Chapter 22: Fate

“Third realm bodily cultivator!” If he was shocked before, now Zax was utterly flabbergasted.

As far as he knew about the state of bodily refinement techniques in both New Earth and Ercas Mir, the latter was far behind and the former had only three noteworthy bodily refinement techniques, one of which, arguably the best, was Grandmaster Kartion’s Seven Stages Of Bodily Refinement. Another, most famous yet in second place, he encountered in the Martial competition, Elijah’s Scarlet Armor. However neither Grandmaster Kartion nor Elijah had yet to create the third realm phase of their respected techniques, at least it was ridiculous to imagine that they managed to in the relative short span of time that passed since he left.

“Aren’t you a soul cultivator?” Instead of considering other techniques, Zax concentrated on examining Gid Chu’s physique through his stature and what little he could see of his exposed skin. There was nothing peculiar, to be fair he was not sure that he could find any prominent indications that will expose the man before him as a bodily cultivator, he met very little of them ... but not all signs could be hidden, something that would rouse his instincts, should he care enough to pay attention, had to be somewhere. Nonetheless, he still detected nothing and therefore doubted Gid Chu’s claim.

“Don’t bother”. Gid Chu recognized the scrutinizing gaze in Zax’s eyes. He gave him that same look when he first saw him, only better concealed it. “It wasn’t that I was a soul cultivator as a last resort. I terminated my mist cultivation after reaching the first Martial Mortal’s level. By then my soul on its own was capable of dealing great damage to most Core Masters and my body was honed by the energies of the third realm breakthrough. At worse, I altogether had the battle powers of Beginner third level Core Master”.

‘That’s right’. Zax concurred. ‘My mist cultivation is held back till I gather all Black Cores. I had forgotten that Mist Users also strengthen their body with each breakthrough’. “Which refinement technique is it?” On a personal level it was more important for him to know the first bodily refinement technique to pave a path for the third realm, than continuing to discuss the five powers and their Immortal powerhouses.

“Infinite Transformations Altering Body, Yurnal’s own creation. You, cultivate Seven Stages Of Bodily Refinement, right? Well this is another Valgarel’s bodily refinement technique and from the mouth of one of the strongest being on this planet, Ozeyn, it’s qualified of being the third best bodily refinement technique”.

‘“Ozeyn” as in “His Valor Ozeyn”?’ Zax did not ask out loud, pretty much sure of the answer. Furthermore, receiving a reply to his initial question, the tremors in his heart ceased. ‘It can be ahead of the curve, that doesn’t make it better than Grandmaster’s. There got to be shortcomings in this bodily refinement technique that in my perspective wouldn’t be worth the haste’. Though ego was somewhat involved, the fact of the matter is that if he could go back and choose, Zax would have still preferred to cultivate the slow, even incomplete, yet best, than third or second best regardless how easy and fast they were in comparison.

“Are you satisfied? If not we can exchange pointers later. Infinite Transformations Altering Body’s third phase might not be better than the subsequent basic tempering the body receives from mist energy when Martial Mortal attains the fifth level, not to mention the whetting from the other superior techniques, but it has its own benefits that should not be underestimated”.

Zax said nothing in response, nevertheless it was determined that later he will verbally accept Gid Chu’s offer, if anything, to examine how well he can match himself against someone comparable to fourth level Martial Mortal. As for avoiding Yurnal because of the commotion he made and the Black Core he was reluctant to give up, unless the reputed Sinister Chain’s Second Leader will suddenly show up, he will reflect over his options after the exchange.

“How much of your information did you get from your hostage?”

“‘Prisoner’. We had no intention of giving her back. It was already implausible for Yurnal to grab her before Blue Sea’s Admiral interfered”. Allowing killing intent to ooze out, Gid Chu wanted for Zax to understand the kind of conclusion there is and will be for anyone from the five powers. “She just recently broke through, yet still compelled Yurnal to a desperate situation and took the lives of six members in the process”. He settled down and proceeded to both answer and explain. “Breaking a fourth level Martial Mortal required effort meticulous and radical. It wasn’t that eventually we could make her talk ... we isolated her spirit, smashed her soul and amassed whatever we could before the fragments dissipated and her spirit moved on. If she had the resolve to suicide at the time her captivity was imminent, she would have got the chance to exhibit one last act of devotion. In the end she probably deluded herself thinking that her Admiral will save her, which is why you might as well say that she willingly provided us with information.

“To your query, of all the things we know, perhaps seventy to eighty percent came from her”.

“So much ... are you certain of its reliability?”

“Have you ever tortured someone’s soul? If your skills are up to the task, the disparity in soul cultivation isn’t significant and the subject did not cultivate a relevant soul technique, then distinguishing results won’t be as challenging as you may think. Would you like me to pour you a second cup?” Gid Chu collected his cup and saucer and got up from the chair, on his way for a refill of his apparently delicious coffee.

“No”. Zax said and waited for him to return from the kitchen.

“They like the flavor stronger here, in this part of the world. After getting used to it, finding a decent brand in the Western Continent, back home, even in the eastern and northern parts of this continent is practically hopeless”.