Hello, dear readers! Here's chapter 147! This chapter marks the end of Book 2. 147 chapters written... It sounds a bit crazy, but it's true. I hope you're still enjoying the story and that you will stay for the following book 3 and beyond. It is far from over, I can tell you as much!
Interestingly, whether it was a coincidence or fate, my 'project' I've been working on is finally ready. I've created a youtube channel, which will be a mix of audiobook and visual novel. Even if you're not interested in the visuals(they are nice too), the audio is guaranteed to be soothing. The story is obviously 'A Knight's Journey', but adapted to youtube's rules (No R18 for example). I also changed some dialogues slightly. Anyway, if you're interested, the first video will be out on April 11th at 6PM GMT+7. I will put the link to the channel below.
Anyway, that's it for today, so if you can and want to support my work, do pledge at least a month on Patreon (Starts at 1€/month) and/or buy my book (8€=9USD) through the links below.
Bye!
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Bright Star City, Bright Star Island, Flowing Stars Archipelago, Earth
Omniscient P.O.V.
It was said that when the Heavens wanted you dead, surviving was impossible.
That was the thought briefly traversing his mind before Demian's consciousness was almost completely obliterated by the mountain-rending Lightning bolt, leaving only a sliver of Soul behind.
The destructive energy was so powerful that even the previously invincible armor grew some worrying cracks.
Strong enough to fend off missiles as if they were merely annoying flies, the defensive item was clearly reaching the limit of its resistance with the Heavenly Lightning,
Although part of the reason behind the armor's apparent weakness was the fact that Demian's low cultivation made it impossible for him to wield the treasure's full strength, the latter's passive resistance was still not something to scoff at.
And that was for an item specialized in defense, with defensive capacities way beyond what an average human body at the same level was capable of bearing without being destroyed.
Granted, Demian's physique was anything but average, even beyond those Beasts at the same cultivation level.
It was still not enough, though.
In less than a blink, every piece of flesh and bone was vaporized, instantly turning into cosmic dust.
Skin, Muscles, Tendons, Organs, and Bones?
All gone!
The only thing left was a small red bead that seemed on the verge of disappearing, floating where his Heart was previously located.
A hint of vitality could still be felt from the bead, but no mental fluctuations, as if Demian's Soul had been completely obliterated, leaving only the last trace of his Essence behind.
If that were the case, then the young man would be as good as dead, as a body without a soul could not be truly considered alive, merely a living flesh vessel.
However, was Demian truly dead?
If Seraphine were present, she could have answered that question, but unfortunately, the young woman had chosen, or more specifically, had been instructed to stay at the mansion.
Thus, Liya and Bryn could only use their senses to guess his situation, and what it told them was anything but good.
Of course, aware of his Perks, they still held some hope, though it was growing more tenuous as time passed by without any visible change happening.
Unlike them, however, Sergei and Mikhail, with their more powerful Soul senses, could tell that something was brewing in that Essence bead, though the exact details still eluded them.
However, noticing the worries on the two women's faces, Sergei still opted to send them a Voice Transmission.
["I can feel some life fluctuation from the Essence bead, so Demian should still be alive. You've all seen how he previously went from losing his entire body aside from his bones to full health in a few instant, so it's likely just a matter of time before his body heals completely."]
Indeed, though his armor possessed some obscuring attributes, the damage from the last two strikes was too great, letting their Sense penetrate its interior unimpeded.
Thus, even Adeliya, with her weak cultivation, had been able to sense the massive weakening in his Aura before it had grown beyond its previous limit, though she caught the change because Demian did not bother hiding his Aura, the distance between them otherwise being too large for her weaker Soul Sense to feel anything.
This time, though?
Well, with the cracks in the armor, there was no such thing as hiding anything, at least outside of that bead.
As for what was happening inside it?
Even Mikhail's Peak Void Seed senses were kept outside, incapable of piercing through that deceptively weak layer of Essence.
Although that was anything but normal and certainly involved some great secrets, the General was part of the Federation's main faction led by the Supreme Elder, which believed in nurturing prodigies, respecting their privacy, all in order to develop the Federation further.
'Why should I let someone much weaker than me hold a treasure that could help me grow my cultivation or improve my combat prowess?'
It only took a few centuries to discover the answer to that question, with prodigies in every sector popping out like bamboo shoots, from those military warriors to those technical professions like Formation Master.
Draining the majority to feed the few never worked well, something everyone in the Federation had been made aware of with time.
Thus, in the situation where Mikhail could have investigated Demian's secrets to—maybe—take it from the young man, the former, instead, chose to stay put, his mind filled with expectations for Demian's future.
'Why do I feel like we've all underestimated the lad? Well, that'd be a good thing. The stronger the lad grows, the better it is for the Federation. Who knows, with him leading the way, the Federation might even become a Mid Tier 6 power, and not just a Low Tier 6 one...'
While the audience was filled with a mix of emotions, the 'actor' was experiencing a strange situation.
With no real body, a sliver of his mind barely existing, and a persistent destructive energy left from the Lightning Bolt rampaging in what was left of his Essence, his life should have ended already, body and soul.
However, the actual situation was completely different, with a mystical power keeping his life energy above a certain threshold, which left some time for his Perk to weaken the assaulting foreign energy, converting it into something highly beneficial.
And indeed, although the quantity of the Essence had not changed, the root had grown progressively stronger, evidenced by the hint of gold appearing on the otherwise deep red colored bead.
His Essence was experiencing an endless cycle of destruction and reconstruction, helping him break through his Innate Mortal shackles, a situation virtually impossible for anyone else on Earth.
Innate Mortal shackles...
So many cultivators dreamt of shedding their Mortality and attaining Immortality...
How many succeeded, though?
So few that it was not an exaggeration to call it an unattainable dream.
Immortal-Grade prodigies, however, did have a significant head start compared to others, having taken the first step on that transcendence, whether it was their Soul, Physique, or Mana attributes.
Nonetheless, it was merely a step in that direction, and not a complete transformation.
That massive step was enough to propel them to an incredibly high level, true, but in the end, the transformation was still incomplete.
After all, how difficult was it to alter a cultivator's core roots?
If Mortality was imperfection, Immortality was beyond Flawlessness.
In a way, Immortality was both the opposite and the extremity of Mortality, a state impossible to visualize or comprehend unless one reached that level of cultivation.
Could an ant comprehend how a World operate?
The answer was obviously no.
Thus, although they were called Immortal-Grade talents, the roots of their Essence were still Mortal, though possessing some faint Immortal qualities.
However, Demian's own body, after having been reduced to its simplest Essence and tempered repeatedly by the heavenly Lightning, had been growing those Immortal Traces, slowly elevating his root toward a higher level of life, something beyond comprehension to most cultivators.
Naturally, turning his entire Essence from Mortal to Immortal was impossible in the current circumstances, even with his reality-altering Perk working overtime.
If it were that easy, Immortal-Grade prodigies would have been much more numerous, after all.
Still, it was a solid step forward, pushing him much further than he was previously, and even beyond most other Immortal-Grade talents, when it came to foundation at least.
Time passed slowly until the destructive Lightning had finally dissipated completely, its Energy completely converted into foundation-improving Energy for the young man.
Without any 'fuel' left, the transformation seemed to hit pause, and the Essence bead stopped moving completely for a brief instant before an astonishing scene unfolded in front of the audience standing on the Leaping Yang Fish's deck.
The small Essence marble containing Demian's consciousness suddenly started pulsating.
With each tremor, its size grew another fold, quickly filling the tattered armor before stopping its mysterious expansion.
Then, the Lightning Lotus stem, which had been floating motionlessly in the sky all this while, started experiencing some changes, its form swiftly turning round, resembling a Lotus seed.
As the phenomenon stopped, the 'Lotus Seed' suddenly dropped from the sky and enveloped Demian's Essence body, hiding its internal situation from every prying eye outside.
While others were wondering what was happening inside what seemed to be a strangely shaped Golden Creation Cloud, the young man was experiencing further changes.
Indeed, although his foundation did not improve, his cultivation did, being swiftly pushed to the extreme limit of the Third Level Foundation Building, a hair's breadth away from the Fourth Level.
Naturally, 'a hair's breadth away' was purely relative.
After all, moving from the Third level to the Fourth meant moving from one Major Level to another, with a bottleneck much harder to breach.
Although speaking of bottlenecks in front of Demian might be like mentioning the inflation's impact on people's daily life to a billionaire.
Understanding the words was easy, but comprehending the concept behind them was beyond difficult.