After Naath fell unconscious, the twelve elders all jumped at the same time and went to check on his condition. After they saw that he had seemingly just been over-exerted from his breakthrough and needed to rest they let out sighs of relief. They all took positions surrounding Naath and started to focus on their own injuries, using their martial power to heal themselves. While all of this was happening just outside of the village, a few dozen miles away was the group of three young men sullenly walking back towards a city. They all wore looks of disappointment on their faces as they walked.
“Aiiiz, senior brother Han, what do we do now? The sect master specifically asked us to catch that rune for him while he repaired the damage it caused during its escape. How do we tell him that we let it get away?”
“Junior brother Fan, if even the elders managing the sealing formation and the sect master himself couldn't stop that damned rune from escaping what chance did we ever have of catching it? We three brothers simply got lucky that we were on the scene and unharmed so we got sent. The strongest of us is barely at the second stage of muscle strengthening. The sect master and elders simply sent us as a last ditch effort to keep the rune in the sect so we could extract more secrets from it.”
“Senior brothers, can this junior brother Zui ask that before we go back to the sect to be scolded we at least stop by a bar to get some good wine and wash away our troubles?”
The two senior brothers looked at Zui in partial annoyance but then began to laugh at the question. No matter what, this junior brother of theirs only ever seemed to be thinking of wine and getting drunk. After laughing for a moment the eldest of the three disciples nodded his head in assent.
“Junior brother Zui, while normally I would scold you and tell you to drink less, I think this time we should indeed find a place to drink our troubles away. I’m sure you already have a place in mind so go ahead and lead the way.”
Hearing this Zui’s face lit up and his step had more vigor than it did a moment ago. His posture changed and he now confidently led the group of three out in a particular direction. He planned to take his two senior brothers to a city called the Raging River city. It was a bit out of the way but in his opinion, the quality of the wine there made the trip more than worth it. While he might be a heavy drinker he wouldn’t just drink any trashy alcohol from any run-down bar.
As this trio made their way towards the city, the elders had moved Naath back to his own home. He was still unconscious and it seemed like he wouldn't wake up for the next couple of days. One of the elders would always come in and check on him once a day to make sure he was still okay. After the third day, the elders all held a meeting discussing what they should do about Naath given his clear talent for martial cultivation. After a lengthy several hour debate the elders all agreed that they should send him to the nearest sect in order to get proper tutelage.
Their small village was simply unable to really help him develop and cultivate properly. They had no martial skills to offer, zero idea about formations, and no budget to spend to uplift Naath and provide him with resources. Even the smallest sect, a single star copper sect would be hundreds of times better for him than this small village. With that decided the elders all prepared food and water for the journey they would send Naath on. While they were going to send him to the nearest sect, it was still almost a year's journey to get there by foot.
They would normally send him by boat, however, recently a large storm had just come in and ruined all of their sails making them completely unable to go upstream. They thought about simply having Naath stay for a few weeks while they repaired the ship. After thinking though, they decided that going on a journey on foot would be good for his bodily training and would give Naath more worldly experience. When they finally had everything ready, they just needed to wait for Naath to wake up. It took a whole week before he finally did so, and when he did he was groggy and out of sorts.
He awoke with a massive headache and rolled over to go back to sleep when he suddenly heard a voice.
“Heh, not bad brat, a reincarnator from a world without cultivation, and yet you came up with these true void arts. Not only that but even after having me tear my way into your soul sea it only took a week to recover? You're a rare talent alright, I guess I chose correctly when I decided to select you as host. Anyway, kid close your eyes and try to feel your surroundings, I opened your soul sea. You should be able to see everything around you with just your soul now.”
Naath was confused and ignored the voice he heard in his mind trying to simply remember everything that had happened. He recalled the energy in his body entering the cycle of True Void, he remembered excruciating pain beyond anything he had ever felt. He remembered feeling ecstatic at the feeling of having successfully broken through. He was relieved and relaxing after his triumphant breakthrough, and then a pain that utterly dwarfed the pain from his breakthrough struck his mind. After that, he faintly remembered hearing someone say “what an interesting brat!”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
After he recalled everything he then paid attention to the voice in his head saying.
“Okay, who, or what the fuck are you? Why are you in… Wait did you say you’re in my soul? Get the hell out!”
“Haha, now you pay attention to me huh child? As for who or what I am, you aren’t ready to know, it's literally a billion years past anyone being able to know my identity. But you can call me ‘King’ I am indeed in your soul, but this is a blessing to you. I have opened your soul sea, not only that but since you cultivate in something that would enrage the damnable heavens if they were to know about it I will even teach and guide you. Congratulations kid, this is an opportunity most people can only dream and agonize over yet it fell right into your lap. My knowledge of soul cultivation arts is unrivaled in all of history!
Also, no, I will not leave your ‘soul sea’ which is what I am in by the way. I am not inside of your true soul, that is something I would struggle with even in my prime. A person’s True soul is damn near immutable, even the heavens have a rough time recycling a person's true soul. I don’t care that you don’t like me being here, I need to be here in order to recover. I have been kept prisoner in a certain sect for hundreds of years now. I needed to leave and stretch my legs so to speak. Like I said though I won't stay for free, I plan to teach you how to become a soul master. You will see how grand this opportunity of yours is in the future.”
“Hmph, don’t want to leave? Fine then, let's see if you can remain when I do this! You want to teach me?! Too bad! I’ll just take all of your knowledge for myself anyways!”
With that Naath focused his consciousness into his mind and then into a space that seemed to reside within his mind. This space seemed to be made of some ethereal energy, Incorporeal yet tangible. Invisible yet clearly visible, Naath figured this was his soul sea that this rune had talked about. After he focused on this space he began to run the True Void Arts, slowly this space settled and the ethereal energy stopped churning entirely. It became calm and still and then empty. The energy of nothing then flooded in, once his soul sea was full of the energy of nothing creation was born. Upon seeing this ‘King’ became frightened and panicked.
“Wait! We can talk this out, I’m sure there's something I can offer you! Please don’t kill me, I haven't seen even a single of my brothers or sisters for over a billion years! Please! I’ll leave, just let me stay for a year, no three months and I’ll leave!”
Hearing this Naath paused for a second and thought to himself. ‘Oh, a cliche? Interesting.’ Then he spoke to ‘King’ again.
“Okay ‘King’ hold on a second, elaborate, a billion years? That sounds a bit far-fetched, no? And what's this about your brothers and sisters, why should I possibly believe you? Give me one good showing of evidence and maybe, just maybe I’ll let you stay.”
“Ah, thank you, young master! Thank you! As proof of my words allow me to share some of my memories with you. Just the time I have seen pass, I cannot give any specific details else you may be killed on the spot.”
With that, the rune let some of the information from his memories flow into Naath’s central soul. When this information had finished flowing in Naath suddenly felt as if he had experienced over a billion years of time. Yet strangely to Naath, this period of time felt completely insignificant. But this was indeed the proof he needed so he stopped circulating his true void arts in his soul sea, calling the energy of creation back to his body to complete the cycle.
“Alright King, that will suffice, I guess you can stay. I’m guessing to learn your secrets and information I’ll ‘have to reach a certain level of strength or it will hurt and hinder me, not help me? Haha, what a fun trope, fine let's hear it.”
“Uh, yes, indeed young master that is the case, since you have decided to let me stay please allow me to form a soul binding contract with you. I will swear to share with you everything that I safely can and promise to with the best of my abilities train you into the greatest soul master this world has ever seen. In return simply let me stay here and recuperate, you can even determine the time frame.”
“Hold on, before that, you said you haven’t seen your brothers and sisters in over a billion years. I assume you want me to help you find them or something? How long will it take to find them all and why should I?”
“Ah, young master, you really are a smart one. Yes, I was hoping that you could help me to reunite with my brothers and sisters after so long. It would be a long and grueling process, to say the least, not only that but the level of soul master you would need to accommodate all of us would be… Well, it would be difficult to reach in any short time frame. But in return, each and every one of my brothers and sisters is an absolute master in a particular field. I can guarantee that no masters like them have existed since the dawn of time. If you are to reunite us, each of them would be willing to teach young master everything they know! Even if they arent this king will order them to do so.”
“Hmm, that does sound interesting, and fun. Haha, okay little King, you have yourself a deal. You can stay until I gather all of your brothers and sisters, in return, you must promise to teach me.”
“Thank you, young master!”
With that ‘King’ reached out with his own soul energy towards Naath’s true soul and formed a link with the promises stated imbued into it. After a moment Naath felt a kind of link or binding on his soul. He knew that the contract had been formed, and from the feeling, he could tell that ‘King’ Would gain full access to his soul sea and the memories within it however, the ones in his central soul were locked up tight unable to be seen by anyone but Naath himself. He would be unable to alter or interfere with them at all, but he could see all of it, and once he could he let out an audible shriek of surprise.
He had pried into some of Naath’s memories before and what he saw left him mildly surprised. However, now that he could see everything he was stunned silent! He saw the wonders of the earth, the reach of man, even without cultivation, with only the use of machines. He had never seen or imagined such wonders before, of course, he was absolutely stunned by what he saw. With that settled though he calmed down and began to rest, forming the soul contract had completely exhausted his remaining energy. Now King would have to rest for a long period of time in order to recover enough energy.
Naath heard King’s surprise and then felt him drift into a sleep like state. With that Naath laughed lightly and closed his eyes looking around with his soul like King had suggested earlier. Surprisingly he could see everything in stunning detail, far more than his physical senses would ever be able to detect on their own. It was like a 360 degree view all around his body for about ten feet. Naath was ecstatic seeing all of this and it reminded him of “En” from the series HunterXHunter from earth. After a few minutes, he got bored of it and just got out of bed to go find the elders and keep his word in helping the various industries of the village.