Kai's gaze passed over the glittering crystal trays, each brimming with soul fragments. Neatly labelled sets of ice-blue heart gems were matched with their corresponding skill cubes. The three sets lay there like secrets frozen in time, waiting to be chosen by the heir.
Kai's jaw hardened at the thought of the young man. A torrent of unwanted memories rushed to the fore – the bitter confrontation after Meilin's death, the accusations, the raw fury in the heir's eyes. Yet, the same man was now the strongest of his generation, a gem polished by adversity, favored by the elders of the Iceheart clan.
A pang of guilt clenched Kai's stomach. 'Meilin,' he thought, 'I must visit her before I leave.' His mind had been a whirl of tasks, each demanding immediate attention, causing him to almost neglect his promise to the woman.
Returning his attention to the crystal trays, Kai studied the skill cubes. The opaque ice-blue cubes were small enough to fit in the palm of one hand, each showcasing a different skill. The technological marvels sat in their designated compartments, their mysteries guarded by their frosted exterior.
With some fine-tuning, they'd managed to make the decoder work. It wasn't that he couldn't add or remove the skills at will – a fact confirmed during the tweaking process – but the ability to identify each skill without incorporating it into his soul was a convenience he didn't underestimate.
A smile tugged at his lips as he stared at the silent cubes. 'What am I going to do with you, my frosty friends?' he pondered, feeling the weight of the decision. Yet, the icy cubes held their counsel, remaining as elusive as the secrets they housed.
Kai traced his fingers over the shimmering soul cores, his mind entangled in a vortex of thoughts. Possessing these skills was well within his reach. He could plunge them into his memory matrix, fuse them with an available cluster, and instinctual understanding would flood in - a direct gift from the spirit beast. But his soul stood divided into three pillars, unlike a non-soulforger, devoid of a matrix. How could he transfer these skills?
The soul's complex architecture intrigued him. According to his latest theory, the mental elements of his soul - represented by the circle, square, and triangle columns - were once housed in his body, unified before being separated into the three columns in his soul space and the seven soul gems in his body. Kai paused, letting the idea percolate in his mind.
With thoughts spiraling at a lightning-fast pace, he sought the crux of the matter. The skill cubes were the knowledge repositories, holding the spirit beast's instinctual wisdom about their skills. Yet, the skills were linked to the core - the spirit weapon, the energy. One needed the knowledge to access it, but it seemed the potential was inherent, waiting to be discovered.
His gaze fell on the white bear's skill cubes - each repository carved with a name encircling its sides: 'Arctic Roar,' 'Glacial Surge,' 'Blizzard Hide.' Four others followed, their names hinting at the power they contained. He placed them back, their icy sheen reflecting off the light.
With determination, he pushed the ice gems aside, reaching for other soul cores. It was time to experiment.
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Lian Yue confronted his reflection in the mirror, barely distorted on the bronze panel's gleaming surface. Beads of sweat prickled his forehead, a testament to his turmoil. He eased the tension clenching his jaw as his eyes remained riveted on his mirrored image. Today wasn't a day for unrest; it was a watershed moment — a golden opportunity granted by the elders to tread the greater path of cultivation.
Most cultivators longed to stride down this path, each privately envisaging their journey's destination. Some yearned to equal their parents' cultivation prowess, a sign of filial commitment and aptitude. A rare few, however, dared to dream of immortality. Lian Yue had never craved such grandeur. His sights had been set on a more modest goal: to rise to his father's rank and secure an elder's respected status.
He ran a hand through his hair, the silky strands slipping through his fingers as his mind traced back to his past. A youthful encounter with Meilin, the patriarch's daughter, had started his extraordinary destiny. His firm discipline and earnestness had caught her eye, a fortunate turn that eventually led to an arranged marriage, securing his future within the esteemed patriarch's family.
He had never imagined going beyond these achievements, but today promised a new beginning. A ritual awaited him — a process of soulforging where his essence would interweave with a spirit beast's, enhancing his cultivation capabilities and making the once-unreachable possible.
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His jaw tightened again, and a harsh grating sound echoed in the silent room as his teeth ground against each other. Ajha Kai, the soulforger. He remembered Meilin — her bright eyes, her spirited laughter. The person who now wore her face was a stranger to him, her body grotesquely transformed and her once vibrant spirit now strangely docile. Ajha Kai had twisted her essence, creating a devotee in the place of the woman he loved.
Lian Yue's hands clenched and unclenched, a physical echo of his resolve hardening. He lacked the power to confront Ajha Kai directly in this world ruled by might, but revenge would be his. A plan was already unspooling in his mind, a strategy of patience, perseverance, and cultivation.
A smile touched his lips as a steely resolve lit his eyes. He would weather the soulforger's rituals, gain strength, and when the time was ripe, he would ensure Ajha Kai tasted retribution. Today marked the beginning of his long journey — a path he would not tread lightly.
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Her restlessness shattered the tranquility of Xian and Lia's private stateroom. Lia's pacing had begun to fray the edges of the woven rush mats, the elegance of her disheveled hair a stark contrast to the austere room. Her anxiety was like a storm, unsettling the calm.
"It has to be a technique," she muttered, her voice echoing with a desperation that clung to the stateroom walls. The term 'unbound' had surfaced from the abyss of forgotten tales and now lurked in their midst, a monstrous specter that refused to be dismissed.
With his steady presence, Xian, anchoring the storm, urged her on, "But what does it mean, Lia? 'Unbound'?"
A nervous chuckle slipped from her lips, a hollow sound that held no mirth. "No, he can't be unbound. It's simply a technique—a soul projection, nothing more."
But Xian remained unpersuaded. His pen was poised over the notebook, waiting. "Yet you've been whispering it like a dark secret, Lia."
His wife's pacing ceased, her piercing gaze meeting his. She recounted tales of ancient soulforgers, so powerful that their souls could transcend their corporeal confines, becoming entities of their own. It was a tale as old as their craft—revered, feared, and forgotten in equal measure.
His pen danced across the page, capturing every nuance of her tale. "So you're afraid?" Xian's voice broke the silence, his eyes wide with realization.
"The power," Lia replied, a tremor running through her words. "An unbound can extract souls from afar. Their soul is their strength, cultivated and hardened. Unless they meet their match in another soulforger..."
Xian's blood ran cold. "They would become invincible. Using the souls they've harvested to ascend their cultivation..." His voice trailed off, the implications crashing into him like a tidal wave.
"And you saw this? His soul detached from his body?" Xian's pen tapped against the page, the dread reflected in his wife's eyes becoming his own. "Could he be... an unbound?"
Lia's voice, previously a quiet murmur, rose sharply. "Don't you see what that would mean, Xian? We'd be obligated to confront him before he becomes too powerful!"
Her fear was palpable as she began pacing once more, her denial shrouding the room. "He's using a technique, Xian. He has to be." Her voice quivered with the weight of her claim. "A technique to project a soul form. Near his body. Record that, Xian."
Her plea lingered in the air as Xian noted her words, each stroke of his pen echoing the silent prayer in his heart.
"A technique... close to his body," he wrote, while a chill ran down his spine. A simple technique or the advent of an unbound? Only time would tell.
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Amidst the vacuum of space, marked by a sea of glimmering stars, floated Relay. His streamlined form, a symbiotic fusion of power cells, engine cores, and essential life-support systems, gently curved in a dance with gravity. A faint smile touched his spiritual core as a pang of nostalgia coursed through his circuits.
This was my body before my transcendence into an Eternal.
With a silent command, his thrusters hummed to life, thrusting him forward in a burst of speed. The sensation of acceleration stirred something within him, a joy mingled with melancholy. He longed for that forgotten certainty, the comfort of a clear identity, and the reassuring rhythm of purpose.
In the deafening silence of the void, he cut off his thrusters and drifted in silence. His spirit, a complex weave of spiritual circuitry mirroring the intricacy of human spiritual networks, resided within this metallic form. This core, his new heart, was designed to harness his cultivation skills, such as teleportation, empowering him to journey across the stars.
However, his non-humanoid appearance posed a challenge. In a world like Long Yuan, he wanted to blend in when needed.
Then, responding to an unseen command, he began a mesmerizing transformation. Components detached, minuscule fragments broke away, and the whole frame disintegrated in seconds, reducing the once sturdy ship to a nebulous cloud of microns. A radiant blue orb pulsated at the heart of it all, casting a ghostly hue on the floating particles.
In the stark solitude of space, he thought, "Who am I, truly?"