Chapter 2: Ch 1 - Yuhao's Bad Night
The white void lit up like a christmas tree, colored lights from all around bathed the two souls, boiling their gelatinous forms. His only companion slammed into him, absorbing a piece of his existence. Alex, shocked at this sudden aggression, barely dodged a follow up strike.
The two tumbled within the void, fighting for control. He realized the smaller soul could absorb faster than him, so he ripped a chunk off instead. With every rip, the void shuddered. But he wouldn't stop, wouldn't die again, not without putting up a fight.
They reduced each other with every confrontation. He tore with reckless abandon as the lights flared in the void. With every tear came memories: a lonely childhood, long hospital stays, a body failing at every turn, simple hopes, silly dreams, and most importantly, knowledge of a different world.
Knowledge of this boy's life.
Alex trembled at the sight of ruination as he looked at all the jagged and torn pieces that were once the two of them.
He just killed someone.
He just-
Adlet awoke in a cold sweat. The memory of his reincarnation always left him in a terrible state. Once the phantom pains subsided, he activated his martial spirit and the scars on his body gave off a soft glow. Stitching shaped scars ran all over body, not even his face was spared.
First to come back to him was his eyesight, the tent was dark as the sun had yet to breach the horizon. Second was his hearing, the sounds of nature and the chirping love songs of crickets filled the air. Next, his sense of smell and taste, as he breathed in the sweet aroma of natures morning dew. Finally, his sense of touch, he felt the comfortable sleeping bag and the two huggable body heaters.
Adlet's body could only use its most basic life sustaining functions without the support of his martial spirit. Quietly untangling himself from Mirellia and Raven was an act of futility as they awoke instantly.
"I want two blueberry muffins, eggs over easy, tea with extra honey, sausag-"
"We're not in town Mirellia." Raven yawned out as she rolled over Adlet just to pinch Mirellia and emphasize her point. The trio awoke with enough time to make some eggs and break open some stored muffins. They'd been living in the wilds for almost a month now, and had eaten through their stored meats.
Once they were done, the sky was beginning to be painted orange by the still hidden sun. Raven dressed in red and black, several layers of thick cloth that worked to protect her organs without limiting her speed or dexterity. Her black pants worked much the same, but had some additional gear, like knives and bandages. Neither Raven nor any of them wore jewelry for practical reasons, unless they were trying to look good. She strapped her two swords to a thick storage belt.
Raven activated one of her martial spirits she called Azarath, the Beast Spirit: Shadow Raven. This independent beast spirit manifested outside her body, meaning it wasn't forced to stay at her side at all times. They were using Azarath to keep an eye out for their target, the whole reason they were camping outside.
Raven then took out three of her glass mosaics of a picturesque sunrise from her storage belt. They were pictures of a gold and red sunrise above a very colorful jungle split by a violet winding river. She made the mosaics through the creative use of sand and of her Tool Spirit: Paint Brush. She set the mosaics to be perfectly perpendicular to where the sun would rise.
Mirellia wore a black and purple combat dress that went down to her knees, a bit more stealthy to not draw attention to the party's support. Until she got Skydream's ring, she wouldn't really be a control spirit master. Her black pants had similar gear to Raven, with her belt strapping a bow and quiver, as opposed to swords. Her amethyst fingernails were congealed poisons painted onto half of them, antidotes on the other half.
"Open wide for my flowing nectar, heavenly wine"
It didn't matter how many times they heard Mirellia chant her second spirit ability, they laughed. Raven and Adlet opened their mouths wide and stuck out their tongues like they were in some kind of exaggerated porn. It was funny for now, but Adlet didn't know how well Mirellia's composer would hold up to saying her double entendre chants publicly.
They each drank from the purple goblet that appeared from her second spirit ring and contained her heavenly wine. This was how Mirellia's Food Spirit: Alcohol took its form. A goblet the color of her ring, and more fragile than thin glass, would appear with an amount of Alcohol proportional to how much spirit power she poured in. The goblet disappeared shortly after its contents were removed, and any alcohol not consumed would lose its skill effect once the goblet disappeared. They each benefited from the skill's effects for an amount of time proportional to how much they drank.
Drinking a full goblet of her second skill, heavenly wine, could boost one person's spiritual (mental) power by 30% for two hours. They each drank a third of the cup for a 40 minute boost. Unfortunately her skill came with the down side of canceling or negating any other similar boosting/hampering skills. In other words, she could never stack effects with others, and that was seemingly going to be a part of all of her alcohol spirit's skills.
"Swallow it all with parched throats, Bloody Mary."
Another purple goblet appeared from her third spirit ring. Bloody Mary had the same time constraints, but boosted bloodline abilities and effects by 50%. A wonderful side effect was that it enhanced physical gains from things like training, an effect they'd hoped for because it worked similarly to the boosted mental gains they get from the heavenly wine.
All three sat and meditated behind the mosaics as the sun crested over the horizon. Red sunlight struck the mosaics first, following red lines of painted spirit power in the glasswork, pooling in the glassy red sun. When they detected the red sunlight compressed to its peak, they struck their abdomens and coughed up blood. A stand of crimson sunlight qi shot into the fresh blood, they immediately swallowed it. It would diffuse into their blood stream over the next few hours, improving their bloodline, general health, and physical qualities.
Next, the rainbow of colored glass began focusing colored light onto them like a magnifier. Deepening and defining the shadow behind each of them. Connecting with the shadow qi condensing behind them improved their cultivation speed for the next few hours and began condensing their spirit power.
Once the sun completely rose over the horizon, the gathered violet qi in the winding river flowed into their eyes. It nurtured their sight and improved their spiritual energy.
They stayed in their meditating positions until noon, reaping the maximum benefits of Raven's creations. After lunch, they went into their seperated training routines. When they first met each other in this world, they had decided to train like crazy and become super strong characters. That thought didn't last long. Mental and physical fatigue builds up quickly the more a person pushes their limits. That Xianxia/Wuxia cr*p where the mc trains from dawn to dusk, days on end is lies.
Everyday they spend a fair amount of non-hard-core-training time doing one of three things: hobby, spirit guide, or movement. Movement was simply going out on the town, taking a walk, or any other general de-stress activity. While Spirit guide was referring to the three points in constructing a spirit guide device that they practiced.
Raven became a blacksmith, this supplemented her swordsmanship training. She de-stressed with painting and making glasswork. Mirellia focused on designing Spirit guide devices, that supplemented her mental second martial spirit, Tool Spirit: Crystal Crown. She de-stressed by making outfits and trying new alcohols. While Adlet focused on crafting and inscribing. He had needed years to practice his control over his body through using his martial spirit. Inscribing delicate parts helped refine his fine tuned motor skills. He de-stressed by gardening and improving his ability to massage.
Without video games, it had been quite the experience to discover what else they each liked doing. And a little shocking how much they used to rely on games and anime to pass the time.
It was a few hours after lunch that they heard the caw of Azarath coming from above. All of the of them stopped what they were doing, Adlet could hear his heart start to pound. Was this it? Was it about to go down? Had they finally found Huo Yuhao.
They had taken the context clues of the story to deduce where they could intercept him. He came from the Duke's mansion, he ran into Shrek students, and his destination was the Great Star Dou Forest. Combine that with the knowledge that no child should be traveling the main roads alone, and it shouldn't be hard for Raven's spiritually connected bird to find their target.
It took a few hours for them to find the boy traveling alone. They ate trail rations and only kept sight of the raven, not letting the boy see them directly. They were still a few days travel from the spirit forest, well before he should be running into the last of the Tang Sect. There was no doubt that any one of them could take him out, but they waited until night fell so as to not make a scene or leave any witnesses.
Adlet felt legitimately bad for Huo Yuhao. The boy really got screwed by life. But that was the truth of this world, there is only fairness in how truly unfair it is.
They crept up to his tent under the cover of darkness. Every broken leaf under foot sharply echoed in their ears. Little by little the masked trio got to the sleeping child. Adlet pulled out a potted purple cap mushroom and held it to Raven. She brought out her Paint Brush martial spirit tool, touched the mushroom with it, activating her purple second ring: Assimilation. The brush absorbed and condensed the mushroom's poison, but wouldn't be able to hold it for long. She put the bristles to Yuhao's lips and let the poison do its thing. Once they were sure he was under, Adlet put his hand over Yuhao's face and entered into the white void.
************
In the white void, the body's senses didn't work. Rather, there was only an inherent comprehension of one's own existence/soul. Adlet comprehended his existence/soul as a humanoid figure, pieced and stitched together by the dead remnants of gelatinous souls. There were seven 'living' soul exceptions: the core that is his original soul and six body spirits he'd taken before now. He could only think of his soul as a bowl of fruit jello, with the living parts the fruits. Floating around his soul was a lone 2,000 year purple ring.
Next to him was a significantly smaller soul, it looked like two eyes connected by hundreds of thin lines going back into what would have been a brain, all submerged in its own gelatinous shell. Having done this half a dozen times already, he knew what he was doing and could do it fairly safely. Unlike the first few times that ended with a dead doctor and a dead thief.
Adlet controlled his soul to enclose the smaller soul on all sides. Then he made contact with the core part of the smaller soul, its eyes, and started draining. The weaker soul did the only thing it intuitively could and tried to absorb his soul. Adlet let this happen, feeding it the dead portion of his soul that this new stolen soul was already going to replace. The process didn't last long, and Adlet was in complete control. Against a higher cultivation, that likely wouldn't be the case. That's why he believed his first confrontation in this world turned out so bad, his host was innately higher level.
Every person Adlet has stolen a spirit from was chosen because they never walked down the road of cultivation, or they had only just begun. Except he didn't choose his first. The first body spirit he stole was actually on accident. The doctor treating him, born with innate level 3 spirit power, possessed the Body Spirit: Blood and could innately tell blood related problems with patients. During a check-up after his self destructive awakening, he re-entered into this void and attacked the other soul before it could take the initiative to hurt him. The doctor died of heart failure, and Adlet never felt healthier afterwards.
The second soul was found by Raven two months later. She had been borrowing, without permission, registry information from small villages about their residents. The unknown body spirit she found was of the meridian network, with innate level 3 spirit power. That part of the body is fundamental to cultivation because it channels all types of energy throughout the body, and killing that man gave him the ability to cultivate. They also got all the stolen cultivation technique knowledge that man was collecting and researching.
The stolen cycling technique was of particular use, as it moves spirit and spiritual power through the body in a number of cycles that equals the max age of that person's next ring. They used this to know when they could safely absorb thousand year rings, like Adlet's one purple ring.
It was at that point that Adlet discovered a terrible secret about his spirit. Having killed several people and seeing the small increases he could make with his max cultivation level equal his victims innate spirit power made his only path forward disconcerting. The awareness that he would have to steal 100 innate spirit levels to have the potential to reach godhood was a bitter pill to swallow.
Afterwards they found twin girls with the same Body Spirit: Hair at innate level 5, an old man with Body Spirit: Nails at level 7, and a dying patient with a mutated Body Spirit: Scars at level 2. Add in his body spirit and Yuhao's eyes both innately level 1, and Adlet could now max out at level 26. He was however still at level 20, soon to get his second ring.
Adlet looked at the dead facsimile eyes of Yuhao's soul drifting in the void. He said a prayer in apology before leaving.
*********
Adlet's eyesight was clearer and sharper than ever before. He also wouldn't need to keep his martial spirit active to use his eyes anymore, one more step to normalcy. They left Yuhao with a bag of silver, the only compensation for destroying his cultivation and leaving him with a poor replica of what was once his martial spirit. And of course, for making him blind whenever his body spirit isn't active.
It was the middle of the night, but none of them were tired. Despite the gruesome nature of Adlet's spirit, it was impossible to not feel elation at the feeling of not being quite so broken. Mirellia and Raven were infected by his positive attitude, and traveled throughout the night towards the Great Star Dou Forest.
With no moon in the night sky they weren't able to practice the lunar cultivation techniques via the moon portraits. Instead, they enjoyed the fact that they could rent a room at an inn a couple town's over, and eat a freshly made breakfast the following morning.
Adlet dressed in a white shirt and pants, layered under thicker tan clothes. A few pieces of brown leather armor over his sides, chest, and back. As well as several belts holding his emergency pouches. He had a storage belt hidden, but grabbing something from there in an emergency could be difficult and time consuming.
After another solar cultivation morning, and after finding a spirit beast information broker, they set out for their rings. Adlet was at level 20 and needed his second spirit ring, whereas Mirellia had resisted putting any rings on her Crystal Crown, waiting until they took care of Yuhao. It was not well known, but mental spirit masters has a habit of dying mysteriously in the Star Dou Forest. This was almost certainly the million year worm's doing. So they waited until the time that they knew the worm could safely be absorbed, to reap the benefits. That time being when Huo Yuhao goes to the forest.
The trio made it to the outskirts of the forest well before noon without issue. Azarath flew amongst the tree tops, to keep a clear view in the dense forest. Raven was level 27, with both rings adorning her primary spirit: Paint Brush. While she couldn't keep both spirits out simultaneously, her weakness was circumvented by the two swords strapped to her waist. One was calleed Omen, a recreation of raven Branwen's dust sword maker, and the other was called Kenshin, a reverse blade sword for when fighting wasn't necessarily meant to be lethal. She took point after drinking from Mirellia's second and third spirit abilities.
"Our target is a 7,000 year crystalline spider that was recently seen in this area." Unlike top schools where the students run into the forest blindly with powerful masters protecting them, most use an information broker. Nearly every bar surrounding spirit beast hunting areas has one. They bought info on several beasts locations. Only after a failed territory dispute, or death, would a spirit beast leave its hunting grounds with very few exceptions having ever been recorded. That makes information brokers a valuable service for those not backed by a strong spirit master.
The trio didn't go far into the forest at the start, giving Skydream time to make an entrance. As the hours past he didn't show, so they headed deeper in, ignoring the 100 year beasts that fled.
The first confrontation occurred with a loud boom from the tree tops. Azarath was launched backwards, slamming into another tree, dispersing into shadows. Raven grabbed the handle of Omen, summoned her Paint Brush inside the handle, and began filling Omen's sand filled sheath with colored paint from her first spirit ring: Elemental Paints. When the attacker, a wind baboon, dropped to the lower branches, Adlet started roaring to get its attention.
Not to be outdone, the wind baboon roared back and launched a bullet of compressed air at Adlet. He let the attack hit while his only ability, Physical Displacement, reduced the effectiveness of physical damaging attacks by spreading out the area of damage. This greatly counteracted piercing and slashing attacks. Adlet's mocking laugh was understood, and the annoyed baboon repositioned itself for another attack.
Raven's spirit guide super heated the yellow-paint infused sand in Omen into a glassy yellow colored blade as she drew her sword. Focusing her spirit power into the blade as she slashed, sent a lightning arc into the side of the distracted creature. It fell off the tree, wounded and bleeding, scurrying away in fear.
Raven's first ring, Elemental Paints, allows her to turn her paint into one of six elements: Ice, Wind, Water, rock, fire, and lightning. She combines that with the little bit of sword qi she can form to devastating effect. The Elemental Paints can only be made and maintained while the skill is in use, which is why her lightning yellow blade turned clear when she stopped the skill. That's not to say she isn't dangerous with a regular glass blade, that is how she usually trains, but that she cannot unleash some of her more tactical attacks. If she tried to put paint on her sword, the paint would fly off haphazardly, and that causes lots of problems when that paint then changes into an element.
The trio continued onward, Raven leaving her glass sword out. Elemental energies wouldn't help against their quarry. Azarath let out a cry for attention, as the sun began to set. It was well up into the trees when it flew head first into a nigh invisible crystalline web. They looked up with violet tinted eyes, shocked at an immense amount of webbing about forty meters above them. They'd found the spider's home, and this creature needed to be dealt with through non-elemental means due to its inherent elemental tuning ability. Raven began focusing and gathering her sword qi, while Mirellia activated her yellow first spirit ring.
"Dripping wet with curious exploration, Catalog: Nightshade."
Mirellia's first ring, Catalog, could catalog and replicate any alcoholic drink she filled her goblet with, granted she used enough spirit and spiritual power. She drank the roofied alcohol, then used a technique to spray it up into the webbing, aerosolizing the sedative. She couldn't see the spider, but it should still be somewhere in the webbing.
Adlet, without any ranged options, stood guard until spiders started dropping. After fifty hundred-year spiders fell down, he started growing concerned. There were more spiders than originally reported, and a bigger nest likely means a stronger queen.
"Now!"
Mirellia's shout was to Raven, who dispersed her bird before it could be bitten by the queen. She then sent three sword qi enhanced strikes upward to sever the webbing around the Queen, dropping it for Adlet. He struck before it could even hit the ground, a right hook cracking the beast's crystalline face. The creature was shocked still, either by the punch or the fall, Adlet didn't know. He overextended on his follow up. He wasn't left handed and missed getting a second good hit in.
The queen stood up, five meters of pure rage displayed across her cracked jewel of a face. She slammed into him like a freight train, pushing him back into a tree. He heard a crack. He'd focused his defensive skill on his front, for only her biting and injecting elements into him was a threat. He had no doubt his back was bleeding. She went to bite and Adlet fed her his left arm. He grabbed anything inside the mouth he could, leveraging himself to punch her face again and again with his right arm. The queen couldn't pierce with the damage displacement in full effect, so she dragged him around, slamming him into everything in range.
That didn't last long with Raven slicing the legs, but even for a tank like Adlet, that hurt. With enough hits he finally killed the immobile queen. When the purple ring appeared he meditated himself back into peak condition.
"Absorb the ring here, I'll keep the spiders sedated. This nest kept the local beasts away, and I have an alcohol that'll dilute the scent of blood in the air." Mirellia didn't waste any time after the battle was over.
Raven sashayed over to Adlet, stripped him, and started cleaning his wounds. Mostly on his back. "That was hot. I'm gonna make out with Mirellia while you're meditating. Hurry up absorbing it if you wanna join in." Raven said that to motivate him. Just because they potentially could absorb higher aged rings, didn't mean they'd succeed or that it was suddenly safe. Naturally they always worried at this most critical stage where they couldn't help if something went wrong.
He chuckled in appreciation. He knew he'd be getting some rewards once he was done, but the extra motivation always touched him. He gave each of them a heartfelt kiss.
He sat cross-legged and began absorbing the ring. Never noticing the worm watching them nearby.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
lumini
lumini Hopefully the HP story will have its update on Wednesday.
Weekly Power Status
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