The Path through the Heavens: A LitRPG Wuxia Series (The Heavenly Throne Book 6)

by Yuri Ajin

“What? Who is he?” Kai was a bit alarmed. He had never seen Rune’Tan like this before.

  “This is... This is the one I told you about! You surely remember! I told you about him when we first met. Ten years before your arrival, a masked man appeared out of nowhere and opened the Azure Cube. He then left, leaving behind the most powerful waves of anger that I’ve ever felt. It actually frightened me so much that I hid,” Rune’Tan said in a calmer but still slightly trembling voice. “I don’t know who you see in front of you now, but I know that’s him. I’m absolutely sure of it... I can tell you that long, long ago he possessed divine power. His soul is ancient...”

  “That... explains why I can’t sense anything even with my energy vision... And how he has ten points...”

  “You shouldn’t have attacked me,” the man said. “I’m not your enemy, Kai Arnhard.”

  Chapter 25

  FINAL PREPARATIONS

  “Who are you?” Kai asked after a few seconds of silence, putting his sword back into the Ring. The strength his visitor had demonstrated, as well as what he heard from Rune’Tan, was enough for him to realize that attacking him would be pointless.

  “Nomen Millia Animarus.”

  “What do you want from me, Nomen?” Turning on the light with an artifact, Kai walked to a chair and sat down, exhaling a breath of relief. “Why did you break into my house?”

  “Clear Body Potion,” Nomen replied dryly, standing still. “It’s not available for sale anymore.”

  “Seriously?” Kai examined Nomen with energy vision, noticing a huge amount of unusual impurities in his body. It seemed that someone had deliberately done this to him. “That’s all?”

  “Not really.” Nomen sat down across from him. “I also have an offer for you... You get something for me and you can ask for anything in return. Within reason, of course. Techniques, artifacts, alchemy, or other rare resources...”

  “You’re the second strongest member of the Ten.” Kai arched an eyebrow. “Can’t you get whatever it is you need with your status and power? What could you possibly want from me, a mere mortal?”

  Nomen chuckled. There was something so eerie in that sound that Kai shivered without even realizing it.

  “Something that only a mortal can get.”

  “Well, unfortunately, I’m not interested,” Kai replied. “Now, if you’d be so kind, the door’s over there.”

  “I see.” Nomen got up with a sigh.

  Kai tensed up and prepared the Mask of the Great Liar but Nomen calmly walked toward the exit.

  “Sorry for the intrusion. We’ll meet again, Kai Arnhard,” he said, turning around at the door. “But remember, my offer still stands. If you change your mind, take a look at your Ring.”

  After that, he walked out. The door closed behind him with a soft creak, and Kai was left alone.

  What does that mean? he wondered, and gazed into his Ring with a part of his consciousness.

  Everything seemed to be in place, except for one thing — there was a small paper amulet that came from somewhere in the compressed space. In addition, several flasks of the Clear Body Potion that Kai had left for himself were gone. In their place was a pouch with ten thousand Coins.

  ***

  …Having lost an arm and received a fatal blow to the head with a sword, the copy of the student finally fell. As the energy that fueled the Dummy spilled out of its body, it slowly turned transparent until it disappeared, leaving behind red smoke. The fight was over.

  You have completed The Fourth Guardian’s Test!

  The Battle Dummy (copy of Apprentice No. 1,000) has been destroyed.

  Congratulations! You will be moved to a new place on the List of Ten Thousand.

  Your new rank: 1,000

  You have unlocked the Fourth Floor of the Cloud Abode.

  Attention!

  Exiting the Testing Hall of the Fourth Guardian in 240s...

  I’ve finally done it... I’ve reached the fourth floor.

  A little more than a week had passed since he returned from Darkshire. All this time, Kai was training and looking for the right student. And although his plan had a high risk of failure and he needed to do a lot to bend the Abode rules, it was still worth a shot. Fortunately, this time, luck was on his side.

  The newly forged alliance with the dwarven faction helped him get the one thousand and first student to accept his conditional challenge. This way, he bypassed the third test’s limitations that didn’t allow challenging anyone who was more than two hundred places above you on the list.

  After they made a contract, the duel began. His opponent immediately surrendered, receiving his one hundred and fifty thousand Coins, and Kai automatically took his place and was awarded a one-time pass to the fourth floor, where he immediately took the Fourth Guardian’s Test.

  That was how he managed to save time by skipping more than one and a half thousand places. He got to the right place and with the required rank. For the fourth floor, the list of candidates included students from the thousandth to nine hundred and first place. Aware of who Kai was, all of his potential opponents refused to fight him, and the Abode forced the last on the list to a duel. Even though his opponent didn’t really have a chance, Kai had to take things seriously. If he had failed this Test, the Abode would’ve automatically sent him back to the third floor, after which he’d be able to retake it only after three months.

  Having gotten his right to be on the fourth floor, he canceled the lease for the house on the third via the System, after which he headed to the Trade Pavilion to purchase the ingredients for the Heavenly Flask.

  As he predicted, Spirit Fruits with the soul attribute could be found in the Abode. Two low-quality, Royal-rank Fruits cost him nearly three hundred thousand Coins. He could’ve bought them on the third floor, but those were only of Gold rank, which wasn’t good enough.

  He had also found thirteen other rare Spirit Plants that he needed to prepare the potion. In total, he spent another quarter million Coins. The last thing he bought was the Great Alchemy Cube, which cost almost fifty thousand. After all these expenses, he had about three hundred thousand Coins left.

  When he was done shopping, he went to the Masters Pavilion where he rented a private alchemy workshop for the day.

  Initially, Rune’Tan was supposed to be in charge of making the Flask. The trick was that he needed to enhance the Heavenly Water up to the rank of Star Water with a Spirit Fruit, which had to be turned into a liquid while retaining its properties. Rune’Tan was the only one who knew the necessary technique for this process.

  However, since Kai had reached the maximum understanding of the Yang concept, he decided to use its transformation property and replace Rune’Tan’s technique with its help.

  The training took a couple of hours. After Rune’Tan confirmed Kai’s success, he gave him permission to begin creating Star Water. First, Kai carefully and slowly turned the Royal-rank Fruit with the soul energy into a liquid. Then he took a flask of Emerald Water that he had created during his stay in the Abode from his Ring.

  Usually, the liquid obtained from the Fruit had to be mixed with Heavenly Water, but Rune’Tan advised Kai to use Emerald Water instead as it had a higher quality as an alchemical ingredient and was a universal resource for potions, elixirs, and infusions.

  Kai gently mixed the two fluids, pricked his finger, and put a couple of drops of blood into the vessel with the ingredients. When the container was full and the ingredients properly blended, he poured the resulting substance into a previously prepared bottle, which he immediately closed with a cork with a special seal.

  All that remained was to saturate the liquid with energy, which Kai did for the next ten minutes, eventually pouring nearly ten times his ki reserve into the vial and nearly collapsing.

  Restoring his spirit endurance with a potion, he spent another hour meditating to regain strength. As for the Star Water he created, which was a preparation for the infusion, he placed it in a special storage, where the
liquid had to stay for about forty days.

  “I must admit, you did it perfectly. Congratulations, the first stage has been successfully completed,” Rune’Tan said. “Now we wait until the brewing process is done. After that, we’ll move on to creating the main ingredient. And, since you’ve done so well, there’s no point in hiding the most important part of the preparation process from you any longer.”

  “What are you talking about? Isn’t everything I need to know in the scrolls?”

  “No… I kept some information…” Rune’Tan answered. “You should know that becoming a True Master is a transition to another level of being. Accordingly, this transition can, and should, be used to its maximum. There are a few ways of doing it right. The most complicated is to reach the Walker Stage and create the Soul Sphere, but I don’t know anyone who managed to do that. We’re gonna use a much easier way that can do the same trick; we’re gonna use alchemy. The idea behind all that is that those whose foundation is higher than eight points can experience a special transformation of their soul or body during the transition to the Exorcist Stage. Aside from the fact that this makes the process a whole lot easier, this gives a few features that come with the use of breakthrough drugs. These features are Energy Expansion, Higher Enlightenment, Manifestation of Elements, Opening of the Mind, Opening of Power, and Opening of Life.”

  “And what does all that mean?”

  “Remember the Red Star Pill that your friend got for taking fourth place in the Great Tournament? What was one of its main effects?”

  “Expanding the Source by fifty percent?” Kai recalled.

  “Yes. That’s Energy Expansion. A thing that makes you a lot stronger, but only once in your whole life. A fun fact about elves, they can’t use it. They already have a Source one and a half times larger at all stages of development. As for other cultivators, their increase in energy supply depends on the amount of ki at the initial level of the Exorcist Stage.”

  “I see. What about the rest?”

  “Well, the rest...”

  As the name implied, Higher Enlightenment allowed the cultivator to reach this state during a breakthrough. Enlightenment usually always accompanied the process of becoming a True Master, but it very rarely reached the Higher level.

  Manifestation of the Elements was also a sort of enlightenment in the field of certain Paths, but unlike the previous feature it wasn’t about weapons, alchemy, techniques, or stuff like that. It compressed the process of contemplating an element for many months or even several years into only one or two minutes.

  Unlike the first three, the remaining features were related to the body, which also underwent significant changes at the moment of transition. Opening of the Mind gave a one-time increase of the mental parameter by fifty percent after the breakthrough. Opening of Power increased power and speed, and Opening of Life — endurance and resilience, on which regeneration also depended.

  “Usually, a breakthrough drug can only grant one of these six bonuses. The uniqueness of the Heavenly Flask is that we’re more in control of these processes and it allows you to get two. So take your pick, boy. What do you want?”

  Kai didn’t have to think long. He ignored the body bonuses, since the Flesh and Soul: Double Breakthrough Technique, which he had recently created, provided the same effect. But he wouldn’t refuse additional five hundred energy points, so his first choice was the Energy Expansion.

  The final choice wasn’t difficult. With his perfect memory, ability to withdraw soul energy, Mind Gates, and Ultimate Focus, which intensified with each stage, he was unlikely to experience difficulties in creating new techniques or analyzing a fighting style.

  “Energy Expansion and Manifestation of the Elements.”

  “Just as I thought.” Rune’Tan chuckled. “The Heavenly Flask of Unlimited Destruction and Recreation grants Energy Expansion as the main bonus. For it, you need any Fruit with soul energy. But for the Manifestation of the Elements, you’ll have to buy a special one. What element do you want? Sword or Space?”

  “Sword.”

  “In that case, you’ll need either the Three-Bladed Flower or the Flesh-Cleaving Crimson Fruit. They’re the only ones suitable for the process. Of course, they must be at least low-quality and Royal-rank,” Rune’Tan said. “As for the recipe, you can study its updated version right now. You’ll go shopping later.”

  “Good.” Kai nodded, plunging first into his spirit world, and then into Rune’Tan’s soul world.

  ***

  Kai’s two-day-long search ended in failure. No matter how hard he tried, he didn’t manage to find a Royal-rank Three-Bladed Flower in the Abode. The last time such a plant was available at the Trade Pavilion on the fourth floor was almost seven years ago, when it was bought almost immediately. The plant, as it turned out, was extremely valuable for all swordsmen and was used for more than breakthrough preparations. Unfortunately, he found no more information about it, which made him think.

  Having exhausted all of his sources, he decided to turn to the Cloud Anarchists, and instructed them to look for the flower in one of the six anomalous zones. With the advance payment of almost fifty thousand Coins, they worked quickly and efficiently. Even though they mainly lived on the Ground floor, the Anarchists were still considered to be among the best seekers in the entire Abode. Sometimes, members of the Ten would hire them if their factions didn’t have cultivators competent enough for a certain task.

  The Anarchists had an excellent reputation. Their group had existed for almost four centuries. The leaders and the members changed, but their principles remained. As a neutral group, they were often invited to join factions, but the best seekers never did.

  As for the Flesh-Cleaving Crimson Fruit, Kai gave up on it when he learned that no one had ever heard of such a thing, which led him to the conclusion that this particular Spirit Fruit didn’t grow on Nikrim.

  Having gone to the first floor, Kai went to Elea’s house, where he was greeted by Sator, Elea, Ranmaru, and one of his acquaintances — a Master of Souls.

  “Is it true? Ranmaru says you’ve found a way to heal my wound,” Elea asked in disbelief. “He said that you contacted him through an artifact and asked him to give me this message.”

  “It’s true,” Kai confirmed with a nod.

  “But… But… Is it really possible?” Elea shuddered, and then looked down. Until now, it all seemed like a cruel joke to her. No matter how much she tried to seem strong, she had long ago come to terms with the fact that she would never be healed.

  “I believe it is. I hope you believe it, too,” Kai said softly, seeing Julie’s image in Elea.

  “Let’s do it then.” She nodded firmly, clenching her fists, and motioned them to follow her to her bedroom.

  “First, you must drink this elixir. The procedure is very painful, so I tried to find a way to ease it, but it won’t completely remove the spirit pain,” Kai explained. “You’ll have to endure.”

  “I’m ready,” Elea answered firmly, taking the bottle in her hands.

  Uncorking and then drinking the elixir, she put the empty vial on the table and lay down.

  “May I ask you all to leave us?” Kai looked at Ranmaru, Sator, and the Master of Souls. “It’s important that nothing interferes with this. I’m not a True Master yet so I need to concentrate.”

  The trio looked at each other. After standing still for a few seconds, they left.

  What Kai said was true. It was important that nothing interfered with the process, but he also didn’t want the Master of Souls to realize that he was creating soul energy.

  “Get ready,” he warned Elea, placing his hand on her stomach. “Are you sure you want to be awake for this?”

  “Yes. I’ll be in pain no matter what. But this way, I won’t be alone,” she replied.

  “Once I begin, it’s important that you don’t resist me, even when I get to your soul. Even if it’s painful. I’ll need you to trust me, Elea. Can you do that?”

  She no
dded one last time.

  “I can.”

  The strange energy of Yin and Yang pre-formed in Kai’s palm poured into her astral body. She assumed that she’d have to restrain herself not to accidentally resist the foreign energy but she quickly realized that she could take control of Kai’s ki only if she tried very hard.

  The foreign energy finally penetrated her Soul Shell, making her grimace. Then it reached her Spark, which began to absorb it, bringing with it strong spirit pain.

  Elea gritted her teeth, clenched her fists, and groaned. Soon, she started trembling and crying, cold sweat mixing with hot tears. But she held on. She had no choice.

  Almost ten minutes later, it was over. Taking a deep breath, Elea felt the pain subside.

  “We’re not done yet. You won’t feel pain from this point on but it’ll take a while to complete the process,” Kai explained.

  The newly-made soul energy that had escaped from her Spark was now heading toward her Shell. Elea was an end-level Exorcist. Under normal circumstances, consuming three times the amount of soul energy would quickly destroy her Shell. Luckily, Kai had Rune’Tan to prevent this by taking partial control over his body and using Soul Forces.

  As soon as these Forces touched Elea, she shuddered, and the new soul energy finally reached her Shell. However, instead of crushing it, power began to seep through it in a process similar to the one in which Kai improved his foundation, when energy poured into his Source, increasing it and trying to heal it.

  In this case, Elea’s supply of ki couldn’t increase without improving the quality of the Shell, so healing was the only available option. Soul energy rushed along the walls of her astral body, quickly reaching the injury. Finally reaching its edges, it began to tighten and close the wound. The process was extremely slow, but the effect was immediately visible.

  Once it was over, all the excess soul energy that spilled out of the Spark dissipated, shrinking Elea’s wound to a dot the size of a pinhole.

  “I’m done,” Kai said. “This was the first procedure. I don’t know if you can feel the result, but I can see that the wound has begun to heal.”