Chapter 14: Heavenly seed?

"You understand about soul seeds and their grades right? All elemental magic has naturally occurring Soul seeds. We divide them into Spirit grade seeds and Soul grade seeds based on their strength.

So far Heaven grade seeds are only theory. We know they exist, we also know it's users but the magic association will approve of it after more experiments. But it is far too rare to have a participants free and interested enough to be a subject.

I digress. Now Light element, dark magic and white magic have their own materials. For when it comes to dimensional elements the Mental Strength of a user can be considered as Soul seed. Levels 1 to 3 are considered spirit grade seeds, levels 4 to 6 are Soul grade seeds and levels 7 to 9 are Heavenly seeds.

But these are only strenghthened or increasing your resistance against Psychic and Sound elements. Even certain Curses loose their effect if you have a high enough Mental Strength. These Mental Strength levels do not carry accompanying effects. Occasionally there are individuals who awaken a Soul seed for these elements as their Innate talents.

This is your talent, Innate Heavenly seed.

You're also lucky innate Heavenly seeds of elementary magic carry certain risks. Now I'll get to point of me being here. Will you like to be my student.

"Yes"

Cao Guang did not even need to think before he answered. This was something obvious. This man was one of three Half step Forbidden Curse level mages in the whole World. 

"Good, good, tell me about your plans and aspirations"

"Teacher has obviously heard about my second element. I have read upon a creature called Flame Belle, who reside in the Northern Burning Valley of Dunhuang. I think it is the best contracted creature for me. 

That would be my mid term goal and as a short term goal I would like to transfer to Ancient capital with my friends. I have a Soul Container with me. It was given to me by the same person who gave me the chance to unlock my second element".

Cao Guang finally revealed old man Ying's identity. He knew his teacher would be interested. A potion that could awaken an element, this was far too important for mages. His teacher and commander had not asked him for more details due to their nature.

"You are right. The Flame Belle would indeed be the best contracted beast for you. When you reach the intermediate level I will take you Dunhuang to contract the Flame Belle, this will be my gift to you. I will give you another hundred million yuan to spend. Together these will be the only freebies you receive.

I see that you want to remain in the army. Then do you have a phone?"

As embarrassing as it was he had yet to buy one. They were an expensive gadget and he didn't have the budget yet. Looking at his student's awkward face Pang Lai went on.

" I'll give you one. When you have questions about cultivation call me. I'll stay with you for the next few days and guide you. After that I'll have to leave. I am the chief of Royal Guards afterall. So are you prepared to break through or are going to wait"

"No teacher, I am ready to attempt a break through to the intermediate level."

Pang Lai would then go on to guide him in his cultivation. As for his hundred million yuan he exchanged that for a decent Soul Container with his teacher. He would collect some Soul essences and sell those to fund his group's cultivation. After that he was only left with some spending money.

During this time he was taught about cultivating different types of beasts as summoned and contracted beasts. As a master of the Summoning element Pand Lai had deep knowledge about these subjects, he only imparted a mere fraction to Cao Guang. But it had already improved his efficiency with Fenrir's cultivation.

His lessons with Pang Lai went on for three days before it was interrupted as Pang Lai had to leave and he had to attend the funeral of his former comrades that had died during the last excursion.

--

The night after the funeral Cao Guang was ready to attempt a break through to the intermediate level.

His Summoning Stardust was saturated after the excursion and was a brighter than Fire element Stardust in terms of spiritual energy it emitted. And right now it was absorbing more spiritual energy from Spiritual World than ever.

It was like a starved person seeing food after a week. It could no longer control itself as it absorbed energy to expand itself. If one paid attention they could observe a faint wall blocking the Stardust from expanding to a Star Nebula.

The pain of breaking a few bones was bad enough but the pain of breaking the barrier between intermediate level put new a understanding in Cao Guang's mind. This was barrier that had kept countless Primary Mages from reaching the Intermediate level.

Moving yourself away from painful stimuli was habitual for humans however, without the resolve to face the pain one would not be able to break through. Cao Guang focused the energy of his Star dust into a single wave and clenched his teeth and attacked the barrier for fifth time before it cracked slightly.

Just a bit more .. almost there. I'll reach the intermediate level with this step..

Cao Guang attacked the barrier one final time before it cracked apart into pieces and turned itself a great stream of energy filling his Stardust. Forty two new stars appeared in his Summoned Stardust no Star Nebula as he broke through.

He felt like a child watching the birth of actual stars in the cosmos. Curious and excited and could not wait to play with them. In his last life he had heard and seen simulations about birth and death of stars. This process seemed oddly similar to him. Except for the unipolarity of his stars.

Stars of the cosmos contain multiple elements within them, stars in the Spiritual World instead has only one element in them. In other ways they are rather similar. The micro world follows the macro and vice-versa huh.

Cao Guang had done it. In just two years after his initial awakening he became an intermediate mage. In the whole City of Bo, there were less than 50 intermediate mages in all of the clans, associations and army. If he wanted he could find a decent position in these organisation and live the life of a salted fish. Only he had bigger dreams.

Just because one reached the intermediate level one would not be able to cast an intermediate spell. A mage would need to revisit their roots. Meditate and cultivate a connection with each star. Control, control all forty nine stars to form a complete Star Pattern and Release to release the spell upon their enemies by consuming their spiritual energy.

This was another strenuous task. Thinking about it Cao Guang felt his head hurt. Previously it took him six months just to release a primary spell controlling just seven stars now the stars had septupled in number.

Cao Guang could feel his Star Nebula was brimming with unprecedented amount of energy. Even if he couldn't cast the intermediate spell, he felt he could cast the primary at least thrice more than he previously could or basically have Fenrir lurking around for three times longer.

Besides the intermediate spell was a Summouner's life blood. The spell would summon a Contracted creature from their contract space. Meaning there wasn't a time limit. Contract beasts where natives of this plane to begin with. Cao Guang knew there was lot to do and was little bogged by the upcoming busy days.

But first he would first nourish Fenrir using the energy obtained during his breakthrough. It was purest energy a Summoner could supply his beasts. He had already been preparing to evolve Fenrir. He changed it's blood from time to time and strengthened it bones and muscles all upto to the minimum amount.

Now with his teacher's guidance he felt he could go further in the wolf's cultivation and the key to this was naturally the energy from his Nebula immediately after the breakthrough.

He quickly casted the spell and summouned an ecstatic Fenrir who could wait no further after hearing about his master's advancement. He slowly guided the energy to Fenrir till the point it could no longer hold on.

Fenrir fell in to a deep sleep as he struggled to assimilate the absorbed energy. The intermediate level was equivalent to the Warrior class. It would be bit difficult for Fenrir to assimilate this energy. When he did so he would be ready to evolve to the Warrior class, naturally after a few more rounds of enhancement as prescribed by his teacher.

He spent the day meditating and controlling the stars for the intermediate spell, only then would his contract space be opened. He just felt he was going to need a long time to do it.

---

"So why Ancient capital" asked a curious Song Xia " why not Qinling mountains"

Currently the danger evaluation of Qinling mountains were extremely low. Of course it was still pretty high for their level. 

"Two reasons, one I bought a Soul Container from teacher. The Undead attack Ancient capital almost every night. No better place to gain Soul Essences. We can sell them and cover over expenses.

Secondly I broke through the intermediate level. I can lead a squad into night battles outside the wall very shortly after we transfer. As for Qinling mountains we need much higher level to join the expeditions or kill monsters there"