Some more days flew by.
Spark let out a heavy breath.
The daily practice of Cultivation once again concluded.
Finally he felt saturation draw nearer! It wasn't in arm's reach, but definitely around the corner!
It has been more than a week since the fancy dinner on Brokerstreet. The aspiring Cultivator has been training more vigorously than ever, trying to cross the boundary to the Qi Realm.
After he did, he could weave more connections, pursue other ventures, earn more money and consequently accrue lots of resources for him and the people in his care in order to become even stronger.
Before dealing with any other matters, Spark made it a habit to track progress of his Elements.
Well- at least of the two he had access to...
Soul Force gushed from his skin and smothered his body, wreathing like the ghost of a snake. It manifested as mysteriously pale and thin swaths of fog, intangible, cold and accursed.
It was a reassuring surprise to Spark, that he too, could realize the manipulation of Qi and Elements, even without reaching the Qi Realm.
The Sword and Soul Element have been fully unlocked after all!
Full understanding of the Elements was unutterably far away, yet he slowly got the hang of manipulation.
Sword Qi was generated with fierce intentions and thoughts of attack, while the Soul Qi needed a calmer, more transparent and comprehensive approach.
Now it was time to practice the Sword Element... and for that, he needed to leave the office.
It's a preposterous idea to wreak havoc in the peaceful and sacred environment of his office.
Descending the stairs of the first floor, Spark took a couple of turns, entering the foyer, the dinner room and the terrace to finally arrive at the backyard, the garden of the house.
It was intentionally made wide and without obstruction, the size reflecting the flaunting splendor of its previous owner.
Rows of beautiful flowers were arranged to a harmonic vistas, whereas the lovely scent of flowers sweetened the air.
Joey, alongside Heel, Berenya, Borza, Sogel and Anna were swinging wooden swords systematically, enhancing its power with passionate cries.
Not wanting to interrupt, Spark busied himself with stretching, and a warm-up.
The flexibility of his muscles and joints left him stunned, as it did every time he stretched.
With a silent nod he suddenly sympathized with all gymnasts, and athletes on Earth.
Some things are only fun if you can do them... not if you can only watch and wonder.
After a while, the group ended their exercise.
"Spark! You came! Haha... I almost thought you would chicken out!"
Joey taunted with a mischievous grin. Spark knitted his eyebrows and refuted admirably:
"You must not really know me! I've never shied away from a challenge!"
...
Spark and Joey made plans to spar today. Spark felt the need to test his strength against a proper opponent.
Joey positioned himself across Spark, and taunted with a motion of his hands.
An arrogant smirk hung on his lips.
The bout began. Both exchanged some careful swings and measured their strength accurately, as to not exaggerate their power unintentionally.
Both swings turned more heavy with time, the dull clashes of wood leaving the spectators focussed.
At some point, the spar left the realm of human ability, with ingenious and flexible twists of bodies and strikes slashing out of crazy angles happening every couple of exchanges.
Spark's strikes and sword technique were precise and calculating. It appeared like he was painting a fierce picture of slashes. Joey's eyes scrunched up with knitted eyebrows.
Spark had long activated [Altymir's Basic Swordplay], his Normal, Growth-Rank Sword Skill.
[Altymir's Basic Swordplay]
[Rank: Normal]
[Category: Growth, Inheritance]
[A fragmented memory of a legendary Swordman's inheritance. As of now, it's only a crude outline of the Sword Dao Fanatic Altymir's Swordplay.]
The crude outline mentioned by The Grand Dao already showed enough subtleties for Spark to study for months...
Altymir's Swordplay went into fascinating depth of the Sword Dao. It left the realm of swinging and blocking, blurring slowly into a lethal art, with the world as canvas, the sword as brush.
Spark as the medium of art, the artist, colored the world with Sword Intent, drawing fierce landscapes, and telling deadly stories with his swings alone.
Behind the layer of visibility, there sprouted meaning in those swings.
But all good things come hard... or hardly...
When Spark entranced himself further, incorpoorating more energy, more enthusiasm, more passion into the slashes, the refined technique slowly fell apart and couldn't keep up with Joey's brutish force.
After about ten minutes of sparring, Spark fell to the ground, heaving his chest up and down with his clobbering heart threatening to jump out at any moment.
Joey's relentless barrage of consistent strikes made him dodge, twist, counterattack and parry at insane speeds.
Too much for a rookie.
This burly friend really had a knack for fighting!
There was a chasm of experience.
Joey grew up in the world of Cultivation, where fighting was vital, not just for your name to resound to the heavens, no... not necessarily!
It was purely for survival!
Spark in contrast, was born and raised in a world of psychological battle, negotiation, economy, penmanship and more or less... from an era of peace.
Fight was a means of competition, a sport.
Not the life and death struggle it was here!
Anyways... the fragmented memory of a thousand fluid and strange moves with a sword, didn't automatically birth a genius swordsman.
It's like knowing the vocabulary of a specific language, but missing the grammatical structure!
Spark had to train, learn and grind the Skill to perfection, to complete instinct.
What made him satisfied for now, was Joey's surprise.
...Well- if that could even be used as a benchmark.
A hoarse chuckle left Spark's lips.
"Good session, Joey. Very fierce. Very helpful."
"Mhm- you're quite good at this, Spark..." Joey gave a conflicted smile, while resting the wooden sword on his shoulder, "Well... not as good as me, but you're not bad at all hahaha!"
Spark's eyebrow twitched. 'Why does this fellow always need to have the last word?!'
In midst of the spar, the slum siblings had arrived to observed with great interest.
These two hung around more often than expected, helping with daily chores, and miscellaneous matters, as well as warming up with the residents.
Of course they would... Milo had a glib tongue!
Gifted talkers always socialize well with the appropriate attitude. The kids began to like them. And the adults did, too!
Spectating the fight, both were dumbfounded at Spark's progress.
Somehow they felt, no... they were absolutely certain about being surpassed.
Dissatisfaction couldn't form. On the contrary, they were glad. Right choices vindicated themselves, and these two realized that their choice, was without a doubt, wonderful.
...What they didn't realize, was that their boss, had a spontaneous vein and lots of love for sharing hardships.
Spark noticed their arrival and ramped himself up with a strange chuckle.
"Perfect timing you two! I can't be the only one to get beaten up... why don't you join us?"
Beads of sweat formed on their foreheads. They had no choice but to give a hesitant nod.
A couple of hours and many sparring sessions later, the siblings, Spark and some of the kids spread out on the grassy ground with labored breaths.
Milo's eye was black and swollen to a worrying degree, while Bilo was spattered with concussions, which managed to penetrated beneath the thick layer of fat.
Spark was in the same state, while having the luck of coming out unharmed... in the face area, at least.
He had made extra effort to absorb Joey's strikes with his body rather than his face.
The face was a businessman's value! He had to look the part and lifted himself with painful groans, caused by a beaten body.
The kid's suffered mild abrasions, too as it seemed, and only Joey was standing straight, an evil smile plastered all over his face.
"Was that it, guys?! No... was that really it? Tsk, tsk. Brats, you have a lot to learn."
Spark's face turned incredulous.
'T-this fuc-....'
That was straight up bullying! Of course that barbarian had no problem dealing with a couple people in the Body Foundation Realm. He had already awakened after all!
Spark was a bit unwilling to entertain this burly man's arrogance...
He uttered with a bit of spite:
"You... You've already broken through to the Second Stage of the Qi Realm! No wonder you make easy work of us!"
Joey guffawed and nodded his head, not ashamed in the least:
"Gahahaha, not only at the second, I'm almost at the third! It seems I'm a damn talent! I'll saturate and break through, saturate and break through, over and over. No damn bottlenecks! Isn't this the sign of a genius?"
Spark was speechless.
"Just let me break through the Qi Realm... You'll need to prepare yourself!"
Joey shook his head with laughter:
"At that time, I'll already be at the Element Stimulation Realm with my current speed! Brat, compare yourself with the Golden Ape or with thick and thin over there hehehe."
Ignoring Joey's hateful exaggerations, Spark lifted himself up and went on his way. He halted a bit before Milo and Bilo, to give them a rare compliment in passing.
"You two did well... We'll defeat that bas-... Joey sometime in the future. And also... congratulations on reaching the Middle-Stage of the Body Foundation Realm, you two."
Bilo was a bit excited and suppressed a grin.
"It's thanks to you, boss."
The corpulent sibling had long found peace with the decision his brother made. It was actually not bad at all, as it turned out.
They were progressing in their Cultivation, a part of the resources were allocated to them. There were no worries about food and Spark didn't force them to complete immoral tasks at all.
As of now, he had kept his promises much better than Bilo could have ever imagined.
In fact, the tasks they did were somewhat... they were pretty easy most of the time.
They bought food, ran random errands, helped out at the Cultivator Shops and other miscalleanous things.
One couldn't help but develop gratitude.
And occasionally, there were also some exciting days.
Today was one of those days.
Milo finally controlled his breathing, gently touched his black eye, twitched in pain and asked:
"Is it time to visit the market?"
Spark nodded before lingering a bit and adding:
"Sure, but... let's get us a bit fixed up before then."
Totally not using the sparring and their wounds to sate his Mana addiction, Spark cooked up a Spiritual Herb, before sharing a cup with the kids and the siblings.
Joey frowned:
"No cup for me?"
Spark ignored him, and emptied his Mana-broth with a gulp.
...
Not much later, Milo, Bilo, Joey and Spark made their way to the busy market street.
A myriad of Cultivators were ambling down the streets again, and Spark could discern their strength much better by now.
Spark scanned with [Soul Inspection]. Qi and mental strength drained from him quickly.
He found some Awakened among the crowd, with 80% of people being in the Body Foundation Realm.
There was even a person he could not see through at all!
[Name:???]
[Cultivation:???]
[Race:???]
Spark heaved a deep breath, as beads of sweat tumbled down his face. Scanning through so many people was still a bit too much.
At this person's stand opened up a sun parasol and neatly arranged bundles of Spiritual Herbs, Minerals and some Soul Bounds as well.
The Cultivator he couldn't inspect wore a green robe with a boulder logo sewn onto it.
'Must be from the Rolling Boulder sect...' Spark reasoned logically.
He didn't know if the person had already reached the Element Stimulation Realm, or if he was just a high-level Qi Realm Awakened. It was also possible that his Soul was veiled by a specific Soul Bound.
Nevertheless, Spark found him to be quite impressive.
The green-robed man was middle-aged had a neatly combed beard and short brown hair. He also wore a passionate expression.
He seemed to be a man of authority, Spark guessed. He had seen a lot of such people in his life. The disposition and attitude the man showed was of utmost confidence.
Suddenly, the man turned his glance at Spark's group with a frown. Inspecting the group, his expression softened a bit and he turned around nonchalantly.
'Woah, that was scary.' Spark thought in shock.
A bit of cold sweat amassed on his back. 'Did he notice me snooping around with my Skill? His expression was not friendly at all! Luckily, he didn't seem to be offended...'
Anyways... he wouldn't take a look at the Rolling Boulder's stand to avoid any implications.
The group came with the goal of buying two specific things.
First, they would purchase a bunch of Spiritual Herbs for the Circulation Lessons. Gold Coins were plenty to buy Lesser and Middle-Rank Herbs. They were had no worth that was enough to be traded with Spiritual Crystals.
The second item, they would need to buy somewhere else.
...After strolling around the market and finding the appropriate quality and quantity of Spiritual Herbs, the group gathered once again and left the market.
This time, Spark didn't see another mysterious Soul Bound like the Ghost Slayer. The cloaked vendor with the Bamboo Hat, was also nowhere to be seen.
'Must have been an itinerant Cultivator journeying through the area.'
Spark concluded and the group marched to buy the second item for today.
But, suddenly... on the way back, Spark twitched his ears.
He made it a habit to activate the Cochlear Implant every now and again to check on his surroundings. It was a useful habit to implement.
And today this habit finally paid off.
Some distance behind them, he felt someone tailing his group. That person had a specific gait to them, and acted very suspiciously.
If it were a normal person, they would just walk steadily to the place they have to be, but this person made it a point to always hide behind a corner and follow when the group had traversed some distance.
He couldn't even catch a glimpse of that person at all, therefore he could not reveal that someone was, in fact, tailing them!
How the hell would he explain how he knew about it? That would disclose the fact that he had already Awakened and was using Skills.
No matter how wonderful his hearing was, it would not be able to pick up such subtleties.
The other party did not have any malicious thoughts for now, so Spark decided to ignore it and scrutinize the matter in the future.
After walking for while, they finally arrived at their destination.
The Fantissimo.