100 Enemies Inside
Jody was seated in the Ascended Heaven Formation, in the center of a milky white origin energy vortex.
The silent Sek Si was directly at his back, like a mirror image.
Her eyes were also closed in meditation. Initially, Sek Si was extremely startled by the occurrence of all this origin mist. However, after waking Jody in a panic, she was heavily berated. Thus, she was now staying calm, although she didn't understand how a boy who had never formulated origin before could cause such a scene. She thought there had to be a problem. Jody simply told her to sober up, and try and take advantage of this array as he operated his guide.
Sek Si was still unconvinced, but she took his advice nonetheless.
Jody was currently in a state of complete focus. Sylvester and himself collaborated to clear out the path to his first spiritual meridian. Through the mind's eye, it looked like he was pouring milky white energy through his palm and funneling it up his arm into a dark grey wall of impurities separating the origin power from the light sphere in his left lung. Jody revolved the force circulation method given to him by the Bright Star: Battle Book.
One rotation, two rotations, six rotations.
Finally, after twenty-six rotations and seven-plus hours, Jody exhaled some torpid air and opened his eyes. He had already connected the spirit meridians in his lungs, large intestine, small intestine, and his stomach to his twilight veins.
This was already four of his twelve spiritual meridians!
Of course, these same meridians had already been refined into astral aiguilles, thus simplifying the connecting process. The outer layer of Jody's skin was covered in a black sticky substance that smelled disgusting. The boy himself wasn't disturbed. Instead, he was totally excited. The expunging of impurities meant that he had taken another step forward in his realm!
"Ah, dude, foul," came Xavier's voice from within Jody's mind, causing the latter to frown.
"Young master, you stink." Said Sek Si from behind Jody, making him grimace.
"Everyone can't be as handsome as you, my friend," quipped Jody in response.
He received in return an eye roll from Sek, who stopped speaking. She decided to treat Jody as if he was only air temporarily. Sek swung her jet-black hair, vanishing into a shadow.
Jody hesitated briefly before shrugging, and he got up. He walked to the bathroom to wash away this filth. Jody wasn't sure whether or not Sek could still see him from the shadow realm, but he chose not to concern himself with it.
Ultimately, he was still delighted.
He had cleared four meridian bridges, linking the twilight veins associated with his mana doors to his spirit meridians and vascular arteries! Unexpectedly, this also caused his astral light to flow smoothly. Jody felt he could very easily exert his full strength through his left arm at a moment's notice. It was extremely comfortable. He was only one step away from creating mana from his astral light and origin energy together.
Then he could obtain his ultimate goal. Twilight Mana!
This was what Jody had decided to name his new powers. After all, he was the first hero in existence to be a Twilight truist. Jody marveled briefly at how his twilight veins and aiguilles weaved and interconnected with his vascular system.
Was the human body always capable of such magic?
'Maybe the ancient east had it right all along,' thought Jody.
The more he learned about his spiritual meridians, the more he was reminded of the little he knew about his old world's ancient culture.
Jody immediately returned to his formula practice after a quick bath.
Before, by controlling his breathing and guiding his mana using the Bright Star: Force Circulation method, the first meridian bridge he cleared was in his lungs, followed by the large intestine. Jody immediately repeated this process for his stomach.
"This should be considered Intermediate class Freshman," thought Jody as he sat on the platform feeling his mana circulating and weaving to form some type of web to his matrix.
He held the origin gem in his hand and wore elegant white clothes. The irises of his sapphire eyes were vertical like reptiles. [Pharaoh's Law] sat magnificently on his head, making Jody look like the prince of a nation.
Standing up, Jody decided to evaluate his progress. An atmosphere of silver mana burst out of his body as the phenomenon of the primary forces manifested in the void. Five white spheres of light, the size of marbles, floated in the air above Jody. They looked like stars in the night sky. Jody could feel a connection to these little marble starlights.
"Indeed, the Intermediate Freshman class!" exclaimed Jody.
How many hours had he practiced for? He had already advanced by a sub-level! Sylvester's ability and all these fabulous extremities had given him a great windfall. Of course, his incredible physique played its own role.
"Just this, and you are excited? I was born with strength equivalent to that of your father. What are you?" Sylvester said indifferently via telepathy.
Jody was stunned, speechless at his words.
Even if you were once amazing, did you have to rub it in?
Next, Jody decided to connect the bridges in his spleen, bladder, and kidneys, allowing his mana to circulate even better. Five hours and sixty-five rotations later, he had accomplished what he had set out to do. However, this time Jody didn't stop at all. He had plenty of spiritual force to spare. After formulating all day, just over half of his mental strength remained.
Sylvester could absorb force like this for a particular amount of time before he would have to rest for a while, and their compatibility rating would drop slightly. Sylvester told him this was likely because he was using powers beyond Jody's realm; thus, the soul strain adversely affected their compatibility rating. Compatibility affected how much combat power he could borrow from his combat souls.
As such, Jody didn't want to waste another second.
His formula practice continued, this time focusing on the meridian bridge in his heart. The Bright Star: Battle Book said this meridian bridge was the most important. By clearing this bridge, Jody could be considered to have reached an advanced-class Freshman. The chest was a significant bridge because it would connect the energy passages in his arms to each other, unifying the circulation in his upper body.
The heart meridian was the central hub for his blood and energy.
One rotation, two rotations, six rotations, and finally, after seventy force rotations, Jody's body shook. He coughed out a mouthful of black blood. This time just under 12 hours had passed! Jody discovered that as long as he had mana circulating within him, he didn't feel any fatigue or hunger. This was the exact opposite of astral light.
With the milky white origin gem in his hand, which seemed to release an endless stream of origin forces, Jody felt totally great. This was the unique trait of Sages. They could sustain themselves without food for longer because they could absorb the ambient mana to form the nutrients they needed to survive. The higher their formula rank, the less they needed things like food, water, or rest.
While Jody had not reached the point of being able to abandon regular health conventions entirely, he could already go the whole day without fatigue or hunger.
However, despite his gains, Jody felt sticky and disgusting all over again. He almost threw up again once he caught a whiff of himself. Mentally exhausted, the boy-wonder continued to meditate for an hour before finally opening his eyes.
Yawning, he got up to stretch his body. Looking around the room, Jody noticed that Sek was nowhere in sight. Perhaps she was still playing in the shadows. Or maybe his funk scared her away. Jody was too lazy to investigate.
"Hm?" Suddenly, Jody's instincts went haywire as he inexplicably sensed great danger.
It felt like a vicious viper had locked on to him, ready to strike at any moment. Jody knew this feeling well. It was killing intent! However, he had never felt it so vividly before now. This was likely a result of his newfound power. Before Jody could react, a soft hand covered his mouth from behind. Jody didn't panic at all as his surroundings went entirely black.
"You stink again, young master Josiah." Sek's gentle whisper secretly gave Jody goosebumps.
His eye almost didn't twitch when she called him Josiah.
Almost.
"Do not move. Your mother has discovered some people entering secretly to spy on you..." Sek paused as if she had to consider carefully what to say next. Ultimately, she said, "Mn, it should be because of the mana vortex you attracted when you broke through."
'My mom? Spies? Vortex? Broken through?' Jody was so confused.
To his shock, no sound came out when he moved his lips. Is this part of Sek's ability? Scary! Jody made a mental note to deepen his understanding of Sek and the Si clan.
"Petty tricks!" shouted a husky and violent voice as a huge palm imprint rocketed directly toward their location.
Sek paled in fright, but Jody was totally unmoved.
He indeed had ample experience and was unafraid of death, but this was not the source of his composure. In Jody's mind, if this warning originated from his mother, his chances of getting hurt were near nil. He knew his mother well, and she would never let him come into harm's way.
If there were a situation she couldn't handle, then he would already be at her side. Furthermore, if the enemy could thwart even his mother, Jody could only die again. Sure enough, as soon as Jody had these thoughts, the palm imprint from the mysterious assassin was frozen mid-air and slowly corroded away into pink ice dust.
The temperature in the room instantly plummeted.
"How bold!" Came a heavenly, melodious, yet piercingly cold voice echoed all around the room.
Jody and Sek could not tell where either of the event's instigators were, so they stood silently in the shadows. They could only keep listening to force clashing all around them. Jody dared not cast his spiritual sense outward out of fear of detection. He didn't have enough intel and had no idea how many enemies there were. He noticed Sek was shivering behind him, so he turned around to face her. She was pale as a sheet and looked terrified.
'A child is a child after all...' thought the eight-year-old Jody as he grabbed Sek's hand and held it tightly. Since his voice was suppressed, words were now useless. He would have to comfort her through action. Sek was startled as she looked into Jody's deep ocean-like eyes. The slight golden glow they emitted threatened to swallow her whole as she blushed and looked away.
Right then, that shadow world around them shattered like glass as they appeared back in the room.
"Aaah!" Sek Si shrieked while clutching her head before fainting in Jody's arms.
He caught her and noticed blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. For the first time in Jody's current life, he felt unbridled anger bubbling up in his stomach. As his rage grew, his five astralis went active on their own. Jody was so startled by this discovery that his anger temporarily subsided, and his astral points became dormant once more.
'Rage law...so that's it,' Jody felt like he had almost grasped something crucial.
"Hehe, found you, twerp," there was an ugly but muscular goon in black garb towering over Jody and the unconscious Sek.
Behind him were two masked figures in the same clothing.
On the left shoulder of each of them, there was a jade python insignia. The ugly muscle-head looked menacing and had a sinister black aura that made Jody feel like he was suffocating.
He chortled while pointing at Jody, "Even if that blue-eyed witch kills Frankie, I'll avenge him by ending your dog life! You, take 'em out. Be quick about it."
