For the first time ever since he had taken up, albeit a bit unwillingly, the role of Spirit of the Mountain… Cheng Hao finally felt as if it was worth it! After all, while the blessing he had received may have looked extremely useful at first, he had soon found out about many of its shortcomings…
‘Will of the Sovereign.’
The strength to be above anybody else! The ability to be superior, to look down upon others! The power of a sovereign!
Will of the Sovereign was such an ability… it allowed the user to freely change one’s own or others’ cultivations by controlling the amount, density and quality of the spiritual energy in one’s surroundings!
Whether this meant increasing one’s cultivation beyond measure, or lower one’s opponent’s strength so much they would turn back into mere mortals, one would be able to do either of them! Cheng Hao, through this heaven-defying ability, could basically control the flow of Spiritual Energy at will!
This was also how he had managed to make a pathway through the spatial rifts back when he was attempting to save Xu Ling: he had bended the world’s spiritual energy so that he could build a bridge to pass through the void.
A divine ability, sure, but the Heavens blindly blessed nobody. Everything was impartial, in a way or another. Such was a hidden law of the universe which applied even in the most random activities: there would be light in the greatest darkness and darkness in the brightest light.
And, just as it was powerful and apparently almighty, Will of the Sovereign had just as many shortcomings!
For example, the enormous strain that it put on the wielder’s mind was such that if Cheng Hao had tried the previously mentioned feats with his true body, one that barely touched upon the Sung stage, his mind would have shattered and his consciousness would have crumbled!
Without the support of a powerful cultivation base, the strain the ability imposed on the user’s mind was enough to shatter the consciousness! Cheng Hao was no exception: best-case scenario he would go in a comatose state as soon as he attempted to activate the ability!
And that was even with the two lives he had gone through!
During his former life as Xu Ling, he had been a one-man army, fighting huge hordes of enemies much stronger than him. His mind would constantly be pushed to its limit with each battle, struggling every instant to find a way to survive against the most unfair of odds.
After countless years of fighting with his life on the line, it had come to a point his mind was on a whole other level compared to that of his peers! His will had grown sharper than a sword, his knowledge when it came to battle was the most unparalleled spear under the heavens, and his determination had become even more durable than the sturdiest of shields!
And yet, even with such a powerful mentality, the required processing power to even solely activate the technique would make that god-like mind of his crumble away, like dust in the midst of a powerful hurricane…
Cheng Hao had made a few calculation and had come to the conclusion that, if he Will of the Sovereign were to be activated without a cultivation base higher than the Ageless Realm, he would die, without a doubt. Only the Immortal Realm seemed to hold a chance to use this heaven-defying ability, albeit still with some repercussions.
He also could not increase his cultivation indefinitely to increase the amount of pressure his mind could bear. This was because, first of all, the requirement to simply activate the technique was too high, and, secondly, such pressure would increase the more the Spiritual Energy he moved… such amount would always be slightly higher than the allowed amount. That was, of course, if he wanted himself to have no future repercussions.
He was like a god, cursed to carry the weight of the world he created on his own shoulder: the more he created, the more the weight he would have to hold up!
In fact, if one was to look at it more closely, he would realize that the Will Of The Sovereign was much more of a glass cannon than Sunder The Immortal. However, unlike its counterpart, the former glass cannon had cannonballs made of diamonds!
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That’s because, while Sunder The Immortal didn’t require a high cultivation and could be used more freely, it also had a few holes that greatly decreased its utility.
The most evident was that, unlike Will Of The Sovereign, it required some time to activate. The summoning of the symbol for Immortal and the cleaving of said symbol were motions that could not be sped up, otherwise the technique would be cancelled.
Also, as it was effectively an ability that targeted a certain area the wielder had to point, this left space for somebody to attack from behind. It was indeed a useful technique, yes… but only when it came to slay lone opponents!
Effectively speaking, amongst Sunder The Immortal and Will Of The Sovereign, the former would be overpowered early on and, from that point onwards, it would only show its use occasionally when up against few opponent while having someone as a support to bide time for the technique to activate.
On the other hand, Will of the Sovereign would only show its use in the late stages of the path towards immortality, but it had no such restrictions such as an activation time or a small attacking area.
If Cheng Hao were to choose, he would without a doubt pick the latter. After all, Sunder the Immortal didn’t seem to show much of a use later on when compared to Will of the Sovereign, and he had no plans to stop anytime soon!
And, speaking of going far, what did Cheng Hao also just find out? That within his body was the chance to gain a source of almost infinite power!
This, apparently, would be partially granted to him in the future as he felt his body had yet to undergo any changes… he took a moment to reorganize the newfound information with what he had gathered before.
However, he would only ask for a confirmation to his hypotheses later. He had too many questions about the current line of thought this ‘Senior’ of his was guiding him through, and he feared he would lose important pieces of information by straying from such a path.
…
As she silently gazed at the pondering boy, the girl did not mind the wait at all. In fact, she closed her eyes and began to rest herself. After all, she was battling the laws of the universe itself by keeping herself alive even after death! However, she had no intention of dying, until she completed her task! After all, what was currently happening, was mostly her fault… she sighed and contemplated, her eyelids shut tight and the room falling into a prolonged silence.
Only after a long while did the two finally open their eyes again, only to find themselves gazing into each other’s fiery orbs. The two, both inhabiting the body of another, keepers of secrets that should never be revealed, and carrying the burdens of the world on their backs, both smiled bitterly before nodding resolutely.
The two pairs of eyes, one golden, one crimson, met each other and, after a short exchange, both seemed eager to continue the lesson, whether be it the teacher, or the student.
Cheng Hao bowed his head slightly:
“I’m sorry for the wait. Please, do continue!”
Xu Ling smiled and nodded. She waved her hand and the bright screen once more appeared in front of her.
“What I just told you, is what countless generations of spirits have been able to gather about the very source of our power… of course, that is if our understanding of the Mountain itself is actually correct. Apart from the very first Spirit, as far as I know, nobody has ever had any direct contact with this so-called Mountain.”
The girl paused for a while. She looked at the large symbol and the many stick figures that were badly drawn on top of the screen. She passed her hand on top of them, wiping the figures away.
“The process to awaken the incredible power I mentioned before, we refer to as Awakening. We awaken the new Spirit while the old one ‘falls into slumber’.”
Cheng Hao widened his eyes as countless interpretations of the word slumber flashed across his mind.
Noticing that, Xu Ling chuckled and shook her head:
“No need to worry, it’s not as drastic as you might thing! Falling into slumber simply means the Spirit effectively loses his status as the current Soul of the Mountain. After all, there can be one, and one Spirit only. However, they still retain the blessing, or dogma if you prefer, the Mountain has gifted them.”
“I myself, at the moment, am barely able to remain in this world only because of the combination of my dogma and the protection of the Mountain... if I had not been an illusion, that is.” the girl gloomily grew silent.
Although he felt bad for the ‘young girl’, Cheng Hao still couldn’t help but cringe at the badly drawn figures. After all, his calligraphy and handicraft skills had always been top-notch for some reason, so he couldn’t help but unconsciously look down upon this seemingly almighty being that couldn’t even draw a human figure correctly.
However, he still listened intently, unwilling to lose even a single word that left the girl’s lips. Up until the last point, he had understood everything. Basically, it was like reincarnation, except the only thing that was passed on was power, knowledge... and part of the key to lift the limit imposed on the source of incredible power.
However, despite many questions had also been answered thanks to the short dialogue, even more had been given birth from the exchange.
For example, and this had been bugging him for a long while… what was the difference between a Spirit of the Mountain holding that role and one that had already retired?