The Call of the Forces

by Yuri Ajin

  “You, a pro? Ha! Don’t make me laugh” The young man grinned. “Maybe the System gave you that status, but in my eyes, you’re trash. Your techniques, the quality of your Forces, your movements, your body, your soul... All trash! You know absolutely nothing about fighting or cultivation! Pay attention, and you’ll see what a real pro is!”

  The young man took several steps forward until he was three feet away from the translucent Flame Barrier, inside of which the Lord and his men were standing. This was the Flame Barrier, a high-quality, Gold-rank technique that tanks had previously been unable to pierce through. It was highly durable, and at the same time, it could easily let in any objects on which the Lord’s special energy mark was placed.

  Approaching the wall of fire, the young man put his hand to it. To everyone’s surprise, this didn’t affect him in any way.

  He smiled and clenched his fist.

  The Flame Barrier burst like a soap bubble.

  Chapter 7

  DISAPPOINTMENT

  The bursting barrier left not only the Lord’s men surprised, but him, too. None of them had any idea that Forces could differ in quality. Kai learned about this only after he became Jiang Yui’s apprentice since this knowledge was given only to those who had entered the highest circles of society.

  Each Force could be learned in three ways — partially, completely, and perfectly. If you were, say, at the Hearing Stage, and you only had partial knowledge of all the Forces of the Path of the Sword, you could learn a Gold-rank technique. However, only of low quality. But if you had complete knowledge of most of them, then you’d get an opportunity to improve the quality of the technique.

  It was the same with the Seer Stage. If you had partial mastery of the Force of Form, then the technique would be of high quality and of Gold rank, but if you had complete mastery, then it’d be of peak quality.

  Perfect mastery was significant at the Learner Stage. For example, with partial mastery of the first two stages, one couldn’t expect better quality of techniques on the next one. But if they had learned the Force of Form and all the Forces that belonged to the Hearing Stage, and only then proceed further, then the perfect mastery of the Fusion Force would also be available to them.

  Usually, students, even though they were unaware of this, gained partial knowledge and mastery of all their Forces. Geniuses, on the other hand, devoted more time and effort to the Forces in order to achieve complete mastery of at least a few of them. The strongest, such as Shin Sei or Lei Shen, almost reached complete mastery of all Forces. Sometimes, though not always, they’d also perfect them.

  The last level was required to create one’s own Sphere, symbolizing the transition to the Walker Stage. This was possible only if the cultivator had a proper understanding of the Fusion Force.

  With the goal of reaching the perfect mastery of all the previous Forces, the geniuses didn’t rush to master the Fusion Force. Little did they know that such a mindset almost always led to failure, since it usually took centuries to gain perfect knowledge of even one Force. Because of this, Jiang Yui believed that no one on Saha had ever reached, or would ever reach the Walker Stage. Little did she know that her brother, Jiang Dao, had become the first cultivator on Saha who managed to gain perfect knowledge of the Fusion Force and create a Sword Sphere. Not even the Old Man knew about it, which allowed Jiang Dao to end his tyranny once and for all.

  However, there was another cultivator who would, perhaps, achieve something similar one day. Thanks to the fact that he was the Favorite of the Forces, Kai had managed to gain perfect knowledge of the Forces of Speed, Dissection, and Reflection in just a year and a half. With those three under his control, he had every chance to master all the Forces known to him in the next decade. Out of the eight Forces (including the Force of Form), Kai had perfect mastery of three of them, but even this was enough to gain a considerable advantage over the Lord, who had only partial knowledge of the Forces of the Path of Fire.

  This was why the Barrier fell.

  Having summoned the Sword Force Particles, Kai injected them into the Barrier through his palm and began to quickly distribute them through it. With his energy vision, he had analyzed the structure of the technique and found its weaknesses. All he had to do was hit the weak spots and watch the Barrier collapse.

  Just as I thought, the base of his technique is garbage. He just barely managed to reach the Exorcist Stage. I don’t even want to think about what’ll happen to Earth if the System keeps producing such weak people... Then again, this guy will be able to reach the peak of his stage with the Spheres and other shit they’ve made... Such power should come at a high price... Kai thought. In terms of power, he’s similar to Helios. But Helios got to his level with hard work and perseverance... Not to mention that he had had more than a century to perfect his skills... I wonder... If he were alive, would I be able to kill him this time...? What am I talking about? Of course I would! And I’ll kill this bastard, too!

  Having come back to his senses, the Lord was about to attack Kai with all his might when the latter suddenly disappeared. Sensing a presence behind himself, he instantly turned around only to see five corpses scattered around Kai.

  “You’ll pay for this!” he shouted, unleashing a wave of fire, which Kai dodged with ease. “Freeze!”

  Having found himself closer to his opponent, Kai immediately attacked with a powerful punch. The Lord reflexively held out his hand to defend himself. However, feeling his bones cracking, he jumped back.

  In just a split second, the Lord’s confidence in his abilities was seriously shaken.

  There were two main differences between average cultivators and masters, which created a gap between their powers. First, in addition to the manifestation of the master’s soul, which was gained by opening the first sixty hidden acupuncture points, an Exorcist acquired another special ability — the Master’s Will, which made it possible to influence the will of others. If the Exorcist wanted to, they could make themselves invisible to everyone weaker than them by making them subconsciously ignore their presence.

  But that wasn’t all. This skill also made it possible to control those with a weaker will, like North had done to Kai long ago.

  That was what the Lord was trying to do now, ordering Kai to freeze. Unfortunately for him, his opponent’s will had been trained and strengthened during the last couple of years. But even with that, Kai still had to use Ultimate Focus and open the Mind Gates in order to see his enemy and resist his influence.

  As for the second difference, which made the masters unimaginably stronger than average cultivators, it was connected to the Energy Cover. Everyone who passed the first level of Soul Endurance had one. But when a cultivator reached the Exorcist Stage, their Small Energy Cover evolved to a Medium one, which not only increased their physical characteristics but also provided them with an even stronger defense.

  That was why ordinary cultivators usually couldn’t defeat Exorcists, even if they successfully resisted the Master’s Will. However, what was going on right now wasn’t an ordinary battle. And Kai wasn’t an average cultivator. Therefore, he wasn’t just able to resist the Lord’s Will, but also to overcome his Cover.

  Without giving his opponent a chance to come to his senses, Kai rained blow upon blow on him, the echoes of which made the bridge tremble and forced the Lord to use all of the defensive techniques he knew.

  Breaking the last barrier with another blow, Kai jumped away to dodge a fireball.

  “Impossible!” his opponent shouted in disbelief. Never before had he seen a Soul Stage cultivator use such powerful attacks. “What kind of monster are you?! Are you an Exorcist, too? Are you hiding your aura?!”

  Kai chuckled and cracked his neck.

  “I think it’s time to get serious. I’ve had enough of warming up.” He grinned, Twin Blades of the Gray Mountain appearing in his hands. A gift from his mentor for a job well done. “It’s time to finish this.”

  The Lord’s eyes widened again a
s he stared at the low-quality swords of the Royal-rank.

  Imbuing the blades with the Forces of Sword, Kai began attacking. He knew he wouldn’t manage to do much if he attacked the Lord with his bare fists, so he opted for the blades. Not to mention that his Forces were better, techniques stronger, stats higher, and movements faster and more skillful than his opponent’s.

  The only thing at which the Lord had an advantage was the amount of ki that he had acquired after reaching the Exorcist Stage. But even that couldn’t help him.

  In less than ten minutes, the blond turned from a pompous dickhead into a pitiful sight of a beaten boy. He tried to fight back, but his lack of skill and proper battle experience prevented him from landing a blow.

  “Whimp.” Kai spat, annoyed by the outcome of the battle. “Even Feng Bao and Shin Sei could defeat you…” he muttered to himself.

  He had expected that this battle would force him to give it his all, but he didn’t even have to use his Sword techniques. The Lord thought of himself as undefeatable due to brute strength and superiority in stats, but it wasn’t until he met an experienced fighter and cultivator that he realized just how weak he really was.

  In all honesty, the only obstacle Kai had faced was the Cover, which, to give credit where credit was due, did its job well and even had the ability to regenerate itself as long as it was fed with ki. But no one’s reserve was infinite. So, after six minutes of continuous attacks with blades enhanced by Forces and sword energy, the Lord felt that his power was drained and defeat imminent.

  “Stop! Wait a minute!” he screamed, trying to crawl away from Kai. “Do you even know who my patron is? He’s a powerful man! The head of the strongest Alliance! He was the first on Earth to become an Exorcist! If you—”

  “I don’t care,” Kai interrupted him. “Actually, that’s even better. If he comes, then maybe he won’t disappoint me as much as you did. You can discuss it with him in the next life,” he said and swung his sword, chopping the Lord’s head off.

  Attention!

  Achievement unlocked: [Overcoming Mortal Boundaries! (1)]

  For defeating a Master (Exorcist), while being at the (Soul Stage — Source Creation level), you receive a [Memory Jade] (automatic selection).

  [Memory Jade]

  Rank: Gold

  Quality: Peak

  Contains the memories of a cultivator.

  Attention!

  You killed [Luke Johnson].

  Item obtained: [Knowledge Crystal: Flame Barrier Technique]

  Additional items unavailable.

  Your modifier: alien

  Chapter 8

  MEMORIES OF AN ANCIENT CULTIVATOR

  Snow-capped mountains surrounded him. Wherever Kai looked, he couldn’t see anything else. It seemed as if the whole world was one endless mountain range.

  There were no words to describe just how terrible the conditions here were. These mountains were imbued with an incredible amount of prana that could pulverize even a peak-level Elementalist. This made it much easier for Forces to form here than on the Plateau. Therefore, the Cold ruled everything around. This energy charge was so powerful that if a single snowflake fell from this mountain, it’d be enough to turn at least half of Caltea into ice for decades.

  The next second, Kai saw a man. A cultivator.

  He was shirtless with short dark hair. He was sitting on an odd, clearly man-made platform, which was located next to the top of the highest mountain. Looking at him, one would think that he was lost in his meditation, unaware of the world around him.

  However, they’d be wrong.

  The young man couldn’t help but wonder how could someone live in a place like this. Many monsters dwelled in these mountains, each of which could easily prove to the humans that they weren’t on the top of the food chain. But not even these predators reigned here.

  The true rulers of this place were the Ice Elementals, naturally formed in such conditions. Getting nourishment from the mountains themselves, which had been saturated with the Forces of Cold for hundreds of thousands of years, these creatures grew and developed every day. The oldest of them were so powerful that they could throw a world into a new Ice Age.

  So what was this man doing here? Any student looking to surpass their elders could tell you the answer to this question — training. Hungry for power, cultivators would put themselves in mortal peril if that meant getting a step closer to their goal.

  Kai watched the man for a while, feeling like an eternity had passed since he had stepped foot in this icy hell. But that was just an illusion. After all, everything around him was nothing more than a memory displayed by the Memory Jade.

  Having grown bored of staring at the motionless figure, Kai was about to turn to leave when the cultivator’s eyes opened, marking the end of years of meditation. His gaze fell on the world in front of him, and Kai felt his soul tremble. The look in the man’s blue eyes was simultaneously fascinating and frightening. Gazing into the azure, Kai felt like he was being sucked in by the abyss and that his soul was about to shatter into thousands of pieces. For a moment, he even forgot that this was just a memory, and instinctively wanted to run away.

  If I’m feeling like this... How did those that truly knew him felt? he wondered. Even while it was inactive, his aura was repelling the cold and keeping the beasts and the Elementals at bay... But now... Now...

  Now all the creatures in the area stood frozen in horror, mouths agape and eyes wide as they stared at what they had prayed would forever remain a slumbering beast. Like the sky itself, the cultivator’s aura towered over the mountain and its inhabitants.

  Warming up slowly, the man got to his feet and spread his arms to the side. Kai stared, eyes as wide as those of the beasts, as two beautiful blades appeared in the man’s hands. He summoned them not from his Ring, but from his own soul.

  And then a translucent sphere made of scarlet ki formed around him and began to expand rapidly. Standing in its center, the cultivator began to slowly swing his swords through the air as if he was forcing his body to remember everything he knew before the centuries of meditation. Every movement he made spoke of his incredible strength and great skill. Kai couldn’t stop staring at him in admiration.

  After an hour, the man stopped warming up and assumed a fighting stance. At the same moment, the scarlet sphere shrank, and then merged with the blades. Taking a step forward, he dashed with the speed of light, and swung his swords again.

  And then he froze.

  Kai observed him for some time in surprise. He would’ve continued to stare had he not been snapped out of it by a slowly increasing rumble. Turning around, he realized where the sound was coming from. He felt his jaw drop to the floor.

  The top of the nearby mountain fell and slid down the slope, landing at its foot with a loud crash.

  Nodding to himself, the man continued his training, making more and more changes to the scenery around him with each swing.

  And although he couldn’t see the lightning-fast attacks, Kai began to understand their essence a little better. They were definitely a manifestation of higher levels of the Forces of Sword. There wasn’t a drop of ki in the blows — only Forces.

  Kai continued to analyze every detail of the man’s moves and was even able to find traces of some other Paths in them. As it soon turned out, it was the element of Cold, different, but still similar to the Cold Void, which contradicted everything he had previously known.

  Use of Forces required only two things — their understanding and a soul. The higher one’s understanding of them was, the better the Forces were. As for controlling them, it depended on the soul, as well as the number of particles that a person could summon. Therefore, the higher one’s level was, the more particles they could use.

  Now, since ki was used to reveal the true power of Forces, all techniques were primarily based on it. However, it had another useful property — unification. Working like glue, it made it possible to combine the Forces of different Paths in or
der to use the properties of two or more elements in one technique. Kai had previously believed that different elements couldn’t be combined, so he was surprised and amazed to see that the man was using the Forces of the Path of Sword and the Path of Cold together, without using a single drop of ki.

  For the next eight hours, the man continued to swing his blades, pursuing an invisible target. Once the beautiful starry sky stretched over the snow-capped mountains, he stopped.

  Looking at the man, Kai realized that he seemed somehow unhappy. The blades disappeared from his hands and he sat down again. Closing his eyes, he prepared for another meditation session.

  That was where the memory ended.

  ***

  “Kai—” Jiang Yong began when Kai suddenly opened his eyes.

  Was it a coincidence that the memory ended just as he was about to wake up? He couldn’t tell. But he suspected that it wasn’t. For some reason, it seemed to him that the System had predicted this. For a moment, he felt like he was being watched, and it sent a shiver through him.

  “Are we there yet?”

  “Ah... Yes! Those guys said that we’re in Washington.”

  “Awesome.” Kai chuckled, looking forward to an interesting meeting. “Let’s go then.”

  Once they were off the plane, they followed the soldiers that were supposed to take them to the headquarters.

  “Have you seen the memory?” Kai asked Rune’Tan.

  “I haven’t. This Jade, although it works through a connection with the soul, seems to have bypassed your soul world,” he answered. “What did you see?”

  “I see. Here’s what I saw...” Kai began and summed up the whole experience.

  The discouraged Rune’Tan sighed.

  “Well, for starters, what you saw surpasses even the power of the Belteise Empire. Even I’ve never heard of such people and such places. But there’s something that I have heard of. That scarlet sphere you mentioned must be the Sword Sphere. If this man was so powerful, then he wasn’t using just the Sphere, but also some kind of sub-force. For example, the Twin Blades Sphere.”