023 The Fifth Human Realm

"I can't believe the fight ended like that. I was sure the shadow child was going to win, when he started beating at Kyle on the ground." Peter expressed his dissatisfaction with the results of the fight.

"Kyle might have won the fight, but Owen came out victorious after that whole ordeal." Ralph said. "While Kyle won, he didn't even leave a scratch on Owen and Owen seemed to be dominating most of the fight. To the average person it would seem that Owen only gave up because he ran out of qi. While Kyle got heavily beat up in front of everyone."

"What was the real reason then. We could all see the strain on his face, he was out of qi." Aria commented.

"Kyle used his blast of lava to make distance between himself and Owen, as the whips are a lot easier to dodge from up close. Kyle knew that the shadow element does not have great defensive capabilities and Owen had nowhere to run, as his whips could catch him anywhere in the arena. The only way for Owen to get out of that situation was to get close to Kyle and Kyle was not going to allow that." Ralph explained the last moments of the fight, everyone was surprised, both by the amount of insight Ralph had and also about the dire situation Kyle put Owen in.

"You said average people can't notice stuff like that, so you're above average?" Liam laughed at Ralph, as he had made himself look smart without the others realizing.

"I was very interested in fights as a kid, watched a lot of them. That's all." Ralph sounded humble and Liam left it at that.

"Oh Liam, before we go. What kind of pill would you like, since the next batch will be specifically made for you?" Peter asked Liam.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have any money, everything I make is being taken away by those guys in the golden eagles faction." Liam shared the sad news with Peter.

"Don't worry about that. As I said, they are made for you. You won't have to pay." Peter smiled.

"Then I won't refuse your offer. Is there something that can help me focus my mind? My intention is to have something that can help me focus on learning how to fight, faster." Liam sounded as if he was telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas.

"I know just the pill. Tiger eye pill. I'll have the first batch ready in 3 days.

Liam later returned to his house along with Aria and Ralph and they all went into their separate rooms. The new house was a lot bigger. It had a well-kept front yard with nice white tiles and each room had their own personal bathroom.

Liam got right back into cultivating using the few remaining pills he had left. He still remembered what the shadowed figure said a little over a week ago. He had 42 drops and was so close to the goal of 50.

"It's time to rest. I only have 45 as that fight took a big part of my day, but I am confident I can reach 50 tomorrow." Liam thought.

After his usual classes and work, Liam got straight into cultivating.

"The sun is setting, but I have 49 I can reach 50 tomorrow." Liam thought.

After his usual classes and work, Liam got straight into cultivating.

"The sun is setting, but I have 49 I can reach 50 tomorrow. Liam smiled, he took the last pill and began cultivating.

Two hours later, he felt that he couldn't fit any more deep-sea element qi and the drop count in his sea of soul had reached 50.

"Kid, do you feel that your body can not store any more qi. Do you see that even when you attract it to your body, it does not enter?" The hooded man asked.

"Yes." Liam replied.

"That is usually your sign to breakthrough, though I think your case is a little different. The 20 dark drops in your sea of soul will prevent you from breaking through. I think your body absorbed the qi from my soul and used that in combination with your already gathered deep sea qi to break through to the fourth human realm. And if I am right, which I am fairly certain I am, you will need the same amount of darkness qi to breakthrough." The hooded man started explaining the situation to Liam.

"I don't think I quite understand." Liam was a bit confused.

"The only thing you need to worry about now is that because you reached the fourth human realm with two elements, you have to reach all of the next ones with the same elements. And you don't have enough darkness element qi. There are two main problems with this, the first is that you don't have a cultivation technique for the darkness element. That is not a big problem as I can just teach you one. The second is that there is almost no darkness element qi in your area or this whole sect really." The hooded man was saying.

Liam had no Idea why the hooded man started helping him without asking for something in return, Liam was starting to think the hooded man might be a good person. He helped him save his sister after all. "Wait, you said in this whole sect. How do you know that?"

"Being stuck with your mind for hundreds of years enables you to do fascinating stuff with it." The man said uncaringly.

"Never mind that, I have found a temporary solution. Do you still have the spiritual herb that you took from my grave? The man said, which Liam thought was very morbid.

"You mean the cave? Yes, I still have it." Liam said.

"You are going to absorb the Spiritual herb and breakthrough to the fifth human realm. Do you understand?" The hooded man was really beginning to speak to Liam as if he was speaking to a child.

"How do I do that, exactly?" Liam asked as he was very confused.

"Get a drop from the darkness qi, and concentrate all of the energy on your fingertips. Now imagine. Imagine how you feel the very qualities of the darkness element, you feel the darkness. Slowly the darkness from the flower passes into your body through your darkened fingertips. You feel as the darkness spreads around you, you feel it into every organ, muscle, bone, vessel, cell. You feel the darkness occupy every cell of your body until it slowly blends in and it becomes you." The hooded man spoke to Liam even when he went into a trance of sort.

Liam was in the lotus position with the spiritual herb, the dark rose, in his right hand. He looked stressed and panicked and his whole body was sweating but there was no movement.

"Liam, your body is having a fight. Every cell in your body is trying to resist the darkness, but you have to remember, Liam. You have to embrace it, it is a part of you. The darkness is a part of you, it is not an enemy, but a friend." The hooded man continued to speak to Liam even though he was receiving no answer.

Then like ink spilled into paper, the darkness pulled through and wet his cells. It poured inside every cell inside of Liam's body.

Inside his sea of soul, the hooded man could see the darkness element drops quickly filling up.

"He did it." The hooded man's smile was slightly visible beneath his hood. "A kid with both the element of the deep sea and darkness. This is not something that you see every day. With the rarity of these elements seeing the two together. I think it's a first."

The dark drops were continuing to quickly fill up and soon they reached the 50-drop mark, but.

"Oh no! He is still absorbing it, but his body can't take any more. He'll get poisoned on darkness qi or at worst his dantian will explode." The hooded man panicked. "He must breakthrough now."

"But he won't wake up. What do I do? If he loses his cultivation or even worse dies, there will be no point, this is not the time to be stingy." The man said before he took control of Liam's body.

"I have to initiate the breakthrough!" The man said as he focused and tried to condense the two liquids. But it was not working. No matter how hard he tried, he could not succeed in condensing the qi blobs. He could not breakthrough to the fifth human realm.

The hooded man thought it was due to his inexperience with the deep-sea qi, unable to do anything, he returned to Liam's Sea of soul and let Liam back in control.

The man even prepared to die, if Liam was to die so was, he. but then he saw something strange.

The two liquids which were like water and oil before, were now mixing together. And not only were they mixing and becoming something new, the liquid was also condensing and the new darkness qi that came in was being fed to the blob.

After a few minutes , the black rose wilted and Liam's condition calmed down. Inside his sea of soul, there was only a murky greenish black liquid. But that didn't matter as Liam opened his eyes.

"I have reached the fifth human realm." He smiled.