Nalser had no idea what had happened outside his little stone room. In all honesty, he did not care either as he was fully concentrated on charging to the Foundation Establishment. He had reached the peak 13 Stage of Qi Gathering while he was searching for his final Meridian. However, he had always forcefully suppressed the Qi base down, so he wouldn’t accidentally step into Foundation Establishment before he had finished all his preparations. Nalser’s Qi was currently gathering. While most people on the Island didn’t notice it, all of the puppets eyes flashed. Their cultivation was a lot higher than everyone else’s, so they felt all the minute changes in the surrounding Qi.

When they felt it all gathering towards the Training Hall, they knew that Nalser was at his most crucial step. He was now condensing his first Qi Kindling and he whether he would survive or not would be all up to him. Although there was nothing they could do, it didn’t stop them from being on the edge and worrying. Even though everyone else was worried, Nalser was as calm as a lake. He had done all the preparations he could.

He had tempered every single part of his body as much as he could. He had even succeeded his initial estimations and found his soul, established a link with it. If he failed now, then the only thing he could only accept that his life wasn’t fated to be long. With a clear mind, he kept gathering Qi and slowly condensing into a Qi Kindling. This was the most crucial step. To condense the first Qi Kindling was the most difficult because it was a new experience. The ones after that would come more easily. As Nalser kept gathering Qi and condensing it, the outline of the Qi Kindling started to vaguely come into being.

In the beginning, it was illusory and was blinking in and out of existence but as time went on, it slowly solidified. In the beginning, it stopped blinking in and out of existence and was illusory, then it started coming in to existence. When it was completely solidified it looked like a black crystal. Inside the crystal was emptiness, it looked as though it was hollow. The most crucial step of condensing the Qi Kindling had been successfully passed. All that was left to do now was to take it inside him and plant it in the sea of consciousness and excavate a Qi Spring.

He also knew that the fight for supremacy between the special bodies will begin the moment the Qi Spring is successfully excavated. Just as he was about to start absorbing it inside himself, he had another gut feeling. The gut feeling told him, that this step wasn’t finished yet. He started thinking, why do they only condense a crystal? He suddenly had an idea, “Is it possible to pour Qi into it? What would happen if I poured enough Qi inside it that it can’t absorb any more?” As these thoughts crossed his head, he started trying it out.

When he tried to pour a little Qi into the crystal, he was astonished to discover that he truly could pour Qi into the Kindling. As he tried to sense the Kindling again, he felt that it could hold a lot more Qi before it was saturated. He also discovered that the presence of the Qi Kindling was a tad more dominating when he poured Qi in. “Since the gut feeling hasn’t screwed me over until now, I may as well trust it this time as well.” As he thought to himself, he started pouring more and more Qi in to it. Soon, he found out that he only had 20% Qi left, however the kindling wasn’t even 10% filled yet. With a determined face, he took a deep breath as he fully utilized all the meridians to absorb as much Qi as possible.

He let his soul focus on gathering and purifying the Qi, while he himself focused on pouring it into the Kindling at a constant pace. He had to be careful, not to pour too much in at once because then he would run out of Qi and this attempt would fail. If he failed, then at the best case scenario his cultivation would drop a bit but can soon be worked back up. At the worst scenario he would die. So it was best that he would not run out Qi by reaching an equilibrium between the absorbing and pouring out.

Since he could use his soul to replenish his Qi and his own body to pour it out, he only had to keep an eye on the Qi reserves, not to pour out more than he can replenish. As he slowly kept saturating the Qi Kindling, time passed. Soon a day, then two.

Soon 5 days had passed and Nalser was staring at the Qi Kindling with bloodshot eyes. He just finished saturating the Qi Kindling and it looked different from before. The black crystal had a polished shine now as a black flame danced around in the follow section of the Kindling. Since it was fully saturated, it wouldn’t disappear any more. However, he could not create another Kindling before he absorbed the current one. As he stared at the Qi Kindling, he felt fatigue wash over him as he fell asleep. Since he didn’t have to worry about it disappearing, he was in no hurry.

***

While he was gently sleeping and replenishing himself, in a secluded world, in front of the thatched hut the young man in beggar clothes had an awkward face. Finally, he sighed, “Seems like this is the path you have chosen, huh? I don’t know whether you realize it or not but your future path is going to be filled with thorns.” As he said so, he stood up. The tranquility left his eyes as resolution took over. With a wave of his hand he opened a rift identical to the one the old man had opened. He looked at it for a second before resolutely stepping into it and disappearing.

***

When Nalser woke up, he felt as if all of his Qi had left his body. He quickly sat upright and started replenishing his Qi. When his Qi had been fully replenished, his mind at full attention and his body in top condition, he picked up the Qi Kindling. With a deep breath, he started slowly merging it with his own body. He suddenly realized that he was now in the middle of the blank white space and in front of him was his Soul.

Hovering above his palm was the Qi Kindling. As he looked around, he realized that his place was his consciousness. He let out a chuckle as he dropped the Qi Kindling a little further away. As the Qi Kindling hit the ‘floor’ it started spinning rapidly and burrowing in. The size of the hole, was also an indicator on how far the person will go. The bigger the hole, the bigger his Qi Sea, the more magnificent the Qi Palace and the more firm the Qi Core. Currently the hole dug by the Qi Kindling about a 10 meter radius. Meaning that it was the biggest it could be. Nalser stood by the giant hole and looked down, he couldn’t see the bottom but a gentle rumbling sound was coming from below. Soon the rumbling got louder as if a geyser was erupting.

Soon the hole erupted and pitch black liquid started pouring out from the hole. This was the sign that the Qi Kindling had successfully burrowed in and had formed a Qi Spring. Nalser immediately ordered his Soul to sit over the Qi Spring and keep it in check as he himself left his consciousness and quickly prepared himself for the fight that was about to begin. As more and more Qi turned from a gaseous state it was in at Qi Gathering to a more concentrated liquid state that it was in Foundation Establishment, Nalser felt his body heat up more and more. That was the sign he had been waiting for, this meant that the fight for supremacy between the two special bodies will begin soon.

As he felt his Qi being converted, sweat started forming on his forehead. 60%, 70%, 80%, when it reached the 90% threshold Nalser was completely covered in sweat and his skin was starting to glow red. Also some black flames started materializing on his body. He quickly took off his clothes just in case. He had no idea how strong this fight was going to be and it may damage the Artefacts. As he sat there in his birthday suit, the red on his body kept gaining in colour while more black flames started materializing on him. Soon, one of his sides was fiery red and excluded unrivalled heat as you could see the air distort form the heat.

The other side was completely covered in black flames and excluded a dominating aura. As the two started fighting for supremacy, Nalser could do nothing more than simply sit there and grit his teeth. He was furiously channelling his Qi all over his body to alleviate the pain but it could only do so much. Now that his body had been refined to the peak, his pain threshold had also moved backwards, but currently it was proving to be detrimental. He felt as if he was being burned alive but he couldn’t even pass out from the pain. So all he could do was just open his mouth and scream out.

Minutes passed, hours passed. Soon 6 hours had passed from the start and neither side had gained any advantages so the fight was still raging on in full force. Nalser’s voice had already become hoarse from all the screaming, his bones felt brittle, as if they would turn to dust with the slightest touch. His skin was already cracked all over and all the flesh exposed had been burned pitch black. Nalser could only dully look forward, he didn’t even have any more energy to scream, let alone move. Now his sight started growing blurry as he started losing his consciousness. He was happy that he didn’t have to endure that inhuman pain anymore. Just as he started succumbing to the darkness, a voice identical to his own echoed out inside his head, “Don’t fall asleep! If you do all the preparations you did will be gone!”

As the voice echoed out, he started fighting to stay conscious but he couldn’t go on any more. His Qi was all gone, his spirit had been exhausted, his endurance had been burned up. The only reason he could try to fight for his consciousness was only due to his will. However, even that had now become exhausted. As he slowly felt the pain become more and more dull, his sight started going more and more black. Eventually he just closed his eyes. He couldn’t even hear the voice echoing in his head any more, as he started surrendering to his fate already, he suddenly felt his head clear up. His pain had mysteriously disappeared. He opened his eyes and he was in old courtyard.

His eyes opened wide as he recognised the courtyard. It was the very same one he had been in his whole life. He was currently laying on the porch and he was wearing trousers now. He couldn’t feel any Qi anywhere, he couldn’t feel the connection to his soul either. The courtyard and he himself looked as if all that had happened was a dream. He was wearing the usual trousers, underneath his head was the same old pillow, on his was the same old blanket. It was as if leaving this place and all the events that happened afterwards were all just a dream. Just as he sat up and held his head with his hand, he heard a sigh come from beneath the only tree in the courtyard.

Under it sat a young man in black. He wore black trousers, a black T-shirt and around his neck hung a dogtag. His hair was pure white and his eyes were crimson red. He didn’t seem masculine but he wasn’t obese either. His face didn’t have the handsomeness and looked normal. If it weren’t for the crimson eyes and the snow white hair, he would be extremely normal. The young man looked towards him and said in a helpless tone, “You were extremely close to dying there, well you still are but that is not the point at the moment.” Nalser looked towards him and asked, “Who are you? Are you the one who kept giving me the gut feeling with the different techniques?” The young man lightly laughed as he said, “Straight to the point, an apple doesn’t truly fall far from the tree.”

Before Nalser could say anything the young man continued, “My name is Enn Tuul. As for the other question, the answer is: No. Since explaining it is going to be a long, long story, I am going to ask you to listen without interrupting. In the end, you are going to have the answers to all your questions.” Nalser just sat there and nodded. Enn took out a cigarette from somewhere and lit it up as he started narrating, “Well, my story began long long ago when I was your age. I used to work as a person a kin to an assassin but then abruptly I was summoned to another world to be a Hero.”

As he talked this far, a nostalgic glint appeared in his eyes as he continued, “I refused to fight a war I had no part on and left on my own. Through twists of fate I awakened something called an Asura Flame. Asura Flame Holders have only one goal in life, to protect their Nuwa Flame. The Asura Flame is the most dominating flame in existence. Then I travelled that world and soon met another Asura Flame Holder who became my teacher, then together we collected my future wife, the Nuwa Flame Holder Lauren. After that, I adventured around the Realm. I met a lot of people, some I became friends with, some I became enemies with. The I achieved Ascension and could take Lauren with me to travel in the other Realms.” Enn took a breath as he paused the story for a second. Soon enough he continued, “After a few Eons passed, Me and Lauren finally had our first and last child. His name is Curo and I honestly do not know what happened to him.”

Enn had a sadness in his eyes and before Nalser could ask what truly happened, Enn continued, “You see, this Realm is one little bubble. In the vast Cosmos are countless number of these bubbles inside a big glass bowl. However, there isn’t only one of these glass bowls, there are countless other ones around there. The war between the two glass bowls is a Dimensional War. A Dimensional War is a direct war between two Cosmos’s. However, that war was the place I fell at.” As Nalser thought about it, he kept quiet. Seeing this Enn smiled as he continued, “In the last Dimensional War we were ambushed and betrayed. To keep the Cosmos in our hands, I had no other choice than to send everyone out of the Ancient Battlefield and take them all on by myself. You see when an Asura Flame Holder dies, the Nuwa Flame Holder lives. However if a Nuwa Flame holder dies, the Asura Flame holder dies as well.”

Nalser looked at him in confusion, what did that last part have anything to with it. Enn let out a sorrowful laugh as he said, “You see Lauren was stubborn person, the only person I couldn’t win against. She followed me to the Battlefield and decided to die together with me. When The Asura Flame is pure destruction, the Nuwa Flame is healing. As she healed me, I kept fighting to no end. Finally, when I cut down the last of our enemies, We won.” Nalser was still silent as he listened. Enn’s expression turned cold as he said, “It was also the time when Curo was born. Right after we exited the Battlefield, a horde of angry young masters were waiting for me. When they saw the enemy army, they were the first to run but now they started accusing me of hogging all the glory and so on. However, what happened after that was what truly got us killed. Since they outnumbered the people who were supporting us, they easily overpowered them and tried killing me and Lauren. In the end they succeeded as we couldn’t run for long. In the end, I had my trusty partner Curo, a liger who followed me from youth, carry Lauren away as I stayed to stall them. I knew my father and the rest were heading towards there so if I could just buy a bit of time, Lauren and the little Curo could probably live. When I had killed all the people pursuing me, I felt through my connection that Curo died. And then my soul was also shattered because they managed to kill Lauren. As for our son, I have no idea if he survived or not. This is my story, I will now accept all your questions.”

As Enn ended his story, he looked towards Nalser with a wry smile. Nalser immediately opened his mouth as he asked, “You said your soul shattered, then how did you survive?” Enn just let out a laugh as he said, “Haha, I knew you would ask this. After all it is the same soul as yours.” Before Nalser could say anything Enn said, “Our soul is the same but You are you and I am me. We are different personas, different lives. Although I survived, only a tiny fragment of my soul did as it got thrown into a spacial rift during the shattering. That is the only reason it didn’t shatter completely. For countless years it drifted through the vast Cosmos and finally it accidentally took refuge in your soul. Fusing with it. I hope that it explains it.” Nalser thought for a moment and decided to not ask more about it because souls seemed to be a very abstract subject. Probably not much was known about it even in the Cosmos. The next question Nalser asked was, “What do you want me to do? I don’t believe you told me your life story for nothing.” Enn said with a smile, “What I want you to do is, when you Ascend, I want you to got to the “Three Realm Cosmos” and see if my son is still alive. If he is, I want you to give him my apology for not being there to see him grow up.” Nalser felt the deep sorrow behind those words.

He didn’t want to touch that subject any more as he said with a wry laugh, “But you said, that I am alive for now but I presume, not for long. How do you expect me to pass on your words to him then?” Enn just smiled towards Nalser as he said, “I have enough strength left to merge the two body constitutions you have into the Black Flame Angel Body. It is the strongest Fire Type special body out there. It is even the strongest in the Cosmos. I will also pass on to you my cultivation method called the “Black Flame Angel.” alongside with a supreme body refining technique you can use alongside all the other body refining ones.”

Nalser looked at him with an agape jaw as he asked, “Are you serious right now? You are willing to give me all that just so I could pass on a simple apology?” Enn just smiled towards him as he said, “It may seem like a simple apology to you but it is something extremely important to me. Also I would like you to keep this safe and pass it on to Curo if he is still alive. If he isn’t but you know where his grave is, can you hang it on the gravestone?” As he said that, he took off his dogtag and looked at it for one last time before handing it to Nalser. Nalser took the dogtag and upon taking a closer look it had something written on it. As he read it, he accidentally read it out loud, “Wings of Freedom fly for an eternity.”

Hearing this nostalgic phrase, Enn’s face turned serious as he said, “Now then I will pass on the knowledge of the cultivation methods and then I will use my last strength to merge the bodily constitutions, however you will have to start over your cultivation from zero again, so be prepared.” As Enn said so, he placed his finger on Nalser’s forehead and as the finger started glowing, a lot of information started entering his head.

Before he could start sorting it out, he felt darkness take over again as he saw was Enn’s warm smile before his face turned serious. As it did, he felt himself falling over. The last thing he saw was black flaming wings sprouted out from Enn’s back as he started pouring out more and more Qi. After that everything went blank.

When he opened his eyes again, he was inside the stone room but his body felt as though it had been reborn.