Molting the Mortal Coil

On an empty hill of yellow sand, a person was standing in solitude. They were wearing a set of tan colored modern military fatigues, complete with sturdy boots and a wide brimmed hat that drooped slightly at the edges. The man even had a solid shelled backpack on his back, the hexagonal outline looking much like a turtle shell. At the moment that man was looking up at the empty sky.

After a few minutes, he dropped his head and looked down at his hand. Upon his open palm, there was a golden coin, one that looked to have a rough texture to it. There was only a single character upon its surface that read simply ‘one’. Of course, that solitary man might be recognized by some of the locals as Acumen Asan, though the name he used far more was Lang Sheng. The last descendant of the Lang Clan. In his own mind, he would always be ‘Sage’, but he hadn’t actually heard that name said by anyone using the sounds of his native language in many decades.

He’d already been staying on that sand dune for the last month, not wanting to miss his ride home. The long stay had certainly not helped his anxiousness. He’d been waiting inside the comfortable manor in the Universe Ring for a few weeks, but as the time ticked down he couldn’t help but to stay outside and keep a constant watch on the skies. There were also many days he just spent walking back and forth, trying to pinpoint the exact position that the token drew him to most strongly, worried he might be in the wrong spot when the time came.

If he missed this ride, he might just end up stuck on this world for good. He’d already spent so much time and effort getting accustomed to the Cultivator World and he sure didn’t want to start all over again! This place was a dump!

Inwardly cursing, his lack of confidence was not only about missing the appointment, but also whether or not he had the qualifications to return! It was hard not to pace back and forth. He felt like he had arrived at the airport twelve hours before his flight, but he forgot his ID and wasn’t sure if the ticket he’d printed weeks ago would work.

Crack!

There was a loud crash and boom of thunder from above. Sage felt like the atmosphere was rioting above him, there were no clouds out to speak of, but there was a massive bolt of lightning flickering through the sky. It was a purely unnatural sight, the lightning didn’t jump between clouds or fall down from the sky to connect it with the ground. It was large enough and far enough away that Sage clearly saw it circle his position up in the highest reaches of the atmosphere. It flew a couple large rings around him before it zapped towards him, splashing onto the sand beside him.

With such size and speed, most would expect that when it finally hit the sand there would be a massive explosion, but this slithering lightning caused only a loud crack of sound and a strangle tinkling sound like glass being crushed. Sage held up his hand to shield his eyes blocking the bits of sand and glass that splashed over him. When he put his hands down, he immediately recognized the gaseous cloud of crackling lightning. Two spheres of concentrated electricity made up its beady eyes which the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel used to look him over carefully. In just a moment, its eyes narrowed and it did not seem pleased.

The moment of truth!

Sage had expected this to happen. He had broken through to the Nascent Soul rank, putting it at a similar level to the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel. He’d known long ago that this day would be difficult. The Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel wouldn’t carry someone in its mouth that was equal in strength to it. That would be the equivalent of willingly exposing one’s weakness to a stranger. Sage knew that the only way the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel would take him back now was to somehow gain its trust or dominate it with overwhelming strength. He’d have to befriend it, or conquer it. To subdue the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel meant he not only had to be more powerful, but he also had to stop it from escaping and cow it with his might. Only then might the giant eel be convinced enough to submit.

Unfortunately, even a year and a half of training would not advance him to such a level that he could easily defeat such a fearsome Demonic Beast. He wasn’t even sure if he could beat a Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel that was locked in a cage with him, let alone one that could just swim up through the atmosphere and dart off into space. Sage truly had no methods that could compete with a magnificently fast and also incorporeal being. He’d known the chances of success for such an attempt were already slim years ago. That’s why he had decisively ignored such an option from the very beginning. Maybe if he had a decade, he would be confident of subduing the eel, but with such a short time frame there’s no way he could lock the beast down. It would merely flee as soon as he showed off his strength and he’d been stuck on this planet for who knows how long.

That’s why, when Sage was now facing off against the unhappy face of the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel, he didn’t act rashly. He’d expected this. It was also why violence was the farthest thing from his mind at the moment. Instead, he smiled at the huge electrical eel and bowed towards it with respect, “Welcome back, great one.”

It was not impressed.

Sage didn’t waste any more time. He didn’t want to lose the window of opportunity and let the Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel leave. Guan Zhenyan had not led him astray in the past, pointing him to a number of methods that he could use in this situation. Spirit Power flickered to life inside his mind, the ocean inside his Spiritual Sea started to move. Huge waves forming as a reflection of the amount of Spirit Power he was bringing to bear. He couldn’t afford to be stingy here, putting all of his force into creating a complex symbol in the core of his mental fortress. The huge symbol formed in an instant, the result of his constant practice, and the spirit power flowing into it was transformed. The energy was changed and then emitted into the outside world, a beam of invisible intent that bridged the space between Sage and the huge eel shaped cloud of electrically charged gas.

At that instant, Sage felt like someone had just ripped off his scalp. A cold stinging sensation like a raw wound had been exposed to the elements, and that wound was his mind. A sharp pain assaulted his brain from every direction at once. The feeling upgraded from exposure to burning. This new sensation helped him to imagine what it might feel like if someone drilled a hole in your skull and poured in a cup of acid.

Of course, this was all his own colorful way to cope with the new sensations. He was pretty sure there were no nerve receptors in his brain that could ‘feel’ things, then again as a Cultivator his body had changed in ways he would have thought impossible back on Earth. Even the technique he’d developed to avoid pain did nothing at this point, something about this new technique he used avoided it entirely.

Just when he thought the pain was going to escalate to a completely new level, it suddenly disappeared and Sage felt the whole world change around him.

Soul Resonance achieved!