Chapter 46. Mental Seals

Yee Rhys scratched the top of his head thoughtfully.

And who needs it? The lady is not the option. Her whole yard is one recording formation. There were two different forces at work here. And it looks like they're both Soaring Core level. Beginners simply don't have the concentration to pull such a thin, long, even thread. There is nothing for older students to do here. That leaves only the curious elders.

Deciding not to jump to conclusions, he bent down and carefully slipped between the threads. The courtyard was deserted. But everyone seemed to be home.

Six slips were lined up on the doorstep of Yee Rhys' cabin, each one containing a challenge to the Battle Arena. Picking them up, the young man stepped inside. Only inside did he allow himself to collapse onto the bed. At last he could relax. It was relatively safe.

Perhaps he should expect a visit from the Lady. He hadn't seen her since the tournament. But everyone else would wait until morning.

Then Yee Rhys looked at the challenge slips. It seemed that it was not only Ho Ho Tun who was interested in him. Quickly checking the information, the young man learned that they were calls from disciples of two and three wisps. Though one had already reached the fourth. Their names didn't say anything to him. The important detail was that the challenges had been made on the first and second, right after the tournament. Two even had the date and time of the scheduled match. However, the deadline was long gone. One good thing: since he did not confirm the fight, the pass would not be considered a loss. The other slips were open-ended; fighters could agree to fight later when it was more convenient for them.

Challenge slips could be obtained at the Arena by informing of your desire to challenge. They were paired. One went to the challenger and the other stayed with the caller. The slips could be used to agree on a time of battle and, if mutually confirmed, a time was booked in the Arena.

With a sigh, the young man stowed the challenge slips in his bag. Later.

As a matter of fact, Yee Rhys had had a plan for the second month ready a long time ago. But the Patriarch's intervention had messed things up for him. This did not, however, affect the main points.

The first point was cultivation. In cultivation, the third wisp was achieved ahead of schedule thanks to the Patriarch's intervention. The optimum plan is complete, and now all that is required is to stabilize the foundation. Cultivation of the body will suffice for a couple of hours in the afternoon. So now would be a good time to cultivate the mental. This month the young man had managed to devote a little over a day to it, and that was clearly too little for the main line of development. This would be the main one before the hunt.

Yee Rhys sat down and closed his eyes, studying the situation in his mind. There was already a good supply of free mental energy accumulated there. This was due to the effect of the Cloak, which constantly consumed almost half of the free energy, passively enhancing the mental.

The Patriarch's seal flickered gently in the back of his mind, and misty layers of energy still swirled around it, protecting mind from the foreign object. If I could reach the second current as soon as possible, then I could seal it, even if only for a short time, depriving the Patriarch of the ability to see what was going on. And once inside the Seven Rings Sphere, it can be permanently sealed. But it would be more difficult to remove the seal. In the meantime, it's best not to touch it. The patriarch had only just calmed down, and it would be unwise to disturb him again.

After making sure that his mind was fine and already calmed down after applying the seal, the young man switched to Qi cultivation and created another Qi capsule. His task now was to increase the mental energy to the point where a second current could be formed. And the best way to do this is to expend and restore energy.

Concentrating, Yee Rhys brought out a wisp of mental energy and began to form a simple seal.

One of the main uses of mental energy were seals. Right now the young man was creating one of the simplest, a tracking seal. He had already created a certain number of them during the "drawing contemplation" and marked almost all of his belongings with them. However, these seals only lasted five days, so by now the first batch of seals had dissipated. The new one was nicely arranged in the middle of the wall.

After admiring it, Yee Rhys assessed his grown reserves and began to weave a more elaborate seal. A double-layered copying seal was placed on the spatial sack. Now anyone but the master who touched the sack would receive the mark. Even if the thief escapes and successfully gets rid of the sack, the mark will still remain on it.

Once he was satisfied that the copying seal worked, he began to weave a listening seal. Also very useful these days. Unfortunately, on the last strokes Yee Rhys lost his concentration and the seal fell apart.

What a little capacity of energy. Almost all of the free energy went to the copying seal. And that's despite the fact that it would only last a week, and then it would have to be renewed. It's a hard road for a novice mentalist. Even the best submission seals can only be created after you reach the second current. And they're not even powerful enough to subdue an ordinary mortal. Mice, maybe.

Concentrating on his mind, the young man began to speed up the flow, increasing the amount of free energy. The ring gradually thinned, giving up energy. By the end of the session, the ring was twice as narrow.

After restoring the energy reserve, Yee Rhys began to re-weave the listening seal. This time it was successful, and the new seal adorned the wall. After the second listening seal, the energy supply showed the bottom again, and had to be replenished by plugging with the Qi capsule. The current had slimmed down from the state of a well-fed horndog at the beginning to a skinny viper at the end, and his head began to express disagreement with such an active use of mental resources.

Under the growing headache, the young man created another listening seal, nearly failing at the end. After decorating the wall with it, the aspiring mentalist drifted off to sleep.

***

Waking up, Yee Rhys lay awake for a while, coming to his senses and deciding whether to get up or go back to sleep. His body was leaning toward the second option. He opened his eyes and looked out the window: the sky had brightened. He had slept well. But still, should he get up or not?

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. I had to get up.

Behind the door was Lady. Unusually calm and collected. The young man silently stepped aside to let his guest in. When the beautiful girl entered, owner closed the door.

- Hand. - Coldly demanded the Lady.

Yee Rhys habitually stretched out his hand. Thin fingers touched his wrist. The young man noted fleetingly that his guest was keeping her distance today. What had happened while he was visiting the Patriarch?

- Three wisps. - The Lady voiced the result. - Very fast.

- I had an intensive course. - Yee Rhys responded dryly.

- Take off your cloak and freeze.

Her dainty fingers touched his temples.

- Not bad. - The pretty girl was surprised when she removed her fingers. - Especially counting your progress in Qi.

- Cloaking takes up almost half your energy all the time, - the boy explained. - Which passively pumps the mental. But it will have less and less effect with each new level.

The lady nodded briefly. Cultivation of the body and mind was based on the "spent-restored" principle, so the explanation was quite logical. For Qi cultivators, on the other hand, the main thing was to absorb energy. The use of Qi by itself had little effect on strength levels, except to strengthen the foundation.

- You did well in the tournament. I think the best prize would be this. - Belle pulled out another jade slip.

- This? - Yee Rhys caught the gift and twirled it in his hands.

- A pass to the Heavy World Range. The area is covered by a formation that doubles the force of gravity. Used for body training or special techniques. Therefore, little popular. In normal mode, there can be ten people inside at the same time. It is possible to reserve time for yourself personally so that others do not see. But you have to pay extra for that. This pass gives forty hours a week.