Soul Control

The weather was sunny. There was a sweet wind in Bitter Sea Town. People turned their faces into the wind to cool off a little.

Bitter Sea Town was located on the far southwestern side of the Golden Cliff Continent. The continent got its name from the cliffs you can find almost everywhere.

Next to the town was a forest called the Moist Forest. The younger generation would constantly enter this forest and go into the depths to fight the natural monsters. This allowed them to fight many battles that would help their cultivation.

Occasionally, they would come across special areas within this forest. These areas of high Qi were of great benefit to the cultivators who drew Qi into themselves through meditation, helping them to grow stronger.

On one such day, the forest was full of young people. They were all striving to go deeper. Many had already found a few monsters and gone into battle. Some formed teams, others hunted alone.

One of the loners did not try to go into battle like the others. Instead, he moved away from them and looked for a place where no one could see him.

He had long, black hair. Although he was 16 years old, he was tall. It was also clear that he was involved in Body Tempering. His body looked quite fit.

He moved away from other people and came to a rocky area. He listened to the breeze rippling the leaves of the trees for a while. Then he checked his surroundings. There were no natural monsters or cultivators in sight.

"This is good," he said to himself. He went over to one of the rocks, sat down on the ground and sat cross-legged. "I must learn to control it better."

He closed his eyes and let the Qi flow through his body. The Qi flowing through his meridians seemed to refresh him. He took a deep breath.

"Oozing Soul."

A silhouette of blood rose from the young man's body and took a few steps away from him.

When the young man opened his eyes, he was not seeing the world through his own eyes. He was seeing through the eyes of the blood soul standing a few steps away from him.

Oozing Soul was an ability the young man had had for as long as he could remember. Half the size of a human, the soul had no legs. It could fly and move away from him. The young man controlled it by transferring his consciousness to it.

The whole body of the blood soul was full of holes. The young man could not understand why these holes had not been repaired for years. Controlling the spirit had always been too difficult. He still couldn't fly it properly. So he had to train often.

He slowly began to lift the Oozing Soul off the ground. Even as it rose, the soul was shifting left and right, unable to rise properly.

The young man lowered his head and looked at his own body. His physical body was still meditating. His eyes were open, but since he was seeing through Oozing Soul's eyes, it didn't matter.

"I need to learn to rise completely," he thought. He started to go higher and higher. He was almost 50 meters above the ground, even though he was swaying left and right. He couldn't go any higher. The distance away from his body was only 50 meters.

He could feel the blood flowing through his body. Or his body, which was composed entirely of blood. It had a thick consistency. It flowed steadily, even though there were fist-sized holes in many places. There were also two holes where his eyes should have been.

When Oozing Soul looked down, he saw a wolf approaching his original body. It seemed that a natural beast had come close. However, since it was in the outer sections of the Eastern Moist Forest, it couldn't have been something very powerful.

When the Oozing Soul turned into a puddle of blood and spilled onto the ground, the young man's consciousness returned to his own body. He quickly stood up and drew the dagger from his waist.

The gray-skinned wolf was looking at him. The young man put one foot back and stood more firmly on the ground. Then he ignited his Qi and transferred it to his free hand. Then he pointed his hand towards the wolf.

"Mouth of Flame!"

His Qi took the shape of a wolf's head, opened its mouth and flew towards the beast. As the wolf took the attack, the Fire Qi broke its resistance and sent it reeling backwards. Without waiting, the young man rushed at the wolf.

When the beast rose from the ground, burn marks could be seen on many parts of its hide. Growling with rage, it leapt at the young man.

The dagger-wielding youth dodged this attack by dashing quickly to the side. He did not forget to make a slash across the wolf's torso.

When the wounded beast fell to the ground, the young man pointed forward his hand once more. "Mouth of Flame!"

His Qi once again took the form of a wolf's head and flew at the beast. This time the wolf dodged aside, avoiding the attack.

He and the young man ran towards each other at the same time. As the beast leapt at him once more, the young man bent his knees and ducked underneath it. He sliced through the wolf's torso with the dagger in the soft part of its abdomen. The animal's organs spilled to the ground. It was no longer moving.

The young man cleaned his dagger. He looked at the puddle of blood Oozing Soul had left behind.

Oozing Soul was a ability he had never shown to anyone. Because Blood Qi was not a Qi element that could be used by those in the Wanderer Realm like him.

When people wanted to shape their Qi using a technique, they had countless options. It's just that some of them weren't things that could be done easily.

In order to use Blood Qi, one had to have entered the Path of Blood. This required breaking through to the second realm, the Path Realm. Cultivators in the Wanderer Realm could not choose a path.

This is why the young man hid his power. It was like a gift given to him at birth. He did not want to draw unnecessary jealousy by revealing it. He had enough problems as it was.

"I'd better stop by the school. Otherwise Master Guiren will be angry with me."

Lou Guiren... He was one of the masters of the Martial Arts School in Bitter Sea Town. Everyone in the younger generation went to that school and trained there. If a cultivator didn't know how to fight, he was very humiliated.

The young man traveled quickly. It didn't take him long to get out of the forest. His way was short because he lived in the west section of the town.

He went at a run. He passed houses and other buildings. Some people looked at him as he ran. He was dirty with the wolf's blood.

He passed the marketplace and the Third Square where the arena was. After a while he came in front of a large building. From inside came the sound of young people shouting at every move.

The young man quickly straightened himself up and walked up the stairs. When he entered the door with large pots of embers on either side, he saw Lou Guiren.

The man looked to be in his thirties. He was watching his students carefully. He watched them closely to make sure their every move was perfect. He was handsome. He had a forehead band on his head. His hair was neatly gathered.

When he saw the young man enter, he looked at him. He bowed and saluted, clenching his fist in his hand. "Master Guiren."

"Huan Wei," he said, looking at him. "You are late."

"I was working on my technique in the Moist Forest, and a few monsters delayed my job."

"I can tell. Their blood is on your clothes. Go in the back and clean yourself up. Then take your place." The man's authoritative voice prompted Huan Wei to take action.

He went to the back and through a door. He came to where the bathrooms were. He grabbed a bucket of water and began to clean the blood off himself. He must have angered the master for being late for training.

After cleaning the blood off his clothes, he joined the other students. Master Guiren was training them on fists today.

Huan Wei began to throw fists as he had seen the others do. Lou Guiren walked calmly among them, warning those who were doing it wrong.

The hall was quite large. Fifty students were training in it at the same time. Half were girls and half boys. "That's enough," Master Guiren said after a few minutes of this work. "Sit down, all of you."

The students sat where they were and waited to see what he would say.

"You have all been training here for months. I have made you fight many times and told you your mistakes. Let's see if any of you have learned from your mistakes."

Lou Guiren's gaze traveled over the students. "Zhao Yongnian, stand up."

One of the young men stood up and walked towards the master. He stood in front of him and bowed to him. Lou Guiren chose his opponent.

"Huan Wei, stand up."

Huan Wei also went over and bowed to the master. He took his place opposite Zhao Yongnian.

"You two will fight first."