Chapter 37: The Requirement

“How did you progress before? Tell me more about the battle

you progressed twice in.” Guo Huo asked.

Jia Yuan had already told Guo Huo that he had progressed

very quickly in the midst of a battle before. As such, Guo Huo wanted to delve

deeper to see exactly what had occurred during the battle for Jia Yuan to

progress so quickly.

“Well, I first progressed when I cut down the first batch of

bandits with my sword.” Jia Yuan looked over at Guo Huo to see if he had any

response.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough for Guo Huo to make

assumptions off of. “Continue.”

“Then, I ran into the main fight and after fighting for a

bit I realized that the bandits were stronger than I thought, so I tried to

activate more of my Song… and then I don’t remember much after that except that

I had the sensation that I was drowning in a dark sea.”

Hearing this, Guo Huo’s entire body tensed and he

involuntarily let out some of his aura, which badly surprised Jia Yuan. After

all, Guo Huo’s main strength was his ability to manipulate the power of his Song,

which included his aura. For him to actually lose control of his aura upon

hearing what Jia Yuan had said… what exactly was the reason?

Jia Yuan continued to speak, although he was rather unnerved

by Guo Huo’s reaction. “And, um… well after a bit I woke up and I found out

that I had actually progressed to the 3rd level of Absorption. So

uh, what’s wrong?”

Guo Huo let loose a long sigh and then looked toward Jia

Yuan with a dry gaze. “Seems like your luck is really something out of the

ordinary. At the very least, you are incredibly fortunate to still be alive.”

“Whatever you did before you felt like you were drowning in

the dark sea, never do it again unless you have to. What you did was enter the ‘Sea

of Souls’ which is an incredibly dangerous place for humans. At the same time

that you entered the sea, the soul of your Song occupied your body. This

probably granted you great strength, but at great risk to your own soul. At

worst, your Song could have gone on a frenzy and went on a rampage, killing

everything in its path.”

“However, it seems that you were fortunate enough to be able

to find your way back to your body. Just don’t ever do it again. When you’re

ready to explore that world further, I’ll teach you about it, but for now, don’t

even think about it.”

“As for your Song… it seems that you need to experience real

combat in order for you to progress. Sparring with me might not work because

you hold trust in me. Hm… I guess it’s time for us to leave this crater. You

haven’t reached the 5th level of Absorption, but I think the only

thing left for you to advance is to experience some real combat.”

“Coincidentally, the next place I was going to have you

train at will provide you with quite a bit of authentic combat. Hmm, let me

see. We’ve been here for about two months, so… alright. We’ll have you train

here for another two days and then we’ll leave.”

And so came the last day of training in the crater.

Jia Yuan was atop the pillar, surrounding by ribbons of fire.

For the last week, Guo Huo had instructed Jia Yuan to keep the flames emitted

from his song circling around him in a continuous line of fire. As such, Jia

Yuan decided to manipulate the flames into the shape of a ribbon. This flame

ribbon followed the tip of his sword and provided for quite an interesting

spectacle.

Jia Yuan had long ago been able control his flames well

enough to resist the pull of the pool of fire, but being able to keep close

control of his flames while resisting the pull of the pool of fire was far

harder. In fact, this was the first time he had been able to do it to such an

extent.

For someone in the Absorption level, this sort of control

was basically unheard of. It was only because of this special location that Jia

Yuan had been able to practice his control to such a degree. Although he wasn’t

on Guo Huo’s level, it could be said that the disciple mimics the teacher.

Guo Huo stood by, watching. He didn’t show anything on his

face, but in his heart he nodded rather enthusiastically. “He’s able to do what

I was able to do at the 9th level of Absorption while still only at

the 3rd level of Absorption… He may not be the fastest cultivator,

but his foundation… should be unparalleled on this continent."