The First Peak of the Force

by Yuri Ajin

  On top of that, he had significantly improved his close-combat skills, having learned a lot from Rune’Tan. In his youth, the redhead used not only the Soul Forces but also his fists to fight.

  When he fought monsters on a whole stage above him, it seemed to him that he was finished. However, every time he managed to outsmart death thanks to the sheer power of his will, his desire to become stronger, and, of course, his regeneration ability.

  That was why, even without being able to develop further, he slowly but surely became stronger.

  ***

  Kai closed his eyes. Hidden in the crown of a tall tree, he observed several auras that were scattered about. Just a minute ago, he sensed two groups of people ahead, none of which reacted to his unmasked aura, which meant that they weren’t Salamanders. Still, he wasn’t about to lower his guard.

  The two groups quickly found each other, after which a fight ensued. One of the groups had five people, while the other had seven. Almost all of them were at the Opening of the Acupuncture Points level.

  The outcome, however, surprised him. In the beginning, the group of seven was doing better. Then, eight auras disappeared from his view, leaving three to fight against one. The survivor tried to escape, but they chased him... and caught him.

  Kai was about to turn and leave when he felt someone’s aura at the Meridian Formation level. In just a few seconds, its owner knocked out the three remaining students, after which he began to collect the tokens.

  Jumping from branch to branch, Kai quickly reached the battlefield. However, he was noticed.

  Dodging a bolt of lightning, he jumped to the ground. Rising, he locked gazes with the stranger, who lowered his hand and dispelled the technique he was about to use.

  “It’s you!”

  “It’s me…” Kai sighed and then smiled. “We meet again, Lei Wang.”

  Chapter 21

  APPROACHING THE GOAL

  The meeting came as a surprise for both of the young cultivators. Kai had expected to see all sorts of things in the Wasteland, but for some reason, it hadn’t occurred to him that he could run into old acquaintances.

  “Hello!” Lei Wang said with a big smile.

  “So, it was you who ended this fight?” Kai asked instead of greeting him, looking at the bodies strewn about. Judging by the robes, they were members of the Thunder Serpent and the Tree of Life Clans. The latter had been winning until Lei Wang’s arrival.

  “Yes! By the way, I didn’t see you during the qualification stage...” he said absentmindedly.

  “It happens...” Kai replied, equally aloof.

  Approaching one of the Serpents, he began rummaging through his clothes. Having found the token, he proceeded to the next one, until he had checked all five of them.

  Luckily, it was forbidden to place tokens into Rings as that would make them inaccessible for those participants who, unlike Kai, couldn’t remove owner marks, thus making them unable to gather points.

  “What are you doing?” Lei Wang asked, looking puzzled.

  “Huh? Sorry, do you want the tokens?”

  “Why would I want that? We’re from the same clan.”

  Kai sighed. Lei Wang was as clueless and hopeless as ever. Then again, he didn’t belong to any of the teams, so it made sense that he was out of the loop. Robbing your clanmates was stupid as they’d definitely hold a grudge. However, this group of Serpents was unconscious, so why Lei Wang wasn’t using it to his advantage was beyond Kai’s understanding.

  “You can take their points for yourself through another clan token,” he explained and demonstrated by transferring a small number of points first to Shin Kou’s token and then to the Serpent’s dark blue one. “They lost, so it doesn’t really matter who gets their points in the end,” he added, getting up. “Also...” He looked at Lei Wang and tossed a small bundle to him. “Take this. It’s for saving my life two years ago.”

  Lei Wang managed to catch the gift even though he was taken aback by Kai’s behavior. Looking down, his heart started beating faster. In his hands, he held a peak–quality, Gold-rank Fruit imbued with the element of thunder. Tiny flashes of electricity running along its surface and its thick skin streaked with mystical symbols spoke of its high value.

  Greed flashed in the young man’s gaze, but it was quickly replaced with pride.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked, pretending not to understand.

  “Stop fooling around.” Kai chuckled. “You may have covered your face and masked your aura, but I recognized the look in your eyes.”

  Lei Wang sighed. He didn’t want anyone to know that it was he who had helped Kai escape from the Salamanders. On that evening, he was taking a walk through the city, when he suddenly felt a disturbance in the energies, followed by a colossal explosion that shook the entire Upper Nest. Needless to say, curiosity got the best of him and he went to investigate.

  Once he was close enough, he felt a familiar aura. However, it seemed to have been suppressed for some reason. Feeling all that, he immediately decided to check what was going on. But as soon as he saw the wounded Kai and the enraged Shin Sei, he stopped dead in his tracks.

  Lei Wang knew that Shin Sei was the son of the patriarch of the “friendly” clan that occasionally visited the Upper Nest as an envoy and even more often crossed blades with the best students of the Thunder Serpent Clan. His strength and talent were widely known.

  And now Kai, his recent rival and someone who had been very kind to him, was in trouble. But he didn’t know what to do. His inner voice whispered the answer to him. And even though he knew it was foolish, he helped Kai escape.

  For a long time after that, he was afraid that he’d be discovered. That was why Kai’s gratitude came as a surprise.

  Staring at the wondrous Fruit, he heaved a sigh of relief.

  “Are you sure about this? This is very expensive.”

  Kai chuckled. “I am. I’m grateful to those who help me and wish to repay them in kind. I found the Fruit by accident, but I’ve no use for it other than sell it for coin. If you don’t want it, I’ll do just that... Anyway, I have to go now.”

  Waving Lei Wang goodbye, he headed further south. Just recently, he had reentered the area within which Rune’Tan had sensed the Fruit they needed.

  Their goal was now six hundred miles away.

  “Hey, wait!” Lei Wang perked up. “I wanna go with you!”

  Kai winced.

  “As you wish. But I won’t wait for you. If you fall behind, it’s your fault,” he said and dashed forward at great speed.

  ***

  By the end of the tenth day of the Tournament, Kai and Lei Wang had managed to cover a great distance. With each passing day, Kai looked forward to catching the Fruit more and more. According to Rune’Tan, it hadn’t gone anywhere. The longer it stayed in one place, the more difficult it’d be for it to move again.

  During this time, Kai went out several more times to hunt for the Salamanders. He had to warn Lei Wang about his plan so that he wouldn’t get involved and inadvertently receive the status of an assassin. He also told him not to try to stop him as he had no regrets about what he was doing.

  To his surprise, Lei Wang didn’t ask any unnecessary questions. Even his eccentric mind understood the cruelty of the world they were living in.

  Along the way, the two encountered various monsters. Luckily, none of them were powerful enough to wound them but they did slow them down, forcing them to skip meals and rest in order to make up for the lost time. They also came across Plants; at least Kai did, as Lei Wang didn’t seem able to sense their presence. From time to time, he’d make a stop in order to pick up the most valuable of Plants, surprising Lei Wang who just couldn’t seem to figure out how Kai knew where the Herbs and Fruits were.

  He was also amazed by Kai’s strength, which exceeded that of most people on his level. The way he dealt with entire groups of Salamanders all on his own, without weapons, energy, or Force, was both awe-inspiring and fright
ening. It was hard to believe that it was possible to possess such power even at the Mind Stage without being an apprentice.

  Just what kind of secrets was Kai hiding?

  At dawn of the eleventh day, they were forced to halt. In front of them stretched a long and wide canyon, with what seemed to be a bottomless pit between its sides. Crossing it seemed both dangerous and time-consuming. It’d be faster to go around it.

  Or so Lei Wang thought.

  Looking at Kai, he realized that his friend had a different idea in mind.

  “It seems to me,” Kai said thoughtfully, “that this is where we part ways.”

  “But why?” Lei Wang inquired as he watched Kai pick up rocks from the ground.

  “As I said, I’m in a hurry,” he replied, continuing to scavenge the ground. “I’m not going to waste time on a detour. Time’s a luxury I can’t afford.”

  Lei Wang stared at him dumbfounded. In the meantime, Kai had collected nearly a dozen wide rocks that now lay tucked away under his arm. Approaching the edge, he looked down and whistled. The pit was at least a couple of hundred feet deep.

  “One, two, three, four, and… five,” he counted, stepping back from the edge. He then turned around. “Thank you again, Lei Wang. I wish you the best of luck,” he said.

  “Wait! What are you doing?!” Lei Wang shouted, outstretched his arm, and stepped forward.

  But Kai wasn’t listening. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and turned toward the canyon. The next moment, his hands twitched sharply. Stones soared over the darkness of the abyss, forming a path.

  “So be it…” he said and activated the Five Weightless Steps. His silhouette blurred and melted away. In a second, he was gone, leaving behind nothing but a cloud of falling dust. No longer did he destroy the ground beneath him when he moved as he had finally learned how to better control the amount of ki released during the technique’s activation.

  During their journey, he moved at a normal speed and Lei Wang had to use a technique in order to keep up with him. Today, however, he decided to use ki for the first time in a long while.

  Like a bolt of lightning, he zapped over the floating path. In a matter of nanoseconds, he was near the other side of the chasm, safe and sound but without a drop of ki left in him. Thanks to careful planning and perfect timing, he reached the last stone just before it lost energy and plummeted down into the dark.

  Smiling, he jumped onto solid ground and looked back. He waved goodbye to the shocked Lei Wang and continued on his way.

  He tried his best to avoid using techniques but he was very soon forced to use the Five Weightless Steps again. When he found himself less than six miles away from the Fruit, he felt the presence of two auras. The stronger the aura was, the greater the distance from which he could notice it. If its owner wasn’t hiding it, of course. That was why he found it hard to believe that he’d again have a chance to meet someone whose strength could be detected from such a great distance.

  He recalled a similar situation from almost eight months ago when he barely managed to avoid meeting a Titan Stage beast.

  And now there were two of them.

  It was much more difficult for an animal to reach the Titan Stage than it was for a human. They didn’t know how to cultivate, so the only way for them to develop was by eating other animals, cultivators, and Plants. Cultivation wasn’t something they learned, but rather something that had been engraved in their bodies and souls. And it was precisely because of that the average Titan beast was more often stronger than a human Exorcist.

  Reason told him that it was time to run, but Rune’Tan begged to differ.

  “There are two of them, both at the middle of the Titan Stage. Seems they’re looking for the same Fruit we are,” he said in a serious voice. “Which, for some reason, hasn’t moved yet. Perhaps something is holding it in place.”

  Kai had no choice but to continue forward. These kinds of Fruits were so rare that he was lucky that one such even appeared during his lifetime. If he didn’t get this one, he might not live to find another.

  Running as fast as he could, he crossed almost six miles in less than a minute. What he saw when he got there wasn’t at all pleasing.

  In the middle of a desolate forest, two huge monsters were fighting.

  One of them was a blue-striped Thunder Tiger with silver fur sparkling with lightning. It was the size of a rhino, with firm, bulging muscles. Its long tail looked like a whip, and could probably injure just as effectively. One well-aimed blow of its paw would be enough to kill. No amount of regeneration or protection would save the unfortunate soul that fell under its mighty legs. The Tiger was a real killing machine.

  The second beast was a giant Midnight Serpent, whose body was around a hundred feet long. However, despite such a large size, it moved at an incredible speed. Its obsidian scales exuded violet fumes. From time to time, it’d spray green acid from its fanged mouth. It was in no way inferior to the formidable Tiger.

  But Kai’s gaze didn’t linger on the beasts. Masking his aura and presence as best as he could, he focused on his target. The Fruit looked different from what he had imagined. He couldn’t even tell that it was a plant as it looked more like some kind of precious stone.

  Shaped like an octahedron, it emitted a delicate deep pink, almost purple light. Resting in a golden bowl placed on top of a short but sturdy stem, it wasn’t larger than a fist. Inside it were red threads, swirling in a translucent liquid like worms in a puddle.

  [Purple Soul Fruit]

  Rank: Royal

  Quality: Low

  The Fruit swayed and shuddered as if it was trying to free itself, but it didn’t help. The lightning cage surrounding it wasn’t eager to let it run free.

  Looking at the silver-blue sparks, Kai realized which of the two monsters was the first to discover this precious resource. However, it couldn’t help the Tiger in battle. The Serpent was slowly but surely winning. Kai understood that if he didn’t do something then he’d lose his only chance to heal.

  He wasn’t about to let the damn snake get the Fruit!

  Chapter 22

  BETWEEN TWO TITANS

  The battle continued. Kai couldn’t risk either of the beasts getting the Fruit. He’d do everything he could to get to it before they noticed him.

  “Are you sure about this?” Rune’Tan asked.

  “Absolutely!” Kai nodded, his eyes burning with determination.

  “All right...” The redhead sighed. “I’ll help you, but after that, I’ll fall into a very deep sleep, and it’s unlikely that you or anything else will wake me up. All I can do is hope that you won’t forget about me when you get it and that you’ll direct some of the Fruit’s energy my way.”

  Kai smiled. By saying “when” and not “if,” Rune’Tan implied that he didn’t doubt his success. This gave him even more confidence.

  “I won’t forget. I promise,” he said. “Now, how can you help me?”

  “The Soul Storm technique. Once I use it, their soul energy will temporarily become chaotic, which will disorient and significantly weaken them. At that moment, you should just go for the Fruit.”

  “Are you sure that they won’t notice me? What will happen when I get close?” Kai asked, a little bit skeptic, once again casting a glance at the two monsters. Their strength sent chills down his spine.

  “I have little strength left, so I can’t say for sure how effective the technique will be,” Rune’Tan began. “But if you don’t get too close and keep your aura masked, I doubt that they’ll notice you... Ready?”

  Kai nodded and then handed control over his body to Rune’Tan. At the same moment, mystical Forces appeared in the air nearby. Threads of energy, barely visible to the naked eye, danced like leaves on the wind, uniting and intertwining to form a circle. The process might’ve seemed simple, but Kai knew that this technique required the mastery of the Fusion Force. From the moment of their meeting, he had known that Rune’Tan was a powerful entity, but with e
ach day he realized more and more just how strong he really was.

  In less than a second, Kai’s hands created a powerful Soul Storm technique and activated it. It covered an area of several miles with the power of a crushing avalanche. Everyone whose soul hadn’t yet been fully hardened died instantly.

  It easily pierced through the bodies of the Serpent and the Tiger and invaded their souls, throwing their Yins and Yangs out of balance. The beasts stood frozen for a couple of seconds, and then, releasing a deafening roar and a hiss, broke into a run, struggling to understand why they were suddenly in pain.

  The Tiger fell to the ground. Unable to keep its balance, it collapsed the moment it tried to get back up. Its senses were weakened, and its muscles refused to obey. The creature that was capable of destroying entire cities now seemed like a flailing cat on sedatives.

  The Serpent fared no better. Writhing furiously so that the earth beneath it trembled, it made low, but barely audible sounds that hurt both Kai’s head and ears. His knees trembled, threatening to give in under him. His vision blurred and stomach rose to his throat.

  He lost his pace but he didn’t stop, staring stubbornly at the Fruit. He needed to make one last leap toward it...

  Sending some ki into his body, Kai improved his condition somewhat and rushed to his goal. He had to get it at any cost!

  Ah, but if only things were so easy, life would’ve been much simpler.

  Having crossed almost half the distance, he felt a wave of danger raise behind him. Activating Offset Step, he managed to dodge the stream of energy and lightning that escaped the Tiger’s mouth. The attack hit the spot where Kai had been standing a moment earlier, instantly destroying dozens of trees and leaving behind a long and deep furrow of molten earth.

  Damn it! The smell of burning spread all around. Why the hell can that thing use Force?! Fuck! Fuck, I got lucky!

  His intuition, trained to perfection during the two years spent in the Wasteland, helped him survive, but he couldn’t rely on it all the time. Sooner or later, it was bound to fail him.