Jacob danced in the moonlight, alone. It was not the kind of dance that you would perform to impress others. It was reserved, intimate almost. His partner was the sword and the sounds of the forest.
The cold handle felt like home to him. He could ignore everything else as long as he had a sword with him. It could undoubtedly sound silly, but that's what happened when you spent millennia or longer – he actually didn't know how long it had been – reading and practicing with a blade all the time inside the Plate's dimension. He had had access to an undescribable amount of books.
He breathed in and out, fast. Then, he performed an upward slash and immediately pivoted to smash the sword's hilt in his imaginary enemy's face.
The moon kept hanging out with him, blessing him with a company that did not require any thoughts nor worries.
Jacob did not want to admit it, but he was burnt out. He needed time to make St. Peter and himself strong, but a series of unfortunate events had been putting a dent in his plans.
He had forgotten how much he enjoyed just training, feeling his body sweat and muscles spasm under the exertion.
His skin was perspiring, and his ears were hurting from the cold while a headache started mounting. But nothing mattered only the forms he was going through.
Jacob started channeling the Qi in his limbs, licking the passage to create the Martial Techniques he could not use without hurting himself. He balanced on the edge of the usage, making his Meridians swell but without giving them the sweet release.
It was an itching feeling amid the darkness, a distinct discomfort. It prickled the skin like a million needles, but Jacob enjoyed the stress he was putting his body through without hurting it for once.
The grass started parting of its own volition in front of his steps, leaving the way to a Grandmaster of the Sword, one so great that Earth felt humbled. Even Dragons had feared such a simple dance, inconspicuous and even risible for some.
But Nature remembered the motions of the universe and saw an alignment with it. Jacob's movements did not step out of the boundaries of Nature but simply moved in synch with it, even redirecting its flow when needed, dominating it with a gentle touch.
When his sword moved to cut, trees in the distance shuddered, surprised that the entire mountain range had not been cut. Nature knew what was missing from the mortal dance, what greatness could stem from it.
A kid was watching this scene, enraptured.
She knew there was something off. Her eyes could only graze the surface of what was happening in front of her, and therefore she started using her own Qi and Mana to feel the environment in front of her.
As soon as her energy touched the one outside her body, as it usually happened while cultivating, she felt a primordial reverence from it. She could not take in any Qi or Mana because those energies were paralyzed by something. No, someone.
There was no dread nor fear inside such energies. There was only respect and awe, like worms looking at a tiger run toward its prey. It's a feeling of beautiful and sweet impotence, like when a bird watched a Dragon soar through the sky.
Creatures could look and dream, but they could not even imagine being so high in the food chain, so high in the hierarchy of existence.
Every time Jacob's sword sheared through the air, she felt the natural energy of the word quiver. As impossible as it sounded, the world felt helpless in front of this display.
Helena sat now at the 7th level of the Cockroach realm, and she had come here to give Jacob the great news. It had been quite hard breaking through from the second to the third Great Stage. For the first time, she had felt some resistance. However, Jacob's Cultivation Technique had made her progress at breakneck speed.
She felt like she could reach the 9th level and challenge what he had called the Mantis realm before the expedition.
But now, watching him move with such calmness, she understood the difference between them.
Helena was strong, insanely intense. But Jacob was more, much more. He was simply more. Not more of something. Simply more. There was so much of the world—no, of the future inside him that she felt tiny during his puny dance.
At that moment, Helena was humbled by a couple of simple movements and understood why Jacob had told her that learning the sword required a long time, much longer than she would ever realize.
"Helena," Jacob said after going through the final form of his kata. He had felt her presence from the start: Helena's aura was so strong that he could have singled her out in a crowd of thousands.
"Jake, that was…"
"Subpar," Jacob laughed, "that's my first kata, and I could barely complete its forms. The real version should include Qi."
She nodded slowly, wary.
"I don't think I'm going ever to learn the sword, Jake," she told him, surprising him.
"I don't think you need it. I gave you a Martial Technique that's easy and strong—the Heaven's Palm. You are much stronger with me with such a thing, and it appears that you crossed the threshold to the 3rd Great Stage, the 7th level. The difference among Great Stages are not that marked in the Cockroach realm, but once you reach the Mantis realm, you will understand what I'm talking about."
"It's a palm, Jake," she snorted, "what can it do?"
"Palm people to death would be my guess," he laughed.
"You really are strong, aren't you?" she asked with a frown.
"Little me? I have the worst talent for cultivation."
Helena's had a temper, not unlike Juliet. But where Juliet was a wild fire, Helena was much more focused, like a laser.
"Your sword talent," she gritted her teeth.
"My sword talent is useless with my body. I'm still healing, and if I don't, I'll barely be able to fight for five minutes. I might look strong, Helena, but the harsh truth is that I wish I were. If I had a tenth of your talent, I would go and take care of Fort Mountain alone, without endangering any of you."
"From what you say, I have a million times your talent, but I feel like I'm so fu**ing useless," she said, smoldering, and ran away.