[Hellooooo? Elder ghost? Long Dong? Are you dead?]

He wasn’t. I saw his tiny Soul with my mind’s eye staring blankly into space, mouth agape. I let my Soul go and it immediately tried to eat him, starting with his fingers.

“Ow! Oy! Stop! I’m here, I’m here!”

[So?] Getting a response, I reeled back my Soul and kept it under control.

“What do you mean, so?! What the heck was that?!” I didn’t know what he meant since he was inside my mind, pointing at nothing.

[Oh, you mean the fire… What about it?]

“It was huge!”

[Well, duh...]

“It was massive!”

[As it should be. I don’t do things halfway.]

“It was humong-!”

[Alright, I get it! Get to the point already!]

The old ghost shut his mouth and seemed to be thinking about… stuff. I couldn’t even begin to guess since I wasn’t stupid enough to be able to follow his thought process.

After a few minutes of silence, he finally spoke. “I knew you were a freak…”

[Gee, thanks.] I rolled my eyes

“But that… That was something else. How much Qi do you have left? I thought for sure you were out after the Earth demonstration, but surely you are now, right?”

I scoffed. [Are you kidding me? I have still more than half left. And it’s getting refilled quickly.] What did he think I was? The dumbass clearly knew I wasn’t a normal human.

“More than half?! What are you, some kind of Mystical Beast in human form?!”

[I prefer the term superhuman.] I said, but he didn’t seem to have heard me at all.

“And those flames! Even just at these low levels, they were for sure the purest form of Fire I have ever seen!”

[What do you mean? Fire is just fire, isn’t it?]

“Absolutely not! Listen to me, and listen well.” This ghost always found a way to get the attention on him. “This whole concept of Elements doesn’t even scratch the surface. The entire concept of Fire is something beyond mere flames. It is the concept of flames, heat, purification, destruction… It is difficult to explain because some concepts are beyond mere words. You have to experience it for yourself to understand.”

I wanted to say something, but he beat me to it.

“I have tasted the flames of envy and jealousy, and of fury of angry men. But you… Your flames were the purest representation of what Fire is supposed to represent. If you decide to travel this Path, with your talents and natural abilities, your achievements will no doubt be limitless!”

The old ghost seemed excited, but he reminded me too much of how I used to be. In the Before.

[Yeah, yeah… I had a fiery temper, I already know that. That’s why I’m trying to cool it down and focus on defense. And you are here to teach me all the defensive techniques you know.]

The ghost’s form was once again at a loss for words for a short while.

“You… are focusing... on defense? With gifts and talents to have the strongest attacks in the world?! Are you nuts?!”

I frowned, and he took that as a confirmation. “Heavens are unjust!” I somehow felt like he wanted to cry. But he was just a decaying Soul, so he couldn’t.

I let him wallow in his own misery for a bit and collapsed the stone pillar beneath my feet, after which I slowly floated down to the ground and fixed the terrain as best I could. I liked the forest and didn’t want to disfigure it for no reason.

After I was done, I heard the old Dong sigh exaggeratedly. “Alright, fine… It’s not like I have much of a choice anyway. I’ll teach you defensive Martial and Mystic Arts. I probably can’t convince you to try focusing on attack, right?”

[No.]

“Sigh, fine, fine… Then show me what techniques you already know. Let’s see what you are capable of.”

[I can do that…] I began shifting my Qi according to the sacred patterns, empowering my cells. My entire body became in sync with it.

“Oh, Turtle Breathing Technique? It’s a good basic technique. Not bad, but it’s really too basic even if you almost mastered it.”

[I began training it less than two months ago, give me a break.] I frowned at him or tried to at least. He was inside my head, unfortunately.

“Two months ago?! How-!? No, never mind, I don’t even wanna know. Now show me what else you got.”

I subconsciously nodded and showed him the next one.

“Interesting, I don’t know this one… A new creation?”

[Yes. Scales of the Earth. It’s good against sneak attacks.]

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Oh, so that’s what that was. I was wondering why we couldn’t kill you in one strike even though you didn’t defend yourself. Very paranoid-”

My Soul moved closer to his.

“Yes, sorry, I’m talking too much! Please show me what else you know.”

At his call, I activated the Elemental Avatar, boosting all my abilities.

“What the heck is this abomination? It looks like some loser just stuck together four different techniques. You should get your money back, you got scammed. Just look at how much Qi it uses, so wasteful!”

To say that I wasn’t annoyed would be a lie, but I was slowly becoming numb to the criticism. [I made it.] I said.

“Oh?”

[With just a few months of experience.]

“Oh.”

[Reverse engineering the techniques from manuals and scrolls that were falling apart.]

“Oh…”

[You got something else clever to say, old ghost?] My Soul licked its lips, and I think he noticed.

“Erm… Well, now that I think about it, it is actually pretty good! A solid effort I would say. Not bad, not bad!”

I just shook my head and rolled my eyes. I was rolling my eyes a lot lately, thanks to the old Dong ghost. Hopefully, I would become numb to his nonsense soon enough.

[So, got anything useful that suits me?] We were out in the forest for quite a while already. I was already getting peckish.

“Yeah, I got a few Mystic Arts that you could use, you freak of nature! They use a lot of Qi, but that’s right up your alley. Ah, but first you need to reach the Golden Core Realm to use them, sorry.”

[Forget spells, give me something to strengthen my body, my flesh, and bones. Surely you have a few Martial Arts for that.]

“Let me think… I have a few. Dragon Scales is one, but you need the bone marrow of a Dragon, or at least from a subspecies. Oh, and you need Golden Core Realm… Yeah, never mind. Um… Iron Skin is a good one for Nascent Soul. Though you lose quite a bit of feeling on your skin, so if you are concerned about girls-”

[Stop messing around and get me something that won’t ruin my body for no freaking reason!] Seriously, I felt like this ghost was messing with me. We already wasted half a day and I still didn’t have anything of use.

“Okay, okay! It’s just that it has been such a long time since I was at Nascent Soul Realm... I have a few Body Cultivation techniques, but they aren’t suitable for you. It would be a waste of your talents to train them.” I was just about to say something when he continued. “However, I do have a few things that might be of use to you. Ether Blood, Golden Meridians, and Tyrant Forging Bones.”

[What is that?] I asked suspiciously. It sounded interesting, and I needed to know more.

“Body Cultivation techniques, but they are only the foundation for stronger Martial Arts later on. I, unfortunately, found them in my latter years, so I couldn’t use them, but I still remember them quite well.”

[Alright then, explain what they do.]

“Then listen well. Ether Blood. As the name would suggest, is a way to transform your blood to contain a much greater quantity of Ether without self-igniting. I assume you know that already?”

[Of course. If too much Ether mixes with blood, it heats up and begins burning. The same thing happens if too much Qi runs through it in a short amount of time.]

“Right… Well, we would need a few herbs to make a potion to begin, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find.” I just nodded.

“Golden Meridians is… Well, you are supposed to build your own meridians when reaching the Golden Core Realm, but you can plant the seed already in the Nascent Soul Realm. It’s a way to build the channels for Qi throughout your body so it can flow smoother. You might think that your veins are enough for transporting Qi, but after getting Golden Qi, they become insufficient. In fact, I’m surprised they didn’t already blow up with the amount of Qi they have to transport inside you. What a freak of nature. Wish I had those talents.”

[Yeah, yeah… It’s an acquired ability, stop complaining.] The only reason I had so much Qi was because I was chugging Elixirs like a drunkard in the Before. [What’s next?]

“Tyrant Forging Bones. It’s an old technique of some forgotten warlord I found by chance. Supposedly the man had unbreakable bones, and that was the technique he created to achieve that. Don’t know if it’s true since it was too late for me to try it, but I can show it to you if you wish, or not, your choice.”

[Hmm…] I remained silent for a while as I thought about it. More Qi, better Qi channels, and unbreakable bones. It was exactly the foundation I needed. I already had a lot on my plate, but I guessed I could squeeze on a bit more.

[What about something for my skin, internal organs, or muscles? Got something for that?]

“Eh…” The old ghost hesitated. “I do, but as I said, they are mostly for Golden Core Realm, or they aren’t suitable for you. Or for males in general. Unless you want to have really pale and smooth skin like those of petite girls. I got a few things for that.”

[No thanks, I prefer my look as is.] I wanted the body of a warrior, not some fuck boy. And I would achieve that with time, I just needed to grow a bit first.

I closed my eyes, thinking. We sat quietly for a bit until the old ghost eventually spoke, breaking the silence. “I could also modify your technique. The one you showed me last. I think I should be able to improve it a bit.”

[Really? Elemental Avatar?] My eyes remained closed, but I did focus inward, looking him straight in the face. [How would you even do that?]

“Just activate it again, and I’ll show you all the… flaws I can find. If nothing else, the extreme waste of Qi could be mitigated.”

His words seemed reasonable, so I readily agreed. My Nascent Qi began to move, empowering my cells, and in less than a second, Elemental Avatar was active.

“Okay, now don’t panic, I’m going to take control over your body for a bit so I can better feel how it works.”

[Don’t even think about trying anything funny, or I’ll destroy you.] I warned him. The sweet promises of power didn’t matter to me one bit. If he tried to betray me, I would consume his Soul with no hesitation.

“Relax! I’m not that stupid. Now let me…”

I relinquished control over my body and just observed. I shuddered a bit when the old ghost took the reigns. It felt weird how my limbs moved without my input.

“Wow, this feels fantastic! Man, this is so much better than that kid’s scrawny body.” It was so weird hearing myself speak when I wasn’t the one giving orders.

I… He jumped around a bit, did a short run, and then jumped at one of the massive Ironbark trees and gripped the bark. He then climbed up like a squirrel until he reached the first branch and sat on top of it.

“How did you manage to get so strong so quickly? This is crazy. It’s like you were at Nascent Soul Realm for a few years at least!”

He then did a backflip from the branch and landed on his feet after a 10-meter freefall. I could feel my legs sink into the soil from the force of impact, but he remained standing.

[Stop messing around and get to work.]

“Right, sorry. You have just such a fantastic body, I’m jealous.” After saying that, he stopped playing around and seriously focused on the Elemental Avatar that was still automatically running.

The process was slow as he pulled and pushed my Qi around for nearly an hour, sometimes making things better, other times worse. Eventually, we changed back.

“Phew, that was exhausting! But it should be working better if you do it as I showed it to you.”

I took back my body and circulated my Qi according to what Long Dong considered to be the more optimal path. And indeed, the difference was quite sharp. My abilities increased by another 25% or so, and the drain lessened by nearly 50%. That’s just what centuries of experience could do. It was the first time he saw the technique, and yet he was able to improve it so much. It felt way more like a single piece rather than four of them glued together like before. I was impressed.

There was no doubt he could improve it further if he was allowed to tinker and optimize it on a longer timescale, but I didn’t like handing my body over to some perverted old Soul, and besides, I was already satisfied with what I got.