《Atonement of an Immortal》Chapter 32: The World
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After the banquet had been finished, Kandrif and Kevin were sitting around a table and talking about their experiences and future plans.
Kevin : So, he accepted the gift. It is good news. Now, you will have a powerful ally in the hundred-year war. What do you think about his abilities?
Kandrif : Naturally, he is the most capable in the empire right now. By the time of the war, he should have progressed even more. Even if his combat power does not reach the late saint realm, it would at least be in the mid-saint realm. With him, I will also not have to worry about holding the attention of the enemy for a long time. But more than that, I have a feeling that he would become an immortal slayer in the future!
Kevin : An immortal slayer, huh? It is possible. But immortals are not easy to kill. His current power stems from his powerful soul energy. But, progressing in the soul path is harder than climbinig the heavens. Even Karslon has yet to form an immortal soul. Thus, even if Michael was to become an immortal slayer in the future, it would be due to comprehending powerful laws. But what laws he comprehends is yet to be seen. Also, I heard that you are interested in the elven princess. What is that all about?
Kandrif : That is nothing serious. I do admire her beauty but courting her is too much trouble and too less return. It will only create jealousy among others making me more enemies than friends. As for herself, even if her beauty is unrivalled, it is not power. If she can not contibute with her strength, me being with her would bring more harm than loss. Thus, I decided not to pursue her.
Kevin : Well, you are right. But, you are focussing on a different problem. You are a prince of the werebeasts. Taking in beautiful concubines is not something foreign in our race. Growing up, your father was a much bigger playboy than you can imagine. The real problem with the girl is that she is not up for grabs. The old coot Ragnar already has her in his sight. And from what I know of him, he is insufferable. If you truly do take that girl, I would perhaps have to battle that old fogey. It is not worth it.
Kandrif (with wide eyes) : What?! But, ..... isn't he her ancestor? Does he not care about his own reputation?
Kevin : You think too highly of him. He is a sleazy monster. And public opinion is in his back pocket. As for morality, that old monster is simply past all lines already. Anyway, do not get involved too much with the girl lest you attract that guy's attention. As for Michael, keep him in contact. He is going to be very important in the future.
Kandrif : Okay, uncle. I will keep you updated on any new updates through the communication device. Now, I shall take my leave. I need to go and see my dorm.
Saying so, Kandrif left to his dormitory. Kevin sat by himself looking through some information collected by one of his subordinates. However, he was thinking about how to use Michael effectively and what other experts to provide to Kandrif in the war.
As the night descended, the experts of several other races also told their successors about the things to be careful about in the tower before leaving the next morning.
The students were given three days time to settle down their belongings before the commencement of lessons.
In those three days, Michael had many fighting matches with Kandrif. As their bodies were of comparable strength, they could fight good matches that involved only martial arts. Michael, even with his slightly superior body and powerful martial art, was bested by Kandrif.
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Kandrif told Michael that the reason was his lack of battle sense.
Kandrif : It is a different feeling that is useful only in battle. You have very good perception that allows you to evade most attacks and then you counterattack with your own martial arts. Your style of martial battle is monotonous. You don't use peculiar attacks that are hard to defend against. You also do not use your martial arts all that effectively. I believe that you have many powerful abilities ranging from soul to body. But you don't have the sense to use them optimally in battle.
Michael : Hmm. If that is the case, what should I do to improve it?
Kandrif : Listen Michael. I am not saying that you absolutely need to learn the art of battle. It is too hard to develop a battle sense by effort. You can only do so by going through countless number of battles. In the case of my race, most experts have some rudimentary battle sense and thus we are better at fighting than you. Besides, your style is more like crushing people with absolute power. But if you still want to learn this, we can schedule training sessions. You can even use your soul arts. I have a high grade soul guard and thus, I should be able to withstand your attacks but only barely. So, don't use your entire soul energy and we can have true battle and not the practise ones. What do you say?
Michael : It is too dangerous. I am not confident that we won't hurt each other badly.
Kandrif : We would definitely get hurt. But we have comparable strength and in true battles, we can develop much faster. I think we should take the risk. As long as we don't die, my family will take care of the treatment.
Michael : Okay, then. Let's have the first battle next week. It would be better if we fight under the supervision of some expert.
Kandrif : Don't worry. I will ask my master to act as the referee.
And so, Michael and Kandrif who had only begun martial arts practise together became sparring partners. Doing a true battle meant that there would be no holding back and it would be natural to get hurt. While people would not usually try fatal blows, there had been many accidents in this form of practice. It was the closest thing to a life and death battle out in the wild that was possible under supervision.
After this incident, nothing major happened in the three days. Michael had been busy preparing how he would persuade Karslon. Michael had a pretty good grasp on Karslon's personality. He had known him for many years in his past life. Thus, Michael was thinking about different ways of convincing him.
After the three days passed by, Karslon called Michael in for his first lecture. Karslon was holding this lecture only for Michael. So they met in his study rather than a lecture hall. Karslon was sitting on a chair and in front of him was a huge table with many scrolls spread out all over it.
Michael sat on the opposite side of the table and waited for Karslon to finish his reading. Karslon finished within minutes and turned his attention to Michael.
Karslon : Michael. You are very talented. Your talent is in fact even better than me. But, I chose you as a disciple due to your enormous willpower. Your willpower is the most important asset you have. There have been many geniuses in Aterna but too few immortals. That has a lot to deal with the will of a person as well. I hope that even later, your heart would be intact as your cultivation progresses.
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Michael : Thank You, Teacher. I will keep it in mind and keep on trying to reach the immortal realm.
Karslon : Very good. So, to teach you, I would need to know more about your abilities. I am not saying that you are not allowed to keep secrets. I will not pry in things that you don't want to share. You can just tell me what all abilities you have and in which direction do you want to grow?
Michael : Teacher, I want to reach the immortal body and soul. I will tell you some of my secrets today that I have not shared with anyone else including my parents. I can only ask you that you please keep them to yourselves. As for coveting my secrets, I don't have anything that would be useful to you. But before I get into that, I have a question to ask.
Karslon : Interesting. I knew that you had a few secrets on you. Most experts do. This is not a big deal. You can ask me whatever you want. After all, I am your master.
Michael : Teacher, then please answer me. What is the world that we live in? Where is it and are there other worlds like ours?
Karslon was very surprised by Michael's question as evident with the look on his face. He did not bother to control his expressions in private as he would do in public. These questions were quite profound and many scholars had wondered throughout the years about their plane. What was a plane? Where was it located? Were there other different planes in the universe? Or were they the only one. Curiosity came along with intelligence.
There were many immortals who had wondered the same and travelled to the very ends of the plane to find these answers. Through many years there was a theory that had been established. Karslon began talking about it with Michael.
Karslon : The plane is basically the world we live in. But this explanation is insufficient. You may not have heard of it but the plane is basically a flat continent floating in the law ocean. The entire landmass is a flat. The space outside the landmass is what we call the law ocean. Now, the name can be very misleading. Earlier, we thought that the laws in the law ocean were just like those in the plane and a few immortals even tried to leave to the ocean. But, that was a mistake. The law ocean is a mixture of many inseparable laws without any system. This is where we derived the definition of a plane from. Any area in the law ocean that has separable laws and a system of these laws is called a plane. The plane need not even have a landmass.
Micahel : Why did teacher say that sending immortals in the law ocean was a bad idea?
Karslon : The law ocean as I said is a chaotic mixture of laws. The experts that went out faced terrifying pressure from the ocean. And while their body could handle the pressure due to having distilled the laws that they had comprehended, their souls were not the same. Thus, as soon as they went out, their souls were destroyed by the pressure and they died. From then, we knew that to travel in the ocean, one needs to have an immortal body and soul. This is also the reason that all immortal experts keep trying to improve their soul. After all, no one knows the wonders that may be hidden in the law ocean. Alas! it is too difficult to reach the immortal soul realm. The amount of law comprehension needed is too much. And the plane does not support it. As you comprehend the laws more and more, the plane starts to resist. This has been a roadblock for the exploration of the law ocean for many years.
As for your last question, are there any other planes - we don't know. At least, there are no planes in our viscinity. But, there is a much greater possibility of there being other planes than not.
Michael already had the discussion going in the direction that he wanted. Karslon was renowned as the greatest expert of the empire but there was another title that gave him even more respect. He was also the greatest scholar in Aterna. In his extremely long life, he had gone through several ancient texts and researched several mysterious locations. He, at his core, was a scholar and not a combatant. This was the reason why many people believed that he did not maximize his potential or else he would have been even stronger.
Michael : Why would you say that? If we can not explore the law ocean, why would you argue for there being a high possibility of other planes existing?
Karslon : Hmm. There are some secrets of the ancient God-Beast races involved in the answer. But since you are my personal disciple, you have a right to know. The God-Beasts are the most ancient race that survive in the plane. The other races of the empires have all come into being some hundred thousand years ago. They all evolved from the lesser types of animals. Your race emerged only some tens of thousands of years ago and many in the God Beasts like Astang have been alive longer than that. They naturally know of some ancient secrets that we don't. In fact, in the early Aterna, the energy was not this scarce. The energy levels in the atmosphere was said to be so high that people could cultivate only with breathing exercises! Can you believe it?
Michael was left very surprised at this information. This was something that he did not know about. He looked at Karslon with shining eyes looking like a puppy waiting to be fed by his master. Karslon laughed at the innocent look at Michael's face.
Karslon : You may not believe it but it was true. The early Aterna was a paradise. It was much easier to develop experts as well. There had been many that had reached the immortal body and soul realm and even left the plane. Though all their findings have not been made available by those ancient bastards, we know that we are not alone in this universe and that there are more planes out there. Does that answer your question?
Michael : Teacher, you can not leave me in suspense! What happened to our plane? Where did all that energy go?
Karslon : Hm, this is a topic that is pretty much taboo for the ancient races. They were very, very tight lipped when we asked them about it. All we know is that many, many years ago, when Aterna was at the peak of its glory, a huge war spread over the continent. One side was the current god-beasts that we know of and the other side was another ancient race that is extinct now. These races at the time were comparable in power. But for whatever reason, they chose to fight. And the war was so intense that the plane will was damaged as the collateral damage! You can imagine the scale now.
Michael's eyes went wide at the comment. The plane-will was a transcendent entity that was involved in the creation of life, providing blessing and even the completion of ceremonies. Even immortals were respectful towards it. While it was not sentient as per se, it did have some shred of sentience that was like an infant child. To damage such a thing was inconceivable. It was not a question of why but rather a question of how.
Karslon : I don't know how the ancients manage to do this but this was the final result. Now you know that the plane will is pretty much like a child. As it was hurt badly, it retaliated. This was what is known as cultivation tribulation or the cultivation calamity. I don't know exactly what happened during the calamity but great number of beings died in that calamity. The other ancient race went extinct and the god-beasts were left on their last legs. Still, the revenge of the plane will was not over. It is now very difficult for the god-beasts to comprehend the laws and become immortal. This is why their top end powerhouses have not changed since the calamity. Only extreme geniuses managed to reach the immortal realm in countless years. As the plane will recovered, it hastened the evolution of other races and many new races were born in the plane. This is where our current civilization is at. As for the energy rich environment, it seems that due to the injury, it is no longer possible for the plane-will to generate that much energy. Hence, we come to the current Aterna as it is.
Michael was profoundly shaken by all the facts. He did not know about the cultivation calamity in detail. In fact, it was true even for many other immortals. The god-beasts never told anyone about those secrets. Thus, the information that Karslon gave had come from inspecting and searching many mystic and historical realms and countless years of research. The common populace did not even know of the term Cultivation Calamity. Michael took some time to process the new information. It seemed now that the expert that gave him his law inheritance was also someone from the ancient race. It also seemed that the ancient races knew the path of cultivation beyond the immortal realm as well. It was just that they had been beaten back so badly by the plane-will that they could only look back and sigh on their past glory.
Karslon : I have told you many secrets today, my apprentice. Now, it is your turn. I would like to listen about somethings as well.
Michael made up his mind and began his talk. He knew that there was too much dependent on this. Thus, he decided to tell Karslon about some secrets and his logic behind the prediction for a planar invasion.
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