Chapter – 121 - Harmony of Overlapping Shadows

"You cannot force yourself when seeking to create your Guiding Weapon."

Rihanna nodded her head subtly. Her eyes turned to stare at the two shadows overlapping each other as they sat, cross legged on the ground, face-to-face. Many thoughts and ideas were currently circling within her mind. She had read about the guiding weapon and the different techniques for bringing it forth. She had also asked Wenzhaobei and Artreya and Little Purple, and each of them had a different understanding and technique.

Probably too much information had clogged her brains. She had been feeling confused and frustrated at being unable to bring forth her Guiding Weapon even after days of working on it. She couldn't even grasp the basic understanding of what this Guiding Weapon meant for her.

"What do you understand by Guiding Weapon?"

Rihanna blinked, turning to look at the cold eyes staring back at her. To her these cold eyes looked crisp and clear and bright, and she lost the feel of anxiety as she stared back into those deep and non-judging eyes. She took a deep breath, feeling her senses settling down once again.

Guiding Weapon?.....What did Guiding Weapon mean to her?....

".....The point where the essence of the Mind, Spiritual Powers and Soul, all merge together?...."

"And what guides this Guiding Weapon?"

Rihanna blinked, looking perplexed. What in the world could guide a Guiding Weapon?

"A guiding Weapon is not the point of Culmination. Instead.....it is the point where the essence of cultivation actually begins. And for every cultivator this understanding and starting point is different. Have you thought why it is so?"

Rihanna stared at the ground in a daze. Indeed, every technique she had read had been different. Even the people she had asked had different understanding and techniques. She thought it was because they were all individuals, and their different physicality and cultivation limitations decided their path to finding their Guiding Weapon. But....was that not so?!

"Why?"

Mayaroubo stared at those clear, sharp eyes staring back at him with unbridled curiosity and unknowingly his eyes softened. She was the same as she had always been. Always wanting to know more, always curious, always fearless. The body had changed...but the soul was as bright as he remembered. The same waves of blazing brightness which had washed all over his soul once before.

He swallowed, turning his eyes away from those curious eyes he wanted to reach out and touch. Taking a silent breath to steady his emotions, he continued.

"Even though we are all cultivators, we are essentially all different. Even our cultivation methods differ. Though our inborn spiritual roots decide the path of growth of our spiritual powers, it is not the only deciding factor. In fact, what most people do not know, is that their Guiding Weapon can help in the enhancement and evolution of their Spiritual Roots, thus opening up the path of their spiritual growth further."

Rihanna furrowed her brows, a sense of shock sparkling in her eyes before they turned even more intense as she looked at him with rapt attention. Mayaroubo smiled inside, feeling those burning eyes trying to bore a hole within him. He had never known another one who was as much crazy to know everything as she was.

"What is your Guiding Weapon?"

Rihanna was too caught up in her thoughts, trying to connect all she had read before with all he was telling her now. Without thinking she blurted out, but then realised that it might have been a rather inappropriate question. People didn't show their Guiding Weapons that easily unless it was a fight. Because it was a very important part of their essence. She bit her lips and was about to tell him to ignore the last question when a golden red light emerged from behind him.

Mayaroubo had not been particularly stunned by the question. In fact, he felt as if he had been awaiting this question from her, and his being seemed very pleased to be able to show off before her. He was too stunned by his own reaction to actually answer the question. Frowning, he took a deep breath to settle these strange emotions bouncing all around inside him, cursing himself on the inside for becoming nonsensical whenever he saw her.

The golden red light was soft but clear, and it grew larger and more and more dense, till finally it took a shape. Two pairs of Golden wings, with red and gold feathers stood up proudly from his back. The dense energy particles were circulating through each feather, and gently dispersing into the air from the edges of the wings. This gave it a rather mysterious and enigmatic aura, clear yet obscure.

As if following an invisible rhythm and command, the wings which had been softly floating in the air behind his back, suddenly gained momentum. Each feather stood out like sharp blades, as the wings stretched outwards and fanned into half circles, covering his backside completely with both halves.

Each feather half separated from the core of the wing, the sharp edges turning outwards. As layers and layers of feathers stood up facing the outwards, the wings started looking more like halos with innumerable knives embedded into it.

Slowly, the two wings separated from the body of Mayaroubo, moving a few inches away from his body. Mid-air, one of the wing turned a 180 degrees, with each wing now facing in the opposite direction, looking more like a yin-yang circle. The feathers at the edges of the two wings overlapped each other, and gradually merged with each other, forming a tight double arc.

Shockingly, once the double arcs were complete, the red particles and gold particles started moving between these two arcs, till one whole arc turned golden and all the red particles merged into the other arc.

Once the two energy particles had completely separated, the double arc started spinning around his back. The arc expanded, growing larger and larger, till it could completely hide his entire standing form. Then it changed direction, and started growing smaller and smaller. As it grew small, the double arc shifted position, no longer staying behind his back.

Following his unspoken commands, the spinning double arc started zapping through the air at extremely high speeds. Sometimes stopping in mid-air, sometimes moving at a speed almost invisible to the naked eyes, sometimes growing as large as a Frisbee, sometimes condensing to the size of a bean.

Rihanna was staring, her eyes so wide that unconsciously a sheen of water had formed over her eyes. The shining bright eyes, wide with curiosity and amazement, knowing not that she was supposed to be afraid of a person who could move his guiding weapon with so much ease and expertise....a pleasant sense of warmth and yearning turned the corners of his lips upwards.

She looked just as she had looked when she saw the Bebitos playing on the Plasma Lake of Transference. So many years had passed by.....yet she still looked the same. So many years had gone by, so many things had changed in his world. People he had once been attached to were either gone or had changed sides. He could feel how much he himself had changed. Sometimes he wondered if he could still connect with the person he had once been.

But when he looked at her now, the same expressions, the same fearlessness, the same want to know about everything driving her onwards......he felt connected once again. Like that part of him which he had had to hide underneath layers and layers of scheming and ruthlessness and bloodshed....he could feel it still living somewhere deep inside him.

Mayaroubo let go of his energy control, and the double arc made from his Flame and Light Energy, and bound together by his Blood, slowly dispersed into the air all around. Rihanna looked on at the empty space for a long while, unblinking. She could feel that she had been on the verge of realizing something, but it was still not quite within her grasp as yet.

"Before I tell you more.....tell me.....what is the core of your cultivation?"

Rihanna blinked. All the brightness instantly dissipated, leaving her in another round of daze. Core of her Cultivation?....What the heck was that?!....Little Purple seemed to have omitted some essential details while teaching her!

"Every person has a different path of cultivating. Especially you.....your ways of cultivation is something even I have never heard of. So what is the most important aspect of your cultivation? What helps you in controlling your powers and its intensity. What regulates the flow of your energy."

Rihanna stared at the ground once more, pondering on all the varied methods she had been using both in the outside world and in the dimension. She knew that her emotions were a very important part of her cultivation techniques. But somehow she felt that this wasn't the right answer. It was not just the emotion, rather it was the rise and fall of her emotions which controlled the flow of her energy. But how was she supposed to define this 'Rise-and-Fall-of-Emotion'?

As she stared at the ground, from the corners of her eyes, she noticed tiny white stones being placed in a pattern around her. She looked up to face him and found him looking back with.....was that supposed to be a smile?!....or was she just imagining the tiniest quirk at the corner of his lips?!

"It's okay. Don't rush to figure it out. Something's take time and you can't rush it. It will come to you when you are least expecting it. Always remember...never try to force cultivation. That way you might be able to grow quickly.....but your body's spiritual and soul essence will be badly affected, and in turn your growth will become stunted. After reaching a certain level, you will never be able to evolve again. Don't be scared that you are taking time. Perhaps this is the time your mind and soul requires in order to grow and develop a better understanding."

As he continued talking softly, his fingers sped around at a speed almost invisible to the naked eyes, and soon a complicated pattern of array developed around them. Once the array was in place, he inserted his spiritual power into the nearest stone, and a golden-white light sprang out of the stone, jumping from one stone to the other, till all the stones were completely activated. A golden-white energy layer surrounded them. The golden particles separated from the white particles, and each started circling in opposite directions around the two people still sitting cross legged at the center.

Rihanna looked up at him in surprise and wonderment, but Mayaroubo couldn't sense any wariness or fear in her eyes.

"Are you never scared? I am much more powerful than you. How do you know the array I have just created will not take your life or perhaps even tear apart your soul?"

Rihanna blinked, realizing what he said was indeed true. For a moment she sank into silence, trying to understand what she was feeling around him. But even after a few moments, she could not feel any trace of fear or suspicion or intimidation.....as if she was entirely comfortable and familiar with the person right in front of her. Which in itself was pretty surprising!

"I don't know...I don't know why....but I am sure that you will never hurt me. I cannot explain it with any reasons or logic. It is just an intense feeling which comes from within me.....a feeling which tells me that you will never harm me in any way."

Rihanna was turning more and more embarrassed even as she spoke, but she kept her voice steady till the end, after which she coughed a few times and turned her face away to ease her embarrassment. Geez....this felt like such cheesy pick-up lines! This was the frigid-faced Emperor of the Underworld Abyss! What in the world was she thinking to be spouting such cringe-worthy words! 'Have a feeling that he won't harm me'!! he doesn't need to harm you! He is so powerful, he can just snap his fingers, and your pathetic little life will squashed right out of blight-zone!