It's been 7 days since the old man, his master left the village. Ito thought to himself as he wiped sweat off his eye brows.
Tomorrow is a big day for Ito. He is finally leaving his village for studies. He along with his two brothers and a sister is going to their neighbouring village to attend School for Spirit trainees. That is where they train people on how to use spirit essence and battlespirits. It's not like Ito needs further guidance, his knowledge on all things related to spirit far outclasses all of his contemporaries, thanks to the old man's teaching. However joining the school is part of becoming independent. Ito will get his own bed and free food at the school dorm. He won't need to depend on the foster care anylonger.
Ito, in the few years he spent with the old man, had grown alot. He gained height, however, his body size remained normal. His body frame is very average and normal, which makes him not standout much. Ito isn't extraordinarily attractive or anything. His hair is plain black, with crop top cut in accordance with the orphanage regulations. However his eyes are really special. They have a glow of their own with a shade of light golden color.
Ito took a long breath. It's the third time today that he climbed up the waterfall through the slippery rocks. He had to do it. It's part of his daily training routine.
Ito's training spans all over the day and is tethered around his bath schedules, rather than food schedules like normal people. Ito takes 3 baths everyday. He takes a bath in the Morning to start of his day. Then he works on his body tempering till evening. Then he takes another bath. After which he practices the special spirit gathering method the Oldman taught him. Called the Poison cleansing Spirit Method.After which he takes another bath and then goes to sleep.
Right now it's time for the second bath of the day.
Ito spreads his both arms wide and takes a deep breath. He then falls back off the edge of the waterfall, down to the turbulent water. This is how he baths.
Even though tomorrow is a busy day. Tonight is an even more crucial time for Ito. Because tonight is the 7th night since he planted the seed of Akshaya. The divine seed his old master gave to him as a reward.
Ito recounted how it went after his awakening ceremony.
The old man was a tad disappointed when he saw Ito's battlespirit. Ito himself was taken back seeing the old man's face. He has never once made the old man disappointed with his performance. So Ito confronted him.
Ito: Old man, what's with the stupid sad face?
Old man: oh never mind my child-
Ito: Seriously spill it or I'm gonna ask Sahyadri to summon a thunderstorm and make it rain.
Sahyadri( Ito's battlespirit): ........you know that I can't summon thunderstorm right?
Ito: that's not the point!!!
Old man(chuckles, losing his serious face) : Ugh fine!.. listen carefully. Do you know who the first man to kill a spirit saint is ?
Ito: uhh..... the leader of Assassin clan..the saint killer
Old man: I asked you his name ito!!
Ito: Sun Jing the god killer.
Old man takes out a sword from his bag, and gives it to Ito. He fiddles with it a bit, inspecting it. Then realisation struck him
Ito: Oh My God...This is the sword of the saint killer..How did you get it old man?
Old man:....
Old man:...
Old man: UNGRATEFUL BRAT IM THE SAINT KILLER OF THE ASSASSIN CLAN!!
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Ito, shocked, almost drops the sword. He didn't even knew how to react. He tried imagining the old man being the saint killer. "Impossible" he thought to himself.
Old man: Yes I am the first person in the lower Realm to ever kill a Saint. After I killed the Saint, the sect that the saint belonged to started spreading rumours that the ASSASSIN clan was going to take over the nation. That finally led to the destruction of my clan..I who achieved what everyone thought was impossible, led my clan to its destruction.
Old man: When I came to this village I was weak and incapable of revenge, my dreams of revenge and rebuilding my clan died within me. Until I saw you. I taught u all the secret methods, skills, weapons and teachings of the assasin clan. I was selfish. I thought I could make you take revenge on those who led to the Assassin clans downfall and re-establish my clan on my behalf.
However it might be god's punishment for my selfishness, my plan failed.
Ito: what do u mean your plan failed?
Old man: For you to attain your full power you need a battle spirit that can resonate with the teachings of Assassin clan.
Ito: An assassin spirit.
Old man: Yes, only with an assassin spirit can you completely implement the secret skill I taught you. Inorder to make sure you summon an assassin spirit, I secretly embedded a powerful spell inside you as a bait. But apparently all my endeavours failed miserably. Hah.... It's pointless to speak of what is lost now.
Old man: But I have one final gift for you Ito. It will be very suitable for your battle spirit. It's called The seed of akshaya.
Old man takes out a seed.
Old man: Plant this inside a cave with no sunlight and wait for 7 days and 7 nights. On the 7th night the plant will bear the fruit of akshaya. That fruit is a very rare treasure. A heavenly item. It can directly upgrade your battle spirit to a S tier.
Ito: Thanks old man. Now tell me about the Upper Realm you mentioned earlier.
Old man: Noren is a vast land. A land of wonders. The most powerful entities in the Noren Realm are Spirit Saints. However there is a myth called the upper realm of Noren. Those who are able to go the upper realm can be even more Powerful than the Spirit Saints with even less time.
Ito: But isn't it just a myth.
Old man: It's not a myth.
Ito: Then I wanna go there!!. How do you go to the Upper Realm.
Old man: One can't go to the upper realm unless one is personally invited. The gate to the upper realm is guarded by entities called Guardians of upper realm. Once you achieve enough milestone to impress the guardians of the upper realm, they will come personally to invite you to participate in an entry test. Once you are invited you must participate. It's compulsory. If you fail to attend the test the guardians will personally come and kill you. Once you are invited there is no way out other than participating.
Ito: Old man, if this upper realm is such a big deal how come no one talks about it.
Old man: No one is left to tell the tale Ito. Those who pass the test will go to the upper realm. I don't know what upper realm is because I have never been there, but no one ever went there has returned. And the people who fail the test will automatically die on the process.
Ito: How do you know all this old man?
Old man: That's because I'm the only one who have survived failing the entrace test.
Ito: You participated???
Old man: Yes and I failed the test. No one in the history lived after failing the test. However i have my methods and thus I survived.
Ito: Then tell me what I should do to get invited.
Old man: I don't know much my child. I got invited when I killed the saint.
What a strange man, Ito thought. Why is his master able to survive all the toughest conditions. He killed a saint, survived an impossible test. Ito took a deep sigh and concentrated.
It's tonight. Ito told it to himself. He has planted the seed deep in a cave in the nearby forest. He finished he bath and got dressed. He entered the forest as the night crept up behind him.
When he reached the cave, sahayadri started reacting to the aura of the fruit. Ito stepped into the inner chamber of the cave flooded with Light blue-ish green colored spirit essence. Usually spirit essence are colorless. However as the purity and density of the essence increase, the spirit essence will take colour.
He looked at the fruit. It was roughly the size of his hand and had a hard covering etched with squares and dots.
Ito carefully plucked the fully grown akshaya fruit. He could feel sahyadri reacting strongly to the fruit from inside him.
Then his senses started tingling.
Suddenly he felt a shadow fall over him. His reaction was quick but not quick enough. He rolled back and landed on his back. But somehow he spectacularly made the fruit disappear from his hand.
That is when he caught sight of that that figure who casted the shadow on him. The figure was of a man. A tall and slender man. One look at him and Ito could already tell that the man was powerful. Even more Powerful than Ito's master.
Then the figure spoke.
Figure: Hello little one, who might you be ?
He sounded calm but there was power in his voice.
Figure: oh, not gonna talk, fine with me. I would like to borrow this fruit from you. You know with this fruit I can finally breakthrough lvl 89 and reach saintly hood.
Damn, Ito thought, he really is someone powerful. Ito stood literally no chance. But giving up his master's gift isn't an option.
Figure: Don't be sad. Name any price you want-
His sentence was cut short by a blow on his windpipe by Ito's right knee.
That will keep him down for a minute, ito thought, landing infront of the fallen man. He grabbed the fruit from his hand.
Ito summoned sahyadri to make a quick escape when his vision darkened. Ofcourse he thought, he was going against an unknown spirit emperor. Ito collapsed to the ground as the tall figure loomed over him, still nursing the injury to his neck with his hand. He already lost, he misjudged his opponent. It would take a lot more than a knee to the neck to down a Powerful opponent.
" You are one tough piece of work little one". Said the man, brandishing the fruit in his hand.
Ito's eyes slowly closed. And silence followed.
SPIRIT POWER LEVEL OF LOWER NOREN
Lvl 10-20 is Spirit trainee stage
20-30 is Spirit Practicer stage
30-40 Spirit User stage
40-50 Spirt Master
50-60 Spirit Warrior
60-70 Spirit Leader
70-80 Spirit King
80-90 Spirit Emperor
90-100 Spirit Saint/sage.