Without thinking, Leshy summoned all of his remaining energy. Using so he subconsciously started rotating his cultivation base. To his surprise, a previously dried up pond of qi in his inner world was able to produce few specks of energy. But this time the emitted power was green and smelled a little fermented. The green-qi mixed together with his mental energies, making them not only restore some of their brightness but gave a feeling as if the power becomes a raging forest.
Without hesitation, Leshy stomped his foot, making all of the energy pour to meet the incoming sword. The sound similar to many leaves fluttering in the wind was made as energies started to bombard the sword. There was no technique involved here, just mad, domineering will to release every last piece of energy reserve he had. A
"Noo! He must have absorbed some of my true essences that leaked during detonation and unsealed his meridian!" thought Baba Yaga on the verge of breaking under the barrage of Leshy's energy." I must endure! For the sake of my vengeance, for my pride as a cultivator, I shall destroy his consciousness and be the new owner of this body!" the last sentence was shouted, shaking all of the inner worlds.
However, the sword was starting to lose its momentum under furious energy onslaught. Leshy saw that the energy sword was getting more and more cracks, and due to closeness of their conciseness, he could almost feel the unimaginable amount of pain it caused her. But despite the pain and disadvantaged position of being one step away from defeat, she kept on refusing to perish. Her will to live could bend iron and chop nails. That was a tenacity of a true cultivator that used to blaze like the sun!
The Leshy heard a maddening, mighty roar from Yaga with a voice that was willing to defy heavens and smite destiny if they come in her way. He shivered, but new light could be seen in his, as something got awaken and he released his own battle cry - "Bring it on! This is my house!". Shouting, he punched with his fist, turning the energy from around him to swirl like a tornado, lashing at Yaga with the ferocity of a wild animal.
The impact of the punch was finally more than the sword made of Yaga consciousness, and her will of steel was able to endure. It broke about 2 meters away from reaching its target. It broke into thousands of brilliant pieces, which created a wave that smashed harmlessly against Leshy and he could almost hear a bitter chuckle hidden within them, as even in the afterlife she refused to let it go.
Those thousands of small pieces represented remaining of woman's power and were very beneficial for Leshy. Without thinking, he rotated his cultivation and slowly started to absorb Yaga's remainings. He already could feel that strength was coming back to him together with small, broken pieces of memory that belonged to Yaga. He could see some images of her growing up, teenager years, and cultivation experiences. But all of them were very blank and like a dream in the morning were quickly fading away, almost impossible to be remembered. After absorbing most of the brilliant pieces, he felt his consciousness was much bigger and brighter than before. If someone else with equal might as Yaga was to try to possess him, it would be a comfortable victory for him.
Suddenly, when he started absorbing an unusually big piece of light, he heard a whisper "You defeated me when my vengeance was not fulfilled." The voice was getting weaker but was refusing to fade without saying next words" if you promise to carry out the vengeance in my stake, I shall gift you a great legacy - a cultivation art bestowed to me by the forest itself. The promise does not mean that you have to recklessly search for my nemesis… just do what can be done. If you will be able to fulfil, it is up to destiny. But the promise you make will sow seeds of karma between us and in a world of cultivation that means a world…once an opportunity arise… or you will become strong enough… EXECUTE THE VENGEANCE! Promise on Dao. You must promise, promise, promise…" she continued to whisper.
Leshy thought for a second with an undecided look on his face, and an image of Yaga's last ferocious charge was replaying in his mind. That picture of unyielding charge and madness was already forever burnt in his memory. He suddenly got closer to enlightenment. What does it mean to be a cultivator? It is to crash or submit all obstacles before you in charge to pierce the heavens! Cultivation is not a path that one simply walk, it is a path that one shape with his flesh and soul. A one that shines brighter and more dazzling than any other! A genuinely peculiar and brave way to live!
"I promise, now rest in peace" Leshy barley finished those words he felt a sharp stab of pain in his mind and mysterious images and information started to play before his eyes. He did not understand them but knew that they were being imprinted in his memories. The process was painful and pleasurable at the same time, like being taught by a master that rewards as easy as he punishes. The feeling was intensifying as more information flowed in his mind. When he thought he will not be able to take it any more, he heard from somewhere very far away from a voice.
"Thank you and good luck…" and his world becomes darkness as he finally lost consciousness.
When he woke up, it was already morning and streams of light got through multiple slits in the tower's wooden walls. Leshy wanted to stand up but realized he was still tied by ropes and it took him quite a while to force his way out of them. He also started to circulate his cultivation to enhance physical prowess and quickly notice that qi was flowing to his head, improving his vision, hearing and sense of smell. Leshy rejoiced as he realized that the head meridian must have been opened. In his inner world, he notices some changes as well. The energy pond got almost twice as big and next to it there was some plant or spore. The plant was tiny and had an aroma of fungus mixed with the freshness of the forest around it. Roots of that plant were reaching the pond, and the energy in it seems to nourish it. However, now was not the time to investigate this phenomenon further, and Leshy opened his eyes.
He stood up and gave a Yaga's body lying in the middle of the room a confused look. "Yes, she tried to kill me and fulfil her selfless agenda…but wouldn't I be the same in her situation?" thought Leshy. Then he looked around at many humanoid bones and still young body of Grey-man.
"The power of one's conviction is a powerful and dangerous thing", said Leshy as he was closing to Yaga. He searched her body, took her bone knife, 2 small sprites stones, diary and a strange jade slip. He immediately started reading it and found quite a few useful pieces of information as the journal described Yaga experiences in cultivation an art called "One with nature". In summary, there were descriptions on how to use minor hypnotizes and illusion techniques which derives from central teachings of the art. Unfortunately, the author of the scroll was not able to truly use and research the "One with nature" as her cultivation base was stolen, so she had to work around it; however, she could. The effect was those two techniques.
Most of the diary was about theories how to restore once cultivation base, which started with a full description of the pre-root awaking phase. From the book Leshy found that there are seven meridians in one's body - once in the head, two in legs, two in arms, one primary meridian and one heart. Opening them increases one's strengths and is a precondition to awake one's spiritual root. There were many ideas and theories on how to imitate them, but Leshy was not really interested in those.
There was however a fascinating diary entry from about a 3-4 days ago. "Today, I felt a great disturbance in the world. Suddenly the heavens become bright and that brightness basket every corner of the world. After the light left everything around seemed to change or was reshaped. A tree that used to be next to my house got moved few kilometres away together with few about 50 meters of surroundings, the forest got bigger with many places, areas and building that were not there before. Changes were everywhere when I walked out of my hut; I could not recognize anything south. After 2 days of investigation, I have a theory that few worlds merged together in some colossus event. The way the merge happened didn't seem to have a pattern as some areas remained the same, some changed a little, and some disappeared from the surroundings. What is also very interesting that there are many new animals and creatures in the forest. Also, in human and Grey-man villages, extraordinary people that were talking about different word appeared. I must investigate this matter further and get to the bottom of it."
"Seems she was one of the inhabitants of this world, unlike me or those goblins I met. I need to get to that human village to meet others. Maybe Vanessa is somewhere there as well" said with eyes full of hope Leshy. There was nothing more interesting in the diary, and Leshy had no idea how to use the jade slip, so he put it in his bag of holding.
Then he walked out of the room to investigate the wooden tower and learn it's secrets. In the end, this was a living place of formerly a great cultivator so with little luck it should have some fantastic goods. The tower had 3 levels in total. The lowest one was quite spacious, having 4 chambers. Each of them was used to either store prisoners or food. Leshy quickly found deer-like creatures in two of the boxes, and the third one was food storage with dried meeting handing from the ceiling.
The second floor was just one room that seems to be Yaga's living and working quarters. There were scrolls made of animal hide, various herbs and miscellaneous items. After reviewing it, he found few things worth taking - first was an animal hide describing various grass, their properties and simple receipts for different potions. The second item was a green robe made from some unknown material. Once Leshy tried it on, he quickly came to the conclusion that the thing was magical as it seems to blend with its surroundings, a little bit like a chameleon. And last he found a quite well-drawn map of the surrounding forest together with the location of the human village and other spots which meaning he could not decipher. The easiest way would be to visit those spots and check if there is anything of value there.
The third floor was a training room and an armoury. There were various bone and metal weapons. However, most of them were quite crude, made without visible mastership. There was however one exception- in the corner of the armoury, there was an uncommon vest made of bones and leather. The item was beautiful, and upon touching it, you could feel the hardness of bone and feeling of reliability. Whatever creature bone was used to make the vest, it must have been a mighty animal when it was alive. Leshy had no idea if this item was made by Yaga or looted from some unlucky traveller. The armour fitted him nicely and was very light, maybe slightly heaven then winter jacket.
After getting familiar with the tower, Leshy realized that this place is much better than the cave. There is a lot of food, location is warmer and not so humid, not to mention a lot Yaga's notes to read through. He planned to stay in the tower for a few days too, rest, heal and cultivate using all spirit cores he had in his possession. Also, he really wanted to try and get some insights into the illusion or hypnotize technique that Yaga was using. With them, Leshy would not need to worry about food anymore as hunting will become an easy task. Lastly, there was also a matter of a mysterious plant in his inner world that he needed to research.
Next few days were quite similar to each other. Every morning Leshy started cultivation with the help of spirit stones. Afterword he would do some physical training like push-ups and stretching to keep his body in good shape. He would also try to grow custom with using weapons as he pretended to fight with a shadow. Unfortunately, he had no one to guild him in that practice, so his slashes and stabs were questionable at least. He quickly notices that his physical strengths grow much more reliable after opening the second meridian. Before with only his primary meridian open, he was as strong as top 1% of best athletes on earth. Now he was beyond that. He could hear a whisper from tens of meters, jump 3 meters hight and effortlessly lift 60 kg using one hand. That was already more then humans should be capable of.
"I am this strong and yet I have only opened 2 meridians. I am curious what will happen when I open all of the meridians" thought Leshy.
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After a few cultivation sessions, he made the observation that every time his qi pool rose, the strange spore would become slightly healthier or bigger. As of now, he was not able to find any purpose of that seed as it was still not in its final form. If he had to take an educated guess, he would say it is somewhat connected to the legacy given by Yaga and art called "One with nature". Leshy was quite sure, that only once he awakens his spirit root, he will be able to start cultivating that art. That certainty was based on information he got after contemplating the first chapter of the artwork from his memory. The very first thing explained there was how to circulate energy once the spiritual root is awakened and all meridians are active.
After a week and using all of his 4 spirit stones, he still did not open his right-hand meridian but was on the verge of opening it. Leshy came to the conclusion it was due to his head meridian being open after absorbing the essence of Baba Yaga. Based on enigmatic notes left in a diary, after opening each meridian, the price to open next one is significantly higher. For example, several resources needed could be described as followed - to open the second meridian about 8 spirit stones are required, the third one would take 32 rock, forth 256, fifth 1054. However, those numbers vary from different individuals and are just raw estimation. In reality, breaking from 3rd meridian onward requires more than only resources - insights, a bit of luck and the right state of mind is needed. Not to mention that gathering as much qi as in over one thousand spirit stones may require a ridiculous amount of time...well you can always go for extracting cores form other being which mean bloodbath and many life and death battles. And all of that even before being a real cultivator, before awaking spiritual roots!
In Yaga's diary, this state of opening meridians was called a Mortal Realm. In this Realm, one is tempering his body to be able to handle the qi from the qi condensation realm. His gaze flickered when something suddenly came to mind, and his expression soon became determined.
"So I'm in Mortal Realm now with 2 meridians open and about halfway through to the third one. I am curious how others from the earth are doing" thought Leshy in competitive spirit He made a few simple gestures and summoned his corporeal card to review if there are some changes.
After reviewing it for a while, he noticed that he got a rank E which was progress from E-, his card also change colour from light grey to dark grey. Ut that was not the only difference. Whoever writes the cards, obviously wouldn't be himself if he did not comment the Leshy's last near-death experiences.
"On 5th day he met a fallen cultivator who was called by a common folk a Baba Yaga. Leshy got defeated quickly and embarrassingly but was not killed as Yaga needed his body to take over. However, the possession technique failed mostly due to high alcohol resistance build-up by both; Leshy's years of drinking and truly Slavic genes passed by generations of vodka drinkers. What a sad time to be alive…"
"Hmpf, just wait till I find you" smiled Leshy wryly "however I did not receive Yaga card in defeated enemies section. Seems that only those transported to this word posses a card of himself. I wonder what is the purpose of all of this?"
Once Leshy runs out of spirit stones he continued his daily routine of morning cultivation, but this time he was absorbing natural qi which was much slower. He also decided to focus most of his attention in getting insights on those two mind trick techniques left by Yaga - hypnosis and illusion. After contemplating them for a few days, he walked to where deer like creators were being kept and starting practices. After half a day of the failed attempt, he finally affected one of the deer minds and made it fall asleep.
Those two techniques are quite similar to each other and required great skill in qi manipulation. The main idea behind them is that qi is everywhere and part of all being, even those that are unable to cultivate or manipulate the energy. The one that executes the technique affects the qi in the opponent's senses to create an illusion or mind to trigger hypnosis. Most effective it to use them in parallel with each other, which was something Yaga was able to do. The more powerful creature or, the more control it has over qi, the harder is to execute the technique. It requires an extreme proficiency to perform it on someone that can manipulate qi and on someone on the same or higher level.
About two weeks past like that and Leshy's proficiency in mind tricks grew - once in 4 times he was able to force deer to fall asleep. The other technique he practised was to create a small illusion. That one was a little bit simpler, and once in 3 times, he was able to create the illusion of food making deer salivate. But once deer tried to touch the illusion, it immediately recognized that it was fooled a glared at Leshy.
Both of the tricks were quite simple but each use consumed about a quarter of Leshy's qi. After spending a month in wooden tower Leshy the time has finally come.
"I grew stronger, I have defensive artefacts and healed all my wounds… it is time to journey to the human village. Based on the maps, it should be about 2-3 days away from here. I hope I will be able to meet someone from my city on earth and with a little bit of luck I might get some clues where Vanessa is." he thought. Before leaving the tower, Leshy walked to the cages where deers caught by Yaga were held.
"We were caught on the same day, so it's only fair that on the same day we leave this place." Said Leshy looking as deers were cautiously but promptly walking away from the wooden tower. They were visually afraid of this place or of Leshy." Plus you were lucky - I have enough supplies to last for many days" he gave him an honest Slavic smile. Then he started walking according to toward the village according to the looted map.
Few hours after he Leshy left the tower, out of nowhere, an old man materialized. He had long Grey hair, green robes which were made of vines that were swirling around him. He was very imposing with an aura that made all livings thing crumble before him, made him look like the lord everywhere he went. He walked to the tomb where Yaga was buried a sighed.
"What a shame for such peerless talent to perish. I gifted you "One with nature" art hoping that you get your cultivation restored and become one of my emissaries." said strange man, then he looked far into the distance, his eyes seem to pierce through all obstacle, even space itself" But it seems you've chosen someone in your place. Very well, since you granted him the art, I should not kill him, but I won't help him either. I will let his destiny unfold, and we will meet if it is meant" then he waved his hand and Yaga spirit flew from the grave. She notices the old man and bow, not daring to raise the head. The man slightly nodded and said "I shall grant you a bit of good luck so your next reincarnation won't be tragic. Now, go to the river of death" next moment the spirit disappeared, leaving nothing but forest, wooden tower and alone grave.
Obviously, Leshy was not aware of events behind him as he was making his way through the forest. With enhanced senses, he could admire the grandness and scariness of the wood much more than before. He walked very silently, feeling like a stranger passing through a foreign land. After a few hours of the walk, he felt a sense of danger which has not visited him for quite a while now. Without much thinking, he jumped over three meters on the nearest tree branch, making his way further to the crow of the three. A few minutes later, he saw a small herd of enormous wild boars walking a few meters from the tree on which he was hiding. Those boars have large have meters husk and weighted probably more than half a tone. It had tick hide covering most of the body expect legs which were muscular to the point of looking ridiculous. If Leshy was to bet which one would be more damaged after a collision - one of this boar or some small modern car - he would bet on boar without much hesitation.
Leshy held his breath not willing to grab the slightest attention from wild animals walking underneath him. Seconds felt like minutes to him, when boars were about 10 meters away from his tree, something happened. A dark-panther like a creature assaulted one of the board. It jumped from one of the trees, driving its claw in his victim's sides and gnawing at its neck with a sabre-like tooth's. The boar shrieked and wildly shook it's a body to throw the panther but with ill effect. Then it started running toward the tree, but at the moment of impact, the panther jumped from the animal, letting it crash with tree alone. The attacked boar was not in excellent shape, with streams of blood dying his sides and profound, an open wound on the back of its net, deep enough to reveal muscles and bones.
At that moment the two biggest boars charged with their tusks turned at the enemy, making panther doomed as each boar was 2-3 times bigger than the predator. The panther didn't even try to dodge, it just looked and charging boars released half-roar half-hiss sound and then casually slapped with its pawn at the one that got the closest. That slap would look comical if it was not for the effect it caused - it did not only stop the boar's charge but also throw the boar few meters away, making it crash with one of the tree leaving deep marks in the old wood. Almost simultaneously the panther, without even moving an itch bitted at the next boar forcing it to lay on the ground. The boar caught in jaws was thrashing around trying to free itself, but the panther was too strong, resulting only in making the sabre like tooths to dig deeper into boars flesh. After about 10-15 second the boar stopped fighting and meanwhile the rest of its heard with one exception run away in fright, trampling everything on their road. The one who left was the board with that got attack first - it was bleeding to death, and even it's exceptional vitality was not enough to prevent an inevitable end.
Leshy felt a cold sweat running on his back, and he silently prayed for panther not to look at his direction. Panther luckily was too occupied with eating the bear and camouflaging cloak seems to be doing it a job well. It took the animal about 20 minutes to devour most of the boar's body, and God only knows where all of that meat went since panther was at least twice smaller than its victim. After the meal was finished the only skull, spine and more prominent bones like tusks and ribs were left. The black creature stood up, walked to the second boar, catch it with its jaw and start dragging away without much effort.
Leshy waited for about to 40 minutes hugging the tree not even daring to breathe too loud. After being somewhat confident that the panther walked away with its prey, Leshy jumped from the tree. Very carefully, he walked to what was left of a boar after a thoughtful moment he tried to pull out a tusk. After working for a while, he managed to pick one, but the other was too firmly attached to the bear's skull, and without more time and proper tools it was to difficult to extract it.
"Good I was able to get at least one tusk. Maybe they will be worth something in the village" Leshy couldn't just let a benefiting occasion pass by. He put the tusk to his bag of holding and promptly resumed travelling, wanting to get far away from the current location. He was able to walk peacefully for the next few hours, without encountering more dangerous situations. When it started to get dark, Leshy collected a few vines, climbed to one of the medium-size trees in an attempt to spend the night there. He was looking for branch wide to let him sit on it while leaning with his back against the tree's trunk with legs freely hanging from both sides of the office. He uses vines to tide himself to the tree so he will not fell off.
The position was not comfortable, and the sounds made my forest did not make him feel safe but little another choice he had.
"I miss my old bedroom with soft pillows. Eh, there is truth in saying that you appreciate most what you have after you lose it. And the comfy bed is on that list together with decent toilet and hot water. I guess it takes a wise man to be happy with what currently is available…so I should probably be glad to have this camouflaging coat - its warm, thick and comes with a hood that protects from insects. "Said Leshy is taking a pose of the wise man and trying to look peacefully. Then he sneezed, swore and the wise man charm broke faster then it appeared" I'm definitely not wise, cause I can't stop thinking that this night's accommodation truly sucks". He then cultivated for a while, wanting qi to nourish his body and lessen the discomfort, and after a few hours, he felt asleep.
He woke up together with the sunrise and spent an hour meditating. He felt that once he absorbs 2-3 more spirit stone worth qi, he will be able to unlock another meridian.