Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 10. The Limits of an Aspect.

“That’s the Dragon’s Claw!” the thousands spectating disciples immediately recognized the technique Tin’Long employed right off the bat. Seeing the three blood-red claws forming along the longsword’s slash, they all held their breaths; it was one thing for Laien to have blocked Xuizu’s purely physical attacks, but defending against Tin’Long’s all-out assault was on an entirely different scale…!

Even most of the Elders who were watching assumed that Tin’Long went overboard and planned to have Rudford stop him at the last second. However, as they noticed their Great Master simply standing at the side and not moving, they gasped and hurriedly returned their attention to the duel. Could it be that Rudford expected this ten-year-old kid to actually survive an attack which would be enough to kill a weaker martial master of the first rank straight out…?

Laien smiled slightly, the sight of the Qi-clad longsword and the two claws following at its both sides causing shivers to run down his spine. Were it not for the fact that he was familiar with the Dragon’s Claw technique due to all his sparrings with Cran, he might have panicked a little. Instead, while keeping his calm, he raised his forearm and turned his body to face Cran with his side. He gathered a portion of his spiritual energy and formed a barrier of water, filling it thoroughly with the essence of the Aspect of Tranquility.

The next split second, Tin’Long’s attack feel and clashed against Laien’s guard, at the same time rising up a large cloud of dust.

“Quite impressive,” the white-robed Grand Elder Roderick said approvingly and exchanged a brief glance with Rudford. He had some questions he would have liked to ask this old friend of his, but now was not the time for it; the duel between these two youths was only beginning.

Although Rudford, Roderick and most of the Elders kept their calm, the very majority of those gathered at the plains wondered if that black-haired youth hadn’t been cut into pieces by Tin’Long’s attack. Yet, when they saw the blurry figure of the eighteen-year-old strike with his left hand and when they head a dull sound of the blow being blocked, they instantly began feeling astonished. Apparently, Laien was still hanging on…!

Unfazed by Laien’s sturdy defense, Tin’Long relaxed his left arm and allowed it to slide along the surface of the water. He spun his body to the right and swept with his blood-red scaly tail. He smirked, feeling that this blow of his had also been blocked in an identical way by Laien’s water barrier.

“Let’s see how long you can hold out!” Tin’Long shouted in his mind and using the momentum of his previous tail swipe, stabilized his footing and slashed horizontally with his longsword. The blade struck the water and was stopped, but instead of trying to follow up with another slash, he applied more force to his longsword and once again made a slight change to his footing, then pushed himself away and spun his body to the left, smashing at Laien with his draconic tail one more time.

Another dull sound spread through the area as Tin’Long’s tail met the barrier created by Laien and a split second after, Tin’Long slashed with his longsword; he then punched out straight with his left hand, using this time to raise his long blade up into the air and quickly strike down with it.

Slash of the longsword, blow of his fist, a swipe of his draconic tail. Despite each attack being blocked, Tin’Long attacked relentlessly combining the seemingly simple movements into an unending barrage of deadly attacks. The Elders watched with approval; Rudford and Roderick had smiles on their faces; the thousands of disciples were crying out in shock, terrified to find out the extent of Tin’Long’s power. However… they were even more flabbergasted to see that despite the unending offensive of Tin’Long’s, the black-haired ten-year-old was still holding his ground…!

Yes, all he was doing was defending; he was totally unable to fight back. However! How many of the six thousands of them could confidently say that they wouldn’t be turned into mincemeat by Tin’Long in just a few exchanges? With the exception of the Core Disciples, no more than three people could claim to be on Tin’Long’s level and it was before he revealed his recent surge in battle prowess!

“This is bad,” Laien thought bitterly, his throat clenching tightly as he meticulously continued to put up barriers in the exact spots Tin’Long was aiming for. “I can somehow keep up with the defense, but I can’t sense the flow of his Qi at all. There’s too much of it…!” Laien grit his teeth, realizing that previously, he had been able to predict Cran’s sudden attack only because Cran used a minuscule amount of his Qi. When his opponent was fighting with all his strength, it was virtually impossible to use his spiritual sense, if it even was that, to accurately predict his movements.

“I guess there’s only one option left before I run out of strength…” Laien mused, cold sweat running down his back. He was indeed capable of blocking Tin’Long’s attacks with his magic, but he could tell how frightening powerful each and every blow was. One blunder would mean that at best, he would sustain heavy injuries and at worst, straight up die.

Of course, Rudford wouldn’t actually allow something like this to happen… but amidst the heated battle, Laien didn’t have the clarity of mind to realize that. Moreover, he couldn’t bring himself to believe that Rudford would be fast enough to step in when he was always putting his defense from ten to fifteen centimeters from his body as to make the Guardian magic more effective. In such a short amount of time… who in the would be able to stop a sword or a tail swipe?

Standing with Cran and all the Elders, Siana watched how Laien was being pounded upon with a rigid expression on her face. She was really worried about Laien, but she suppressed her nervousness and observed wordlessly, unconsciously paying more attention to Tin’Long’s movements that to Laien’s Laien’s steadily appearing guards of water.

Siana didn’t quite realize it yet… but she was absorbing it; the way to handle the longsword, the proper use of one’s whole body, the sublime footwork. She was learning all of it at a truly abnormal pace just be observing Tin’Long for the space of a few breaths’ time! She truly had an unparalleled talent for martial arts, one going way beyond Laien’s, Tin’Long’s or Cran’s. Given enough time to hone her skills, she would undoubtedly rise to a great fame in not only the Sarkcente Kingdom but in the entire south!

“Now!” Laien decided instantly, having just blocked a swipe of Tin’Long’s blood-red draconic tail. He jumped back and guarded against the consequent slash of Tin’Long’s longsword, making use of the eighteen-year-old's habit to follow-up his tail swipe with a horizontal slash of his blade.

“Gained some distance,” Laien smiled a little, feeling quite hopeless that the difference in strength between him and Tin’Long was so huge that he needed to ‘find an opportunity’ to put a four, five meters distance between himself and Tin’Long. After all, if not for the slight delay due to the wide slash Tin’Long has just made, he would have following him effortlessly and continued to barrage him with quick and powerful series of attacks.

Concentrating, Laien pulled out all that was left of his spiritual energy; all in all about a third of his full capacity. He wanted to hurry up and release it as he could see Tin’Long kicking the ground and chasing after him, but this time he needed just a little longer to pull off what he wanted to try doing.

When Tin’Long took a swing and slashed at Laien, Rudford’s muscles twitched slightly. However, when he noticed the look in Laien’s eyes, he changed his mind and chose not to step in yet. “The boy is obviously planning something, let’s see what his trump card is,” he thought with a smile, wondering if Laien has any way of breaking past the protection of the fifth level of Tin’Long’s Dragon’s Body Art.

As the longsword neared his chest, Laien finally released all the spiritual energy he had been gathering and in an instant, congregated it into a large mass of water. He stepped back sharply and at the same time, controlled the mass to engulf and restrict Tin’Long’s whole body. Consequently, the longsword missed him by a few centimeters, proving that the idea wasn’t a bad one and that indeed, Tin’Long has gotten much slower.

Being suddenly enveloped by a mass of water, Tin’Long actually felt a hint of fear. He could only hold his breath and strengthen the Dragon’s Body Art to its limits, hoping that no liquid would be able to get through it. He could feel how the water pressed onto every inch of his body and could tell how much the pressure alone was slowing him down. He couldn’t help but recall all the blows of his which Laien blocked and thus, ended up imagining what would happen to him if this water forced its way into his nose, eyes and ears… only to burst from inside him. The prospect of being imploded truly gave him quite a fright.

“If it wasn’t a disciple of our school,” the Grand Elder spoke up amidst the rumor the six thousand spectators raised at the sight of Tin’Long being covered whole by Laien’s water, directing his words to Rudford. “An attack like this would be quite frightening. However…” he sighed, but nevertheless looked at Laien with growing approval. For a ten-year-old fighting an eighteen-year-old, his performance was exquisite.

“It still made this disciple of ours panic a little, though,” Rudford added with a laugh, taking note of the extremely stressed expression on Tin’Long’s face.

“Why isn’t he retreating?” the question surfaced in Tin’Long’s mind as he struggled with all his might. He knew little about spiritual practitioners, so of course, he wasn’t aware that the Guardian was effective only in the range of a few meters from its caster, but the lack of knowledge didn’t prevent him from attempting to slash at Laien with his longsword. At first, his movements were quite crude and his attacks must have looked quite pitiful to the onlookers, but the attacks of his soon got faster and stronger as the pressure of the water began gradually weakening.

“Uf,” Tin’Long sighed in his heart, relieved that Laien’s attempt failed. He needed to admit, it was a scary magic, but thankfully the Body Strengthening Art of the Red Dragon School was a perfect counter to it. “Time to finish him off,” he thought, even going as far as considering how to knock Laien out in a gentler manner, as to not injure him too much.

However, at that exact moment that he let his guard down and relaxed, the pressure of the water engulfing him suddenly became three or four times stronger in the blink of an eye. “Shit!” Tin’Long roused his Qi to its utmost once more, his heart skipping a beat due to the fright he had been given.

Not even half a second later, the water all over Tin’Long exploded spectacularly, the many tiny drops of water shining beautifully in the rays of the afternoon sun.

“Thank Heavens,” Tin’Long breathed with relief, standing amidst the slowly dissipating drops of water. He would have expected them to stay and wet the ground, making him stay on guard… but apparently, magic worked just like this. When the source of energy was used up, whatever had been created also went and vanished without a trace.

Intending to continue, Tin’Long raised his longsword, but he was quickly met with Laien’s resigned smirk and a pair of raised hands.

“I give up,” Laien said and glanced at Rudford, waiting for him to announce the winner. He had used up all his spiritual energy and at the moment, had a slight headache. There was nothing else he wanted more than to sit down and meditate for at least half an hour to get rid of this dull pain in his head.

“Tin’Long wins,” Rudford announced simply, his calm voice rolling through the plains with the aid of his Qi.

The spectators were in a bit of a peril as to how to react. Of course, they all gasped when Tin’Long appeared to be in pinch, but now that their fellow disciple won, they didn’t feel like cheering. This result was the one they expected and to be honest, after the tree fighting Laien took part in, many of them were feeling bad for ridiculing and laughing at him before. To now cheer and say ‘good fight’… somehow seemed improper to them.

Tin’Long himself understood it too; there was little honor in this victory of his. He, an adult man had bested a child. There was nothing glorious or amazing about it. On the contrary, it was pretty shameful that this very child was strong enough to scare him out of his shoes, even if only for a second or two. However, he had been adamant about fighting Laien for a reason and now that the duel between them was over, he intended to go through with it.

“You really are strong,” Tin’Long said, purposely enhancing his voice with his Qi so that everyone could head him. He released the Dragon’s Body Art and put his longsword back into the interspatial ring, then approached Laien with a smile. “That girl over there, she’s your sister, right? The one with the Red Dragon Sword at her waist,” he more stated the fact than asked, his words causing all the six thousand gazes to fall on Siana.

The Red Dragon Sword? So the roar they all had heard was…? The thousands of disciples and the Elders who hadn’t noticed the Red Dragon Sword beforehand began connecting the dots. Laien begin an honored guest of their School, the Great Master Rudford making a personal appearance and acting as a judge for him; it all began making sense if one was to consider Laien’s little sister being chosen by the Red Dragon Sword as its wielder. The conclusions reached by the Elders went even further, as many of them began - rightly so - wondering if the Great Master Rudford hadn’t taken Siana as her personal disciple and because of that, acted amiably towards her older brother.

“So, you took her as a disciple, Rudford?” the Grand Elder asked straightforwardly, aware that the explicit reason his old friend refused to take any disciples sounded more or less like ‘I won’t be wasting the time I could spend on training on people with worse talent than mine.’. It might have sounded quite harsh, but considering that Rudford’s ambition was to exceed any expert in the annals of history, it was quite a reasonable stance to take.

“I have,” Rudford confirmed, his statement making the fields literally erupt with roars of disbelief and excitement. For the time being, the whole attention has shifted from Laien and Tin’Long to Siana, who in turn was quite troubled by it and despite trying her best to stay calm and composed, began blushing a little.

Tin’Long chuckled, glancing back at Laien who had been staring at him questioningly for the past few seconds. He waited for the clamor to die down a little and for everyone to exchange a few sentences with their friends before he spoke up again. “I trust you will be staying at our Red Dragon School often?” he asked, directing the attention of the masses back to him and Laien.

“I guess so?” Laien responded uncertainly, not having thought about that yet. Siana would surely spend most of her time here; he wouldn’t be surprised if she was provided with her own place to live either, so he would probably spend most of his time here, too.

“Then, since we’ve already become familiar as fellow practitioners,” Tin’Long began saying with a confident smile and took two steps forward, then extended his hand to Laien. “How about becoming friends? I would love to fight with you again when you get stronger,” he offered with honest, pure intentions. Becoming friends with Laien would be of benefit to him and since he actually liked Laien’s somewhat arrogant, straightforward attitude the friendship of theirs wouldn’t be superficial, either. As for what it meant for Laien…

“He sure thought it out well,” Laien thought with a silent laugh, seeing and hearing how the various disciples reacted to Tin’Long’s words. They all had been unsure what to think about him, about this kid who appeared out of nowhere and demanded to fight duels during their tournament. However, just because Tin’Long reached out to him they all shifted their views and actually began looking at him as one of their own. If nothing else, that showed how well well-liked and respected Tin’Long was within the Red Dragon School.

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Well… the revelation of Siana becoming Rudford’s personal disciple certainly played a large role in the disciples warming up to him, too.

“Yeah, just wait, I’m going to beat you in a few years,” Laien said with a laugh and grabbed Tin’Long’s hand. He didn’t dislike straightforward people at all; he certainly preferred if someone approached him like Tin’Long did than if the person courted him over a period of time and slowly, steadily tried to become familiar with him.

“We’re going to see about that,” Tin’Long chuckled, not intending to allow Laien run past him that easily. Yet, in his heart, could somewhat tell that in the future, this black-haired kid with whom he was shaking hands right now would grow to be immensely powerful; much more so than he himself.

“Good, good,” the Grand Elder said merrily and began steadily clapping his hands. There was nothing else what pleased him more than seeing young, talented practitioners growing close together and setting out into a bright future. Naturally, he was greatly pleased to see Laien and Tin’Long behaving like upstanding young people.

Rudford chuckled and joined his old friend in applause, both of them, in turn, triggering a true wave of applause and cheering from the well over six thousand disciples. The roar was so breathtakingly loud that even the people passing by the Red Dragon School could vaguely hear it.

For Laien, to have found himself in the middle of it was quite pleasant indeed. His lingering guilt had also been quickly erased when the white-robed Grand Elder and Rudford turned around and both nodded at Siana, continuing to clasp their hands without pause. Siana herself appeared to be really happy because of that development, too.

“Tin’Long,” Rudford spoke up, causing the clamor to completely die out within mere seconds. “From today, you are a Core Disciple,” he announced briefly, recognizing that Tin’Long’s skill was more than enough to place him within the elites of his Red Dragon School.

“Thank you, Great Master Rudford,” Tin’Long lowered his head and bowed lightly, paying his respects and expressing his gratitude in a formal manner.

“Every Core Disciple needs a teacher,” the Grand Elder said with a smile and gave Tin’Long a meaningful glance. “How about it, do you want to become my disciple?” he asked, causing Tin’Long to nearly yell out in happiness.

“Yes!” Tin’Long replied immediately and bowed again. The Grand Elder Roderick occupied the second most important position within the Red Dragon School and was widely known for his ability to nourish young practitioners into powerful martial masters. He was also very devoted to teaching his favorite pupils; as the matter of fact, the two of his most recent disciples were here with him! Tin’Long simply couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to be gifted to him.

The crowd of disciples started cheering once again, congratulating Tin’Long his good luck birthed through the many years of hard training. They all knew that Tin’Long’s talent, although good, wasn’t at the level of a genius. For him to have gotten so strong was purely due to the extreme amount of effort he had put into training every day of the four years he had spent at the Red Dragon School! It was easy to resent people who grew successfully through their talent alone, but it was borderline impossible not to look up to somebody who did that through the means of relentless training.

“Looks like I will be staying here for the time being,” the Grand Elder said casually, exchanging a glance with Rudford. He had originally planned only to stay for a few days, but after finding so many interesting young people, he couldn’t resist spending some more time in Neil City.

“You are welcome,” Rudford said with a smile, already considering to later on ask Roderick if he wouldn’t be willing to teach a few things to Laien, too; that is, if the boy also joins the Red Dragon School, just like his little sister. Having Roderick around would also allow him not to waste too much time outside meditation, as this friend of his knew better than him how to handle students anyway.

“So loud,” Laien complained on the side, rubbing the temple of his head with one hand. He liked to show-off, but he wasn’t that fond of large crowds to begin with. Now that the fighting was suffering an annoying headache, he would have liked it best if he could walk away and recover… so, instead of being wishy-washy about it, he approached Rudford and asked.

“I’m feeling really tired, so may I excuse myself?”

Rudford raised his eyebrows just a little. At the first glance, Laien didn’t appear to be tired at all, but he then remembered that spiritual practitioners didn’t need to be physically exhausted to be ‘tired’. “Have Cran take you to my private quarters. There are empty training rooms you can use to rest for the time being. Also, tell my nephew and your sister that if they are done with sightseeing, I wish to have a talk with them,” he said calmly, speaking in a rather formal tone as per the habit he had developed over the past one hundred years of secluded meditation.

Tranquility… it required him to always stay calm and collected. Considering how emotional he had gotten today, he would likely have trouble getting into a proper state to train within the next week or so.

“After you are done resting, you come too,” Rudford reminded just as Laien was about to turn around and walk away.

“Okay,” Laien responded and nodded once more, unknowingly making the Grand Elder smirk in amusement.

“He just nods, then says ‘okay’. It’s been some time since someone was so informal with you,” the Grand Elder pointed out with a chuckle after Laien left. In the past, Rudford was a much more easygoing and lighthearted person, but ever since the events of the last year of the Great War one hundred years ago, he immersed himself in pondering ‘The Secret of Tranquility’. Ever since then, Rudford became rather dull if he were to be honest. In consequence, the number of people who dared to speak to him casually decreased with every year.

Rudford glanced at Roderick, then smirked to himself. He didn’t mind Laien behaving like he did at all; in fact, he rather enjoyed it. He wouldn’t stand for anyone being bluntly rude to him, but being informal and carefree? He was quite fond of these qualities in people, but alas, just like Roderick was saying, it had a long since anyone treated him as anything but the ‘Great Master Rudford of the Red Dragon School’. Such was the price for keeping his overly collected and rather emotionless attitude over the past one hundred years for the sake of gaining more insights into the ‘Tranquility’.

“Time to go back,” Rudford mused aloud and began walking toward the school grounds. The many disciples parted quickly, making a way for him.

“We should follow, too,” Cran said to the two siblings, having heard about his uncle’s request from Laien. The two youths didn’t disagree, so after the Grand Elder Roderick, his two disciples and the four Elders accompanying him passed, the three of them followed.

“I wonder what uncle wants to talk about with me,” Cran asked himself silently. It probably had something to do with his relationship with Laien and Siana… but how great would it be if his uncle reconsidered his decision and took him as a disciple along with Siana? Even though he knew it was rather unlikely, he still hoped that he would be recognized in some way by the person he admired the most in this word, even more than his own father.

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“Fully recovered,” Laien opened his eyes, satisfied with the more or less four hours of meditating. “I even gained some new insights into the Aspect of Tranquility. I would love to continue… but it’s slowly getting late,” he thought with a sigh, knowing that Rudford wanted to see him. As the original ‘deadline’ was at the dusk, he had gone ahead and used up the whole afternoon, but making the Great Master wait any longer would be inappropriate, or so he concluded.

“Around here?” he murmured, walking towards a secluded building Cran had pointed him to before leaving with Siana.

“Sorry for intruding,” he said casually as he pushed the door open, then nodded respectfully as he saw Rudford and the Grand Elder sitting on sofas at the opposite sides of the short table. By the looks of it, both Siana and Cran were already gone, but he wasn’t late… or was he?

“Took you a while,” Rudford said resignedly, but despite that he didn’t appear to be too angry with Laien. He had a quick talk with Cran, then a relatively long chat with Siana. The rest of his time ended up being occupied by Roderick, so he didn’t feel like he wasted the afternoon on waiting for the boy to finally come. “Go ahead and sit down,” he said and pointed at the free space at Roderick’s side with a brief gesture of his hand.

“I will let the two of you talk alone,” Roderick stood up and sent Rudford a smile. He was also pretty curious about Laien, but he knew what Rudford wanted to ask the youth about. His presence here could make Laien more reluctant to share his secrets and thus, he preferred to null this problem before it could appear. Since Rudford intended to develop a good relationship with Laien, it wouldn’t be good if the boy felt pressured into talking by the presence of two experts. Having a face to face chat with Rudford would go much smoother, at least in Roderick’s opinion.

“Your choice,” Rudford gave up on trying to convince his old friend to stay. Roderick had always been incredibly stubborn about everything and trying to make him change his mind was more often than not just a waste of breath.

“If you are going to join our school,” Roderick stopped briefly and said as he was passing by Laien. “Then feel free to come to me for an advice. I believe I can teach you a thing or two; my disciples would surely be interesting in sparring with you, too,” he concluded with a smile and without waiting for Laien’s response, nodded his head at the youth and left the room.

“The Red Dragon School, eh?” Laien gazed at the door, enticed by the idea. Master Shire always changed the subject or dismissed the question when he inquired what kind of martial art will he teach him, so the option of cultivating the top-level Red Dragon Arts and sparring with the elite disciples from one of the three Great Martial Schools of the Sarkcente Kingdom appeared to be quite enticing indeed.

As he sat down, Laien really wondered if he shouldn’t just take the opportunity if Rudford would openly invite him into his school. However… despite Shire’s eccentric character, he had developed a sense of duty to him as his Master. Now that he thought about it the second time, he told himself that he would at least consult the matter with Master Shire before agreeing to anything as to avoid any unpleasant outcomes.

“You are probably curious, so I will tell you that your little sister officially settled in my Red Dragon School. She decided to live here permanently, so appropriate quarters have been assigned to her,” Rudford informed Laien, then smiled slightly seeing that the boy’s expression brightened up and he became a bit more relaxed.

“He obviously cares for his little sister and appears to be genuinely happy for her. There is not even a hint of jealousy in his eyes,” Rudford noted quietly, happy to see that Laien wasn’t a shallow overambitious brat who would be resentful of his little sister’s success.

“Thank you for telling me… Master Rudford,” Laien said after a second of hesitation, not too fond of those formalities. Being so needlessly stiff reminded him of the lessons Tei’Ru had been giving him and the more recent, vaguely unpleasant talk he has had with Garon.

“If it suits you better, you can talk to me informally,” Rudford said with a smile, then added with a laugh. “It wouldn’t be the first time, anyway,”

At first, Laien was a little speechless. He hadn’t had such a carefree impression of Rudford at first, but now this crimson-haired man appeared to be rather amicable. Even the ‘feeling’ about him changed; he was still emanating an aura of power and might, but it wasn’t as oppressive as before.

“I wonder,” Laien brought up with a cheeky smile. “What is it that you require of me, that you would allow a ten-year-old kid to speak to you without any honorific?” he asked, refusing to believe it was just Rudford’s goodwill or that he was being considerate because Siana became his disciple. This red-haired man was, after all, one of the supreme experts of the Sarkcente Kingdom…! Even the King would talk with him in a polite manner! So, why?

“Straightforward, aren’t you?” Rudford chuckled and looked Laien in the eye with a warm smile. Some people might have quite rightfully so considered Laien’s behavior and words as impolite, rude even. He, however, liked those who were a little brash… yes, the woman he had loved certainly had been a very brash and painfully honest person.

Rudford sighed a little. The wounds in his heart have had enough time to heal, but remembering the past wasn’t pleasant for him by any means. He saw Laien being confused by his sudden shift in mood and smiled apologetically, getting to the point right afterward.

“I will ask you without beating around the bush; you don’t need to answer if you can’t or don’t want to, but I’d certainly appreciate if you did,” he ended up speaking a bit more formally than he would have liked to, but having received a quick nod from Laien, he let the matter be and asked.

“The feeling of extreme calmness and peace, ‘Tranquility’… does that ring a bell somewhere?”

There wasn’t even a need for an answer. Just from Laien’s surprised expression, Rudford could tell that he was right. This extremely faint sensation he felt the first time he saw Laien; he wasn’t mistaken! This child really had insights into one of the Secrets known only by the very top experts of the Starlight Continent…! Ten years old kid…!

“Can it be that he also…?” Laien wondered and without even knowing how he was doing it, as if he was performing something as rudimentary as reaching out with his hand, he extended his spiritual sense and ‘felt out’ Rudford’s cultivation base and confirmed that indeed, every inch of Rudford’s body seemed to be filled with the power of the Aspect of Tranquility…!

Rudford’s face flinched as the presence of the Secret of Tranquility in Laien’s body became really clear to him for a split second. He didn’t know what Laien did, but the insights the two of them possessed resonated with each other. Now, there was no doubt at all! Laien also shared insights into the same Secret as he did!

“It looks like words are unnecessary,” Laien chuckled helplessly, ashamed that he allowed all the emotions to show so easily on his face. Only because Rudford failed or didn’t want to conceal his own expressions did he not feel too bad about. “I recently got some insights into the ‘Aspect of Tranquility’, as I ended up calling it,” he confirmed regardless, making Rudford raise an eyebrow. An ‘Aspect’ of Tranquility? It didn’t sound half bad.

“I understand that your questions are related to it…” Laien mused aloud, then decided to be blunt about it and asked. “Can I know what exactly do you want me to talk about, Master Rudford? What’s the purpose?” he inquired, accidentally shifting back to the formal tone as his respect for Rudford had just risen to a whole new level.

“… To be honest,” Rudford smiled bitterly and said with a sigh. “For over thirty years, I had been stuck at a very strange bottleneck between the sixth and seventh Realm of Heroes. I have a feeling that it has something to do with my insights into the Secret… into the Aspect of Tranquility, as you call it, but I just can’t find a way to break past it,” he explained and shook his head resignedly. It was a shameful matter, but the opportunity to talk and exchange insights with somebody who shared the same Secret; the same Aspect was worth revealing his problems to the person; even if that person was a ten years old boy.

“It’s as if the Tranquility itself is blocking me from advancing… it’s strengthening me, but at the same time preventing the Qi in my Origin from ‘sparkling up’ the breakthrough,” Rudford worded his experiences to the best of his ability, opting not to hide anything. Yes, he was a mighty martial master and asking a boy as young as Laien for an advice was making him feel ashamed, but as long as a possibility to break past this obstacle existed, he wouldn’t hesitate to swallow his pointless pride.

Laien shut his eyes for a second, then opened them and looked at Rudford. He was so amazed by the man’s honest attitude that he began wondering if he wasn’t dreaming or hearing things. So far, all the martial masters he had met were extremely prideful people; none of them would ever ask a ten-year-old for an opinion, much less request an advice about cultivation!

“I really could come to like him. Siana has it good to have a man like that for her master,” Laien thought with a smile, then hurriedly got to analyzing what Rudford told him. In his own case, the Aspect of Tranquility didn’t obstruct his cultivation at all and in fact, appeared to hasten its growth. Yet, maybe further down the road, the Tranquility would become an obstacle, like Rudford was saying…? That its presence was causing him to be unable to make a breakthrough…?

“Could it be that there is something different about his insights and mine?” Laien followed this line of thought, thinking back to his vision and to how he assumed that he had strengthened the ‘foundation’ of the Aspect of Tranquility through it. “If I were to point out the most obvious difference, then it would be…” he mused, then looked at Rudford and asked.

“Master Rudford, you were saying that the Aspect of Tranquility was preventing you from advancing, right? From what I sensed, it’s spread throughout your whole body; skin, muscles, bones, even your Qi. However, in my case…” Laien fell silent for a second, unintentionally raising the tension. He didn’t mean to make Rudford wait in anticipation, though. All he did was considering whether he should bring up the concept of the soul, which wasn’t too well knows in the Starlight Continent and about which he had only learned through the vague information his visions provided.

“In my case, it’s gathered in one place and I can pull on it whenever I want to, but when I don’t, I’m not affected by it,” he ended up saying, wondering if an explanation of this kind would be of any help to Rudford. When he had gotten the first insights into the Aspect of Tranquility, its essence has gone straight to his soul by itself. However, if Rudford happened not to know about the soul, would he still be able to conjugate the Aspect of Tranquility in one spot?

“That’s…” Rudford uttered, his eyes bulging out and his mouth hanging slightly open. “That’s…!” he repeated, the train of thoughts beginning to run through his mind like a horde of crazed rhinos. Ever since he had gotten his first bits of insight into the Aspect of Tranquility, the energy of it filled his whole body. Whenever he trained, the Tranquility would get stronger and would also end up having considerably more powerful effects on him; even on his daily behavior! Since this way of training came to him naturally, he had long since assumed that only when he reaches a certain threshold of insights, would he gain proper control over the Aspect of Tranquility. Yet, it seemed that all this time he had been completely wrong!

Now that Laien pointed it out, wasn’t it actually pretty damn obvious? None of the wielders of the Aspects he knew were affected by their insights to this degree…! Even the boy before him didn’t have the power of Tranquility spread through his body, but instead had it hidden deep inside him!

“Gather it,” Rudford said to himself and instinctively, caused all the spread essence of Tranquility to form into one whole somewhere inside his body… no, it would be more correct to say that it was somewhere in his consciousness? He didn’t quite understand the process, but when it started occurring, he came to be sure that it was the right way to go about it.

In the matter of a few seconds, he created a small ball of gas-like essence which was inside him, but not inside him at the same time.

The moment he finished the process, he felt the energy in his Qi Origin rouse by itself, surging higher and higher. The incredibly pleasant warmth flowed from his Qi Origin and spread throughout his body as finally, he advanced from the peak of the sixth to the seventh Realm of Heroes…!

“Whoa,” Laien swallowed, the sensation of Rudford’s aura growing considerably more powerful overwhelming him totally. He shouldn’t have been able to tell a martial master’s cultivation level… but yet, he could sense it clearly. Just now, Rudford has broken past his bottleneck!