Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

My Soul still ached from the recent damage sustained, but that was temporary. I still had the Golden Core Soul of that guy… What was his name again? Amar?

Anyway, he was plenty strong, yet he died so pathetically by drinking my blood. What a loser! I mean, who does that? That’s just asking to get an STD!

Anyway, I was certain he had plenty of useful knowledge, so I refrained from consuming his Soul on the run. But, after safely returning to the Sect, that was another thing entirely.

I focused and began to slowly unravel his memories. For such a young man, he had plenty. Too bad most of them were useless.

Internal politics of the Brilliant Sword Sect? Purged! No way in hell I was even going to look at that crap. Complete waste of space.

Friendships he gathered over the years? Worthless, especially since many people saw his death.

Martial Arts and Cultivation Techniques? Oh, we keeping that.

[Ah, you had a wife?] I combed through those memories a bit slower. She looked nice. Too bad one of his closest friends was lusting after her, and she didn’t even deny his advances. How Amar was so oblivious to that, I didn’t know. To my eyes, the imminent infidelity seemed quite clear. And now, becoming a widow would remove the few obstructions she had.

But, at the end of the day… Wiped! Burned to cinders! Why the fuck would I want to keep the memories of a cuck?! Begone!

Sweet childhood memories? Didn’t need those either.

Every unnecessary emotion and thought was wiped and refined, converted into pure Soul Essence, and absorbed by my Soul to repair itself.

The process was soon complete, with all the skills and techniques safely merged with my own mind. There was no danger of me ever losing myself in another one’s memories, as the things I kept were those void of any emotion or deep thought. They were just decades of skills, honed over countless hours and thousands of repetitions.

I took Amar’s pouch and pulled out his sword. It was much shorter than the others I collected, yet also wider by a few fingers. Still sharp and heavy though, just like the rest. Much fancier though, that was for sure.

I twirled it in my hand, and it felt familiar, yet foreign at the same time. The skill of mind couldn’t immediately be transferred to the body, though I was sure a few hours of practice could make me a pretty good swordsman.

I released the sword and it floated in the air, supported by a thread of Telekinesis.

Flying swords… What that Elder did with his three blades was pretty cool, but I could never figure out how to empower my own Telekinesis. Compared to the rest of my magic, it was so weak!

Through the Arcane Eyes, I could see the tentacle coming from me and wrapping around the blade. It didn’t matter how thick I made it, the degree of control over an object only marginally improved.

And making more of them was just… draining.

I started by making it the thickness of my finger, but even when increased to the thickness of my leg, the power I could produce was doubled or tripled at best. It might seem like a lot, but even an untrained Mortal could easily break my control if he struck the sword hard enough.

While mentally controlling the weapon, I heard someone enter the room behind me. Without even thinking I immediately sent the Spirit Sword flying at the door.

Standing there, Elder Li lifted his eyebrow and flicked the sword flying at his face. The connection broke immediately and the blade went clanging on the floor.

“It would seem you require more training.” He flatly said.

[Master!] I immediately cupped my hands and bowed. [Forgive me, I did it without thinking.]

Elder Li just waved his hand. “It matters not. Come. It’s time for your training.”

He left the room, and I picked up the sword and ran after him.

We came to the arena surrounded by dozens of large statues. Warriors, beasts, and a mixture of both. They looked magnificent. Only I now knew they weren’t just statues.

Elder Li had a hobby of making golems, as I found out. And for one to have the power to go against a Spirit Realm Cultivator? Didn’t that mean he had a stone army at his every beck and call?

I was… very impressed.

Shao Lin was already there, smiling excitedly. Ah, and his wounds were all gone as far as I could tell, even the tricky ones.

“Now, before we begin… Do you have any questions?” Elder Li asked.

[Just any question in general?]

“Sure, why not.”

[Well, actually I do.] I said. Might as well get some answers if he was kind enough to answer. [How come people can control weapons at a distance?]

“What do you mean? Can’t you do it as well? You just did it in the room, after all.” Elder Li countered.

[Yeah, but… I can’t seem to get a proper grip. Do I need to be in a higher Realm or something? Is that the problem?]

Elder Li thought for a bit and then shook his head. “No, that shouldn’t have much to do with it. Of course, it makes a difference, but you should be able to fight someone of your level without a problem.”

I frowned. Then how come a simple low-powered flick broke my control?

“How about you show me and I’ll tell you when you are going wrong.” He suggested and I felt his gaze change into a piercing one. He probably used something similar to my Arcane Eyes, so I did the same.

An ethereal appendage grew from my hand, similar to a tentacle, and wrapped around the sword. I held it tight, but the grip felt flimsy at best.

The Elder gripped the end of the sword and jiggled it around a bit.

“This doesn’t seem very stable. A bit more force and it will break.”

[That’s what I’m saying! I don’t understand why it’s so weak.]

Elder Li gave an encouraging smile. “Well, just add more of them. That’s how the rest of us do it.”

I frowned. I already tried adding more, but it didn’t really help much. Nevertheless, I did it again. I added five more tentacles and even made them thicker. It was exhausting keeping it like that, but…

“Why are you making them thicker? Make them thinner.”

[Huh? Why?]

“Just do it.”

I listened to the Elder’s instructions and made them thinner. From an arm thickness to a sausage.

“Thinner.”

I shrunk them down to a finger.

“Thinner.”

[Elder, if I shrink it much more, they will break.]

“I said, make them thinner.”

I internally sighed and made the tentacles even thinner, about the thickness of a pencil. And the weight of the sword became too much and it snapped, releasing the blade to clang on the floor.

[It’s-]

“Forget the sword, make them thinner!”

I wanted to protest but decided against it. I kept making the Telekinetic tentacles thinner and thinner until they were no thicker than human hair. I had five hairs worth of lifting power.

“Good, now make more of them.”

[More?]

“Yes, they are small enough, you should be able to control more of them, right?”

[I… guess?]

I did as I was told and created many more long hairs. They were indeed individually easier to control, but after a few hundred, my mind started to hurt. Splitting my attention that much was just… unrealistic.

“Why are they all flailing around? Keep them under control!”

[I can’t! It’s too much!]

“Then why aren’t you making a rope?”

[A… rope?] My mind suddenly shuddered as a thought was born, yet I was still struggling. Something was missing.

“What do you call these things?” Elder Li pointed at the Telekinetic… tentacles? Hairs? something like that. I told him so.

“I see… So that’s your problem. We call them tethers. Telekinetic tethers.”

It was like an explosion of realization went off in my mind. It all started to make sense! Well, almost.

“Only the outside layer of a tether is structural. The inside is just a space for transferring energy. The shell is the one that gives it strength.

I loudly gasped. It was like the skin effect in electrical wires! Shao Lin began laughing and I gave him an angry look. “Wait, you seriously didn’t know?” He began laughing even harder.

[No wonder…] I quietly said, wanting to find a hole to bury myself in, in shame. I took the hundreds of those tiny hairs and threaded them into a rope. As soon as I did that, all the strain on my mind was gone! I could control hundreds of them as if they were one!

I sent the tether and gripped the sword with it. It was only the thickness of my pinky finger, yet the grip felt… like a vise.

[No way...]

How was there such a difference?! I swung the sword around and it moved instantly and exactly how I wanted it. There was no delay or that wobbliness I felt before when changing directions quickly.

Ah, and it had to be said that the Spirit Swords were extremely heavy. Compared to common iron swords at least. The one I was using had to weigh at least as much as an average Mortal man. This new Telekinesis was incredible!

[Ah! Wait, does that mean that a barrier can be made in the same way? To increase its strength? Like a super strong chainmail? What about a weapon?]

“Haha, no.” Shao Lin laughed. “Well… not if you want it to have some hardness at least. You need thickness, otherwise, the construction will collapse. Or it will be very… soft.”

Well, that was a shame. I realized I was maybe asking too much, but still. If I could use Telekinesis to move stuff around with such speed and agility, it would make sense since it wasn’t rigid. An armor plate would certainly have to be.

“Well, that’s not necessarily correct. While it is true that Conjuration does not generally benefit from this trick, some Elders did dabble in making their barriers multi-layered. But there is a minimum requirement for their thickness, so they quickly become very bulky.” Elder Li said after listening to our discussion.

“It’s often not worth it for the effort required. Unless you are using a multi-layered approach on a stationary barrier, then it’s a great way to prevent a single breach from ending you. Not to mention it becomes stronger as well. But that’s something a Sect would have protecting an entire area, not an individual.”

There was always a caveat, wasn’t there? Oh, well…

“But enough of that now, focus.”

Elder Li took a crystal from his sleeve pocket. It was about the size of an apple. Not quite as large as the last one, though this one had a similar level of microscopic Runes carved into it.

Another golem core. I looked at the statues and gulped. I was probably going to have to fight one of those.

“Let’s begin with something easy.”

As Elder Li tossed the crystal core toward a statue of a warrior with a large hammer, my body tensed. I quickly took a few extra swords out of my storage pouch and threw them on the ground.

The 7-meter giant awakened with a rumble as parts of his body began to glow light blue and small runes covered the surface. The glow was the way too familiar blue color of mithril, the nearly indestructible metal with the best magical properties I knew of.

Not waiting for the stone warrior to attack, I immediately shot my Spirit Swords at it. They were also at least partially made of mithril, so I assumed them to be the best way to attack. And they were! Three swords sank halfway into the giant, two on its chest and one on its left arm.

[...Wait, how do I make them blow up?]

I forgot that just copying the Brilliant Sword Elder might have not been the best idea. He had another skill to make the flying swords more destructive, while I just threw three small knives at the golem, that then got stuck inside without doing anything.

And as I was taking a second to reevaluate my actions, the beast moved and, before I could properly defend, punted me across the arena.

My back smashed into the wall on the opposite side after bouncing off the ground a few times, and I landed on all fours.

There was some pain, but I was mostly fine.

[Ah, it’s weak?]

Thinking back at it, maybe weak wasn’t the right word. It’s just that, after fighting creatures that could almost kill me with every strike, someone that could barely break a bone or two would be considered weak.

“Go, Gerald! You can do it!” Shao Lin cheered from the side. I smiled back confidently. “It’s fine if you can’t beat it! You are doing great!”

[Motherfucker! Who said I can’t beat it?!]

The nerve of that guy! We barely just started and he was already saying it was fine if I gave up. Obviously, I was not going to take that lying down! I immediately healed myself and jumped back up.

Or, I tried to, at least. The rib that was broken healed up nicely, but my skin still felt tender when my regeneration suddenly cut off.

“No healing allowed.” I heard Elder Li say from afar. “You rely too much on your ability when you don’t even know how to use it properly. Learn to fight first, before using unfair advantages.”

My expression stiffened. My healing… Maybe I really was using it too much as a crutch, but come on! I had to beat the massive magic stone golem without it?

I looked at the tall, rumbling beast running at me from afar and sighed. It was going to be a tough fight.