Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 135. Friends for a day, friends for the life.
“So refreshing,” Laien said with a chuckle after pouring a bucket of water over himself inside the third floor’s bath. He had always preferred to take a real bath over using his water-element magic to clean himself, so whenever there was an opportunity, he wouldn’t miss it. Still, the bath here wasn’t connected to any pipes so the amount of water available was limited. He could create more, true, but it would require him to devote a portion of his attention to maintaining the magic so that it wouldn’t dissipate after a brief moment, so he wasn’t all that fond of it.
“Agreed,” Yin said with a smile, his emerald hair glistering with the many drops of clear water. “But that’s not why you wanted us to come here alone, no?” he inquired, then laughed wryly when he realized that his words could also be taken in another, less literal way. “You’ve been thinking to show those tomes to these three, but you aren’t sure what to do,” he added before the subject derived from the intended one. The two of them had agreed to postpone doing naughty things for later, so it was best to avoid going too far in that direction least they give in to the desire and spoil their plans.
“Yeah,” Laien admitted and exchanged a meaningful smile with Yin before taking on a bit more serious attitude. “I’ve been thinking it would be a pity if they missed on the benefits of the Nine Refinements of Mortality. After all, it’s likely that by the next time we see them, all three will have stepped into the Realm of Heroes,” he explained, putting the feelings and vague thoughts which he had already shared with Yin into proper words.
“Mhm.” Yin nodded slightly. “They are very talented and I agree it would be a pity if they didn’t make the most out of their potential. But, should we really reveal this secret?” he asked the question the two of them had on their minds for the entire afternoon. “I can tell that Arslan, Raphael, and Mikaela aren’t ones to reveal it even if we tell them, but what if they end up pressured into it?” he speculated, not too sure himself what they should do. However, he did understand that the best way to solve a problem was to talk about it instead of just pondering it silently to no end, so he did expect to come to some kind of a conclusion with Laien.
“It’s possible,” Laien conceded and let out a quiet sigh. “Arslan might feel like telling about it to his father and it’s the same with Mikaela. If their fathers did notice something or if those two blurted something out and were pressed by them for an answer, there’s a possibility they will simply tell them,” he admitted, the corner of his lips quirking upwards in an ironic smile. He barely remembered his own father anymore, but he could sympathize with Arslan and Mikaela. After all, if it was something really important and if Rudford asked him to reveal it, then he would also waver. Without going through such an experience, he couldn’t tell for sure whether he would keep the secret or reveal it.
“Still,” Yin picked up. “As bad as it would be for more people to learn of those tomes, I’m pretty sure that Mustafa and Elder Samuel wouldn’t use this information against us or extort the tomes off of us. The question is if ‘pretty sure’ is good enough for us to take the risk,” he elaborated and laughed weakly. Yes, now that he could speak about it with Laien in private, the train of thoughts was coming along much more nicely compared to when they were thinking about it on their own.
“Hah.” Laien also laughed a little, then said with a wry smile, “How nice it would be if a sure-fire way of making one’s promises come true existed. Something like swearing on the name of the Heavens or signing some kind of a soul-pact.”
“It would be convenient,” Yin admitted but went ahead and poked a few holes into Laien’s remark right afterwards. “But it would also be quite terrible. For example, wouldn’t it be easy for one dominant power to enslave the whole population? Just force them to swear to obey them or face death, as simple as that. Even if you are a genius, what can you do if someone with vastly superior cultivation gives you that choice when you are still too weak to resist? Even more, things like friendship and love would also not mean as much since everyone would resort to making some stupid oaths when it really mattered.”
“I give, I give,” Laien raised his hands in the gesture of defeat and laughed heartily. “I just spoke about some ‘what if’, no need to take it so seriously,” he said hurriedly. He didn’t think what he said through at all and just spoke randomly, but Yin really pulled the rug from under his feet the second he was given the chance. “Let’s get back to the subject,” he suggested with a smile, seeing no reason to delve into the random topic of unbreakable oaths and alike.
“Actually, let’s not yet,” Yin said wryly, though he did give Laien an amiable smile when his expression changed slightly. “You know what I mean, weren’t you paying attention? I didn’t connect it to our matter when I said it, but now it all links together,” he said with a laugh. Was Laien not paying enough attention to their spiritual bond at the moment? He should have been able to tell that he wasn’t planning on teasing him further but wanted to make an actual point.
“So that’s what you meant,” Laien said with a laugh, then added questioningly. “Friendship wouldn’t mean much if everyone resorted to making some stupid oaths, was it? So, what do you think… or feel that we should do?”
“It’s a stupid question,” Yin pointed out playfully. “Don’t you already know the answer anyway? You want to tell them and I’m not against it. Let’s just do it like you want to,” he said straightforwardly, choosing to go along with Laien’s wishes this time around. Between the two of them, it was Laien who was closer with any of the trio of Arslan, Raphael, and Mikaela, so he decided to trust Laien’s gut feeling and take the risk of sharing one of their secrets.
To be fair, however, had he been on his own, he most likely wouldn’t have decided to share the secret of the tomes with anyone until he had the strength to protect himself just in case. Yet, things were different when he was with Laien. The least noticeable but perhaps one of the most important differences between the two of them was that Laien found it far easier to make new friends than he did. Himself, he could establish a superficial friendship or an amicable relationship easily enough, but for him to truly trust someone was rare. Even his ability to read the people’s hearts wasn’t enough to make this one fact change, and now that he thought about it, it was strange that he had come to like and trust Laien so easily back then, during the Grand Tournament in the Sarkcente Kingdom.
He had never experienced something similar before, but he had simply ascribed it all to his grandfather’s explanation about ‘knowing when he will have found the right partner’. However, from the perspective of time, he could tell that it wasn’t like him to establish the Blood Pact with someone he had just met so hurriedly and without any doubts at all. He couldn’t really come up with any logical explanation to his behavior no matter how hard he thought about it, but one thing did come to his mind, albeit it was embarrassing enough to cause his cheeks to flush red.
“Maybe it was the call of blood that made me choose Laien. Maybe we were fated to become blood-bound partners from the very beginning…” he wondered quietly, though he wasn’t quite aware that he had been lost in deep thoughts for long enough for Laien to grow curious, and sure enough, to learn the outline of what he had been thinking about.
“Who knows,” Laien picked up with an amused laugh. “Maybe we were destined to be together,” he said teasingly, thus getting Yin to send him a somewhat flustered glance. Yet, the two of them laughed together just a second later, each of them finding this topic to be equally embarrassing to talk about.
“Okay, I think that’s enough,” Yin said with a smile and looked Laien in the eye. “Let’s finish washing up and go talk to those three,” he suggested straightforwardly.
“Sure,” Laien agreed easily. As fun as it was to see the embarrassed look on Yin’s face, there was always the right time and place for such things. After all, one needed to know when enough was enough unless he wanted to risk turning a mutually enjoyable situation into an awkward one.
As such, after a few more minutes, the two of them left the bath with refreshed smiles on their faces and with new sets of clothes over their bodies.
“Did you do anything fun?”
And maybe as expected, the moment they entered the room the other three were staying in at the moment, Mikaela immediately asked them a wry question.
“Nothing like that,” Laien replied with a helpless laugh and knocked on top of Mikaela’s head with the knuckles of his right hand as he sat beside him. He wasn’t all that frustrated though, as whenever possible, Mikaela would bring those embarrassing subjects up and try to tease them, but not only did he not mind, he and Yin had already gotten used to it. “Rather, we’ve made an important decision,” he added with a slight smile, then just as the three appeared to be growing curious, he spread his spiritual energy to completely block out any sound from leaving the room.
“Hm?” Raphael raised his eyebrows. “It’s something serious enough for you to block the sound out? Do tell, we’re all ears,” he said with a calm, though also expectant smile on his face.
“Yeah,” Laien said with a little sigh, his expression turning serious as the usual smile of his dimmed and grew calmer. “It might sound a little out-of-the-blue for you, but we’ve got something really important to tell you. However, if we are to do so, you guys first need to promise us one thing. To be exact, we want you to promise us that you will never reveal what we are about to tell you to anyone else. Not to Mustafa or Elder Samuel, nor anyone else. We need you to keep it an absolute secret,” he foreboded without any traits of the playful note in his voice, one which had almost always found its way into his words on the daily routine.
“Whoa.” Raphael seemed to be the first one to come to terms with this sudden development. “It must be something very serious if you’re saying this much. Fine, I do promise not to tell or reveal in any way to anyone what is about to follow,” he said straightforwardly and smiled at Laien. It might have seemed like he made his decision a little too easily to some, but he had always been decisive when it mattered. He felt that he was heavily indebted to Laien and on top of it, he saw both Laien and Yin as his real friends. Thus, he didn’t need to think long before making the promise which Laien wanted from him.
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“I promise too!” Mikaela exclaimed right after Raphael finished speaking. He had been a little startled when he heard Laien speak so seriously and was a little thrown off when Laien mentioned his father, but after Raphael led the way, he no longer had any misgivings about making the promise. If they were to compare it, he was far more fond of Laien than Raphael, but at the same time, he was three years younger than Raphael and had some qualms about making such an important promise while basing it entirely on his liking towards Laien. After all, the moment he gave his words to a friend, he would definitely honor it!
He had been startled to think about the case when he needed to make a choice between telling something honestly to his father and keeping a promise to a friend, but after he saw Raphael resolutely agree to Laien’s conditions he no longer hesitated. In truth, had he been unable to come to terms with his own emotions with regards to the possible conflict between a friend and his father, he would have apologized and refused to make the promise. He had always been told by his mother not to lie in any way to his important people, so he wholeheartedly intended not to do that.
“Me too,” Arslan said with a serious look on his face, which however looked nothing but cute considering that he was still very young, and by far the youngest out of the five present. “I promise I won’t tell anyone anything in any way,” he added, feeling that it was important for him to clarify what he meant by ‘me too’. He rarely saw Laien and Yin act in such an uncompromising way, so he understood that whatever they wanted to tell them was very important.
“Good,” Laien said contentedly, a mild smile returning to his face. “May the one who lies swallow a thousand needless,” he added with a quiet chuckle and glanced at all three of the youths one after another. Although the tone of his voice was humoristic, the look in his eyes remained serious. After all, if anything he was about to tell those three truly ended up leaking to wrong people anytime soon, he and Yin would end up in a whole lot of trouble.
“Okay,” Mikaela said with a laugh and raised his hand. “Pinky promise,” he said with a disarming mix of seriousness and playfulness and extended his pinky finger towards Laien.
In turn, it took Laien half a second to react as he didn’t expect anyone to actually go through with that old little ritual he had brought up on a whim. However, he didn’t think twice and crossed pinky fingers with Mikaela and watched how the silver-haired youth sealed the same promise with Yin.
Watching this particular scene happen, Raphael could only laugh inwardly. He had already given his word and he thought it was enough, but making the pinky promise couldn’t hurt. On the other hand, Arslan appeared to be excited about this little exchange as to him, it felt more and more like sealing a true, secret pact between friends... and in truth, it was exactly so from the very beginning. The only thing was that he was yet to learn how great of a matter Laien and Yin had chosen to bring up.
A brief moment later, the five of them sealed the pinky promise between themselves and once again sat down on the floor, in a circle. The trio of Arslan, Raphael, and Mikaela looked at Laien expectantly, all of them growing more impatient and curious by the second to learn what was this whole thing about. Yet, the three of them couldn’t help but feel a bit confused when Laien brought out a thick, ancient-looking book from his interspatial ring. Could it be that this book was so important that Laien and Yin had gone through the trouble of making them promise not to reveal anything? If so, then what in the world was this book about to be worth so much?
Seeing the baffled looks on the trio’s faces, Laien smiled in understanding. “Martial and Spiritual Transcendence,” he read aloud while tracing his finger along the carving on the tome’s thick cover. “I dare to say that if the existence of this tome was made public, the whole world would fight over the right to possess it,” he said with a little ironic smile. They really were taking a considerable risk by exposing the existence of this tome to those three, but he thought that sharing those benefits with them was worth taking that potential danger on.
“What is this book, this tome, about?” Mikaela asked straightforwardly, sparks of strong curiosity already shining in his eyes. As the only one out of the three, he didn’t question Laien’s assessment and immediately took it as given. Thus, he couldn’t help being excited to learn more. Since Laien decided to bring this tome out, then he needed to have a purpose in mind for it, right? He didn’t think that Laien would tell them a secret of his just for the sake of sharing it and nothing else.
“I could explain,” Laien said with a laugh. “But it will be far quicker if you just see for yourself. Put your hand on the cover and focus on the presence of the book,” he instructed and pushed the tome towards Mikaela, giving no further explanation. However, Mikaela’s trust in him was more than steady enough for him not to ask anything else and simply do as he was told.
Everyone watched Mikaela put his hand on the tome and close his eyes with great expectation, though for different reasons as half of them wasn’t clear on what the purpose of this tome was all about. However, a few seconds later, when they saw Mikaela open his eyes and almost jump up in excitement they all came to wonder what exactly had just happened.
“How did it go?” Laien asked with great expectation. He knew well how great Mikaela’s talent was, but in the end, Mikaela was still just a spiritual practitioner of the sixth rank and a martial practitioner of the fifth rank. Even though he had judged that it shouldn’t be a problem for Mika to get just what he needed for now from this tome, he was slightly nervous for Mikaela regardless. “Did you get the whole Intent for the Nine Refinements of Mortality?” he inquired impatiently after a few seconds, unable to wait any longer for Mikaela to settle in with all the information the Intent of the tome had provided him.
He really hoped that Mika did manage to master the whole mortal path! It would be extremely unlucky if he couldn’t master all the nine levels as the Nine Refinements of Mortality could only be used, as the name suggested, while one was still in the mortal realm. In his own case, he had gone and acclaimed the Intent all the way to the fifth level of the Nine Refinements to Immortality, but he suspected it had something to do with the elementary connection between Qi and spiritual energy he had established within his body. After all, Yin’s talent wasn’t inferior to his own in the least, but Yin himself had only managed to master up to the second Immortal level. As for how much Mikaela could master, it was about to be revealed just now.
“I did,” Mikaela replied with a bright smile, causing Raphael and Arslan’s confusion to grow and at the same time, allowing Laien to sigh with relief. “I’ve also started to get a few insights into the first Refinement to Immortality, but it’s too hazy for me to make anything out of it,” he explained hurriedly, though all the while he kept fidgeting excitedly, looking like he just didn’t know what to do with himself. He had never heard of such an amazing way to cultivate his strength! Having received the Intent of the tome, he could tell how great the benefits he would obtain from it were!
He had trusted Laien from the beginning, but only now did he understand what Laien meant by saying that this tome could cause the whole world to go to war over it! Were this thing to be made into a national treasure, then within two or three generations, the practitioners all over the place would gain a huge advantage over those who didn’t possess this method! He was so excited that after a few seconds he just couldn’t bear it anymore and jumped at Laien’s lap and hugged him, not knowing what to do with all the waves of excitement and happiness that surged within him.
“Whoa,” Laien laughed merrily and returned the hug with a smile, using this opportunity to gently tousle Mikaela’s soft, silvery hair with his hand. “That’s quite a reaction,” he said with a chuckle, marveling over how cute Mikaela was. He had expected him to be happy to be able to grow even stronger, but he hadn’t quite expected Mikaela to be excited to this extent.
“You guys go ahead too,” he said to Raphael and Arslan while still being snuggled by Mikaela. “Once you do the same, you will understand what it’s all about. Ah, Raphael, spare me the hugs though, okay? Yin’s already drilling a hole through my skull with his eyes,” he pointed out playfully and look at Yin’s face out of the corner of his eye.
“No, I’m not!” Yin retorted defensively. He was slightly annoyed to see Mikaela hug Laien like that, but that was all! And Laien should have been able to tell that, too! Exaggerating like that would only give the others a wrong idea, sheesh!
At the same time, while Laien laughed in reply, Mikaela did something else instead. In particular, he let go of Laien and after glancing at Yin, he jumped over and this time hugged Yin to express his gratitude. However, at the same time, he did intend to help Laien out a little as he didn’t want Yin to be angry with Laien because of him!
In the face of Mikaela’s overwhelming cuteness, even Yin couldn’t resist for long as the little frustration he had felt melted instantly. He laughed helplessly and hugged Mikaela lightly, though he still felt a bit weird while doing so. Compared to Laien, he truly wasn’t all that good at making new friends, so he felt a bit awkward to express his emotions openly even though admittedly, he did like Mikaela. The kid’s character and temper were extremely similar to Laien’s, after all, so he couldn’t possibly come to dislike him without anything major happening that would cause him to do so.
“Go ahead.” While Raphael was hesitating if he should just go ahead and check the tome out first or if he should allow Arslan to do it out of politeness, the five-year-old solved the issue for him.
“Thanks,” Raphael said with a smile and reached out for the tome which Mikaela left in front of his previous seat. He placed it on the floor before himself, able to tell how exceptional this artifact was just from caressing it lightly. He had also seen the kind of reaction Mikaela had, so he didn’t delay and closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness into the Intent of the tome.
He opened his eyes a few seconds later, just like it was in Mikaela’s case. In the same way, a jubilant smile emerged on his face the moment he did so. “Amazing, too amazing,” he praised in awe, his heart beating so fast he could swear everyone could hear how it throbbed in his chest. He quickly handed the tome over to Arslan and waited for him to finish the process of inheriting the Intent before returning his gaze to Laien and speaking with a broad, but also surprisingly level-headed smile.
“I must say, I don’t know if I would have been able to make the same choice you guys did if I were in your shoes,” he said honestly. Only after attuning himself to this ancient-looking tome did he understand that it was an absolutely priceless treasure. Even though the degree one could benefit from it appeared to depend on one’s inherent level of talent, it was still the most precious singular object he had ever heard of. Even the famous eighty-one Heavenly Treasures or other famous items couldn’t compare to the worth of this one tome!
He couldn’t express the emotions he was feeling right now with words even if he tried to. Out of the three of them, he was likely the one who realized best how great of a favor Laien and Yin had made them today and how much trust they had bestowed them with. All the other times, he had been silently promising himself to repay the debt of gratitude one day, but this time, he didn’t do that. Instead, he promised himself to treat Laien and Yin as his true friends for the rest of his life.
“Mm,” Laien nodded slightly, opting not to comment on Raphael’s statement. This decision wasn’t one he and Yin had made easily either, so he could understand what Raphael was thinking about. “More importantly, how did you two do? How much of the Intent did you master?” he inquired, at the same time seeing how Mikaela got off Yin and seated himself between the two of them for time being.
“Up to the third Refinement to Immortality,” Raphael replied without concealing anything, then glanced at Arslan along with everyone else.
“Only up to the sixth Refinement of Mortality,” Arslan said with a somewhat embarrassed smile, seeing as he was likely the one with the worst results out of the five of them. “I have a little idea about the seventh too, but not all of it,” he explained somewhat helplessly. He knew that he was the youngest out of the five of them and his cultivation was the lowest, but for some reason, he still felt embarrassed that his results weren’t as high as theirs.