Ch. 11 Strength

The past twelve days in the Heavenly Sacred Border have been an absolute blessing. I was able to reach 3-Star Gold rank yesterday and will be attempting to approach the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword to strengthen my soul realm.

I had expectations of reaching the peak of Gold-rank by this time, but I failed to take into account the diminishing returns of the Soul Assembling Pills. After reaching Silver rank the second day, the energy absorbed from the pills was reduced to half. And after reaching Gold rank, the effectiveness was halved again. I took my last pill several days ago. Not a big loss, I would guess Soul Assembling Pills become completely worthless once I reach Black-Gold rank.

Similar to when I broke into Silver rank, my senses heightened even further after entering Gold rank. My sense of smell, hearing, and sight are now at the level I would call super-human. Unexpectedly, I also gained a sixth sense. It's now possible to detect movement and other souls around me. My little bubble of awareness only extends a few meters from my body, but I'm sure it will increase with my strength.

With my bubble of awareness around me, I'm actually able to extend my soul force further from my body! I'm sure this will continue to increase as I become stronger. Just the thought of being able to throw someone across the room or surround myself with twirling blades with pure soul force has me practicing my soul force control whenever I have downtime!

My body has also considerably improved while here. I'm unsure if it's a growth spurt, the Heavenly Sacred Border, or the cultivation technique from the Library of Heaven's Path. Maybe a combination of all three, but I've grown several more centimeters and my muscles are starting to fill out.

I think what I'm genuinely excited about are Ye Yan's theories! He only possessed a few soul and combat techniques, but having centuries to think allowed him to come up with hundreds of theories! Most cultivators would only be capable of verifying a handful of theories for fear of harming their potential. I don't have that fear! The Library of Heaven's Path removes all risk, pointing out all flaws, and even stating corrections if I've already absorbed that information.

For soul techniques, Ye Yan was able to teach me the Divine Stream, Piercing Soul, Soul Separating, Soul Refining, Soul Suppression, and Soul Storage.

The Soul Storage, as I styled it, was relatively easy to comprehend. Very similar to opening your soul realm when integrating with a demon spirit.

There are a few drawbacks to it that even the Library of Heaven's Path couldn't fix. The amount of items one is capable of storing in their soul realm depends on the size and power of the item, and the rank of the user. At Black-Gold rank, I shouldn't encounter any problem storing a weapon and a full set of armor. A disadvantage is the possibility of the items interacting with my soul realm or each other. Something like the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword could either devour any demon spirits I integrate with or unexpectedly attack my soul realm. Not a sensible idea to store that sword in my soul realm. On the other hand, storing the amulet from Emperor Kong Ming's tomb in my soul realm would be more beneficial than wearing it around my neck!

Divine Stream's only purpose is an escape attempt or quickly travel dozens of kilometers nearly instantly. I say escape attempt, because if your opponent also knows the technique then you just moved the location of your fight. At my current strength, I can only use the Divine Stream twice in a short period of time before I exhaust all my soul force.

Soul Separating was recreated from several of Ye Yan's theories after I described how Nie Li was able to use it. It allows one to separate a piece of their soul and embed their consciousness in it. You could then travel several kilometers away from your body. There are two big drawbacks that I see. The first is that your physical body will remain in a semi cultivating state, unable to defend itself. The second drawback is if that sliver of soul is somehow destroyed, not only would you lose the memories gained while in that state, but suffer severe soul damage.

Soul Suppression is simply amazing for survival, spying, and assassination. You coat a thin layer of soul force over your body and attempt to draw it in towards your soul realm. It removes all forms of your presence except sound. I would definitely pair it with Soul Separating for added safety while spying. You would be all but undetectable to anyone lower than your rank. The downside is that it requires continuous focus while being used.

Piercing Soul is rather simple in both form and use. It's just shaping your soul force down to a fine-tipped spear and piercing your opponents head with it. It isn't lethal, but the sudden appearance of foreign soul force in your brain is the ultimate distraction. The best thing about Piercing Soul is that I was able to finally develop a working form of my own Gentle Fist. The Piercing Soul technique even gives the Gentle Fist a short attack range. I've only been able to create one lethal attack with the Gentle Fist so far. Using a clawed strike over my opponent's heart will close off all pathways to their torso, instantly sending them into cardiac arrest. While it's not an instant kill or even a guaranteed kill, you'll have to be a true bad-ass to fend off additional attacks while suffering through cardiac arrest.

The one point of contention that arose between Ye Yan and me was the Soul Refining technique. He was reluctant to teach it to me to begin with. Pushing him for additional theories on it caused him to distance himself from me for five days.

In essence, the Soul Refining technique could be labeled as evil. In the story, it's referred to as removing another's soul to get honest answers from them for interrogations. The reality of it is far different. It's using another's soul to refine and empower the user's soul. The user gains bits of knowledge possessed by the stolen soul and a small percent of the soul's soul force. The real benefit to the user is their own soul is strengthened greatly. I'm not sure what that entails or even if there are side effects to absorbing another's soul.

I think my genuine distaste at the thought of absorbing someone's soul, is the key reason Ye Yan returned after those five days. He adamantly refused to speak of any further soul techniques or theories. That was a bit disheartening, but his theories on demon spirits turned out to be just as valuable.

I was able to confirm three main points about demon spirits. The first point was the inherent techniques you gain when you integrate with a demon spirit, are not the only techniques you can gain. It's possible to develop other techniques around the demon spirit's attribute. Take the Shadow Devil's Void-form for example. When merged with the Shadow Devil, you can instantly enter into the Void-form and become impervious to nearly all forms of attack. The disadvantage is that you can't attack while in this form. However, it's possible to shift only certain parts of your body into Void-form and leave other parts tangible! Leaving only your arms and Bone Sickles tangible while the rest of your body is untouchable would be a nightmare to face!

Another point is the demon spirit you integrate with forms a symbiotic relationship with you. They feed off of your own soul force to increase their rank, but they increase your energy absorption rate. An integrated demon spirit will never pass their host in rank unless energy is fed directly to the demon spirit.

I suspected the next point but was able to confirm it with Ye Yan's theories. The more familiar you are with your integrated demon spirit, the more physical and mental attributes you take on when you merge with it. That's how all the characters in the Draconic Ruins Realm can battle as ten-meter tall dragons. One of the easiest ways to increase familiarity is time. Time integrated and time merged are the simplest ways to increase familiarity. A disadvantage could be some of the mental characteristics also transfer over while merged. So merging into an angry territorial dragon, would make you more susceptible to give in to your anger.

Ye Yan did attempt to teach me his weapon wielding styles, but it wasn't enough to remove any flaws from the previous books I tried to create with the Library of Heaven's Path. After seeing me practice my unarmed forms, he denied having a style of his own. Pretty sure he was lying to try and save face.

Today is a rather big day. Not only am I returning to Glory City, but I'm also going to use the Library of Heaven's Path on the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword. Ye Yan wasn't happy when I brought it up last night, but he relented when I promised that I wasn't attempting to tame it. Yet. Over the last couple of weeks, I've actually grown to like the old braggart. Taking the sword now would be equivalent to killing the old bastard. There's nothing else around that he can bind his soul to. Without a powerful artifact to keep him anchored to the physical plane, his soul would slowly deteriorate to nothing.

Cleaning up my campsite, I do a quick scan to ensure nothing is left behind. I've not seen Ye Yan this morning, but I'm sure he's nearby watching. With a final look around the area, I making my way towards the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword.

It doesn't take long before I'm standing at the beginning of a stone bridge leading out over the edge of a cliff. The smell of ozone is thick in the air, and dark rolling clouds hang low in the sky above the sword.

Stepping on the stone bridge, the sky is suddenly completely filled with demon beasts raging towards me! I hesitate for a moment before I realize I can't sense or hear a single demon beast in the area. It's an illusion. Realistic, but still just an illusion. I don't see an array or any inscriptions on the bridge. This attack must have come from the sword itself!

With renewed determination, I march towards the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword. I surge my soul force outward, dispersing each illusion as it forms. I will not be scared off by some parlor trick!

Stepping onto the platform holding the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword, I sense a surge of energy rapidly approaching me! Condensing my soul force around me in a defensive shell, I weather the waves of killing intent rolling off the sword. Even doing my best to defend against the mental attack, I'm still breaking out in a sweat. Each step forward is heavy and laborious. This sword is really starting to piss me off!

Rapidly circulating my soul force to protect my soul realm, I step up to the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword. Cloaking my body in a dense layer of soul force, I reach out and touch the hilt of the sword. After a quick thought of 'Flaws', I remove my hand and continue to defend against the attacks. Opening small gaps in my defense to allow the demon spirit attacks through, causes small cracks to form on my soul realm. I close the gaps after several long cracks stretch across my soul realm to allow it time to repair.

Slowly I'm able to take more and more attacks on my soul realm with each cycle I complete. Suddenly, my soul force surges wildly! Oh shit! I rapidly retreat from the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword and off the bridge! That was unexpected!

I just broke into 4-Star Gold rank! I was able to break into 3-Star Gold rank just yesterday! That stupid sword just crammed two and a half days of cultivating into less than an hour! I would love to stay longer and break into Black-Gold rank, but I don't want to destabilize my soul realm with such a massive amount of soul force so quickly. Plus, Chen Linjian's expedition will be departing Glory City in a couple of days.

Sitting in the lotus position, I start to work on stabilizing my soul realm. I enter the Library of Heaven's Path to take a look at the book created for the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword.

I'll be damned. That sword is sentient. The meteorite used to forge the sword is only amazing for its insanely high durability. There are several materials in the Draconic Ruins Realm of similar durability. What is truly amazing about the sword is the inscription used to enchant it!

That inscription is what gave the sword it's power. Once the sword pierces into the body of anything, the inscription will then draw the demon spirit from the body and into the sword itself. Even if the demon beast hasn't developed a demon spirit yet, the inscription still gathers the conciseness of the beast and forms one to absorb.

The one glaring flaw with the inscription is that it doesn't direct the newly absorbed demon spirit for any purpose. Just uses it as a source of power. While this made the sword more powerful with every beast it killed, without direction or purpose, the raging demon spirits formed into a conciseness possessing the sword.

I doubt even the Sage Emperor would be able to fully tame that sword.

I would love to be able to purge the meteorite material of all the demon spirits and fix the inscription. But I honestly don't know if I'm strong enough to weather a suicide attack from it. Plus, where ever I conduct the purge would become a death trap for years to come.

What I can do, is fix the inscription, and use it to enchant another weapon.

"Hmm... Hey old man! What can you tell me about blacksmithing?" I may not be able to see him, but I can sense him nearby.

"Brat! I can tell you a few things about respecting your elders!" The ghostly image of Ye Yan takes form in front of me.

After rolling my eyes, I stare pointedly at him. One thing I've learned about Ye Yan is that he hates an awkward silence.

His blurred features begin to take on a grimace as he sees what I'm doing. With a snort, he gives in and answers, "Blacksmithing was not a topic I ever devoted much time for you brat. Are you looking for anything specific?"

"The strongest material capable of being enchanted," is my immediate reply.

"Hmm... There are several metals that are of similar strength, but I think you should look into an alloy. More often than not, one is able to combine several different types of metals to produce an alloy stronger than anything used in its making." I was expecting something similar but needed confirmation.

Nodding my head, I stand up. Cupping my fist and bowing, I say, "This student is grateful to Teacher Ye Yan."

Unexpectedly, Ye Yan cups his fist and bows in return. "I am grateful to have been able to share my knowledge with you. I'm comforted that Glory City will have you watching over her." His image blurs out of sight, "Take care of yourself brat."

"Try not to harass the next student that arrives old man."

His ramblings of insolent students quickly fade from my hearing. Taking one last look at the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword, I turn away and start walking. I would love to stay until I've reached the peak of Black-Gold rank, but I've got a Shadow Devil to find.