Chapter 8 Boundless

Turning off the constantly buzzing phone Chen Fei had in his pocket, the fifteen year old walked towards his bedroom, locking the door and closing the curtains shut, letting only the light from the ceiling bulb illuminate his room.

Despite getting sidetracked by literally hundreds of messages from both students from Water Moon College and other schools within Water Moon City, he had finally managed to push them away from his dorm room, getting some peace and quite for the first time in hours.

"..... If I knew this was going to be such a huge pain, I would've just lied straight up and started cultivating in my spare time. At least I don't have to go sneaking around and hiding my powers though. This isn't some sort of anime or light novel.....".

Sitting down cross-legged in the centre of his bedroom, Chen Fei felt a thrum of power emanate from his heart, as his breathing pattern shifted, becoming much more longer, and much more drawn out.

Every movement, every rise and gradual fall of Chen Fei's chest was all perfectly coordinated with the slow refinement of his spiritual essence into spiritual power. The raindrop like form of his spiritual power twisted into a more gaseous state, spreading outwords inside his first heart wellspring, diluting the spiritual essence within said wellspring, slowly converting it all into spiritual power.

Considering that spiritual essence existed within every person, regardless of age, race, gender or culture, it was initially thought that everyone could cultivate and become a Knight. However when normal mortals tried to cultivate and refine their spiritual essence, no changes occured within their bodies.

It was then that scientists discovered the fact that only a small fraction of the population had naturally forming spiritual power. These individuals were highly valued by their governments and organizations and were initially treated more like lab rats than human beings.

Even after a hundred years of experimentation, no-one knew why some humans possessed an innate spiritual power and others didn't. Most people just accepted the fact that some would be naturally suited towards cultivation, as every field has its own geniuses, like Van Gogh when it came to painting, or Mozart when it came to composing.

It was already made evident that some people were more talented than others when it came to painting and music. Perhaps some people were just more talented when it came to cultivating in comparison to others, no?

'.... If spiritual essence is like an unrefined piece of metal, than spiritual power is metal that has been refined. However, some Knights ended up possessing a spiritual power of a higher quantity, quality and density when compared to others. Is this also an effect of one's innate talent? Or something else?'.

Chen Fei never lost focus while slowly diluting the spiritual essence within himself. The effects of the cultivation drug assisted him greatly, and he could still think and theorize about the spiritual power within himself, taking notes on its matter, form and qualities.

'As Dr Kim said, theoretically Boundless should allow me to convert all the spiritual essence within my body into spiritual power. In doing so, the quantity of spiritual power should be greater than anyone at the same level. As a result however, my body wouldn't be able to hand that kind of power contained within it, leading to a physical transformation similar to that of the mutated monsters and demonic beasts..... I wonder how Kim Baek Hyeon managed to create such a Cultivation Method.....'.

Chen Fei let out a loud exhale before opening his eyes and looking down towards the left side of his chest. He had concluded that he wasn't even halfway to completely refining the first spiritual essence wellspring within him. But if he kept cultivating a few hours every day, he should be finished within the next week or so.

Kim Baek Hyeon said that the fastest anyone had ever completely refined a wellspring was 8 hours. At least, to his knowledge it was 8 hours.

Chen Fei's speed was more than ten times slower if that recored was to be believed and he frowned a little bit before letting out another deep exhale.

"I can't do anything about the speed at which I refine my spiritual essence right this instance. And even with my current savings I can't afford drugs or medicines that can increase the refinement speed. All I can do for now is keep going and see if any changes occur when my Fossil gets here".

Standing up Chen Fei stretched out his body a little bit feeling no fatigue or muscle soreness from sitting down for so long. He had been sitting in a lotus position for at least two hours but only the sound of satisfying cracks resounded out through his room, and Chen Fei took in a deep breath before turning towards the clock.

6:30, he thought to himself.

School starts at 8:30 everyday, and homeroom goes for thirty minutes before classes properly start. Chen Fei's first break would be at 12:00 and would go for two hours before starting class again at 2:00.

Water Moon College finished the day at 4:00 pm everyday, with the exceptions of half-days and the last day of every semester. He was in the third year of middle school, and would normally go on to complete high school and then further education, or be forced to get a job and enter the workforce.

However, as someone with the potential to become a Knight, his career plan changed and after the next six months he would be free to become a protection and detection specialist under the Holy Fossil Association.

"After six months I'll be completely free to do whatever I want. Go anywhere I want. Be whoever I want. Chen Fei the mortal would be long gone, and Chen Fei the Knight would have taken his place".

Becoming a Knight was probably the most sacrificing thing that anybody could do. Whenever rumors of City's being under attack by hordes of demonic beasts and mutated monsters, it was always the Knights who pushed them back, either killing everything that didn't look like a human, or buying enough time for anything that looked like a human to get away.

They were strategic assets, but also pawns who were the first to be sacrificed in the face of danger. An honor people called it.

Looking at himself in the mirror Chen Fei looked at his reflection for the first time since he started walking the path of Knighthood.

Dark mossy green hair and equally dark green irises looked back at him through the mirror. A pale physique with several tiny scars from unproperly healed wounds could be seen on his arms, chest and back, with a single huge scar on the right side of his chest.

It was about two inches thick and had both an entry wound on the front of his chest and an exit wound on the back.

One could only imagine how Chen Fei obtained such a scar.

Emotionless green eyes stared into emotionless green eyes.

"The day that I find you.... The day when you scream out in pain just as you did to me. Leaving your own nephew as bait to to attract monsters and beasts to let yourself get away. Some f*cking Knight you were, uncle".

Chen Fei glanced up towards the small newspaper article bluetacked to the top of the mirror. The massive words were unmistakable, even from several metres away.

"Imperial Fossil Mausoleum President Sacrifices Himself To Save Imperial Night Kingdom! Younger Brother Chen Gulong Takes Over Position To Honor His Younger Brother!".