Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 189. Phantasmal Worlds Evolve.
“Yimar,” Abdain spoke up the moment he leveled his speed with Yimar Maar. He had come to see that continuing his exchanges with Julien would be pointless around ten minutes after the battle in the forest ended, so he came back for the time being. “Are we going to continue?” he asked in a fairly neutral tone, seemingly not bothered by the loss of another few hundred of his ruby-golden robed men. He had, after all, immediately seen that the thousand which had entered the western part of the forest was reduced by half, leaving him with about five hundred elites. He was even aware that the majority of his martial masters of the fifth rank was gone, but his eyes appeared more regretful than angry. However, as for what he was truly thinking, only he knew.
“We have to,” Yimar Maar said, clearly frustrated by the lack of progress. He and his own thousand and a half of elites had inflicted heavy casualties on those northerners and Julien’s elites, but Arslan’s party had promptly ordered a full retreat, leaving the most important prize outside of their reach. What’s more, he was infuriated to see that Abdain’s men, despite his orders to take it easy, had lost half their numbers in the same period of time. “What else can we do? We can only play into their hand and hope to come out on top. Once Reian recovers enough strength to fight us, they are bound to engage us again, so we should just keep following them,” he added grudgingly and gave Abdain a discontent look. Had Abdain taken care of Arslan when the time was right, before Julien made his breakthrough and before those northern reinforcements arrived, there would be no problem now.
“Yimar,” Abdain spoke up after a few seconds, his voice sounding as calm as before. “Us chasing them is only a good idea if we assume they will try to complete their Shadow Trials using us. What if they give up on trying and simply lure us in too far, then have more reinforcements come and wipe us out?” he mentioned. Then, he suppressed a sigh and said a few more words. “Yimar, I also don’t think it’s Reian who’s undergoing the Shadow Trials. They wouldn’t have fought us in the forest had it been him. In my opinion, it’s more likely that it’s those two Devil-children facing the Shadow Trials.”
“Hmph,” Yimar Maar snorted in response to Abdain. He was too annoyed by his condescending tone to react in any other way and no matter what Abdain said, he wouldn’t consider retreating at this point. They couldn’t possibly flee to Arkaria with their tails tucked between their legs, having lost not only the Yimarate they were supposed to govern, but also the majority of their core forces. He doubted that Arakar or the Great Prophet would move to help them in any way had they fled with only failures on their record and on the other hand, Mustafa would undoubtedly do everything in his power to hunt them down. They had no choice! He refused to go back to his life from a few hundred years ago and hide in the deserts with a few hundred loyal men for decades to come!
“We keep going,” he stated coldly. “If you want to make yourself useful, go reorganize your men and take care of the horses that will soon start coming from the nearby cities. If possible, bring as much of the cannon-fodder we left behind to the front, too,” he ordered and threw the entire matter out of his mind in order to calm his anger. Yet, coincidentally, in this anger of his, he had completely ignored the piece of information about the Shadow Trials which Abdain brought up.
Abdain himself didn’t say anything else and merely nodded towards Yimar Maar. He knew from experience that arguing with Maar was usually pointless, but in this case, he didn’t consider the topic of who was undergoing the Shadow Trials to be too important. At the very least, he would convey his thoughts to his subordinates and perhaps to the portion of Yimar Maar’s men he was familiar with. As for whether Yimar Maar came to think about this matter or if he heard about it again from one of their men later on, he didn’t consider it to be something to worry about.
---
Three hours after the end of the battle in the great forest, the stalemate of endless chase continued. From time to time, Casimir would order his men to move through the roundabout paths, at others he would ride straight north, towards the great defense of Aegis. All the while, they would at most times keep a steady speed of around three hundred and fifty kilometers per hour. After all, they didn’t want to lose the slower and weaker of the enemy martial masters, who could only run so fast.
This wordless agreement to keep a steady pursuit without any encircling maneuvers or engage attempts went on. Behind Casimir and Anna, Laien and Yin also continued their meditation. The two of them were slowly approaching the daily limits of their Combined Soul Realm session duration, but at this point in time, the two of them weren’t even aware of this fact. To the contrary, they were so absorbed in the changes occurring in their souls that they would have trouble reacting in time if their physical bodies were to be attacked. Unbeknownst to others, the two of them were at the crucial juncture of their breakthroughs, ones which even they didn’t expect to experience.
Once Yin had finished comprehending his Phantasmal Essences of Lightning, a series of events, which the World itself would never allow to happen, did actually take place. Yin’s bloodline of the Shenlei Clan, of the Clan once regarded as one of the five most powerful Clans in the known Universe, the bloodline which had been joined with Laien’s own bloodline back in the Sarkcente Kingdom… for a Blood Pact to be established between members of those two bloodlines, and members with such an incredibly high potential, it was something that never should have happened. Putting the laws of the Universe aside, those Clans would never have allowed it to happen back at their prime. Especially the Shenlei Clan, which was aware of the risks that entailed establishing a Blood Pact and consequently a Spiritual Bond, would have done everything in its power to prevent one of its prodigies from establishing a blood pact with an outsider, much less with one with such a powerful bloodline.
After all, when a Blood Pact was considered, the line that separated a relation of partnership and relation of master and servant was a thin one. As for a relationship of mutual trust which Laien and Yin shared, Blood Pacts like those were already incredibly rare. For those who trusted, or chose to trust one another, to then develop a relationship as close as the one of Laien and Yin when they were able to share all of their genuine thoughts, motivations, and emotions… it was rare beyond belief. For such an unlikely development to happen between two geniuses, both sharing powerful bloodlines, it was something that had never happened in the times past, not even once. So, while it was a surprise, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Blood Pact between Laien and Yin was like none other.
That being said, while sharing one’s insights into Elemental Laws at an unbelievably fast rate was incredible, it wasn’t something World-Defying. Yet, what was actively occurring around Laien and Yin’s Combined Souls was two steps beyond the concept of sharing elemental insights. The two of them had not only established their own Phantasmal Worlds, not only began sharing their insights through those Phantasmal Essences, but those two Phantasmal Worlds of theirs began merging! Not merely combining temporarily but actually merging! While those concepts were similar in nature, the end-line effects of theirs were as different as heaven and earth. After all, this change that was occurring wasn’t a momentary phenomenon, but a fully permanent evolution.
At first, the Phantasmal World of Water of Laien’s and the Phantasmal World of Lightning, which Yin had formed, had already been united on the fundamental level through the Combined Soul Realm. However, those two worlds that were filled with boundless water and lightning had begun resonating with each other more and more strongly and finally, they began merging. While both Laien and Yin were feeling overwhelmed by the torrents of respectively lightning-element and water-element insights, their temporarily combined Phantasmal Worlds began sharing their substance permanently.
The flowing seas of calm waters and of stormy waters, the mist in the ‘skies’ and the clouds which they seemed to form.
The unrestrained and unpredictable lightning that struck with madness in some places, yet seemed to be performing a spectacular dance in the others.
It was generally impossible for two Phantasmal Worlds which originated from different origins to join with each other. If someone tried to force it, the two parties involved would suffer a great backlash. Moreover, even if some Heaven-Defying way of performing this merge existed, then the stronger the Phantasmal Worlds, the more impossible the task would become. Yet, in Laien and Yin’s case, the first problem was solved by the Blood Pact ability of the Shenlei Clan. As for the second problem, the immeasurable talent of theirs had more than made up for it. Having established their Phantasmal Worlds while still in the mortal realm, the two of them were beyond the level of mere geniuses.
As such, the lightning imbued itself within Laien’s Phantasmal World of Water, its power increasing the more lightning-element insights Laien comprehended. Similarly, the water merged itself with Yin’s Phantasmal World of Lightning and continued to grow more powerful as Yin understood more about the water element. This exchange of insights was, in fact, so ecstatic and thrilling for Laien and Yin that the two of them unknowingly fell into a state of enlightenment. As a result, what should have taken at the very least five or six Combined Soul Realm sessions to complete was already almost finished within the timeframe of one. Be it Laien’s insights into the water element or Yin’s insights into the lightning element, both were far beyond their cultivation levels. Yet, within just three hours of real time, the two of them managed to comprehend each other’s insights almost entirely.
However, even though it seemed as if they were on the verge of completing the exchange, the phenomenon continued without end. As for why this merge was yet to complete? It was in truth quite simple and on the other hand, quite ridiculous indeed. The two Phantasmal Worlds were, after all, still perfectly united thanks to the Combined Soul Realm, so the more the merge of their natures progressed, the more powerful those two Combined Phantasmal Worlds became. This, in turn, allowed Laien’s and Yin’s insights into their own respective elements to grow exponentially, what then went back all the way around and served to fuel the first stage of the entire process, thus allowing it to continue almost indefinitely.
Had it not been for the inherent limits of Laien’s and Yin’s souls, which caused the rate at which they gained new insights to slow down, the two of them could have very well spent years in this state of perpetual enlightenment. However, such a wishful development was in the realm of fantasies as the souls of practitioners in the mortal realm simply weren’t able to handle the amount of information necessary to progress further. Because of that, once the four-hour mark passed, the spiritual avatars of Laien’s and Yin’s opened their eyes at the same time and simultaneously revealed wry smiles.
“I underestimated it,” Laien said with a laugh. “I thought that sharing our elemental insights would be less beneficial than the Phantasmal Essence of Inferno from that fiery-haired woman, but in terms of utility, it’s already much handier! Even in the long-term, it will be far greater than simply assisting ourselves with the Phantasmal Essence of Inferno!” he exclaimed as a pleasant shiver of excitement spread throughout his body. The two of them knew that mastering insights of many elements was beneficial and even those two ‘youths’ from the Anarchic Lands had said so, but probably not even those two ‘Demons’ would have imagined how far they would take this concept!
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Be it as it may, the ‘foreign’ Phantasmal Essences, while serving as a powerful auxiliary asset, were in the end just that, an auxiliary asset. Using such Phantasmal Essences would always be rough around the edges and they would never truly become a part of one’s foundation. Moreover, growing them would be quite a challenge. The Phantasmal Essence of Inferno which the two of them could wield was, after all, an incredibly rare gift from that fiery-haired woman. Using those insights, that were gained through the Soul Imprint and cultivated at an unnaturally fast rate thanks to the qualities of their Combined Soul Realm, as a template for all foreign Phantasmal Essences was wrong.
In other words, while Phantasmal Essences of elements one didn’t cultivate were powerful, they were also hard to obtain and inherently limited in usefulness.
On the other hand, once their Phantasmal Worlds acquired dual elemental natures, they became capable of using their new strength as naturally as if it was their own to begin with. After all, thanks to the Blood Pact, their ‘origins’ came to be one and the same, so the origins of the Phantasmal Essences and subsequently Phantasmal Worlds of theirs would naturally be compatible, too.
Thinking along those lines, Laien could only marvel at the wonders of the Blood Pact. Not just their insights into the Principles of the World, but they could also share their insights into the Elemental Laws! This made him wonder if a way to share their insights into the Aspects of Humanity existed, too. If he were to guess, it would need to be a way that didn’t rely on the universal concept of Principles nor the unity of origins like with the Elemental Laws since the essence of the Aspects was unique to each and every person. Still, he had an inkling that as long as they were slightly lucky, they would be able to work around this issue in the future, if not fully then at least partially.
“Mhm,” Yin nodded with a smile. He didn’t really want to add anything to the chain of thoughts of Laien’s as he was of the same mind, so instead he decided to bring up something else. “Did you notice? Our souls also grew stronger. I can feel it… and I think we spent more than three hours here, yet we feel perfectly fine,” he pointed out. They would have had to endure terrible headaches every time they got too eager and forced themselves to prolong their Combined Soul Realm sessions beyond roughly three hours, but now they were perfectly fine even after more than four hours. This undoubtedly meant that their souls had somehow gotten more powerful while they were forming their own Dual Element Phantasmal Worlds. As for how much more powerful, it was a little hard to say, but he wanted to try and see what their new limits were.
“Mm,” Laien nodded, knowing what Yin’s thoughts were. “I’m curious too, so we might as well, even though we don’t need to,” he said playfully and as he expected, he received a ‘really, huh?’ kind of smile from Yin. He laughed out loud, thinking that it really was a bit weird when their thoughts were being shared far faster than they could speak words, even in those spiritual forms. “Fine, fine,” he conceded and closed his eyes. It was fine to follow Yin’s whim since they would be able to tell when the limits of their Combined Soul Realm were approaching, so there would be no harm to it. And, well, it wasn’t like he wasn’t curious to find out how much stronger their souls became either.
Right after Laien, Yin closed his eyes too with a content smile present on his face. He, of course, knew that maintaining Combined Soul Realm was pointless for the kind of insights the two of them wanted to hone next, but if he felt like it and there was no harm, then why not? Thus, he focused on applying his new insights into the Profound Mysteries of Lightning to his Thundercloud Sword Art while Laien dedicated himself to improving his insights into the Aspects of Tranquility and Wrath. Although two hours of cultivating wasn’t a long time, the two of them were certain to make some decent progress.
Additionally, while the two of them dedicated most of their attention to their main goals, they went ahead and did one more thing. With how stable and powerful their Phantasmal Worlds had become, they both were confident in applying them to their Qi Origins. All they needed to do was to send a steady stream of Phantasmal Essence and stir the inner worlds of their Qi Origins, thus causing them to slowly and steadily transform in a risk-free way. After all, their current Phantasmal Worlds were centered around their souls, so they still had to properly apply them to their martial cultivation.
In this way, the two remaining hours passed and no sooner than they did, the two of them heard Casimir’s voice coming from ‘outside’.
“Laien, Yin.”
“Wake up.”
Interestingly, the two of them were just beginning to feel the first signs of mental exhaustion, so they welcomed Casimir’s call with open arms. They took one second to leave their deep state of meditation in a non-forceful way, then they opened their eyes. When they both looked at Casimir, however, they saw the young man flinch for some reason. They were pretty sure they were restraining their auras, so they were bewildered as to why Casimir reacted to them in this way.
Little did they know that their breakthrough had pushed not simply their aura, but their presence itself to a whole new level. While they would be able to learn how to suppress it too in due time, at the moment they were doing close to nothing to conceal it. Presence… it was a subtle thing and not just anyone could sense it clearly, but to Casimir, it looked as if both water and lightning glimmered in their eyes and it felt as if their existences had advanced beyond the realm humanity. It wasn’t exactly fear that he was feeling, but it was something similar to awe towards something beyond him.
“In five minutes,” Casimir began saying after collecting himself. “We will ride into an abandoned marble mine in the northern Guode Yimarate. We will enter a large cone-structured area and once we are close to its dead-end, we will stop and face our enemies,” he explained while using his Qi to send his voice over to the ears of all of their companions. Afterwards, he added one more thing but directed the words only towards Laien, Yin, and Anna. “I see that you two grew even stronger in this short period of time. That’s good since I doubt that your Shadow Trials will end if you only kill the enemy elites. So, I want you two to target Yimar Maar. We will set you up as much as we can, but killing a supreme martial master of the fifth rank will be anything but easy. Will you try doing it?”
Despite Casimir dropping a metaphorical bomb all of a sudden, Laien’s and Yin’s expressions didn’t change at all. The two of them glanced at each other briefly, then nodded at the same time. They couldn’t be sure how long this last battle would last, they couldn’t be sure if Casimir had gauged the timing correctly and if their saviors would arrive once they fell into peril. However, the two of them had shared a few ideas and discussed a few possible plans while they were still training in their Combined Soul Realm. Even without Casimir’s suggestion, they would have targeted Yimar Maar and if an opportunity appeared, they were set on aiding in sending Abdain to the other world, too.
“I’ve got nothing else to tell you,” Casimir said with a calm smile. “Well, maybe one thing… Good luck,” he added quietly and with those words, albeit unintentionally, he finally got a reaction out of Anna. The young woman laughed and looked at him with a bright smile, only to comment playfully.
“I never thought I’d heard you, who always prioritizes logic and calculations over things like luck and fate, wish someone good luck.”
“Hah.” Casimir chuckled and looked at Anna. Before he even tried to reply, he spent a good few seconds to appreciate the bright expression on her beautiful face. He could tell that she wasn’t pretending to have gotten over the loss of her Royal Guards from the clear look she had in her eyes, and it served to remove some burden from his shoulders. “It’s the first time… well, the second time, technically, that I’m gambling in my life. We all did what we could, so all that’s left is to rely on luck, no?” he argued back in a lighthearted tone. He wasn’t fond of things like luck and fate, just like Anna said, but it didn’t mean that he thought they were completely irrelevant. Rather, he preferred to do everything in his power not to be led around by the nose by those two annoying concepts.
“As always,” Anna started saying while suppressing a laugh, though to little effect. “You always rationalize everything, eh? Even though you are actually quite emotional, you coat everything in logic and brains. But I guess that’s one of the charming points about you, you know?” she mentioned playfully. Then, when she first saw a look of contemplation appear in Casimir’s eyes, only for him to then blush slightly in embarrassment, she failed to hold it in any longer and laughed out loud.
Directly behind Casimir and Anna, Laien and Yin smiled at this little heartwarming exchange. It might have been but a few chuckles, a few sentences, and one loud laugh, but once again, the air amongst all the experts in their group lightened up. Especially Anna’s remaining fifty or so Royal Guards, they no longer released that gloomy and dark aura and to the contrary, many of them showed relieved expressions. This one change, in particular, got Laien’s attention and made him muse about it.
“They must really like Anna, eh? Had their bonds been thin and unstable, this laugh would have broken their morale and made them resentful instead of cheering them up. They did lose half of their friends and companions during this day, after all. It’s quite amazing,” Laien thought to himself. Anna was just three, maybe three and a half years older than him, but the more he watched her, the more he couldn’t help thinking that she was an amazing young woman. Be it when she insisted on coming with Casimir, when she fought Abdain so decisively in their first battle, or when she managed to regain her spirits after the costly battle in the great forest and as a result, lifted the spirits of the entire party too. He also had to admit that she was quite a beauty with her long, ash-blonde hair, clear facial features with a hint of a warrior-like feel to them, and with her well-balanced body.
“Casimir’s quite lucky,” Laien murmured soundlessly and laughed in his heart. He didn’t interact with Anna all that much so far, but he could tell that he didn’t dislike her character either. Honestly, if she wasn’t already in a relationship, he would have been interested in getting to know her better. “Oh, come on,” he rolled his eyes in the middle of his thoughts when he sensed some jealousy from Yin’s side. The two of them exchanged a look and after a second, they both smiled at each other helplessly. They hadn’t really talked about this subject at all, so it was probably a good idea to do it in the near future. Admittedly, both of them could tell what their feelings on the topic were, but at the same time, they also wanted to have a calm conversation about it just to make everything clear.
“Laien, Yin.” Just as the two of them were getting lost in their thoughts, they heard a familiar voice call out their names.
“I’ll be playing support,” Reian said with what was probably the most level-headed look in his eyes since he learned of Jasmine’s death. He then looked at the silver-haired man to his right for a second, exchanged a nod with him, and finally looked back at Laien and Yin. “I’m going to stick close to Julien, so the two of us will keep a portion of the battlefield sealed. We don’t know where Abdain will go, but we think he will choose one of the flanks and not the middle,” he explained briefly. While Laien and Yin were meditating, he and Julien had talked some about the incoming battle. In fact, almost everyone in their group did the same and all of them came up with some additional tactics of smaller or larger scale for themselves and their small teams of friends. With the above in mind, what he and Julien were looking for required additional aid, so that was why they were approaching the boys.
“it’s just an in-case thing,” Reian continued saying. “But if Abdain chooses to rush in and takes a high risk, then if possible, we’d like to ask you to assist us. As long as us three can force Abdain to display a big enough opening, Julien will be able to wound him heavily or even kill him,” he concluded calmly, much to Laien and Yin surprise. The two of them could still see hatred deep inside Reian’s eyes, but this hatred was no longer burning wildly. Instead, it was like a mass of hot embers in a fireplace, ready to flare back up once more fuel was added. Yet, strangely enough, this sight didn’t worry Laien and Yin. For some reason, they had a feeling that this hatred no longer controlled Reian.
It was as if Reian was the one who could control whether his hatred would flare up… but this in itself brought a different worry to Laien’s heart. He wouldn’t say it aloud, but he had an ominous feeling that if their battle went astray, then Reian was planning to sacrifice himself in order to allow Julien to kill Abdain. If this gut-feeling of his was right, then they had to do everything to prevent it. After all, although he and Yin weren’t showing it since it was no time to mourn or show weakness, Jasmine’s death weighed heavily on their hearts. If Reian died too, then they wouldn’t know how long would it take for them to feel at peace with their own emotions again.