Bab 17: Debt Received, Debt Returned

"Don't worry; I won't bring any harm to your grandson. I consider him my benefactor to some extent; otherwise, I wouldn't be here in the first place."

Having noticed his strange choice of words, Grandfather Galen stops his futile struggle and anxiously awaits the fate of his grandson.

"Master, I will not take more than 10 seconds to complete this simple task."

Holding Jacob with one arm, Minh spreads open his other hand and moves his fingers in a certain rhythm. With each movement of his fingers, Jacob's body moves too. Releasing Jacob from his grasp, Minh moves his other hand in the exact same way, and a surge of multi-colored energy flows out of his fingertips. Entangling the now-floating Jacob, the streaks of energy enter his body and orbit around it.

"This is strange. I don't see his soul even when using my divine consciousness, but his body shows that it hasn't left for no longer than 5 minutes." Turning his head toward his master in befuddlement, Minh creases his brows in displeasure.

"His soul is a variant. Remember what I taught you about variants." Appearing as calm as ever, the silver-haired old man tells Minh.

With a thoughtful look on his face, Minh contemplates the words that his master had said. "Oh, I get it now. That really was a long time ago." Moving his fingers faster than before, the rays of light started turning more and more blueish: resembling a deep ocean tint.

"I found him now! I didn't expect his soul to still reside in his body and be hidden on top of that." Locking onto Jacob's soul, Minh clenches his hands and all of the surrounding bodies of energy storm into Jacob's body. Tightly wrapped around both his body and soul now, the energy conforms to his body shape and pulls his soul outward. Wanting to extend his soul so that it can fit his physical body, Minh releases his tightly gripped fists, and a wondrous burst of light radiates outward from Jacob's body and soul.

"Interesting, interesting indeed. I never expected to find a seal hidden within his soul, and the seal seems to be hiding another, even stronger seal. I won't touch his secrets, but watching him won't be a problem." Stroking his beard, the silver-haired old man smiles with a glint in his eyes.

While the silver-haired old man was lost in thought, Minh creases his brows. Bothered that his declaration of finishing the problem within 10 seconds was almost up, Minh uses up more of his power. Clasping his hands together, Minh shouts in a low voice.

Reaching the climax, the bodies of energy start turning dim before completely receding into Jacob's body. Completely returning to his former self, Jacob loses the radiance he radiated and slowly floats down from the sky. With a peaceful smile emerging from his previous cold-stoned face, Grandfather Galen looks toward the silver-haired old man and the little boy with gratitude in his gaze.

Having noticed Grandfather Galen's gaze, the silver-haired old man releases the pressure that he had used to trap the duo and starts to walk toward Jacob's descending body.

Grabbing Jacob's body mid-flight, Minh brings him toward the silver-haired old man with a happy expression. Content that his previous declaration wasn't just for show, Minh looks toward his master while using his energy to gently control Jacob's unconscious body to float toward the warm gazed silver-haired old man.

Catching Jacob, the silver-haired old man points his finger at Jacob's forehead and releases his divine consciousness in the shape of a flower. Imprinting the shape on Jacob's forehead, the mark begins to give off a dazzling light as Jacob's face starts to contort in pain.

"Sizzle."

"It's almost done."

Once the sound stopped, the mark on Jacob's forehead began to change into a deep blue: moving from the topmost to the bottommost gradient. Slowly, the light dimmed until it became pure black in color. In contrast to the pure black flower on Jacob's imprint, his tanned skin seemed relatively light.

Pulling back his finger, the silver-haired old man smiles profoundly and gently carries Jacob to Grandfather Galen. Looking at Grandfather Galen, the silver-haired old man's eyes turn incredibly sharp all of a sudden, "Your grandson holds a great destiny. A destiny you cannot possibly fathom the existence of, but beware. His future is fraught with great peril, and he may lose those that he deems to be his most cherished kin. I expect you to teach him and train him. If you don't know the true meaning behind those two things, then don't even bother to do it and give him to someone else." After looking away from Grandfather Galen, the silver-haired old man walks back toward the staircase with Minh before completely vanishing from their sight.

...

In a mystical land far away; high above the clouds, a young man stood on the very precipice of a giant floating island. Behind him stood the silver-haired old man, Minh, and an identical old man but with golden hair. Without looking back, the young man started mumbling to the old men. "Is this the beginning to the end?"

Turning back to face them, the young man looks at the golden-haired man. "Ao Yun, you and your brother Bing Yi need to hurry up and get to the divine stage before the disaster strikes. You are both at the peak of the Emperor realm and have been for the past 5,000 years. I am giving both of you a mission. If you fail them, then that means it's only fated to be."

Turning his head, the young man looked at Bing Yi and was about to speak when suddenly an incredibly enormous pressure emanates from his body. Surging toward Bing Yi, the only thing he could do under this pressure was kneel. "Excellent... Excellent." Taking back his pressure, the young man starts laughing uproariously, shaking the entire island and all the inhabitants.

"I didn't expect for you to break through to the divine stage under my watchful eye and I didn't even notice until now. Tell me: how long did it take you, and when did you breakthrough?" Looking at Bing Yi, a cheerful smile creeps through on the corner of the young man's mouth.

Still, as stone-cold as before, Bing Yi doesn't dare get up and says with his head lowered. "I broke through this morning. My last clone returned to me, and I finally completed my transformation. The reason why I was nowhere to be seen was because I was returning some old debt."

Curious, Ao Yun looked to Minh for an explanation knowing his brother wouldn't say anything crucial. "Minh, you've followed my brother since the day you were birthed into this world. I know you know about this incident, spill it."

Nervously looking around, Minh calms down his nerves and recounts the story of their journey and why his master did what he did. Not leaving out any details, the story continued for two days and two nights.

...

"Interesting." Looking at his body, Jacob feels a sense of surrealism.

"I feel stronger, lighter, and faster, but I also feel... Weaker?" Noticing his strange state, Jacob looks at his grandfather and shows him his improvements.

Stroking his beard, Grandfather Galen looks on happily as his grandson shows his new profound strength.

Making shockwaves through the air, Jacob slowly gets faster and faster before his hands and feet looked like whips slashing through the air. Moving around happily, Jacob looks back every now and then to see his grandfather's reaction.

Smiling, Grandfather Galen flips his hand and starts to undo the barrier, "You're the first of your classmates to have broken through to the body refinement stage of cultivation. The hardest step is always the first step, and I am happy that you have passed that hurdle. I'm sure you have heard of some cultivation stages here and there, but those are just a part of them. I will inform everyone personally about the initial stages of cultivation and anything else they have a question about before the competition begins."

"They have already left us, huh." Looking around, Jacob realized that the crowd had already entered the other side.

Walking to the other Gate, Amelia stops for a moment and looks back before catching up to the rest of the group.