46 Heart Lock
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"Are you good?" Upon teleporting out, Sieg saw the attendant standing in front of him, he supported him by the shoulders and asked him this question.
Sieg is a bit miserable right now. He was still teary eyed and had blood trickling down on the corners of his lips. The headache that he felt is just starting to go away, and his appearance is a bit disorientated.
"I'm alright, thanks Martial Brother." Sieg said in a low voice.
He heaved a sigh of relief after knowing that he was already out of the heart chamber. The experience was very terrifying for him. The feeling of weakness is the one he dreaded the most, added the fact that he also thought that he could've done something about it but can't is just too much for him, in fact not only him, of others experienced what he just went through then their complexions would not be that much different from him.
"Congratulations on clearing the first 'Heart Lock' Junior Martial Brother." The attendant said smilingly.
Sieg was bit confused by what the attendant said so he asked: "Heart Lock? What's that?"
" 'Heart Lock' is just a term we use for the stages you clear inside the Heart Chamber. The heart demons you faced inside the chamber just now is just the first 'Heart Lock'." The attendant said while supporting Sieg back to the lower floor and onto one of the tables available.
"I see, so it means that there is multiple 'Heart Locks' inside the Heart Chamber then." Sieg said as he sat down in one of the chairs available.
"Well, it depends on a person." The attendant informed him.
"It depends?"
"Not all people have many heart demons. In a way, heart demons are just manifestations of a martial artists past, it could also be a manifestations of their regrets, their failed decisions or wrong choice. Some even said that they saw themselves 'differently' from what they currently are. In the end, all of these are Heart Demons, and their purpose is to deviate you from your path." The attendant said informatively.
Sieg's eyes constricted a bit upon hearing this, doesn't this mean that there's practically no end for his heart demons then? Talking about regrets alone would have him stranded for at least five to six rooms inside that thing, not to mention his past which he dreaded as well.
Sensing Sieg's predicament, the attendant only chuckled and said: "Honestly, sometimes I think it is much better to have more Heart Demons. Think about it, the more heart demons you have, the more you needed to purge them, and every time you're successful in doing so, your Ki flow would go smoother. This means that the more demons you defeat, the further you overall potential would go."
5 years to Awaken, 20 years to build a Foundation that could reach the heavens, 30 years to form the Golden Core, 50 years to tear the Void.
Someone who wanted to embark of the path of martial arts would start at the age of ten. The term '5 years to Awaken' means that normally, it would take 5 years for someone to reach the peak of the 9th step for Awakening realm.
'20 years to build a Foundation that could reach the heavens' means it would take 20 years for someone to step into Heavenly Foundation Realm. From there it would take 30 years to form the Golden Core and another 50 years to officially enter Void Realm.
All in all it would take someone about 105 years to cultivate up to Void Realm. Well, 'normally' that's how long it should be. This is already a long period of time but this is also considering the fact that there's some resources included and no accidents happened.
And Heart Demons are considered as one of those 'accidents'. Cultivation is defiance to the Heavens and Earth. To cultivate also means to wrestle away the fortune of the world and use it for one's selfish desire and ascend to be as powerful as the Heaven and Earth themselves. Such defiance wouldn't go unpunished, thus Heaven and Earth created interferences in the form of 'Bottlenecks'.
This 'Bottlenecks' are what held countless of Martial Artists down, some of them needed to stay longer in one specific realm because of it, some even needed to steal the appropriate resources from the jaw of a heavenly beast just to make a break through, some watched their families, friends and people die in sacrifice to break these bottlenecks. Some of these people succeeded, while most of them died trying.
Heart Demons are intangible things, resources that could clear these demons are almost non-existent, and if such a resource appeared, it will cause massive bloodshed. Because of this fact, people tend to use the most universal approach in dealing with these demons. And that is confrontations.
Successful confrontations would lead to a better ki flow and a failed confrontation would create a massive 'bottleneck' for martial artist. If someone that is in Core Formation Realm encountered this bottleneck, then he/she would never breakthrough the Void Realm, that is unless he/she cleared this heart demon away. This is one of the reasons why most people are having a hard time with their cultivations or just stuck and would forever be on their current realm until they die.
"What I'm trying to say is, you have an immense 'potential' Junior Martial Brother. Well, enough of that. Since you cleared out the 1st Heart Lock, then the merit points you paid would be waived." The attendant reached for the badge on Sieg's chest and inserted his Ki in it.
Sieg was momentarily dazed by this and couldn't help but ask: "Is this alright?"
"Yes Junior Martial Brother." The attendant said and handed his badge back to him, "Every chamber inside this tower have a 'hidden mission' which would be revealed once you finish them. You clearing the 1st heart lock is such, the bigger you achievements are, the bigger the reward is."
Sieg was surprised and involuntarily blurted out: "Such things exist?"
"Of course." The attendant said confidently: "It is not secret to anyone that the sect is on decline. These 'hidden missions' are one of the few ways the sect rewarded those who work hard on their cultivation. A friendly reminder Junior Martial Brother, most of these hidden mission have something to do inside these chambers. So better save those merit points yours. All right, that all I could say. If you're done recovering and want to enter another chamber just approach me there." Having said these informations, the attendant turned around and walked back to his desk.
Sieg was left there, his mind was reeling still. There's just too much that happened in this one day and he's still confused. After recovering for a bit, he decided to go for the chambers some other day and went back to his cave.
He entered the training area, sat down and meditated. After a few minutes, he already recovered back to his peak condition, this delighted him greatly. It seems that the tempering inside the Frozen Chamber and passing through the 1st heart lock gave him noticeable benefits. And since he completed one of the 'hidden missions' of the sect, he was left with 240 merit points.
'Hmm? What's this?' Sieg was a bit startled as he looked inside his body. The faint outline of the Moon inside his body is at the size of his fist now and the 'dew-like' thing in the middle is also more noticeable right now. He still couldn't understand why he had this inside his body, but it seems like it got immense benefits after going inside the Frozen Chamber, he just noticed the result now that he looked at it.
He then paid attention to his spirit. His consciousness entered his Spiritual Sea which looked like a seamless barrier that separated the realm inside his body and the realm of his soul. After passing through his spiritual sea, he saw his soul which seems to be sleeping right now. His soul looked like a naked and ethereal version of him, it looked like it was a body of water that's being reflected with light. Spiritual energies flowed gently around it from time to time seemingly wanting to nourish it and make it the most strongest existence. There's also a faint image of a blue gem embedded in it's forehead. According to 'Ancient Heart Mantra' this should be where his memories are kept, if this is destroyed then it also means that Sieg is done for.
He dissipated his consciousness and opened his eyes. The corners of his lips formed a smile, he stood up and stretched for a bit. Then he took out the checklist that Old Pete gave him and started to learn more about inscriptions.
***
Winter's Embrace. It is one of the most important locations inside the Freezing Sky Sect, it is located just underneath that 'huge boulder' that Sieg saw upon arriving at the vicinity of the sect. This is the place where most of the 'important people' of the sect gathers. Those people consists of Core Disciples, Elders, and the office of the Sect Director. This is also the place where the important guests of the Sect stayed.
The buildings that stood inside this part of the mountain are made out of top class materials, they are also protected by formations and some of them are even guarded by a beast.
One particular building is vastly different from others though. This building was in the shape of a five floored pagoda. The first floor spanned for at least dozen square meters and the subsequent floor above it were the same. The overall design of the pagoda followed the theme of winter and snow winds, some of the railings were made out of sapphires that has snowflakes winds and creatures that represents Ice were carved out. The roof of this pagoda seemed like it was made out of scales of a blue dragon which made anyone feel intimidated just by looking at it.
Inside the first floor of the pagoda gathered few people that emitted powerful ki fluctuations and sitting around a table while enjoying a cup of tea.
"Fellow Daoist Mu is such a good host, a tea made from the leaves of Longevity Tree sure is a delicacy." One of the old men sitting around the table said smilingly.
"You flatter me Fellow Daoist Li, you experienced a tough journey after all so it is naturally my job to ease up some of you tensions." Mu Qingyin said while smiling.
"Oh do not be like that Fellow Daoist Mu, or else we old men would pay you a visit more hahaha!" One old man said with a bit of a lecherous smile.
Mu Qingyin and the rest just laughed at this. Of course, they knew better. This sort of conversations is just a pretense nothing more. If they were given a chance to be completely honest then all them were sure that the atmosphere wouldn't be as 'peaceful' as this.
Although Mu Qingyin looked like she's having a good time, she is certainly not. She wished that she could do something to wipe away the lecherous smiles of these nasty old men, and pierce their eyes using an icicle because of how they 'secretly' and covetously 'admired' her body.
These 'nasty old men', as Mu Qingyin referred to, is here for a reason, and that reason is such a big deal.
It was the Regional Branch Tournament already. This tournament is where disciples from different branches of Freezing Sky Sect would compete against each other. This fight is a very important one because the branch that would place first would receive a massive amount of resources for their sect. These means that they would have bigger chances to send more people to the main Freezing Sky Sect, which is located at the Nameless Peak Holy Land. And the more disciples they send, the more resources these branch sect would receive and better rewards for the Sect Directors.
"Well, let's talk about the more important topic these time Fellow Daoists." One old man broke the silence off and placed a Jade Disk Recorder at the center of the table, "Since we only needed to wait for Fellow Daoist Mu's participants, it wouldn't hurt to see where the tournament would take place this time." As he said this, he injected ki to the Jade Disk Recorder and an image of something that nearly caused everyone to faint was revealed.
The old man just sighed and said: "Yes, the next tournament would take place inside the Gray Crags."
