A day later, having achieved her goal and even received the Soul Core from Clan Head, Caelrisu went towards her home and sat down in her room and started reading the Essence Technique Lunaris gave her, called the Creeping Shadow Essence Technique.
According to the book, the Essence Techniques are divided into four parts.
The first is called the Essence Control Breathing Technique. The first part is learned by new martial artists. This method forms the basis for creating an internal energy center and is used to increase the amount of essence a practitioner has.
In which creating an internal energy center is useless to the Awakened, who utilize their souls as the power source.
'It seems like that was how humans in the ancient Eastern continent grew stronger. So, there are mentions of it to honour them.'
The second is called Essence Circulation, a focused practice of guiding essence from the Soul through the body's Soul path and back. This can help purify essence, restore stamina, and reinforce the Soul paths.
The third is called Breathing Exercise; it is a specialized form of breathing that is used to expel "turbid" or impure essence from the body while drawing in the pure essence from the natural world.
Although this too is useless to Awakened, as the Soul Essence is always purest, it is still used by Awakened when using energy-draining abilities to supplement their lack of Soul Essence.
And the fourth is meditation. While it is not a breathing technique, meditation is used in conjunction with specific breathing patterns to train the mind and spirit.
After thoroughly reading and analyzing the book, Caelrisu sat down in a lotus position as mentioned in the book and started guiding her essence.
Half an hour passed. She opened her eyes and flopped onto the bed. "This is so hard," she muttered. Her concentration kept fracturing; the circulation refused to cooperate. Two hours remained before training, time she'd planned to spend improving, but her focus kept slipping away.
She forced herself to practice for another half hour. Nothing.
After that, being fed up, she started reading Movement Techniques, Creeping Shadow Movement Technique.
By using this technique, practitioners can run up walls, leap great distances, and walk on surfaces that should not support their weight, like tree branches or water.
It consists of three parts:
o Creeping Swallow's Return: A technique for swift, agile movement, often mimicking the light-footedness of a swallow.
o Shadow Gliding Technique: Allows the user to float or glide for short distances.
o Creeping Wall Skill: Specifically used to climb vertical surfaces by jumping from wall to wall.
Just when she was about to try it, she flipped to the last page and saw that it was written that one must practice the Creeping Shadow Essence Technique till 3rd Mastery. Considering there are a total of nine masteries and she can't even reach the 1st one, she gave up on movement techniques for now.
Then, she picked up the dagger technique called the Creeping Lotus Sword Dance and hurriedly flipped to the last page. And reading this technique requires significant essence as well as 3rd mastery over the Creeping Shadow Essence Technique to be effective.
Exhausted, she slumped back. 'Should I give up?' a thought flickered through her head. It sounded pleasant. Giving up was an easy solution to everything.
"No," she answered herself. "If I give up now, I'll never get my revenge. I'll be forced to watch the people I love die."
Determination steadied her. She opened her eyes, used Analyst to accelerate her thoughts by three times, and set the Soul Core on the floor in front of her. It was the fist-sized heart of a Silent-Judge-level beast, warm and humming with a presence.
It was nothing like a human's heart. There was a faint light emanating from it, and it was round in shape with faint markings at 6 places, one at the top and one at the bottom, while there were four of them in the middle. Most likely it was due to the places it was connected to the rest of the bodies, but there was no hardness on the surface; instead, it was quite soft as well as juicy.
The Clan Head specifically said to draw the core's energy slowly, to temper and integrate it over time. She ignored the advice entirely.
Her hands trembled as she picked up the core. She brought it to her mouth and bit down. The skin of the core split with a wet, metallic sound. The taste was nothing like food, hot and bitter and alive, and for a wild second the world narrowed to the rhythm of her jaw.
She swallowed.
For a few moments nothing happened.
"Was it a dud?"
The words had barely left her mouth before agony erupted from within.
It felt as if she'd been submerged in molten lava, her veins burning, her skin aflame, her very soul screaming.
Instantly, Caelrisu sat down, crossing her legs and forcing herself into the meditative posture. She began the Creeping Shadow Essence Technique, desperate to tame the blood-red storm of essence rampaging through her body.
'I fucked up… because I let my pride blind me.'
For a moment, the technique seemed to calm the storm, but the reprieve lasted only seconds.
The next wave came twice as fierce, tearing through her channels with terrifying speed.
A normal human would have already exploded from within, but her Penumbral Body kept her barely alive. For how long, she didn't know.
Blood trickled from her nose as she accelerated her thoughts, three times… four… six times faster. Any more and her brain would burst.
Still, she forced her consciousness to keep control, guiding the essence along its paths.
But the storm refused to obey.
Sometimes it surged forward; sometimes it roared backward, shredding the Soul Paths apart. Blood began to seep from her eyes and ears. Her vision dimmed, consciousness flickering. Her overheated mind screamed for release.
Then, amid the chaos, an idea struck her.
'Can I use it? The Grafting of Myriad Souls…?'
She hesitated only a second.
'I'm going to die anyway. So why not try?'
She slowed her thought speed to twice the normal rate; any faster would detonate her mind instantly because of the Grafting of a Thousand Souls.
That single hesitation allowed the storm to surge even wilder.
Blood now streamed from every pore, crimson cracks spreading across her skin like fissures on overheated glass.
Still, she did not stop.
She shattered her mind into hundreds of fragments, each a sliver of her consciousness, and flung them into her raging essence paths. One by one, those fragments began to infect the runaway energy, anchoring it, subduing it, and bending it toward order.
Her body continued to crack, each new line leaking blood.
Under normal conditions, she could divide her mind into thousands of fragments, but exhaustion, blood loss, and overclocking had left her too weak. She managed barely a hundred.
Even so, the roaring storm began to quiet… agonizingly slowly.
Then, warmth.
A sudden, familiar warmth enveloped her.
A gentle yet commanding voice followed.
"You foolish child. Try dying, and I will kill you myself."
'Mother…!'
And then another voice, firm, calm, unwavering.
"Young lady, remember the Creeping Lotus Sword Dance and the Creeping Shadow Movement Technique. Move. Let them flow."
'Instructor…!'
The heat around her shifted, no longer burning but nurturing. Caelivisa's flames, protective and luminous, wrapped her body, mending what they could.
Caelrisu pushed herself to her feet, trembling, and began to move.
Each step, each swing, followed the form of the Creeping Lotus Sword Dance, guided by the rhythm of the Creeping Shadow Movement.
Her broadsword gleamed, cutting arcs of red light in the air.
Then, she danced.
The flames clung to her, feeding her essence instead of consuming it. Her fragments spread faster, harmonizing the once-chaotic energy.
The blood that had covered her began to evaporate into faint scarlet mist.
Her mastery surged.
Sixth mastery of the Creeping Shadow Essence Technique.
Third mastery in both the Creeping Lotus Sword Dance and the Creeping Shadow Movement.
Her movements grew fluid and dreamlike, each strike echoing with grace and power, her body flowing between shadow and flame.
She entered a trance, her mind perfectly balanced between agony and peace.
An hour passed.
When the final swing ended, the flames dimmed. Caelrisu collapsed, falling gently into Caelivisa's waiting arms.
Had she opened her eyes, she would have seen the state of her home, half the pavilion gone, shattered from the force of the essence storm.
But she slept, her breathing steady.
The storm within her had finally bowed to her will.