Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 91. Inscribed Intent.

“He really…” Yin chuckled in his heart as the two of them looked upon the nine tomes Patrick laid out in a line across the table. “When did he have time to think about wordplay? It’s not like most adults would simply accept this kind of outcome either. It only worked because it was Patrick,” he thought quietly, secretly feeling quite impressed with how well Laien made this little trick work. Well, maybe not so secretly, considering that the two of them were aware of each other’s emotions.

“From your left,” Patrick said in a very much pained tone. Four of his books…! He didn’t even want to think how he had offered them an additional question for free at the end to make the mood better. This deal with those two boys was definitely the worst screw-up of his life and it happened in such a damned random fashion! “Ugh, from your left, the names of those tomes are as follows,” he picked up after a few seconds and pointed at the rightmost book from his perspective with his hand.

“Grand Magic of All Elements.”

“The Art of Formations.”

“Heavenly Compendium.”

“Ancient Magic. Introduction to the water element.”

“Ancient Magic. In-depth analysis of the water element.”

“Ancient Magic. Introduction to the lightning element.”

“Ancient Magic. In-depth analysis of the lightning element.”

“What Governs the World.”

“Martial and Spiritual Transcendence.”

When he finished saying all the nine titles, Patrick sighed inwardly. He felt as if something thick and heavy was stuck in his throat and to make the matters worse, he was clearly aware of why he was feeling like that. Four of his priceless books…! He hadn’t felt so bad in ages.

“You don’t need to look so pained,” Laien mentioned with a laugh. “It’s not like you have no copies of those books, right? Or did you not think to have them made beforehand?”

“Cheeky bastard,” Patrick complained sourly. “I do have copies, but what you see here are the originals. Compared to their value, mere copies can still be accounted for in coins and other valuables,” he explained unhappily. Laien’s demand had been to bring out the books that would be of most use and value to him and his friend, so there was no way he could settle for copies without being disingenuous.

“How come?” Laien inquired, his previously playful tone quickly changing into one that expressed honest curiosity and interest.

The shift in Laien’s attitude threw Patrick off badly enough for him to forget that he was being asked a question for a moment. Only when Laien tilted his head after a few breath’s worth of time did he start thinking again; he coughed a few times to hide his embarrassment and provided an explanation.

“The truly priceless books are not just those that contain precious knowledge, but those that were written with an Intent. When the author has great insights into the subject he is writing about and if he puts his heart into his creation, this phenomenon called ‘Intent’ occurs. It’s hard to explain, so why don’t you just pick up one of those books and try reading a few paragraphs? Just make sure to focus on what you are reading, almost as if you were meditating… you will quickly realize what I’m talking about.”

Laien was quite intrigued to learn this piece of information. He glanced at Yin, at first feeling a bit surprised that Yin didn’t know about this thing. However, he soon realized it made sense for Yin not to know such things. That grandfather of Yin’s wasn’t the most suitable person to be a teacher, after all. “Which one should I start with?” he asked himself and took another look at the nine tomes. There were a few titles that were self-explanatory like those of the four ‘Ancient Magic’ tomes, but there were also those that were ambiguous enough to require more than learning the title if one wanted to know what the particular book was about.

“I will see this one,” Yin decided fairly quickly and reached out for the rightmost tome, the one called ‘Martial and Spiritual Transcendence’. He had been most interested in finding ways to improve his own cultivation for many years now, so this choice was a simple and fairly obvious one on his part.

“Oh well,” Laien shrugged his shoulders slightly and picked one of the remaining tomes without thinking about it too much. He and Yin would look through all of those books before making a choice anyway, so it didn’t really matter which one he looked at first and last. “Ancient Magic. In-depth analysis of the lightning element,” he recalled the title spoken by Patrick. The tome had the letters engraved on its cover, but the written language was slightly different than that of the south. The difference wasn’t large, just like in the spoken language which differed mostly by accents… but while reading something complicated, it would usually make things more difficult.

“Lightning,” Laien murmured unconsciously as he traced his finger against the letters of the word. He didn’t even notice when, but he stopped paying attention to his surroundings and his gaze became somewhat absent. However, the next moment his eyes widened as a spark of familiar emerald lightning emerged from the book’s cover and after slipping over his finger, it hid inside the cover again. “Was that Yin’s Heavenly Lightning?” he asked himself and rubbed the word curiously once again as if asking it to show what else it was hiding.

Almost instantly, the letters on the cover lit up, responding to the request with surprising eagerness. The thick leather cover released an aura of power so grand that it was almost incomparable to anything Laien had ever seen… except for in some of his dreams. Yet, despite the boundless power of this aura, Laien felt no danger at all; he didn’t panic and didn’t hastily remove his hand or shut his eyes. In consequence, he was awarded a prize as the book released dozens of streaks of lightning of various colors, a few of which were comparable to Yin’s Heavenly Lightning.

The colorful lightning filled the whole chamber, dancing all over Laien’s own body, around the table, floor, the various items and books. To Laien, it seemed almost as if this lightning was trying to show-off before him, saying something akin to ‘Look! Look how amazing I am! Cool, right?’, like a child would when showing the results of his effort to an adult. However, even though this spectacle seemed simple, Laien could clearly sense just how incredible it actually was.

“This sensation… It’s almost as if I could… just by reaching out…” Laien murmured and lowered his eyelids slowly, focusing his whole attention on the unique feeling the lightning was bringing him. “Amazing, it’s a profound mystery… and it’s so clear and powerful,” he mused happily. He hadn’t expected the so-called Intent to be so incredible, nor did he think it would manifest so easily!

He wasn’t sure how much time passed; it could have been just a few seconds since he closed his eyes and allowed the sensations surrounding him to seep into his body and soul, or it could have as well been a few days or weeks. However, when he did open his eyes, a certain name instantly popped up in his mind and coincidentally, the room he was in returned to normal with Yin sitting to his left and with Patrick looking at him attentively from across the table.

“Profound Mystery of Lightning Dance.” Laien smiled slightly. He wasn’t certain how he came to know that, but this Profound Mystery ought to be the key element that had been inscribed into this tome by its author. “It’s not going to be of all that much use to me, but it will be incredible for Yin. Especially his Lightning Steps should be extremely compatible with this piece of insight,” he realized quickly, making use of the knowledge he shouldn’t have possessed. Yet, he didn’t get frustrated by it; he had previous experience with gaining knowledge out of nowhere during his training with the Profound Mystery of Inferno, so he soon connected the dots and assumed those cases were similar.

Just about the same time as Laien opened his eyes, Yin also woke up from the unique experience with a very satisfied look on his face. “Amazing. It’s actually an incredibly complete Qi, body and soul refinement method. I’ve already gotten the hang of the nine mortal levels of the mortal path, but I’ve only comprehended two of the immortal path. This book is truly priceless, I don’t think something comparable could be found even in the Forbidden Lands… to think that he actually took this thing out for us to take,” he thought in silent awe. He was sure that no person in his right mind would give up a treasure of this level, so it should be that Patrick didn’t quite know the true value of this book.

“We shouldn’t reveal all what we gained.”

Both Laien and Yin came to think the same thing at almost the same time. They exchanged a glance with each other and smiled, thus coming to a silent agreement.

“How was it?” Patrick inquired with a smile. He was a little amazed that the boys managed to enter the trance-like state just by touching the books as he had failed to do the same thing before reaching the Realm of Heroes, but this surprise of his wasn’t all that strong. Those two were obviously exceptionally talented, so it only made sense they would achieve adequate results if they happened to be compatible with the Intent contained within the particular tome. He wouldn’t even be surprised if as soon as those two entered the Realm of Heroes, they would stand a slight chance at inheriting the core insights of the Intents they were highly compatible with.

“Pretty amazing,” Laien admitted straightforwardly. “I saw some lightning of different levels of strength emerge from the tome. I feel that I could actually comprehend the basics of a Profound Mystery if I spent a few weeks studying this book,” he said with a slight smile, his gaze wandering toward the tome in front of him.

“You actually caused lightning to emerge?” Patrick asked with unconcealed surprise. “How much of it?” he asked, the tone of his voice sounding quite forceful.

“Just enough to cover the tome and my hand,” Laien answered with a carefree laugh, appearing to be fairly proud of himself.

“I see…” Patrick nodded. “I didn’t expect you to be so compatible with lightning. You should consider practicing two elements… it’s still not too late before stepping into the Realm of Heroes,” he praised with a calm smile, his voice once again returning to the previous, amicable tone. “And how was it for you?” he inquired, his gaze shifting toward Yin.

“A few hints, I guess?” Yin replied vaguely. “It’s hard to explain since it’s so all over the place. It will be useful to me later on though,” he explained as well as he could given the circumstances.

“True,” Patrick agreed. “The knowledge this tome contains is of use only to those in the Realm of Heroes. Truth to be told, I consider it to be the most precious tome out of those nine… but at the same time, I’ve already learned all I could from it, so parting with it would be the least painful,” he said with a bittersweet smile. He had recently gained full enlightenment of the Spiritual Transcendence from this tome’s Intent; were it not for that, he might have swallowed his pride and not taken it out for those two to see at all. The insights contained in this book were simply too precious to give up without gaining them fully beforehand.

“Go ahead and take a look at the rest of the tomes,” Patrick encouraged. Since he was already giving up so much, he could as well do so without being grumpy all the time; this way, he would make the best out of the bad situation and at least establish a good relationship with those two, as per his original intention. “I suggest both of you take a look at each of them before you decide. Don’t just look at the covers either, read a few pages too,” he advised with a smile.

“Then we will take you up on that,” Laien said with a laugh and to begin with, he reached for the first tome about the Ancient Magic of the lightning element. At the same time, Yin took the next furthermost book titled ‘What Governs the Word’. The two of them had similar thoughts; they would first check out all the Intents and only then try reading further into the tomes.

‘Ancient Magic. Introduction to the lightning element.’ was pretty much as Laien expected it to be. The Intent allowed one to become incredibly familiar with basic characteristics and uses of lightning; to him, it was once again pretty useless, though it would be of great use to Yin. As such, he pushed the tome to the side and instead received the two books Yin had had his hands on; the two of them wanted to swap their books sooner, but since Yin didn’t quite want to start from the advanced tome on lightning, they both ended up picking up one tome each before doing so.

“Yin was fairly excited about this second book too, but then he calmed down. It shouldn’t be as amazing as Martial and Spiritual Transcendence, so let’s start with this one,” Laien mused silently and once again, tracked his fingers against the cover of the tome in front of him and closed his eyes; and as he did so, he felt a flood of information pour into his mind so quickly that it caused him distinct pain. Were it not for his unnaturally powerful soul, he might have as well fainted mid-process, but instead, he managed to bear with it and after a few moments, he opened his eyes.

“Whoa… Soul Refinement, Body Refinement, Qi Origin Refinement, Spiritual Core Refinement, Qi Path Refinement, Spiritual Energy Refinement! All of them separated into nine mortal and nine immortal levels! Too bad I’ve only managed to comprehend the methods up to the fifth immortal level… If I was in the Realm of Heroes, I would have been able to comprehend the full Intent all at once. Since the Intent of this tome is very powerful and detailed, we wouldn’t have needed to trade for the tome itself at all.”

As he thought so, Laien couldn’t resist mocking himself a little. They had already stumbled upon so much good fortune, but he was still greedy for more! It made him feel a bit embarrassed for himself, though it wasn’t like he could help it. He always wanted more, at least as far as cultivation went.

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Patrick asked with a smile, seeing the genuinely shocked look on Laien’s face. “Just out of curiosity, how many of the Six Refinements to Immortality did you manage to comprehend?” he inquired leisurely. He was pretty much certain that he would end up parting with ‘Martial and Spiritual Transcendence’ tome, but since he had learned all there was to learn from it he managed to squeeze out some positive attitude.

The question startled not only Laien but also Yin. However, they managed to restrain their surprise and not have it show too much on their faces.

“Two levels of both paths,” Laien answered after a moment of acted-out hesitation as he assumed it would be unnatural for him to answer without thinking.

“Exceptional, as expected,” Patrick praised and sighed secretly. He needed to advance to the sixth Realm of Heroes before he fully comprehended the spiritual aspect of this tome’s Intent, but it looked like this boy would be able to do the same and more by the time he advanced to the second or third Realm of Heroes. This degree of compatibility… or of talent, in this case, as the Intent was related to pure cultivation? Regardless, it was making him quite jealous.

“If you want to, go ahead and pour yourselves more wine,” he mentioned a bit randomly, worried that his feelings would show on his face if he didn’t change the subject.

“Mhm,” Laien nodded and reached out with his hand. He sent a strand of spiritual energy and pulled the bottle of wine over, causing Patrick to raise his eyebrows. It was one thing to transform spiritual energy into an element and then manipulate an object, but to use pure spiritual energy to do the same? He should have expected that Laien could do something like that, but nonetheless, he was surprised to actually see it being put to practice.

“What Governs the World.” Seeing that Patrick wasn’t about to ask anything else, Laien focused on the fourth of the tomes. After finding exactly what he had expected in the tome’s Intent, he sighed inwardly. “Without experiencing an epiphany, the knowledge of Principles is not only not helpful, but will often be detrimental. It’s a good thing that the creator of this Intent took that into consideration and all the ‘knowledge’ we’ve received is vague and hazy. It will help us make a breakthrough if we encounter right circumstance, but actually reading the content of this tome… that would be stupidity. One should only read the actual pages if he already has knowledge of a certain Principle, else he will be hurting his own future.”

“I wonder if Patrick knows about that?” Laien asked himself. If Patrick knew and didn’t tell them on purpose, then it was quite an unfair move from his side. However, as far as Laien was concerned, Patrick had probably not received the full Intent from this tome. “Where in the world did Patrick acquire all those books? He doesn’t seem to realize how incredibly precious they are,” he wondered but in the end, chose not to think about it too much. To begin with, he needed to get through the rest of those tomes to then make a choice; and something was telling him it wouldn’t be an easy one.

“Yin is so enamored with those Ancient Magic tomes about lightning… let me check out the other three tomes that aren’t from the Ancient Magic series first,” he thought to himself and began attuning himself to the three other books, the usefulness of which still remained in question.

Thus, after two or three minutes, he received three more Intents and learned a few things about those three tomes.

Grand Magic of All Elements was intriguing, but it didn’t enamor him all that much since it contained no particular insights, just ways to use and empower Grand Spells.

The Art of Formations appeared to be quite similar to rune magic, being a well-developed branch of it perhaps. It could be potentially very useful… but just the vague idea of how the process of mastering the formations would look like which he had gotten from the tome’s Intent made him lose all enthusiasm. Without long decades of bitter training and research, it would be impossible to gain any satisfactory results in this field.

Then there was ‘Heavenly Compendium’. This book was entirely about the natural treasures. The Intent contained a vast spectrum of knowledge… but for some reason, he had a feeling it wasn’t suited to this world. He couldn’t imagine most of those treasures he learned about existing on the Starlight continent… but he could imagine them existing in the worlds he had seen in his dreams, in his visions. This little discovery made him all the more intrigued; those tomes.. they seemed out of this world, both metaphorically and more importantly, very much literally.

“Leaving the origin of those books alone for now,” Laien mused and smiled to himself. “There are only these two left,” he murmured, filled to the brim with anticipation.

“Ancient Magic. Introduction to the water element.”

“Ancient Magic. In-depth analysis of the water element.”

Just the act of pulling those two tomes over caused him to nearly fall into the trance. He didn’t need to double-check; his affinity with the Intent of those books was superb. Unable to contain himself any longer, he closed his eyes… without removing either of his hands from the tomes they were lying upon. He couldn’t explain why, but he was sure it would be the best way for him to progress; and as if to prove it, his consciousness instantly sank deep into the Intent of these two tomes.

“What is that?!” he exclaimed, having found himself floating in the air above the endless sea of water that reached as far as he could see. Yet, that alone wouldn’t have been enough to frighten him so badly… what terrified him was the fact that the sensation of power in the air alone was so terrifying, he was sure just being in this space would have killed him had it not been happening in his mind… and even in comparison to that, what was below him was incomparably more horrifying.

With the sense of distance being distorted, he couldn’t tell exactly how huge that thing was… but in the boundless sea below him existed a gigantic whirlpool that seemed to be capable of swallowing and crushing all existence that was stupid enough to come close to it. This phenomenon was both unnaturally tranquil and frightening full of wrath; it was beautiful to look upon, but deadly to approach. This contradiction was mesmerizing to him; it represented something that existed beyond his original realm of comprehension, something that was… actually, almost within the reach of his hand?

Before Laien could finish this thought, he cried out as he suddenly plunged into the terrifying vortex below him at an extreme speed. It all happened so fast that he had barely any time to think about it, but the sensations he experienced proved to be frighteningly real. The feeling of being torn apart, the great pressure of the water increasing with each split-second, the omnipresent Profound Mysteries of the Elemental Law of Water… and other sensations which he couldn’t describe even if he wanted to, as he lacked the words to do so.

However, in the midst of this fear-inducing experience, Laien felt no fear for his life. He was overwhelmed, true… but he didn’t lose his mind. After a few seconds that felt like a few years, the trance finished and he woke up abruptly. He inhaled a mouthful of air; he quickly understood that he had been ‘gone’ for at most a few seconds since despite being so nervous, he began sweating only after coming back to his senses. The state he was in was quite pitiful, but on the other hand, the gains he had made were abundant. It might not seem as much, but he had gained a small inkling as to what the Profound Mystery contained within this intent was.

“Profound Mystery of Maelstrom,”

Although it was just Laien’s own feeling, this Profound Mystery ought to be the above the level of the Profound Mystery of the Mist. It was likely the supreme Mystery of the water element! Whoever that expert who recorded it in form of Intent in those two tomes was, his power needed to be beyond all imagination. If that trance was any indication, that person must have dove straight into a true Maelstrom just to comprehend this Profound Mystery… and he must have actually survived this recklessness and obtained what he wanted!

“Yin should also try… eh?” Laien wanted to silently suggest for Yin to attempt the same with the two lightning tomes, alas.

“Are you all right?” Patrick asked in a worried tone. “I swear you are both so reckless, trying to attune yourselves to two Intents at once,” he said and shook his head resignedly. It was already a huge burned on one’s mind to attune oneself to one Intent, but to try it with two? It was like asking to have your soul injured or for your mind to crumble under pressure.

“Huu.” Just when Patrick finished speaking, Yin opened his eyes and just like Laien, he soaked with cold sweat two or three seconds after waking up. “So that’s why it was so hard for me to comprehend Profound Mysteries of Lightning. There are just a few of them… and they are all incredibly hard to gain insights into. But this time… Profound Mystery of Lightning Rush. If I can actually start gaining actual insights into this Mystery in the future…” he mused to himself, so entranced in the experience that for a period of time, he forgot to pay attention to his surroundings. The moment he would become able to train in the Profound Mystery of Lightning Rush, his power would skyrocket. The only problem was that he had a feeling it wouldn’t be possible for him to do so for a very, very long time.

“Young boys and their stupid ideas,” Patrick said with a heavy sigh while looking at the two pale-faced youths. “Though… it might not be up to me to criticize you as I’ve attempted to do the same when I was younger. If you need to rest for a few days before making your choice, I go ahead. I’m sure you need to talk it all out anyway,” he offered, thinking that the boys would need at least a day or two to recuperate after their reckless attempt at comprehending two tomes at once.

“The choice, huh,” Laien murmured and looked at Yin. Yes, this time around they were faced with quite a dilemma. They absolutely wanted to get their hands on the ‘Martial and Spiritual Transcendence’ tome, but at the same time, each of them greatly desired the set of two Ancient Magic tomes corresponding to his own element. To pick any combination of four tomes out of those five… would they be able to do it? Surely they would, but it was such a waste…!

“Say,” Laien spoke up after a moment of thought. “Isn’t there a way for us to get five tomes instead of four?” he asked without beating around the bush.

“A way, you say…” Patrick frowned a little. It wasn’t hard to tell in which tomes those two were interested in; Martial and Spiritual Transcendence was between the two of them and they had two Ancient Magic tomes in front of themselves, while the other four tomes had been pushed further up the table by them. He needed to admit it, those two were quite a greedy duo. “If you insist, then there might be a way…” he said with a slight smile, then elaborated in a calm, decisive tone.

“I want two things. One, you will tell me in detail how Blood Pact works and what are the conditions for it to be made. Second, you will owe me a favor that I will be able to call in at any time.”