The news that Old Gold was running a series of lectures in the lead-up to the Trials was a surprise--a glad one, but a surprise nonetheless. The
Archgetes was a busy man who could rarely spare more than a few minutes at the beginning of each year to induct new Aspirants--that he had managed to shake some loose to guide the next generation like Rina's own had been instructed?
It was nice! Pleasant--Rina would even go as far as to call it a great opportunity to the new Aspirants! But as a Legate, it was also sort of a… Marginal gain to be had?
That was Rina's perspective for a while--but then she learned of the Special Lecture being offered, thirteen years before the start of the Trials. The cost was three-thousand Contribution Points for a Qi Condensation Legionnaire--and one-hundred-thousand Points for Foundation Establishment.
Very steep, but with all the work Rina had been doing--her successfully claimed Bounties in the Song Empire Campaign, and her work in Three Frog City back in the Blood Cannibal War… She could
just about squeeze it into her budget--it'd clean out her savings and leave her hand-to-mouth again like she was in the first few months after her Breakthrough, but she'd pulled it off once before--what's another stretch of student poverty before specialized instruction from an experienced Nascent Soul?
Which didn't make it hurt any
less to see her accounts bottom out again, but it would be worth it--it
had to be worth it!
She did notice the five star rating on the lecture of course--a rating reserved for highly dangerous work that survival could not be guaranteed for--but Old Gold was a canny instructor! He'd certainly know precisely what his students were capable of and wouldn't risk their lives in a lecture.
The golden slab, etched with the seal of the
Optimatoi and the
Archgetes signature arriving in the mail ended up having more heft then Rina expect it to--but she supposed you needed special security measures with this kind of get together--and the instructions clearly stated that it worked like the Contribution Board and accepted a strand of Will to match with the records of the recipient--ensuring that no enemies of the Clan would be able to infiltrate--generally suicide of course, but you
never knew what treasures some lunatic might have dug up that could inconvenience a Nascent Soul.
So it was that Rina made a trip to the Dawn Fortress, to participate in a series of lectures that would define the sharpest of the
Imperial Optimatoi's younger generation.
----------------------------------------------------------
Over a thousand people!
Rina stood among the others of Foundation Establishment at the front of the pack--the horrifying expense entry
still successfully paid for by at least fifty people! That was five million Contribution Points from them alone! Then if you included the pack of Qi Condensation Legionnaires (And if she wasn't mistaken, even a few Aspirants!) behind her, that was…
Goodness, almost Ten Million Contribution Points worth of value into this lecture! Rina supposed though that this was only what was expected of a Nascent Soul's time.
Her heart skipped a beat then--her Pillar shuddering as it felt the barest wisp of an intruding Dao--a cloying warmth that enveloped the courtyard before the Fortress proper, and her eye glanced upward--noting briefly how even the sun seemed to have darkened by a trace.
He descended from above, clad in robes hewn from Night, his features pitted and wrinkled with age--a skinny scarecrow of an elder who looked like he should be a foot into the grave as it is.
He was
Archgetes Manuel Konstantinos, Regent-Lord of the
Imperial Optimatoi in the absence of the Lost
Imperator, the Unseen Whisper and Envoy of Heaven's Shadow. Great Protector of the Desert and Master of All Legions.
But yes, if you were completely deaf, dumb, and blind, you could mistake him for a common old man well into his retirement.
He descended just low enough to remain above even the tallest of the
Optimatoi present, before settling down into a cross-legged seat, in utter defiance of gravity and physics as commonly applied to those who weren't demigods. He surveyed the attendees with his eyes, as all noise and chatter came to a halt with the mere weight of his attention.
More than just his attention--if Rina was any indication, he was literally
dampening the noise in the area--a display of control Rina couldn't even dream of matching on the best day of her life.
He spoke.
"In a little over a decade, the Trials put before us will arrive. I do not doubt that one in five of you who stand here today will be dead after them, for all your talent. You are ill-prepared, though better prepared than we were a century ago."
He inclined his head slightly in recognition of the fact--it was a grim statistic--a reminder that even a
Good set of trials left a full fifth of the
Optimatoi in their graves, outrun and brought low by Hunters well beyond their hope to resist.
A bad set could finish the Clan--extended as it was integrating the new territories.
But that was why Rina was here--even a slight edge could be decisive when the stakes were this high.
"You will have heard tales. A few of you will have lived through those times. The Clan suffered, and then came the good times. Conquest and growth, new mines and new talents rising up. New relationships with the Righteous Path. Some of you have even travelled into the Great Battlefield, and not been killed on sight for the colour of your skin and hair. The Optimatoi suffered greatly so that you could rise."
When he put it that way…
Rina could see it--as bad as the Trials had been, they were
Survivable, and the strength and cunning of the Clan was enough to not merely weather the trials of the subsequent century--but to actually gain considerable ground!
The
Archgetes descended to the ground, alighting as he gave what was a surprisingly reassuring smile. The undulations of his Emanation though…
Oh no, this was going to be the moment where he explained why this was a Five Star Danger Level, wasn't it?
"Now you will suffer so that the Clan may rise."
That's not how you reassure people at all
Archgetes!
-------------------------------------------------------
The lecture began with an exposition on the Trinity of Things--Body, Dao, and Soul, the nature of Qi and its interdependence with the other aspects of the world to create all manner of wonders in the world.
Interestingly, there seemed to be a reaction from the firmament when he drew a line of association between the Body and the Laws--how the Body was shaped and formed from it. He shortly after pivoted away from that topic--causing the sense of
tension that Rina's Pillar managed to touch on the edges of to disperse--but it seemed important.
Did it have something to do with how the Curses of the Heavens seemed to be
aimed at those who bore the Blood of Bronze? The Blood should be an aspect of the Body after all, and if the Body is closely tied to the Laws… That could explain a great deal. She'd need to meditate on that in her own time and see if that train of thought goes anywhere.
His topic on the muck and impurities that existed by default, and how purifying the Body was
always the first step in Cultivation--no matter the source--seemed to bear that out. But it begged the question of 'Just what are these Impurities anyway?' She remembered the weird
gunk that kept popping up when she made good progress in Qi Condensation, but didn't pay much mind at the time.
If the Body is forged from the Laws, but the Body begins flawed… What does that say about those self same laws?
Rina was pulled from her contemplation though as the
Archgetes returned to the ground--his defiance of the very principles he spoke of a tantalizing clue as to the nature of the world.
"I cannot solve all your problems, nor do I intend to. Still, one of the greatest problems of any cultivator is exploring where the true limits of your body lie. The hairsbreadth between where you exert the maximum power and your meridians burst, leaving you crippled and mortal. For most, they simply excavate nine-tenths of their power, and eventually another nine-tenths of what remains. Today, we will be reaching your absolute limit. It will be a small increase in power, but a real one."
Rina's attention sharpened to a needlepoint--she knew what he was referring to. Her meridians pulsed in remembered pain of that moment in Sha Yu City, where a Nascent Soul had sought her death. She had dug deep, threw all the power she dared into the teeth of certain doom--but she would have been in no condition to continue fighting if
any other dangers were in a position to capitalize.
If she could learn to push those limits without taking such risks--that would do nothing but good.
She felt the
Archgetes power descend, his attention split thousandfold as a mote of his power latched onto each of his current students. He was going to observe everyone with this? Where was this going anyway?
"Circulate your Qi. Slowly increasing from your normal amount, you are to fill your dantian to bursting, channel as much as you can through your meridians. Continue increasing the amount. You will feel pain, you will feel as though you are about to shatter and die. If you stop before I stop you, you will be dismissed from the lecture and may not return."
Oh.
No pressure. Just… Wind things up until he stops you.
Rina restrained her urge to sigh, and settled instead into a meditative posture. Her Qi surged within her body, beginning at her dantian--that strange pseudo-organ in the abdomen that served as the anchor to one's own Cultivation Base. The sea of crystal-clear
Qi within it roused to action on request, utterly clear of even the slightest trace of impurity, and flickering with golden light--altered by the proximity to the great astral ring hanging above the sea, fed by great waterclimbs--absorbing power from the Qi Sea and emitting it once again--some power always lost in this circulation.
Rina willed it, and the ring began to slowly rotate--she envisioned the spray of pressurized Qi leaving her Dantian, entering her Meridian circulatory system. Power entered her body with each breath, with the wastage lost in each exhalation. Meridians of organic bronze shuddered as power flooded into them, flexing and expanding where they must--the ancient blood of the Sea Conquering Army enduring a torrent that would cause any less-blessed Cultivator to burst.
The ring that was Rina's Pillar spun faster and faster, the output climbing as required to compensate for the increased spillage brought on by the increased pressure. She began to feel a sense of pins and needles throughout her body--the usual sign that she was pushing a bit too far and needed to wind things back.
She ignored that instinct--the
Archgetes had not yet told her she was at her limit. She continued her circulation of Qi--and the pins and needles escalated into fiery hot pokers through every inch of her Meridians--the heat actually building up to the point where she was starting to feel a little nauseous as it slowly started to impact her other organs.
She continued to ignore the impulse to stop--her Foundation continued to revolve, and the fiery hot pokers jabbed with greater and greater force, her blood starting to reach a boil inside her veins. Was this enough yet? This had to be enough, how was this not enough?
Rina quashed her anxiety with the practice of nearly two centuries of Cultivation, and continued her circulation--her fingers and eyelids twitched and she could almost
swear she saw her tears starting to turn to steam and her body was just too small for her she needed to burst out of i~~
"Stop"
Her circulation
froze, and Rina gasped for air as the
Archgetes bid her stop. Her nerves were
twitching! And this couldn't have done good things for her organs either.
How was this a good idea? There's no way this kind of technique didn't leave residual damage!
And yet--as she turned her mind's eye inwards to assess her current state… As sore as she felt, she… Hadn't actually hurt herself?
Oh sure, her body temperature was running nearly a dozen degrees too hot and her nerves were screaming in terror… But nothing was actually
damaged--her peerless constitution had weathered the strain with admirable grace.
"Again"
Rina gulped, and recovered her composure--letting her Pillar begin its rotation anew. It seemed she was beginning to see one of the downsides to her Paragon Body--she could safely drive her Qi at levels that would
kill someone else.
But it didn't make the
pain any less!
And yet… Rina felt that suffering pain here--now--in this place, to determine her
absolute limit was the safer choice in the end. Even if it was only a single percentile of strength that she could tap using this method--sometimes, a single trace of advantage can make all the difference.
So she continued to complete the exercises, embracing the pain of overheated Meridians and stressed nerves, clinging to the steel core of conviction that had led her to challenge the Five Element Tribulation to support her.
And Rina had endured to the end--one of the eight-hundred remaining when the
Archgetes had called to an end for the day's training. Covered in sweat and feeling like she had been fighting for days.
But she had gotten the trick of it in the end--the precise point at which damage would begin to accrue even for her own body.
For even a one percent gain in strength, from a single day? It was worth it.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The next day had the remaining eight-hundred disciples that remained standing before the
Archgetes--the ancient Cultivator standing with his hands folded behind his back--Rina thought she felt a trace of pride from him…
But that might just be Rina's imagination talking, this was only the second of three Lectures after all.
The wizened Elder began his speech.
"The next lecture is simpler. The Soul is the thing that understands and comprehends, the thing that understands the Dao and pursues truth. It does not obey physical laws for the most part, and once coupled with sufficient understanding of the Dao and Qi can exert its will on the world. The thing we tend to think of as the Soul, though, is the connection between Soul and Body. If broken, the body is killed and the Soul goes elsewhere, though I cannot say where. This is the truth of the Nascent Will. It snaps the connection between Soul and Body, leaning on the understanding a Nascent Soul has of that same connection."
This… Conflicts a little bit with what Rina thought she knew about the Soul--but she supposed the Callista House hadn't had a Nascent Soul since Athenia's fall--and most of the records didn't go back that far anyway. At any rate, she doubted the
Archgetes would straight up make things up for a test like this.
A connection… Rina recalled the Heavenstages of the Qi Condensation Olympian Keystones. First Purifying the Body--which almost seems like a second pass to remove any remaining impurities that might drag it down? Then purify the body's ability to generate Qi--which ensures that the power generated and stored is as efficient and gentle as it can be--and flows just as smoothly.
Then came Soul Purification--which was shockingly easy when you consider how ephemeral the Soul
actually is. Was the term then a shorthand? That the Soul
itself wasn't purified so much as its connection was? It would explain why the Twelfth Heavenstage was so easy compared to the Eleventh and Thirteenth that surrounded it--if all you were doing was cleaning up your link to your Soul, it would explain why it was almost as easy as some of the Orthodox Stages--but also so powerless until one reached Nascent Soul themselves.
A thought occurred then. Did that suggest the Thirteenth Heavenstage was the
true Soul Purification then? Purifying the Soul's ability to think and conceptualize? Which permitted a much deeper understanding of Dao than should otherwise be available in that critical moment when nothing was yet set in stone?
A perfect Body, and a Soul capable of fully grasping a Dao before so much as one Pillar was established. Was that why the Single-Pillar Method was so potent?
"For our second lecture, I will be strumming on that connection, as though a string on a lyre. Your job is to try and replicate that feeling after I do so. It will be unpleasant and dizzying. For those with the patience, even a Qi Condensation disciple can develop that feeling into an effective suicide art to prevent interrogation. I will disrupt the connection between soul and body three times over three weeks. At the end of the month, if you cannot replicate the feeling, my experience has taught me you are unlikely to do so. If you can succeed, we will proceed to the final lesson.""
Rina looked back up from her reverie, and blanched. The
Archgetes was going to
play music with their Soul Link? That was going to be…
*Twoooooooonnnnng*
It had been a very long time since Rina had last thrown up.
Heh, that was funny, it sparkled a little bit!
She needed to learn how to do that to herself?
On Purpose?
Rina would just… She'd just need to make this work! Somehow! It was her own soul, right? She should be able to make it go 'Twong' whenever she wants for any frivolous little reason!
Heck! Maybe she'd make it a training measure! If she could keep her cool even while
'Twong''ing herself, then she'd be good against any kind of distraction!
Three weeks? She'd master it in one and spend the rest of the time training under those conditions!
She just needed to visualize that link--that band of shining gold at the back of her mind. Just reach out a bit and..
*Twunnngueofogeuo*
Rina blinked a moment later, flat on her face lying in her own vomit, glasses fractured after faceplanting in with full speed.
Okay, maybe this wouldn't be
quite that easy.
That wasn't going
'Twong!' at all! That was making a completely different horrible noise!
Was… Was all this training just a scam to cost a lot of contribution points?
No, even if it was, she'd make it work somehow! She had been good at self study even before she was a famous up-and-comer! It was just playing her own link to her soul like a lyre! If she couldn't do at least that much, what was she even doing all of this time?
And so it was, Rina Callista pushed herself back up, wiped her face off, and turned her peerless focus on the new task at hand. Three weeks would be plenty of time, she was certain.
----------------------------------------------------------
Three Weeks did--in fact--happen to be a gross overestimation. Once Rina had a little practice reaching into her soul link, making it go
*Twong* on command wasn't actually too hard! Disorienting--yes, but not
difficult. Her Qi was a work of art! And her Soul-Link was something that it was surprisingly easy to get a grasp of in its current state.
Was this the upside of Soul Purification?
Not one to rest on her laurels though, Rina took that idea and extended it further. If the Soul had to be reached
through that link, then wouldn't one be able to adequately defend against Soul Arts by making it go
*Twong* in response? Nobody below Nascent Soul
really knew what they were doing when it came to the Soul after all--based on the fact everyone had it wrong all this time after all.
So Rina practiced, she trained, she mastered making her Soul go
*Twong* and
*Twang* and eventually even cracked
*Tween!* after great effort and at least one all nighter in a frenzied fit of study in the Dawn Fortress' library
It was all very disorienting and she had thrown up more than a few times, but that was okay--this was all about pressing one's limit!
The fact she still stood before the
Archgetes after the second great winnowing--the once mighty company of over twelve-hundred reduced to just over two-hundred was proof positive that she knew what she was doing.
There was a definite trace of pride on the
Archgetes face here--but also a sense of gravity that had been lacking in the past few lectures. Rina had been waiting for the other shoe to drop since this began--the reason why a common lecture was rated as a Five Star Danger. She suspected she was about to find out.
"You now know how to manipulate the connection between your soul and body the tiniest amount. For those who have stepped through the 12th Heavenstage, your connection is many times stronger, a pure link between soul and body. This is why you mastered this art in hours instead of weeks. Some of you may have come to it on your own."
Mostly what Rina had already suspected--he gave three weeks, but she had the basics down within a day and had spent the rest of the downtime extrapolating on it to develop two more 'Resonances'--sure, it was probably not going to be relevant.
But maybe it would be, and if that was the case, Rina would definitely prefer to have more options than fewer.
But she felt the sky darken further, as the
Archgetes continued his speech.
"Now we come to the simplest truth. You who remain are among our greatest talents, and recent events have shown me that you are not immune to the assault of a Nascent Soul. While you cannot hope to survive a serious attack without protection, you might preserve your life for a few key seconds, or perhaps resist a mass-scale attack on an army. To assist you with this, I will be bringing your soul-connections to the breaking point. This will challenge not only your manipulation of your soul as previously taught, but also your will. Without sufficient will to persist, your connection between body and soul will shatter, and you will die. I cannot teach you to resist such attacks without truly threatening you with death. My blows will be at the absolute limit of what you can endure, and if you are not confident in the strength of your will, simply leave. I will not hold it against you."
Oh.
That was why.
Rina recalled the events of Sha Yu City--the assault of Kinslaughterer and her own brush with mortality--all of the talent in the world useless in the face of a Nascent Soul with killing intent. That she survived was more an element of the rudimentary instruction she had received on that very scenario than any talent on her part.
Many of the remaining disciples withdrew at that offer--there was training and then there was being subject to the killing power of a Nascent Soul. Even if it was not struck with full might--
it was still a force that no mere martial artist could hope to endure.
From over two hundred, merely one-hundred-fifty remained. Rina among them--for she knew more than any other that she was on a point of no return. Perhaps Kinslaughterer singling her out was a one-off…
But that was only while she was still an ordinary Foundation Establishment disciple. Even if she gained nothing more from the Single-Pillar Method than what she had already seen and inferred--bringing that onto the stage of Core Formation…
She'd be a major target--worthy of a Nascent Soul's attention.
So she took a deep breath, steadied herself--and shifted her inner-eye to the connection she had experimented with all of this time. She memorized the resonances mastered in the past three weeks--if she could deflect the attack even by a moment.
Rina thought she felt a hint of approval from Old Gold as he slowly raised his hand--Rina braced herself.
He clenched his fist.
*night fell without mercy upon the newborn realm, the primitive inhabitants and childish spirits ceasing their games as they turned their eyes upon the empty sky above. clever wind baffled, and without an answer for this phenomena--though he promised he would have something soon. void was the first to witness the approach--mustering its ward as it did against other threats. strange harmonies played off of the clash of stellar radiation and the skin of void's ward--a measure to deflect more fierce blows.
it lasted precisely three nanoseconds before void died, crushed by the weight of the withered hand of darkness that engulfed the world. pulling it from its orbit--almost admiring for a moment.
then the fist clenched. wind cast aside, torn asunder in its force. flame rendered still and dead, water evaporated. stone alone endured as it always had when the ancient devil finished its task and moved on. the orb scarred and battered, perhaps never to rise aga--*
Clarity slowly returned to Rina's mind as her eyes slowly began to recover--the taste of blood and snot and tears in her lips as her mind floated in a haze of bewilderment.
That?
What… What even was that?
"I will return in three months. Those who truly wish to follow down this path, come see me then."
Rina blinked, and tried to raise her head to meet the face of that…
Thing
That? That was a Nascent Soul?
A quiet, halfway hysterical giggle spilled from Rina's lips as Old Gold left the disciples to their own devices. She thought she was coming a long way by now! She thought that maybe things were okay--that she managed to survive the attention of one that sought her death, maybe she could stand against one!
But there and now--she had seen the truth. Against a Nascent Soul, the only hope you had was to die slightly slower, in hopes one on your side will save your life.
It wasn't anything to do with you, it was everything to do with them.
She struggled to clench her fingers. When she thought of it that way… What did it matter if she was a little weaker than her generation at any given moment? Everyone was dust to a Nascent Soul.
It was all just games until then--games to prevent the Nascent Souls from waging war until one had an advantage on the other.
Yet so many people died in those games. Where was the justice in that?
Rina gasped as her lungs finally started working again, and coughed out the slurry of fluids that had filled her throat while she was paralyzed. Her arms finally started working, and she rolled herself over, facing the ground.
"Nothing's changed…" She whispers--more for herself than anything else. "Still… Has to be done."
She wiped her face off, and felt feeling return to her legs. "Not… going to go away, just because it's hard."
Rina wasn't finished yet. She wasn't going to be scared off yet--if this was what it felt like to gain the ire of the Region's peak…
It was going to happen anyway.
It was best that she learned how to survive at the hands of one who genuinely didn't seek her death.
------------------------------------------------------------
So it was that three months later, the final sixty four stood before the [i}Archgetes[/i]. Pale faced, quivering in some cases, and
very much wanting to be anywhere but here.
Rina stood among them, trying her best to keep a good example despite her own raging terror about what would come next. The previous event was just a
taste of what the true instruction would incur.
Yet people were still here. Even with that taste of a Nascent Soul's power, they were willing to stand up again.
Rina had never been prouder of her kin.
"Final chance to leave."
Rina gulped, and steadied the layers of defenses she had devised since the
sample. Even imagining she could resist a Nascent Soul was hubris--but the words Old Gold had about Will struck her in hindsight.
It wasn't about winning the fight--he wasn't trying to kill the disciples standing before him here after all.
It was
trying to fight back that would keep the Will intact. Futile as it may be, the act of
defiance was what allowed the Soul and Body to remain linked even under conditions where they should be shattering.
Her eyes widened then--that… That felt important somehow. But before she had a chance to follow that line of thought further…
The blow came down.
*since the last dark era, the peoples of the small world had prepared for the return of the evernight devil. when the sky turned to pitch once more, the people were ready to face it. void dispersed its defenses, concentrating its occlusion to critical points of impact--stalling the great hand for precious moments before reaching his limit. lightning lashed out, the friction between the devil's fingertips and void's body enough to empower it, blasting infinitesimal fragments from the implacable hand before expending his strength and fading.
wind sent word to the other spirits, and when the hand dropped to the world's surface, they were ready to stand in concert. Stone granted shelter to the weaker fighters, guarding them with his immutable body as the devil's hand tore canyons and craters through it. emerging from their places of safety rose the other three elder spirits, flame and water and wind lashing out at the hand, forming binding chains and oscillating blades to rip and tear at the hand. all futile as the spirits died once again. stone stood strong even as the hand sought his heart--and from that came the little peoples of life, many having gained power to fight from the last appearance of the evernight devil. magic techniques and martial weapons rained down on the hand--warriors self detonating on proximity to buy just a fraction of a moment's more time. wise fate directed the final line of defenses as courageous man gathered his strength together, stabilizing his condition as the others stood to fight.
stone's flesh finally broke down, and the hand began to clench upon the heart of the land--but man stood against it. he had no claws to fight, no innate magic or divine body. he was not an undying guardian or a wielder of holy weapons.
but he bore the heart of the land in his breast, and he did not know to submit. forever unconquered--he rose again and again even as his body turned to dust. he rose even as his blood evaporated. he rose even as mind itself collapsed.
for the spirit of man endures, no matter the danger, no matter the threat. and so long as the spirit of man fights on, the world endures.*
The sky was a clear blue as it always should be.
Every particle of Rina's being was
pain. her cultivation base was in chaos--and even her Pillar was cracked and unsteady. To speak of the status of her soul-link would be to recite a litany of horrors.
And yet…
She couldn't help but smile a little, even as she tried to pull herself upward. She was still alive, and she didn't even feel driven to madness!
Not bad for… how long was it?
She didn't know--what was time anyway? It was just a ticking little thing that kind of did its own thing.
Didn't matter.
Her euphoria at surviving was dimmed somewhat as she counted the bodies of the remaining disciples… Six less than there were at the start of this… Dead? Mad?
She didn't know yet.
But there was Old Gold, suspended in a meditative position, overseeing everyone.
She… She couldn't really look fondly on him at the moment--she understood the logic behind what he did, she walked into it willingly.
But it was just too raw right now, she'd… She'd get over it--anyone who can't get over a little pain isn't going to get far in Cultivation. But she'd let herself resent him at least for a little while.
She took the opportunity while the other disciples awoke to shore up her cultivation base--to prevent any regression from occurring. She marveled at her newfound control and precision from the lectures of the past… Four months now was it?
It was worth it, she thinks--even if it was
awful to go through.
When the final disciple woke up, the
Archgetes' eyes snapped open, and he began to speak.
"This will assist you in resisting soul attacks in future."
Rina stifled a scoff at that. Well, of
course it would! If you just survived a Nascent Soul applying pressure to your spirit, anything less than that is just kind of tame in comparison, isn't it? There had to be more to it than that.
And she was right--because he smiled--and there was
Definitely pride in there this time, no doubt about it!
"You have experienced the tiniest sliver of Nascent Soul cultivation. If you truly seek to climb the heights to immortality, this is the price you must pay."
Rina blinks then, disbelieving as Old Gold turns around and returns to his chambers in the Fortress. He was just going to leave with that?
That was what a Nascent Soul goes through
Every day?
The amount of strength that requires… That someone can go through…
That--no, wait, it's even worse, he said that was only a sliver!
Rina sighed, and slumped to lie on her back--on her own power this time, instead of from a terrible moment of weakness. She had
so far to go before she could even think about making her dreams reality.
She couldn't let this peek at the top deter her.
