CH04. MOONLIGHT ORCHID

One year later

Zero was sitting cross legged in his room. His breathing was calm and controlled and his eyes were closed.

He had dived into his inner-world once more

In his mind, he moved towards the large light in the center of the dark void that he had seen before. It pulsed and resonated with his heart beat, washing a calming sensation over him which drew him closer and closer

'It seems that my soul hasn't changed at all since I last saw it. I was so surprised by it before that I couldn't even believe it was my own soul'

[Yes indeed. The soul of a child your age should not be so large, or powerful. I am actually quite scared of the sort of monster you will become in the future if your soul keeps growing]

Zero turned to see the old man was there floating behind him

'Oh bezel, you're still here?'

[I cannot leave your inner-mind for now. It seems I have nowhere to go since you tore apart the scroll I resided in]

'Oh...hehehe~'

Zero scratched behind his neck nervously and looked away from the accusing eyes of bezel

It wasn't his fault that the inner scroll was so hard to get to. He had to talk to somebody damn it!

'I guess I don't mind having you in here then. It will probably be nice to have someone helping me on this journey'

[ Yes, it would be nice to see what you will accomplish as well. As for the matter of your soul...]

Zero turned his attention back towards the bright light behind him. There was absolutely no way he could let his full soul begin training in the art of magecraft.

It would probably kill his current body

'I don't have the luxury of time, so I cannot say I would wait for my body to catch up to my soul. I need to begin my training now. But how to make sure that my soul-power doesn't break down this weak body is another issue.'

The soul-power in Zero's world was the equivalent to the Chi in the outside world. Whenever a cultivator absorbs chi from the outside world, their soul converts it into soul-power and then transfers it through the dantians into the various other organs in the body. Strengthening them as well.

A fully grown adult would have the equivalent of 5000 soul-power units. That was enough for a well trained martial artist who already mastered his branch of cultivation to break a small mountain in two.

But a simple child should have only about 200 soul-power units. This was because their bodies were not strong enough to hold the excess chi and it would be dangerous to their growth if they had too much

'But the amount of soul-power units a person holds doesn't always determine how strong said person is. For example, when I was in my past life I watched my 15 year old brother who possessed only about 2000 soul-power units in his body beat up fully grown adults who had close to 4000 soul-power units'

That was because, unlike the adults he fought, he actually trained his soul-power to increase in strength and potency, thereby also increasing the rank of his body and mind.

'I think my brother was at Rank B when he was 15. That was only about two steps away from the top rank S. If only there hadn't been an attack, I wonder if he could have made it...'

Zero felt depressed when he thought about the potential possessed by his brother and how the attack prevented him from reaching it.

Bezel sighed and a SMACK resonated through the inner-world.

'Owww!'

Zero held onto his assaulted head in pain while he turned back to bezel in annoyance

[It is not wise to dwell on the past so much child. You have a chance to change things for the better, focus on that instead.]

Zero sighed, knowing that the old man was right, and decided he wouldn't let the tragedy of the past come about again.

'Yes, I have strength now. So it will be stupid of me to think the past will repeat itself'

[Good. But what were you going to do about that?]

Bezel pointed towards the globe of light behind Zero. There was a constant pulsing coming from within the globe, showing that it was holding back immense power

'I think I have an idea for what I want to do with it, but I will be needing something first'

.....

Zero came back out into the real world. He opened his eyes and stood back up while releasing a tired breath.

"I really shouldn't be spending so much time inside my inner-world. I almost went past my threshold. If only I wasn't still a child, my body from the past could meditate for hours on end without breaking a sweat"

The threshold he spoke about was the amount of time any person could spend meditating before they started experiencing the effects of Chi poisoning.

The process of cultivation was one that went against the heavens and earth, so whenever a person goes beyond a particular cultivation time limit, the chi in the atmosphere becomes poisonous to their body.

This poisoning could have different effects on the people affected. Some could be turned to stone, while others could have their genitals shrivel and fall off.

There had even been one person rumored to have turned into a toad!

"I really need to strengthen my body back to the normal level. My soul might be a problem, but my body is just pathetic"

He walked towards his window and touched the flower that was growing on the ledge

[Is that!?]

"Ah!!"

A voice spoke up through Zero's mind, making him suddenly jump in fright. But he calmed down when he recognized the voice as Bezel's

"Haiz~, don't scare me like that old man!! But yes, these are exactly what you think they are. These are Moonlight Orchids"

[Don't tell me you actually plan on doing 'that' ritual! That could potentially kill you!]

"I don't really have much of a choice, do I?"

The ritual being spoken of was one that Zero had learned about in the cave of bezel. It was a forbidden ritual whose mortality rate was close to 89 percent, and had been locked up inside hundreds of spells and encrypted beyond belief in order to prevent people from getting near it.

Though that still didn't stop Zero from breaking through it like it was some sort of joke.

It only took him three days!

[How did you even learn of this!? I made those spells myself! I used a part of my soul fragment to lock the sealing spells]

Zero rose an amused eyebrow, before saying:

"Oh, are you talking about the 'Uncountable Sealing Array'? That only took me a day to decipher, and once I did, it was a small matter to get through your soul fragment by tearing it down with my own soul-power"

[!]

Bezel was rendered speechless by this.

He was one of the strongest mages that ever existed, but yet this boy had torn down his soul fragment with mere soul-power!!

[What sort of monster are you?]

"Hmph~ I ask myself the same question everyday"

Zero said before he went back to stroking the Moonlight Orchid.

'But you're actually right old man. I plan to use the moonlight orchid to seal away a portion of my soul. That should be enough to downplay my power to acceptable levels "

Zero took a shearing knife and cut out the single flower growing in the flower bed. He made sure to cut the roots out as well and pulled the entire thing out from the soil.

The floor glowed a soft blue when it was held in his hand. He made sure not to expose the flower to too much sunlight so as not to ruin its potency, and as a result, his room was shrouded in darkness as he worked

He took a pot and began grinding the flower into a soft paste while adding exact amounts of water at regular intervals. Once he was done with this, he cut up his finger and added three drops of blood to the paste

The paste glowed red for a second, before returning to the soft blue hue

[You seem to have really deciphered the entirety of the text. I don't even know how to feel about that.]

Zero knelt back in a fetal position and held the pot of paste in his hands while saying:

"Don't feel too bad old man. Yours wasn't the only text I deciphered out there, I deciphered a lot of your brother's texts as well. I don't think anyone of them was as complicated as yours though"

[Hmph~ Of course mine was the most complicated! I focused on alchemy more than spell casting, it would take a genius to do what I had done in my lifetime! Fufufu~]

The old man held his head high and began to gloat. He felt inferior when learning that Zero had deciphered his spell work in less than three days

It was only right that he showed off as well!!

"Wow old man, you're so modest"

Zero said dryly.

He looked into the bowl of paste in his hands and saw the reflection of his blue eyes in it.

This wasn't something he wanted to go through, especially in this sort of body. But he would die if he let his soul continue growing at the rate it was.

It was for the best

"Watch over me old man. I'm going in"

[Very well. I shall watch over your body as you go through this. I pray you come out from it safely.]

And with that, zero threw back the paste and drank

Gulp...

Gulp...

"Hrgg! That tasted like shiii..."

And then he immediately passed out.