Chapter 57
A Warrior’s Soul
They went through the legal procedure at the visitors center where he was vouched for by Leonard and had to sign a waiver stating they were aware of the risks the planet imposed. Afterwards they left inside a small skimmer.
Apparently all of those black dots Chu Shen had seen weren’t cities. Those were just research facilities and defense platforms that were scattered all over the planet.
Surprisingly enough for a planet that was supposed to be most technologically advanced in the known galaxy, there was very little technology on display. Instead they tried to preserve most of the planet as a natural habitat.
Most of the cities were spread on the large oceans, deserts, or even floating above the ground. The biggest facilities however were on the three moons of Sparta. Located there was most of the factories they used to make their specialized products. There was also many off world companies that helped to fulfill the orders that Sparta had.
The city Chu Shen wanted to go to was a fairly large town over the ocean. There he planned on using the rest of his credits to buy a small house and live there while studying the technology.
Previously he had looked at some of it onboard the ship but that was honestly just a glance. He only knew what they were and what they did. Nothing more, nothing less.
He had informed Leonard of his plan and he agreed to it. Leonard decided to help him get everything set up before they parted ways. After all, he lived here before and had some catching up to do with old friends and family.
The skimmer landed at the large town of Thermoplyae. It was a large metal disk over a couple hundred meters in diameter filled to the brim with large towers. Some of those towers were 30-40 stories tall! Normally the disk would sink under the weight but the antimatter fueled gravity repulsors kept them afloat.
After they arrived Leonard kept his word and helped him find a person willing to sell their apartment. Apparently there were no individual houses within this dense urban floating landscape. Instead many of the tall buildings were in fact apartment buildings.
Chu Shen bought a small one person apartment. Of course, he couldn’t buy an apartment legally so he had Leonard buy it for him and then paid him back. It wasn’t technically illegal for him to live there by himself so long as there was an AI program.
The apartment though came complete with its own environment system. It included a small fusion bottle, water, and waste recycling along with a food processor, all state of the art.
He bought it for 800 credits which was actually a little expensive according to Leonard. For comparison a single meal is usually 10 micro-credits. Each credit is worth 100 micro-credits, meaning Chu Shen bought the small apartment for exactly 80,000 micro-credits.
The average cost for such an apartment was 70,000, meaning there was a difference of 100 credits, an incredible difference really since a small interstellar s.p.a.ceship cost 1000 credits.
Ignoring the price, Chu Shen was happy with his new home. It was on the very top floor, apartment number 2049, floor 20. His house consisted of a small kitchen/dining room combo, a living room, small bedroom, and an office.
After they inspected the house and bought it, Leonard helped Chu Shen buy a couple of things. A tablet, house AI, bioma.s.s used for the food processor, recipes, holo-projector, furniture, and some decorations were most of the things they bought.
Afterwards Leonard helped him set up a series of learning programs which he uploaded to the AI. He stayed for another week until he confirmed Chu Shen was able to live by himself. After leaving behind his contact number he left to visit his family.
Chu Shen waved goodbye as the skimmer took off, silent but the sound of air being cut through by the aerodynamic car. After he left Chu Shen sighed in relief.
“Finally I can get to work!” This entire time he had been repressing himself so as to appear like a normal kid, or at least, mostly normal. Chu Shen walked back to the office and opened up the learning programs.
Immediately he started flipping pages and looking at mathematical formulas as he began to learn in earnest. The pages were displayed for only a couple seconds before they flipped. In that couple of seconds Chu Shen saw everything that was on the page, memorized it, and then completed any problems on it.
Within an hour he immediately completed all the math up to a high schoolers level. After that he slowed down slightly. It might seem outrageous but actually it was quite normal. A martial artist was extremely fast upon breaking through to the Martial Realms. It wasn’t just their bodies though.
Their perception of the world around them shifted as well. Their brains abilities such as memory and computing was multiple times better than before. Mostly due to the soul. The soul was the lifeblood of martial artists and everything was directly or indirectly related to it.
The soul was what allowed a cultivator to control Qi and manipulate. A genius was someone whose soul grew at a faster rate than others. As a result of the soul growing, a person would be able to control more Qi than before.
That was the reason why using beast cores and pills to advance was dangerous. If their soul wasn’t strong enough to control the Qi then it might become unstable and destroy their internal organs. Instead it was mostly used to replenish lost energy or to heal wounds.
Of course those with special const.i.tutions like our dear Chu Shen here was an exception. Qi was a foreign substance to the body and had to be forced into it with the soul. But those with special const.i.tutions did not have to forcefully control Qi, instead it willingly did as it was guided to do.
This meant that unlike other people who had to worry about foundations and having absolute control over their Qi, Chu Shen only had to worry whether his body could handle the amount of energy.
The ways to cultivate the soul were simple. Enduring through hardship, learning, being pressured by outside means, or life and death situations. It was also found that the period the soul grows the most is during the first 8-30% of the warriors lifespan.
It normally would be ages 8-30 but as a warrior became more accomplished in the martial path then their lifespan would become longer. As a result, the period of soul growth also expanded. While no one knows why this happened, it was widely accepted and taken advantage of.
Chu Shen studied day in and day out. Taking breaks every now and then to eat and rest. One couldn’t be busy all the time or they would eventually break down. He couldn’t cultivate though.
It made sense, especially when Qi was lethal to humans in this realm. Every time he thought of this he sighed, he was missing out on a lot of cultivation time. ‘Oh well, everything comes at a price’. Such was Chu Shen’s thoughts on the matter.
What was really odd was the fact that Master Ti Wu did not talk to him at all. Not even a peep was heard from him in the period that he used studying. Unbeknownst to him was the fact that it wasn’t that Master Ti Wu didn’t want to talk to him, but rather he couldn’t.
Master Ti Wu had not saved up a lot of energy so as to not hold his disciple back. Unfortunately he was not aware that Chu Shen couldn’t cultivate here. While he was researching a couple of things inside the Voids Hand’s library the entire library flickered.
Realizing that the power was starting to run out, Master Ti Wu tried to find out the problem. After he realized it he started to immediately curse himself and his foolish disciple.
Normally using the library wasn’t a drain on the power stored because the Voids Hand used surrounding Qi to power it. Since there was no Qi surrounding it, it started using up the stored power.
Now there was barely enough to keep him alive since he was like a leech inside the library. There wasn’t even enough energy to send a message to Chu Shen! Otherwise he could have him give some energy. So with great reluctance he went into a deep slumber, cursing his disciples foolishness all the while.