‡※‡Retribution‡※‡

...

Two years have passed since Clair had left and gone to the academy to become an official student there.

Cyrus is now sixteen years old, during these past two years, his strength has grown so much that his warrior rank mid-stage had already turned into the late stage of knight rank! Along with the growth of his strength his appearance has matured as well, compared to his appearance before he was fiercer and colder now making him stunning to the eyes of the ladies but annoying to the eyes of the men.

Now that he's sixteen years old and his strength has already reached the late stage of knight rank, it's safe to assume that he had already defeated his sister Clair on becoming knight rank at such age which made him even more talented than her because when Clair was sixteen along with her intensive training and cultivation she could only reach knight rank at an early stage at her birthday.

Because he had beaten his sister's achievement, he was extremely happy but if Clair was here and noticed this, she would feel bitter about it well, if she has stayed here, but now that she's at the academy which is practically floating on the sky where the concentration of anima essence on the atmosphere is thicker than in the ground level, she should have achieved more in cultivation.

Because of that, Cyrus did not know how far his sister has gone to in the area of cultivation, he did not know what her rank is now after the two years of absence in this place. After she left this place, Cyrus has not heard anything news about her because she has not sent a letter to them, her family. This made Cyrus worried however, he was comforted by his mother that his sister was alright.

He was worried that his sister might have encountered problems in the road towards the academy making her unable to go at the academy and this was only his worry back then that have disappeared later on because he believed that his sister wasn't weak and probably doing her best again on making herself stronger isolating herself from other affairs that made her completely forgotten to write a letter for her family.

Shane on the other hand, she was worried at first but since she had already secretly asked James to follow their daughter and made sure that she won't encounter problems on the way she was at ease when James assured that Clair has safely arrived there and become an official student of the academy when he returned home.

Now that he had no more problems worrying for his sister, Cyrus had focused a lot more on training alone and made his strength grow further since he had already recollected all the martial arts and body tempering methods he had done back in his previous life, his cultivation has gone smoother and fast at the same time.

And now, he was excited. He was excited because, in the next few months, he will be able to follow his sister to the academy!

Regarding about that, his parents, Shane and James had told him that they would be going along with him before separating away from him after they have sent him away from the kingdom and continued their jobs, because the moment Cyrus separated from them, the two would begin doing their own tasks and jobs that have been hiatus for years now which could cause problems in the future.

But because they were talking about that, Cyrus was curious and when he asked them about their task and job, they would be silent for second before ignoring his question and making excusable excuses. But he learned one thing, their job would take them a couple of years before they could finish it.

He knew that his parents are deliberately hiding facts about them and for him, it didn't matter because he really did not care about it because since they're hiding it from him then it's better not to pursue the matter because he knew that they're keeping it for the wellbeing of their children.

Not only that, but it will also be a complete hassle meddling other's matters even for him, he would be annoyed if someone dared to butt-in in his matters.

And rather than focusing on things that he should not touch, he should focus more on the things he should properly take care of, and that is his strength.

Now that he had regained most of his martial arts without a problem he had regained most of the techniques although there are still left that have yet to be learned, he'll eventually be able to learn those things in the future as long as his body continues to train.

Even after Cyrus had overcome the achievements of his sister, he did not stop there and continued to cultivate more and more not sparing any free time.

***

*****

*******

Since his sister had left, he was alone on the training field in the grasslands and at first, he felt lonely but slowly recovered from it eventually. At break time, he would spend on alone in the under the tree above the hills where he could only hear the winds blowing softly and the foliage of the tree dancing with the winds creating ruffled sounds of the leaves.

This peaceful feeling is the thing he liked the most because this is where he could only relax without worry.

His mother and father were both busy. The two would always leave the village more often because they're 'buying goods' although Cyrus does not buy that reason what he could do?

After Cyrus have rested under the tree on the top of the hill, Cyrus sat and did a half-lotus position before revolving his anima on his profound veins. When he had broken through from warrior to knight rank, he began to feel something off when he is cultivating.

A feeling where he could feel that something is forming within his dantian, but he could not think of anything what was that. Because other than that feeling, he would occasionally be startled as if something had electrocuted him and every time something like that happened, his heartbeat beats faster than ever.

This weird occurrence made Cyrus baffled and worried at the same time, he asked Shane about this matter on to his surprise, it was not bad at all!

Shane was shocked when she heard him, she was so shocked that she unconsciously broke the plate on her hand when she is doing the dishes into dust!

She quickly told him that the reason behind why he was experiencing that kind of feeling was because his supreme element ability is awakening! And base on his description, Shane had assured that the element that is awakening is actually lightning element!

This shocked Cyrus which made him thought that it was no wonder why his mother would get shocked to the point of blasting the plate into dust! The news was just too shocking that the feeling of ecstasy made him grin stupidly.

This is just inconvincible!

This matter was so odd that it left Shane and even James shocking that they would stare at their son in wide-eyed as if they are looking to a monster.

His achievement has already surpassed his parents on awakening the supreme elements!

Although they are overwhelmed by the shock, they are still happy and proud because he is their son! It made them even feel like being injected with chicken blood because this is too amazing. The two quickly reminded Cyrus that everything would be fine and let the elemental spirit enter his dantian to have an oath with him, the two strongly imparted him that he should not rush to contract spirit without its acknowledgment or else, things would get difficult.

…

Returning back, Cyrus was silently cultivating under the shade of the tree. His brows were knitted together and soon after his eyes opened.

"My cultivation speed had gone slower than before and things are getting harder… If it continues to go on like this, I'm afraid I won't be able to get a breakthrough to another rank before I could even leave this place." Cyrus muttered with a bitter smile on his face.

Even if doubling the process of absorbing the anima on the surrounding he estimated it'll take a few years to have another breakthrough to paladin rank if it continues to go on like this. When Cyrus was cultivating, he would occasionally look on the area where his anima is being stored, back then it was a shallow endless creek but now, it was more like an endless river with a depth reaching 20ft!

This river is where his anima is being stored and this anima is what makes his attacks stronger and to perform mahika attacks. Not only that, but this is also what flows around his profound veins that enrich his body.

The difference between a human and demi-human is that demi-humans have two large circulatory systems inside of their bodies, one for blood and one for anima. If blood is pumped from the heart then the anima is pumped from the dantian, dantian is located on the lower body, just below the navel of the stomach.

In his dantian, the river of anima would appear like a normal river with pure white substance flowing on it, however, when touched it would appear that this white substance is more like a thick smoke yet feels like touching the water, Cyrus finds the feeling very bizarre.

Cyrus stared at his hands, "I have been cultivating on the grasslands for thirteen years now and my mother had told me that because both sister and I have been cultivating here ever since at full throttle, nature's essence here on the surrounding have almost been depleted and it would take years for this area to recover from the loss of nature's essence." He muttered silently.

Cyrus sighed before standing up from the grassy ground, "I guess I need to find another location- irk!"

Suddenly, he felt that his chest is stinging in pain.

He touched the area where the pain originated, it was where the yinyang tattoo was located.

"This yinyang tattoo has been hurting a lot recently…" He clutched his fist on the yinyang tattoo forcefully pushing it to stop the pain. Ever since he had felt that weird feeling he had; he would occasionally feel this type of pain in his chest. The pain would sting every time the world is covered by thick dark clouds, every time there's a thunderstorm the pain surges that made Cyrus have difficulty in breathing.

Accompanied by that extreme pain, is the extreme emotions of having a desire. A desire for power, a desire wanting for strength.

The pain slowly receded until the pain was gone leaving Cyrus panting heavily as he leaned his body on the tree. But because this already became a normal occurrence, Cyrus returned to his original disposition.

He walked away from the tree and looked around the surrounding area. He was finding a mountain, tall enough to be on the layer where the anima is rich but close enough to the village so that his parents wouldn't be too worried too much.

"That one." He smiled as he pointed at the mountain a few kilometers away from the village. It was a very high and rocky mountain, although it could not reach the clouds it does not matter because the important thing was the height of the mountain because of the higher the elevation the higher the quality of the anima.

Without saying anything, he set his destination there and leapt at his max speed to get there fast.

***

It took him half an hour to reach the top of the mountain, at this place, he could see every corner of the village very clearly, in fact on this height, the village looked like porridge on a bowl while humans are like ants to his eyes.

'Damn, this mountain is really steeper than I initially thought!' Cyrus laughed bitterly.

Before he could start cultivating, he sat in half-lotus position then looked at the skies. "It's very cloudy again." He muttered silently before shaking his head removing his thoughts about these unnecessary things and started cultivating, "Let's do this!"

He quickly revolved his anima on his body, recited the mantra of his cultivation method until his consciousness fell on the back on his dantian, inside his dantian he quickly sat there and repeated the same mantra over again. Now both of his spirit and body are cultivating making his senses abruptly stop, this is his double cultivation method.

Minutes have just passed; Cyrus was very happy because the result was pretty good! He could absorb the rich anima on nature's essence here fast!

He felt satisfied coming here to cultivate.

However, things aren't easy than he had imagined.

Without noticing, his Yinyang tattoo has started spinning and the speed is gradually increasing.

Soon...

*Crug! Cruug! Crackle! *

The rain had started to pour, thunder's roar could be heard up above the heavens shaking the ground every time it emits its majestic load roar. The lightning streaks can be seen on the clouds as if it were dancing every time it flashes.

Cyrus Yinyang tattoo was spinning at extreme speed, creating a small vortex of nature essence then absorbed by his own body as if it was eating it madly!

On the village, one kid looked above the sky and he noticed that there is a whirlpool was created above the mountain; he called for his mother and made her look at the small vortex.

This made the mother startled, but it was very odd for her to see that as if it had never happened before.

Soon, many humans had noticed the vortex, but they did not pay attention to it as they quickly enter their own houses to avoid being struck by lightning or got sick because of cold.

On the mountain, Cyrus who is sitting on lotus position had still not noticed what is happening on his body, but he had noticed that his absorption rate had suddenly jumped to an extreme rate!

If this continues... he will breakthrough paladin rank!

5%

18%

30%

60%

90%

100%!!!

He suddenly broke through! Moreover, it did not stop!

1%

2%

3%

Although it was a lot slower now, it was still extremely fast for Cyrus! Because in every month at when he is only a knight rank, he could only get 2%!

Yet, every second now, he gets 1%!

Feeling weird, Cyrus stopped the double process of absorbing the essence, when he opened his eyes, he was shocked when he saw that inside of his dantian. In the sky, there is a vortex of clouds and pouring a massive amount of anima on his river overflowing it.

Not only that, but there is also a black hole next to vortex almost absorbing 80% of the anima that had been pouring on that vortex is being sucked by that black hole, not only that the remaining percent is flowing on his river!

Suddenly, a surge of extreme pain bombarded his entire body, especially his brains.

"Guah!"

Outside, the vortex had gone terrifyingly than before!

As it was devouring a large amount of nature's essence, it almost looked like a hurricane!

Cyrus coughed a mouthful of blood and he did not stop drooling blood!

*BANG!*

With a loud bang, an extremely thick purple lightning had struck him! As if, the Gods of the heavens had angered by Cyrus atrocious actions by defying the law of heaven! Thus, giving him divine retribution!

After being struck by lightning, it looked like it did not even damage him by that strike!

Because when the moment lightning struck him, it was madly devoured by his Yinyang tattoo! The pillar of lightning did not dissipate as it continued to absorb by him this looked like as if it was giving Cyrus more essence! Now this time, the thing he is absorbing was actually lightning essence!

But forcefully absorbing lightning essence without a lightning spirit is blatantly dangerous!

Cyrus eyes finally abruptly opened forcefully on the outside world, and he shouted in agony and pain!

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

He feels like his soul is being uprooted away from him, not only that, his body couldn't contain the lightning essence because he didn't have a lightning spirit yet!

His loud and painful agony on the mountain could be heard on the villages, his roar had terrified the villagers inside the houses and on the roads, every one of them is kowtowing on the ground and kept apologizing as if they're the ones who had angered the god.

...

While experiencing the most agonizing pain that he had experienced on both of his life, Cyrus could not stop his Yinyang from absorbing the lightning essence, his tears had begun to change to blood, his skin began to crack, and his fresh blood began to discharge it from his mouth puking a mouthful of blood creating a pool of blood on the ground.

"AHHHH- *Cough!* Cough!*"

He once again spat a two mouthful of blood.

He cannot control his body, as if the Yinyang tattoo had completely controlled his body as it sucked by a huge amount of lightning essence.

By forcefully sucking, the lightning essence of the heavens without having any oath with lightning spirit is widely known as divine taboo!

A lightning element is no by means normal element; it is a supreme element!

The divine punishment of such actions can be crippled for a lifetime!

Cyrus tried to suppress the pain, sending his consciousness where the lightning originated as he tried to make a contract with the lightning spirit above the heavens.

"IMPUDENT!!!"

A loud roar on the heaven resounded on his ears, its voice was heavy and majestic, yet there is a feeling that this spirit is a hot-blooded one!

After the loud roar, a figure descended on heaven. It has a figure of a human but with four arms and his face is full of boiling anger! It is a lightning spirit!

On four of his hands are carrying a huge purple thick pillar of lightning rods and the figure leapt towards him and had struck Cyrus with lightning one more time with even much more force than before!

"WargahaaaaaH!" Shouting in another agonizing pain to the point his mouth is bubbling blood he finally loses his consciousness the pain was too much for his brain to handle forcing it to shut down.

The lightning spirit was shocked because it had not directly struck Cyrus because he was suddenly sucked by Yinyang tattoo devouring his body, without even noticing he had died inside the Yinyang turning him into a complete spirit. It roared with resentment and anger, before fading in the darkness inside the Yinyang tattoo.

With that, the Yinyang had finally decreased on spinning until it stopped completely, lightning strikes had stopped after the spirit had been sucked and the rain had stopped.

After that, Cyrus body slumped down on the pool of blood, his clothes are completely burnt, and despite being burnt his body did not have any sign of burnt as if he was resistant to heat when he had been struck by the lighting.

However, there are terrifying cracks on his back while it is with oozing blood.

If one had seen it, they would vomit because of how horrible the scene is! His appearance alone could tell that this young man is more likely dead!