“Woah…”

Micro’s mind was overrun with unfamiliar imagery, complicated ideas, and strange languages. At first, he thought the card was defective, but the strange thoughts began to make sense to him in time. He walked out of the garage, closing the door behind him, and had understood the contents of the card’s teachings by the time the door was shut.

“I think I did it!” Micro shouted as he awoke, still seated before the sect leader.

“It’s like learning to read a map of your own body, all the little roads your energy needs to take to make a shield!”

“It’s been seconds since you began, young one.” The sect leader chuckled.

“You must be mistaken. Incorporating a Core Card requires powers of imagination, visualization, and concentration that do not come easy to mortals. Even I struggled for many years to safely open my core and absorb the card. But your card is still… Wait… Where is your card? Did you drop it?”

“I put it in the back of my soul.” Micro replied with a wide grin.

“But for your consciousness to safely enter and exit your core to observe your soul is not so easily accomplished and not in such-”

“I just opened the door.”

“What human could possibly construct a door in their own core?!” The sect leader chuckled, still in disbelief.

“No genius or prodigy, regardless of their core level, could defy their own nature to such an extent. To simply pry open open a piece of your core like a door without damaging it irreparably-”

“I didn’t open it myself, really.” Micro interjected.

“I just push the button and it opens by itself.”

“You pushed…” The sect leader paused.

“I was worried at first, but your instructions were clear.” Micro replied.

“Thanks, master!”

“Kel did warn me…” The sect leader sighed.

“That you were incomprehensible…”

“That was weird!” Blue suddenly shouted, waking from her meditative state with a flash of light.

“Cramming a turtle into your soul felt as gross as I thought it would.”

“You too…?” The sect leader asked expressionlessly.

“What, did the boy beat me to it?” She quipped at Micro, whose reply was a thumbs up.

“It took a while to squish it down enough to fit inside.”

“Squish…?” The sec leader whispered.

“Ya, it clearly wasn’t designed to fit in a pixie core.” She replied.

“It took some wrestling. Alright, let’s see what you got, boy!”

“Sure!” Micro answered enthusiastically. He stood up beside her and made a similar pose to what he’d seen the sect leader do not long before.

“One, two, three…” Blue shouted as the two of them began to glow.

The sect leader could only watch with wide eyes as the pair of novice cultivators before him coated themselves with the same turtle shell armour he had displayed earlier. Micro’s armour was a bright white colour, while the pixie’s armour was unsurprisingly blue.

“Oh, not bad kid!” Blue jumped up and down while comparing her armour to Micro’s.

“But yours definitely lacks finesse compared to mine. Look how smooth it is-”

Blue’s proud display was cut short as her armour suddenly disintegrated and she fell to the ground panting and gasping for air. Micro bent down to pick her up but she slapped his hand away with an awkward face.

“I’m still a bit too tired for that, it would seem…” She admitted as she picked herself up off the ground with some difficulty.

“To be able to summon such armour mere moments after mastering the Core Card…” The sect leader wondered.

“Just how much life force does a pixie contain…”

“How strong am I?” Blue said with a sideways glance.

“Let’s see…”

She looked around for a moment as she regained her composure, then picked a small pebble up off the ground. She tossed in the air and caught it, then continued.

“Say this rock is the energy I’ve managed to recover since the kid found me…” She explained and pointed a finger at Micro. She then looked down at the ground.

“This mountain would be the power I had before the magicians started harassing me.”

“That’s pretty strong, isn’t it?” Micro remarked as the sect leader appeared to turn to stone.

“How did they catch you if you were so strong?”

“They didn’t just walk up to me and put me in a cage, you bonehead!” She huffed.

Stolen novel; please report.

“How many thousands of magicians have been hunting me and the others down since the new gods showed up?! The only rest I’ve had in a thousand winters was in that dungeon!”

“A thousand…” The sect leader mumbled, unable to form a coherent thought or reply.

“Pixies don’t really think about gathering energy like this. We just wait for the energy to come to us. But with this core…” She said a dark grin crept across her face.

“Now I can recharge at will…”

“What have I done…” The sect leader whispered in horror.

“That’s great!” Micro replied.

“And you can use Core Cards now. Let’s find some more!”

“Hmph.” She turned her head away with a condescending look.

“I’ll allow you to accompany me for the time being.”

“Thanks, Blue!” Micro answered happily.

“Hey, Trill. Give me the rest of the cards!”

“Which ones…?” Trill’s unpleasant voice replied.

“All of them! I can finally learn them!”

“Fine…”

With a dissatisfied grunt and a flash of light, more Core Cards of various colours and designs flew out of Micro’s pocket and landed on the ground. Micro quickly arranged the cards in front of him while thinking about which one he would use next, but something suddenly occurred to him.

“Did I have this many cards?” He asked aloud while Blue and the sect leader leaned in to take a closer look.

“I’m pretty sure you had nine before, eight if you don’t count the one you just ate.” Blue replied.

“Sapphire…? A Ruby Spirit Vision Card…?” The sect leader mumbled in shock as the cards scattered on the ground glimmered and sparkled in the sun.

“Here’s the yellow snake and shield cards from Ray…” Micro said as he began to collect the cards he was familiar with.

“These are four cards we found in the skeleton… This is the red one Feng gave me… And this green one was the other card the turtle gave me.”

“The guardian bestowed the Jade Armour Trait Core Card upon you?!” The sect leader remarked.

“Few among my ancestors could say the same…”

“But what are these two cards, Trill?” Micro asked the pixie still pouting in his pocket.

“Those…? I found them…” He replied curtly.

“Where?” Micro asked.

“It was a long time ago.” Trill replied impatiently.

“I don’t remember!”

“I wonder what they are…” Micro wonder as he picked up the two remaining cards.

“I can help you with that!” Kel suddenly shouted from a short distance behind the sect leader.

“I mastered the Appraisal Skill for a reason!”

“What of your own mastery of the Turtle Art?” The sect leader asked Kel as he approached.

“Wait, don’t tell me…”

“I mastered it a moment ago!” Kel replied as he effortlessly summoned a similar armour to his grandfather’s own without missing a step.

“Impossible…” The sect leader frowned.

“You were raised on the teachings of our sect alone…! To rush through such a process as mastering our most sacred art would be reckless and-”

“Forgive me, grandfather.” Kel bowed as he came to face the sect leader.

“I will honour my sect in life and death, but I have seen past my limits.”

“Good job, Kel!” Micro shouted.

“Thank you, master.” Kel replied with a bow.

“After witnessing powers so far beyond what I thought my own limitations were, I began to view myself in a different light… I think…”

“You wouldn’t dare…” The sect leader interjected with a mountainous aura.

“I plan to succeed where my father failed.”

“Insolent fool!” The sect leader roared.

“I will bring honour to this sect, grandfather.” Kel asserted.

“I will lead the alliance to new heights!”

“Our sect has survived this long by embracing the path of the mountain and the turtle!” He continued with a calmer but colder tone.

“We witness the world and the passing of time as a constant, immovable entity. We endure the passing of time and we outlast every tribulation…!”

“But that is not that path of the turtle which I witnessed, grandfather.” Kel replied confidently.

“I witnessed a path through the turtle’s trial not of patience, but of single minded determination. Did you not learn in your own trial that time is not to be endured? It is to be ignored!”

“You lecture me?” The sect leader growled, but he was unable to find the words to argue.

“I have also studied the testimonies of our ancestors who passed the trial before us, and I know there are those who passed the trial through endurance alone, but that is not how Micro earned the highest honour the guardian of the Jade Fire Turtle Art Dungeon could grant.”

“The boy…” The sect leader’s face softened slightly as he considered what he had already learned from Micro in their short time together.

“I believe my father was right to pursue higher realms of power. Just because he didn’t survive ascension to the Amber Core stage…” Kel’s voice waned slightly, and he took a deep breath before continuing.

“I will not abandon your teachings for as long as I live, grandfather… But I have seen beyond the limits we set for ourselves here.”

“Limits we set for ourselves…” The sect leader repeated as his eyes wandered from the cultivating pixie to the otherworldly boy. He looked at the unbelievably assortment of Core Cards in the newly armoured hands of the boy, and he let out a long sigh.

“You see it too, don’t you grandfather?” Kel asked with a softer voice.

“You see the limitless potential of our arts with your own eyes.”

“You passed the trial with such beliefs in your heart, Kel?” The sect leader asked.

“I and Tae both did, grandfather.” Kel answered sincerely.

“Then who am I to question the path of a worthy heir…?” The sect leader asked, his aura returning to normal. He smiled warmly at Kel and nodded.

“I may have grown to confuse endurance with stubbornness in the years since I passed the trial of the Jade Fire Turtle Art dungeon…”

As the sect leader and his grandson enjoyed a moment of mutual understanding beneath the morning sun, they were abruptly distracted by the shrill voice of a small pixie.

“Wait, maybe you should stick to the green one for-”

Her warning was cut off by a brilliant flash of light that flung her, Kel, and the sect leader back several paces.

“Ouch…” Micro’s voice echoed through a cloud of dust.

“The yellow ones are way too heavy for my springs...”

The dust settled on his shoulders as he coughed up some blood, but he laughed as he regained his composure and picked his core cards back up off the floor around him.

“Micro…” Kel coughed.

“You just tried to absorb an Amber level Core Card with a Jade level Core… Didn’t you…?”

“Sorry, Kel…” Micro bowed, wiping the blood from his chin.

“You know what I’m going to say next, don’t you, master?” Kel asked with a sigh.

“I know…” Micro bowed again.

“I should have read the signs… I’m sorry…”

“Are you okay?” Kel asked as he stood up and adjusted his robes.

“It hurt a bit, but I think I can fix the damage…” Micro replied.

“I’m glad you’re safe, master.” Kel said, shaking his head.

“Thanks, Kel…”