บท 24: Nascent Bead
A monster.
There was no other sentence that could possibly describe Issei, aside from a monster.
As he walked through the battlefield, death followed. No matter what he faced, an army of high-grade spirit grasses or even Saint Spirit grasses, the result was the same – Instant Death!
Like a Grim Reaper that descended to the battlefield, wielding two beautiful sword like scythes, Issei forced his way through the enemy ranks, killing faster than you could blink.
Sona, although being on the ninth level of the Nascent Profound Realm, could do nothing aside from standing on the same spot, looking at Issei in a daze.
Her, with the status of the third best inner disciple, was flabbergasted to the point of not being able to move. Never in her life did she imagine that Issei was so...
Monstrous!
Only after Issei managed to kill most of the high-grade spirit grasses and Saint Spirit grasses did she break from her stupor.
Glancing at Issei in amazement once more, she took out her rapier and started to thrust forward at the scarce amount of enemies left.
Sadly, her killing speed was incomparable to Issei. During the amount of times she took to kill one, he killed seven. The difference was to too steep.
Looking at the difference in speed, her competing spirit was ignited. Clenching her teeth, she decided to go all out. She wasn't going to lose to an eleven years old kid now; that was tantamount to throwing your face away!
"Water Flowers Annihilation!" Sona brought her rapier forward, concentrating her spiritual power around her before using one of her best offensive martial skills, water dance, a rank 4 martial skill.
Immediately, like blooming flowers, water begun to appear around her in the air. They started with small drops, but as her spiritual power flowed into them, they grew bigger and bigger until it finally turned into lilies made of water.
Those lilies surrounded her, flowing around in circles a couple of times, before striking forward at the enemies, each one killing one.
Even while the lilies were being sent, a second wave of lilies came to life, charging forward. And so did the third, forth, fifth and sixth wave.
The battlefield was now drenched in water because of her barrage of attacks. Issei's part, however, was empty.
Because of the wind currents caused by his sword, the water drops couldn't even dream of making their way to his area. It was as if a tall mountain, that reached the heavens, was there, forever blocking their path.
They could only settle to falling on the area surrounding Issei, not managing to even come close to him.
The young genius, although seemingly fighting with all his concentration, had been focusing on Sona all along. Fighting like this was already engraved into his muscles and bones, his body moved almost as if on his own.
He was more interested in the fight between the mysterious girl and the spirit grasses. At first, she was simply standing on the same spot, but she soon became a barrage of attacks.
If that was all, Issei wouldn't have bothered with her. The reason why he was focusing on her was because of her martial skill, Water Flowers Annihilation.
Although it wasn't nearly as strong as his Four Ways Of The Lightning, which had evolved into the True Way Of The Lightning, it was still interesting. Issei saw that such a skill had potential and that the reason why it couldn't show it was because of its user.
Her comprehension of the skill was simply too shallow!
Issei, as such, was already thinking of ways to acquire that skill from her. To him, it was already wasted by being on her hands, so him learning it and showing its true potential would actually be an act of kindness.
Furthermore, that skill fitted quite nicely with his True Way Of The Lightning. He could use the water to increase the range and power of his lightning attacks. Furthermore, he could fuse his lightning balls with the water lilies, creating true killing weapons.
In his genius mind, thousands upon thousands of ideas surged by the second. But, most important of all, for them to come true, there was a prerequisite; getting the skill!
After a few minutes, the battlefield was empty, except for the two youths.
Issei was calmly looking at the battlefield as if looking at a treasure trove, eying all of the precious Saint Grade Spirit grasses lying on the ground. Thankfully, after being defeated, their size would decrease, becoming the same size as all other spirit grasses.
There wasn't even a drop of sweat on his forehead, and his breathing was calm. In fact, what he just did didn't waste his energy at all.
Because of spending so much time in his Lightning Incarnation mode, his body begun to adapt to lightning even more and also grew sturdier. Furthermore, his stamina increased by leaps and bounds.
Sadly, those changed were only interior. If one looked at his exterior, he still looked like a bashful little girl, something that annoyed him greatly.
Seriously, how come no matter how hard he trained, he would only get more feminine? What kind of twisted, sick, joke was this?
Was this a curse of the heavens? He could only wonder what kind of atrocities he committed in his previous life to deserve this...
But, still, Issei managed to calm down his anguishes. At the moment, he needed to calmly collect his spoils. He could always whine about his appearance later on.
Well, while Issei was looking like he just woke up from a good night of rest, it must be said that Sona wasn't really faring that well,
She was already sitting on the ground, circulating the spiritual energy inside her the fastest she could. During her fight, she spent a great deal of spiritual power to keep up with Issei's killing spree. Although she was currently drenched in sweat and devoid of spiritual power, to her, it was worth it.
At the very least, she could still keep her face. Because, if she had lost to an eleven years old kid with a cultivation lowers than her by four levels, how could she call herself a proud member of the Sitri family?
Sadly for her, the competition only existed on her mind. To Issei, he was just casually killing the spirit grasses, completely disregarding the fact that Sona was trying to keep up with him.
If he was to get serious, there was no way in hell that she would be able to keep up.
Never mind the speed of his swords, if her were to use the full power of his Lightning Incarnation mode, he could wipe out the entire battlefield in a matter of seconds.
Also, he could still use the poison withing the Sky Poison Pearl.
All in all, it could be said that Issei had many methods to 'clearing' out the 'trash'. If he so wanted, he could flatten the whole area.
Sadly, because of Sona, an eye-whiteness, he couldn't do so. He wasn't really prepared to reveal to the world how powerful he was. He would only do so when he was powerful enough to take the place of the number one disciple.
As Issei looked around the battlefield, his gaze came to rest on Sona.
Although it wouldn't be really hard to grab her cosmos sack with her on that state, he wasn't really willing to do so.
Although Issei was shameless, cruel and cold, he still wasn't about to steal from someone that did him no harm.
During his killing spree, he came up with a rather good plan. Since Sa Ji knew Sona, than it could be expected that he also knew her living quarters.
As such, Issei planned to ask Sa Ji for directions, go there at night and then find the martial skill scroll. According to his calculations, for him to remember all the contents of the scroll, it would take half an hour, give or take.
As such, he was confident that he would be able to just read it in her room, place it back on where he found it and go back to his room.
With that plan in mind, Issei didn't bother staying around that place any long. He then walked around and started to casually get his Saint Spirit Grasses.
After gathering all twenty of them, he placed them all in the Sky Poison Peal. He then turned to look at the meditating Sona, "Senior Sister, my job here is done. I have left all of the high-grade spirit grasses for you."
And with that, he started walking away.
"Wh-" Sona immediately opened her eyes the moment that Issei said that, "Wait!"
Halting his steps, Issei looked back, "What is it, Senior Sister?"
"Are you just going to leave like that?" Sona said incredulously. Even she, who was normally stable and cold, could not help but to be surprised. He arrived, said a few words, killed a bunch of spirit grasses, said a few more words, gathered his spoils and went away. Who the hell does that?
"What? Is there something I'm forgetting?" Issei said while looking at her puzzledly.
"Yes, there is..." Sona begun, but she then noticed that it truly was nothing that he missed. In reality, what she wanted was to talk with him a little and determine his personality.
His strength was above satisfactory, so all that was left was to check on his personality. If it was a good one, than she would immediately invite him to her group.
Looking around, Sona desperately tried to search for something that cold make him stay. That was when, from the corner of her eyes, she caught sight of something shiny beneath a small patch of grass.
It was a small, round, purple object, a bead. It was the same size as a pear, and it contained a high amount of spiritual energy.
Seeing that, her eyes widen considerably.
A Nascent Bead!
From all kind of medicines, beads were undoubtedly the cream of the crop (The best). Beads always possessed extremely high spiritual power inside them, something more than useful for cultivation.
Beads were separated in categories just like cultivation realms. Beads suitable for cultivators of the Nascent Profound Realm were the Nascent Beads, the ones suitable for cultivators of the True Profound Realm were the true beads and so on...
Of course, there wasn't a rule that Nascent Profound Realm cultivators could only refine (Refine will be used for when a cultivators eats a bead or medicine. They then 'refine' the spiritual power within them into their own.) Nascent Beads. It was just that the amount of spiritual power in a Nascent Bead was relatively similar to that of a cultivator of a Nascent Profound Realm.
If a cultivator of the Nascent Profound Realm, were, for example, to refine an Earth Bead, then he could probably jump into the True Profound Realm.
As such, the higher the level of the bead, the higher the increase in cultivation. But, obviously, there were limitations.
Just like medicines, constant use of beads could make the medicine stagnant in the future because the spiritual power acquired by refining the bead would not be really pure. Furthermore, before a cultivator can increase a realm, he must first comprehend the essence of the next realm.
For example, before a cultivator of the Nascent Profound Realm could step into the True Profound Realm, he must first understand the essence of the True Profound Realm. He must understand the change in his spiritual power and how it affects them. Only then could a cultivator make a breakthrough.
But, if one were to rely on medicines and beads, the situation would be different. The spiritual power of the bead or medicine would forcefully increase your cultivation, and even if you did not understand the following realm, you would still breakthrough into it.
At the start, you could use it to breakthrough the realms, and it is even possible to reach the Earth Profound Realm using that method. But, the problem was that, to breakthrough into the Sky Profound Realm, even if you used all the beads and medicines in the world, you had to understand the Sky Profound Realm.
And, how would one understand the Sky Profound Realm if he didn't understand the previous one and only managed to get stronger due to medicines? Because of all of that, if one overused the beads and medicines, their future would be limited and they would not be able to reach the Sky Profound Realm. They would forever be doomed to be an Earth Profound Realm cultivator!
As such, most cultivators only refined beads and medicines in moderation, being careful to stop when they were about to step into a new realm and only taking medicines when they fully understood the following realm.
Because of that, beads of extremely high-rank that could forcefully greatly increase one's cultivation wasn't truly valuable to the cultivators of lower realms that cared for their future achievements.
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