I sat cross-legged on a stone outcrop, my scales shimmering with faint electric blue pulses as I absorbed the vital lightning essence that flooded the charged atmosphere of the eternal storm cliffs. My fingers gently peeled a thunder fruit, its vibrant yellow skin pulsing softly with condensed qi.
I bit into the fruit, the sharp tang igniting my senses, then I took a slow sip from the spare Intent potion.
The liquid swirled within me, heightening my mental acuity and further expanding my growing mental energy puddle.
Before me lay the ancestral scroll, its ancient runes flickering faintly with spiritual knowledge. Taking a steady breath, I began to enter a deep meditative state, beginning the process of condensing my mental energy into a fine point. I sat for hours in this meditative state, eating pieces of thunder fruit and swigs from the intent potion only when my focus and comprehension waned.
Finally, after many more hours of concentration and inner reflection my meridians began to open allowing a greater expression of qi to flow through me. Thanks to the thunder fruit and potion of intent I had broken through my bottle neck and gained spiritual knowledge! I had just made a huge step in a much larger journey. I felt my qi puddle suddenly shift and grow into a pool of animus! The next level evolution of qi!
During this meditative session of self-reflection and introspection my mental energy puddle tripled in size! Evolving into a small pool of Intent.
Finally sensing that the process was nearing completion I turned my remaining attention back to the ancestral scroll. The intricate sacred glyph weave structure of my new animus power source was far more robust and thicker than qi, its thick ropes crackling with power around my heart chakra.
I was ready to imprint my Intent and animus onto the ancestral scroll.
Leaving a soul print.
I had a greater chance of success with the spiritual expression called animus.
The scroll, feeling my energy resonated with my Intent. Words from Seung Lee Kim echoed in my mind: "This is the Vorpal Path, Ash. The first tier is the Inner Spirit Man Projection — your soul can leave your body, travel far, unseen by most."
Without delay I held up the scroll and let a few thin wisps of Intent flow into the scroll...then more until it started to visibly glow a dim orange light.
A series of sigils and glyphs began to stream into my mind, operating principles, core fundamentals, intricate mechanics.
I concentrated my intent into the key activation sigil contained within the scroll. The sigil was an image of a man with arms and legs outstretched, while a dual image of the man shot skyward. The ember coil and storm claw raptor spirits danced within me! My vision blurred, senses expanding beyond my physical form.
I could feel the storm's power swirling above, the crash of the waves on the coast!
Future thick with possibility.
The scroll's glow deepened and my pool of intent grew into a lake with the acquirement of this new spiritual knowledge! My Meridians flared again! opening even wider as a greater expression of qi flowed into my veins condensing into pure raw animus as the first tier unlocked.
My heart raced with excitement and a tinge of caution! With the spiritual knowledge I had attained from the scroll I had already broken through again!
It was in that moment that I knew mastering the vorpal path, would forge my destiny anew!
"Time to see what the path of the Vorpal walker can really do." I thought, eyes sharp as lightning danced in the skies above!
I concentrated on the key activation sigil of spirit man projection, allowing my Intent to direct my qi into the mental image held in my mental pool. My spirit form surged forward!—weightless, invisible, unbound by the limits of flesh. The world blurred beneath me as my spectral essence streaked through the sky like a lightning-born phantom!
A silver arc cracked through cloud and storm, passing over canyons, marshlands, jungles and crystal lakes in heartbeats. One thousand five hundred miles west I slowed above a volcanic canyon shrouded in sulfurous haze. Below was an obsidian fortress, jagged and pulsing with dread! Shadow-wrought spires clawed at the sky, and the very ground twisted with cursed creatures. Outside its gates prowled Lord-tier genome beasts—colossal guardians fused with demonic qi. A three-headed obsidian lion with molten fangs snarled at the wind, while a plated beast resembling a horned rhino but twice the size of a siege tower stomped in slow patrol.
There were four-armed white War apes with blue skin and tusks gaping from their maws. Their bodies shimmered with unnatural scars—signs of controlled corruption.
Perched atop the fortress was a hulking figure, humanoid in form but lacking all of the soft squishy elements.
A Demon Lord, unmistakably. The thing was a Monster, plain and simple. It stood nine feet tall and was nearly as wide at the pecs, it had green skin and wore a red tunic with a coat of chain mail over it.The muscles were prodigious, the creature looked like some kind of world class body builder. The delts, the quads the pecs, the traps and biceps.
Every part of this creature was Jurassic. Like it had spent its days do nothing but running until it puked.
Hunting.
And hunting only the most dangerous game imaginable since the dawn of time...
Man.
On the creatures back was a wicked looking Scythe. As I observed the monster at great distance it struck me that he did not walk...he glided.
This hulking green goblin wore the oddest sabatons I had ever seen. As I looked closer zooming in with enhanced spiritual vision upon his sabatons, which were crafted from crude rot black steel. There appeared...to be wheels under the soles of the Sabatons!
They made a most relaxing sound however, almost soothing really.
WHHHIRRRRRR-Click
WHHHIRRRRRR-Click
The Beast glided about on...on roller wheel sabatons!?
But that wasn't all.
No far from it.
He wore a most striking...Red..Phrygian..Cap.
I narrowed my spirit gaze, "So… that's where the corruption roots itself." Just then my heightened spiritual senses detected a battle elsewhere, above the Sky fang Reaches. I traveled there drifting upward as I went gaining altitude, drawn by thunderous shrieks that split the clouds.
A streak of flame blazed across the sky; it was the massive legendary firebird Mol'tini Kon'Ka !
Its feathers a living inferno, every flap scorching the air for leagues. In hot pursuit was an even larger avian cloaked in thunderclouds!
It was the Legendary Beast Vein Thunder-Bird Zap Zudo Zam!
Zap Zudos wings stretched wider than mountains its cry a rolling stormfront.
Sparks clashed against flame as they battled mid-air, sky splitting as the two titanic forces shook across the heavens!
I hovered, stunned. "Just one of those could raze a kingdom…"
I watched the once in a lifetime sighting of the two warring birds fade into the distance, the fate of their duel unknown.
I looked to the southeast to the bloom rot valley. I soared low over what seemed at first to be a forest. But then the terrain pulsed.
A gargantuan sunflower-like monstrosity rose from the earth, its petals serrated, its central eye blinking.
In each "leaf" was actually an eye. It rotated slowly, releasing vast clouds of yellow-green pollen that blotted the sky.
Wherever the pollen drifted, the qi of the land dulled and died—rivers slowed, grass blackened, even nearby beasts collapsed in spiritual silence.
I reeled. "The qi-sapping… this is the source of it!" I pushed farther, circling wide.
The continent was far more dangerous than I had imagined. I pulled back, my spirit returning to Storm Cliffs with a jolt. My real body snapped awake, eyes wide, sweat and lightning running down my skin.
My voice was a whisper to the storm.
"War is coming."
I stood beneath the fading roar of the thunderstorm at Storm Cliffs, the last arcs of lightning still dancing along the cliffside.
My spirit Man had seen much. Too much.
A fortress of corrupted Genome Lords and demon-kin… a sky-rending battle between godlike avian titans… and the most insidious of them all—a monstrous plant,
"The Anger of the Land," draining the mana Life Stream from the world with every breath of its pollen storm.
"If I don't strike now, that thing could poison the whole continent." My fists clenched as crackling arcs of qi laced through my arm. I stowed the ancestral scroll in my spirit bracelet.
The storm faded behind me—but a different kind of storm brewed in my heart.
I surged across the wilds like a bolt cast from the heavens! My embercoil Fire Lightening essence enhanced by the vital lightening essence and my cultivation items.
Snapping like a whip in the air, each step of my Cloud step launched me forward in crackling bursts.
My feet and the terrain blurred beneath me.
Dust trails spiraled in my wake. Over the first fifty miles, I made my presence in the continent known with thunder and conquest. I ambushed a herd of lumbering oxen whose backs were lined with qi-hardened metal ridges.
In a flash, I vaulted overhead, twisted mid-air, and rained down a thunder coil claw attacks that cracked the lead beast's spine. I harvested 6 Iron back Plates, and 14 lbs. of fat rich meat.
In a forested ridge, I discovered a hive of qi-infused wasps with electric stingers. I scorched the nest with an explosive hidden dragon palm burst, careful to collect the wings and venom sacs. I harvested 13 cloud sting wings used for elixirs, and 2 venom sacs filled with light paralysis venom.
At dusk, near a sulfur pool, I lured a pack of crawlers—fiery lizard-like beasts—into a narrow rock corridor.
There, I unleashed a charged leap followed by a full thunder coil crash, frying three at once.
I harvested 3 crawler skins, 5 beast claws, and 2 charred flame organs for armor-crafting.
My body surged with vital lightning qi—my beast crystals fully attuned to the storm essence I'd absorbed at the cliffs. As I fought, I cultivated, the very air shimmered when I passed. Birds scattered. Predators trembled.
Each kill refined my beast crystal's, my attacks snapping more sharply, traveling further, and my reflexes growing impossibly fast. I began to sense a subtle hum when I focused—as if the storm itself answered back.
"I'm not just faster. I'm not just stronger… I'm becoming a storm in flesh."
The fire crackled beneath skewers of sizzling rare beast meat, the scent rich and earthy, laced with mineral tang from the Iron back cuts. I sat cross-legged beside the flames on the high bluff, wrapped in a dark traveling cloak. Storm-light still crackled faintly across my shoulders as residual qi pulsed in my aura. But tonight—I was still.
The ancestral scroll lay open across a polished stone slab, glowing faintly with an otherworldly hue.
Threads of ancient ink shifted when I touched them with focused intent, revealing the second level.
"Vorpal Slash, The Vorpal Blade Unbound" I whispered in hushed reverence. "When the Spirit-Man awakens to war, it may strike where flesh cannot walk.
Across barriers. Through illusions. Inside the heart of fear."
I narrowed my gaze. Unlike the Spirit-Man Projection—a tool of scouting and observation—this new tier taught a weaponized application of my separated soul.
With enough intent condensed into my spiritual projection, I could perform strikes across great distances, bypassing physical barriers, armor, and in some cases—even conventional defense techniques. But the scroll also came with a warning.
"Vorpal Slash Risks" I said aloud. "Soul Wounds. If the Spirit-Man form is struck while initiating Vorpal Slash, the feedback could fracture one's spiritual threads, leaving the user unconscious—or worse, comatose."
The warning continued.
"Beast Bond Drift Danger; Extended use in combat may weaken the tether between body, Soul and beast bond. If the bond becomes unstable, a Feral Surge may result."
There was one finally note, a tip really.
"Target Rebound: Enemies with strong mental or soul-based defenses may reflect the attack—damaging the Spirit-Man and potentially the beast crystal itself." I exhaled slowly, heat rising from the grilled meat.
I could feel my Meridians open even further with the acquisition of this new spiritual knowledge, I felt a rush of fresh qi rush into me from the spiritual plane increasing my pool of animus dramatically! My pool had grown into a small lake! and my mental energy pool and also grown by extension.
I spirit projected out, there was a sensation of being stretched too thin followed by an audible popping sound. My Spirit-Man form began to rise—shimmering, translucent, crackling with storm light.
I concentrated my intent guiding my qi into the key activation sigil contained within the scroll. This time the sigil was a sword with wings inside of a circled squared. I held out a spirit hand—and with a scream of thunder across my inner world—the Vorpal Slash flared into being.
A cleaving arc of silver-blue lightning snapped from my spirit man fingertips, cutting through the stone slab!
leaving a clean glowing scar across it. I returned to my body eyes snapping open.
"Thats! that's subtractive energy!"
I gasped this revelation was staggering, as qi functioned through an ''additive'' nature.
For instance, if you focused your qi into a fire-based technique your qi would multiple that element creating anything from fiery palm vortices to Ice walls.
Yet a vorpal animus fueled technique operated through a subtractive force, the sliced stone slab proof of it.
"So it's true... even from a hundred miles away—I could cut something in half."
I reached over, flipped the meat, and smiled to myself. Tomorrow, I would test it on something that fought back. But tonight, I ate in silence—eyes scanning the scroll again under storm light, while the green-tinged horizon pulsed in the distance like a warning heartbeat. As I finished the four pounds of rare beast meat there was a green glow from my pocket bracelet, I looked inside and found the glow emanated from the qi power meter.
I took it out and held my palms into the conductive palm plates, letting my fire lightening wind animus flow into it.
Suddenly the qi meter clicked and hissed steam as it reconfigured itself in my palms!
My Animus had evolved my qi power meter into an animus omni unit! Images and information filled my vision.
Bonded Genome Beast:
Ember coil Serpent Bio Fire Lightning Affinity
Storm Claw Raptor Bio Lightening Affinity
Animus Type: Compressed Storm essence – Speed Attack type foundation.
Core Stats:
Animus thread count 14,500
Beast Crystal Sync Rate: 89%
Vital Organ Fortification:
Heart: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Lungs: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
Liver: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Stomach: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Spine: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Lightning Essence Conductivity: 6.4
Spiritual Projection Range: ~3,000 miles Vorpal Path Unlocked.
Combat Reflex Multiplier: x3.4 base human form.
I whistled low. My thunder-attuned organs now pulsed in harmony, storing and discharging lightning qi more effectively than ever. I stood, stretching with a crack of thunder rolling behind my shoulders and off my scales.
The bluff was quiet again, the fire dimming to embers.
"Anger of the Land," I whispered, eyes narrowing toward the sickly-green glow in the distance.
"Let's see if your rot can stand against the storm."