14 A Sword Cultivator III

"I already explained why we Soul Cultivators cultivate the soul. Now, I need to teach you how we do that." Lya said, dispersing the flames and the swirl of air in her hands.

"After countless years of study, it was discovered that the soul is divided in two parts. Firstly, we have the core, that we call the Truesoul. It is in the Truesoul that our 'self' is developed, and is where our wills originate."

"Surrounding the Truesoul, we have what we call the Nebula. It is nothing more than the energy and vibrations your thoughts and feelings produce." Her hands were still raised, and what seemed to be a small white ball slowly took form in her hands. It shone with a silvery-blue light, looking like a star.

"When your soul becomes strong enough to perceive other souls, you will see the Nebula as some kind of mist swirling around the Truesoul. That is why it has this name." As she explained, a white mist formed around the ball, covering it. All one could see inside the mist was a blurry silvery glow.

"The Nebula is the bridge between the Truesoul and the physical world. It is how your Truesoul affects the physical plane."

"In the cycle of reincarnation, your Truesoul is wiped clean of the memories and will contained in it, and your Nebula is erased before the Truesoul is sent back to the world, into a new living being." The mist was erased, and the glowing ball was revealed again, but dimmed considerably.

"Soul Cultivation is nothing more than to use the energy in the Nebula to nourish the Truesoul, making it grow. This process happens naturally over the course of one's life,but is really slow. The degree to which one's Truesoul grows naturally is entirely dependent on how much they have been through in life."

"How much they felt. How much they loved, hated and suffered. How much they cried and how much they laughed." As she said that, the mist formed again around the ball, this time much thinner than before. As it slowly grew thicker and thicker, the ball started to get brighter and brighter and seemed to be slowly growing as the mist increased.

"Still, there is a limit. Soul Cultivation speeds this process and allows us to break this limit." Suddenly, the glowing ball started absorbing the mist, and its size grew considerably in a matter of seconds.

There was almost no mist remaining around the ball, making Amon frown. "The mist is almost gone. If that is the case, then…"

Lya shook her head, knowing what he meant. "Soul Cultivators naturally have an almost perfect control of their emotions after they reach a certain point in their cultivation. Because of that, they might strike as excessively cold and indifferent as you speak with them."

"Their beliefs are incomparably firm and their resolve is unshakeable. In other words, they are stubborn." She had a wry smile as she spoke, her eyes expressing sadness.

"But make no mistake, it is not that they don't feel, it is just that every time they are feeling something they use it as a chance to cultivate and get stronger. As such, they end up not showing much of their emotions. The Nebula is just a manifestation, not the source. Never forget that." Amon nodded hearing that. It made sense.

"When you said some people are born with a stronger soul…" He started to ask, stroking his chin and thinking.

"Yes, their Truesouls are bigger and stronger. This means that they either experienced many eventful lives or… they were Soul Cultivators once before." Lya put on a satisfied smile as she spoke. Amon understood what she was saying.

"Then I guess my past lives weren't that interesting…" Amon said with a wry smile, drooping his shoulders.

Hearing that, Lya didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. If the boy knew who he was in his past life, he would never say something like that. She made a huge effort to keep a neutral expression on her face as she asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Even if I can sense Qi, I can't manipulate it. By your explanation, my Truesoul must be lacking."

"You are right, your Truesoul is lacking." Lya said after thinking for a long time. She decided to keep what she knew to herself. "We will deal with this, don't worry."

Amon nodded hearing that, and asked, "When a Truesoul goes through that 'cleaning' process you mentioned… Is there a chance that something might remain?" He asked with a frown. What happened in the Broken Forest, when he found the isolated space and the way he knew Brightmoon's name… it was really strange.

To his surprise, Lya shook her head. "To be honest, I don't know. In theory, it would be possible if a person can somehow seal a very small part of their Truesoul, protecting it. But that person would need to have a deep understanding of the soul and an incredible power."

"Still, even if they managed to do something like that, it would be a part so small that it would at most be an impulse to do something, or a broken memory, nothing more. However, this is all speculation. I never heard of such things." She looked at him cocking her head, curious to the reason that made him ask that.

This made him frown slightly. Looks like it was indeed possible, but the chances were absurdly low. And if he had a weak Truesoul, there is no way he was a Soul Cultivator in a past life. What was going on?

Looking at his expression, Lya could more or less guess his train of thought. "Don't mind these things. Now, pay attention here." She tried to divert his attention and raised a finger. The slender finger started dancing in the air in a methodical way, leaving behind a golden trail of light. The light slowly connected, forming strange runes. Little by little, more golden runes appeared in the air, floating in the dark room.

When Lya was finished, she had drawn two incredibly long strings of runes. "Look at this Amon. These lines are what we call the Soulrousing Technique." Amon was surprised seeing the lines. The runes that composed them were familiar.

"Is this… the Divine Language?" He asked, looking at the runes without blinking.

"Yes. The first line here increases the production of Nebula. In other words, it magnifies your emotions. The second one catalyzes the Nebula and makes the Truesoul grow." Lya said with a smile. "The effects of the second one are really simple. The effects of the first one, on the other hand, are really interesting to see…" Her smile grew wider, and beads of sweat started forming in Amon's forehead as he heard her.

"All you need to do is think about them. I'll engrave the lines in your mind, to make sure you remember them right. If you get one rune wrong, who knows what might happen…" Lya extended a pale hand to Amon. "Do not resist."

Before Amon could react, a finger descended upon his forehead. It felt strange when that finger touched him. It was as if a cold breeze was blowing in his forehead. His forehead started to itch and his body tensed as an unbelievable amount of information suddenly appeared in his mind.

As the stream of information gushed in his memory, a splitting headache took over Amon, making him want to scream. However, he endured. He shut his mouth firmly, gritting his teeth.

After countless seconds passed, the stream of information slowly dried up, eventually stopping. Amon's was left with his head ringing as Lya took her finger away from his forehead.

"Good. Now all you have to do is picture the lines in your mind as you meditate and they should work."Lya gave a satisfied smile. "You already have an impressive Nebula around your Truesoul, so for now skip the first line of the technique."

Amon decided to not comment on how she never told in it would hurt like that, and instead took a deep breath, adjusting his mind. He close his eyes and the world turned dark. His breathing became rhythmical, and the dark world start to lit up in monochromatic tones.

The grey mist that covered everything, the Qi made itself known through Amon's divine sense. He carefully started thinking about the second line Lya had written in his mind. The golden runes seemed to be almost floating in front of his eyes as he focused on what was now a memory.

The runes started to dance around his head, and he suddenly shuddered.He felt a cold sensation creeping into his body, as if ice snakes started to slither around him. He felt unbearably cold for a moment, and then he felt extremely hot, as if the snakes had turned into lava. He started sweating profusely, and the sensations in his body seemed to alternated from hot to cold nonstop.

His muscles started contracting and the sweat made his clothes cling to his body. He started shivering, his teeth clattering. In that dark room illuminated by the moonlight, Amon was trembling nonstop.

When he thought he wasn't going to be able to endure anymore, a loud 'peng' echoed in his mind, as if something was broken. His sense suddenly expanded outwards, reaching outside his own room, covering the whole house.

The monochromatic tone was taken over by a faint color pallet, and the indistinct grey mist suddenly turned clear, as if Amon could see every billowing wisp of Qi in the smallest details. The whole world turned clear through his divine sense.

"This…" He was dumbstruck. So this is how his divine sense would evolve as his soul grew stronger? Wouldn't he really reach a point where a single swipe of his divine sense would be able to pierce through anything and he would sense everything about his surroundings? Maybe that talk about sensing the Foundations wasn't nonsense after all.

Lya's gentle voice echoed in his head "Oh? Looks like you advanced quite a bit. Why don't you try moving the Qi now?"

Amon focused on a particular wisp of Qi swirling in front of him. He extended his hands to it, imagining himself grasping it. "Move." He swiped his hands on the opposite direction the wisp of Qi was moving. To his surprise, the wisp of Qi stopped before slowly moving in the direction he willed.

"It worked!" He said, excited. After almost eight long years, he finally managed to move Qi! If he could absorb it, he would be able to start tempering his body and turn many times stronger than he is.

"Of course it did. You thought I was lying to you?" Lya said with a sneer. Amon's ears turned red in shame as he looked down.

"I would never doubt you." He said. "Do you think I would be able to absorb Qi?" He asked sheepishly, still embarrassed.

"Well, the only real hurdle is the fine control. All you need to do is absorb Qi through your acupuncture points and get your meridians full of it before moving it into the dantian." She said, shaking her shoulders.

The meridians were the channels through each one's energy would flow through their body. The acupuncture points overlapped with the meridians, allowing one to use it to directly send the Qi into them, and even controlling the flow of Qi.

In a certain way, acupuncture points worked as both floodgates to control the stream of Qi in the meridians and doorways that allowed the absorption and expelling of Qi from one's body. The dantian was the core of the meridian system, the center of the energy distribution and were it was gathered. It was located a few centimeters bellow the navel.

Amon took a deep breath and concentrated. He tried his best to focus on his surroundings, willing for all the Qi he sensed to start gathering in his direction. It was a slow process that demanded an absurd amount of willpower and concentration. Soon enough, the grey mist in the room started swirling around his body like a whirlpool.

Amon could barely be seen through the divine sense, but using the naked eye it looked like a hurricane was forming around him as the displacement of Qi made the air move.

He let out a long breath, and controlled a wisp of the Qi surrounding him, sending it to one of the acupuncture points in his arm. Amon's acupuncture points were closed, as this was his first time trying to absorb Qi. He had to open them one by one.

The wisp he controlled seemed to be gently knocking in a door, trying to slowly peer it open instead of forcing its way in. Slowly, the wisp of Qi burrowed in his skin, making its way into his meridian. The Qi seemed to glow for a moment underneath his skin.

It was a very long process. A human body had more than four hundred acupuncture points, and a cultivator needed to manage then all, trying to optimize the absorption of Qi and the flow in his meridians.

Lya patiently floated by Amon's side, using her divine sense to supervise his effort. He was quite clumsy and took an excessively long time to open each one his acupuncture points, but it was a fine result for a first try. Furthermore, he was slowly getting better and better, and it looked like he would try to end the process in one go.

She made no comments nor did she gave him any help. It was best if he experienced it all by himself, adapting to the control of Qi overtime.

After what looked like hours, Amon finally let out a long sigh. His face was pale and his whole body was drenched in cold sweat, but also seemed to be glowing, full of energy. His meridians were all filled to the brim, and his acupuncture points had all been opened. What was left now were the smaller adjustments, but these would come later.

Amon had never maintained a meditation for so long before. Maybe his Truesoul growing indeed could make him a better cultivator.

He cleared minds of such thoughts. What he needed to do now was direct all of the Qi he gathered into his dantian. He was incredibly tired, but he refuse to take even a small break. He wanted strength, and would chase after it as fast as he could.

The glow in his body started to dim, but a shiny dot lit up in his abdomen. As his body dimmed, the radiance in that point grew brighter, as if all the light was concentrating in a single point.

By the time his body returned to normal, that small dot seemed to be a star. It flashed once with a blinding light, and then went out.

Amon looked ar his dantian. All of the Qi he had gathered was inside it, forming what seemed to be a dense, grey cloud that glowed with a pulsating light, full of energy ready to burst out at any moment. He had finally done it. He finally was ready to step into Body Tempering and leave this frail and weak body behind.

After almost eight years stuck at the initial stages of Qi Gathering, he managed to reach the peak in a single night. This was nothing short of a miracle.

Soul Cultivation seemed to truly be a far better path than Elemental Cultivation. If that was the case, why had he never heard of Soul Cultivation before if it was so miraculous?

"Congratulations." Lya said, opening her bright eyes. Amon gave her a tired smile. Sweat dripped down his face. The whiteness of his skin made his golden eyes stand out even more.

"Now we can officially start your training." Lya looked at him, her eyes shone with expectation. Then, she said to herself, in a voice low enough so Amon wouldn't hear.

"I'll make you into the best Sword Cultivator this world has ever seen."