“You picked a really bad time to come here.” Captain Tarazi’s voice startled Alex from his thoughts, “He’s been showing off like that for half a month – passersby tripping, servants dropping things … he enjoys being a saint, you know.”

Apparently captain arrived while Alex was blinded in case he needed to split up the fight.

“Bad luck.” Alex shrugged. His fists itched to kick Robert’s ass, but outwardly he looked completely calm. He said, “Do you have a minute?”

“No! I’m hungry!” Captain said and turned around to leave.

But Alex said, “That’s great, me too! I’ll buy!”

The offer surprised the captain and while he tried to figure out if he should accept it, Alex said, “Just think of it as me showing my gratitude for your teachings, no need to complicate things.”

“Fine!” Captain said with a wide grin, “But I eat a lot!”

“I wouldn’t suspect otherwise!” Alex laughed back.

They left by the back entrance to not give Robert more opportunities to cause trouble. In fact, captain complained that the young prick was getting more and more out of hand. Recently he even began to order captain around as if he was Robert’s subordinate.

When Alex asked why captain didn’t simply knock out few teeth during the combat training to calm the boy down a little, captain sighed and said it was too late. From the moment Robert opened his trikuta, he actually outranked a mere captain.

“Does that mean he can run around and do what he wants?” Alex wrinkled his nose in displeasure.

While he was not the best example of a law abiding citizen, he never made things difficult for others to amuse himself.

“As long as he doesn’t openly rape someone or start spouting profanities about the emperor, he’s basically untouchable.” Captain Tarazi shrugged, “All saints are.”

“F*ck my life!” Alex cursed and captain looked at him in surprise. It was weird to hear a kid curse so comfortably, “That means I’ll have to avoid him from now on.”

“You should’ve done so from the start.” Captain laughed back.

“No worries, I’m leaving tomorrow.” Alex said, “To talk to you one more time was my last objective in Haldenburg.”

Apparently captain was seriously famished only eating food from the canteen. Alex almost began to worry if he’ll have enough money seeing captain order different roasts one after another.

“So, why did you come to look for me?” Captain asked with full mouth while digging in the appetizers not even sparing a glance at Alex.

The conversation on the way here lifted the mood for both and neither cared for any formalities. Captain felt somewhat awkward in the beginning to speak to a kid like he was his pier, but quickly got used to it, especially since that kid was buying.

“First of all, to say goodbye.” Alex said slowly chewing on his chicken. His eating habits were a complete opposite compared to the captain, “But I need your advice on the branding.”

“Again?” Captain raised his eyes in surprise, “What else? Just practice!”

“That part is clear.” Alex nodded, “But after I managed to sense my own soul particle, I went to …”

“What?!” Captain almost shouted in shock spitting saliva all over including Alex’s face, “You already … You little f*cker! Do you know how old I was when I sensed my first soul particle? Fourteen! And I was considered a genius!”

They stared for a moment at each other and Alex was not sure what to say, but then the captain sighed and dug back in. This time the roast that was just brought suffered, “No wonder you’re his kid. Phil would’ve been proud.”

“I actually wanted to ask about the Qi brand on his sword.” Alex said without getting sentimental, “Does the brand on objects need to be a copy of the soul brand we create?”

“Nope.” Captain shook his head, “But it has to be of a similar pattern for them to resonate. You’ll see when you start experimenting.”

“Oh, so, for example, if my soul brand is a circle with a square in it, it would resonate with a Qi brands I create that look like a circle or a square, correct?” Alex asked.

“Mhm. More or less.” Captain nodded, but then looked Alex deep in the eyes, “Did you manage to figure out what your father’s brand was like?”

Alex stared back at him in surprise, “What do you mean? Wasn’t it obvious?”

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Captain froze for a second, but then pushed his almost empty plate away and burped, “You little troublemaker … first you buy me a meal and then you make me loose my appetite! I hate to waste food, you know?”

Alex kept closely staring back at the captain, who sighed and continued, “Your father’s brand was too difficult to decipher. Probably … I mean … the emperor definitely could, but he has no time to fool around. Phil’s monstrous brand was also the reason why our saints could only slow him down and not control his mind.”

“I thought he just killed them while being mind controlled.” Alex said surprised.

“A saint can’t fully control someone if they can not remove the soul brand. They can make the person feel sluggish, dizzy, uncomfortable, but not control their mind. Not even close to what Robert did to you at the gate even though that was a child’s play.” Seeing Alex’s expression change, captain added, “You shouldn’t be disappointed, your father’s skills were remarkable.”

“I don’t care about that.” Alex waved the captain off, “I’m pissed I’ll have to spend half of my life to create a passable soul brand after seeing his. I’m worried I won’t have time for anything else.”

“Nah, with your talent you’ll be fine.” Captain mimicked Alex’s earlier gesture, “Just practice. Remember, you asked me about the density of the soul particles? Think of it like this – their density depend on the distance you look from – just like the trees in the forest – the closer you come, the further apart they are.”

Alex thought for a bit and said, “That means I need to dramatically increase the amount of my own Qi, don’t I? To increase the size of its flow so I can, so to say, look from a further distance?”

“Indeed, you think in the right direction.” Captain nodded, “But it’s mostly work of trial and error. Our souls are mysterious and it’s really hard to explain everything – just go by the feel. My advice is – don’t rush with branding your soul. Try to see what form the soul particles naturally form and depending on that create the brand. Not only will it be easier, your brand will be much stronger as well.”

Alex nodded in understanding.

“I have one last question.” He said, “Can someone change their own soul brand later? Like, after several years?”

Captain stared back at him for a moment and then said, “You’re not talking about yourself, aren’t you? For a kid you have too much patience and will create a proper brand from the start ... you’re talking about your old man!”

Then he laughed and continued, “As I said, souls are mysterious. I don’t think I can change my brand, but a genius like your father ... maybe he could. Ok, what will it take for you to tell me what his brand exactly looked like? Saint Wazir spent months trying to solve it, but gave up at the end.”

“You won’t believe me.” Alex said with a sigh.

“Try me!” Captain grinned back.

Alex looked at him and then said, “My mother. My father’s brand was my mother’s face. Although I don’t understand why no one could see it. When I infused my Qi into his sword, it lit up like a picture, not a compilation of nodes. I also don’t understand why the Qi brand on his sword hasn’t dissipated for so long.”

They sat in silence for quite some time each thinking their own thing. Alex was somewhere between reminiscing and planning his future cultivation, while captain tried to picture Phil’s brand in his mind.

“I have no clue how your father did it, but in the end I’m just a soldier.” Captain finally said, “Things regarding such advanced techniques are out of my grasp. You might want to try learning more in Tabulan. Emperor has an academy there for the most promising talents of the empire – you can try to get in. Although, that little f*cker will be sent there in a month or two, so you might want to avoid the capital at all costs.”

“Mhm.” Alex nodded, “The world is vast and there are other countries as well.”

“To learn cultivation? On this continent? No.” Captain shook his head.

‘Then another continent … or another life!’ Alex laughed to himself. His perspective of the world’s vastness greatly differed from captain’s.

Luckily captain didn’t order alcohol, and even though Alex’s coin purse afterwards was almost empty, he was able to pay the bill. They said goodbyes at the restaurant and both left in a good mood.

Their conversation was not that long, but Alex gained a lot. Qi techniques, soul particles, father’s abilities and his own future – he had a lot to think about.

Obviously the concept of the soul particles was the ‘big discovery’ of this life, but did they have anything to do with the actual soul? Or do the living entities even possess souls? One thing Alex was confident of – the consciousness they had was definitely transferable from one life to the next, but was it the same thing as the soul? And could it really be formed by soul particles? In that case, if he altered the position of the soul particles, would it influence him, his being and the future lives?

But thinking of these things only gave him headache and Alex decided to leave it be for now.

Alex turned towards the harbor. Since the current winter was uncharacteristically warm, the delta of river Melbe didn’t freeze over and he had a plan to leave Haldenburg by sea. Few days ago a huge merchant ship from Sarani kingdom of the Halil continent docked with its size overshadowing any other vessel in the harbor and the whole city got busy trading with the foreign merchants.

At first Alex intended to sneak on any other ship going south and leave Haldenburg without a trace. But he couldn’t really go to Tabulan anymore, therefore there was no reason to stay in the Armedinian empire at all. And since the huge ship was practically acting like a bright beacon in the night, Alex gladly accepted its invitation. The perspective of visiting another country didn’t seem that bad and he could use a month of sailing to clear his head and cultivate in peace.

The headache was becoming worse and only after few minutes Alex realized someone has been playing with him – he never got sick since he began cultivating Qi few lifetimes ago, to not speak about getting a headache!

‘That little f*cker!’ Alex cursed to himself, ‘I can’t let my guard down even for a second, huh? Let’s teach you some manners before I leave – we won’t see each other in our lives anyway so it’s my duty to make sure you grow up to be a valuable member of society!’

Alex changed his direction and walked into a less crowded street, but his steps were sluggish and he kept groaning as if being in great pain while trying to suppress it. After stopping for few seconds in the middle of a road he staggered in an alley and leaned on a building wall, heavily panting.

He didn’t have to wait for long. Few seconds later he heard hurried footsteps and someone shouted, “He’s here!”

Alex recognized the voice of one boys from the class, but continued to patiently act and after another moment few more people arrived.

‘Thank you, Phil!’ Alex smiled to himself.