Clearmadness
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The First Trial 6
🕑 Added 2019-12-15 19:28:08 +0000 UTCThere was a thoughtful expression on Escora’s face she walked away from the sandpit where they’d been ambushed by the giant scorpion. “Your idea to use spiritual scans from multiple directions could still work on an actual weak spirit that was in hiding, but there’s just no way to distinguish such a spirit from a powerful predator trying to fool us.”
Verus walked alongside her. “So, what do we do? You’re from a Telhri tribe. You must have a technique or something for situations like this. How could your tribe hunt without one?”
Escora made an unhappy face. “Of course, my tribe has a lot of amazing hunting techniques. I’ve even been training in one of them, a special sensory technique. Unfortunately, its next to useless here.”
“Why? What’s the problem?”
“It uses the water element to contain and spread my spiritual sense, making my spiritual sense stronger and harder to detect, but there isn’t enough water here for me to use. This wasteland is very dry, unlike my homelands which are full of rivers and forests.”
Unfortunately, that made perfect sense to Verus. “There aren’t any other master hunter tricks you could use to find a spirit?”
Escora looked uncomfortable. “I’m not really a master hunter. Woman aren’t allowed to go on dangerous hunts in my tribe. That’s one of the reasons I accepted the Great Wind Sect’s invitation.”
Surprised, Verus didn’t know what to say for a moment. “Oh, I didn’t know the Telhri were so conservative.”
Escora gave him a look. “All the Telhri tribes are very different. Only you imperials think we’re even remotely the same. In the old days, some tribes didn’t allow woman to cultivate at all. It was considered a waste of resources. My people’s beliefs are actually the opposite of that thankfully. We have a council of matriarchs that guide the tribe and female cultivators are supposed to be kept safe so that they can one day join it. Hunting is considered a dangerous job better left to the men.”
Huh, Really? Verus found that very interesting. He wouldn’t mind visiting some of the tribes one day, but there were immediate problems that needed solving. Such as, how were they going to find a spirit now? Should they continue trying to use multiple scans to triangulate one’s position. That seemed quite dangerous now. All the residents of this wasteland were cunning and crafty, and now that he thought of it, throwing his spiritual sense around could attract a powerful predator. There had to be a better way…
“Can you share how your water sensing technique works with me?” Verus asked. He had an idea.
“I suppose I can share the basics with you,” Escora answered after a moment of hesitation. “It’s not like it’s a huge tribe secret or anything. A lot of different people use something similar. This is a difficult technique though, so don’t get your hopes up. We can’t sit around and wait for you to figure it out forever.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t waste time if I can’t learn it.”
After finding some shade cast by a tall rock, Verus listened as Escora explained. The idea behind the technique was actually rather simple. Instead of sending their spiritual sense out directly, a cultivator was supposed to fuse it with your understanding of an element. Using their comprehension of that element, they could make their spiritual sense take on the aspect of that element and resonate through it. It was sort of like changing the sound of your spiritual sense’s voice or its frequency.
Unfortunately, this was much harder in practice than theory. You needed a deep understanding the chosen element and nigh perfect control over your own ki. After some contemplation, Verus realized it also required a spark of enlightenment into the eternal because after using this technique your spiritual sense would phase out of the physical plane slightly. This enlightenment was very rare among cultivators of their level.
Verus glanced at his companion. “It’s impressive that you can use this technique.”
Escora smiled in a complicated way. “I’ve been training it, but I haven’t mastered it yet.”
Verus kept his expression neutral but sighed mentally. Underneath her tough façade, Escora really was insecure about her own abilities. Was this because of the situation with her tribe? Well, whatever. This wasn’t his concern.
On top of the skill requirements, the sensing technique also had severe practical limitations based on the element you used and the environment. Air was considered one of the best because it was usually everywhere. Water was also considered a good choice because wet environments were plentiful and life itself contained water. Other elements were more specialized. For example, earth was only useful for divining what was underground.
If Verus wanted to use this technique he had no choice but to use his void attunement, but neither he nor Escora had any idea how that would actually work. The element was too rare. All Verus could do was meditate in the shade cast by a tall rock and try to combine his spiritual sense and attunement.
This was difficult and confusing, but soon a strange instinct began to guide Verus. It felt like he’d done this before. A smile appeared on Verus’s face as he meditated. The shattered remnants of his past life were helping him, and thus he soon managed to make his spiritual sense take on the aspect of void. It rippled through his core, gathering strength and humming quietly. After everything that had happened, how could he not understand the void?
This was only the first step though. The hard part would be to figure out how spread his altered sense out beyond his body. He had no idea how to do this or if it was even possible. His instincts from his last life couldn’t help him as they knew nothing about void ki. All Verus’s experience with void ki came from his struggles in this life.
As Escora watched patiently, Verus took a deep breath and then exhaled sharply. At the same time, he tried to push his altered spiritual sense out. It didn’t work. A cough escaped his throat as the air around him resisted his senses, keeping it locked in his body.
“That didn’t seem right,” Escora remarked. “See, combining your senses with an element attunement isn’t something you can learn in a few hours.”
Verus ignored her and took another calming breath. She was wrong. He’d already done that.
What was the void? Verus let himself drift off into a deep state of contemplation. Escora sent her elemental sense out through water and water ki. He would need to do something similar with void, but was there any nearby? Pockets of true void were incredibly rare in the natural world. Was void sense thus useless?
Verus mediated calmly, and for a moment, a pure sense of peace filled him. This was favorite sensation, completeness. He patiently reached out to comprehend the world around himself, seeking the void. Nothing happened right away, but Verus simply kept meditating.
Eventually, he felt his spirit tingle as a tiny sliver of his spiritual sense managed to escape his body. Understanding dawned a moment later. There was void all around him. Verus pushed his sense out and it began slowly slipping through the space between everything, rippling out unimpeded. Enlightenment. No space was ever truly filled. Even the air was a mix of matter and void. Something and nothing, a duality. That was nature of the physical world. Everything that existed in creation had to be contrasted with nonexistence, like ink on paper. Only then could there be language and reality. Verus felt that he was touching on the edge of a profound understanding, but now wasn’t the time to pursue it.
Soon, Verus’s void sense had spread out almost as far as his normal spiritual sense. He detected several lifeforms that had escaped his notice before, but he didn’t focus on anything. He simply let his senses float aimlessly and without intent.
“I’m done,” Verus said as he opened his eyes and stood up.
“Good, then let’s stop wasting time and figure out our next move,” Escora replied.
Verus frowned at her. “No, I mean I’ve figured out how to use my void sense.”
Shouldn’t she be able to feel his spiritual sense around her?
“Right, as if.”
In response, Verus used his void sense to directly scan Escora in a somewhat intrusive manner. The young Telhri woman shivered and took a step back in surprise. She’d obviously felt that.
“You really did figure it out?” Escora asked with wide eyes. “It took me months! You must have though. I couldn’t detect your sense at all until it actually pressed down on my spirit!”
“That must be because void is a subtle type of negative ki. Negative ki can be hard to detect. I’m sure that if you had more experience and were actually looking for my void sense that you’d be able to feel it,” Verus told her as he explained how his void sense worked.
“That’s just cheating. How can my water sense compare to this? Yours is even harder to detect and can be used anywhere!”
Verus smiled. “Every type of ki has its advantages and disadvantages. Void ki is terrible for attacking, but apparently good for divining and sensing.”
He was actually quite relieved to have found something void ki was good at. He’d been doubting its usefulness for quite a while now, but unless he was very much mistaken, this void sense was a very powerful ability. Being able to scan his surroundings without being detected was incredibly useful and exactly what he needed to pass this trial.
Taking out the scrying device, Verus began searching the surrounding wastelands for a spirit using his void sense. The scrying device amplified his range just as much as his normal spiritual sense, and this time, when his sense got close to a ki source, they didn’t disappear. Hidden within the void between all things, his void sense was all but undetectable unless he actually tried to touch a spirit directly, and he didn’t need to do that to find their locations. The energy they gave off was more than enough to track them.
Soon, Verus found themselves standing above a crevice that lay between two rocky hills. Down below, Verus could sense the energy of a spirit.
“You sure like dark places,” Escora remarked with a frown. “I remember the last cave you led me to, we almost died.”
Verus looked at her with a raised eyebrow. He wasn’t thrilled about this either, and would rather meditate some more, but he had a trial to pass. “Are you saying that you’re too afraid to go in?”
“As if! I was simply making an observation. Let’s go,” Escora replied as she took a floating ethereal light out of her backpack and sent it down into the crevice. The light didn’t reveal anything more dangerous than some slick rocks, so Verus and Escora jumped down into the cave. With their strength, it would be easy enough to jump back out.
Once inside, they headed deeper in search of the spirit. At first, the cave looked natural and they proceeded without incident, but then Verus felt the spirit ahead sense their presence and retreat deeper. He could disguise his sense now, but erase his presence or prevent the spirit from using its own sense.
“We may as well keep going,” Escora replied grumpily and Verus could only nod in agreement. They had yet to run into any danger.
However, after jumping down into another level, the appearance cavern suddenly changed. The natural walls vanished and were replaced by smooth stone blocks. They were clearly artificial.
“What is this place?” Verus whispered as leaned forward to study the tunnel wall. It was almost like they were in a building now. The stone blocks gave off an ancient aura, like they’d been buried for countless thousands of years.
“How should I know?” Escora replied. “It could be anything. Let’s head deeper and see.”
Although it seemed straight at first, they soon realized that the tunnel curved slightly and sloped downwards. Thus, they continued on for another half hour without stopping. It wasn’t until then that they reached a doorway and emerged into a square room. Here, the stone blocks had been replaced by reliefs covered in images. The room was about a hundred feet across and Escora’s floating light barely managed to illuminate it.
Verus could sense that the spirit was close now, but the images on the walls drew his attention anyway. They were carved deeply into the stone, creating simple but awesome scenes. Towering giants stood among shattered mountains as lightning descended around them and the earth broke. It was a shocking to look at and made even more impressive by the deep sense of majesty and timeless might that filled the chamber.
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ClearMadness
A good week so far. I caught up and rebuilt my reserve of rough writing. Releases should be steady.
