Translator: TheBrokenPen
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Lu Ye channeled his Spiritual Power into Inviolable and tried to control it using his mind.
Nothing worked at first. But he followed Li Baxian’s advice, focusing on the tips that were provided, and eventually, he was overjoyed to see his fiery-red Spiritual Power swathed over the Inviolable’s blade and it gradually wobbled its way up into the air.
But before his delight could even set in, the Spiritual Power that enveloped the saber vanished and the weapon fell with a heavy clatter on the ground.
He readied himself and tried again.
But progress came at a glacial pace, to say nothing about the huge depletion of Spiritual Power after every attempt. Lu Ye began to doubt he could even last this long if not for the fact that he was still inside his training chamber.
At present, a balance had been struck between the expense and gain of Spiritual Power. This allowed Lu Ye to maintain a full level of Spiritual Power whenever he meditated—enough to try unlocking his next Spiritual Point.
Meditating had never been so efficient.
His curriculum included meditating and reading the books that Lady Yun handed him so that he could learn as much as he possible about Glyphs, in addition to practicing how to construct Glyphs. Then he would venture into the Rift of Illusions for a round of monster-slaying. But now, he would also need to practice Telekinesis.
That was not all. Reaching the Seventh-Order also meant that he could finally learn the next spell in the Red Lotus Sky Mnemonic.
The first spell was the Fire Phoenix technique and the second was a spell called Fire Dragon…
Learning spells had not been difficult at all and something told Lu Ye that it could be due to his talented aptitude in Glyph mastery. For this reason, there had been many who mistook him for a Spell Cultivator, owing to his casting speed that could even put other Spell Cultivators to shame. But any Spell Cultivator who was worth their salt would never know just one or two spells.
Learning the Fire Dragon technique took just a few hours and Lu Ye had great success with it, compared to Telekinesis.
The Fire Dragon spell turned out to be more powerful than Fire Phoenix, which should have been natural, given that it was a spell that only Seventh-Orders and beyond could conjure. Lu Ye had a couple of more tries somewhere secluded within the outpost compound before he decided that he had learned enough about the spell today.
He had chosen his path to be a Combat Cultivation and he wasn’t going to give up just yet. Therefore, knowing a couple of spells just in case was good enough for him.
Hence he needed to spend the entirety of his attention on mastering Telekinesis. A Seventh-Order who could not use Telekinesis only had the deadliness of a newborn pup.
Every day, Lu Ye would venture inside the Rift without fail. The Rift cost him fifty Contribution Points per entry, but the invaluable experience from every attempt inside the Rift was something that no amount of money or Contribution Points could equate.
Although he wasn’t pleased at all to face the insectoid monsters all over again. Ascending into the Seventh-Order had somehow restarted the cycle all over again and he was forced to deal with the insectoid monsters again. Only this time, the monsters were not of the Sixth-Order, but rather of the Seventh Order just like him!
It would appear that the Rift was putting forth monsters with strength aligned to his rank.
And experience dictated that he would need to finish all nine rounds of insectoid monsters before he could once again fight against a humanoid opponent.
But with his mastery of Telekinesis now progressing at a snail’s pace, getting through all nine rounds in one go might seem like a pipedream for now. He needed to be patient.
.
Five days went by like a year and Lu Ye could finally take no more of the setbacks of seeing how he was barely making any headways with mastering Telekinesis.
He was hardly a person weak of heart, but he just could not help feeling beaten, especially after seeing Chen Yu’s demonstration the day before.
With him and Chen Yu as the only two Seventh-Orders in the outpost, Lu Ye wished to take a look at how Chen Yu magically controlled his weapon. Hence he sent a message and asked if Chen Yu could demonstrate Telekinesis for his benefit. The newly-elected person-in-charge of the bazaar was only too happy to oblige. With a swoosh, his weapon flew into the sky in a flash of light, fleeting freely through the air with the grace and ease of a lark.
As if that was not bad enough, Chen Yu even admitted to Lu Ye that his Telekinesis was amateurish at best before he had taken his leave.
But where would he be if Chen Yu’s level was only just “amateurish”? “Disgraceful?” In fact, Chen Yu even told him that he learned the basics of Telekinesis within three days after he ascended to the Seventh-Order. What about him?
Lu Ye left the outpost and went back to the Sect’s main stronghold to have a meal with Shui Yuan.
Tormented by frustration that just wouldn’t stop haunting him, Lu Ye shoved everything into his mouth with little regard for table manners.
An observant Shui Yuan gently added more food to his plate as she asked, “Something wrong at the outpost?”
“Nope,” Lu Ye mumbled through his mouth full of food.
“Then what’s wrong?” she asked softly.
Lu Ye swallowed everything down and exhaled morosely. “I just discovered that I have zero talent in Telekinesis… The way I see it, I’m not gonna be able to do in one month what others could do in three days…”
“Everyone has his or her own strengths and weaknesses, Lu Ye,” said Shui Yuan. “You have great talents in Glyphs; Lady Yun could barely stop singing praises about you. And you could even defeat enemies well beyond your rank. But no one is good at everything. There’s no need to feel bad just because you just discovered something you’re bad at, young Brother Lu Ye.” With full of affection and sisterly love she said “young Brother Lu Ye” for even though the Sect has many new fresh inductees, but Lu Ye remained the special one whose very existence in the first place had ensured the continuity of the Sect.
“I know, but I just couldn’t stop feeling terrible about it.”
“How about I take a look at what’s the problem after this? I might not be as good as Li Baxian in the magic of Telekinesis, but I would still say that I’m fair.”
As if a Real Lake Realm Cultivator would be poor in Telekinesis. She sent Lu Ye to learn from Li Baxian not because she refused to teach him herself, but because of Li Baxian’s incredible and extraordinary talents in this branch of magic. Most Seventh-Orders could only magically control one Spirit Artifact. Only through the increase of one’s finesse in controlling Spiritual Power and rank of cultivation could the number of Spirit Artifacts be increased.
But Li Baxian proved himself to be a freak of nature the moment he ascended to the Seventh-Order. As soon as he learned Telekinesis, he was capable of magically controlling up to nine Spirit Artifacts—demonstrating an impeccable level of Spiritual Power control that no one had ever seen before. This was also the reason behind the Grand Master of the Northern Profound Sword Sect’s interest in him.
That, plus his being a Swordsman Cultivator was what made him the tenth deadliest Cultivator in the Spirit Creek Battlefield even though he was only just an Eighth-Order who was trained in a Heaven-grade cultivation discipline. Even Yan Xing, his biggest rival in the Thousand Demon Ridge, had to admit that he had underestimated Li Baxian after they last fought where Li Baxian rained hell down on him with a bombardment of more than a hundred energy bolts.
After their meal, Shui Yuan and Lu Ye adjourned to the square outside the main hall. They stood a hundred meters away from each other. “All right, Lu Ye,” said Shui Yuan. “Give me all you’ve got.”
Lu Ye looked around to make sure no one was around before he drew his weapon out of his Storage Bag.
Shui Yuan’s forehead betrayed an imperceptible crease the moment she saw Inviolable.
Lu Ye was already channeling his Spiritual Power through the saber, saying, “Here I come, Sister Shui Yuan.”
There was no need for him to worry about hurting her. She was just too strong for him to even lay a scratch, assuming his Telekinesis could get Inviolable past the hundredth-meter mark.
Lu Ye watched the reddish shade of his Spiritual Power washed over the entire length of the saber. Next, he directed it with his mind, and Inviolable, in a fiery splendor, shot straight at Shui Yuan.
Shui Yuan’s eyes widened with shock.
The flying saber was not traveling at slow speeds, but it was nowhere near fast either. In fact, if this was the best any Seventh-Orders could do, then Lu Ye would have nothing to be worried about. Such a level of Telekinesis mastery would be of no threat to Lu Ye even if it were a swarm of more than a dozen weapons hurtling toward him.
Inviolable streaked until it was thirty meters away from reaching Shui Yuan when it stopped. That was as far as Lu Ye could go—just barely seventy meters.
He steered Inviolable into several somersaults and swishes. Then, he summoned it back to him before the Spiritual Power in the saber was depleted and it slid back into its sheath.
“That’s pretty much all I could do,” Lu Ye muttered sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
Which was the best he could do after five days of never-ending practices.
There was hardly any range. If Lu Ye were to use Telekinesis in a fight against an opponent who could also magically control his weapon, he would be at a massive disadvantage.
Next, there was no speed, which translated to a lack of momentum which would also mean zero damage.
Then there was the matter of duration. Within seconds, he needed to recall Inviolable or the weapon might run out of Spiritual Power and he would lose control of it. That would leave his saber vulnerable enough to be captured by an enemy instead. 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦.
Shui Yuan strode to him and reached out a hand. “Let me see your saber.”
Lu Ye pulled Inviolable out of its scabbard and handed it to Shui Yuan, who took the weapon and tried injecting her own Spiritual Power. A pale glow swept all over the saber and she examined it carefully.
“Um,” she asked after looking at the saber, looking very odd, “Have you been using this saber to practice Telekinesis, Lu Ye?”
“Yeah.”
She looked like she almost burst out laughing. “The enchantments placed on this weapon are not suitable at all for Telekinesis. Why of all weapons did you choose this one? Also, it’s too heavy. Did Li Baxian not tell you that you should select a suitable weapon for Telekinesis before you begin practicing?”
Lu Ye thought about it and responded, “Um, nope.”
Li Baxian had told him so much about Telekinesis—how he could learn it more quickly and what matters he should pay close attention to and so forth—but somehow the matter of a suitable Spirit Artifact never came up.
“What a moron!” Shui Yuan slapped her forehead.
“Is it the saber?” Lu Ye gasped anxiously with every semblance of a dying man who had just been told that he might have a chance of surviving.
“It is. This saber lacks the prerequisite enchantments needed for Telekinesis and it’s heavy. That’s what caused the lack of range and speed. Furthermore, Lu Ye… You must have seen people using Telekinesis during the Battle Royal. Did you not notice anything different?”
“I did. But I thought the problem came from me.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, your being able to cast Telekinesis on something like this shows how extraordinary you are…” Shui Yuan said weakly.
“So what kind of Spirit Artifact’s more suitable for Telekinesis?”
“For starters, it needs to be light. But not as light as possible. Too light and you risk compromising your momentum. It all depends on your personal preference. Next, you need to select one with the proper enchantments. A Spirit Bank enchantment at least, or else, what happened just—where your Spiritual Power wouldn’t last enough—would happen. A Spirit Bank enchantment is what helps to keep your Spiritual Power in your weapon and therefore lengthens the duration of your Telekinesis.”
“I see…” Lu Ye exhaled heavily, visibly relieved, thinking to himself, [It’s not me!]
“It’s our shortcoming as your seniors,” Shui Yuan admitted. It has been years since the Crimson Blood Sect had seen a new acolyte and Shui Yuan had lost her touch with teaching others. As for Li Baxian, he had been so caught up with teaching Lu Ye how to use Telekinesis that he neglected to tell him about picking a proper Spirit Artifact. Maybe he was under the impression that Lu Ye had already found one.
Shui Yuan began to tell Lu Ye more about the enchantments on Spirit Artifacts.