at the shoulder, after watching what few friends he had in this world
die, had been a bad day. He had spent many nights over the course of the
over ten years since thinking back on his life, but he could never find
a single memory where he had felt worse.
That record was just overtaken, by a country mile.
His cultivation and his [Stone Skin] Technique made him
durable enough that he was still—mostly—in one piece, but after taking a
level 60+ mage’s strongest spell to the face, Sebastian was not doing
well.
He had managed to shield his eyes from the blast but the
flesh on his left arm was melted to the bone in the process. His entire
body was charred black. His skin cracked and parts sloughed off with
every step. Simply moving made broken bones creak and chafe. Still, he
knew that if he didn’t keep moving, he would certainly die. If not for the hasty serial activation of his [Quickstep] Skill he had used to get away, he already would have.
As he used every ounce of his willpower to force his body
to run with the [Fleeting Cloud Step], he breathed in a steady rhythm
to circulate his essence.
His Core worked overtime to push essence throughout his
body. It was already in the slow and painful process of healing his
extensive wounds. Though experience told him that it would take many months
for damage this severe to heal.
He needed somewhere to hide.
Although he had saved his eyes, at the expense of his arm,
his vision was cloudy. This was unfamiliar terrain, and he had no idea
of where to go beyond east, for the simple reason of Lumeria being
located to the west. So that’s where he ran.
Even broken, he moved quickly with his Movement
Technique. After a few hours of running, however, his stamina was
running out. His legs were beginning to fail him.
In the distance stood a mountain. It was the only landmark
his blurry vision could properly make out, so he chose that as his
destination.
It took another two hours of excruciating running, but he
made it there. With a few hours of essence circulation under his belt,
his eyes were gradually getting better. He looked around the rocky
terrain and found a cave half-way up a cliff. It was the best he could
do under the circumstances.
A powerful leap, using most of his remaining energy, took
him most of the way up there. He grabbed a ledge but his hands were too
broken to keep hold. Shit, he thought
as he fell. Charred skin was scraped off against the cliff wall before
he landed flat on his back against the rocks beneath. Blood splattered
across the ground and his consciousness flickered like a candle on the
verge of extinguishing. Even so, he forced himself to remain conscious,
in spite of the extreme pain.
After ensuring that his life was not in critical danger,
he pushed himself back up to his feet. At this point, the pain was so
all-encompassing that his mind simply could not truly experience it. His
vision swirled and his consciousness was fading, fast.
Through sheer intent, he forced his hands to move, to
hold his weight regardless of broken they were. Rather than jumping,
this time he climbed. Slowly and cautiously, with purpose and a resolve
that would not falter.
Making his way up took his last thread of strength, but he reached the cave.
It had a fairly small opening, he needed to hunch over to
enter. Luckily, it opened up somewhat. It was by no means big, only
about the size of a small room, but he could stand upright or lay down
flat if he wanted to, and if he had the strength left to move.
What he wanted was irrelevant.
Finding a place to rest made his mind relax enough that he collapsed on the ground.
There was no way to know how long it had been when he
finally woke up, though only a sliver of light entered the cave so it was either late or very early. He had no sense of whether or not it was still the same day. His Core had continued circulating his essence while he
was unconscious, not to the same degree as when he did so actively but
enough that he felt a slight improvement.
He pushed himself up enough to sit with his back toward
the cliff wall. He had hidden in a cave like this years ago as well,
with Dolan. Even his first weeks in this world were basically spent in a
cave.
It wasn’t lost on him that he had found himself in a
similar setting every time this world forced him to his brink. And he
had made it through every time. He felt a fondness for caves at this point. They were familiar. Safe. The reminder pushed him to steel his
resolve.
He sat up straight and crossed his legs, then he began to cultivate with intent.
The pain and the worries and the
exhaustion were put aside, and he sank into himself. None of the damage
done to his physical body was reflected on his spirit body. It remained
in perfect condition throughout the entire ordeal. It helped put it out
of his mind.
Natural essence was attracted by the black hole formed by
Sebastian’s intent and flowed into his meridian system. Not a speck of
natural essence could escape his pull. It was like he had wandered a
desert, parched and near death, only to find an oasis.
His thirst was unquenchable.
Slowly but surely, his intake of natural essence began to surpass the essence devoted to heal his injuries. A net positive.
He completely lost track of time as he continued his cultivation.
It was like he was back in his make-shift camp in the
Valley of Remembrance where he discovered the cultivation manual in the
first place, and he had nothing else to do or think about other than
cultivation.
The memory caused a startling realization that almost
brought him out of his cultivative trance, he didn’t have the manual. A
battlefield was no place for such a precious treasure, so he had left it
in his tent.
At this point he had every word and every diagram, on
every single page, memorized. In truth, he didn’t actually need the
physical manual anymore, but that didn’t matter. It was the single most
important item he owned. There was still hope, though. Looting was bound
to happen after the battle, but nobody other than him would care about
some old book, especially a book in a strange language. Either way, that
was a problem for later, when he had recovered.
He put the thoughts aside and focused on his cultivation, with a focus unlike any he had mustered before.
Time lost all meaning.
Natural essence surged into every broken fiber of his
being through the intricate network of pathways of his Peak meridian
system. As he cultivated, his mind was so deeply entrenched that the
rising sun illuminating the cave did not rouse him.
He remained in a perfect cultivative trance, unmoving.
With every passing day, his wounds healed ever so slightly.
Bones fused back together.
Flesh formed around them.
Old charred skin broke off, and new smooth skin grew in its place.
The world outside the cave carried on. His absence known and felt only by a handful.
When he finally opened his eyes, he was met by bright
light shining in from the cave entrance. Sunlight, reflected on a thin
layer of white snow by the entrance, lit up the cave. He took a deep
breath, and upon exhaling, the small plume that formed from his warm
breath caught the sunlight.
I’m fully healed. And it’s winter. I
must have cultivated for a long time, I don’t think I’ve ever
cultivated for this long before. It was summer during the war which
means it’s been at least months, if not longer.
He decided to check his Status for the first time in a
long time. Ever since he formed his Core, he felt that he had stepped so
far from the normal System that he rarely needed to look. This time, it
felt right.
System status
Name: Sebastian Moore
Level: 51
Titles
- Swordsman
Skills
- ★Mind's Eye
- ★Swordsmanship
- ★Quickstep
Cultivation status
Name: Sebastian Moore
Cultivation method
- Earthen Cultivation Art
Cultivation stage
- Core Formation
- → Minor stage: Mid
Physical cultivation stage
- Terracotta
Titles
- Blessed
- Sole Cultivator
Talent
- Akashic Connection
Techniques
- ★Spirit Union
- ★Fleeting Cloud Step
- ★Cloud Shadow Slash
- ★Shattering Strike
- ★Stone Skin
- ★Crescent Cloud Slash
- ★Intergalactic Sword Art
- → Stage: Instinct
- ? Proficiency: High
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Level 51, huh. Guess that confirms
it, I don’t face the same kind of tribulations as others. Which means
that it’s either just not happening—because I don’t have the same
System—or it’s gonna happen when I have my next breakthrough to [Nascent
Soul]. One feels likelier than the other.
My Core is getting larger every day,
but it’s still gonna be years until it fills up my Sea of Essence, if
not decades. I know that most people spend decades leveling from 40 to
50 and even more so from 50 to 60, but it sure feels like my cultivation
is really slowing to a grind at [Core Formation]. Even back in
Luxendorf it felt like I was keeping pace with the so-called heroes but
now they’ve completely left me in the dust. I guess that’s the price for
limitless potential, huh.
Well, whatever. If it takes decades,
it takes decades. And if it takes centuries so be it. If those bastards
want me dead, I’m gonna make them work for it!
A twinge hit his spine as he realized his Title,
[Lieutenant of the White Fang], was gone. It made sense; with the fall
of the Wandering Wolves Corps, the Title no longer existed. Even so, it
cemented everything that happened.
He stared at his Status for a while, until his thoughts
were interrupted by the soft blue glow of his badge.
With the badge
placed on the ground in front of him, Sebastian injected some essence
into it and belatedly received several messages that had accumulated in
the months he had spent recovering.
Retreat successful.
Made it out along with six members, including Safi and Gawen.
Joined caravan of citizens of the Profound Sky Sect’s affiliated lands fleeing east.
Entered the territory of the Shattered Earth Sect, laying low.
Conflict with local warriors. One injured, no casualties.
Accepted contract to protect merchant caravan headed east, toward the territory of the Eternal Lotus Sect.
Conflict with bandits. We lost Kelton.
Encountered power struggle between the Eternal Lotus Sect and the Golden Blade Pavilion, joining evacuation caravan headed farther east.
Entered territory of the Twilight Serpent Sect. Seems safe. Settling down for now.
Damn… Poor Kelton, he thought. A conflicting sense of relief, however, made the remaining tension leave his body.
Safi and Gawen were safe.
Marion had always been reliable, ever since she was transferred to his unit to act as his second-in-command. With this,
Sebastian owed her a debt that could not easily be repaid. She had
accepted his rushed order and executed it to perfection.
He had only had a few moments to discreetly send a message when he faced Mike and Martin
The battle is lost.
Retreat. Can’t go back south, too risky, so go east. Put as many
territories as possible between you and them. Grab Safi and Gawen and as
many others as you can and run.
Fortunately, it worked out.
Sebastian stood up and stretched before he left the cave.
He had been too injured and too
preoccupied with not dying to appreciate the view when he climbed into
the cave in the first place, but now that he had recovered, it was
breathtaking.
The horizon formed a skyline of sorts of smaller
mountains and stone spires. Patches of forests provided a slight splash
of color against the mostly white background, even if the trees were
mostly bare. The thin layer of snow thankfully hid the devastation
caused by the war. There was still a metallic note lingering in the air,
even this far removed from the battlefield, but it was faint. Either
due to the elevation and distance alleviating the worst of it or because
the scent was in the process of being washed away by the passing of
time.
Sebastian took a deep breath as another chapter of his
life in this world ended and he faced a blank page, uncertain of what
came next. Being a mercenary had been a decent idea on paper but the
reality wasn’t something he had any interest in reliving.
When the heroes turned the tide of the battle, he had
sent what remained of his unit east. Going back south toward Calindor
would have put them in the crossfire of Lumeria’s advancing forces. They
had reached the Western Azure Plains without much issue because the
Profound Sky Sect still controlled the territory at the time, but with
their defeat, Lumeria would swarm the region and wipe out any remnants
of their enemies.
Marion and the others might have been able to make it
across in time, but they didn’t have any mounts and would have had to
travel on foot while avoiding Lumerian scouts. Sebastian wasn’t willing
to have them gamble with their lives like that. So he sent them east.
Which meant that farther east was his destination as well. He had made a new
life for himself in Calindor, and now he would have to do the same here,
on the eastern continent.
With a push of essence along the pathways of the
[Fleeting Cloud Step], he leaped from the cave entrance and maneuvered
his way down the mountain. The strengths of the Movement Technique was
its ability to ignore physical laws regarding momentum and friction.
Upon reaching a mastery of the Technique you could not only run over
open water but as the name suggested you could even run across clouds as
though they were solid ground. As a Technique, it wasn’t focused on
speed, but it was quite effective when traversing uneven terrain.
Sebastian learned the Technique in the Silvervale
Woodlands where he trained by running across all kinds of terrains. He had almost been out of the forest when he finally gained the Technique, so he
never got the chance to properly push it to its limits. Last time he had
the chance to use the Technique to its true potential, when he ran
through the Canlac Woods to deal with the bandit camp, he had to
actively slow down so as to not leave his unit behind. This was his
first true experience with [Fleeting Cloud Step], after a dozen years of
using it.
The air, that usually works hard to resist whenever you
move too fast, barely registered his presence. It was as though he was
in a bubble of his own, gracefully moving through the world as a
specter. He jumped from barren twig to barren twig atop the trees.
It was like a scene from a movie, if not for the fact
that he was almost completely naked. His clothes had burned up in the attack,
after all.
The return trip to the battlefield took
less than half the time it took him to find the cave in the first place.
With every step, the stench of blood intensified. It was by no means as
strong as it had been during the war, but it would likely take a long
time for the air in the area to clear. Most of the desolate war zone was
hidden beneath the snow but even then there were patches of mud here
and there, like scars that couldn’t be hidden.
He sullenly wandered across the battlefield. As he walked, he replayed the battle in his mind. During all his time in Celder, his
goals never changed. In spite of the comfort, he never once forgot what
Lumeria had done to him, nor did he stop feeling a sense of
responsibility to stand against them. As a Blessed One, he was likely
one of the few who could in the long term.
However, the stagnation which urged him to leave in the
first place was more than just in terms of leveling and getting
stronger. While he had neither forgiven nor forgotten, distance and time
had softened his feelings.
Now they were back, with a vengeance.
Every step fanned the embers within, a steady bellow
stoking the flames of hatred. The raging fire in his heart grew hotter
than ever.
Soon he reached the command building overlooking the
battlefield. It had been reduced to rubble with only a single broken
wall still standing.
He continued on to the camp they had set up when they
reached the northern front. With a single activation of [Quickstep]—a
Skill he rarely used as he favored his Technique—he landed on the site
where his tent had stood. There was nothing but untouched snow and piles
of broken trash on the former campground.
He activated his [Mind’s Eye] and with it he looked down,
into the ground. The tent was still there, only torn open and lying
flat under the snow and debris. Bits of furniture lay all over the
place.
It didn’t take long to find his bag in what used to be his bedroom. It was empty.
His cultivation manual was gone.
He searched the entire campground in case it had simply been thrown away from his own tent in the chaos, but it was to no avail.
He fell to his knees and punched the ground. A frustrated, yet cathartic, scream escaped him.
Damn… It’s really gone. I know I don’t actually need it but— No, no use crying over spilled milk.
I have every detail memorized, so I
can recreate it. There’s bound to be some place in the far east that can
bind a new book for me once I have it written down again.
Sebastian stood up and clenched his fists. His [Fleeting
Cloud Step] carried him away, toward the Profound Sky Sect’s strategic
base town.
Just like the campground on the northern front, it was
torn apart. At least it wasn’t flattened, there were still buildings
standing, albeit broken and partially shattered. The central pagoda,
however, had been razed to the ground.
The entire town was completely empty, not a single sign of life remained.
His [Mind’s Eye] was used to scan most of the town in
search of something useful. There were very few things that had survived
whatever happened there.
Eventually he found a wooden trunk, buried under a
building whose roof had collapsed. With little effort, he moved the roof
aside and pulled the trunk out of the rubble. Inside was someone’s spare clothes. They were the same
style of clothing that most of the sect members used, although these
weren’t part of the sect’s outfits, likely just someone’s private spare
clothes.
Sebastian was in no position to care much either way. The
closest resemblance he could think of was traditional Asian robes, like
those worn in Korean or Chinese webtoons from back home.
He had never worn anything in that style before so it took some work to correctly put them on, but he figured it out.
There were three items of clothing.
The loose fitting pants were black or dark grey, and they
wrapped around his legs and tied at his ankles. There was a white shirt
of sorts where the left side folded over the right and wrapped around
his torso, the sleeves were loose fitted over the shoulder but tied
tight around his wrist and parts of his forearm. Finally there was a
long open robe of a thin silk-like material. It was dark blue with light
blue trims with some embroidered patterns going down the large sleeves
and down the back.
Usually, in Sebastian’s experience, silk or other fine
fabrics could be almost slippery but these were practically attached to
the shoulders like magnets. He couldn’t sense any magic or enchantments
so it was likely just an aspect of the System Skill of whoever made the
clothes. They didn’t fit perfectly but given their loose fit he could
adjust it so it wasn’t too bad. All in all, they were quite comfortable.
Having secured some clothes at least, Sebastian sent a
quick message to Marion to let them know he was alive. He took a deep
breath and took off east, to reunite with his unit.
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