Chapter 27: Energies
Under normal circumstances, if one were to be compared to an animal, one would be offended or displeased to some extent. Modus had done the exact same thing to Will, and had compared him to a dog no less!
Despite this seemingly cruel comparison, Will realized that Modus had been quite generous in implying that he was a dog. As far as Will was concerned even if he had been called an ant Will would still have felt that Modus was justified. Such was the gap between an Immortal such as Modus and Will.
"This is indeed a difficult question, thus in order to solve that problem the system was created. We, the intelligent, would forcibly teach you, the dog, how to read and write. For that to happen we have to make you evolve first. That is the purpose of the system. To speed up the evolution of mankind across the universe and bring out its true potential."
After a while Modus had revealed what Will felt few people would know. This was without doubt valuable information. Yet, a question still lingered in Will's mind.
Why does the dog need to become literate?
"Unfortunately, the system is not perfect. We can speed up evolution somewhat, but the progress of the evolution depends on the individual. There are many parts to the system, parts designed to make this evolution easier. But this, in turn, produced weaker beings. This is the reason why I have made things so difficult for you.
You young man share karma with an incredible person; this is the major reason I chose you. You need not know who that person is or why it is so. Only know that this karma makes you a valuable asset. This means the chances of your evolution, despite your slightly above-average talent, are very high, allowing me to up the ante.
Even though I want to make things more difficult, even though I wish to push you to your limits, time is not with us, thus I will help you along just this once. Think of it as my gift to you for your stellar performance."
This soliloquy from Modus shocked Will to his core. He never thought there would be such a reason behind why Modus had chosen him. Will was never really concerned with why he was chosen, he didn't even know if Modus had other candidates. All he cared about was grinding and getting stronger. Seeing this high and mighty immortal impart his thoughts to him warmed Will's heart somewhat.
If the system had really been made for such a purpose, then it was likely that almost no one knew about it, especially mortals involved as users. The fact that Modus had told Will said many things.
First, it showed that Modus believed that Will would not falter and will continue to try his best, even knowing that Modus would make things harder as time goes on. Will was unfamiliar with having anyone believe in him so much, especially to such an extent, after all this was an event that Modus had said happens across the universe. The universe! Just how big of a scale was this? How much was at stake? And Modus had been willing to share such sensitive information with Will. Who in his lonely life had ever trusted in him so much? No one!
Second, it shows that Modus did not mind being upfront with Will. He was not playing the part of high and mighty immortal barking orders about. Instead, he was somewhat humble and talked to Will as an equal, which shows he really looked at Will as one already. Will didn't have to call him Lord Modus or Sir Modus or anything like that. Just Modus, although Will did not know many immortals, he was sure very few would be this humble in front of a mortal.
Third, Modus was honestly trying his best to help Will succeed. He could have continued to make Will suffer without a single hint but he decided to help the young man. If time was really that important then Modus would not have allowed Will to spend months fiddling about with his sword, this was clearly a poor excuse at best.
At this point, Will resolved himself. At first, he was merely getting stronger by himself and for himself, but now he knew that someone was behind him, someone who believed in him and was relying on him. Will was moved and decided to give his all not to disappoint Modus. The fact that Will had grown up feeling unwanted and his age made him highly susceptible to such emotional moments. After all, he was only sixteen, or rather he used to be...
"Thanks, Modus. I appreciate this." These were all the words Will could muster after carefully thinking things true. He would not ask for more, nor would he ask for less. Modus had trusted him so now it was his turn to reciprocate. Modus nodded in approval.
"I knew I had chosen the right candidate. You have done well Will. Now then here is my advice. My advice is on intent and energy so pay attention. All your 64 minds will have to pay attention to this, because like I said, it is simple for me but might be profound for you."
Will did his best and meekly nodded, his strength was slowly coming back to him.
"Let me start with the energies. As you know there are many different types of energies, we shall deal with World Energy, Yuan, Mana, and Qi.
World Energy is simply unprocessed energy that exists in this universe. It is the most complex and profound energy so I won't go into much detail about it. Cultivation is taking world energy and digesting it into the energies we need.
First off, let's examine Mana. Mana is the non-living component of World Energy. It has no spirit within it and is most ideal for affecting the
environment.
Qi, on the other hand, is the living component of World Energy. Its main use is to improve one's own body or the bodies and capabilities of other living creatures.
The last energy is yuan. This is a perfect balance between mana and qi.
That is to say, the energies fuse together to make a new one with the properties of both. A yuan user is called a practitioner. Practitioners can choose to separate yuan into qi and mana at Will, but it is usually pointless to do so since yuan can achieve what both qi and mana can with even more efficiency.
I'm going to focus on sword qi. This is qi created from cultivation in a sword type cultivation method. The Solitary Sword Sovereign manual is one such method. This means all the qi you make through that method is supposed to be sword qi, however, due to the fact that you are a mortal with many impurities and other factors, your sword qi or sword yuan is impure. As you cultivate you have to constantly refine it so that it improves in quality.
Sword yuan or qi is used to power sword techniques and abilities. A sword technique can be powered by other types of energy such as fist qi but the results will be very poor. Some Qis share similar traits such as blade qi and sword qi; however the former focuses on power while the latter focuses on speed and mobility. You not only possess sword yuan but you also possess water yuan thanks to your Water Meister class.
Thus your cultivation will always produce a haphazard mixture of sword and water yuan. It would be best if you could properly fuse these energies, or if that is difficult then separate them. Whether or not you can improve upon this point is up to you. Now, for the difficult part, it's time for me to explain intent."
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