In Kang's dimly lit carving room, Hartley sat across the wooden table from Kang holding a steaming cup of green tea, Kang held a cup of milk, swirling it around like a wine-connoisseur before sipping the white liquid with a childish satisfaction evident on his face.
Hartly couldn't help but gaze at the view out the window as he sipped his tea and admired the silhouette of the pristine and serene estate, even in the darkness, Kan's estate looked perfect without a single tree out of place.
As he gulped down another mouth full of the sugarless tea, his mind wandered back to his experience of traveling with Kang through the spatial crack, with Kang touching his shoulder and creating an invisible bubble that negated the forces of the spatial crack on his body, they were like leaves blown by the wind as they weightlessly moved forward for two brief seconds, silently stepping out of the spatial crack and emerging in Kang's office.
He noticed there wasn't the chaotic riot of dark energy roiling and writhing inside the spatial crack made by Kang, the mesh-like tunnel was stable like he'd never seen before, he could barely pick out an obvious flaw, he imprinted the impressive image in his mind as something to aspire for.
"You've made massive improvements since last time."
Kang broke the silence as two candles sat at opposite ends of the wooden table ejected wedges of yellow light that danced rhythmically pushing back the shadows across the room exposing a few of the trophy carvings in Kang's cabinet.
"Thanks to your guidance pointing me in the right direction ." Hartley replied.
The white hair man laughed, then sighed. Switching from one emotion to another in a split second like a roller coaster ride.
"It's nothing to do with me, I think you are even more talented than my brother, you were going to figure those things out with or without me I'm sure."
Kang could still not believe how much the handsome youth had improved in a matter of a month or two.
Being able to use spatial cracks to travel long distances was a monumental achievement for any cultivator, usually it signified that one had stepped into the 9th layer of the xiantian realm and was on their way to being a fully fledged saint.
Before Hartley could say anything else Kang changed the subject.
"Tell me what happened while traveling through the spatial cracks"
Hartley recounted his experiences in the spatial cracks to Kang, obviously leaving out the parts about his time domain, the white hair man smiled, then placed his cup on the table. he then leaned forward with a quizzical look on his face.
"You've got tremendous strength to be able to do what you did, but strength is not always the most suitable solution, most times a little finesse will take you much farther, why aren't using your elemental power to assist you? Why are you always taking the battering ram approach?"
Kang took another sip of the white liquid swirling in his cup and placed the cup on the table again while Hartley had a sheepish embarrassed look, he wanted to slap his palm against his forehead, how could he not of thought of that..
After that awkward pause, Kang then continued, "The closer you are to the Saint realm, the more important it is to find ways to gain maximum output from minimal effort.
The more forceful you are, the more dark energy will be created in an attempt to counteract your actions. It's a natural law as the plane will always seek to close spatial cracks and restore balance to the fabric of space as soon as possible.
Suddenly there were green lights swirling around Kang's fist in a weird pattern, he pushed his fist gently forward and with a dull glow, his fist disappeared into the fabric of space without any disturbances or sounds, then reappeared in front of Hartley's shocked face stopping an inch from making contact.
"With practice and a little skill you can open spatial cracks without the black energy running too rampant."
Kang retracted his fist, the candle light fluttered back and forth making the shadows dance over the walls and furniture. Kang smiled as he finished with another of his trademarked demonstrations.
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"You're using pure brute force to shatter the fabric of space and causing the dark energy to behave in an unstable and erratic manner creating an almighty ruckus in the process.
You won't be sneaking up on anyone any time soon with that technique, try using a variation of the spiral circulation technique to slice through space instead of forcefully shattering it." That should instantly improve your efficiency.
He winked at Hartley and giggled, "that's the finesse part and once you get the hang of it, you can glide through a spatial crack with the least amount of resistance."
Kang then went on to explain the intricacies of traveling in a spatial crack with Hartley rapt at attention.
"The stronger you are and the more efficiently you can travel through a spatial crack, decreases the ratio of distance in the crack compared to the outside world.
The default ratio of a spacial crack is one to two.
Meaning for every one meter you travel in the spacial crack equates to two meters in the outside world.
This efficiency rises naturally with one's strength, but once you increase your efficiency traveling in the spatial crack, the distance traveled in the outside world increases even if your strength doesn't, from what you have described I would assume your are traveling at a ratio of one to two, this is the worst efficiency possible and you'll be fighting the dark energy every step of your journey."
Kang took a sip of his milk while giving Harley a mocking look, the same look Hartley gave Qin Li whenever they sparred.
" But if you increase your strength enough and learn to travel efficiently through the crack, you can in theory travel thousands of kilometers with only a single step through a spacial crack....."
A question popped into Hartley's mind and he asked it without reservations. "Can anyone control dark energy?"
Kan paused, he made a quick gesture with his right hand as if drawing a letter in the air, the symbol that took shape a second later looked like a Chinese letter, it turned into a bright white sphere and illuminated the whole room as it floated towards the ceiling, then stopped and hovered.
Hartley was slack jawed watching it.He had never seen or heard about anything like this before.
"My brother once went to the barren lands in the east, when he came back he told me of an ancient beast-men tribe who weren't born with any elemental affinity, instead they used something called Spell-weaving to control all elements, it's possible they can even control the dark energy, though I don't know for sure."
"That," Kang pointed at the bright source of light floating below the ceiling, "is a simple light rune from spell-weaving, my brother taught me it along with the wind runes imprinted on the carriage I gifted you."
Kang waved his hand and the light disappeared returning the room to being dimly lit by candles which left the room dark and gloomy compared to the impressive light rune.
"The secret details of my brother's adventure, I will share with you when you have enough strength." Kang concluded with a clap of his hand.
The conversation went on as Kang imparted more technical knowledge to Hartley. A while later the conversation ended and Hartley bid his farewells to Kang.
After leaving Kang's estate the night was still dark, the sky had a crescent moon sitting high and the cool autumn breeze brushed against his face.
Hartley couldn't stop thinking about Spell-weaving, the concept of controlling and manipulating an element that you haven't cultivated from birth blew his mind and not just one, all!
The possibilities and uses for a power like that seemed endless, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and stretched his awareness to its maximum of three kilometers and made his way into a secluded forested area where there were no fierce beasts lurking.
He climbed up a tree, sat cross legged and entered his inner world...
Fifteen minutes later his eyes flicked open with a flash of blue, he jumped down and landed in a patch of grass soaked in night-dew, he crouched in the posture he used to rip open the fabric of space and stepped forward.
A thin sparkling ice-blue layer of mist covered his body and rotated around him like storm clouds, making his silhouette indistinct and hazy under the dim light of the crescent moon, as his right foot touched the ground, rivulets of clear sparkling dew pooled into droplets as big as a bean and floated half meter around his body.
With a dull blue glow and a gentle whooshing sound Hartley melted away leaving an empty space with a deep footprint and swirling leaves...
This time when he entered the spatial crack he didn't immediately engage his time domain, the mesh like tunnel seem calm and tranquil compared to before, it was nowhere near as stable as Kang's but there were no riot of dark colors writhing and roiling in chaos.
Kang had thought Hartley was just smashing forward through a crude spatial crack with just strength but the truth was that Hartley wouldn't be able to move 100 meters in his former space crack without his time domain but now the exertion on his body was less than a half of what it used to be, it was still painful but actually bearable for a while.
Hartley's mouth curved into a smile...
Moving at a ratio of one to four, Hartley flew pass the Papine province like a shooting star over the horizon and had to stop multiple times and re-calibrate his bearings to make sure he didn't overshoot the capital.
He felt a sense of freedom he hadn't felt before, it was like the country of Aidonia was a door that had just been opened to him and nowhere was out of his reach..
Walking over a ridge Hartley stared out at the flat lands stretching towards the green mountains, he walked slowly towards a half built manor with a bear embroidered in white on a black flag that fluttered in the breeze, the sky turned to a light blue color signifying the coming of a new dawn.