Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 3. First Spiritual Battle.

When Laien regained the ability to think properly, he only had the smallest amount of time before the man’s fist would land on his stomach. “Must defend!” he yelled inwardly.

Unable to dodge, Laien could only rely on his magic. He reached out to his spiritual energy just like he always did, but shockingly, he reached a whole different place than every other time. Moreover, the very moment he consciously manipulated the spiritual energy, he realized how different it was! It has somehow grown unbelievably more powerful…!

With no time to be amazed, Laien controlled his spiritual energy with surprising ease and practically instantly, formed a barrier of water in front of his stomach. He wanted to make it as durable as possible, fearing that the attack would plow through it regardless, so he used all his strength to reinforce it with as much spiritual energy as possible.

In the next instant, the Qi-covered fist smashed at the defensive barrier of water and… barely made it vibrate, not affecting it in the slightest. The attack had been completely and effortlessly nullified!

The grey-black cloaked man stared in disbelief at the disc of water that blocked his fist. He might not have used his full strength, but he was a martial practitioner of the sixth rank…! How could a ten-year-old be able to use the magic of all things to block his attack? He couldn’t comprehend what was going on!

“Cyan, careful!” the leader of the five men called out, seeing his subordinate just stand there carelessly. “Captain Mayen, what are you-…?”Cyan began saying but never got to finish his words. Had he not just stood there motionlessly for two or three seconds, had he not been so thoughtless as to look over his shoulder, he might have had a chance to dodge. However, he had committed not one mistake, but two, which together ended up being fatal.

During those precious seconds, Laien had enough time to accommodate himself to his newly discovered power. He had allowed his spiritual energy to flow throughout his body and strangely enough, as a result he calmed down perfectly; his mind becoming clear as the sky, or perhaps… as Tranquil as a sea after a storm.

That very moment, Laien understood what he needed to do and he acted mercilessly. He controlled the barrier of water and transformed it into a sharp spike, then run it through the man’s stomach.

Facing a point-blank attack for a spiritual practitioner while being distracted, Cyan proved to be hopeless. In the Sarkcente Kingdom, spiritual practitioners were more than sparse. The whole Kingdom didn’t have even one spiritual master, so it was no surprise that people of the south weren’t used to fighting against magic users. With no movements from Laien himself, no words, no gestures... how could any of them reliably react in time to dodge? The probability of that happening was low to begin with, and Cyan’s carelessness made it so that it became pretty much non-existent.

“You…” Cyan spoke and coughed up a mouthful of blood. Despite being pierced through, he was a martial practitioner of the sixth rank. He wouldn’t die immediately. In a last-ditch attempt, he roused his Qi and grabbed the water spike with his hands, intending to pull it out. Yet, little did he know that the moment the water had entered his internals, he was already more than dead.

Laien controlled the cluster of water, changing its form. In an instant, the spike transformed into thousands of specks of water which shot out in every direction, ripping apart Cyan’s body from within and causing it to explode spectacularly, sending blood, bits of flesh and innards flying everywhere. With mere bones left from Cyan’s torso, his gruesome corpse fell to the ground, slowly oozing what blood was left inside it.

“Motherfuckers! Why weren’t we told that this brat is such a stupidly powerful spiritual practitioner?!” Mayen cursed aloud, looking at his dead subordinate with fury in his eyes. In normal circumstances, he would have immediately attacked the perpetrator, however, this time he had no confidence in escaping unscratched. He has never faced off against a strong spiritual practitioner, after all. He had little to no idea what a spiritual practitioner was capable of and after seeing Cyan being imploded from within, attacking recklessly was the last thing he would do.

“Fuck, we aren’t even armed to fight someone like him,” Mayen groaned. When the order from young master Masi came, they had been resting. They had been told that Laien was at most a martial practitioner at the fourth Mortal Realm, so no one bothered to wear armor. They had their interspatial rings, but they weren’t large enough; there was nothing too useful in them at the moment. Who could blame them, however? They had thought that bringing swords to deal with a ten-year-old was an overkill, how could they have imagined their lives would be in danger?

“Captain, what do we do?” one of the grey-black cloaked men asked. It wasn’t only Mayen who was in no hurry to attack. The three subordinates of his also knew their limits. They were roughly at Cyan’s level, but Cyan had been killed by Laien without being able to resist at all… and in a way vicious enough to make them shiver in fear. They’ve seen limbs being cut off, people being slashed by swords and pierced by arrows. However, all of that couldn’t compare to the sight of a person being killed by magic.

“This brat has probably established his Spiritual Core long ago, he can even use his Guardian with this much power. He should be at the seventh, maybe even eighth rank. Captain, we should just retreat. Even if we are careful and kill him, who knows what kind of backing he has? It’s not normal to have reached a level like that at his age,” one of the three Mayen’s subordinates brought up nervously, watching Laien closely, ready to turn back and flee had the youth moved a step forward.

Mayen only now, hearing those words, realized that there really might be some kind of an ultimate expert backing Laien from shadows. He clenched his teeth, then declared sternly. “Good Heavens, we need to kill him even more so. Imagine what is going to happen when he tells his master what happened today.”

The three men swallowed. What their leader was saying was true. Who in the world could groom a ten-year-old spiritual practitioner approaching the peak of Mortal Realm? A person like that would need to be simply astonishing! Little did they know, that not to mention a spiritual practitioner of the eighth rank, a ten-year-old spiritual practitioner of the sixth rank was already something never before seen in the Starlight Continent!

Laien took a deep breath, preparing to fight for his life. He didn’t act after killing the first man, hoping that the other four men would choose to retreat. However, they appeared to have reached a different conclusion. Thankfully, due to their hesitation, he had more than enough time not only to get used the new strength of his spiritual energy but also to prepare a few small tricks for the incoming fight.

“I go from the front, you support me from the sides, like always,” Mayan ordered calmly, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly. He circulated Qi through his body, strengthening it according to the Body Enhancing Art he had learned after becoming a guard at the Boular family. He was at the seventh mortal realm, while his three subordinates were all at sixth. If they worked together, they should be capable of killing one spiritual practitioner…! After all, magic users didn’t specialize in direct combat and would usually be at a disadvantage when facing martial practitioners of the same realm in a close-quarters fight.

“His Guardian should at most have the range of two, three meters. Keep that in mind, don’t panic,” Mayan said to his three companions, waiting for them to properly encircle Laien and take their positions. His face twitched when he saw Laien manipulate water and surround his left hand with it, holding a short sword in his right. “He isn’t nervous at all, what a kid,” Mayan couldn’t help but praise in his heart. He had seen many adults who would lose their cool in similar situations, but here a ten-year-old was waiting for them to make a move and looking for an opening he could use to turn the tables.

When Laien was finally surrounded, Mayan charged forward at top speed, intent on killing him with one slash of his sword. The three of his subordinates also rushed at Laien, although each with a slightly different timing, as to make it impossible to easily avoid their attacks.

Laien reacted without delay. He raised his hand and split the ball of water into four parts, sending net-like splashes at every of the four grey-black robed men.

Mayan reacted in time, not willing to take the potentially dangerous water head-on. Even if it shouldn’t have been able to wound his body, he wouldn’t take a gamble if he didn’t need to. After swiftly moving to the side, he wanted to continue to rush forward, however… he halted for a split second, hearing screams of agony coming from his three subordinates. He knew that he shouldn’t look away, but he still did and saw another frightening scene.

Apparently, his subordinates were caught off-guard by an unnatural wide-range ‘attack’. When the splashes of water reached them, Laien wasn’t capable of controlling them anymore; they looked fairly harmless, so none of them made any effort to perform desperate maneuvers to dodge them. Yet, the moment the water touched their skin, the three of them realized how badly they have screwed up.

The two who took the water head-on fainted on the spot, skin melting-off and from their whole bodies, turning into a black charcoal along with their clothes. The third of the men, who made the effort to not have his whole body hit by the water, fell to his knees, the same happening to his right hand and part of his torso. He was the one who kept yelling the longest, a large part of his body being devoured by the unknown substance.

“Poison!” Mayan cursed silently. “But how did he?!” He couldn’t understand. He had been watching Laien the whole time, the youth shouldn’t have had an opportunity to take the poison out and mix it into his water…! All he did was draw the short sword and cover his left hand in water…! “Cover his hand! Interspatial Ring!” It occurred to Mayan all of the sudden. If that ring on Laien’s hand was an interspatial ring, he could have taken out only the colorless poison and mixed it into the water he created without anyone noticing! Right now, Mayan wanted to skewer himself for underestimating his opponent’s shrewdness this badly. He never realized that magic could carry so many possibilities with it!

Regardless of this brief hesitation, Mayan jumped at Laien, the wooden floor shattering under his feet. In the blink of an eye, he arrived next to the ten-year-old and slashed. If he managed to kill Laien right here and right now, then it wouldn’t matter what tricks he still had up his sleeve!

As expected, Mayan saw a mass of water converge between his sword and Laien’s body. Yet, it was too late, his blade has already passed by the magic! “You’re dead!” Mayan called out wordlessly, but then, everything went dark for a second as he got blown away by a surge of water.

Mayan smashed into one of the wooden walls, cracking it all over and nearly falling outside of the old storage house. He quickly opened his eyes, trying to regain focus in his gaze as fast as possible, fearful of consecutive attacks. He was somewhat dazed, but due to his innately strong body of a martial practitioner and the Body Enhancing Art he was using, he sustained no wounds. He had been putting his guard up for a few seconds, but when he regained his ability to see clearly, he saw something unexpected.

“This brat, he failed to control his spell properly,” Mayan smiled bitterly, seeing Laien trying to rise from the floor at the opposite wall, around forty meters away from him. “It was a good judgment, though. His body doesn’t seem to be capable of keeping up with my movements, it was his only choice,” he praised, keeping a tight watch on the interspatial ring on Laien’s left hand.

“Don’t hold it against me, kid. You are way too dangerous to be left alone,” Mayan said resignedly and began walking towards Laien, who still seemed to be unable to stand up. The burst had been strong enough to dazzle him, a martial practitioner of the seventh rank, after all. Mayan wouldn’t be surprised if Laien had broken some of his bones and injured internal organs. From his current appearance, Laien seemed to be barely keeping himself conscious. In the end, all he did was prolonging his life for a while longer.

“I don’t dislike your attitude though, kid,” Mayan spoke again, resolved to end Laien’s life. If left alone, the boy would grow into a monster capable of killing him with a wave of his hand. Letting him go…? From the moment he had shown his true strength, it stopped being an option.

Close to fainting, Laien coughed heavily, spitting a mouthful of blood on the ground. He couldn’t hear what the man was saying, his ears filled with loud buzzing. He neither could see him well, he was but an indistinct human-blur to him. Recalling words of a spell he had read about in some random book, he mumbled them and forced himself to control the spiritual energy and transform it into magic.

Despite Laien’s poor state, he still managed to produce three spikes of water, of which each one was slightly more powerful than the one he had used to kill the first grey-black robed man. Yet… he wasn’t delusional. They wouldn’t be enough to kill their leader or even wound him. Thus, he could only do one thing. “Come any closer and I will kill them,” Laien growled in a low voice, then coughed and threw up some more blood. He kept his head up, however, and eyed the last grey-black robed man dangerously.

Mayan stopped, taking a look at his three subordinates, of which two were unconscious and one incapable of moving. If Laien released the spell now, the three would surely die. He wouldn’t have enough time to neither stop Laien nor protect any of them. “Do it if you want, they won’t survive your poison anyway,” Mayan said with a sigh. In the Boular family, useless people were to be disposed of. That rule included everyone, even well-trained guards. Not wasting any more time, he charged at Laien, ready to dodge the spikes, just in case.

“Not buying it, eh?” Laien chuckled helplessly. He has never had a chance to practice after his strength has risen, so he wasted a lot of it on simple spells. These three pikes were created with the last bits of his spiritual energy. He was wounded, he no longer had any strength left, Mayan gave up on his subordinates. There was nothing else he could do. Thinking of his little sister, of his friends, he shut his eyes tight, unwilling to die in a place like this.

“What a kid,” Mayan repeated in his thoughts, seeing how Laien released the magic and killed his three men off for good. Now, all four of his subordinates were dead. He welcomed that Laien closed his eyes, choosing not to resist any longer. “I will end you in one clean slash, it won’t hurt,” the thought passed through Mayan’s mind as he slashed horizontally, aiming at Laien’s neck.

The next second, a head fell and rolled on the ground. It was over, everything was over. It was over indeed, but for whom?

Laien groaned, having been smashed down to the floor by the blunt side of the sword hitting his head from the side. He couldn’t move or open his eyes, but he was quite confident that he wasn’t dead. He wondered what happened, but it wasn’t like it mattered anyone… he just wanted to sleep, he was too exhausted, both mentally and physically.

“Can you hear me?” Laien frowned, hearing somebody speak to him. Couldn’t that person see that he needs to rest?

“Oi, don’t you dare to die on me. I killed one of Masi’s personal guards for you. If you die, I will really turn out to be the biggest idiot around,” the youthful voice reached his ears again. Laien could swear that he recognized it, but refusing to believe it so simply, he forced his eyes open. After a while, he could more or less make out Cran’s face in the unclear image he was seeing.

“I guess I should be thanking you, eh? But why did you come?” Laien asked in a weak voice, puzzled. Obviously, he was grateful, but he wanted to know Cran’s reasons.

“Aaah, since I threw everything away to save you, I might as well tell. But before that, will you be alright?” Cran asked awkwardly, looking at Laien who was lying flat down on the floor.

Laien chuckled, then coughed up some blood and spit it out to the side. A caring attitude wasn’t something he expected of Cran, as Cran usually kept his distance from him. Even though they had sparred quite a few times, they never became friends and never truly talked with each other. Had it not been for today, Laien would have kept thinking that Cran doesn’t like him too much and is picking on him through those sparring sessions rather than anything else.

“I will be fine. I am a spiritual practitioner of the water element, my body is already healing,” Laien responded, shrugging his shoulders. As his spiritual energy would recover, he could use it to heal himself. It would take some time to get rid of the cracked bones and internal injuries, but as long as he didn’t need to fight, he would be able to stand up and walk in five to ten minutes.

Cran nodded with a smile, then sat on the floor next to Laien, looking at him… somehow, in a very different way compared to how he used to. Laien liked this gaze quite a bit.

“Yeah, I should have guessed, judging from the way you killed the other four. Hmm, you used poison, too? Did they get done in by that? They must have underestimated you quite badly, eh? So, this should be an interspatial ring on your hand… Oh, those three seem to have been killed after they couldn’t move anymore, hmm. I will have you tell me how it went, I’m very interested! To even think that you always held back in our duels, not using the slightest bit of magic!” as he listened to Cran’s ‘monologue’, Laien blinked numerous times. Was this really the same unsociable, not talkative Cran? He really could act so energetically and amiably when he wanted?

“Mmm, for now, recover a bit, I will tell my part first. Long story short, I really, really hate Masi and I don’t think I will ever like Jasi, either,” Cran said and smiled, shutting his mouth as if he was done with the explanation. However, faced with Laien’s meaningful, resigned gaze, he laughed and started speaking again. “I’m joking, I’m joking. Well, it went more or less like that. Masi came back after around 20 minutes, then started annoying me if I am sure I won’t regret not helping you and all this crap. He enjoyed making me mad… I must say, he is good at it, heh.”

“At one point I couldn’t hold it in anymore and I tapped him in the face, lightly, just so that he fell from his chair… Then I trashed him around some more, not hurting him much… he knows how to receive kicks well,” Cran snickered at this part, recalling it with a very pleased expression on his face. After a second, he followed through

“I blurted out that if he really did something to you, he will regret it. Then, this idiot actually told me what he ordered his men to do. He laughed, saying that by now, you are already crippled and beaten up. Hahaha, I can’t wait to see his face when he sees you alive and well, while his elite bodyguards are all dead! Four of them killed by you, too! Hahaha, when the news of it gets out, his father is going to beat the crap out of him for losing face for their family! With scandal like that, Masi is finished. I will make sure of it,” Cran concluded, then rubbed his nose, a bit worried that he started blurting a little too many words at once. Yet, Laien smiled at him, not minding to have listened to the story.

“Good thing I wasn’t too late, one more second and it would have been your head rolling,” Cran pointed out, helping Laien to sit down. Had he been too late, there would be no solid evidence to prove Masi’s actions. Since he had already wasted his two years of effort in befriending Jasi, he really preferred to get something done with it and not to be left star naked, with no gain whatsoever. Thus, he really was incredibly happy to have saved Laien in the nick of time.

“Yeah… Thanks, really,” Laien said, somewhat ashamed of himself to have gotten Cran involved into all of this. No matter how he looked at it, Cran had just made his life more difficult for his sake. He pointed it out to Cran, but the fifteen-year-old responded casually. “You were only a ‘trigger’ to my decision. Don’t beat yourself over it, I had my own reasons. Mmm, but if you feel so indebted, then you can repay this favor one day in the future .”

Laien laughed and shook his head, finally feeling a bit more comfortable with this conclusion. “I think I am okay now, we can go,” he said and stood up by himself, surprised to find out just how much his self-healing abilities have increased. He didn’t really know at which rank he was, though. Surely not lower than the sixth, as that was when Spiritual Core would form, but was he any higher? Or did the strength of his spiritual energy had something to do with this unique ‘Tranquil’ aspect of it? He would need to make sure later. For now, he was safe. That was all that mattered.