"What!" B'wiri unsheathed her sword and pointed it at Lorne. "Are you accusing Tower of being some evil Fiend?!" B'wiri growled.
"I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm just saying it's possible. I want us all to be aware of this." Lorne said.
"Truly, you aren't my brother! I can't believe you would accuse me of being a Fiend!" Paneneko already experienced a trauma and now with the revelation that he could be a Fiend, he lost his head. "I would know if I were a Fiend, and I'm not!" yelled Paneneko.
"If you were the Fiend you wouldn't know because it could be sleeping inside you, just like I was sleeping inside Malkus!" Lorne responded.
"I think everyone should calm down. Let's take all take a step back." BS42 said. With that, both Lorne and BS42 stepped back. Everyone else seeing their actions did the same although they didn't understand why they were doing it.
"What are you exactly?!" Master Bilvo asked aggressively.
"I'm a Warbox." BS42 blandly responded.
"Yeah but what is that is it like a puppet?" asked Master Bilvo.
"I suppose you could say that," BS42 replied to Master Bilvo.
"BS42, what he said isn't even close to accurate! BS42 is a Warbox a robotic body with a cultivator's soul. The metals he's made of were some of the rarest metals and alloys. The circuitry, programming, and development were far beyond any others in the area of robotics in the entire multiverse." Lorne said.
"What is robotics?" asked Master Bilvo.
"This is why I said I was like a puppet, it's hard to make these primitive cultivators understand the superior science of our world." BS42 arrogantly said.
"Primitive?!" Everyone looked at BS42 with hostility.
"BS42, that's enough, no one can help that they haven't begun to explore technology. We're not here to cause problems we're here to try and help everyone," responded Lorne.
On the one hand, everyone felt like Lorne was trying to smooth things over to make it easier to work together. On the other hand, everyone was pretty sure he just insulted them.
"I think we're getting away from the main point. The main point is that you think it's possible that Paneneko or I could be hiding the soul of the Great Fiend from your lower realm. I think it's worth it just keeping an eye on us just in case. If that's all I'm going to go and train. Nice to meet you, Lorne, it's a shame about Malkus he was my brother." Tower walked off from the group. B'wiri saw this and chased after him. She knew that Malkus and he were particularly close. Paneneko felt more like a little brother to the two of them, but he always thought of Malkus as a peer.
Master Bilvo also left, he felt guilty for failing his student. Even though he understood that it was only a matter of time before Malkus was absorbed by Lorne's soul. Paneneko also left he felt totally alone. He didn't just lose a brother, he lost a twin! Aerun and Karretun left to comfort Paneneko.
Only Lorne, BS42 and Master Que were left. Master Que looked at the pair for a while.
"Why don't the two of you have a seat?" invited Master Que. Lorne immediately sat down. BS42 continued to stand there. Master Que looked at BS42 curiously.
"I'm not really here so it wouldn't matter if I sat down." To prove his point, BS42 passed his hand through the table. Sensing Master Que's question he said, "I'm a hologram. It's a form of communication where someone sees your image and hear's your voice but you aren't there. It's handy."
"Oh," responded Master Que.
"Master Que, if you don't mind, I'll let BS42 stay here and chat with you. I would like to get back and cultivate, that is if I'm still considered a part of the sect." Lorne said.
"Of course you are, don't worry about anything. You are still a part of this sect. The information about Fiends that you've brought is worth membership in the Sect by itself. You're still extremely talented. Possibly more talented than we originally thought.
"Thank you, Master Que, I wonder if you can help with the awkward situation between Master Bilvo and I. If he no longer wants me as a student, tell him I understand," Lorne said as he walked away.
"So where should I begin?" asked BS42.
***
A few weeks later, Master Bilvo visited Lorne and apologized for his behavior. He still considered Lorne his student if he wanted to learn. Of course, Lorne was interested and absorbed everything Master Bilvo taught him about formations.
Oddly enough, Lorne found that what he learned under Master River concerning formations worked here as well. He didn't have to relearn anything. Really, he was adding to his knowledge. Lorne progressed so fast in formations, Master Bilvo had to admit that Lorne probably understood formations about as well as he did. Considering Lorne a peer now, at least in theory, all Master Bilvo could teach him was how to begin his search for the Dao.
"Lorne, I want you to begin your search in the Dao. To do so I will have you enter a meditative state and then you are to contemplate a question I will ask you. Believe it or not, the Dao is a path through this world but it is also a path not through this world. You must come to understand that the world is a place where God hides. This world is called Aleim hidden.
"However, it is hard for us to comprehend these ideas when we are so used to living in this world. Since we are part of this world isn't God hidden in us as well, or put differently. If the World hides God don't we also hide him?
"Here is the question I wish you to contemplate. 'When you can do nothing, what can you do?' enter your meditative state and consider this question carefully. Logic will not help you answer this question. Logic is bound to nature but there are things that are not bound by nature. You have seen your soul, that is not part of nature. There is a metaphysical reality that you must embrace. Knowing that there is more to the world than what we see is a step towards embracing reality. This is logical, but it is beyond logic as well.
"are you ready?" asked Master Bilvo.
"Yes," Lorne responded.
Lorne entered his meditative state and contemplated the question his master gave him. Entering a deep state like this wasn't hard for Lorne. He trained under Master River for around forty-five thousand years. The simple question Master Bilvo asked Lorne wasn't difficult, but Lorne pursued the question more and more. He discovered that the question was multilayered. When he answered the question he would then find a new way to contemplate the question.
Exercises like this were meant to free the mind from the bindings of the physical world. What Lorne discovered, though, was that the bindings never decreased. He would free himself from one notion of being only be bound by his new understanding. This would eventually be overturned by a deeper concept which would then become his binding. Slavery and then freedom from the world were experienced over and over again by Lorne.
While Lorne was exploring the limitless depths of being and nothingness, BS42 was busy. He managed to convince Master Que of the gravity of the Fiend threat. He revealed the technology needed to find Fiend Stones and Harmonization Stones. When BS42 explained what Harmonization Stones did, Master Que nearly passed out from fright. He immediately gathered the Council of Elders.
The Council of Elders gathered the wisest and respected elders from around the world. There were only seventy seats available in the council with one seat going to the Prince of the Council whose job was to lead the meetings and serve as a tiebreaker. Master Que held one seat and had the right to call a council meeting.
Master Que took BS42 with him to the meeting and introduced him as an expert on Fiends. BS42 shared everything he knew about the Fiends and showed a Fiend Stone and a Harmonization Stone that Master Que found.
The hardest part of the discussion was explaining the concept of technology and how they needed to develop a technological base as soon as possible so they could create the tools they needed to fight the Fiends.
An area near the Water Rock Sect was chosen to develop the necessary technological base to create the weapons of war against the Fiends. BS42 was selected to head this project up. As the Director, BS42 was able to acquire every kind of material that existed in the world as well as DNA samples of various species. He needed to create new bodies for those working in the Samsara Pod.
Of course, the Fiends found out through their spies what was going on. They were shocked to learn that someone knew so much about them. They were frightened. They knew that they had to pull out all the stops so that they could destroy the new threat. They began attacking mines and caravans that carried the materials for the developing technology center.
The desperate attacks launched by the Fiends confirmed for the Council of Elders just how important the work at the Technology Center was. They became more and more confident in BS42. The first product developed by the Center was a Fiend Tracker. This allowed people to track down Fiends near them.
The first use of the devices was secret, they were used to clear out all the FIends in the Sects. The Council of Elders was shocked to find so many high ranking cultivators were actually Fiends. The Sect Massacre, as it came to be known, represented a bloody beginning to the Fiend Wars. The good news was BS42's help forced the Fiends to prematurely push the time frame of their agenda up. This caused most of their plots to fail. The Fiend Finders, as the Fiend Tracker came to be called were spread throughout the world. It sent the Fiends all over the world into hiding.
Five years after Lorne began to contemplate his question, he woke up. His soul's strength had grown tremendously. His eyes shined with mystery and cosmic knowledge. He didn't have a breakthrough in cultivation, but his understanding of formations was taken to a height far beyond his teacher Master Bilvo. Lorne began to teach Master Bilvo his insights into formations.
While involved in his meditation Lorne discovered a heart devil. The heart devil resulted from the guilt he felt for absorbing Malkus. He realized that he needed to first understand that this unfortunate event was a tragedy both beyond his control but he was still the cause of the pain that Malkus's friends and family felt.
Lorne resolved this heart demon by resolutely decided to seek forgiveness from Malkus's friends and Family. This was the next step Lorne needed to take.