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The Third Disciple
At the threshold of the cool pavilion courtyard, Svara’s footsteps gradually slowed until they finally halted. The silver-haired maiden’s eyes caught the silhouette of Diyah sitting cross-legged in the center of the garden. Her older sister appeared intensely focused; both palms rested in a relaxed manner upon her knees, her eyelids sealed shut, concentrating the circulation of her energy to restore her strength.
Sister Diyah, just what kind of grueling cultivation are you undertaking today? Svara wondered curiously, leaning her body slightly forward to attain a clearer view.
However, exactly as she was about to step out from the corridor, the corner of her eye caught another existence near her sister—a cloaked youth standing in absolute tranquility. It was Ken. Svara instantaneously held her breath. Acting purely on reflex, she jerked her body back and concealed herself behind a white marble pillar, leaving only a single eye exposed to spy on the situation.
Isn’t that man the legendary Lord Ken? So Sister Diyah has been cultivating under his direct tutelage all this time? Svara’s soul churned, suppressing her aura of existence with every ounce of her might so as not to shatter the silence of their training.
Not long after rejuvenating her meridians with the essence of the Pancasona Pill, Diyah slowly parted her eyelids. Her gaze radiated a razor-sharp conviction. “Brother Ken, my energy foundation has stabilized. I am ready,” Diyah stated, raising her chin and cupping her fists before her chest in a martial salute.
”Very well, maintain your posture,” Ken instructed. He looked down briefly, rotated his Star Ring, and extracted a fist-sized crystal orb radiating an incredibly dense, golden-yellow luminescence. He allowed the crystal sphere to levitate weightlessly above his palm.
Diyah narrowed her eyes, leaning slightly forward, mesmerized by the pure energy luminescence. “What kind of magical artifact is that, Brother Ken?” she asked, her tone overflowing with profound curiosity.
”This is the unadulterated core of a Star Monster,” Ken explained, slowly rotating the energy crystal in his hand. “I extracted and siphoned its spiritual essence right before the monster’s carcass vanished, then utilized my seal condensation technique to compress the entirety of its energy into a solid crystal orb exactly like this.”
”Hah! Does such an illogical method of energy manipulation truly exist?!” Diyah gasped, her eyes widening in absolute awe at her master’s capabilities. Brother Ken is truly extraordinary… I am unfathomably fortunate and grateful that he is always willing to accompany me. Thank you, Brother Ken, she mused warmly, a genuine, faint smile gracing her lips as she lightly patted her knees.
”Well… fundamentally, this process is entirely identical to absorbing a wild Monster Core in nature. However, this method completely eradicates the risk of a negative energy backlash,” Ken explained, shrugging casually as if condensing a monster core were a trivial matter. “Very well, center your mind. We shall commence the absorption now.”
”Mm-hmm! I am ready, Brother Ken,” Diyah answered with a swift nod. She immediately outstretched both her arms, positioning herself to receive the crystal’s energy current.
The moment the transfer commenced, torrents of golden-yellow light surged from the crystal in Ken’s grasp straight into Diyah’s meridians. The maiden’s mortal shell trembled slightly, enduring the dense pressure of the pure energy flooding her blood cells.
Behind the pillar, the eavesdropping Svara could not mask her profound shock. Her eyes widened, remaining unblinking, her fingers digging so fiercely into the stone pillar that her knuckles turned ghostly white.
Hah! How could magic like that exist in this realm?! Is there truly a condensation technique like that? If a cultivator can filter a monster core until it is that absolutely safe… then people would no longer need to gamble their lives and face the lethal risks of an energy backlash while hunting in the Star Monster Forest! Svara’s inner voice shrieked, astounded by the alchemical secret she had just witnessed.
After ensuring Diyah’s absorption flow was perfectly stable, Ken took a step back. He sat casually on the steps of the pavilion a short distance away, leaning back comfortably with his arms crossed over his chest. A heartbeat later, without turning his head, Ken cast his tranquil yet resonating voice.
”How long do you intend to stand frozen, cowering behind that pillar?” Ken called out, shooting his words directly at Svara’s hiding spot.
Svara flinched violently as if struck by heavenly lightning. Hah! He could sense my aura of existence without turning his head in the slightest?! she panicked inwardly. Realizing it was utterly futile to hide from the instincts of a god of war, Svara immediately stepped out with rigid, robotic steps. She partially shielded her visage with her hand out of sheer embarrassment.
”Ah… f-forgive my insolence, My Lord. I absolutely did not intend to disrupt your cultivation. I merely happened to pass by and wished to check on Sister Diyah’s condition. Please forgive my lack of manners, My Lord,” Svara uttered, lowering her visage deeply. She slid one foot backward, her posture radiating extreme nervousness in Ken’s presence.
Ken merely flashed a faint smirk. “Is that so? Come here, step closer,” Ken commanded, lightly patting the empty space on the pavilion steps beside him. “Judging by the similarity in your aura… are you also one of King Bawigan’s biological daughters?”
”Y-yes… your deduction is correct, My Lord. My name is Svara, the second daughter of Royal Father, younger sister to Sister Diyah and Sister Julia,” Svara answered, walking hesitantly closer with her hands clasped politely before her stomach.
”Svara… an exceedingly melodic and characterful name,” Ken praised, giving a slight nod of approval.
”Y-yes, My Lord. Thank you immensely for your praise,” Svara replied swiftly, lowering her head once more for a fleeting second.
Ken pointed gently toward Diyah, who was immersed in deep meditation. “As you can see, your sister is in a highly critical phase of absorbing a Star Monster Core. Since we are simply waiting, if there is anything burdening your mind or something you wish to ask, speak it directly to me,” Ken offered casually.
”Ah… n-no, My Lord. It is nothing,” Svara lied, biting her lower lip. Her pale visage was now adorned with a flushed crimson hue, thoroughly flustered.
In silence, Svara stole glances, evaluating Ken’s posture.
This Lord Ken is truly a peerless existence… Ever since cultivating under his tutelage, Sister Diyah’s progress skyrocketed until she could condense a Golden Star Seal. And Lord Ken’s absolute limit is unfathomable… He even butchered General Bonar and General Lamarr as if they were mere annoying flies a few days ago. Would a god-tier man such as him deign to accept an additional disciple? But seeing his exceedingly frigid and closed-off aura, he will undoubtedly reject me. Perhaps he is only willing to trouble himself teaching Sister Diyah because they share a special intimacy… Ah, should I be reckless and attempt it? Svara’s heart churned violently, her brow furrowed deeply as she weighed the probabilities of absolute rejection.
”Umm… My Lord… a-am I truly permitted to ask you something?” Svara’s voice shattered the silence, trembling because her nerves were pulled far too taut. Her hands clutched her gown tightly.
”Naturally. Speak,” Ken answered coldly, his gaze piercing straight through Svara’s hesitation.
”D-do… Sister—I mean, Lord Ken! Does Lord Ken currently possess any other disciples under your guidance?” she asked with a tone brimming with uncertainty. “F-forgive my insolence, My Lord… I am purely asking out of curiosity,” she hurriedly added, terrified her inquiry might offend the privacy of the martial god.
”A disciple?” Ken raised a single eyebrow, his visage remaining flat and utterly unreadable.
”Y-yes, indeed, My Lord!” Svara answered swiftly, averting her gaze.
Ken leaned his body slightly forward, maintaining his crossed arms. “Why do you ask? Are you secretly harboring the ambition to become my disciple as well?” Ken fired straight at the core of the matter.
”A-ah… n-no, My Lord. I absolutely wouldn’t dare to dream that far. I was merely asking,” Svara lied once more, her feet instinctively retreating a step due to Ken’s intimidation.
”Well… what a pity then. Even though I was just contemplating that you possessed an inclination to become the inheritor of my teachings,” Ken stated, an enigmatic smirk grazing his lips as he offered a light shrug.
Svara froze instantaneously. Her eyes bulged. Her brain processed that sentence at maximum velocity. What did Lord Ken just imply? Did… did he just grant me a green light?! her inner voice exploded with desperate hope.
Svara drew a long, deep breath, casting aside every shred of her pride. “Umm… so… supposing I did possess such an iron resolve, do I truly hold the absolute qualifications to become Lord Ken’s disciple?” she asked slowly, staring at Ken with eyes overflowing with hope.
”Well… naturally, my doors are open, provided you possess the guts for it. However, my absolute condition is this: I will only deign to accept a disciple who harbors a lunatic obsession with acquiring power, and who absolutely refuses to surrender even when confronted with the abyss of death,” Ken declared firmly, his frigid gaze now radiating sparks of a lethal challenge.
Hah! I actually have the opportunity to become his disciple! Svara’s soul cheered. Her shoulders, which had been slumping defensively, now tensed, saturated with unadulterated enthusiasm.
”Understood, My Lord! I am willing! I swear I shall dedicate the entirety of my life to growing strong and remaining unyielding under your tutelage,” Svara declared with a resonant voice, straightening her spine with profound pride.
”Well… an excellent answer,” Ken said, nodding slowly with a faint smirk.
Hah! What in the world… it turns out his acceptance process is this effortless?! No entrance trials or blood-soaked tributes?! Svara was immeasurably shocked, her fists clenched tightly against her gown, forcefully suppressing her euphoria.
”A-ah… very well, My Lord. So… has Lord Ken officially become my Master now?” she verified, leaning her body slightly forward in absolute impatience.
”Naturally. Extend the back of your right hand to me. I shall implant a Star Seal Formation as absolute proof that the threads of your destiny are now tethered as my disciple,” Ken explained, extending his hand to await Svara’s.
”Hmm… h-here, My Lord… eh, I mean, Master,” Svara extended her right hand, trembling slightly, her porcelain visage blushing faintly, refracting her immense pride.
Ken grasped the back of the maiden’s hand and channeled his energy. Identical to when he bound the destinies of Asikin and Fubao, a warm, golden luminescence surged, tracing through Svara’s pores to forge glowing magical runes. Svara’s eyes widened in awe, witnessing the seal-forging magic, while her mortal shell twitched slightly in response to the pure energy invading her meridians.
During the implantation process of the seal, Ken’s Divine Eyes automatically scanned the absolute foundation of Svara’s power.
A Star Seal radiating two Silver Stars… Considering her age, this child’s ice-element foundation is relatively solid, Ken analyzed inwardly, his eyes narrowing slightly as he evaluated the combat potential of his third disciple.
”It is done,” Ken stated with a tranquil tone, releasing his grip. He then stepped backward several paces, forging a combat perimeter. “Very well, the theoretical warm-up is sufficient. Now, I wish to witness your true, unadulterated potential. Attack me utilizing the ultimate technique you acquired from your very first Star Monster.”
Svara nodded with ironclad resolve. Her visage shifted into absolute seriousness. “As you command, Master,” she replied curtly. Her feet shifted nimbly, assuming an impregnable offensive stance.
Svara drew a profoundly deep breath, channeling Qi from her Silver Star Seals directly into her palms. “Ice Mist!” she chanted loudly.
In the blink of an eye, the temperature within the pavilion courtyard plummeted to near absolute zero. An impossibly dense white mist detonated from Svara’s mortal shell, expanding rapidly like a miniature tsunami, biting into the skin with a bone-piercing chill. Visibility instantaneously dropped to zero.
Yet amidst the tempest of the freezing fog, Ken remained standing casually with both hands clasped behind his back, not shifting a single millimeter, even though his exhaled breaths had now transmuted into thick plumes of white vapor.
Granting her foe absolutely zero time to breathe, Svara chained her subsequent incantation. The bluish veins upon her temples bulged as she focused her absolute intent. “Destructive Coiling!” Svara roared, shattering the mist.
Instantaneously, the vortex of ice mist condensed, manifesting into the colossal form of a Giant Ice Serpent. The reptile’s body was impeccably smooth and glistened, reflecting light like a diamond crystal. With lightning speed, the colossal serpent lunged, coiling tightly around Ken’s body with a brutal, crushing force capable of pulverizing steel. CRAAACK! The horrific sound of grinding and fracturing ice echoed through the air as the serpent’s coils lethally locked down every inch of Ken’s mortal shell.
Feeling the crushing physical pressure bearing down from all directions, Ken did not exhibit the slightest flicker of panic. He merely flashed a faint smirk. Excellent… After blinding the enemy’s vision with mist, she immediately locked down their movements utilizing a binding technique. A highly logical strategic execution, Ken praised, evaluating the tactical intellect of his disciple.
Acutely aware that a mere ice coil would be woefully insufficient to reap the life of a monster on par with her master, Svara siphoned her energy back for her ultimate, final strike. Her breathing grew slightly ragged, but her eyes blazed ferociously, radiating the absolute resolve of an assassin. “Master… those two techniques were merely the prelude. Now… taste the slash of my ice sword!” she declared, drawing a long silver blade from the scabbard upon her back.
Svara chanted her ultimate incantation. “Ice Scales!”
In a flash, the moisture in the air crystallized, hermetically encasing Svara’s petite frame. A layer of immensely hard, glittering, thick ice scales wrapped around her body, transmuting her visage into that of an impenetrable ice dragon warrior. The ambient temperature dropped so drastically that the grass in the garden froze solid and snapped.
Utilizing the ice as her footing, Svara rocketed forward with astounding velocity. Her sword strikes rained down relentlessly, akin to a tempest of ice meteorites. The flashes of her silver blade pierced and slashed from every conceivable blind spot. Svara’s movements were fluid yet unequivocally lethal; her body contorted with incredible flexibility, flawlessly mimicking the agility of a venomous viper hunting its prey.
Despite being bombarded by a deluge of lethal strikes, not once did Ken unsheathe his weapon to retaliate. He solely relied upon god-tier footwork. He stepped as weightlessly as a phantom dancing upon the surface of water, evading every single one of Svara’s fatal slashes by a mere margin of millimeters. Occasionally, Ken raised the back of his hand, lightly parrying the blunt edge of the maiden’s blade. Every time the cold steel clashed against Ken’s skin, a flurry of sparks mixed with shattered ice exploded into the air, creating tiny crystals that rained down like beautiful, lethal snowflakes.
Time marched on. As a direct consequence of chaining three high-tier elemental techniques consecutively, Svara’s mortal stamina began to graze its absolute limit. Her breaths grew increasingly heavy and ragged. Her shoulders heaved violently, frantically pumping residual oxygen. Her sword swings, which were previously as swift as a northern gale, now began to decelerate, hemorrhaging their surgical precision. Ken could effortlessly observe beads of cold sweat freezing into ice crystals upon the maiden’s temples.
Realizing his disciple had struck the absolute boundary of her endurance, Ken raised a single hand, delivering an absolute signal. “Very well. We conclude this duel here. That is enough,” he stated firmly, yet his tone harbored the proud smile of a master.
Hearing the edict, Svara immediately retracted her blade and lowered her martial stance. Her chest heaved violently as she gasped for air. Thick white vapor billowed from her lips with every exhale. Her beautiful visage was flushed deep crimson from extreme exhaustion, yet her eyes continued to blaze, radiating immense satisfaction for successfully demonstrating the absolute entirety of her potential without a shred of hesitation.
Ken strolled casually, erasing the distance between them, then lightly patted Svara’s sweat-drenched shoulder. “Flawless work,” he said, his voice tranquil, conveying genuine appreciation. “The potential of your ice-element manipulation techniques is evolving at a phenomenal pace. However…” Ken paused his sentence, staring piercingly into Svara’s eyes, “…you fight far too extravagantly. You rely excessively on brute force or raw, explosive power to execute every single technique. It is precisely that flaw that causes the Qi reserves within your meridians to be drained bone-dry in such a minuscule window of time.”
Svara exhaled a long breath, plunging the tip of her sword into the ice layer so her trembling mortal shell could lean upon it. “I… I comprehend the Master’s words. But in a battle of life and death, how am I to execute these identical techniques while maintaining superior energy efficiency?” she asked critically, wiping the frozen sweat from her forehead.
Ken swept his gaze across the garden, then took several steps back. He raised a single index finger, preparing to deliver a military lecture. “There is one fundamental key that segregates a mere amateur from an absolute master: Absolute Control. Your three elemental techniques earlier were indeed formidable, but they stood entirely independent of one another. If you possess the capacity to synchronize and fuse those three techniques into a single, unbroken chain of assault, their destructive yield will multiply exponentially—while your energy consumption will become phenomenally more economical.”
Svara raised her visage, her brow furrowing fiercely as she processed the theory. “Fusing… three grand techniques simultaneously in a single breath? Is such manipulative multitasking even possible for an ordinary human?”
A faint smirk radiating the absolute aura of a god of war reappeared on Ken’s visage. “Naturally, it is possible. Listen to the logic closely.”
Ken crouched down. He utilized the tip of his index finger to sketch a tactical schematic into the snow. “Envision this as your lethal combination flow: First, you detonate pure Ice Mist solely to cripple the enemy’s visibility and decelerate their movements. Second, invoke the Destructive Coiling not with the intent to crush their bones directly, but merely to bind their movements for a single second of absolute freezing. Then…” Ken looked up, his gaze locking sharply onto Svara’s eyes, his tone dropping phenomenally low and dangerous, “…at the exact blind spot when your foe is paralyzed and incapable of evasion, activate the Ice Scales! But remember, do not concentrate those scales upon your mortal shell as a defensive shield; rather, concentrate the absolute entirety of their thickness to sheathe and fortify the blade of your sword! If you execute this flawlessly, the weight of your sword slash will multiply its destructive yield, resembling a colossal sledgehammer coated in cosmic steel!”
Svara swallowed with extreme difficulty, her visage turning deathly pale as she comprehended the absolute horror of that brutal tactic. Astonishment and absolute awe fused within her eyes. “So… in the tactical hierarchy, the Coiling magic is not a finisher assault, but merely crowd control. And the Scale armor, its function is not to serve as an aegis, but rather as an absolute buff to amplify the destructive yield of my primary armament?!”
Ken nodded, validating the brilliant conclusion of his disciple. “Precisely. Engrave this into your mind: A true warrior in the cultivation realm is not revered solely for the colossal magnitude of their explosive power, but rather for how brilliantly and ruthlessly they manipulate the laws of energy within every swing of their technique. Furthermore, to mask your weaknesses… starting tomorrow, you must temper your mortal physique and muscular endurance a hundred times harder, so that the vessel of your body is capable of housing an exponentially larger volume of Star Seal energy without the fear of running dry too swiftly.”
Svara clenched her fists tightly. The rhythm of her breathing began to stabilize once more, even though her thigh muscles still quivered slightly as they fought off exhaustion. “I… I comprehend it absolutely, Master. I shall dedicate the entirety of my cultivation time to fusing that lethal combination chain.”
Ken patted the maiden’s shoulder again, this time with a fatherly smile that was profoundly warmer. “Excellent. Your resolve is already anchored upon the correct path. But do not force yourself to master it this very day. Your energy reserves have already hit rock bottom. Rest your meridians, replenish your Qi through meditation. You will always possess the time to perfect it later.”
Svara nodded firmly without a shred of hesitation. “As you command, Master.”
The maiden plucked her ice sword from the earth, staring at her own reflection upon the silver blade with eyes that blazed with newly born, absolute resolve. I swear I will master this chain of death… and stand as the absolute strongest to butcher my enemies, Svara vowed, carving her oath upon the expanse of eternal snow.