Damon's Ascension-Chapter 112: War In Xiangyang 13

Damon sat in a meditative pose, solely focused on comprehending the Empty Soul Palm, easily entering the void of visualization from before.

Within, he saw the now golden glowing thread he had first severed and reestablished, which was the one containing his sense of ego, intent, and ambitions. That glowing thread was the conceptualization of his ’void’ and when he utilized this martial art, he drew power from it.

But if he wanted to go further, he had to attain more ’support from the threads,’ which meant that he had to snap another one. Now, since the Empty Soul Palm did not have any explanations for the mantra and only the four lines plus some diagrams for the actual palm attack, all practitioners of the Zen Sect had to figure it out themselves.

What you choose to sever through comprehension is up to you, but you had to be careful because if you couldn’t reestablish it, you would become severely crippled mentally and spiritually, so each breakthrough came with extreme danger.

The benefits were also great, and Damon could feel it. The Empty Soul Palm’s Internal Force’s attribute was a mixture of void and penetration.

Every martial art had attributes as long as it was of a certain quality, and the five sects all had them. The attributes were split into two: the elemental attribute and the physical attribute.

For example, the Heaven Dew Sect’s Thousand Petal Mist Art had the elemental attribute of poison and the physical attribute of assimilation, while the Iron Banner Hall’s Iron Banner Overrun had the elemental attribute of metal and the physical attribute of extreme force.

However, the Empty Soul Palm’s ’void’ was not the same as ’space,’ which would have allowed Damon to teleport all over. This ’void’ was the concept of emptiness, meaning that his presence would escape cognition by almost all things, even the universe if he became strong enough.

Well, to be technical, it would seem like teleportation to an equally matched foe because upon activation of his Internal Force Damon would ’disappear’ from their senses and then reappear with his knife in their gut.

You’d need to have strong Mentality stats to break through this ’illusion,’ and given that only a few races in the universe had such qualifications, it was clear why this art was so precious.

Damon’s visualized self in this void hovered around the initial golden thread then ’looked’ at the millions of stars in the distance, and his ’eyelids’ narrowed slightly in thought.

Thinking about it, he called upon a random memory to gain inspiration, and one of the light balls near the back flew over and struck his visualized self, taking him into it.

Within this memory, Damon was around 11 years old. His hair was neatly trimmed and his Junior High School uniform was neatly ironed, a trait he had been instilled with by his father repeatedly, that the need for cleanliness was paramount.

On this particular day, he had a one-sided spat with another boy from his class in which the fellow was trying to goad him into a fight through harsh insults and sometimes a bit of roughhousing, but young Damon was smart enough to understand that engaging him would lead to more trouble than it was worth, especially at home.

If his father were to learn that his son had gotten into a brawl with another student... even the present Damon shuddered at the mere thought.

Of course, being ignored was the one thing a bully couldn’t stand. The more Damon disregarded him, the more unhinged the guy became, his insults gradually crossing the line from teasing into outright offense. The rest of the class, meanwhile, looked like they’d been injected with chicken blood, buzzing with excitement and egging the fight on like it was the best entertainment of the week.

Looking at his young self, who was clearly gripping his book tightly, restraining his boiling blood to fight, present Damon felt emotional. He doubted that the current him could have the self-control of this lad, but that was because there were fewer restrictions on him now as an adult and even more so now as a superhuman Prime Representative.

Damon removed himself from the memory because there was no need to continue looking. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

When he returned to the void sea, he closed his ’eyes’ and focused his spirit on the concept he wanted to visualize, which was that of restraint, forbearance, and restriction.

The thread of restraint appeared before him, far thinner than the first one but a lot more volatile. Unlike the golden glow of ego, which was bright and stable, this thread flickered with pale violet and faint gray hues, as if not quite sure if it wanted to exist.

It was basically the embodiment of everything he had ever held back, every gritted tooth, every swallowed insult, every moment when rage or desire could have taken over but didn’t, thanks to the circumstances.

To put it into YA fiction terms, it was the thread that chained the beast within.

Damon’s visualized self hovered closer and the thread of light responded, not by being brighter, but rather becoming stiller. There was no real resistance like the first time, nor any beckoning call, and definitely no invitation.

After all, that was the nature of restraint... it never begged for recognition, only enforced itself quietly.

"Strike not at the body..."

He whispered the first line of the mantra, and at once, his mental form raised its hand, fingers poised as if pressing gently against glass.

"...but the thread between breath and being."

The moment the second line followed, the pale thread began to tremble, like a stretch of gum about to break. Damon’s hand didn’t actually move again, yet the pressure came from within, from his understanding and comprehension, causing the thread to break.

The world within the void surged as his consciousness contracted and expanded, like someone molding loose clay into a proper, more solid form.

The broken thread dissolved slowly into the void of his visualized space only to reform anew, no longer pale, but now a deep indigo hue, glowing and intertwined with the thread of ego like a wire.

His Internal Force changed instantly since before, it had felt like mist formed in absence, a kind of hollow presence that devoured sensation... but now, it had some weight.

Small Accomplishment achieved, and the Martial Warrior realm was opened to him. Since he only needed to comprehend and not accumulate, the Internal Force immediately ’upgraded’ and its quantity and quality surged, while his ’realm’ reached the peak of Small Accomplishment in an instant.

Damon breathed out lightly and released a mist of pure-black air again, opened his eyes to find that the daytime had now given way to night. He felt an intense hunger permeate his body and his limbs even felt weak, like he had been hollowed out.

Raising his head, he smelled the scent of stir-fried rice, spiced vegetables, and hot broth as he exited from his cultivation chamber, the cool night breeze brushing over his skin and carrying the aroma through the villa’s open-air corridors.

His steps were slow but deliberate, the slight sway in his gait betraying the sheer exertion his cultivation had demanded.

Chen Yuan met him at the inner courtyard, carrying a wooden tray of food and tea with two hired servants trailing behind, eyes downcast.

"Master Damon. You were meditating all day, so we prepared something simple but hearty." He gestured to the nearby stone table.

Damon sat without ceremony, rubbing his temples slightly. "Much appreciated."

A bowl of steaming rice with minced pork, garlic shoots, and pickled radish was set before him, accompanied by thinly sliced duck and a clay pot of tea.

It wasn’t a feast by modern standards, but it was the kind of ’honest’ food that settled the body and cleared the mind. Damon ate slowly, chewing in silence for a minute while his body began to refill its depleted reserves.

Xue Rou sat nearby, going through documents and folding paper seals with a furrowed brow, while Sun Liang leaned against the railing, arms crossed as he gazed into the distance.

"Updates," Damon prompted between bites.

Sun Liang straightened. "The situation in the county is shifting faster than I expected. Since your appearance at the Sect Square and your open recruitment by the Zen Sect, several eyes have turned toward Crane Ridge."

"Whose?" Damon asked mildly.

Chen Yuan elaborated. "From what I can gather through informants, the Liu family has gone quiet... but they’re fortifying their guards. They’ve retracted two envoys from public negotiations and are having meetings with Heaven Dew Sect representatives."

Xue Rou added, "The Cao family, meanwhile, has begun reinforcing their influence in the west ward and made a show of visiting the Iron Banner Hall outpost in the square. No public declarations, but they’re clearly maneuvering."

Sun Liang gave a lopsided grin. "As for the Sun family, they’re still busy nursing the slap you gave Young Master Jianhao, but now their retainers are agitating for a countermeasure. Rumors claim they’re consulting with the Ghost Valley School."

Damon wiped his mouth and hands clean with a cloth. "So the chessboard is forming."

Sun Liang hummed. "Oh, and there’s something else worth noting. Remember ’Brother Mian’, the one who stirred the rebellion and gave out manuals to commoners? His whereabouts remain a mystery, but an Iron Banner officer claims to have seen a ’white-robed cultivator’ enter the Zen Sect’s perimeter weeks ago. The timelines are... close."

"Could be coincidence," Xue Rou denounced, unconvinced.

Damon shook his head. "No. In my experience, most ’coincidences’ are carefully sculpted by those with too much foresight. If this man is connected to the Ghost Valley School and the rebel cell collapse, then we might have found the one responsible for the turmoil affecting Jing Province as well."

Chen Yuan asked cautiously, "What’s the plan then, sir?"

Damon resumed eating for a moment before speaking again. "You can take the necessary actions you need to ensure your goals. My current goal is to master the Empty Soul Palm, so unless something in Jing Province is poised to interrupt that, it is not my concern really."

Xue Rou hesitated, just about to speak up and advise against it, when an amused voice suddenly rang out from directly in front of Damon, coming from an empty seat that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

"Ah, but the whims of man are not up to him, are they?"