Chapter 21 - The Colour of the Soul

A person`s life is filled with all kinds of emotions, ranging from pleasant ones such as joy, love and friendships, to undesirable ones such as fear, anger and shame. Then there are those few unique experiences, those special moments, which will remain forever engraved in one’s heart. Those unforgettable memories that everyone would preserve, and keep treasuring them until the very end of their lives.

Right now, Kane was living through such a kind of an experience. There were no human words that could perfectly describe it. Some people would have called it a godly sensation, whilst others would have termed it as a kind of divine ecstasy. But in reality, it was different than that.

He remained motionless, eyes closed, as wave after wave of purifying energy penetrated his body. His mind turned purer, his physique became stronger, and an imposing aura surrounded him. Like a caterpillar who just metamorphosed into a butterfly, Kane was today born anew. The sensations, the feelings, the goose bumps; a completely otherworldly experience. He smiled gracefully, then opened his eyes.

Before him, he saw white ellipsoids, not larger than the size of his fist. They were grouped closely together, attracted by some kind of unexplainable force. In the middle of the group, there was a slightly larger ellipsoid, emanating with an enigmatic power. Kane could feel a weak voice calling from the ellipsoid, similar to a cry begging for help. He tried to reach out for it, but his body was too large, and didn’t manage to enter the ellipsoid.

Kane felt sad, because in his heart he was curious and really wished to solve this mystery. He remained staring at the central ellipsoid with a depressive gaze. He sighed, then he started exploring his surroundings. To his left, he noticed another group of ellipsoids, this time much smaller, like glitters. However, almost half of them were obscured by a black fog, and couldn’t be seen. He then turned his gaze to his right. There he saw a large white sphere, though not as white as the ellipsoids in front of him. He observed that the entire space was encompassed within a spherical border of black fog.

Kane quickly figured that he and the two sets of ellipsoid were orbiting in a clockwise fashion around the large sphere. “According to Uncle Oliver, that middle sphere should be my magnetic core or the cultivation base, the first form of my powers. And if my memories serve me well, this set of ellipsoids before me should be the second form of power, the power of my elemental soul, whilst the other set is the 3rd form of power, my dimensional power!”

He then exerted force to approach his Cultivation Base. He slowly deorbited, as he spiralled inwards towards it, until finally arriving and stopping before it.

“Impressive… I can feel such a powerful energy radiating from within it!” He kept glaring at it completely captivated. It was then that he noticed that his cultivation base wasn’t completely spherical. There was a part of its surface that was slightly compressed, whilst drawn on it there were several black diagrams filled with transparent-like swirling energies.

“I wonder what would happen if I touch my cultivation base…” Kane remarked curiously whilst moving his index figure cautiously towards it. He felt excited as his heartbeat accelerated, and anxiety started taking over.

As soon as he touched it, a luminous energy instantly rushed from it towards his body. His right hand glowed with this energy, gradually strengthening, until it blinded him and completely covered everything with its luminosity. Kane worried as he shouted, “What the…!” However, before he could finish, the light exploded and submerged everything…

“What the hell!” The heavy panting Kane woke up in shock, overwhelmed with fear.

“Welcome back kid! Now, tell me… how was your first journey visualising your cultivation centre? Have you enjoyed it?” Marcus smiled as he moved towards Kane, until he arrived before him.

The fearful Kane, when he heard Marcus’ voice, calmed down and began laughing with joy. “It was weird Master, but I can feel it… something inside me has now changed!”

Marcus nodded as he explained. “You are now no longer a cripple, but you can’t be considered a fighter either. You are somewhere in between the two states. However, you now have direct access to the energy of your cultivation centre. The first change you will notice is that you won’t need to consume food any longer, you will never feel sleepy, and you can survive without breathing for long periods of time. Of course, this only applies when you are idle. If you utilise the energy of your cultivation centre, like engaging in a fight or expending energy with soul enchantments, you will be forced to switch back to your natural resources again, until your cultivation centre recovers back its energy.”

“Now let`s see how strong the current you is.” Marcus uttered as he brought out a sword from his storage device. The sword was simple, without any power crystals. Kane instantly felt disappointed when he saw it. He was expecting some kind of overpowered sword, not a useless metallic weapon.

Marcus put up an annoyed expression, “Why that face? If you want to become strong, you need to be able to fight without the aid of power crystals. Once you learn to do so, feel free to use any sword you like! If you don’t like my method, you can always go find a new master!”

Kane replied frowning comically, “Ok! Ok! No need to act so touchy… give me the sword already!”

Marcus smiled as he casually threw the sword to Kane. He grabbed the sword, and instantly threw a powerful slash on the ground. The power employed by the sword was similar to strength he exhibited during the Servants Sword Tournament.

Marcus was visibly surprised by this and slowly whispered into his heart, “Incredible… with such a weak cultivation base, he can still unleash such a power. What a beast…”

“Whoo hooo! This feels great!” Kane was apparently satisfied by his new found power.

CRACK~~~CRACK~~~

Kane`s sword suddenly cracked and broke down into tiny pieces, which fell graciously on the ground. He frowned funnily, outwardly surprised, then sat down on the ground like a pissed off child.

“Ha ha” Marcus let out a laugh. “You still can’t properly control the power of your cultivation centre. Don’t feel that bad, it is a very normal thing for a beginner to break swords. Who knows how many swords I had broken myself in the past!”

He then sat down next to Kane, whilst offered him a piece of chocolate. “Give it a try, it is a delicious chocolate produced directly by the servants of the Verde Clan, directly from my home planet!”

Kane promptly accepted the offer, then grabbed the chocolate and started unpacking it. Marcus stared at him, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. He felt a little sad, as he slowly said, “This last year… must have been a very hard one for you kid. I really hope that from now on, your life will be making a turn for the better.”

Kane remained staring blankly ahead, without responding, but his face displayed a sad smile. Then he took a bite of chocolate and softly replied, “You were right, this chocolate is truly delicious.”

Marcus smiled hopelessly at Kane, as he thought into his mind. “This kid has a very deep wound in his heart. It can be a good thing because it may serve him as a motivation, but it can be very bad if he doesn’t recover emotionally from it. However, I don’t really blame him. He actually has a strong will to keep on living. Others would have just given up on their lives when faced with a calamity of that magnitude.”

Marcus then sighed, “I am going to give you a small advice kid. In this galaxy, you will find a lot of people who will be of an assistance to you, but you will find many more who will try and obstruct you along your way. You will encounter a lot of challenges in the future, some will strengthen you, and some might hurt you. You will be forced to make a lot of tough decisions, and you will be bound to make mistakes. Nobody is perfect; so mistakes are acceptable. Additionally, I would suggest you learn from the mistakes of others too, since you will not be surviving in this galaxy if you will be making too many of them. And one last tip, always be extremely careful of whom you trust!”

Marcus then stood up as he uttered, “It is time we start the next phase of your training. However, before we start… I am a little curious about something. What colour is your elemental soul?”

Kane wondered a little before he replied, “If you are referring to the first set of ellipsoids, they are white.”

Marcus paused for a while, then he uttered, “White eh…? The only white elemental soul I can think of is that of light element. It might also be the case you have an eccentric soul…”

“Huh?!” Kane was completely confused, not understanding a single word that just came out from Marcus’ mouth.

Marcus remained calm as he replied, “The 2nd form of power, the elemental soul, is the most important form of power out of all three powers. Proof of this, the strongest fighters in this galaxy all have powerful elemental souls. The type of soul you have is a natural process decided before birth and it is all up too luck; although some clans have a tendency to lean towards a particular type of soul.”

“There are two types of elemental souls, ones based on natural elements, and others called eccentric souls. Natural elementals include elements such as fire, light, dark, water, wind and wood. These are just a few examples and there are more of them. On the other hand, eccentric souls are souls that are not based on natural elements. They can range from ridiculous overpowered souls, to useless and stupid souls.”

“It isn’t possible to exactly tell what type of soul you have until you completely form your soul and advance to 1st rank fighter. However, it is possible to have a rough indication by its colour. For example, fire souls tend to be coloured red, water souls tend to be coloured blue; my wind elemental soul doesn’t have a colour at all and it is transparent.”

“The only white natural elemental soul that I can think off is that of light, which would be a very strong type of soul. You can consider yourself lucky if you have it!”

Kane`s eyes instantly shone with delight and anticipation, and a wide smile appeared on his face.

“However, there is also the possibility you have an eccentric soul. I can’t think of any right now… what can be white...? Maybe cheese?”

Kane instantly conveyed a funny expression full of despair, “But isn’t cheese yellow? It can’t be that!”

Marcus paused for a while, “You have a point, how about milk then?”

Kane`s body shuddered, as he started daydreaming about the consequence of him having a pointless soul like that…

“Mayor! Mayor! We have a huge crisis! We ran out of milk! The babies can’t stop crying! Nobody can sleep anymore! We are doomed!” A desperate servant screamed.

The frantic Mayor was in tears, “My town is finished! This is really the end!”

Suddenly the shadow of man appeared before them. The Mayor instantly asked in surprise, “Who might be you?!”

“I`ve heard you had a milk crisis, so I came here to save you! I am Kane Barker! Mr. Milkman!” He proclaimed as he moved like a hero ready for action. He was wearing white cloths and a large mantle, which had a big blue ‘M’ written on it, and underneath a large drawing of a black and white cow.

Mr. Milkman grinned as he enchanted, “5th Major art of the soul, Milky way!” Suddenly, a large wave of milk formed, covering the whole town, almost drowning everyone in the process. All mothers instantly screamed tears of joy, “All hail our saviour! All hail Mr. Milkman!”

Mr. Milkman then grinned and winked, “My job here is done, and Mr. Milkman saves the day yet again! Mission accomplished!” He flew triumphantly high into the sky, then he disappeared with a white flash.

…

“Kid…! Kane!? Is something wrong?” Marcus asked curiously, interrupting Kane`s bizarre daydream.

“No! No! I can’t afford to have such a stupid eccentric soul!” Kane cried in alarm.

Marcus looked at him weirdly, then he burst out in laughter. “It is very improbable that you were born with such a weird eccentric soul in the first place! Why are you worrying that much ha ha?! Not like you can do anything anyways! You have to be happy with what you will find!”

“Now move your ass, we are going to start the second training session!” Marcus instructed as he took out a large container from within his storage device. The tank was filled with countless metallic swords, all without a power crystal. He then took out a bottle and threw it towards Kane.

Kane grabbed the bottle, “What is this Master?”

“Those are healing pills, and these are the swords you will be using for the next training session. We are now going to focus on improving your magnetic core, until it gets strong enough to reach out all of your body. After that, I will teach you how you can cultivate the power of your soul. If you get a move on, later on I will showcase you some techniques from both forms of powers, so that you will get an idea of how terrifying the strength of the cultivation centre can truly be!”

“Understood Master… but why the healing pills?” Kane asked a little concerned.

Marcus grinned evilly, replying with a rather sadistic voice, “Trust me, you`re going to need them! And that`s because you will be engaging in a savage fight!”

“Err? I will be fighting you?!!” Kane asked completely shocked.

“No, no, no… you will not be fighting myself.” Marcus smirked, whilst he started gathering energy on his left hand. “Be prepared! Your opponent shall be none other than my little clone… Marcus Junior!”