EagleBeak Cliff
Sigh!
The soft sighs of a man echoed continuously. They were weak and forlorn, so much so that one could almost feel the sadness of the person behind them.
Atop EagleBeak Cliff, a tall, slender young man stood silently with his head bowed.
His shoulders were slumped, and his fists were clenched.
Occasionally, he would shake his head slowly and sigh. His hair was dirty and rough, while his body was dusty and covered with sweat.
He looked like a depressed loser contemplating suicide.
Indeed, this was not a common sight at all.
If Neo was feeling anything right now, it would be shock. An overwhelming amount of shock.
The letter from his parents had started out as expected. Neo had anticipated an apology of some sort along with some excuses, and he had received them to some extent.
He had also expected some form of knowledge about what he was and how the mysterious dark orb came to be placed in his chest, but he hadn't received any answers to those at all.
All he knew was that he was too weak to bear the karma that came with learning this 'forbidden knowledge'.
But all that was still within his range of expectations.
What he wasn't prepared for was to receive his own execution date.
The information caught him off guard, hitting him like a speeding shuttle. Or like an aggressive thrust...
Not that he knew how that felt...
The point is, that was one heck of a way to end a letter.
One might wonder why Neo was so shaken by the execution deadline given by his family, but to understand how difficult the task before him was, one would need to know what having a breakthrough in his Ascension really meant.
First, Neo had to find a spirit to fuse with. And he had to find one that was cheap enough but still worthy of fusing with at all.
That kind of spirit would easily cost an arm and all of his three legs, and spirits were the one thing that could get expensive really fast.
They were the most sought-after commodity in the New Age, after all, so Neo was looking at a cost of at least a thousand credits for the weakest spirit—which, quite frankly, no one even bought for that purpose.
But how would Neo find a thousand credits, which was equal to a million dollars, in such a short period of time?
Heck, his current life savings didn't even amount to 5 credits!
And that was when he really dug deep. Like really, really deep.
Sigh!
Neo sighed once again.
But that wasn't the end of his problems. After miraculously finding a spirit to fuse with, he would then automatically enter the Formation Stage, which was the first stage of Ascension.
This stage essentially meant that Neo's Celestial Body was still forming in his soul space.
But technically, the transition from being a mortal to the Formation Stage wasn't a breakthrough at all.
It was meant to be a preparatory stage!
Now, here was the issue: the Formation Stage was a stage where growth was supposed to occur naturally!
His Celestial Body was supposed to form gradually over a period of four to six months!
Naturally, there were artificial methods to speed this up, but those kinds of pills were freakishly expensive! At least ten thousand credits per pill!
Neo was basically already a dead man!
He needed such a large amount of money that he'd only be able to make it if he started robbing banks.
'These heartless clan elders really want me dead. They're tyrannically manipulating my life and death, which is the very thing I just swore never to experience again!'
He couldn't even allow himself to die due to their machinations. He was going to die on his own terms, not because some old farts dictated it would be so.
Neo was a stubborn man, after all...
'But how do I get this money...?'
Honestly, Neo would rather his parents had gifted him some money instead of the treasures they gave him.
After all, he couldn't even sell these items as he was. Not only was he a mere mortal, but he had never even entered the Spirit Realm before. The government would lock him in jail before he could say "Jack Cockinson" if he ever dared to show up at legal stores to sell them.
He had no way to prove that he acquired such valuable items himself, and he was as clueless as a duck as to how to access the dark web to sell them off.
He also had no connections from this 'family' of his that he could take advantage of...
'Come to think of it, where exactly is this Immortal Clan?' he wondered.
Definitely not on this planet, that's for sure! Neo was quite knowledgeable, and he had never heard about any Immortal Family. Besides, the way his parents worded the letter was clue enough for him to decipher as much.
Neo didn't bother too much about that information. He knew very well he wasn't strong enough to do any digging currently. His problems were already too much for him to handle.
What he knew was that he was going to punish all the clan elders who came up with those devilish incentives.
And to do that, he needed strength.
Neo had made up his mind. He was going to find a way to get a spirit, find a way to break through before the deadline, or he was going to die trying... literally.
Neo shifted his attention back to the gifts he had received from his parents.
He picked up the Void Stone and closely examined it.
'Never seen a stone this round and smooth, that's for sure,' he thought.
The stone was inky black and felt almost polished. An artefact, no doubt, judging by the aura it was emitting.
Searching his memory, Neo recalled the binding process he had read about in a file from the school library.
Normally, artefacts were meant to be bound to the user through the user's energy signature. But since Neo couldn't do that for obvious reasons, he could only attempt the 'Partial Binding' method he had read about before.
Casually, Neo bit his finger and drew blood, which he swiftly allowed to drop onto the shiny surface of the stone.
Like an ocean swallowing raindrops, the blood vanished, and Neo heard a light whooshing sound in his mind before he felt the faint connection between himself and the stone become established.
Neo spent a few seconds basking in the novel feeling.
He then calmly took out the spear he had received from his father.
It was pitch black. And quite plain-looking.
Neo thought it was too plain-looking, even.
No designs, etchings, runes, colours, nothing!
It was seven feet long, slightly thicker than usual, and extremely light.
It also had a broad, double-edged blade that was good for piercing and slicing.
And that was all...
Neo's excitement at having the weapon lessened considerably, and he unceremoniously placed the spear beside the stone and willed the stone to absorb it.
Vroom!
Neo's eyes shone as he watched the long pole disappear into the stone... like another kind of long pole disappea—
Ahem!
Now that Neo was done, he picked up the tome containing the Finality Art and attempted to learn it.
As expected, he failed. He had no energy to do so anyway and only tried to be sure.
He patted his chest, looked around the cliff, and began descending towards civilisation.
Neo's eyes suddenly bulged. He braked abruptly.
Why was he feeling so cool and intimate with the breeze this morning?
He looked down and almost fainted.
Neo was naked, and he had no clothes!