《Phantom Song》Chapter 35: Waking up
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As Nalser sat in a meditative state, he accepted all of the information that the young man passed onto him. Amongst the information were various cultivation techniques, weapon techniques, movement techniques, forging techniques, formation diagrams, alchemy techniques and so on.
This was the accumulation of all the knowledge the young man had before losing himself. Besides the techniques were also his personal insights into the techniques. Their weaknesses, strengths and ways to improve them.
The vast amount of information was so massive that Nalser took over a half a month to just accept all of the information and glance over it and organize it inside his head. When he finally opened his eyes, his eyes were completely calm. At some point in time, he had been transported back to where he had been before the young man pulled him into his dantian.
Around him, there was a light barrier that separated him from the outside world. The fluctuations from the barrier itself made Nalser feel as though he was suffocating. Outside the barrier, there was an entire army of people sitting in a lotus position with their eyes closed. However, from their stances, Nalser could see that they were all ready to draw their weapons at the moments notice if need should be.
None of the people outside the barrier seemed to have noticed that Nalser had woken up, so he took this chance to take a closer look at the people all around him. What made his eyes narrow were the five people sitting in a circle around him. Four of them looked like old men with weak bodies and long gray hair but the fluctuations they released made Nalser feel as if he were an ant looking at a giant dragon.
After his gaze passed the four men, his gaze was fixed on the fifth one that sat directly in front of him. Unlike the other four, he didn’t look like an old man but rather as a middle aged man. Even though he look vastly different from the old men, the fluctuations he released were by no means weaker than the four old men. In some regards, they were even some what stronger than theirs.
Since the people outside the barrier had not realized he had woken up, Nalser took this chance to slowly go over all of the information regarding Body Cultivation that he received. As he closed his eyes again, the middle aged man in front of him slightly opened his eyes and lightly smiled as he thought to himself, “Good. Take the most of this situation.” As he thought that, he closed his eyes again and pretend nothing had happened.
Another week went past in the blink of an eye. During that week, Nalser had had a lot of time to think over all of the circumstances of his origin, the Devil and the young man, the origin of the Yin and Yang Flames and what he wants to do from now on. A lot had happened in these past few weeks and it would be very wrong to say that it had not affected Nalser’s mentality in the slightest.
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In the contrary, it had influenced it greatly as he now knew why his life was like it was. Even if you didn’t count his childhood being like it was, the root of the problem was still the Realm that had sealed the first Yang Flame Holder. Even after the Soul was Sealed, they still kept causing trouble to it. Nalser would have had no problem or bone to pick with them but they were the direct cause of him having the life he has had up until now.
Even if he tried, he couldn’t help but develop hatred and disdain towards the Major Powers of the Realm. Currently, he set his sights on becoming as strong as he could and if he should ever be able to break the Seal and absorb the two remaining fragments of the soul, he would without a doubt go and settle this score.
For now, he was still far too weak to do any of that, so all he could do was fake ignorance and bide his time. As Nalser organized and compared the techniques in his head, he couldn’t just help but grin as a daring plan started formulating in his head. Phantom Song was a Pre-Cultivation Body Refining Technique that focused on refining his body to the peak before he stepped on the true path of cultivation.
Phantom Song Sutras one and only goal was to lay an extremely solid foundation for future cultivation. It didn’t emphasize the speed of cultivation but rather how much a person squeezed out of it. It helped temper the will, patience and persistence of the person cultivating it. The Path of Cultivation was an uphill struggle against the Heavens, unless you had a firm will, enough patience and incredible persistence it was impossible to reach the pinnacle of cultivation and escape the Shackles of Heavens and ascend to the Higher Plane of Existence.
Once Nalser broke through the Shackles and got back at the Realm for creating all sorts of troubles for him could he feely roam the Vast Universe and have an unfettered life. When the week had passed, Nalser opened his eyes and calmly stood up. As he approached the barrier, he gently pressed on it and it cracked and shattered.
This woke everyone up form their meditation and all of their gazes gathered on the person that stood with a cold gaze. No one said anything but the middle aged man in front of Nalser stood up and looked at Nalser with an affectionate gaze. No words were exchanged but seeing the resolution in Nalser’s eyes, the middle aged man lightly smiled as he gestured for everyone to disperse.
Seeing the signal, everyone disappeared and returned to their duties. The four old men sized up Nalser with a serious gaze and all of them secretly nodded before they also disappeared.
Soon the only people left were Nalser and the middle aged man. The middle aged man took out a Spacial Ring and threw it to Nalser before turning around and also disappearing. No words were exchanged from start to finish but actions always spoke louder than words.
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The barrier that enveloped Nalser was something that the young man had set up using the last fragments of Qi he had. Even if the strongest existences in the Realm tried to break it down, they would have no way of dismantling the barrier or brute forcing through it. However, the mere existence of the army outside showed Nalser that they would leave nothing up to chance.
Five people that stood at the pinnacle of strength, plus thousands of other clansmen guarded him with extreme vigilance. Nalser’s position in the Clan was extremely weird as everyone were summoned here, they were also told who Nalser truly was.
This however created anger in the hearts of the various clansmen that were here. With Nalser’s identity revealed, the Nura Clan was going to go through immense changes and a lot of them had already started. Investigations of every single person in the Clan had started and everyone who was confirmed to be a spy, was ruthlessly eliminated. No Elder in the Clan even gave a pitying glance to all the pleas of mercy and all of the bribes.
They ruthlessly eliminated them and when the other Clans started questioning their actions, the Founding Ancestor of the Nura Clan stepped out and shut everyone up with two sentence, “My Nura Clan is weeding out bad seeds that are colluding with outsiders to undermine the unity of the Clan. Should anyone of you have a problem with it, my Nura Clan will from now on regard you as enemies.”
These two sentences showed everyone quite a bit. First of all, it seemed like even the Founding Ancestor regarded Nalser very highly. Nura Clans sudden movements made all the powers involved in the incident 15 years ago go extremely vigilant. Even amongst the 7 Flame Angel Clans, the Nura Clan was known as the most dangerous one for many reasons. First of all, they all were darkness attributed and cultivated in arts that stuck to the shadows. They were known as the number one Assassin Clan in all of the Realm. The second, and perhaps the most important reason why no one dared to make enemies with them was because of them being shrouded in mystery.
The exact location of their headquarters was unknown, the number of their experts was also unknown and most importantly, no one knew how many resources were hidden by the Nura Clan. The most dangerous enemy was the one that nothing was known about.
The Nura Clan usually held a low profile and didn’t provoke others but they also never let others provoke them. The only reason they were even able to create that incident was because an insider betrayed the Clan for benefits. As soon as Nalser caught the ring, he sent a bit of Mana inside the ring to take a look at what was inside.
The moment his Mana entered the ring, Nalser couldn’t help but be astonished. The space inside the ring was enormous and it was packed to the prim with various cultivation techniques, Pills, Artefacts and all other kind of raw materials and formation disc’s. Nalser took a deep breath and look at the ring with a mixed gaze as he could see that they truly did care about him. First was the protection and now came all of the things he needed. If he also added in all the mysterious people that had protected him before, then Nalser could see that they truly did care about him and were regretful but at the same time, they didn’t want to bring Nalser into the giant shit storm that had been brewing for thousands of years already.
You didn’t need to be a genius to understand that the incident was something that was an inside job. Also, by not insisting on Nalser going to the Clan, Nalser was truly grateful for that. He could never settle in that easily there and also, after coming to this world, he had decided that he would try to live as unfettered of a life as he could. He didn’t want to be tied down to one place and he also didn’t want to take part in politics either.
As Nalser gazed at the ring in his hand, a familiar silhouette appeared before him. It was Xi. Xi looked at Nalser with a complicated gaze before slowly saying, “I don’t know what happened and I also don’t plan on inquiring about it. Your good fortune is your good fortune.”
He then took a deep breath as he said the final piece, “Whatever you obtained, it is yours. How you use it is all up to you.” Nalser looked at Xi with a cold gaze and nodded his head.
He wasn’t exactly angry at Xi but rather, after learning about his origin and also about all the tribulations that would face in the future, he had adopted a cold disposition. Especially the other Yang Flame Holders, he knew that most of them would probably die the moment he called back the wisps of Flames that they had obtained.
Voluntarily or involuntarily, most of them had built their cultivation on the Flame and if the Flame was removed, they would also all perish. Nalser had nothing against the other Flame Holders but as long as they still held the Flames, Nalser would never truly be able to break the Seal that binds the other fragments of his soul.
Xi nodded his head and turned his gaze towards the small house in the distance and said, “Her awakening should happen sometime next week.” He then turned his gaze towards Nalser and said, “She is also very shaken about what happened to you. You should try and set her mind at ease a bit.”
Nalser also cast his gaze towards the small house and nodded his head. He took a deep breath and set his steps towards the small house.
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