Chương 120: 20% Debuff

Coming back from the Two Suns world was smoother when you didn't have to die first. I had to admit that I liked this way a lot better. Being vaporized or stabbed or turning into light made for some dramatic exits, but they weren't fun at all.

"Congratulations on not dying Master," Azure said when I felt my consciousness drop back into my actual body.

"How long was I gone for this time?" I asked him while I opened my eyes.

"Around two hours." That was more or less what I was expecting.

"So, it's the exact same ratio as last time, a whole month over there is two hours back here." Before Azure had a chance to say anything, I felt a gentle tugging feeling pulling at my soul. I closed my eyes and pushed my awareness straight down into my inner world. And there, sitting inside this special little bubble next to the Genesis Seed was something that made me break out into a huge smile. The soul bond had worked! Yggy had travelled back with me to the cultivation world!

Through our new connection, I could literally feel how curious the vine was, and how badly it wanted to explore this new place. Its little consciousness brushed up against my mind asking if it was allowed to come outside.

"Alright buddy," I smiled.

"You can come on out, but make sure you're being careful, okay? This world is different from what you're used to." I opened my eyes while keeping our connection going, Yggy materialized next to me in a swirling flash of bright green light. The vine was moving carefully, its tip weaving through the air like it was trying to taste it, but then it suddenly recoiled and wrapped itself tight around my arm. The feeling I was getting from it was straight up alarm.

"The energy in this place is different," Azure explained to me.

"The vine is used to pulling its power from the two suns, so even though qi is everywhere in our world, it is fundamentally different from what Yggy is used to using." That made sense to me. I reached my hand out to stroke Yggy.

"You should still be able to pull your energy from the suns inside my inner world," I told it through our soul bond. I knew better than to speak out loud.

"But out here, in the real world, we use an energy called qi." Yggy bent its tip to make a question mark shape. I could feel its curiosity spiking through our bond.

"Qi is... well it's kind of like the energy of life itself," I tried explaining.

"Every living thing produces it, and cultivators like me learn how to gather it and control it. It isn't better or worse than the sun energy, it's just different." I ended up spending the next couple minutes explaining the basics about qi cultivation, the vine slowly started to relax as it began to get used to it.

"Master," Azure called out, "while I hate ruining this nice moment, we need to be careful. We have no idea how the sect elders are going to react to seeing a creature that uses some unknown energy source. It would probably be better to keep Yggy hiding in your inner world until we figure out what the consequences could actually be."

"Sorry about this, buddy," I sighed to Yggy, "but Azure has a good point. We need to lay low for now until we can figure out if this place is safe for you." Yggy's tip dropped down looking a little sad, but I felt it understand me through our bond. The vine gave my arm one last squeeze before it dissolved back into those floating motes of green light and went straight back into its little bubble inside my inner world.

"Maybe I can try asking Elder Chen Yong about some strange spiritual beasts when we have our next formation lesson," I mumbled while I walked over to my window. The night sky outside was clear with stars twinkling over the sect's mountain peaks.

"If I'm careful about how I ask him, I might be able to find out how the sect handles creatures that don't use qi." I tried to fight back a huge yawn. Jumping between different worlds really was exhausting.

"For now, though," I said, walking over to my bed, "I think it's time for me to get some sleep. We can figure out what we're doing tomorrow morning."

When the next day rolled around, I walked through the core disciple area, heading over to Liu Chen's quarters. Since I wasn't in the Two Suns world anymore, the blue sun was back up in its normal orbit inside my inner world. Which meant, theoretically, I could fly again, but I didn't want to show that trick to anybody now. But the more important thing was that since I had the Shroud rune now, I didn't need to use the blue sun to hide me anymore whenever I wanted to channel the red sun's power.

And honestly, taking a twenty percent debuff was a fair trade to make sure I stayed hidden. But I still needed to go test out how it was going to affect my runes in a real fight, that was the reason why I was looking for Liu Chen. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I found him hanging out in his training yard, practicing his basic sword forms while Rocky stood watching him proudly.

The giant stone guardian was the first one to notice I was there, he let out this loud grinding noise that I figured was his way of saying hello.

"Brother Ke?" Liu Chen dropped his practice sword.

"Is everything okay? We saw you two days ago..." I couldn't stop myself from smiling, because to him our last meeting was fresh, but to me it felt like we hadn't spoken in weeks.

"Everything's fine," I promised him.

"I was actually hoping I could do some training with Rocky if you're okay with that. I've got a couple new techniques I want to test out." Rocky stood up straight when I said that and he mumbled out something that sounded like "Rocky happy help." His rocky face wasn't great at showing emotions, but I could tell how excited he was by the way he was moving around.

"Can I watch?" Liu Chen asked me. The boy was already bouncing up and down on his toes in excitement.

"Elder Song said that watching real cultivators spar is almost as good as practicing yourself!"

"Of course you can," I rubbed his head.

"Lead the way." Liu Chen walked over to his private training area, it was a space they specifically built to handle the destruction caused by cultivators. The ground was reinforced using spirit stones and there were formation arrays lining the walls to catch any stray energy blasts. We got into our positions. Me and Rocky faced off against each other while Liu Chen stood off to the side at a spot he thought was a safe distance to watch from. Which was a smart move.

"Are you ready?" Liu Chen yelled out, appointing himself the referee. When he received the nod he was looking for from both of us, he chopped his hand straight down.

"Fight!" My eyes narrowed as I studied how Rocky was standing. We were both at the sixth stage of Qi Condensation now, which made him the perfect opponent to test out how that twenty percent power drop felt. I channeled the Shroud rune's power, feeling something similar to a veil settle over my presence. Then, in one smooth motion, I activated Blink Step and vanished. I popped back into existence in front of Rocky with my right fist already swinging, powered up by the Titan's Crest rune.

The giant stone guardian reacted faster than I thought he would, and he met my punch straight on using his own massive rocky fist. The actual impact felt... different. The twenty percent drop in my power was noticeable, but it wasn't as crippling as I thought it'd be. Our fists clashing together sent a shockwave blowing through the training ground. With him being so large and me having the debuff, we seemed evenly matched.

"The power decrease seems to affect your raw power output more than it messes with your precision or your speed," Azure pointed out when I had to duck straight under Rocky's massive follow up swing. What happened next was this fast exchange of punches that probably would have looked ridiculous to anybody watching, since it was a normal human sized cultivator trading heavy blows with a literal fifteen-foot-tall stone guardian. But Rocky was proving that he was an excellent sparring partner for me.

My speed was letting me weave around his heavy hits but his ridiculous durability meant I got to test out my different combinations without having to hold back too much. My right cross that was boosted up by the Titan's Crest barely managed to chip his thick stone skin. His counter punch came flying in and almost took my head off, which forced me to backflip to get away.

I landed down in a crouch, but I had to instantly roll out of the way sideways, because Rocky's giant foot came smashing down into the spot I was sitting in.

"Your form is improving a lot," I yelled out to him because I was genuinely impressed.

"Have you been practicing?" Rocky made this grinding reply that was probably supposed to be bashful, but it was hard to tell what he meant when he had a face made out of solid rocks. I sprang back up onto my feet. It was finally time to test out how the Shroud rune was going to affect my elemental techniques. But before I got the chance to fire off my Vine Whip, Rocky did something unexpected.

His right arm shot forward, literally extending as the stone restructured itself, turning his already impressive reach into something ridiculous. Seeing that, my eyes went wide. The Aegis Mark activated almost on instinct and its hexagonal barrier popped up in time to catch Rocky's extending fist. The huge impact still sent me sliding backward with my boots leaving deep grooves in the reinforced ground.

"Go, Rocky!" Liu Chen was cheering loudly from the sidelines.

"Show him your new technique!" I could feel Yggy stirring around restless inside my inner world, it was eager to jump out and join the fight.

"Not yet, buddy," I sent back to it through our bond. I landed back into a controlled slide and fired off my Vine Whip which made three nearby vines respond to my will. While they were wrapping around my body, I activated the Explosive Seed, and made sure I was carefully measuring how much power I was feeding into them. This spar wasn't about trying to win; it was about testing out how my runes were going to interact with each other while they were under the Shroud's debuff effect.

The vines shot forward looking like living whips. Rocky managed to dodge the first one, then he grabbed the second one out of the air and hurled it away from him. But the third one actually managed to wrap itself tight around his thick leg when he was finishing off his impressive rolling dodge. And that was when I triggered the explosion to go off. It was a pretty minor explosion since I deliberately kept the power low, but it still filled the training ground up with thick dust and flying debris.

When the smoke finally cleared out, Rocky was standing there looking more stunned than he was actually damaged.

"I think that's enough for today," I called out. I dropped my guard down instead of trying to take advantage of the giant being stunned.

"Thank you for the spar, Rocky, you are honestly a perfect training partner." Rocky kind of shook off the effects from the explosion and then he gave me a huge bow.

"Rocky learn lots," he rumbled out.

"Thank you." Liu Chen came running over, he was practically vibrating from how excited he was.

"That was so amazing! I want to spar with you too, Brother Ke!" I let out a big laugh while I ruffled up his hair.

"One day kid. You need to focus on your basics for now, because they're more important than trying to do flashy techniques." The giant stone guardian gave a sage nod to agree with me, although the whole effect was ruined by all the tiny pieces of debris that were still falling off his body from my explosion.

I stayed around to help clean up the training ground and apologize to the really frazzled looking gardener who ran over to investigate the loud explosion, when we were done, I finally said my goodbyes and headed back toward the outer disciple area. The spar had been informative. The Shroud rune's power reduction was manageable, and the ability to freely use the red sun's energy more than made up for it. I was lost in analyzing the fight with Azure that I almost missed it.

A familiar voice appeared behind me, smooth as silk and twice as dangerous.

"It has been a while, Junior Brother."