Chương 129: Congratulations Leo

"Hey guys," Leo said.

"I appreciate that you want to celebrate my successful Foundation Establishment. But without my Moonrider, I feel weaker than I have in years. Can we save the combat trials for after I receive and lifebond with a new flying sword? What about celebrating some other way? Mike, don't you have a new batch of wheat beer you were bragging about?"

The group had finally stopped asking Leo about his plans for Vivian, but only because Arthur insisted that Leo celebrate his successful Foundation Establishment by punching things. They relocated to a clearing on the southern slope of Human Hut Mountain, far from the spiritual wheat fields and any cranes who might gossip about whatever was about to happen. Kevin had excused himself to pack supplies for the backup hideout, which Leo suspected was just an excuse to avoid punching-bag duties.

"Drinking age on Human Hut Mountain is twenty-one, kiddo." Mike crossed his arms.

"My beer. My rules." Leo stared at him.

"There's no way that's true." He turned to Shen Tianyi, who stood a few paces back with his hands clasped behind his back.

"What's the drinking age in the Azure Profound Continent? I should be of age by now, right?" Shen Tianyi just shrugged.

"In the Shen Clan, all family members are prohibited from consuming liquor until twenty-five. It inhibits brain development." Leo glared at him. He decided to change the subject.

"I'm just saying, I don't think I can really enjoy my breakthrough till I get some basic upgrades. I have body refining ahead of me, and I'll be receiving my sword from the New York Giants. In less than six months I'll have Tier Four strength." He gestured at the group.

"My combat power will be a whole tier above the rest of you. Even Shen Tianyi." Shen Tianyi's expression flickered.

"Do not provoke me into borrowing a war boat to teach you a lesson." He said. He paused for a moment.

"Though I confess, even a war boat may prove insufficient against your current trajectory." Admitting it seemed to disturb him. Arthur clapped his hands together.

"Kid, Foundation Establishment is a big deal. You know what I did when I hit Foundation Establishment?"

"Fight a dinosaur?" Arthur ignored him.

"I walked to the nearest rival sect, challenged three of their outer disciples, and beat them so badly they had to send a guy with a wheelbarrow to collect them." Arthur leaned back with a nostalgic grin.

"After that, I took a few girls from the nearby town out to dinner. Spent two dollars and fifty cents for the four of us. Best night of my life." The clearing went quiet.

"Arthur, when was the last time a meal for four cost two fifty?" Mike shook his head.

"I spend more than that on juice boxes. My daughter goes through a ten-pack a week." Arthur ignored him.

"Anyway, the point is, the kid should celebrate."

"I just told you I feel weaker than I have in years," Leo said.

"Which is exactly why Mike here is going to fix your attitude." Arthur waved a hand.

"Go on, show him what his body can do now. Give him the sales pitch." Mike stepped forward, rolling his shoulders.

"Now that you have liquid qi in your dantian, you can use some real martial arts. I'm going to teach you the fundamentals." He held up his forearm and channeled liquid qi into the muscle. The skin took on a faint sheen, and the muscles visibly hardened. He reached down, picked up a fist-sized rock from the ground, and crushed it. Stone fragments scattered across the clearing. He dusted off his palm.

"Gaseous qi was potential. Liquid qi is material. You push it into your muscles, your bones, your skin, and it physically strengthens them. That's why Foundation Establishment cultivators can take hits that would kill someone at Qi Refining. Your body becomes the weapon." Mike rolled his neck.

"Here. Watch how I do it." Leo shifted into omnidirectional awareness. He examined Mike carefully, ready to trace the exact flow of liquid qi through his meridians. Mike didn't move. The only thing Leo could sense was that Mike was terrified.

"What's wrong?" Leo asked. Arthur and Shen Tianyi both gulped.

"Leo," Arthur said carefully.

"Your divine sense is a little strong, kid. You mind letting the poor man breathe?" Mike held up a hand.

"It's okay. I'm used to it. I was just briefly surprised." He exhaled slowly.

"But wow, Leo. Your divine sense is intimidating. You need to be careful with that in the future." Leo had almost forgotten. After he had taken the Profound Clarity Spirit Nectar and advanced to Foundation Establishment, his divine sense strength had multiplied by a factor of five. He hadn't really had an opportunity to try it out, let alone consider what it felt like on the receiving end of an inspection. He started playing around with his divine sense.

The awareness bubble stretched outward, touching the edges of the clearing, the trees. Every pebble and pine needle registered in perfect detail. He could sense the spiritual signatures of his teammates, trembling like they were staring at a predator.

"Earth to Leo," Mike said.

"Hey. Leo. Can you rein it in? You're giving me the same feeling I get when my mother-in-law visits."

"Oh, sorry." Leo laughed and pulled his divine sense back in. His teammates shuffled backwards. Even Shen Tianyi had positioned himself behind a convenient boulder. Awkward laughter filled the clearing.

"So," Mike said, maintaining what he probably thought was a casual tone, "maybe we start with some basic breathing exercises first? No need to rush into anything physical." Leo felt something shift in his chest. For the first time since the Grand Formations Summit, he felt good. Really good. He suddenly remembered there was stuff he had always wanted to try. Last year, as part of his preparation for his fight with Mateo, he had learned and perfected the Scholar's Finger technique.

It was a powerful combat technique that allowed him to pollute the spiritual sea of opponents and clutter their perception. But the technique had a major drawback, it required physical contact. He had tried to figure out a way to overcome the limitation, but every variant that worked at range required liquified spiritual qi. One of his trainers back at Yale had demonstrated a variant called The Scholar's Ink.

At the time, Leo had memorized the spiritual qi movements and techniques and filed them away for when he reached Foundation Establishment. He looked down at his hands. Mike had resumed his demonstration, throwing exaggerated punches and kicks at the air while Arthur shouted encouragement from the sidelines.

"See, you channel the liquid qi through your meridians like this," Mike said, his fist glowing faintly.

"The key is maintaining pressure throughout the entire kinetic chain. When I was learning this back in Seattle, my instructor made me punch sandbags for six hours straight until I got the feel for it."

"Tell him about the time you broke your hand," Arthur called out.

"No pain, no gain, Leo. You got that?" Leo smiled. This shouldn't be too hard. He already had a solid read on everyone's spiritual signatures. Forming the ink turned out to be surprisingly intuitive. Leo extended his index finger and began condensing his liquid qi at the tip. The sensation was strange, like squeezing water through a tiny opening, but fundamentally it was the same technique with a few minor adjustments.

A small sphere materialized at his fingertip, dark and viscous, resembling a glob of black ink suspended in midair. He gave it an experimental nudge with his divine sense. The sphere wobbled, then stabilized, hovering just above his palm.

"Hey Mike!" Mike paused mid-punch and turned around.

"Catch!" Leo flicked his wrist. The sphere of Scholar's Ink arced through the air in a lazy trajectory. Mike's hands came up automatically. His fingers closed around empty air as the ink passed straight through his palms and splattered across his divine sense. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Mike blinked.

"Very funny, Leo." He wiped his hands on his pants, even though there was nothing physical to wipe away.

"Look, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but remember what I said about liquid qi being used to augment your body? On its own, throwing stuff around is pretty useless. The real power comes from reinforcing your physical strikes with concentrated spiritual energy. That's why body cultivation is so important at this stage." Leo formed another sphere.

"Leo, are you even listening to me? I'm trying to teach you something important here. When I was your age, I had to learn all of this through trial and error. You have the benefit of someone who already made every mistake in the book, so maybe show a little gratitude and pay attention instead of playing arts and crafts." Leo threw the second sphere directly at Mike's face. Mike wiped his face with both hands.

"Okay, you little brat. You want to play games? I'm coming for you." He took a step forward and tried to channel liquid qi into his legs for a burst of speed. Nothing happened. Mike frowned. He tried again, pushing harder this time. His qi responded sluggishly, like molasses flowing through a clogged pipe. His divine sense felt wrong. Cluttered. Someone had messed with his perception. He could still move. He could still fight.

But coordinating his spiritual energy now required conscious effort instead of being guided by his divine sense. It was like trying to write with his eyes closed. Technically possible, but awkward and imprecise.

"Leo." Mike's voice had lost its playful edge.

"Is that by any chance the Scholar's Finger?"

"Scholar's Ink, but yes." Leo was already forming a third sphere, letting it hover above his palm while he admired his handiwork.

"Basically the same thing." Mike stared at him. At the black ink rotating lazily between Leo's fingers. At the smile spreading across Leo's face. Mike reached for his dantian and pulled out his La Ferrari Eclipse. But when he tried to activate it, nothing happened. The sword just sat there, inert. His divine sense was too polluted to establish the connection. Mike swore. Arthur burst out laughing. He doubled over, slapping his knee, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

"Oh, that's beautiful. That is just beautiful." Arthur pointed at Mike, who was now shaking his La Ferrari Eclipse like a broken remote control.

"Mr. Stay-at-Home Sensei over here, taken out by a kid with a paintball gun. Some combat instructor you turned out to be." A sphere of Scholar's Ink caught Arthur directly in the face. He sputtered, stumbling backwards, his hands waving uselessly at the air around his head.

"What the hell? I was on your side!"

"You know what?" Leo formed two more spheres, one in each hand.

"I take back what I said about not being able to enjoy my breakthrough. This liquid qi is super fun." Arthur's eyes went wide.

"Now hold on a minute, kid. Let's talk about this. I'm an old man. You wouldn't hit an old man, would you? That's elder abuse. I'll report you!" Leo threw both spheres. Arthur tried to dodge. But the Scholar's Ink moved with Leo's divine sense, curving in midair to track its target. Both spheres connected.

"Run," Mike shouted. He had abandoned his flying sword entirely and was already sprinting toward the tree line.

"Just run!" Arthur didn't need to be told twice. He took off in the opposite direction, legs pumping, arms flailing, his dignity abandoned somewhere back in the clearing. Leo gave chase. Within minutes, half the cranes on Human Hut Mountain had gathered to watch. They lined the rocks and branches, honking encouragement every time Leo landed a hit. Leo laughed as he ran, forming sphere after sphere, pelting his teammates whenever they slowed down or tried to hide behind rocks.

Maybe this was what cultivation was supposed to feel like.

It took about twenty minutes before the pair realized they could avoid Leo by logging out. Leo stood alone in the clearing, two spheres of black ink orbiting his fingertips, surrounded by a gallery of honking cranes who seemed deeply disappointed the show was over. He dismissed the spheres and sat down on the nearest rock. His breathing was heavier than it should have been. The liquid qi moved through his meridians smoothly enough, but his body still hadn't fully adjusted to Foundation Establishment.

Every burst of exertion reminded him that the advancement was barely a day old, and his muscles were still learning to carry the new power. Shen Tianyi emerged from behind his boulder.

"You could have joined in," Leo said.

"I could have." Tianyi brushed dust from his black robe and walked over.

"But I have better things to do than spend hours cleaning my spiritual sea." He sat down on a rock across from Leo, hands clasped over one knee.

"I am surprised. You reach Foundation Establishment, and the first thing you do is throw ink at people." Tianyi raised an eyebrow.

"Have you considered trying your hand at Tier Three formations? With the Nectar's enhancement, you should be capable of intermediate formations." Leo leaned back and stared up at the sky. A few cranes still circled overhead, their white forms cutting lazy arcs through the blue. A month ago, the offer would have sent him scrambling for materials.

"I know I can do it," Leo said.

"But honestly? I don't want to think right now." Tianyi tilted his head.

"The Summit was weeks of nonstop formation theory. Intermediate runes, inverse derivation, competition rounds, all of it running at full speed." Leo rubbed the back of his neck.

"My brain feels like a wrung-out sponge. I just want to enjoy being a cultivator. None of that boring stuff." Tianyi studied him for a moment, then nodded.

"Rest is cultivation too. A field left fallow grows richer soil." He paused.

"But there is something important I wished to discuss with you." Leo looked at him.

"You told me about your experience with the Profound Clarity Spirit Nectar. The visions. The memories surfacing with new clarity." Tianyi's tone shifted, growing more deliberate.

"But I noticed you passed over one revelation with unusual haste." Leo knew immediately what he meant.

"Monarch Scatterstraw."

"Yes."

"Do you know what it means if he's the same as all of the wheat? If every stalk is a piece of him, then the entire field is..." Tianyi held up one hand.

"You are getting ahead of yourself." Leo stopped.

"Scatterstraw will not be an easy profundity to resolve. The wheat field is not a puzzle we can solve in an afternoon. Moreover, Stonehaven's presence makes further excavation impossible. The sects have claimed the surrounding territory. Any attempt to continue our work would draw immediate attention."

"But what struck me most about your dream," Tianyi continued, "was how vividly you described the karma lines. When last we spoke of this, you could barely perceive a single thread on my identity token. I suspected your vision would sharpen once you crossed into Foundation Establishment. It seems I was correct." Leo thought back to the conversation months ago, when he could barely perceive the faint thread extending from the identity token.

That single silk-like strand had been at the edge of his awareness, almost imaginary. Tianyi reached into his storage ring and pulled out his identity token.

"Look at this again," he said.

"Tell me what you see now." Leo focused his ortho-k enhanced vision on the token. He noticed the difference immediately. Where before he had strained to perceive a single faint line, now the thread stood out clear as day. His divine sense, multiplied fivefold by the Nectar, revealed layers of complexity he had completely missed before.

"The karma line is silver," Leo said.

"Not gold. The threads I saw in the Grand Pavilion were golden, but this one is silver." Tianyi nodded.

"Correct. The golden threads you perceived were natural karma, connections woven by fate and the bonds between living beings. What you see here is synthetic karma, crafted artificially through formation work." Leo kept looking. The silver thread extended outward from the token, stretching into the distance.

"It's pointing east. Toward..." He paused, orienting himself mentally.

"Toward Fog City?"

"Correct again. That is where the main compound of the Shen family resides." Leo pushed his perception deeper. The formations on the token's surface were complex, but beneath them he noticed something else. The wood itself seemed to glow with a warm golden light, distinct from the silver thread.

"The wood is golden," Leo said.

"Not the karma line. The material itself." Tianyi's eyebrows rose.

"You can perceive that?"

"Is that unusual?"

"Every Gold Core cultivator of the Shen clan is tested on their aptitude for karma perception," Tianyi said.

"Most can see the synthetic karma line. Very few can perceive the traces of natural karma left in the wood itself." He smiled.

"I am one of those few. And so, it seems, are you." Leo felt a spark of excitement. Tianyi continued.

"All this time I have known you, your group has brought knowledge and techniques and lifebound equipment from your world into the Azure Profound Continent." He paused.

"But have you ever considered bringing things from the Azure Profound Continent back into your world?" Leo stared at him. Tianyi picked up his identity token and turned it over in his hands.

"Karma is poorly understood on your Earth. Without the Heaven Pivot Array, perceiving karma threads requires divine sense far beyond what most cultivators can achieve." Leo's mind was already racing. He needed money. Lots of it. The government had already informed him that his body refining costs would eat through every military merit he had earned, and probably put him into debt besides. If he could bring over karma formation techniques that nobody else on Earth possessed...

"I could make a fortune," Leo said.

"You could do far more than fill your coffers." Tianyi's voice turned serious.

"Karma formations allow you to read the lines of fate. To perceive danger before it arrives. To understand the connections between people and events that would otherwise remain hidden." He met Leo's eyes.

"Next time, before blindly traveling to a place like Ashviel, you could divine your fate beforehand. You could see the threads connecting you to those who wish you harm. You could know whether a path leads to fortune or disaster before you set foot upon it." Leo felt his pulse quicken. This was exactly what he needed. The Enemy was out there, somewhere, with connections to both worlds.

If Leo could perceive karma threads, he might be able to trace those connections, find answers, and protect himself and his friends.

"When can we start?" Leo asked.

"This is exactly what I need!" Tianyi's expression grew solemn. He set down the identity token with careful deliberation and folded his hands.

"The path of karma cultivation is not one to be walked lightly. The threads of fate are delicate. To perceive them is to take responsibility for what you see. Many cultivators have been driven mad by visions of their own doom." Leo nodded seriously.

"Furthermore," Tianyi continued, his voice deepening, "the transmission of karma techniques requires a formal bond between master and disciple. The knowledge itself carries weight. It cannot be shared casually."

"I understand," Leo said.

"What do I need to do?"

"You must kneel before me." Tianyi gestured to the ground.

"Give three bows of master and disciple. I will formally accept you as my student, and you will address me as Master for the remainder of your lifetime. Only then can the sacred knowledge of karma cultivation flow from my mind to yours." Leo was halfway to his knees when he caught the look on Tianyi's face. The corner of Tianyi's mouth was twitching. His eyes had the same glint he wore when he beat everyone at poker for the fifth hand in a row.

"You're messing with me," Leo said flatly. Tianyi's solemn facade cracked. He covered his mouth with one hand, but the laugh escaped anyway.

"Dream on." Leo stood up and brushed off his robes.

"I'm not calling you Master. Ever."

"You Americans have no respect for tradition." Tianyi was still grinning as he tucked the identity token back into his storage ring.

"But in all seriousness, I will need to request permission from my family to teach you karma techniques."

"Will that be a problem?"

"I expect the elders will grant permission without difficulty. However." Tianyi's expression turned thoughtful.

"The Shen family does not allow karma texts to leave Fog City. If you wish to learn, you will have to make the trip yourself."