Chapter Three: Power (1)

"Do you want to be able to cultivate?”

Raider's mind went blank upon hearing this question.

His whole life he had been told he could not cultivate and had to watch others do just that. He had to suffer the life of a mortal while others had it easy. Worse, he was forced to do dirty work for those who had it easy and could simply wave a hand to accomplish what would take him an hour to do.

Of course he wanted to have the same abilities.

But at the same time he wondered if that would truly make him happy.

Not everyone in the Clan was happy. Sure, they had it easy, but they all had their own difficulties.

Social classes were well defined and merit was extremely important. Resources were split according to one's class and one's standing within the class, as such, there was a lot of competition within each class.

Raider didn't want to enter this world, he was happier with the devil he knew.

But at the same time... why couldn't he be like everyone else? Why was the world so unfair to him?

The hardest to accept was that the clanspeople had always made sure to remind him that he wasn't the problem, rather they were all special and he was the only normal one.

Why couldn't he live with other normal people then? Why was he abandoned? Who were his parents? Where was he from?

These questions had plagued his mind for as long as he could remember and he knew that the only way he could ever get an answer would be to become one of those powerful cultivation experts who could roam the skies, travel the world and live for hundreds, even thousands of years.

Did he want to cultivate?

"How?" he asked uncertainly.

"Hmpf" the man smirked. He quickly performed some hand gestures that seemed to be an incantation and then hit himself in the stomach.

A small portion of his soul detached itself from his body with a ray of light. Raider shielded his eyes and thus didn't see the portion of soul shooting towards him and expanding to cover him up.

When Raider reopened his eyes he was taken aback and tried to step out of the portion of soul. He couldn't move at all. He almost felt like he was being squeezed by the air around him.

This continued for about three breaths of time before the spirit withdrew the piece of soul and reintegrated it.

He looked perplexed.

Raider as well wasn't sure what was going on. It was the third time now that nothing had happened, except this time, he could see the magic around him and even feel something around him, just nothing inside.

"If I can't instil cultivation directly into you then maybe a Dao seed will allow you to cultivate on your own..." the spirit said, more to himself than to Raider.

He performed some more incantation gestures and then placed his index finger on his forehead. His entire spirit-body seemed to dim a little as light gathered into a little ball on his fingertip.

He slowly removed his hand from his forehead and then flicked the ball of light towards Raider. It flew directly into the latter's own forehead and went straight through him.

Next, a familiar scene played out with a youth standing there perplexed and a ball of light repeatedly going in and out of him from every direction. However this time the spirit did something different.

He controlled the ball of light to stop within Raider's brain and then detonated it!

He controlled the resulting fragments to directly imprint themselves onto the neurones making up Raider's brain.

To the spirit's dismay, the outburst of light also slipped right through Raider and this time faded into a dim gaseous substance that quickly returned to assimilate with its original owner.

The incorporeal man was speechless. He was certain this method would work. How could this kid be impervious to everything?!

"Kid are you a ghost or what?" asked the spirit in visible shock.

Raider was also surprised at the moment. Surprised that nothing was working and surprised at the man's reaction. He was starting to think that maybe this spirit had been dead too long and was weak. Maybe the so-called expert hadn't even been so almighty while alive. Maybe all of it was for show.

Nonetheless he tried to maintain his attitude and explained.

"I'm just a mortal slave. It just so happens that for some reason some magical attacks don't work on me. No one in the Clan understands why and neither do I…"

The spirit listened but didn't say anything. He was still using his gaze to examine Raider. Every time their eyes met, Raider would shudder and feel completely exposed.

"What's your deepest desire in life?" asked the spirit while staring at Raider intensely.

The young boy was startled by the question.

Two shadows suddenly pooped up in his mind. They had no features, no colours, nothing. They were silhouettes of a couple, his parents. Having never met them he had no idea what they looked like.

"To find my parents, to live a happy and peaceful life with them." he said, resolutely.

"What if they aren't alive?" probed the spirit.

"I still need to find them." said Raider, unshaken. The thought had naturally occurred to him.

He had been found as a baby by one of the clan experts when they went out to hunt. According to them, there weren't any traces of anything at the place they found him. There wasn't a single clue.

That's why he thought he had to be a powerful cultivator to find out about them. The higher one's cultivation base was, the better they understood the world and how it worked.

"What about being a slave? Is that not something you want to change?" asked the spirit.

"..." Raider was pondering.