For a second nothing existed. I was centred in myself and felt like all creation came from me. It was this moment of crystal clarity that allowed me to feel how my aura and chi were altering my very being. Instinctively, I knew what they were doing. My aura was strengthening my whole body and attuning my very flesh to all the elements encompassing my concept while the chi was doing the very difficult job of always maintaining balance when one element tries to fight for dominance. This was extremely important because the fire phase aspect of my concept was consumed by and became the whitefyre of my ancestor, assimilating the sorcery into what would soon be born. That strengthened the following elements exponentially as they cycled into one another.

I frowned as I felt the aspect of fire still trying to break the control my chi asserted. It felt like I was boiling, then I would cool down, then boil again. I would force it to stop but I know it is strengthening my body, but the pain was climbing and getting excruciating.

I grit my teeth and allowed it to happen. As I reached the breaking point, my aura seemed to explode out of me followed closely by my chi as they affected my surroundings. I felt my connection to the surrounding mana, the ‘natural’ mana, grow past a tipping point and reach a stage where it seemed I could influence it with nothing but a thought. My area of influence expanded until it stopped at some 400ish meter radius around me.

‘Domain, I had achieved a domain for both my concepts. Colour me surprised.’ A domain is not something everybody can activate. It doesn't have boxes to tick to reach it-

‘Well, it does, sort of.’ You need to be an aura or chi master while also having a certain level of mastery over the concepts you choose, other than that, it’s arbitrary. But I digress

‘Luck really is on my side today.’

I felt the mana around me relax as I came down from my high and felt my aura and chi return to my body. The process had been completed. I immediately felt the sorceries I had developed with this. My brows kept climbing as I began understanding the implications of what I had just felt.

‘Isn’t this a little bit absurd?’

The sorcery I gained from my chi was an instinctive understanding of the balance of all things within and without, in other words, I simply knew the equilibrium. My aura, on the other hand, granted me control of the five elements in my concept and their derivatives as well as minor control over the ying-yang and void/origin aspects. The third and final sorcery I got from all this is the automatic ‘cultivation’, if you will, of both aura and chi and that was a surprise.

“Get up! We’re sparring now.” I forgot he was there.

I gingerly got to my feet to feel out the changes in my body.

‘Huh, I’m definitely stronger and should be having trouble controlling my body, but i'm not. Must be my chi’s sorcery’

“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go!” We walked over to the personal training ground for family only. He walks over to the rack and picks a weapon, a sword, and I do the same.

“Begin when you’re ready.” I smirked.

‘He’s in for quite the nasty surprise.’ The only thing holding my swordplay back was my bodily capabilities, which had just seen a massive increase.

I walked over and stood in front of him and ready myself. I activated my aura and concentrated it at my feet as I launched myself at him. I’m assuming he did the same because the very next second we clashed with each other. We flew across the training ground, coming in and out of visibility as our swords kissed each other and sang.

‘Finally, my body moves like I want it to.’

I parried his sword to the right harshly, leaving him wide open for an attack and immediately followed up with a kick to the chest. It connected, but he didn’t move an inch and he went to grab my ankle. I used his chest as a springboard and initiated multiple backflips. During the last flip, I fired off an invisible aura blade to try and catch him off guard. He simply side stepped it and launched himself at me. He brought the sword down on my head and I brought it to a stop with my sword. Sparks flew as we fought for dominance. I was concentrating so hard on him that I didn’t see the kick to my ribs before it arrived and flung across the field.

‘That fucking hurt!’ It was like getting hit by a large steel rod.

“Good enough. Now show me the fancy new sorcery you have.” I curled my right eyebrow upward. Well he asked for it.

I relaxed the tight hold I had on my aura and allowed every aspect of the concept to soak into my aura, transforming it into something far more qualitatively superior.

‘Ah, that’s better.’ It felt like I had just relaxed my trousers after a full meal.

I extended my left hand outward and a complicated magic circle filled with glyphs sprung from my palm. It was a favorite of mine, this spell, because it does its job well. A faintly light blue barrier surrounded the training field before becoming invisible.

“Just so we won't be bothered.” He smiled at me with a feral look in his eyes before I launched myself at him once more.