Capítulo 9: Slip of the Hand
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
They walked along a narrow winding road through a quiet little forest.
After they had slowly walked to the end of this narrow road, they saw a beautifully built bamboo house.
An older man in his 50s was seated on a bamboo chair. He leisurely fanned himself with a round fan while holding a nice little teapot in his hand. He looked like he was enjoying himself and didn't have a care in the world.
Suddenly, the peaceful look on his face faded. He frowned very slightly.
The footsteps from afar grew closer as they continued along the end of the road. They cautiously came to a stop next to him.
The older man wasn't too happy that someone had disrupted his moment of peace, but he still opened his eyes and impatiently asked, "Humph, what is it now?"
Rong Yiyao had brought Rong Kaixuan there, so he quickly replied, "Elder Jiexuan, I need you to decide on something for the Hall of Spiritualists."
The older man waved his hand and said, "All of you just come running to the elder for anything. Tsk, I came to the Hall of Spiritualists only because I'm on duty I'm not interested in meddling in your affairs."
Rong Kaixuan tried not to laugh as he stood there. He felt that this older man was so direct that he was adorable.
Rong Yiyao had an awkward expression on his face as he laughed bitterly and said, "Elder Jiexuan, if it were any other matter, I would have made the decision myself. But I'm quite sure that if I didn't report this matter to you today, you would make my life difficult in the future."
The older man froze for a while. He slowly sat up straight in his chair. His gaze wasn't fierce. He didn't look particularly authoritative or threatening. He seemed like an ordinary old man.
From the way Rong Yiyao treated him with such reverence, it was clear that this older man was definitely not an ordinary person at all.
The old man's gaze landed on Rong Yiyao and Rong Kaixuan for a while before he quietly asked, "Why did you bring this young boy here? Oh, don't tell me. Does he have the gift of a spiritualist?"
When he said the last sentence, he sounded like he was finally a little interested.
The Rong clan had family members in all parts of society and was a great power in this region. Even after combing through this huge area, the Rong clan could never find more than 30 spiritualists at any one time.
This older man was a true elder of the Rong clan, so he was naturally very concerned about whether the family did well or not.
Rong Yiyao smiled faintly and replied, "Elder Jiexuan, this boy is a direct descendant of the Rong family, Rong Kaixuan." He turned around and said, "Kaixuan, quickly greet Elder Jiexuan."
"Greetings to Elder Jiexuan," Rong Kaixuan quickly took a step forward and knelt on the ground to bow to Rong Jiexuan.
Rong Jiexuan happily accepted this bow from Rong Kaixuan. He smiled and said, "Get up, get up. Since you have the gift of a spiritualist, then you must cherish this gift and don't let it go to waste."
"Yes, Elder Jiexuan."
Rong Yiyao smiled meaningfully as he took a step forward. He chose that time to speak. "Elder Jiexuan, if Kaixuan just had an ordinary sort of gift, I would not have brought him here to see you."
Rong Jiexuan widened his eyes as he asked in surprise, "Oh! How's his gift? Which level is he at?"
Rong Yiyao was stunned by this question. He smiled awkwardly and replied, "I'm not able to ascertain that, so I've brought him here for you to test him yourself."
"What?" Rong Jiexuan looked at him doubtfully. Normally, Rong Yiyao was a pretty reliable fellow in everything he did, so why was he so being so longwinded and beating around the bush now?
Rong Yiyao could see that the elder had his suspicions, so he quickly replied, "What I mean is that Kaixuan has a gift that I've never seen before or heard of, so I don't know how to classify him."
Rong Jiexuan's eyebrows immediately relaxed. If he had been a little angry about how these two had disturbed his moment of peace earlier, the little anger that remained immediately vanished into thin air.
"Kaixuan, demonstrate the process of how you absorbed Spirit Power into your body again for the Elder to see," Rong Yiyao instructed in a low voice.
Rong Yiyao knew that this wasn't the time to hold anything back. This was a rare chance. If he were unable to present the best part of himself, he knew he would live to regret it.
Rong Kaixuan took a deep breath. He focused his energy into the area between his eyebrows.
As if it heard him calling it, the little round ball within the huge amount of Qi flow in that area between his eyebrows started moving. A mysterious and powerful force was released from the little ball.
When this force was being released, Rong Kaixuan immediately noticed something different. This force seemed to be even more powerful than before.
After hesitating for a moment, Rong Kaixuan decided against releasing everything he had within the little round ball. He only released about half the power he had.
Even so, the amount of disturbance he created was much larger than before.
Countless white sparkles surrounded his body before turning into a huge stream of light that went into his body.
The solid ball had a force that seemed extremely attractive to the Spirit Power of the sky and earth. Even though he only released a little of it out, it absorbed a huge amount of Spirit Power from outside his body.
After the stream of light entered his body, the flow of Spirit Power in the area between his eyebrows became even greater.
This was only the second time Rong Kaixuan had absorbed Spirit Power into his body, so he didn't dare be careless about it. After taking in some, he stopped releasing any power from the little round ball.
After he took away the power of the little ball, the Spirit Power of the sky and earth, which had gathered around his body, instantly dissipated.
"Oh my!" Rong Jiexuan exclaimed in surprise. He asked, "Young man, how long have you been training your Spirit Power?"
Rong Kaixuan shook his head in confusion as he replied, "I have never trained any Spirit Power before."
There was a glint in Rong Jiexuan's eyes. As he stared at Rong Kaixuan, his eyes looked like a fire was burning within them. It was as if he was trying to see if Rong Kaixuan was lying to him.
Rong Kaixuan had a clear conscience and innocently looked back at the elder.
After a moment, Rong Jiexuan quietly said, "Kaixuan, alright now. I'm going to demonstrate a very simple spell. You just follow what I do." He lifted one hand and used a finger to tap the air very gently.
A very faint wisp of Spirit Power was instantly released from his finger.
This bit of Spirit Power wasn't strong. It was actually extremely weak. It was like a flame burning in the wind that could be blown out anytime.
Yet, this little wisp of Spirit Power continued to remain stubbornly on his finger. In fact, when this little wisp of Spirit Power appeared, it became a great attraction to the Spirit Power of the sky and earth around it. Bit by bit, the Spirit Power of the sky and earth started gathering around that wisp. The Spirit Power on Rong Jiexuan's finger became stronger and stronger.
When the amount of Spirit Power had reached a certain level, there was a soft "hwaaaa" sound.
The Spirit Power on Rong Jiexuan's finger transformed because of the amount of external Spirit Power it had attracted. It had now become a small ball of light that was as large as a fist.
"Haha," Rong Jiexuan laughed quietly as he casually flung the ball of light out.
Boom…
The ball of light wasn't big, but the damage it could do was impressive.
The ball of light smashed against a pillar like a bolt of lightning. After that, there was a blast. The pillar had been blown into countless fragments.
Rong Kaixuan gasped. He suddenly realized that even though this tiny ball of light didn't seem like much, it was extremely quick and definitely way faster than his punches. It was also extremely powerful and would not lose to a punch that had true Qi in it.
All of this started with that nearly negligible bit of Spirit Power that came out from Rong Jiexuan's finger.
"That was an amazing move, Elder." Rong Yiyao gave a thumbs-up as he complimented the elder, but he didn't truly think so in his heart.
Obviously, it looked simple when Rong Jiexuan did that. It hardly took any effort from of him, and he could do it with great familiarity by now. To ask a young fellow who had just been exposed to Spirit Power to do it was making life difficult for Rong Kaixuan.
Rong Jiexuan was full of smiles as he looked at Rong Kaixuan and asked, "Why don't you give it a shot?"
Rong Kaixuan's face had a conflicted expression. If the elder had asked him to release all the power he had in the little ball, that wasn't a problem. To only release a teeny bit of power was really challenging his limits.
Rong Jiexuan laughed loudly and said, "It's alright, just try. It's alright even if you fail."
Rong Kaixuan clenched his teeth and replied, "I'll try. Please forgive me if it's terrible."
He gathered his thoughts together and focused his energy back on the little round ball between his eyebrows.
This round was also a tremendous challenge to him.
A tiny bit of the mysterious force slowly came out of the little round ball. If one had to compare the amount of force released, this was just a tiny bit more than the amount from Rong Jiexuan earlier.
This was the smallest amount that Rong Kaixuan was able to squeeze out.
This little bit of force gradually started moving out of his body and came to his fingertip.
When Rong Kaixuan lifted one of his fingers, Rong Jiexuan and Rong Yiyao's eyes instantly widened. They looked at his fingertip without blinking.
After that, they started to sense it.
A very thin and lonely wisp of Spirit Power appeared on Rong Kaixuan's fingertip.
The two of them exchanged glances and nodded at each other. It was amazing enough that this young fellow could control such a tiny amount of Spirit Power.
But this was only the beginning of their surprise.
The moment the tiny wisp of power appeared, an immense amount of Spirit Power of the sky and earth started surging toward the tiny wisp as if it were on steroids or something.
It was just an instant before there was a loud "pak" sound coming from Rong Kaixuan's finger.
After that, a ball of light around the size of a basketball appeared on his finger.
All three of them stared dumbfounded at the ball of light. Rong Jiexuan had seen a lot of things in his lifetime, and he was the one who proposed this difficult spell in the first place. When he saw this happening, he was in a daze.
His eyelid violently twitched. Rong Jiexuan immediately shouted, "Throw it aside! Throw it quickly…"
Rong Jiexuan had a high level of cultivation and power, so he wasn't afraid of this ball of light.
But if Rong Kaixuan couldn't control it and the ball of light exploded and injured him as a result, then Rong Jiexuan would regret it for life.
Rong Kaixuan was shocked and flung it out of his hands without thinking.
This basketball-sized ball of light instantly turned into a flash of light. It flew as fast as lightning in Rong Yiyao's direction.
Rong Yiyao's expression instantly changed. He gave a low shout. A bright light lit up around him. It was as if he was being covered by a huge shield.
Pak!
The basketball-sized ball of light smashed hard onto the light shield and instantly exploded. The shattering sparkles landed all over the ground. Rong Yiyao's light shield had been shaken badly. There were several ripples on its surface.
After several breaths, the ripples slowly calmed down and became still again.
Rong Yiyao's expression was dark as he looked fearfully at Rong Kaixuan. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out.
Rong Kaixuan, on the other hand, went into a great panic. He quickly tried to explain, "Uncle Yao, I didn't mean to do that. I really didn't mean to…"
-- Regalo
recibido