Back at the peak of the mountain in the elders’ hall, a group of seven elders were watching a projection screen of a young man with jet black hair, dazzling green eyes, and a thin frame that was slowly starting to fill out meditate peacefully switching from tree to tree. This young man was exactly Naath, in a remote hut in the middle of a lake another elder was also watching him through a small projection while sipping tea. The seven elders were all talking with one another excitedly. Elder fen spoke asking “will someone finally complete that demon's training?”
All of the other elders went quiet and simply watched the screen until the wood around Naath slowly started to disappear and turn into pure wood energy. The elder in the fourth seat was the one to speak. “What the hell is that?! What cultivation method does this kid practice?! No wonder he can handle that demon’s training, he’s a fucking monster himself!” The elder in the third seat said “hmm the rate he's absorbing energy is 20 times more than our greatest cultivation technique in the sect at least! Just what place did he reincarnate from to have such a heaven defying cultivation method?” All of the elders nodded and wondered the same thing as they watched Naath.
Elder Gui at his lake island hut was also watching and seemed to be completely indifferent about what he was seeing. He was thinking that this was the minimum requirement to be his disciple. Naath back in the forest finished his last compression and drew in even more energy. A small popping sound started to sound from between his bones and joints. Naath braced himself for what was next, he took a deep breath and all at once drew in all the energy needed to directly charge into the early stage third level bone hardening.
*Crack!!!*
*Snap!!!!!!”*
Naath’s bones completely broke into dust releasing a deafening boom with a solid sonic wave spreading outwards from Naath. All the trees within 20 feet of him except the one he was on fell over instantly not standing a chance. Now there was a 20 foot clearing around Naath and his one tree. The soundwave carried out through the jungle everywhere it passed the magical beasts fled and panicked. All of the beasts at level five bone hardening or below had their eardrums rupture and grimaced from the pain. Brutus however saw all of this coming and had taken some leaves and plugged his ears and had his paws over them bracing for the sound. Though Brutus did not expect the shockwave and wind so he flew to the edge of the 20 foot clearing as well.
The shockwave traveled out further and further until eventually it even reached the edge of the jungle. The beasts there at the muscle strengthening stages thought the sound was another magical beast challenging their authority and roared back. The sound of them roaring however didn't even come within a few miles of Naath. Back at the elders’ building they were all slack-jawed and at a complete loss for words. Even elder Gui, sitting calmly at his table sipping tea, spat it out and said “Holy shit! This brat is kind of impressive I suppose.” Naath back on his tree in the jungle was tense from enduring the pain of rebuilding his entire skeletal system for the third time.
The worst part of all of this to Naath was being unable to grit his teeth to bear it because they too had shattered into dust. So Naath sat there in the complete agony of his skeleton rebuilding itself from dust and raw martial energy. The rune in Naath’s soul sea however spoke up at this moment saying “hey brat, why don't you infuse some of your true void energy into your bones as you reconstruct them. Most people with high-end elemental cultivation methods do this to develop elemental bodies.
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This makes them much more compatible with these elements and makes them far more resistant to any negative effects. It can also increase their rate of cultivation, in some cases, these unique physiques even grant special abilities to the user. For example, some people with top end fire cultivation methods will gain the ability to control all fire in a certain radius around them or become completely immune to the fire. Some even become able to create flames from nothing and control them perfectly.”
Naath took note of all of this and decided to give it a try, so as he slowly remade his entire skeleton he introduced threads of true void energy into them to help bind them. After a few hours, Naath was done reconstructing everything and opened his eyes. This time however he noticed a change to himself that had not occurred prior. His body, specifically his bones felt like an endless abyss that could never be filled, like a true void. Naath’s aura now also had a subtle change, it was like it was there but also not. On a whim Naath wondered if this altered his aura colour any so he ran the art he learned at the entrance tests.
Once Naath did he noticed his aura was now more intangible and hard to see, it was becoming fainter and fainter. Naath was stunned for a moment and after he shook himself from this he ran his true void arts lightly and the energy in his body circulated so smoothly and quickly it was almost foreign to him. He looked down at his own palms in disbelief. After that he ran his true void arts devour ability with his hand on the tree below him. In moments there was an indent in the shape of Naath’s hand about half an inch deep into the wood. Naath reeled back again at this discovery. Naath yelled out loud “Thank you senior!” If the rune had a body it would be smiling right now at this recognition.
Naath made a mental note to work on this with every breakthrough to a new level in bone hardening. As he made this note Naath noticed new knowledge in his soul sea however and grabbed it. Naath’s jaw went slack and he said “t-this senior what is this?! Isn't this a little too much?!” The rune in Naath’s soul sea had completely missed the information and not noticed when it appeared. This was because it was written in true void energy. When the rune read it he said “haha an innate ability, and this- this is insane, kid your physique what the hell?”
The information written there floating in Naath’s soul sea read “True void physique: beginning unique art “void walker”. At the early stage, coat oneself with void hiding themselves in plain sight and covering up their aura temporarily. Intermediate stage, merge the void energy with one's own body concealing everything of oneself. Mastery stage, use true void energy to consume all traces of oneself. No sound will be made with movement, no airflow will change with the breath. The void will consume oneself and the user is now one with the void.”
Naath immediately began to run the void walker skill and found it was much more difficult than he had imagined. He was just barely able to draw out enough true void energy to cover himself and maintaining it was exhausting. It also took all of his focus meaning he could only use it while holding still right now. Naath guessed it would take him a year to reach even the early stage of the skill. Naath was both delighted and disappointed. He also saw the name of it “true void physique”. Naath asked the rune “senior if I'm the first to ever use true void energy then why does all of this already exist?”
The rune spoke again saying “ah that, these things are determined by you yourself. Your body will innately know the art, you subconscious will name it. As for your physique name, it was also your subconscious and personally, I think it is rather fitting. If this physique were to be shown to the world especially the fact that this is only its absolute infancy most people would faint over it and bloody wars of slaughter would rage across the cosmos for your cultivation technique.” Naath gulped down his own nervous saliva hearing that, he knew his true void arts were powerful and grand but this? This was something Naath was not prepared for quite yet and he took a few deep breaths to calm himself.
The rune spoke again saying “brat what are you so worked up over? You haven't even left this pathetically small little world and you’re already panicking over this? Trust me nobody from the higher worlds would come here unless they were desperate!” Naath smirked and asked, “then senior why are you here?” The rune went completely silent and Naath simply laughed as he got down from his tree ready to test out his new cultivation to do battle against wild beasts once more. In the blink of an eye, another few months passed as Naath and Brutus fought bloody battle after bloody battle only making it a few miles towards the edge of the forest.