Heart Demon

["You seem different Sansui... care to explain what's going on?"] Dewey frowned at Sansui's behavior.

["Hahaha~ as always you are really sharp my lady. You ability to read the situation is really impressive."] Sansui said as he laughed out loud. He slowly turned around as he made his way to her. Looking directly into her eyes he said with a sly smile ["Don't worry my lady I just had a breakthrough in my strength."]

["You are even stronger now?!"] Seiga screamed out as if he couldn't believe what he just heared. Ecksesachs and the rest were shocked. They felt completely helpless at the earlier pressure almost like killing intent.

Suddenly the door jumped open and a group of guards with the Sopeid Crest on their armor came in. Their worried expression scanned the room for their heiress.

["Miss Dewey are you alright?! There was a unknown pressure coming from this room!"]

Their eyes started checking the room while they surrounded their mistress in a trained fashion.

["Sansui. Are you really the same Sansui? The way you responded makes me feel like your personality has changed."] Dewey shouted out ignoring the guards. Her clear and unwavering eyes directly looked into Sansui's eyes as if asking for an explanation.

["Sigh~"] Taking a deep breath Sansui turned around to Rain. Walking towards her he crouched down to her height.

["Rain. I need to leave for now but I will.."]["NO! NO NO!!"] Rain interrupted Sansui and wrapped her arms around him. Feeling her fear and the strength in her hug he started to frown. He felt a slight pain which on a physical level did not hurt as the incident earlier before but on a mental level it somehow felt devastating.

'Huh... am I crying?' Feeling a tear building up Sansui was shocked. His expression darkened when he realized what this meant.

'She is my heart demon!'. A heart demon - a remembrance of the mortal world. You could also call them a mental barrier which hinders the training.

To archive Divinity one has to be free of any heart demons. If you try to step into the fifth Stage the Spirit Ascension Stage which is also called the Divine Stage, you will have to prepare yourself to face those heart demons. They come in form of self doubt as a attack from within and failure to adequately resist them may result at best in just some loss of cultivation process and at worst you might turn into a emotionless demon with no sense of yourself.

'No wonder those Cultivation Immortals in novels distance themselves from their family and friends' Sansui thought. ["Rain listen to me please. I need to do something but I will come back here afterwards I promise! Dewey and Brower will be here with you."] He told her softly as he returned the hug. Rain just cried without saying anything. Taking another breath he turned to Dewey again.

["Please watch over here while I am gone. It won't take long there are some things I have to do."]

At Sansui request Dewey could only helplessly nod.

["But make it quick. Making my Rain cry like that makes me really want to punch you right now."]

Taking a last look at Rain again he stood up and used his Spiritual Sense to locate the corpse of the spy he killed. Instating his powers he instantly arrived in front of it. Through his Spirit Sense he could already tell what the spy had on himself so he picked up the magic tool he hid in his boots. The dagger was gold-plated with a notch on the scabbard where the crest was removed from.

'Of course it wouldn't be so easy but I heard that Idiot say something about a princess.'

Sansui closed his eyes and took some time to think. He organized his thoughts and decided to first hide himself and stabilize his foundation before doing anything else.

'If I were at the Spirit Core Stage I could use the internal flame to destroy the corpse and cover all tracks. Nothing I can do about it I will just have to pick it up and dump it on the way then.' Picking up the corpse with a hand made out of Spirit Energy he instantly sprinted into the air towards the forest next to him. After dumping the corpse near a wolves den he choose the first best cave he could find and sat down in a meditative pose.

There are 5 Stages as far as Sansui knows. He remembered how it took him a week to step into the Spirit Gathering Stage where his body absorbed the natural Spiritual Energy of the world. This was also the reason why he did not have to eat while training. After a hundred years he stepped into the second stage of the Sage Arts the Spirit Foundation Stage. After absorbing enough Spiritual Energy his body slowly started to get strengthened and after additional long four hundred years he arrived at the peak of the Spirit Gathering Stage.

Waking up from Suiboku's Spirit Will his Cultivation broke through and he finally entered the third stage the Spirit Core Stage. When you step into this stage the density and volume of your Spiritual Energy evolves which enables the use of the Spirit Sense ability. With it you can scan the surroundings far beyond the limits of the ordinary 5 senses. The total area you can scan corresponds to the strength of your Cultivation Stage which means the further you proceed in cultivation the bigger and your Spirit Sense grows where you can even scan a whole planet if the volume of your Spirit Energy his high enough.

---

While Sansui was still stabilizing his foundation inside the cave four man in black robes magically arrived around the location where the corpse of the spy died.

'The space elements closed here. I can feel it.'

'There is also blood on the ground.'

'Yeah but without corpse. It must be from our spy.'

The three talkative man looked at the fourth man who seemed like their leader as if waiting for instruction but he just silently walked towards the blood on the ground without saying anything. Directing his hands towards the blood he started to cast a spell which lighted up his surroundings for a minute. While the leader was standing there with closed eyes the blood suddenly started disappearing turning into smoke.

'A cave in the forest not far from here. Let's go!' The fourth man said as he suddenly sprinted into Sansui's direction with the rest of the group behind him.