Chapter 20: Rarest Side Of The Spectrum

"Tularg", Zetsa turned to the seated Tularg and awakened him for the absorbed state of mind.

"Big sister Zetsa", the rest hardly made any difference to his complexion, but inwardly Tularg did feel slightly better. "What have you decided?"

Smirking disdainfully at the encirclement of enemy experts, Zetsa's gaze shifted to Zax and then to Tularg. "These guys are not stupid, if you managed to sense them, then the Core Masters on their side should have noticed and know now that we are conscious of their presence". As she spoke, Zetsa unleashed her Soul Sense.

She might not be able to detected every one of their enemies due to lower soul level – unlike Zax's unique soul, her soul did not transcend beyond its limits – but more than half of the enemies surrounding them were Mist Lord, which Zetsa was nearly at the Peak of that level.

Thus, before she responded, Zetsa perceived her own picture of their predicament.

"It seems that they are working on a formation, but they are advancing slowly to prevent a sudden exchange before the completion of the formation. Since we are not up for a fight, this would be in our favor, though". Zetsa summed up.

Understanding what she meant, Tularg thought for a second, assessing his condition and spoke. "Big sister Zetsa, if I'll exhaust all my strength, then I would be able to summon roughly eight percent of my full strength, at most, for four minutes". He informed Zetsa to not impact her plan.

"Tularg, if I was worried about you, I would have let Zax carry you and we would have ran away with some, but not significant, difficulty". It sounded like some sort of a joke, which her two companions were not sure how to respond to, but Zetsa was completely serious. "No, how good your condition is will not be a problem. Zax", she turned to her little brother. "This situation is perfect for a spontaneous lesson about formations".

"Even though they are closing in on us?" Zax asked in doubt.

Tularg sighed. "Listen to big sister Zetsa, little brother Zax. This is not our first encounter with Master's enemies and from what I've been told, also not yours. Besides, big sister Zetsa's natural affinity to formations is the greatest in our family, slightly superior to even Master's. If these guys executed a formation that she could not comprehend to a certain degree, big sister Zetsa would have said so and we would have been long gone".

"Big sis's forte is actually with formations..." Zax was murmured. It was the first for him to ever learn his big sister best field of practice.

In the past he never pondered deeply on which path of cultivation his big sister excelled, he simply thought her to be a sort of "Jack of all trades". As it so happened he was right, but his thinking was too small, confined to cultivation techniques, disregarding utilization techniques like formations, Martial techniques and other stuff that suddenly came to his mind like Martial art, even his own Kinetic Force and hints of many things he could still not fathom.

With just a few casual words, Zax's vision expended ten folds, as if new bricks were being laid on his Martial path, which he now could walk forward on, farther from his current placement as Martial cultivator.

This moment of insight was both surprising and apparent through the splendor that shone from Zax's eyes.

"Zax?"

"Little brother Zax?"

Zetsa and Tularg were dumbfounded from the dull expression on Zax face, but then they understood and their hearts began to shake in reverence. This facial expression that was most commonly seen when a person was daydreaming could only signify one of two things. The more familiar side of the spectrum, inattention, yet again in repeating words, daydreaming was one. And then there was the rarest side of the spectrum that indeed, could be sought for, yet achieved without any known manner or method. An accidental manifestation of random components, enlightenment was the second.

Zetsa and Tularg could distinguish the latter from the former only when light returned to Zax's eyes and a profound expression adorned his face.

Zax smiled. From Tularg finished speech to the end of his enlightenment only two to four seconds have passed, but after such a short passage of time, Zax felt a surge of excitement rising up in him. His former way of thinking always put himself primary as a bodily cultivator and everything else, either secondary or unimportant. Even cultivating his soul was only a means to an end for him to eventually continue cultivating the body. Then, however, he reached a point where he had to get stronger and fast and cultivating the body could not do ... looking back, it could be said that practicing the bodily maneuvers and trying to perfect the Kinetic Force put Zax on the verge of this enlightenment. Now, he saw it differently. Cultivating the body was his method of refinement to enhance his person. The peculiar case of his clogged Qi channels limited the things that he could do, the method and techniques that he could practice, but did this mean the he receive the short of the stick?

What were his options, how many different crossroads his path can have and where should he look to broaden his horizons were all questions he had yet to find the answers to. But that did not bother him because now he knew, as black round proof started to take shape in his mind, that...

'There is more'. He concluded.

"Big sis, Martial brother ... big brother Tularg, when can we go?" For an instant Zax forget their current situation and just wanted to meet up with his Master, to tell him about his moment of insight and ask for his advice.

"Hahaha!" Tularg burst in laughter.

"How audacious, little Zi", Zetsa held a hand against her lips and tried to maintain a solemn facade while also laughing.

"What?" Absorbed in his thoughts, Zax did not notice the two's astonishment until it changed to pleased laughter.

"Mm..." Zetsa mused. "Nothing, nothing". She said. The matter of Zax's enlightenment was not something that she or Tularg wanted to intrude, merely, it was such a treasured event that neither of them had ever experienced, yet both were overly joyed for Zax.

Whether Zax knew what it was that provided him the sudden insight or did not, until he will fully grasp all it had offered him, it would be best to leave it alone. After all, what followed enlightenment was a process.

"Back to what I was saying", Zetsa waved her hand and affectionately looked at Zax. "The beasts and people encircling us have about one minute to complete their formation. Little Zi, which way do you thing would be best to avoid the formation?" Her temperament toward her little brother clearly improved after his enlightenment. Zetsa was too happy to remain dissatisfied with him and keep call him by his name.

Zax calculated for a single breath of time before opening his mouth to answer. "In this case ... big sis said that we should act as baits instead of fighting back. Let's just wait for the completion of the formation to reach its pinnacle and exist the encirclement before it will be finished". Zax answered.