Chapter 178 - Leon's Secret

"The truth is that ... the truth ... the truth is that I don't possess an Elemental Law."

When Leon said those words, Hei and Lian were speechless. They couldn't understand what he meant by such a statement. After all, how was it possible not to possess an Elemental Law?

"What do you mean?" Hei asked in amazement.

"What I said," Leon replied as he clenched his fists.

Seeing the severe expression of his companion, Hei sighed. 'He doesn't seem to be lying. Although this is absurd, Mother taught me never to take things for granted. If something has never happened, it doesn't mean it can't happen. I have to listen to everything Leon has to say before I make a judgment.' Hei thought to himself before asking again.

"Leon, explain to me in detail what you mean. If you don't, I can't understand you. What you say doesn't make sense, but I also know you're not lying."

At Hei's words, Leon calmed down a bit. He took a light breath and prepared to tell his story. A story he hadn't told anyone since he came to the academy.

"The truth is that I have never formed a spirit seed within me. But before that, I have to tell myself about my situation. I come from a common family, made up of my parents, my brothers, and sisters. In the history of my family, none has ever managed to awaken their spirit power before me. Therefore, my parents were positioned on the edge of society, forced into the most humble jobs. Even though it was a difficult life, my parents never stopped working and smiling at their children, trying to give us a happy life. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Yes. It means that you haven't had access to cultivation resources such as pills and other alchemical items."

"Correct. I awakened my spirit power at a young age. I was almost 13 when it happened. My parents couldn't believe their eyes. One of their children had indeed been able to awaken his spirit power. My parents immediately sought information, excited that I could break the chains that imprisoned them and my siblings on the fringes of society. But unfortunately, the path of cultivation is a path that requires a lot of money. Without connections with influential people, I could do nothing but resign myself to the reality of the facts - the social condition of my family would have prevented me from realizing the opportunity that had been given to me.

For a time, I felt frustrated and hated my family. If I had been born into a different family, then perhaps I could have received cultivation resources and lived a very different life. But my parents showed themselves to be breathtaking people once again. They decided to focus their fate and that of my siblings on me. They bought some cultivation resources with the money set aside for a lifetime. Sure, they were objects of poor value for me now, but then it was like a high price to pay.

I was moved by them and felt disgusted with my behavior. My family was not to blame for being in the margins of society, and despite my behavior, they were risking everything to help me as much as they could. I realized that perhaps the fact that I had awakened my spirit power was a sign from the heavens. The chance to redeem my family's condition so that they could have a better fate. And so I made a promise - even without precious resources, I would have committed myself wholeheartedly to cultivation.

I started cultivating day and night non-stop. I didn't have a cultivation manual, so I had to go according to my intuition, and the results seemed so slow to mine. However, the more I tried, the more I could take a step forward. Although it should have been impossible because of the risk of internal injuries, when I cultivated, I could clearly feel the flow of spirit power within my body. It was as if it was talking to me as if it showed me how to make it flow in order to get what I wanted. Thus, after enormous and painful efforts, I reached the sixth stage spirit apprentice.

It was then that my parents brought me here to this city. They didn't know much about martial artists and cultivation. However, they sensed that my result was something that could interest some important family and convince them to bet on me. So I took the elemental affinity test, and my result astounded the examiner - I had no affinity with any of the known Elemental Laws.

The examiner thought of a problem in the instrument and conducted another test. Again, I got the same result. Left speechless, the examiner went to call his superiors. It happened that there was also one of the teachers of the Southern Royal War Academy that day. He was a spirit grandmaster and a spirit power's researcher. He even wrote some of the cultivation manuals in the Library. He was fascinated by my condition and proposed to my parents that he would take care of me at the academy.

My parents were hesitant; they didn't trust me to leave me in the hands of a stranger, but they knew that such an opportunity was difficult to obtain. So I decided to take the ball and made an agreement - I would come with him, but in return, he would have to give my family a nice home and enough money for my family.

The grandmaster accepted. The coins used by ordinary people were insignificant in his eyes, and he did as I asked. At that point, I became fully affiliated with the Southern Royal War Academy. In a sense, I became their property. It is for this reason that I know the academy well. I have lived here longer than all the other first-year students.

Once at the academy, I was subjected to an endless amount of experiments. The medical section was the one responsible for carrying them out. It is also for this reason that on the day I took you to visit the academy, I didn't mention martial artist medics. For me, it was a painful memory. However, at the end of these experiments, they concluded one thing - the Law of Energy. That was why I had no affinity for any of the other elements."

Then Leon paused. He slowly closed his eyes as he thought about what had happened in his life. Hei and Lian, on the other hand, had been amazed by his every word. But the real bomb was when Leon mentioned the Law of Energy.

'The Law of Energy is particular instead. Initially, it should be bound together with the other elemental laws, but the fact is that there was only one being that had such elemental law: a divine beast, Bai Ze. He was your father's advisor.'

Bao Bei's words rang in Hei's mind. How could he forget that night under the stars? The night his mother told him about the Elemental Laws, the Bloodlines, but above all about his father, the Serpent of Darkness. In the meantime, Leon resumed his story.

"The top of the academy were delighted. There were no clues to the Energy Law. The only evidence came from ancient texts. One of the companions of the Serpent of Darkness was said to possess this Elemental Law. But none of the humans or demons managed to kill this divine beast, thus making it impossible to research about it.

So, they started investing resources on me, hoping that I would be able to form a spirit seed of energy. From then on, they would have monitored my every progress until they had known the secret of the Energy Law.

Unfortunately, I didn't succeed. I was unable to form a spirit seed of energy, and the academy eventually lost interest in me. They considered me a defective product that showed some features of the Energy Law. But without being able to use it actively, my value was nil. However, they decided to keep me at the academy just in case of unexpected development, but by now, they have no more hope for me.

When this happened, I felt my world being torn apart. How should I go on? I didn't have an important legacy to rely on, and even if I had tried hard, in the end, I wouldn't have been able to reach the pinnacle of the martial path. Soon I would have been left behind because I couldn't use the Elemental Laws.

It was at that moment that I met you. I was unsure of my future. But, knowing you, Hei, and you as well Lian, brought me new joy. Each new day in your company and all our companions made me forget the desperation for my inability. I began to dream that maybe I could somehow make something good. If I stayed by your side, then I would undoubtedly have succeeded. However, the forest episode taught me one thing. Even if I have higher cultivation than yours right now, in the end, I will only become a burden that could end up killing you. And this I cannot allow.

I don't know what to do. I don't want to risk my companions' lives. But at the same time, I can't help behaving selfishly. I don't want to part with all of you now that I've met you."

Burning tears ran down Leon's eyes down his cheeks. All the pain and frustration he had held within him exploded in unison. He had revealed all his secrets and was now feeling intense fear. He was anxious about Hei's response. He wanted to know if he could still walk beside him and the others or was destined to remain an old reminder of their youth.

Hei went to Leon and put his hands on his shoulders. He could understand precisely how Leon felt. That sense of frustration and helplessness that was felt in front of the cruelty of reality. The inability to accomplish your goals or protect those you loved.

"Listen to me carefully, Leon. I'm glad you confided in me. That's why I want to make you a promise. As long as you wish so, you can stay with me and all the others. And you don't have to worry about not having Elemental Laws. Can't you see it? Even without Elemental Laws, based only on your strength and your hard work, you have developed your own fighting style. In my eyes, you aren't weak at all. If I wanted to defeat you, I'd have to be serious."

When Leon heard what Hei said, a burst of heat spread through his body. The fear of being rejected and be abandoned by his companions disappeared while a crazy desire formed inside his hearth - reaching the pinnacle of the martial path together with his companions.

"Thanks, Hei. Really. You don't know how much it means to me." Leon said with difficulty. His eyes were still red from crying. However, his expression was now full of determination.

"You don't have to thank me. And regarding your situation, we can work on it together." Hei replied as he smiled. Leon was finally able to calm down.

"There would be a way to make yourself capable of facing the users of Elemental Laws and using long-range attacks."

Suddenly Lian came out with that sentence. Hearing this, both Leon and Hei opened their eyes wide, unable to believe their ears.

"What do you mean?!" Leon shouted. He barely held back from rushing to Lian. During this time, he had got to know Lian and knew that the young blue-haired woman was a person who only spoke when she wanted to say something important.

"What I said," Lian replied calmly.

"Explain yourself, Lian. What's on your mind?" Hei asked. As the person who knew Lian the most, he knew she had something on her mind.

"You said that the medical section has concluded that your Elemental Law is the Energy Law. It is because you didn't show elemental affinity in the test and managed to reach the sixth stage spirit apprentice alone, even though it should generally have been impossible for someone of your status.

But nobody really knows the Law of Energy. What if the Law of Energy doesn't need to form a spirit seed? What if your whole body was your spirit seed?"

"My whole body?" Leon stammered, unable to understand what Lian meant.

"Hei, do you remember? Bao Bei told us about the Baize, the only divine beast to have awakened the Law of Energy. What is the most important thing about a divine beast or a spirit beast in general besides the core?" Lian asked, turning to Hei.

It was as if a light had lit in Hei's mind. He quickly understood what Lian meant, "The body."

"Exact. I don't know the Law of Energy; however, there must be a reason if only the divine beasts managed to awaken it. And the reason must be in the body. Spirit power is contained within your body, but your body cannot contain all your energy. That's why you chose the greatsword as a weapon, didn't you? To channel your energy."

"How do you know?" Leon asked with a surprised expression.

"Your weapon. It didn't just break because of the termite jaws. Your own spirit power was the cause. Your weapon was unable to bear your spirit power. But what if you had a weapon capable of doing it? What if instead of having only one weapon, you had a whole armor?"

Then, Lian smiled and opened a book, showing the two young men a series of drawings. "Qiu Jianhong. A famous formation scholar who lived long ago. He dedicated his life to applying formations during combat. He, therefore, created many formations capable of interacting with the battlefield and influencing the fight. But what he really wanted was to make something that could be used on the people themselves. Something other than beast tattoos and that provided more complex functions instead of a simple enhancement. The problem was the rejection between the materials of the formations and the martial artist's body itself. So he thought, why don't we use an armor where to place the formations? This would have solved the problem of rejection and provided an additional defense to the user.

The problem was that the only metal capable of not causing rejection was Spirit Metal. And to exploit the full power of the formations, the materialization process of the Spirit Artifact Weapon was necessary. Consequently, the user would have had to sacrifice a great deal of his time to resonate with the armor and his weapon. And it is for this reason that the idea was discarded.

We martial artists have limited time since we awaken our spirit power. To reach the top, we have to make choices. Choices on which elemental techniques to focus, whether or not to carry out the materialization process of the weapon. Precisely because we have a limited time, martial artists have become accustomed to not using armor and using Spirit Metal only for weapons.

But you are different. You don't have to concentrate on converting your spirit power into something else. Your spirit power is already energy. If so, then you have plenty of time to accomplish what Qiu Jianhong dreamed of. With the formations he left behind, you will get a body comparable to the users of the Law of Metal, and you can also improve the effectiveness of your long and short-range attacks, eliminating your shortage."

When Lian finished explaining, Leon didn't know what to say. He seemed to be dreaming, but his beating heart told him otherwise. But he soon realized an underlying problem. Something that couldn't be resolved.

"To create a greatsword and an entire armor requires a crazy amount of Spirit Metal. The Sun Empire scrupulously controls the amount of Spirit Metal. There is no way to buy such an amount, and even if there was, I don't have enough money for such an expense. Not even if I had to spend all the contribution points, I earned from the test. Not even if I add everyone else's. Thanks, Lian, but it's not possible. But you have been of help to me anyway. With my points, I can buy some Spirit Metal and make a normal length sword. It won't be like my greatsword, but there will be no risk of it breaking in the middle of the fight."

At that point, Hei intervened, "What if I told you it could be done instead? That there is a way to get enough Spirit Metal to make a large greatsword and an entire armor?"