Or so he had planned at first. But after an hour of failure, he didn't want to push it. It was not working and that much was obvious as the soul sea remained empty and dark. He returned his consciousness to reality and opened his eyes back in the library.

He didn't know why but he failed. If the elders knew he had reached such a conclusion after only trying for an hour, they would likely vomit blood. This was a very advanced technique that could require years of practice to succeed...But Jin didn't know. To him, the author made it look simple and so it should have been. The fact that he had failed meant there was something he didn't get... So he read the first lines of the parchment again.

And he did find something. The example picked by the author were tools. But they were objects. Maybe he had failed because his definition of a tool and the author's were vastly different? Maybe he needed to focus on an object instead of himself. Maybe it required something inorganic? Or something that remained in one form throughout? Or...

Scratch that, he wasn't good at thinking about the theory. It seemed like he needed to think of an object so an object he would think of.

He returned to his inner soul sea and this time, he pondered on what object he should pick. What object accompanied him the longest... Maybe his boxers? No. That was quite stupid. As a warrior, if he had to think of the tool he was closest too, it had to be his body. But if it had to also be an object then it must be a weapon.

Now then, what weapon had been with him for the longest and which one was it most familiar with...The answer was obvious. There was one weapon that had been with him for the last years of his life. For more than the last ten years in fact. A weapon he knew absolutely everything about as he had even watched it being made. His old spear.

A very simple spear in design with a circular shaft and a blade on one end, all made of a very durable alloy. It had no fancy engravings nor any cool colors. It was just a simple and durable spear. But it had been his partner for a long time. So, if it had to be an object, it could only be this one.

He focused on the image of that particular spear, remembering the memories he had about it, the time he spent with it. He also felt the longing for it and how he missed it. Then, he willed it to appear. And, surprisingly, it worked. Colors began to appear in the infinite darkness. A mealstorm of colors who kept on circling in the middle of the soul sea. Slowly but surely, as he kept thinking of his spear, the mealstorm turned faster and faster. Until the colors began to take shape.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

And after mere moments, who seemed to be quite long yet quite short, a two-meter long average and crude spear appeared in his soul sea. He could feel the connection to it. As if it was a part of him. He knew he could move it however he wanted in this place. And he was getting ready to experiment with it.

However, he was forcefully brought back to reality. He opened his eyes and looked around at this empty part of the library. There was no one. So why was he brought back when he didn't will it? It felt weird. Then, something else felt weird. As if there was some liquid dripping down his face. There were no mirrors around so he just touched his face with his hand.

He felt the liquid then brought his hand to his eye in order to see what it was. And it turned out to be something he was very familiar with. The second liquid he was most familiar with in fact. It was blood. He couldn't be mistaken about this. But why would there be blood here? On his face? He did not fight. And it didn't seem like someone came here just to bleed himself on him. Wait. Since there was no one, wasn't it obvious that this blood was his blood?

But then again, why was he bleeding? That was the very last thought he had before he lost consciousness.

There were reasons why shaping one's will inside one's soul sea was an advanced technique. First, First, it required a rather tough prerequisite. One needed to be familiar with his tool of predilection to the point of it being like a part of himself. Fortunately, Jin thanks to his second life, managed to fill this requirement. In general, only older cultivators could do so...

The other reason was that the soul sea was something very strange. It was your self yet something beyond it. It could influence your own body but wasn't influenced by your body. It was something unique and special to a cultivator. And damage to the soul sea was very hard to heal. But more than anything, messing with your own soul sea was dangerous as it could directly have repercussions on your physical body and health state.

What happened to Jin was very simple. It was overwork. It had pushed his soul sea too far. Shaping the will in there was something that only experienced cultivators did for a reason. It took a toll on the soul sea as it forced the soul sea to be altered itself. Not heeding the author's warning and not being knowledgeable enough, Jin didn't know any of this. As such, he did something that was close to impossible. And was paying the price.

He forced his untrained soul sea to be altered after only a few days of being able to interact with it. Of course there would be repercussions. And such repercussions were materialized as exhaustion of the soul sea which turned into body harm. And this was why, on the fourth floor of the inner sect library, there was a kid with no core lying on the floor with blood flowing down his nose, eyes and ears.

He was still lucky that he fell on his back with his head facing the wall, otherwise he might have drowned in his own blood.