Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 188. Unity Of Lightning And Water.
“That being said,” Laien brought up with a wry smile. “I do want to tell everyone what our plan is. I guess that most of them hadn’t noticed the eagle, but the rest should be fine to reveal, no?” he mentioned, his smile turning somewhat playful. The next instant, he even chuckled when very briefly, Casimir’s eyes widened slightly and showed a clear hint of surprise. Did Casimir really think that they wouldn’t have noticed when his expression had suddenly changed only for him to swirl his lance over his head? Well, to be fair, it was only Yin with his great eyesight who had noticed that faraway eagle, but both of them had noticed that the air about Casimir had changed seemingly out of the blue.
“Truly little devils.” Casimir shook his head with a laugh at the wry smiles of the two youths. “I planned to tell everybody about our intentions to begin with, but the fewer people know about father’s companion, the better. So, I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about him, even your close friends if at all possible. You can count it as me owing you guys a favor if you can do so,” he said with a smile. Although there were a few people who knew that his father had an eagle magical beast, the number of those who were aware that this beast was in the Realm of Heroes was pitifully small. As for the additional purposes his father liked to use his companion for, especially in situations like this one, not even all Great Generals of their country were informed about.
Of course, Casimir knew that Laien and Yin wouldn’t have been able to understand the details just from spotting his father’s eagle this one time. However, the question itself, if revealed to too many people, would cause trouble in the long run. After all, even if the knowledge was only in the hands of allies, its reliability would go down the more widespread it became. By that point, his father would likely give up on a good portion of the small tricks that involved his companion in order to be safe.
“You can count on it.” A second after Casimir made his request, Laien replied straightforwardly. Yin then agreed in a very much same manner, too.
“Thanks.” Casimir nodded slightly towards the two boys, glad that they agreed outright. Unlike most people, he had closely interacted with a wide plethora of individuals, including hundreds of nobles both young and old. Needless to be said, while there were some nobles with whom he had become friends back in his own early teenage days, the interactions with the rest of those spoiled youngsters had been nothing but a huge annoyance to him. Back then, he couldn’t help but notice how huge the difference in mindset was between those who belonged to his father’s close alliance of friends and those who belonged to different factions. Even now that his father had become the King, he would often have to remind himself to be patient in his interactions with those nobles. Thus, he couldn’t help but appreciate Laien and Yin, who were quite honest and straightforward in his opinion.
“Want me to tell everyone?” Casimir mentioned once he finished pondering his thoughts of the past. “Or do you want to do it yourselves?” he inquired, personally fine with either option.
“Hm,” Laien considered the idea for a bit. He didn’t exactly feel like explaining what Casimir told them from the beginning and he felt that he would do a half-assed job if he tried to. As for Yin, he was even less interested in making a speech of any kind. Yet, both of them agreed that they owed something to not only their northern allies, but also their original friends and companions. If they didn’t at least try to say what was in their hearts, they would end up feeling regretful about it.
“How about that,” Laien said after a moment. “You explain the plan to them as you see fit, then the two of us will say our own things, too,” he said in a manner that was neither a statement nor question, though Casimir didn’t seem to mind as he simply nodded in agreement. This, in turn, caused Laien’s smile to grow wider. He enjoyed talking with those who weren’t too hung up on formalities and wouldn’t complain about vague and ‘impolite’ speech on his part. Casimir might have given him the opposite impression the first time he had seen him, but this impression had soon shattered and now he felt surprisingly comfortable talking with this twenty-year-old young man.
“Everyone.” Much to Laien’s and Yin’s surprise, Casimir proceeded to address their entire group pretty much right after he had agreed to do so. “We are going to take one last gamble in order to wipe out all of our enemies, including Yimar Maar and Abdain. The last battle will happen in around six hours, so take your time to recover your strength and have your injuries healed,” he explained in fairly simplistic terms, then gave everybody a few seconds to process the information. Once he judged that the atmosphere shifted far enough towards a serious and fairly grave one, he added.
“Entrust your lives to me and when the time comes, stand your ground and keep yourselves alive. If we can hold on for long enough, it will be our victory.”
“Ho-oh!”
The short and not all that loud response from not just the northern forces, but also Julien’s remaining forty or so men first brought a look of surprise to Laien and Yin’s ears, but right afterwards it caused smiles of understanding to emerge on their faces. The two of them were usually very straightforward too, but in Laien’s case it was simply his standard behavior that bordered on the edge of being overly blunt, while in Yin’s case, it stemmed from not caring enough about how other people viewed him. On the other hand, while the two of them tended to act in such a way regardless of time and place, it wasn’t an intentional or calculated effort to gain favor on their part. Only now did they slowly begin to realize that instead of worrying about what to say as they had done, being rather blunt, especially towards battle-hardened warriors, was probably the best possible option.
“Well,” Laien chuckled silently. “Since this is out of the way, we might as well chat with our bunch,” he mused and together with Yin, started slowing down. In just a little while, the two of them were able to smoothly make their way backwards in the formation and join the group centered around Arslan. Apart from this five years old Prince of Makarash, the three White Guards were in the vicinity, with Sirius riding on the same horse as Arslan and keeping him safe. Just beside Arslan and Sirius, Kasha was riding with Johan, while Reian was cultivating further to the side while giving his best to recover as much Qi as soon as possible. The remaining ones of their old bunch were the other four from Johan’s group and Laien and Yin’s own seven original guards.
Admittedly, apart from the three White Guards and perhaps Gahar, who had displayed excellent abilities as an ex-Shadow, the rest didn’t boast much combat ability at all. It was because of that that Laien and Yin felt remorseful about putting them in danger, even more so than those northern practitioners and Julien together with his elites. Had it been before Casimir’s brief speech, Laien would have probably leaned towards a more apologetic tone, but no more. After all, it wasn’t like he and Yin had dragged all those people with them by force. They had explained that this endeavor would be very dangerous, too. The difference was that it turned out to be worse than anyone could have expected, and almost definitely the Shadow Trials were to blame for it.
“I’m not going to say much,” Laien began saying, all the while controlling the reach his voice with a little bit of Qi. Usually he would have opted for spiritual energy as he was more comfortable with using it for all the little daily tasks, but in this case, he had less of it left and so did otherwise. “We already decided with Casimir to try fighting one more time, so let me skip the pointless talk and trust me that we wouldn’t have suggested it if we thought it was a death sentence. I can’t promise you guys that all of us will survive, but I can promise that neither of us two will flee and leave any of our friends to die on their own,” he stated perhaps somewhat forcefully, but given the circumstance and the prevailing strained atmosphere, everyone listened to him patiently and without interrupting.
Admittedly, however, the emotions the individuals of this little group came to feel after listening to Laien’s words were varied. Some of them, like Arslan and Sirius, were nervous but trusted Laien and Yin regardless. Others were purely nervous, but weren’t about to raise any objections as they had entrusted their lives to those two boys back in the Ruishi Federation - six out of the seven original guards of Laien and Yin’s counted as ones in this subsection. The only odd exception was Gahar, who didn’t fear death was actually looking forward to fighting and possibly dying beside the two youths he had secretly recognized as his new masters. Then, there were the likes of Johan and Kasha, who were nervous but had chosen to tag along knowing the dangers, either in order to strengthen their bonds with their new friends as in Johan’s case or in order to grow stronger as in Kasha’s case.
Finally, last but not least, there were Sarah, Albert, Jacob, and Rakar. The latter two of the four didn’t mind the plans, goals or objectives and only was here in order to help the former two and Johan, as much as their abilities allowed them to. As for Albert, he was anxious and nervous, but he didn’t even think about voicing any objections or displeasure with the current state of things. To blame Laien and Yin for ‘dragging all of them’ into a ridiculous situation and even opting to take more risks instead of fleeing to safety didn’t cross his mind despite his young age of fifteen. The only problem was that he himself worried whether Sarah was of the same mind as him. She had agreed to allow Johan to do as he wished with his life and chose to try and support her little brother for as long as necessary, but even he, as the one who was arguably closest to Sarah, wasn’t sure if her change of heart was thorough. In the end, people’s essence rarely changed easily and in a short period of time.
“What are you looking at me for?” Yet, as if to deny the somewhat anxious mood, Sarah asked with a laugh, the corner of her lips quirking upwards. How could she not notice that Albert, Johan, Rakar and even some of the other ones in their little group were sending glances in her direction instead of saying anything themselves? “I have no complaints. We knew we were getting ourselves into dangerous shit and we knew we are too weak to play much of a role in all those battles. I’m grateful all of us are still alive by this point, so if all that’s left is one final battle, then why would I complain?” she asked alongside another merry laugh, thus startling everyone who was familiar with her character, including Johan, Albert, Laien, and Yin.
“I mean,” Sarah added wryly when she saw everyone’s reaction. “I’ve given up on figuring out what’s right and wrong and what’s the best for everyone around me. All I want is for my little brother to be happy and after that’s accomplished, I hope that someone else will be there to make me happy, too,” she said with a slight smile and at the end, she looked over her shoulder and glanced at Albert.
To Albert, Sarah’s non-combative words were already a very pleasant surprise, though it was only when he saw not just her smile but also the relaxed and genuinely warm expression on her face, one which he hadn’t seen in years, that he couldn’t help himself and blushed heavily. He remembered vividly that it were those exact expressions of Sarah’s that he had fallen for when the two of them were still little sprouts, but three or four years old. Then, as the times turned for worse and worse, those beautiful expressions of hers would appear more and more rarely only for them to disappear altogether. True, Sarah’s decisiveness, stubbornness, and strength during those harsh times were also very amazing in his opinion, but it was only now that her old, merry self, returned for a moment that he started blushing uncontrollably and couldn’t resist swallowing heavily.
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If he could work hard to preserve this expression on Sarah’s face forever, so that she would show it to him every day, then he would do so gladly! It had been hard for him to think about such things outside his dreams for the past years, but he desired nothing else but to provide for a happy, carefree life from Sarah and himself. He wanted to once again see Sarah shine as brightly as she used to when she was a young kid that lived without a worry in the world and only did things she liked.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Laien said with a cheerful laugh. Weirdly enough, however, his interruption did nothing to break the unusually sweet and lovely-dovely atmosphere between Albert and Sarah. The two did move their gazes towards him though, but for some reason, the prevalent feeling that they were in their own little world didn’t disappear. “Any complaints from the rest of you guys?” Laien asked, sounding far more relaxed than a second ago. If even Sarah, with who they had bucked heads with on multiple occasions, was in agreement with this course of action, then he doubted that anyone else would end up holding a grudge against them.
“What do you think?” Liza asked with a laugh and exchanged a glance with Laien. “You’ll have to pay up appropriately, but we’ll do what we can as the last line of defense,” she said wryly, what resulted in both her and Laien chuckling in amusement. A little bit like with Sarah, the two of them had had their clashes early on during their journey, but they managed to become friends. In fact, as far as Laien’s feelings went, even though he considered all seven of his original guards to be more than simple acquaintances, he would only call two of them his friends. And, even though he would have never thought it to be possible in the early days, Liza was one of those two while Ruan was the other.
“You’d better pay handsomely,” Jin added from himself, a little smirk present on his face. “I intend to relax and party for the entire duration of your stay in the Eclipse Academy, so I’ve got to have enough money to spend freely,” he said in a tone that was filled with a mixture of pouting and joking. Out of the seven, he liked Laien and Yin the least, but he did respect them. Also, while the job of being their guard was dangerous, it paid very well, so he did intend to commit to it entirely, if nothing else, then for the sake of his own leisure and pleasant future filled with conquering the hearts of all beautiful and alluring men and women in the world.
“You know,” Arslan joined in. “I can give you some money too if you need it. We’re all in it together,” he told Jin, but shifted his attention to Laien and Yin the very next moment and smiled at them. He didn’t need to say it again, did he? He wouldn’t abandon his precious friends even if it meant getting into an even greater danger, so he couldn’t possibly be unwilling to tag along this time around.
“Enough of this,” Sirius said with a helpless laugh. He looked over everyone’s faces just to be sure, then nodded to himself. “I don’t think anyone has any complaints, so hurry up and focus on recovering your strength. You’ve only got six hours and I can tell that both of you have used up considerable amounts of energy,” he reminded gently. While it was heartwarming to see their group of companions in agreement, he didn’t think that indulging in those emotions was necessary for the moment. Since the worry had undoubtedly been taken off Laien and Yin’s hearts, they ought to take their time, restore their energy and focus on regaining the well-rested yet battle-ready mindset.
“Mm, got it,” Laien said with a grin and exchanged a glance with Yin. This entire conversation had gone far more smoothly than he had worried it would, to the point that Yin didn’t even get much of a chance to say anything from himself. The two of them were satisfied though, so after exchanging a few looks and a few nods with everyone around them, they rode back to the front and situated themselves behind Casimir, Anna and the others that made up the elite first row. Just like Sirius said, they had to go back to their optimal states as soon as possible, but to be fair, six hours was more than enough time for them to do so. For most practitioners, recovering seventy to eighty percent of their energy in six hours would have been close to impossible, but for them, it was very much doable.
In fact, the two of them suspected that they would need only three to four hours to completely recover their Qi. They would need even less time for the tired sensation to leave their muscles and for their bodies to once again brim with youthful vitality. The two of them had boasted powerful physical bodies even before that fortunate incident in the mountains of the Forbidden Lands, not to mention the strengthening effects of the Nine Refinements of Mortality had on them. Because of that, the prowess and purity of their physical bodies far surpassed their actual cultivation level. Thus, unlike those whose bodies couldn’t keep up with the growth of their martial cultivation, they were more than capable of recovering their Qi at what others would perceive as an abnormally fast rate.
On the other hand, if only Laien’s spiritual energy was to be taken into consideration, then six hours wasn’t exactly enough for him to recover the nine-tenths of it which he had used up. Even if he went straight into a deep meditative trance, he would only be able to regain about sixty percent of it. However, Laien wasn’t worried about this ‘issue’ at all since his Qi and spiritual energy were connected on the rudimentary level. Once his Qi was full, a little bit of it would naturally proceed to transform into spiritual energy and fill his Spiritual Core without him needing to manage the process. Thanks to that, he was confident in being able to accomplish a full recovery within five hours.
“Did it go well?” Casimir looked over his shoulder and asked. He was asking out of genuine interest, but he felt bad that his mind wasn’t entirely focused on the question he brought up. Inwardly, he couldn’t help but think about Anna, who would usually have joined this conversation by now. Instead, she appeared to be giving her best to deal with her own emotions, having just lost more than thirty members of her Royal Guard to Yimar Maar and his elites. Adding the ones who had died to Abdain, she had already lost almost half of her Royal Guard, so it was no surprise that she was downtrodden and wasn’t in the mood to talk unless absolutely necessary.
“It did,” Laien replied simply. Both he and Yin noticed that almost melancholic and yet strong look in Casimir’s eyes, but they chose not to delve into the matter. Anyhow, even without asking, they could mostly guess what troubled Casimir and they didn’t think that chatting about it would do any good. “Say, just in case,” Laien mentioned as a certain idea kept lingering in his mind. “If a ranged attack is sent at us as we go, can you rouse your Qi and aura to the limits? This way, we will be able to react in time,” he requested, seeing as they would be riding right behind Casimir and Anna. Naturally, he wouldn’t have bothered with such things had he been planning to cultivate normally, but he thought it would be too much of a waste not to do any deep meditation in this period of time.
“Sure, no problem,” Casimir answered without delay. Doing what Laien asked him to wouldn’t hurt his combat potential in any way. Moreover, he understood that it would allow the two to cultivate with a peace of mind. Thus, he had no reason to deny this mutually beneficial request.
“Thanks,” Laien said with a smile. He chuckled when he sensed Yin giving him a meaningful look, then closed his eyes and so did Yin. “Now then,” he concentrated and just like Yin, he spread his Aspect of Awareness in all directions, though not all that far. Had they been stationary either he or Yin would have had no trouble filling the space of twenty meters around them with a mixture of minuscule amounts of Qi and the essence of the Aspect of Awareness, but currently they were moving at high speeds. They would have had to expend a considerable amount of effort if they wanted to constantly survey a larger area and even then, they wouldn’t have been perfectly safe. In comparison, it was far simpler to use Casimir as a canary in the coalmine and focus on their training.
Just a second later or so, both of them first fell into a deep meditative trance and subsequently, their souls established a connection and started joining together. The two of them weren’t unfamiliar with this process, but Yin in particular was extremely shocked on this occasion. Laien did tell him about the Phantasmal Essence and something he called Phantasmal World, but at the same time, Laien had kept his thoughts on this subject a secret. Thus, when their souls started joining into the Combined Soul Realm and when he saw the exceedingly realistic world of seas and mist that was surrounding Laien’s soul, he could only shiver in shock and excitement. To think that this was the nature of the Phantasmal Essence! To think that it was possible to use it to create such an amazing inner world!
By the time their spiritual avatars appeared in front of each other, Yin had closed his eyes and committed his entire self to the new experience.
“As expected,” Laien said quietly, a bright smile present on his face. “He experienced enlightenment as soon as he understood the basics through our Spiritual Bond and sensed the essence of the Phantasmal World through our Combined Soul Realm,” he mused in satisfaction. Just like he had expected, Yin needed only a slight push in order to attain a breakthrough. Still, had it been anyone else, even Mikaela or some other good friend of his, he would have felt at least a bit vexed. He wouldn’t have been able to accept that someone else obtained so seemingly easily something he had risked his life for, but since it was Yin, he was only glad for him. Moreover, in a way he felt proud that his rival and best friend… since using other words was still a little embarrassing, was so incredibly talented. He wouldn’t have been content with anything else than what they currently had.
He was about to start his own cultivation was wait for Yin to finish his breakthrough, but then, he too shivered in excitement.
Thrilled, he started looking everywhere around as his senses were being barraged with a wide plethora of sensations. His Phantasmal World and the world of Heavenly Lightning that surrounded Yin’s soul had merged the moment their Combined Soul Realm formed. However, his Phantasmal World had been clearly dominant at first and Yin’s Heavenly Lightning seemed almost out of place in the area. The two forces didn’t reject each other, but unlike at all other times, they didn’t appear to be merging so seamlessly. Yet, the moment Yin’s Heavenly Lightning started shifting and changing, that imbalance disappeared and the two powers began churning and merging at a quick rate.
As Yin’s Phantasmal World of Lightning started forming, as their two Phantasmal Worlds merged into one great, raging storm of water and lightning, Laien closed his eyes. He hadn’t hoped to benefit from Yin’s breakthrough, but he was extremely excited to discover that he could clearly sense the lightning-element insights of Yin’s and furthermore, he could comprehend them for himself! Perhaps for this moment in time the benefits he could gain would be limited, but as the time went on, those gains would be even greater than what he could obtain from the fiery-haired woman’s Soul Imprint!
And to top it off, Laien was certain that those benefits worked both ways! Until now, he and Yin had only been able to directly share their insights into the Principle of Energy through their Combined Soul Realm. Yet, it looked like they could also share their insights into Elemental Laws as long as they did so through the Phantasmal Essence! The Phantasmal Essence alone would have been very effective, but if both of them had their Phantasmal Worlds established, then their gains would be insurmountable! After all, as far as Laien could tell, the two of them would be able to share their elemental insights in an extremely short period of time, just like with the Principle of Energy!
“The more risks you take,” Laien mused half-consciously. “The more dangers you have to face and the more dangers you overcome, the better the payoff will be. Indeed, no chained dragon or caged tiger will ever be able to reach the pinnacle of cultivation!” he thoughts excitedly, then focused on comprehending Yin’s Profound Mysteries of Lightning. At the same time, he was sure that Yin would do the same with his Profound Mysteries of Water once he finished his own breakthrough.
Six hours. They wouldn’t be able to keep up their Combined Soul Realm for this long anyway, so while it lasted, they had to grow their insights as much as possible.