138 Sect Master Long

"Come in." A deep voice echoed as the obsidian walls slowly swung open. The heat that poured out was so hot that everything looked hazy. It felt as if both the sky and ground were on fire. After a brief moment, the heat calmed down, revealing what was inside.

"Father." Tai bowed respectfully.

Ed looked into the room. It was a large cavern and instead of a floor, the ground was made entirely of molten lava. In the center of the lava was a giant sphere of golden fire that rapidly spun in a clockwise direction. Occasionally, the fire would release wisps of the other elemental colors, as well as purple origin fire.

"Who is this?" The orb of fire's deep voice questioned.

"This is my friend, Ed. Also known as Forge." Tai explained. "He helped me escape the cage and even allowed me the opportunity to obtain purple origin mana." His body lit up in purple flames, and he lifted his head up proudly. "Father. I have brought back my own loyal forces to the sect just like I set out to do. I have mastered the seven paths of fire and stepped onto the road of purple origin fire. You remember our deal, right?"

"You wanted to marry the girl from the Purple Origin Sect." The Sect Leader replied. "It shouldn't be a problem. While she is Fang Chonglin's granddaughter, she's not terribly important to the sect. I'm sure we can work a deal out with them."

"Great!" Tai happily exclaimed.

"We'll set out in a few days. I'll leave the preparations to you." The voice ordered. "After the wedding, we'll focus on your next stage of training."

"Yes, father." Tai bowed respectfully. "Oh, right. I thought you might be interested in trying to recruit Ed. He's mastered purple origin fire as well."

"Oh?" The voice questioned. "Show me." An invisible force shot out from the sphere of fire.

A huge pressure enveloped Ed, and he struggled to not fall down to his knees. It was on par with the pressure he felt when facing the American President. He struggled to breathe as he forcefully activated his purple flames. Unfortunately, the flames barely helped stave off the pressure.

"Not bad." The voice commented as the pressure disappeared. The sphere of flames withdrew into itself, revealing the Sect Leader's true body standing within the lake of lava. To say he didn't look anything like Tai was an understatement. His body was huge, towering at least 2.1 meters tall. He looked somewhat like an ox, as his muscles bulged everywhere, similar to a body builder. His head was square shaped, and he had thick sword-like eyebrows. He had long brown hair that loosely hunt past his shoulders. He wore the gaudy orange-red sect robes, but he had the upper part tied around his waist, exposing his tanned upper body and six-pack abs to the world. Somehow, he even managed to make the flashy robes appear intimidating. His deep black eyes stared down at Ed and Tai.

'It's been a while since I've felt so short...' Ed complained to himself while sneaking a glance at Tai. He turned to look back at the Sect Leader, and then back to Tai again. 'Definitely adopted.' He thought to himself.

"Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Sect Master Huo Long." His deep voice reverberated throughout the cavern. "I should properly thank you for helping my son. How about this. I'll give you three of the finest concubines a man could wish for!"

"..." Ed stared speechlessly for a moment before regaining his wits. "I... Apologies. I'm not looking to settle down or start a family yet." He managed to reply.

"It was a joke! A joke!" The booming voice laughed. Sect Master Long exchanged a serious glance with Tai, and if Ed had to guess, it meant something along the lines of him not actually joking. "Ahem." The Sect Leader coughed. "How about we do a private training session instead? I don't mind training you for a couple days."

"That..." Ed hesitated, unsure if he should accept.

"Do it." Tai pushed him on the back to encourage him. "Not even I can train with the sect leader whenever I want. Even people from the Purple Origin Sect would kill for this opportunity."

'I guess I'll have to tell them...' He sighed to himself. "Sect Master Long, it's not that I don't want to train, but... I have damage to my soul. I fear any further progress along the 49 paths will put me past the breaking point."

"Damage to the soul?" Huo replied in surprise. He looked at Tai. "Leave Ed here so I can examine him. Go prepare a proper dowry for the wedding procession and I'll return Ed in a few days."

Tai had been equally shocked by Ed's revelation. He slowly recovered and nodded towards his father. He turned and left the two behind, the obsidian doors closing behind him.

"So." Huo muttered as he sat down in the lava. "You've damaged your soul, huh? Was it another cultivator?" His eyes flashed golden for a brief moment, seemingly peering into all of Ed's secrets and cultivation progress before returning to normal. "Ah, so you took on too much golden faith energy at once. That's a rarity."

'He can see it?' Ed wondered as he nodded. "Is here anything you can do to help?" He questioned.

"Afraid not." Huo sighed as he shook his head back-and-forth. "Damage to the soul can only be fixed through proper soul cultivation. I've never heard of another method, nor of any cultivators with powers that can attempt healing it. You're stuck like that on your own until you get a soul cultivation technique."

"Can you give me one?" He questioned, half out of desperation and half because he had nothing to lose by doing so.

"I cannot." Huo shook his head again. "In the age of glory, China had no lack of soul cultivation techniques. In fact, other places in the world usually had their own versions as well, though they were very crude according to our ancestors. However, there was a single exception to this rule. The greatest soul cultivation technique existed not in China, but in India. And today, that technique is the only known one to remain. Some of my peers even theorize that it is the origin of all soul cultivation techniques."

"And you can't transmit it to me?" Ed asked.

"Correct." He nodded. "You'll understand if you go there to see it yourself someday. It's something that is far beyond my power. Far beyond anyone's power."

"I see." Ed nodded, feeling dejected.

"Well, enough about that." Huo chuckled. "Just because you can't train in the paths doesn't mean you can't train at all. I'll give you two lessons during our session as thanks for helping Tai. Are you ready?"

"Mm." He nodded seriously, feeling somewhat excited about learning from a knowledgeable cultivator for the first time.

"Okay." Huo continued. "The first lesson will be purely informative due to your current limitations." He lifted his brawny hand up, and blue flames appeared on it. Shards of ice materialized in midair and exploded when interacting with the heat in the room. "The cold flame. The blue flame. The ice flame. It has many names and forms, but at the end of the day, it's always the same thing. Have you connected with the blue flame yet?"

"I have not." Ed shook his head.

"Do you know the key to unlocking the paths?" Huo questioned.

"Somewhat..." He hesitated. "I need to connect with them while meditating, right? And there seems to be some emotional aspect as well."

"Right." Huo nodded. "Each of the seven elements has their own characteristic, as well as six sub-characteristics. The experiences required to unlock the blue path of fire are different for everyone. However, we can take hints from the water element. Water is represented by coldness and detachment. This is the opposite of fire, which represents warmth and kindness. When I mastered the blue flame, I felt detached from the world, as if nothing truly mattered to me. However, that was not enough for me to fully grasp the path."

Huo stared down at the lava, seeming to reminisce. "However, that all changed a long time ago. My wife was an ordinary human, and she got sick with cancer." A tear slid down his cheek but was immediately evaporated into steam by the heat from the lava. "She was a good woman, and I loved her dearly. But watching the pain she went through was torture for me, even managing to shake my resolve to remain detached from the world. I searched for any cultivator that could heal her, but they all failed." Wrath flashed through his eyes. "I later discovered it was the plot of a cultivator to get revenge on me. There are plenty of cultivators that can cure cancer, but that bastard used some sort of weird power that no healer could break through! I swear, I'll get my revenge on that son of a bitch Zombie someday! If only he'd stop hiding in Africa!"

Huo quickly calmed back down. "But that couldn't save my wife. Near the end, the pain became too much for her to bear, and she did the unthinkable." His face hardened. "She asked me to kill her to put her out of her misery. I nearly felt my soul shatter that day." He sighed. "At that moment, I broke out completely from my detachment from the world. I sobbed like a child for days, and then embraced her and killed her. It was my final act of kindness towards my beloved wife, but I had to return to my normally detached self to manage to give her that kindness." He looked at Ed. "Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you."

'That you're even crazier than me?' Ed thought to himself before shaking his head. "I don't understand. Sorry."

"The place where the element of fire takes on the characteristics of the element of water is where the blue flame emerges. For me, it was the kindness I showed my wife and being detached from the world. Only when the two contradictory ideas coexisted, did I finally master the path. That path was by far the most elusive for me, and it took me a very long time to master it."

"I see." Ed bowed respectfully. "Thank you for sharing your story and experience with me."

"Experience is meant to be shared." Huo dismissively waved his hand. "The emotions others use to unlock the blue flames will vary, but the overall theme should relatively be the same. It is always the contradictory paths that are the hardest to master. I will leave it to you to find the other emotional requirements to properly connect with them, but I'll at least give you some hints. As far as the elements themselves go, fire represents warmth and kindness. Water represents coldness, detachment, and transformation. Earth represents both creation and protection. Wind represents freedom and control, two contradictory ideas within a single element. Lightning represents destruction and annihilation. Did you get all that?"

"Yes." Ed nodded. "And the other two elements?"

"I was just getting to that." Huo replied. "The last two elements of light and dark are more unique. Dark represents death, corrosion, and darkness itself. Light represents life and light itself. However, neither of these elements are pure, and neither can exist without the other. Even within the base elements, there is a hint of light in dark and a hint of dark in light. The concept of yin and yang."

"What do you mean?" Ed questioned, confusion covering his face.

"I'll give you a hint." Huo grinned, though it looked intimidating on his face. "Have you ever seen the light element for healing or to create bright light?"

"Of course." He nodded. He had seen Kate manipulate bone at the academy a long time ago, which could be considered a sort of healing. In fact, he could feel himself using the light element whenever he made changes to his body. As for bright light? Plenty of cultivators used such attacks.

"Well, what about the light element killing people?" Huo questioned.

"I've seen that too." Ed nodded again. "It's fairly common."

"Right." Huo agreed. "So tell me. Why is the element of life and light capable of killing others? Isn't that completely contradictory?"

"That..." He hesitated a moment before answering. "I suppose it is..."

"Exactly." Huo replied. "When the light element reaches an extreme, it instead causes death and corrosion. In fact, the corrosion is so strong that it can be better described as extermination, similar to the lightning element. This is the darkness existing within the light. So tell me, what do you think happens if the dark element reaches the same extreme?"

"That..." Ed thought for a moment. "Extreme darkness causes healing and life...?" He guessed.

"Correct." Huo nodded. "Once the dark element reaches an extreme, it will give birth to life. What form that life takes will depend on the abilities of the cultivator, as well as their other elemental affinities. Things only grow more complicated when you factor in other elements and paths."

'Complicated is an understatement.' Ed sighed to himself when thinking of all the paths he had left to master. As he was being taught anyways, he worked up his courage to ask for more. "So, what's beyond the 49 paths and purple origin mana?" He questioned.

"Classified." Huo grinned. "I only teach that to my disciples." He stood up from the lava. "For your second lesson, I will show you the secrets to unlocking the eight hidden meridians. It looks like you're already training in a technique that can unlock them, so I'm guessing you just don't know the methods for finding them."

'The eight storage meridians?!' Ed's eyes widened in surprise. It seemed that the Sect Master had really seen through everything to do with his body. "Yes, please teach me." He requested respectfully.

"The eight storage meridians are the same for everyone, though they move around randomly within the body." Huo walked closer to Ed. "However, most cultivator need help from more experienced cultivators to unlock them, while others can do so themselves. The latter is preferable, as it gives better results, but it's ultimately up to fate and not the cultivator."

Huo placed his hand on Ed's shoulder and sent a wisp of mana inside. It traveled through Ed's body, searching through out it. Soon, it located a small area near Ed's middle heart. It was barely the size of the tip of a pencil. "Hmm. So, you've had some extra organs added to your body. Do you feel the storage meridian?" Huo questioned.

"Mm." Ed nodded, feeling the foreign mana surround something he had never noticed before.

"That is the storage meridian for fire." Huo explained. "Of the eight storage meridians, seven correspond with the elements, and the eighth is reserved for purple mana. Only an esper with the proper types of mana can discover and fill them on their own. Fortunately for you, you meet those requirements and can fill them yourself once you find them."

"What about those that don't meet the requirements?" Ed curiously questioned.

"Others help them." Huo answered. "For example, I could fill your storage meridian with fire mana myself. This would benefit your body, allowing it to grow used to fire-type mana and strengthening it over time. However, the foreign mana would also damage the meridian beyond repair. Not that it really matters since an esper without fire-type mana could never fill it on their own. But the benefits to the body will be limited to those that receive help, and their actual mana capacity won't increase at all."

"I see." Ed nodded. 'So, Tai and others with only a few elements probably get help from their sect seniors to open their storage meridians they lack the proper mana for.'

"Alright." Huo smiled. "Go sit down and meditate upon the hidden storage meridians. I'll watch over your progress, and then, we'll call an end to your training."