CHAPTER 203— ATTEMPT
The forest remained silent, hundreds of trees scattered across the landscape without a single explosion or crater to explain their fall.
No signs of battle, just trunks separated cleanly, as though reality itself had forgotten they were supposed to remain connected. The river continued flowing, crimson leaves drifting softly overhead, and nobody spoke.
Eventually the spirit pointed toward the fallen forest.
"Good." The word felt strangely final. Then it gestured toward a standing tree farther downstream.
"Now do it."
Seraphine blinked. "...do what?"
The spirit looked at her, then at the tree, then back at her.
"That, replicate what I just did"
Her eye twitched as Leylin quietly moved a few steps away.
The spirit chuckled upon seeing this...Wise decision," it noted.
"I've learned from experience."leylin replied with a shrug
Seraphine glared at both of them, then exhaled slowly. Purple signature emerged from her body, spreading pressure across the riverbank immediately.
The river trembled, the air cooled, and several crimson leaves froze before drifting downward. Her signature surged toward the river..water rose, compressed, twisted, condensed. The familiar shape of a spear began forming, then stopped.
Seraphine frowned.
"This should be eas..." but before she could complete her statement,the spear collapsed, water splashing back into the river.
The spirit remained expressionless. "Again."
A second attempt. Water rose, compressed smaller and smaller and smaller.
The pressure immediately became unstable. The spear exploded, ice scattering everywhere.
Leylin leaned sideways to avoid a shard; the spirit didn't move, the ice shattering against its face and passing straight through its body. Seraphine's eye twitched again.
The spirit pointed toward the tree. "Again."
The next hour was painful not physically, but mentally. Every attempt failed differently. Sometimes the compression collapsed, sometimes the signature dispersed, sometimes the water froze too quickly or too slowly. Once she accidentally created something that shot directly upward and disappeared into the artificial sky.
Nobody knew where it landed, and the spirit wisely chose not to investigate.
Eventually Seraphine sat down heavily beside the river, breathing harder than she cared to admit. "...I hate this."
The spirit nodded. "Good.only then is it considered tempering
"I wasn't asking."
"Hehe,i know."
The spirit looked pleased, which somehow made it worse. For a while nobody spoke. The river continued flowing, the stars drifted overhead, and then the spirit's gaze shifted toward Leylin.
"Your turn."
Leylin looked up. "I don't have water."
"Use something else."
The answer came immediately. Leylin glanced around, river, the stones, the leaves, the roots..then his gaze settled upon a single crimson leaf drifting slowly across the ground. He picked it up, turned it over once, then stared at it.
The spirit watched carefully. Seraphine watched carefully. Leylin simply held the leaf, and nothing happened. Seconds passed, then a minute, then another.
Seraphine sighed. "Are you doing anything?"
"I don't know, I'm supposed to ..but it feels like there is nothing within to sense."
"Very inspiring."
Leylin ignored her. His gaze remained fixed upon the leaf. Compression, density, precision, the concepts rolled through his mind. He wasn't trying to create something; he was trying to understand what exactly he was supposed to compress.
Because unlike Seraphine, he couldn't find the boundary between himself and his signature. The distinction never felt real. Never had. So he simply experimented.
The leaf remained resting upon his palm. Void gathered around it, thin, almost imperceptible.
Then,nothing happened. Leylin frowned. More void. Nothing.
The spirit's eyes slowly narrowed. But just at that moment,the leaf vanished. No explosion, no ash, no dust, no fragments. Gone.
Leylin stared at his empty hand. Seraphine stared at his empty hand. The spirit stared at his empty hand. Silence, long silence.
Finally Seraphine spoke. "...where did it go?"
Leylin looked down, then back up. "I don't know." The answer was honest.
The spirit slowly approached. Its expression had changed,the amusement was gone, the curiosity remained. It extended a hand toward
Leylin's palm, paused, then examined the empty space. Several seconds passed, then several more. Finally the spirit whispered: "...interesting."
Leylin looked up. "What happened?"
The spirit didn't answer immediately. Its gaze remained fixed on the empty space where the leaf had been. Then finally: "You didn't compress the leaf."
The spirit looked toward him. "You compressed its place."
Neither cultivator understood. The spirit seemed disturbed by that realization, deeply disturbed. Its eyes shifted toward the river, then the trees, then the mountains, then back toward Leylin, as though re-evaluating something. Finally it pointed toward a stone resting near the riverbank, a small one no larger than a fist.
"Again."
Leylin followed its gaze. The spirit's expression remained unreadable. "This time," its voice had become strangely serious, "use the stone."
And for reasons neither cultivator could explain, the spirit suddenly looked far more interested in Leylin's attempt than in anything Seraphine had done all day.