The journey back to the Zhan Clan territory was smooth and uneventful, marking the first ti he’s gone out with the Zhan Clan and did not end up fighting for his life. A welcod change.
Li Yu returned to the Five Star Lakes and breathed in the familiar Qi of his valley. His head butler Alden greeted him at the entrance of the central dark wood pagoda and offered a respectful bow. The older man handed over a storage ring as he had spent the ti Li Yu was away to sell off Li Yu’s excess materials.
Li Yu poured his divine sense into the ring and saw neat piles of high grade spirit stones and smiled. He finally had money again after his embarrassing trip to the capital markets. Li Yu transferred the funds to his personal ring but he knew he could not spend them freely.
He still owed a steep fee to the clan blacksmith for forging his custom arsenal. For the next three days he focused on his cultivation and combat forms. He stepped into the reinforced clearing near the rocky edge of the valley and summoned his new weapons.
His Paragon realm Qi surged outward as he unleashed the sixty custom forged weapons instead of his usual swords like Pale Extinction or Firmant's End. Heavy javelins, four-sided discs and spiked balls materialized in the air from his Koi Sanctuary.
The weapons rotated around him in a violent storm of tal as he pulled the heavy arsenal into a rapid orbit directly around his own body to form a localized hurricane. The Qi required to maintain the montum of the unyielding objects was still a heavy burden that he had no real answers for. The air whistled sharply as the heavy tal spun at high speeds and the blunted edges tore through the wind.
Zhan Tian returned to the clan on the third day and floated down from the sky. The Worldkeeper crossed his arms while watching the display from the edge of the clearing. He nodded in approval as a four sided disc deflected an imaginary blow and a heavy javelin thrust forward in retaliation.
"You are using real weapons now, boy!" Zhan Tian called out over the sound of the tal storm. "You used to play with little toothpicks flying around you but this is a proper battlefield technique."
"It takes a lot of effort." Li Yu dispersed his Qi and let the heavy weapons clatter to the ground. "The drain on my Qi is high when I move the heavier pieces."
"I can see that." Zhan Tian walked closer to inspect the scattered arsenal. "Your control is precise but the Qi consumption is steep. Maintaining that many heavy weapons will drain you in a prolonged fight."
"I have a few ideas to help with that." Li Yu explained while wiping sweat from his brow as he explained his plan with his grandfather about the aquatic beasts to drain from. “I just need to gather the funds to purchase it and form a contract. It would supply with extra energy while I maintain the storm."
"Good." Zhan Tian nodded but seed to be thinking about another thing when Li Yu brought up needing high cultivation aquatic beasts. He eventually ca back to the present and said. "A cultivator should always look for external solutions to supplent their internal weaknesses."
Li Yu scratched his cheek and looked away from embarrassnt. "I also need to pay the blacksmith for forging all of this. The fee is quite high and it will take a large portion of my new funds."
Zhan Tian laughed out loud, he found his grandson's embarrassnt highly entertaining. "Do not worry about the fee for now. I will take care of the blacksmith. But if you are in need of spirit stones you can take on missions for the clan. It will help develop your skills and you can earn your own resources to do as you please."
"I agree, I need sources for resources. My fish breeding here won’t be up and running for a while and it will only bring a bit of resources when it does." Li Yu nodded quickly.
"We spoil you enough as is." Zhan Tian said jokingly while patting Li Yu on the shoulder. "You need to earn your way a bit more from now on. You cannot rely on your mother and forever. You will make us poor in no ti!"
Zhan Tian left the courtyard to settle the bill, he didn’t like owing others unnecessarily. He found the blacksmith near the forges and tossed him a heavy pouch of spirit stones. Zhan Tian gave the man an earful for daring to charge his grandson such a steep price but he was joking of course and the blacksmith laughed along while accepting the paynt.
Li Yu decided not to leave for the mission hall right away. He opted to spend ti with his grandfather while the Worldkeeper was actually back ho. Zhan Tian spent most of his ti managing so kind of affairs so his presence in the clan was rare.
The two of them t back on the training field a few hours later. Zhan Tian wanted to test the weapon storm firsthand to see its practical application. Li Yu activated his Qi and summoned the tal tempest once more. The javelins and spiked balls lifted into the air and began their rapid rotation. Zhan Tian did not draw a weapon as he stepped directly into the swirling vortex of blades with his hands clasped behind his back.
Li Yu pushed his Paragon realm cultivation to the limit. He directed three javelins and a spiked ball toward his grandfather in rapid succession, not fearing that his grandfather couldn’t handle it. Zhan Tian moved with casual grace and sidestepped a sweeping disc before deflecting the spiked ball with a simple flick of his finger.
A shockwave rippled through the air as the heavy weapon was knocked off course and Li Yu then realized the strain it caused on him when his rotating weapons were knocked off course. The added ntal and Qi strain was not to be taken lightly and if that happened, it could cause him so serious issues..
Zhan Tian worked his way through the storm of tal without breaking a sweat. He navigated the flight paths of the weapons as if he were taking a leisurely stroll through a garden, when sothing ca near, he tapped it and sent it crashing into two other javelins.
"The weapons are very durable." Zhan Tian comnted while stepping out of the storm and signaling for Li Yu to stop. "The blacksmith did good work. They can handle the stress of high speed impacts."
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"They feel balanced." Li Yu said as he recalled all the weapons into his Koi Sanctuary.
"They are." Zhan Tian agreed. "But the technique has a few fatal flaws. If you et soone with a really strong defense, the Qi cost to keep the storm going would not be worth it. A heavily armored opponent will ignore the blows from your flying weapons. You will be forced to use more Qi to accelerate to penetrate their guard."
"It becos a battle of attrition." Li Yu realized.
"Exactly." Zhan Tian nodded. "The technique is good if you are fighting a large number of enemies at once. The wide area will clear a battlefield quickly but if you are fighting one on one or fighting two enemies it is not worth the consumption. You will drain your own reserves before you manage to break their defense."
Li Yu committed the advice to mory. He knew he had to be tactical about when to deploy the full storm versus when to wield a single weapon by hand. Zhan Tian went on to list a few other flaws that Li Yu also began to notice just now as well.
Weapons could be defected into one another, causing a hole in his storm and causing him ntal and Qi strain to correct. Soone fast enough could theoretically get through all his weapons so he needed to have a way to defend himself within but he had his staff for that. If his arsenal grew, the more dangerous it beca but also the drain on himself would be even crazier. He needed to find that perfect balance.
After a long discussion on weaknesses and potential ways to get rid of them, they sat down on a stone bench near the edge of the training field. Zhan Tian poured them both a cup of tea from a nearby table and shifted the topic to a more serious matter.
"I am working on trying to find the Anti Duplex race for you." Zhan Tian told him while taking a sip of his tea. "They are an ancient people. They do not have a ho realm and their people were always mysterious. They stay on the move and live in hidden pocket dinsions."
"What makes them special? Why are you looking for them, for ?" Li Yu asked but the na vaguely jogged his mory.
"They possess powerful souls." Zhan Tian explained. "They naturally have two souls once they reach a certain cultivation level. One is aligned with light and the other is aligned with dark. It is a trait unique to their bloodline."
Zhan Tian set his cup down and looked at Li Yu. "You possess unique souls yourself. You have more than one and I am hoping to get information from them to help you utilize your souls even better. Perhaps they can help us understand why you have five souls to begin with, sothing I have never seen or heard of before. They might also have unique soul techniques that can utilize more than one soul at a ti."
Li Yu thought about his current combat style. Right now he could only use his souls separately. They were incredibly strong on their own but they lacked synergy to make them even stronger.
"If there was a technique that let you use all five together, it could be a huge winning card." Zhan Tian said. "Imagine the power output if your souls resonated with each other instead of taking turns or just doing their own attacks together."
Li Yu narrowed his eyes as an old mory finally surfaced. He recalled a sky tearing open and a desperate battle against alien invaders.
"I have seen one of them before." Li Yu said as he finally rembered.
Zhan Tian looked surprised. "You have?"
"Yes." Li Yu nodded. "Back on the realm where my parents left originally. When the dinsional rifts opened and the Xylarri attacked us, a group of powerful beings appeared in the sky."
Li Yu reached into his storage ring and rummaged through his collected items. His fingers brushed against a heavy tal plate. He pulled out the token he was given back then and held it up and it was made of interlocking black and white tals. He had mostly forgotten it because he could never activate it or open it before. It wasn’t until this conversation that he rembered he was given this.
"A leader of their people or perhaps just a person of their race appeared in the sky with two companions." Li Yu explained while handing the token over.
"At that ti, he summoned the ten divine beasts of that realm to stop the invasion. My Fisherman soul accidentally stole so energy from his dual souls during the event towards the end. He gave this token and said it was a paynt I had to make for absorbing a portion of his soul strength. That it would activate when my soul was strong enough to be helpful."
Zhan Tian took the token and inspected the intricate tals. He ran his thumb over the smooth surface and felt the latent energy sealed inside.
"This is genuine." Zhan Tian finally said. "To et anyone from the Anti Duplex in a lower realm is a rare stroke of fate. Even if it was during an event that could have threatened to destroy the entire realm."
Zhan Tian infused his own Qi and soul energy into the plate. The black and white tals began to glow with a soft light and the token humd in his palm as it projected a stream of spatial coordinates directly into Zhan Tian's mind. The token activated successfully and revealed a hidden path.
"The token has information on where to go." Zhan Tian stood up and tossed the token back to Li Yu. "Prepare yourself. We will head there now."
Zhan Tian did not waste any ti as he stepped into the open air and raised his hand. The Worldkeeper tore a rift directly through the fabric of space and a swirling portal of energy appeared before them.
Li Yu stepped through the rift right behind his grandfather. They traveled far and bypassed many realms. Zhan Tian navigated the chaotic currents of the void with practiced ease while following the information provided by the token.
He eventually brought them to an empty sector of the void where no ambient light existed. A structure floated alone in the dark expanse, it was a grand temple constructed from pale stone and what looked like dark glass. The architecture was stylized all over with opposing symbols of light and shadow representing the Anti Duplex race.
"It is hidden very well." Zhan Tian observed as they floated closer to the structure. "It would have been incredibly hard to find if we did not know it existed here. There are no spatial landmarks to track and it's hidden well."
They flew toward the main entrance with Zhan Tian protecting Li Yu from the void in this area. The doors were made of solid tal and bore a circular indentation in the center. As they got near the temple entrance, the token suddenly flew out of Li Yu's hands. It shot forward and imprinted itself directly onto the door as the black and white tals locked into the circular groove.
The heavy tal doors slowly creaked open to reveal a dark corridor inside.
As they both approached the entrance, a heavy soul pressure rolled out from the temple. It felt like a physical ocean pressing down on their minds and bodies. It was a defensive chanism designed to crush the souls of unwanted intruders before they could step foot inside. They weren’t aware that if they did not have the token, the pressure would have been magnified many tis over.
They were both able to resist the current pressure and kept going. Zhan Tian possessed a nascent soul and he was incredibly powerful in general. He ignored the pressure as if it were a gentle breeze blowing past his face.
Zhan Tian glanced over and wasn’t too surprised that Li Yu was able to keep going smoothly as well. The Worldkeeper understood just how much pressure was actually gathered here but he also knew of his grandson’s abnormal soul strength. That was the reason they were even here to begin with.
Li Yu felt the crushing weight but he did not buckle. Zhan Tian smiled with pride as he watched his grandson weather the storm, showing that coming here was the right decision. They crossed the threshold together as the grandfather and grandson entered the temple.
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