103 Chapter 103- True Self and The Inner Energy
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Even after being reincarnated and mastering shinsu, Liu Guanyi had never forgotten his roots. Although shinsu was certainly miraculous and mysterious, even being capable of granting immortality, Liu Guanyi knew that it wasn't omnipotent.
After living in the tower for more than a decade, he knew this very well. He knew of the death of one of what should have been omnipotent entities capable of bending shinsu completely to their wills, the guardians.
The floor of death and the terrifying deed of the mysterious Red Tower!
This, proved that even what seemingly almighty guardians could be felled even with their absolute control of shinsu.
Therefore, those people who bought immortality from them, Zahard and the ten great families' leaders, would definitely fare worse than the ones that gave them immortality.
If the Red Tower wanted to kill them, they would all die like flies. Hence, to Liu Guanyi, shinsu was merely a supplement to fill out what he lacked in his previous world to continue walking on the Martial Way.
Liu Guanyi believed that inner energy had much more potential than shinsu since even in his previously barren world, he could achieve that strength, let alone here, a place that was full of miracles and magical possibilities.
As long as he found the way to advance beyond his previous limit on the Martial Way, Liu Guanyi was sure that he could surpass those wannabe immortals and even the almighty guardians, maybe even reaching the power of the Red Tower himself.
Thus, he closed his eyes and focused within himself, making his inner energy boil and flare like a geyser as he let his mind be cleared of any useless thoughts. Soon, he could sense that the world, the blue expanse was changing.
Sensing this, Liu Guanyi continued to let his inner energy guide him as he stood still in the vast blue expanse.
"Hello, myself, after a very long time, we can finally meet each other." A calm voice suddenly sounded in front of him.
Hearing this, Liu Guanyi quickly opened his eyes.
What he saw in front of him surprised him quite a bit, it was his own self. However, it was his past self when he reached the end of his lifespan as clearly indicated by his decrepit and thin figure, atrophied muscles, and his white hair.
"I didn't expect that I will meet you as my true self, however thinking about it, it really makes sense." Liu Guanyi nodded and spoke calmly as he seized his old self.
"Indeed, I am the greatest failure and regret that you have. We are unwilling to meet our end so soon, however, it was inevitable anyway, the Martial Path was completely blocked in our world." His old self nodded and spoke casually.
"What did you mean that the path was blocked?" Hearing such an unexpected answer, Liu Guanyi turned serious and asked his old self.
"By the path was blocked meant that there weren't any ways to walk further. We know that after reaching the Master realm, inner energy isn't that simple, right?" Said his old self as Liu Guanyi nodded in agreement.
"Rather than calling it inner energy, it's more apt to call it "Lifeforce" as it presents in every single living being. When they die, the inner energy dissipates alongside their life."
"It varies in quantity depending on the vitality of the beings themselves, the stronger they are, the greater the amount of inner energy in their bodies. This is the principle of inner energy, at least that was the case until we reached "that" realm." Narrated his old self.
Hearing his own self talking about inner energy, or more aptly, lifeforce, Liu Guanyi became immersed in his thoughts as he reminisced his experience as a martial warrior, from the beginning to the end, from interacting with inner energy, and to mastering and understanding it better than anybody else.
Liu Guanyi's immersion was interrupted as his old self carried on with his explanation. "However, after reaching that realm, we know that life force doesn't depend entirely on vitality itself, and it doesn't always dissipate after the being dies."
"Lifeforce is more complicated than that. Because of this, even after decades of dedicated pursuit, we couldn't find a way to walk forward at all. Also, the barren state of our world didn't help, that's why I say that the way was blocked."
His old self walked passed Liu Guanyi and spoke. "This isn't the case in the tower as we have experienced it firsthand that shinsu is helping us immensely. Something that should take more than fifty years, you managed to squeeze it in just fifteen years."
His old self spoke with a solemn voice with his back facing Liu Guanyi. "However, relying on shinsu alone to advance beyond that realm is purely delusional, you know that well."
"To rise beyond that, we need to understand more about the lifeforce itself. Just like the tower, shinsu, and everything in this world, lifeforce has its own laws and principles, you must understand them to be able to walk beyond."
"I am you, I also don't know the laws of lifeforce just like you, but I might be able to give you clues to find them out." Said his old self as he turned to face Liu Guanyi.
"Always look further and deeper, beyond the superficial layer that masked the truth. Our fate of being reincarnated here wasn't just a coincidence, we don't know what the reason is yet, but this isn't the important thing you should focus on, rather you should look into the reincarnation itself."
"I'm sure that it will definitely help you in making your own path on the Martial Way." Explained his old self with a serious expression.
Liu Guanyi nodded solemnly. "I see, I must thank you for your guidance, my own self."
"No need, just make sure you really manage to walk further beyond than what we've reached." His old self spoke with a smile.
"Don't worry, I won't fail this time. If I do, I won't ever return back to meet you again." Liu Guanyi answered calmly as his body started to become blurry.
"That's good, I hope you truly won't disappoint me. I really want to see what lies beyond that path." His old self spoke with his teeth gritted and eyes stared hard at him, showing his longing expression.
Those were the last words Liu Guanyi heard as his vision turned dark and his consciousness flew away as the blue expanse quickly crumbled apart as if it was the end of the world.
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When I checked the reviews, I found one particularly toxic. Just because they don't have the patience to read and wait the story to develop, and don't find this story to be "fully" to their liking, they claimed that Liu Guanyi past life background is useless and found the "nerf" infuriating.
However, in this chapter I have described that it's not the case. His reincarnation meant something so is his background. Without his background of someone at the top of the Martial Way, if he was reincarnated in the tower, it would be almost impossible for him to reach the stage beyond Nascent Warrior.
Because there is nobody to learn from and share experience with as he is the only martial warrior in the tower. The reason why he could achieve the peak in his world was because there were already many predecessors that worked hard to develop the Martial Way so he could use their knowledge and step on their shoulders to reach higher.
Just like science, without classical physics, scientist wouldn't have been able to progress and establish the modern physics. Einstein can found his theory of relativity and become the father of modern physics because many other scientists before him have already established the classical physics.
With this in mind, how can his background be useless?
Just I have explained before, it's just the natural process that he lost all his power due losing his body. His power is tied to his body, losing it and his life means that he has to start over. Hell, anyone who loses their life would naturally lose power, except maybe a few characters in anime or comics but you get the meaning.
Anyway, we will explore the secret behind the reincarnation more in the future.
I know those who have read on this site a lot usually develop some bias so when they read something that happen to annoy them, some would instantly go full toxic mode and drop the story.
However, when I first plan to write the story, I have visualized both the beginning and the end, even with the lacking canon materials. So I hope you can have faith in me as the author and we can enjoy this fanfic to the end.
I will try my best to develop the plot, characters, world, steadily and reasonably, so you won't find Liu Guanyi suddenly change into a completely different person overnight and anything along the lines.
Anyway, that's the end of my rant.
For those who have supported me and to this point and not drop the story, especially my patrons, I deeply thank you all!
