Pathway To Eternity

Elder halted her lecture, walked to the side of the hall and turned her head to gaze at them.

"Do you remember the radiant light i showed you when i first began to teach you? That was called Glory of Heaven. It was part of a martial technique that belongs to the elders of the house of light. The strength level of your cultivation will determine the strength level of your light element manifestation and it will be difficult for you to master a martial technique without a good level of cultivation. Although, your physical body can only manifest a little amount of element affinity, that little amount is highly significant."

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu raised one finger as she continued to watch her disciples.

"Don"t get me wrong. The nascent soul or weapon still remain the best way to fully manifest the affiliated element. But, both still rely on the on the cultivation strength of a martial artist. The level of your cultivation dictates how strong your nascent soul will be. Same with your weapon, your level of strength will determine how strongly you bring out the power of your weapon."

She clapped her hands together making a thunderous sound jolting the disciples back to the reality.

"There are three things i have mentioned that made a cultivator. First one is element affinity and in our case is the light element. The second one is cultivation. And the third one is technique. Remember this clearly, the road to eternity is a difficult one. Even with all these, you will need luck. The least you can do, is to be adept in all these areas. I will see you the day after tomorrow. Study and practice well. Till then."

She turned to Jufeng who was about to leave with Chenric and DaXia.

"Jufeng. Wait behind."

Jufeng who was fretfully confounded, stared around the hall to confirm he heard correctly and the stares he recieved from others confirmed it. He was the only one bearing the name among the new disciples of the house of light anyway. He patiently waited until everyone had left remaining only him ans elder w.a.n.g Xiu.

"Don"t worry, you are not in trouble of any kind. If that will ease your mind."

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu with a smirk on her face, inspected Jufeng.

"How does it feel to be a true premier? Wonderful?"

Jufeng nodded respectfully before he replied.

"Yes, elder w.a.n.g."

"I remebered my own too, truly wonderful. You see everything with a different view. You can now use spiritual sight to see many things, including vibrant energy of plants, trees and animals. You can even see the aura of other cultivators if they decided to manifest it or you have higher levels than them. Which brings me to you. It"s about your aura. You need to know how to control your auric light. Your aura is getting stronger and brighter everyday. Very soon it will be drawing too much attention to you, mostly evil intended attention because you will be like a beacon of target. To show you what i"m talking about, i will teach how to use spiritual sight. Come."

She gestured towards the other side of the hall that had mats for meditation.

"Sit down and cross your legs in the lotus position, close your eyes. Now withdraw your sight into your consciousnes, keep withdrawing it into your consciousness untill you see a part of your consciousness that seemed to be watching you back. That"s your spiritual sight, let the two merged together, now open your eyes. What do you see?"

Jufeng who opened his eyes to see the difference, immediately had to cover his eyes. The light coming from the body of eder w.a.n.g was blinding.

"What you are seeing is my aura. I intentionally manifested it so that you can see it. With my full aura, you can easily determine my level of cultivation and strength level. In combat, you don"t want to underestimate your opponent or attack blindly because your opponent might be surpressing his or her aura. That means you are dead meat. Your aura too has manifested, Jufeng and that shows you are a premier which is good. But, with the radiant silver light, your opponent will know that you are a true premier which can be really bad for you. That"s why i want to show you how to surpress and control it."

Elder w.a.n.g examined Jufeng and shook her head with a sigh. She remembered her older sister, Lu Xiu, who had wanted to take revenge for their mother but had been killed because her opponent was actually a golden core cultivator who had been surpressing his aura. She wasn"t arrogant, but the anger had made her ignorant of combat possibilities.

"Close your eyes and free your mind. Now breathe in and breathe out. Breathe in and hold it. Wait a bit, now let it go and continue like that for a time. Now, when you breathe in, follow the movement of the air into your body until you can see threads of silver light. Now, follow the threads to the source, where the silver threads are coming from. Can you see the source? That"s your soul orb. Now let your consciousness merge with your soul. Very good. That is the true you, though still in the begining form, but can you feel the power? Take it easy, let your awareness cover the silver light. Now draw the silver light to yourself as much as you can until you have few threads left. Very good. Now let your awareness return to your body."

Jufeng opened his eyes with tears of joy and appreciation in his eyes. He tried to look up but couldn"t. His emotion was still getting the best of him.

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu walked to his side and patted him on his back.

"I understood. The feeling of seeing and being one with the true soul. It was truly an unforgettable experience. You see, the Soul Budding technique is only taught to the genius core disciples but you are very different. I could sense your soul the first time i saw you. Your soul is different, i could sense it swimming in a large pool of Chi energy. Never seen that before but i"ve heard of such, so i decided to watch and wait. When i saw you this morning, i knew i was right, the soul of a premier shouldn"t be that powerful. I could sense the power of your soul and it"s drawing more energy.

Seeing the facial expression of Jufeng, elder w.a.n.g smiled widely.

"Are you wondering how i knew all this? It"s my ancestral bloodline, that"s all i can tell you. The truth is that, If you hadn"t learned to control your aura, you would have been like a beacon drawing all sorts to yourself. But now, it"s alright."

After some minutes, Jufeng regained his faculty and bowed to elder w.a.n.g Xiu.

"This disciple thank you elder w.a.n.g Xiu. I am in your debt."

"Debt can be too great to pay, Jufeng. Afterall, you are my disciple. But, if i need your help on a good course in the future, will you consider it?"

Jufeng was more bewildered. How could he help an elder of a nascent soul in the future? That was weirdly funny. He didn"t even know if he should laugh at himself or at elder w.a.n.g or even at the universe.

"On the essence of creation, i will consider it."

"Very well then. Continue focusing on your training. You can go now."

"Thank you elder w.a.n.g." Jufeng uttered as he bowed low.

It was like watching himself through the eyes of a G.o.d. A G.o.d! That was the word for it despite the fact that he had no idea how the sight of the G.o.ds worked. But for him, that was the feeling. This encounter was an eye opener, the embryonic true existence of a cultivator"s soul.

DaXia and Chenric had been waiting outside the hall since they came out. They were wondering why elder w.a.n.g Xiu told Jufeng to stay behind. Could it be that she found out about their grandfather"s box? Is she after the treasures too? If not, then why?

They were still questioning themselves when Jufeng came out.

"Jufeng. What happened?"

"Did elder w.a.n.g found out about the box?

"Did she want you to bring the box?"

"No, not at all. You can both relax your minds. She doesn"t know anything about the box."

"Then, why did she asked you to stay behind?"

Jufeng looked at the two siblings with an easy smile.

"It was about my spiritual aura. She said it was getting too bright and that i could surpress it to the minimum."

"Why would she say that? Have you become a full premier?"

Jufeng not wanting to affect the mood of the two, shook his head. He couldn"t tell them at this time.

"Not yet. But i think it will be next week too."

"Yes, we are all looking forward to next week for the crazy tribulations. The elders said we will know when we are having your tribulations and we have few minutes to get to the Dragon Hide valley where it would be easier and safer for us."

"Leave the tribulations alone for now, Da Xia. You know what Jufeng, when i became a full premier, i would never want to surpress my aura, i would make it shine brighter."

"You are right Chenric, especially if we want to become a core disciple."

They arrived at the cafetarea to find Yingjie already waiting at one corner.

"h.e.l.lo Yingjie." They all chorused at the same time.

"h.e.l.lo Da Xia, Chenric, Jufeng. What took you so long?"

"Sorry about that. It"s because of Jufeng. Elder w.a.n.g was telling him why he need to surpress his aura after advancing probably next week."

"Aura surpression has advantages and disadvantages too. But it will be too early at the Zhuji stage. Anyway, i"m still processing the energy in the pill too and I should be able to finish that by next week."

"Tribulations and aura aside. Now, let"s make our plan concerning the forsaken palace."

"If we leave very early on the first day of the luminary week, we should be able to be back same day, i believe."

"I think we should prepare for more days in the mind of uncertainty. It"s possible to stay longer than antic.i.p.ated."

"So we should prepare for the uncertainty. How safe is the place by the way?"

"Grandpa said it was a safe place. But we still need to get ourselves ready for any danger."

"Yes, we should. That"s settled then."

"Where should we meet?"

"I think outside the gate will be fine, not too many eyes."

"Okay, outside the gate it is."

After they all agreed to meet outside the sect gates early in the morning in two day"s time, they went their seperate ways.

Jufeng headed towards the market. He would have to get a sword, he didn"t have any weapon to use if he needed one. Although, he wouldn"t want the situation where he would have to use it, the situation might be looking for him. Even, if he was not using it, it was better to know he had a weapon in his possession.

He arrived at the market and found the stalls for weapons and armours. He chose one and entered. The stall was full of different weapons of different sizes to one side and armours of various forms to the other side. He didn"t need any armour since he wasn"t going to battle, he was only going to a place full of fruits and plants. Would he be using armour to defend against fruits and plants? But the armors looked great, nevertheless.

The merchant noticed Jufeng looking at the weapons and raised his voice a little.

"Are you in need of a weapon, young man?"

"Yes senior. I need a good sword."

"Alright. It depends on the type and grade you want. I have iron swords, bronze swords and steel swords. And either low grade or high grade."

"I want a good one that is a bit cheap?"

"The iron swords are the cheapest at ten gold coins, the bronze swords are twenty gold coins and the steel swords are fifty gold coins. Those are the arranged prices for sect disciples, they are more expensive outside."

All the money on him totalled twenty two gold coins, the combination of his own savings, money from his mother and grandparents for his time in school. Should he put all of it on the purchase of a sword? Very soon, he would have more money than this if everything turned out fine.

"Okay senior. I will take a bronze sword."

He paid twenty gold coins for the sword and left the market place. His mind was on the forsaken palace of the Jade emperor Wan Bao. What kind of a place was it? A place that contained many spirit fruits and plants.

With his mind still occupied with these thoughts, he didn"t pay much attention to where he was going, walked into an invisible powerful force field and vanished.

The force-field"s attack on him was a devastating one. His body and soul were almost ripped apart that he had to push a ma.s.sive amount of Chi energy into his body to strengthen it. An average Zhuji cultivator would have been fatally wounded and a weaker one would have died.

It only lasted for some seconds but he was already vomitting blood by the time he materialised flying from the impact of the force-field. He appeared just couple of feet from a group of disciples who were coming out from one of the sect buildings. This group was of core disciples and at the front was Shao Cheng. A s.p.a.cetime element cultivator who had already formed his evanesce core, he was the number one genius of the Last-Sword sect.

Instinctly, Shao Cheng contorted the s.p.a.ce just before Jufeng collided with them allowing them to move out of the way. This also slowed down Jufeng"s flight making him hit the ground a little bit softlier, few feet behind them but was still vomitting blood.

"Who are you?"

"Where do you come from?"