Volume 2
89 The Living Weapon
Crack! Rumble!
Three whole rows of trees collapsed!
"Wow! What great strength indeed!" I exclaimed in surprise as I rolled my left wrist around.
On the contrary, Ta Lai shook his head with a smile. "It"s still too weak; it"s evident that your precision at MF isn"t too strong. Song Lu was still better in this aspect."
At the thought of Song Lu, my head drooped in silence. Song Lu"s precision and control of MF was well known in Western District. She had once taught it to me too, but I was always too distracted to learn.
"Your body in the split form is a translation of your consciousness. In other words, one"s precision can reach a point where you would be able to sense and change every single cell in your body; that"s a form of superpower in itself. Hence, such degree of precision for the function of your body and MF can have a direct impact on the strength of attack you unleash. Just like creating a form of technique with MF, it uses your liking for the type of technique to invent it.
"Take the enchanted s.h.i.+eld for example; such thing didn"t exist in the real world, but it was possible to craft it in the split zone through the meticulous control over MF. It requires you to understand the principles of its physics, and use it with the manipulation of its molecules.
"Of course, you must first have enough capacity of imagination to craft it; the core of MF is your mental strength and in layman terms, the techniques within split zone are basically imagination-whatever your brain can invent will be possible in the split zone. It goes without saying that imagination would require precise control over MF."
I rolled my wrist again and felt the flow of MF as my blood fused itself with it.
"Precision, that"s what you have to take note of. Other than that, as you"re working on converging your MF, you can inject a portion of it into your Piercer as well. The Piercer is different from just any other weapon; if you are able to wield it right, it can achieve great damage potential."
"Oh?" I tried to s.h.i.+ft my MF and raised the Piercer again. Ta Lai gestured for me to hold.
"Do you not know about the Piercer?"
"What about it? Are you talking about it being a murder weapon, or that it brings misfortune upon its owner?" I brandished the Piercer.
"No." Ta Lai shook his head. "I guess you have no idea. In that case, let me explain it briefly.
"There are two categories to the weapons in split zone: the Living and the Dead. Most of those you see are dead weapons; they"re the most common. Similarly, there are only a handful of weapons that are called living weapons."
"Living weapons?" I asked in curiosity. I"ve never heard of such a phrase. Nie Zun"s eyes shone as well, indicating that this was the first for him too.
Ta Lai nodded. "Living weapons are just as it sounds; they"re weapons which are "alive". They are made from a part of the consciousness."
I was baffled. "What do you mean? It"s made from a part of the consciousness?"
"That means, if a body of consciousness used a part of themselves and infused their MF to create a weapon before they died, then the weapon becomes "alive" due to the inclusion of consciousness. However, these weapons are difficult to craft and it"s difficult to maintain the performance of consciousness after their death in the split zone. Hence, most people transfer a portion of their MF into the weapon before they get murdered. In simpler terms, they sealed a part of their soul into the weapon."
This means… I"m carrying someone"s soul in this Piercer?
As if he read my mind, Ta Lai nodded his head slightly. "The reason for the horrifying rumor behind your Piercer is because it was made from the skin and fresh blood of a person!"
What?!
I lifted the Piercer and ran my fingers along the Pierce"s handle, no longer feeling the same excitement I had once upon time. Instead, a feeling of fear drowned me.
"I don"t know much about the Piercer. In any case, putting aside the curse of this Piercer and the potential of it backfiring on its user due to the remnants of consciousness, it is still a great weapon in combat. Even so, the prerequisite is that you"ll have to be good enough to wield it. In the split zone, there are only three other weapons that had a name-"Leopard"s Claw", "Shen Qi" and "Seal"."
"Where are the other three?" Nie Zun interjected.
Ta Lai rotated the jade ring, his eyes flickering. "I don"t know where "Seal" and "Leopard"s Claw" are, but "Shen Qi" is the personal weapon of Southern District"s Gaoqin Jiuye."
My eyes snapped towards him at once. "Gaoqin Jiuye"s personal weapon? That black, long and flexible sword?"
Ta Lai flashed a mystifying smile. "You know him?"
My lips twitched. "You"ve already found out so much about me, are you really trying to imply that you have no idea I"ve met him?"
"I know you did. From what I heard from Zou An, it seems as though the relations.h.i.+p between you and Gaoqin Jiuye isn"t as simple as we thought. I"m really curious; you"ve never seen him before, so how did you two get tangled together without reason? I"m not the only one who"s puzzled; there are others who didn"t understand either. That"s the reason why I"m asking you in person."
I continued staring at him. "There"s nothing between us, no secrets nor any entanglement; you"ve all been thinking too much about it."
Ta Lai smiled knowingly. "I guess you aren"t willing to explain it to me. That"s fine, I don"t know much about what happened between you two. All I know are the reason and motives behind the major incidents of the three districts, and it wasn"t as mysterious as you thought. Since you don"t wish to talk about it, then I won"t ask anymore either. That said, I must remind you that Gaoqin Jiuye isn"t as simple as you imagined him to be; it"ll be better for you to stay cautious when it comes to him."
Not as simple as I imagined him to be…?
Ehehe, I"ve never thought him as simple. Ta Lai wasn"t the first person who advised me about staying careful about him, right? And him? His behaviour and att.i.tude had always been worthy of being cautious against, right? Whether it was the coldness and maliciousness that lurked behind his expressions, or the way he operated without hesitation. Still, he looked exactly like Gao Qi and now, even his personal weapon was named "Shen Qi"--am I supposed to just ignore that?
No, I can"t. Since I don"t know the secret to split zone, anything is possible. I"ll never believe that his resemblance to Gao Qi is a mere coincidence! But, as much as I know he"s a dangerous figure, if he had even the slightest inkling of relations.h.i.+p with Gao Qi, then I would still have to face him at some point.
Regardless of the excuses or reasons, Gao Qi was someone I"ve loved and admired. Even if I realized I had known nothing about him through my recollection of memories, I am still adamant about finding out what happened between us before I stabbed him!
My instincts told me that only split zone would be able to return that memory to me; only Gaoqin Jiuye would be able to give me that!
"I understand." I nodded.
"The fact that you"re agreeing to it this calmly makes me even more worried. Li Shen, you"re not someone who"s capable of being calm and logical." Ta Lai spoke unhurriedly.
I sneered. "How did you know so much about me anyway? Enough to know that I"m not someone who"s calm or logical? Ta Lai, maybe all of you had read too much into me!"
Ehehe, no matter how superior you are in the split zone, have you ever murdered someone in your previous lives? Have any of you murdered the person you loved? I"m a demon with double ident.i.ty disorder, that"s a fact. What was there for my illogical and franticness tendencies to change?"
"Alright. Whatever it is, remember what I told you: be careful of him. Now, then, let"s return back to the topic at hand. Your Piercer and his Shen Qi are both well-known living weapons. Still, your knowledge and control of the Piercer is of no match to Gaoqin Jiuye. I hope that you"ll be able to interact with your MF even without having the use for it; don"t treat it as a weapon but a person. Perhaps you will be able to conquer it in the end.
"The ability of the Piercer is far beyond what you see now. If you can conquer it and the rumored backlash, then you"ll be able to eliminate opponents on You Ji"s level even without sealing your split symbol." Ta Lai added.
I nodded. "About the precise manipulation of MF, I"ve tried to sense it again earlier. Even if I couldn"t interact with the Piercer immediately, I believe with practice and your guidance, I can at least reach a breakthrough on its usage."
"Alright, let"s practice more than. Before we start, there"s another thing I must clarify."
I looked at him and exhibited that I"m all ears.
"Even though you"ve not sealed your split symbol and so controlling a technique would be tough, but I hope you"ll be able to breakthrough your limits and adopt one that"s suitable for you. Using the technique you created, it can increase your precision with MF manipulation."
Technique?
If it"s as Ta Lai mentioned, the "technique" in this split zone is a combination of imagination and abilities. That means to say, "technique" in itself had no limitations, whether it was You Ji"s duplication, Jie Pa" enchanted s.h.i.+eld, or Nie Zun"s sight. Those were all combinations of imagination and abilities but from the looks of it, it isn"t as easy as it seems. It must be a difficult feat to convert imagination into reality through MF.
"There are a lot of techniques; my distortion and illusions are a form of s.p.a.ce manipulation technique. The illusions within split zone aren"t similar to those you read in books; there"s a limitation of range here when you use MF to change in that s.p.a.ce. My distortion technique works the same way, creating or changing certain range of s.p.a.ce. The enchanted boundary s.h.i.+eld and sight are different as well. There are many variations to it, depending on what suits you."
What suits me…?
Why are "money-making" and "turn me into a beauty" techniques the first that came to mind?
Alright, alright. I"m just kidding…
But… what kind of technique would suit me?
"There"s no rush; everything still depends on your ability to control MF. After all, imagination is just a part of the creation process. Let"s focus on practicing your control of MF and the use of Piercer for now." Ta Lai concluded.