As Naath slept he slowly drifted into his own soul sea, inside the rune was waiting for him. It spoke first saying “Naath, I cannot thank you enough for what you did, however giving up being heaven's chosen child for me. I don't think that was a good id-”
Naath waved his hand and his entire soul sea shook. The rune went silent as Naath altered the scenery inside of his soul sea, after reaching soul opening he had realised he could control the world inside of his soul perfectly.
Naath made his soul seem like the place he was from on earth, there were rolling green fields and large forests visible from the hilltop he was on.
This scenery went on for as far as one could see, Naath smiled and turned to the rune after observing his work. “Old rune, nine lifetimes ago I considered you a detriment to myself, however after thinking all that time and observing everything as I did I realised something. You have secrets, lots of them, I heard you when you were in my soul sea earlier. What exactly happened billions of years ago? Who were your brothers and sisters? Where are they now, are they also like you?”
The rune spoke saying, “you are not ready to know just yet, one you can leave this small world and have the power to wander this vast plane of existence I will tell you about my brothers and sisters.
However, you will not be ready to know what happened billions of years ago for a long ,long time. The heavens simply view you as a defier right now, with this they will only attempt to kill you during tribulations. The secrets behind what happened so many years ago would make you an endless target. The only reason my brothers and sisters are still alive today is because we have sealed that part of our memories. If not for this, we would all have been annihilated a long time ago. You can only know the secrets behind us when you have the power to resist the heavens themselves.”
Naath let out a breath and said, “fine then so be it, when will I be able to leave this world then?”
The rune said, “ah, I truly wish I had a body right now, I could convey everything like the annoyance I’m feeling right now. To answer your question, you aren't ready to know, if you knew how far away it was it would only negatively impact your drive to cultivate. Advancing a single level in each new major realm is several times more difficult than the last. For example, you just reached muscle strengthening and know how painful it is. The pain of advancing during bone hardening simply cannot compare right?
I guess for now I can tell you what comes after muscle strengthening is nerve enhancement. The nerve enhancement stage will restructure your entire nervous system to increase reaction time and sensitivity. It will improve your control over the level of force and power you use in almost everything. I will guide you as you grow and cultivate, in return I want you to help me with a few things.” Hearing all of this Naath rubbed his chin and thought for a moment. He waved his hand at the rune and his soul energy gathered around him.
The rune sensed no malice from Naath as he did this so he simply let the soul energy envelop him. After a moment the soul energy had completely enveloped him and began to change and take shape. It resembled a humanoid robot with a clear brain casing that could open or close based on whether or not the rune wanted to use this body. Naath’s soul energy connected to the runes and the rune could use that to control the “robot”. Naath had given the rune a body to use to express himself so long as he is in his soul sea.
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After that Naath said, “old rune, I accept your deal, I know what you will ask from me. You want me to seek out your brothers and sisters as well right?”
The rune shook his new head and said, “No, that is only a very small part of it, when you find them you may well have to kill others to release them from some bond or imprisonment. I want you to bring them into your soul sea as you have with me so that we may be reunited. Simply by the fact that you have chosen to stand with me over the heavens has already involved you in something so grand that you cannot even begin to comprehend it. You will need all of us if you wish to succeed.”
Naath nodded his head and said, “alright I agree, you have done nothing but help me thus far, even when I didn't particularly enjoy it. I accept your offer, when I am strong enough I will gather your brothers and sisters and protect them inside of my soul sea. Until then old rune please guide me.”
The rune nodded and smiled saying, “Naath, thank you.” After this, the rune waved its hand and Naath woke up immediately, when he did he realised he was on a bed and his skin was completely charred black. He felt nerve-wracking pain from the burns.
He immediately circulated his true void arts and began to direct his martial energy to heal his body. However, when he tried to heal his injuries there was some strange energy keeping him from healing them. Suddenly the seed came back to life and absorbed all of this energy in just a moment. Only after that did Naath’s burns begin to heal at a visible rate, an hour later he was fully healed. After he was fully healed he turned his attention in towards the seed in one of his true void membranes to discover it had not changed even slightly despite absorbing all of that energy.
Naath was speechless and wondered just how much energy this little seed would need in order to mature into a tree. As he was thinking this he remembered the void saying it was nourished by true void energy, so how did it absorb that lightning? As he became lost in thought Naath heard a nearby door open, elder Gui walked in with all the other elders and sect masters behind him.
When they saw Naath sitting upright, elder Gui spoke up. “Haha, what did I say I told you he would recover completely, my disciple is no pushover.” The other elders and sect masters with him were visibly surprised to see Naath sitting upright and conscious.
They had all clearly felt the energy of the heavens suppressing his healing and sustaining his injuries. However now he was sitting upright without issue as if nothing had ever happened. One of the other sect masters' eyes began to shine with greed when he looked at Naath as if he was looking at a peerless treasure. All of them had clearly seen an embodiment of the heavens condense into human form to speak with Naath, however, they had only seen it for a brief moment. They all firmly believed Naath was a child of the heavens and that the storm earlier was them communicating with him.
This particular sect master spoke up asking, “Young man, what terms has this raging river sect given you? My earthen arts sect can offer you the best possible dwelling and resources for cultivation and to continue down your path.” Naath shook his head and said, “senior, while I appreciate your offer I will stay here in this raging river sect, after all my first master is here. Not only this but cultivation is a rough and painful path, having an overly leisurely life would dull my sense of combat and my drive to go further on this path.” The sect leaders face changed and he charged at Naath saying, “fine then I will take you back by force.”
Sect master Su’s face scrunched instantly and he released his aura before the other sect master could move even a single foot closer to Naath. Upon feeling his aura, the earthen arts sect master’s face paled.
He froze saying, “y-you broke through to that realm?! Why, why are you still keeping your sect as 12th grade then?!”
Sect master Su snorted and grabbed the collar of the earthen arts sect master and threw him out. He landed directly outside the border of the sect and sect master Su’s voice came after. “Don't bother coming back or next time I will take you worthless life.”