The Path of the Strongest Mortal, page 14
Attention!
Your understanding of the Yin concept has reached the initial stage of the third layer.
As soon as this happened, he opened his eyes. Glancing at the Yin Concentration next to him, and then concentrating on his own body, he nodded. At the same moment, the Concentration spun and the darkness in his chest stirred. The fight lasted for several minutes, after which the demon’s Yin was sucked into the dark ball.
He was finally healed.
Tearing off the bandages, he saw the remnants of the wound regenerating. To his surprise, it left behind...
...A scar? He stared at his chest. That was the first scar on his body. Well, considering who had wounded me, this could’ve been expected...
He left the cultivation room. Even though he was staying at an inn, it felt like he had never left Urus’ mansion. Everything was at his disposal, and the service was as discreet as it could be.
“Old man, if I understand correctly, I no longer need to prepare my soul when it comes to ascending to the next level, and I can begin the transition to the Exorcist Stage at any time?”
“That’s right. After your brother’s death, your soul became resistant to any spiritual attacks. This means that you don’t have to take time to strengthen it before the next stage. But I wouldn’t advise you to become an Exorcist just yet. Your foundation is almost perfect. You’ve overcome the first three stages perfectly, so you have excellent endurance of body, mind, and soul. And if you want the same result at the Exorcist Stage, only using ki isn’t enough. You need resources. Rare ones, and a lot of them. Don’t forget that you spent all of your soul energy in the battle with Greenrow and Eria. It’s better not to rush. You need to prepare properly.”
“I see.” Kai nodded. “You’re right.”
After that, he focused on physical training. His progress slowed down with each new unit of parameters but that didn’t mean that he should stop striving toward bettering himself.
***
Two days later, the first and second wells were active once again, which meant that the vacation was over for the Resilients.
Kai arrived at the armory at six in the morning. But, unlike most members of the First Squad, he now had his own weapons that he had bought with the tournament money.
When everyone was ready, the group, led by Ghim, headed for the elevator. Within a few minutes, twenty cultivators were lowered into the underground tunnels.
Emerald Water began to flow five minutes after their arrival. The Abyss creatures immediately appeared. A twenty-hour battle began, no different from hundreds of others that had taken place here before. They worked as smoothly as possible, and since the dark fog didn’t weaken them, they had no difficulty waging such a long battle. Their efficiency was high, so that, taking turns, several people could even take breaks, while the rest of the group held the line.
Twenty hours flew by unnoticed, after which the elevator came to collect the Water and them. They quickly climbed onto the platform, simultaneously fighting off the creatures that hadn’t yet disappeared. It wasn’t until they were able to get a breather that someone noticed that one of their members was missing.
“Hey! Where’s Kai?!”
***
Five days after the Fist Fight, a new event began in Udin’s largest arena — Starks began his breakthrough to the Divine Stage, which would last for almost two years.
The elf sat in the center of the arena, which was covered by a huge array. Resources were laid out everywhere around him, among which there were even several large chests of Azure Crystals.
Around it all was a gigantic dome that even a hundred peak-level Holy Lords couldn’t damage. But this wasn’t the first line of defense. No, the main defense were almost four hundred Holy Lords, whom Starks had been able to gather and hire. About two hundred of them were his servants, and the rest were mercenaries and even entire clans that had been working as defendants of Udin and its lord for generations.
Although the breakthrough had been going on for more than three weeks now, Starks still hadn’t entered a deep meditative state. Once this process started, he’d completely lose contact with the outside world until he completed the breakthrough. If anything happened and interrupted him, he’d die. His death would create a powerful surge of uncontrollable energy and Forces, which would cause an explosion that would instantly destroy at least the entire Fighting Pits area.
Starks suddenly opened his eyes.
It was the dead of night, but darkness instantly gave way to light. A quarter of the city was covered with an incredibly bright flash and a deafening explosion. The earth shook.
When the lights went out, all the Holy Lords guarding Starks saw that he had closed his eyes again. His ki calmed down and he continued his breakthrough as if nothing had happened despite the fact that there was a huge hole on the surface of the arena.
In just a few minutes, a huge commotion would begin in Udin, but no one would ever know what disturbed Starks, forcing him to launch such a powerful lightning attack.
***
Three hours earlier
After waiting for the platform to ascend, Kai stopped hiding. As soon as he did so, the few remaining Abyss creatures immediately noticed him and rushed at him. Unfortunately for them, they stood no chance against the power of Yin.
Having dealt with them, he headed deeper into the mine. An hour later, he finally reached the familiar underground river. Jumping over it, he went to the passage that led deeper down. It was time to find out just where it went and what was the source of this immense torrent of Yin.
Thanks to his better understanding of Yin, the denseness of the powerful concept didn’t bother him anymore, and he could easily cover himself with a barrier made of its Concentration.
Going deeper into the bowels of this underground system, he finally reached the source of all this dark matter. It turned out to be a heart of a giant, mummified demon. It looked the same as the one that was chained to the pyramid. Its blackened heart was pierced by a spear, and Yin burst out of the wound in a powerful stream. Coming closer, Kai outstretched his hand and touched the spear’s handle. It instantly crumbled.
Looking up from the pile of dust that had once been the mighty weapon, he tried to take the source of Yin, but he failed. The pressure with which the Yin was gushing out of the wound was so strong that it kept pushing him back.
But he wasn’t going to give up so easily. Not when he was so close to getting something that could prove to be a valuable resource.
Concentrating, he began to drive the black sphere of Concentration through the flow of Yin, thus bringing his hand closer to the monster’s chest.
But even that wasn’t enough.
Growing annoyed, he consumed a couple of Azure Crystals, activated Life Rampage and Ultimate Focus, and opened four Body Gates. It was only then that he finally managed to wrap his fingers around the heart and yank it out of the demon’s chest. But since he couldn’t put such a thing into his Ring, he decided to try to place it into the Concentration sphere. To his surprise, it worked.
The dark part of the Tattoo began to stir and Kai’s left hand cramped with unbearable but momentary pain.
Attention!
A non-standard event recorded ...
Data processing…
[Yin-Yang Ghost Tattoo] development has been increased!
Progress: 25%
Kai knew that Concentration had its own volume which depended on the depth of his understanding of the Yin Concept. And although Concentration had increased significantly after he had reached the initial stage of the third layer, it still couldn’t contain all the power of the demonic heart. However, it settled there quietly for some reason, and now it was like he had an extra source of that power, and was able to release it at his will.
Hmm... What about the Tattoo’s progress? I thought that in order to increase it, I’d have to become an Exorcist first. Seems I was wrong and that there are other ways… he pondered. This was a rather big boost. I wonder if I’ll do just as well If I do something similar with the Yang Concentration... I’ll reach the halfway point if it works... After that, all that remains is to reach the Exorcist Stage in order to open those two unlocked abilities.
While he pondered, the dark fog inside the cave began to dissipate little by little. Kai felt warmth on his back. Turning abruptly, he saw light barely breaking through the surrounding darkness.
Can sunlight really reach down here? he wondered, surprised, as he headed toward the light. The closer he got to its source, the hotter it became. No, it has to be something else...
Kai froze.
Before him, a stone hung in the air, emitting a bright snow-white light. Upon closer inspection, he realized that this wasn’t a stone, but a heart. The light that it radiated seemed familiar to him. Looking more closely, he saw seven liquid-like beams of light of different strengths emanating from the heart and moving upward.
It’s Yang! Could this be the heart of whoever killed the demon? Dark and light. Yin and Yang. How interesting… Wait, so this must be where the seven wells of Emerald Water originate from... That’s why its power seemed familiar. But why is the Water at the wells so different from what I’m looking at now? Only the purest Yang flows here, and up there... it seems to be polluted. That’s it! As it flows upward, it gets polluted by Yin and loses some of its properties.
He wanted to take this resource with him, but he knew there was no way he could remove the stone from the complex array it was protected with.
Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me! He exclaimed and clicked his tongue in annoyance. Element of Lightning... Fucking Starks... Oh, you’re dead wrong if you think that I’ll get outta here empty-handed.
Summoning Yang Concentration, he brought it as close as possible to the barrier and then tried to activate its absorption ability. At the same moment, the seven beams of light changed their direction. Curving, they began to go into a whirling snow-white sphere. They flowed into it until it was filled to the brim. It wasn’t the heart, but it was still a good reward.
The gathering process was almost over when Kai was suddenly blinded and thrown back. He almost fainted from the power of the unexpected blow but the power of his Will, strengthened by his battle with An’na, managed to keep his consciousness afloat. The hum in his head slowly subsided and was replaced with terrible pain. Glancing at his left hand, which was the source of this pain, he saw only darkness. It wasn’t until his vision finally cleared up that he realized that his hand had been burned by the Forces of Lightning.
It took him a while but with the help of the Cold Void, he was able to suppress the alien Force in the wound, allowing his bloodline to regenerate the burnt tissue and nerves. The process was, unfortunately, everything but pleasant and short.
Standing up, Kai smelled ozone. Looking up and to the left, he saw a huge hole in the cave ceiling. Its edges were melted.
“You underestimated Starks, boy,” Rune’Tan said. “It looks like he felt even this tiny manipulation of his array. You got lucky. Almost all the power of his attack was suppressed after hitting a place with such a dense amount of Yin.”
“It’s time to get out of here.”
Before heading to the exit, Kai approached the demon’s corpse. After carefully examining it, he realized that there was something else in its chest cavity besides its heart. Some of its bones had managed to remain intact.
Taking them out, he cleaned them of the parchment-like skin. It flaked off the bones with the slightest of touches, revealing the yellowed bone underneath. Figuring that they might come in useful, Kai placed the bones into his Ring and then stood up. Remembering which direction he had come from, he headed out of the cave.
I don’t think I’ll be able to get up via the platform this time... Gotta find another way...
Suddenly, he heard rustling and muttering.
A fat elf covered with many dark spots tumbled out of the tunnel. He was missing an arm and had a huge burn on his face. He stared at Kai with a mad look in his eyes.
“Zirx.” Kai grinned. “I’d recognize that ugly snout of yours anywhere.”
Chapter 15
FIGHTING AN ELEMENTALIST
Zirx looked terrible. Unlike Kai, or the other Resilient ones, he didn’t have any means of protecting himself from the dark fog. The Yin that had filled the tunnels was stronger than any technique that wasn’t related to other concepts like Yang or the Cold Void.
And so, while Zirx was descending to the depths of the Abyss, the dark mist managed to get under his skin, fill his lungs, and pollute his blood and ki flows. There was no way that he’d get out of here alive. However, he didn’t care. He knew that he was going to die, but he didn’t care. He longed for only one thing — revenge. He wanted to kill at least one of those people who had wronged him. The desire to even out the score had clouded his mind.
When he learned that the First Squad had returned to the surface without Kai, he knew that that good-for-nothing slave was scheming something. He remembered that Kai had spent several days in the Abyss after their first descend and remained unharmed, so he didn’t believe that the little fuck was dead. Especially not after what Kai had done during the tournament.
A huge whip made of water appeared in Zirx’s hand the moment he laid his eyes on Kai. It whistled through the air with the intention to cut the young man in half but all it managed to do was to knock him down, sending him somewhere deep into the cave.
“Shit!” Zirx swore, seeing his prey disappear in the clouds of dark fog.
Kai had managed to react only at the very last moment. Thanks to the Mind Gates and Ultimate Focus, he formed an ice shield around himself and sent a gravitational wave to repel the whip. Still, he didn’t get off easily. His forearm, which was closest to the shield, was shattered upon impact. Several of his ribs were broken and his spine suffered some damage, too.
Once he finally got to his feet, he was almost immediately forced to jump to the side to avoid another attack from the water whip that whizzed past him at great speed. The same attack hit different spots all around the dark mist. Zirx probably didn’t know where his target was, so he attacked at random, hoping to reach it.
So he can’t resist Yin nor navigate around it... Good, that’ll give me the upper hand.
“You little rat! Stop hiding!” Zirx shouted and launched a large technique, putting a lot of ki into it.
Thousands of water drops were scattered around at tremendous speed. Most of them disappeared upon impact with Kai’s shield, which absorbed a decent amount of the attack’s power, however, a few drops still hit him, piercing his body like bullets. Luckily, they missed his vitals. But they did let the elf know where he was hiding.
“There you are,” Zirx grinned and rushed toward his target, ignoring one of Kai’s strongest techniques — Space Destroying Sweep, with the help of his Energy Cover, which not only increased its owner’s stats but also provided them with a strong shield.
Attacking back, Kai lunged to the side, activating the Five Weightless Steps Technique. However, even with that, Life Rampage, and the opened Body Gates, he was still slower than Zirx. All he could do to get away from the water whip was to continue hiding in the fog.
He’s still levels below Liu in his weakened state. Yin is destroying his body... I could try to escape or wear him down. He’ll die in a few hours, anyway. Still, I can’t hide in the fog forever. I won’t have anywhere to turn around in that tunnel if he makes me back away that far. I guess that escaping isn’t really an option... I’ll have to fight. But approaching him is too dangerous, so close combat is impossible. He can easily destroy my ranged attacks, so there’s no point in spending ki on them. All I have left are the Cold Void and Yin.
Zirx realized that he needed to change his strategy. Continuing with aimless attacks would quickly exhaust him and leave him defenseless.
Thanks to Yin invading his body, his physical parameters were only slightly higher than Kai’s. Tough, he still had the Great Energy Cover, which he acquired after reaching the Elementalist Stage. Also, he had higher-rank step techniques and thus was faster. The only thing preventing him from destroying Kai in an instant was the dark fog in which the brat kept hiding.
Since elves had an increased ki supply, which allowed them to make energy and Forces their main tools, they had no need for weapons. Most of them were considered tools of barbarians as it was always believed that the only proper and honorable way to defeat your enemy was by using your inner strength. There were those who went against the norm, of course, but they were rare examples. The only exception to the general rule was the bow, which was rather popular among the elves as it provided them with the opportunity to eliminate the threat before it got too close and before a fight could even take place.
Having once again dodged the water whip, Kai waved his hand, sending forth a hail of icicles formed by the Cold Void.
Realizing that this ice was equal in power to a Royal-rank technique, Zirx immediately activated Air Shield and deflected Kai’s attack. However, this provided his opponent with an opportunity to finally move to a safe distance.
He can control both the Wind and Water Forces, Kai noted. Interesting...
He was just about to figure out a way to use Yin to attack Zirx when he heard a rumble. The ground shook, and then he felt a gust of wind that definitely shouldn’t have been blowing this deep in an underground cave.
In the next moment, a huge vortex began to suck in everything in its vicinity. Everything but the Yin particles, which could only be influenced by other concepts. Initially, Kai only felt a slight pull, but after a moment, its power increased. He had to create ice blades and plunge them into the ground to stay in place. It seemed as if the world had turned upside down.
But it didn’t end there. Zirx’s vortex was gaining strength. And when it finally reached its maximum power, Kai’s ice blades, unable to handle the pull, started to crack. And no matter how many times he renewed the ice or used the gravitational force of the Path of Space, he couldn’t stop the influence. The blades shattered and he flew straight toward his opponent.
