclosed in it. Based on this, we can conclude that the functionality of a Crystal is tied to the Shell.”