Naath spent his time in the city wandering around occasionally and getting supplies for him and Brutus. Over these two months he had developed two more true void membranes so he only needed 10 more until he was ready to move on to the third stage of the true void arts. He had also advanced into the peak stage of the first level of bone hardening. Now Naath was in his rented room sitting cross legged trying to gather enough energy to break through to the second level of bone hardening. The amount of energy Naath was gathering was roughly a third more than he had before.

This was due to approaching completion of the second stage of his true void arts. The energy in the city slowly and silently surged towards Naath as he sat circulating his true void arts. The energy in his bones was reaching a peak point and faint crackling noises were coming from them. Suddenly just as Naath was about to break through, a voice appeared in his soul. “You little idiot what are you doing?! Stop!” It came so abruptly that Naath jumped slightly and his breakthrough stopped and the excess energy dispersed. Naath wore a scowl on his face from being interrupted.

He went into his own soul sea and noticed that the rune had a faint glow to it now and was clearly awake and active. Naath demanded “what the hell was that? Why did you stop my breakthrough, and while I'm asking questions who and what are you? You forced your way into my soul asking for help and now you're interrupting my breakthrough?!” The rune responded calmly, “why would you break through like that when the energy is so thin and flimsy? If you truly want to destroy your own foundation with that flimsy start go right ahead. Sigh, it seems the world I've run to this time is only at this level?”

Naath spoke again “okay you answered why you stopped my breakthrough, however who and what are you? Why do you need my help?” The rune still calmly replied “ You can just call me senior King for now, as for what I am. You can call me a rune of sorts, I need your help because my colleagues are scattered throughout the vast cosmos right now. I wish to save and rescue them from whatever situations they may be in right now. Unfortunately after I entered your soul I became bound to you, I cannot leave and separate from you until you die.”

Naath nodded his head and said “okay then “senior King”, if going into my soul would bind you to me why did you do it? And why me?” The rune still as calm as ever said “ I entered your soul because of the massive soundwave when you first broke through. I was being pursued by a group of inferior trash cultivators. They wanted to bind me to them but with their natural talents they would never go beyond this meager little world. However while I was fleeing from them due to my weakened state I felt the fluctuation from your breakthrough.

Even among the countless geniuses I've encountered, that shockwave caught me by surprise. I chose you because if that is what you do when just stepping on to the path of cultivation you will reach immeasurable heights later. Only someone like that could possibly help me to reunite with all of my brethren. Now then since your fortune was great enough to attract my attention and even get me to willingly be bound to you I suppose I should give you some guidance from time to time.

However there is no such thing as a free meal, in return I need you to strengthen this weak soul of yours. As you strengthen your soul I can use your soul energy to restore my strength as well. At your current level it would take me millennia to get back to my peak state.” Naath nodded his head slowly digesting all of this information, finally he spoke up again. “Okay then “senior King”, how do I strengthen my soul then?” The rune’s tone changed and it asked “hoho, aren't you quite trusting? I could actually be some evil being that is simply waiting to take over your soul and body.

Haha then again with your true void arts by the time I would be powerful enough you could simply swallow me alive and transform me into your own energy. That’s quite a life and quite a world you had before haha!” Naath was shaken slightly and asked “senior can see my past life and memories?” The rune chuckled and said “Indeed I can see everything in your soul, this naturally includes your last life. You really are unique, no wonder fate has guided me to you, to make such a beastly cultivation method like that. Do you have any idea how incredible that is?

Especially because you're from a place with almost no concept of cultivation. You are unique through and through, this alone warrants my assistance. Anyway to strengthen your soul isn't all that hard at your level. You simply need to use it as much as possible. Push the limits of your soul perception as far as you can as often as you can. Gradually the energy will strengthen and grow. Then let's fix your cultivation issues shall we? Sigh it’s a really good thing I woke up when I did in order to stop you from ruining your future.

Right now you don't even have a single energy compression yet you actually want to already charge into the next level? How absurd, if the myriad of living beings across the cosmos heard of this they would die of laughter at your ignorance!” Naath had a sour look on his face and he asked “are you going to help me or simply mock me? I can simply leave my soul sea and ignore you for eternity you know?” The rune chuckled and said “okay, Naath okay I'll guide you, haha to think you would have the gall to threaten me?

Anyway before you advance, or rather in order to advance you need to first compress your energy. Right now the energy filling your bones is thin and obscure yet it's filling them entirely. You need to take all of the energy that is in your bones and compress it to the center of them. The number of times you can compress before you reach a limit can be considered another kind of talent measure. Normal people are able to compress it three times. Five times is considered as above average. Six and seven are considered talents. Eight and nine are considered geniuses, and those who manage to do it ten times or more are considered peerless monsters.

Eventually after compressing so many times your bones won’t be able to handle the pressure of the compressed energy, this is how you are actually supposed to breakthrough. Not by forcibly stuffing as much energy as possible into your bones like that. That’s just insane!” Naath was astonished after learning all of this and said “I see, so I was really being foolish about the way I was cultivating. Thank you “senior King” for your guidance in this matter. I will definitely repay you by strengthening my soul so you can recover more quickly.

From this day Naath’s cultivation path changed completely from what he had planned. After learning all of this he left his soul sea and focused on the energy in his bones once more. However this time he was focusing on compressing it making the energy as dense as possible. After six hours he finally compressed all the energy in all of his bones to their limits. After this he was sweating profusely from the effort it took. However Naath didn't stop here, he drew in more energy until his bones were full to their limit once more. After this he began to compress the energy once more. Naath became completely immersed in this and lost track of time.

Just the first full compression and refilling of the energy in his bones took 12 hours. Naath lost track of himself, he lost track of hunger, exhaustion, and time, he was completely focused on his cultivation. Three days later he had undergone six compressions but was still not at his limit. However at this point his body forcibly awoke him from his cultivation. When Naath awoke he realized he was hungry to the point of pain. A wave of exhaustion also hit him like a mountain falling on top of him.

Naath quickly pulled out some food he had in his backpack and noticed that a lot of it was gone. Brutus had been grabbing it himself over the days Naath was in cultivation, so he had to make do with what was left. After Naath ate and satisfied his stomach he passed out from exhaustion and awoke 12 hours later. As soon as he woke up he made sure Brutus was still okay, after confirming Brutus was fine on his own Naath went back into cultivation. As Naath went back into cultivation while in his soul sea the rune was silently observing everything.

It spoke under its breath “How many compressions can he accomplish I wonder? 11 or maybe 13? His talent is certainly much greater than normal. Also reaching this state in only 3 days that alone is slightly abnormal. Hmmm I may have indeed chosen the proper host this time around.” Naath was completely oblivious to this and was immersed in his cultivation once more. The same cycle repeated itself and on the third day Naath awoke, ate and slept before cultivating again. In his soul sea the rune was watching excitedly to see just how many compression Naath could accomplish.

However after several more cultivation sessions the rune was completely flabbergasted. It didn't even know what to think or how to respond to Naath’s current amount of compressions. Unknown to even the rune the words “monster, he's an unparalleled monster” slipped out from him. At this point Naath had reached 24 compressions and was still going strong. Finally after 21 days Naath reached the 42nd compression. At this point even the rune was terrified at Naath’s talent. However unknown to the rune this was an effect of Naath’s true void arts at play. His true void meridians would take the compressed energy Naath gathered and transformed it making it easier for Naath’s bones to handle and store and use.

After the 51st compression his true void arts finally couldn't cope any further. The rune had gone into deep thought watching Naath at this point and was suddenly snapped out of it by an incredibly light creaking sound coming from Naath. The noise was so light that even if one had a stethoscope to Naath they would barely hear it. However the rune being in Naaths soul heard it clearly. It was such a light sound yet to the rune it was like a thunderclap. The rune let out a breath it didn’t know it held in and said “thank god he finally stopped. I was going to go mad if he kept going!”

That creaking slowly grew more intense, Naath who was in meditation started to brace himself. He was preparing for the intense pain that would come from all of his bones turning to powder and reforming again. Eventually a crackling noise sounded out from Naath’s bones slowly growing more intense. Suddenly all at once Naath’s bones simply couldn't handle the pressure anymore and snapped all at once into powder.

*SNAP!!!*

The sound this time was several times louder than it was previously, and so was the pain. Naath’s every muscle twitched as his face contorted in pain, with him as the center a visible soundwave swept out. When it hit the walls of the room he was in they trembled violently threatening to collapse. The soundwave traveled out and spread across the entire city and beyond. Everyone in the city turned their heads in the same direction simultaneously. It was towards the direction of Naath, however none of them knew nor could imagine that this sound from a breakthrough was an eight year old young man simply advancing to the second level of bone hardening.

Eventually the sound spread out all the way to the raging river sect as well. Even the elders and sect leader all jumped when they heard this sound. They all wondered what peerless genius was breaking through? Back in his room Naath was enduring unimaginable pain as his bones slowly reformed bit by bit. The entire process only took a few minutes, however to Naath it felt like an eternity. Each moment was agonizing pain. When It was finally over Naath was sweating profusely and felt like he could collapse at any moment.

He slowly opened his eyes and when he did he saw Brutus looking at him with eyes as wide as saucers. Naath chuckled and said weakly “it’s okay Brutus, I simply advanced in my cultivation.” After that Naath passed out completely and did not awaken for half a month.