Like a Ray in My Night (Part 4)

635 Not a Match

Lei Chen pulled out one stone after the other as if he had made a hobby out of collecting them wherever he went.

After more than a dozen of them, Mei Chao Bing finally didn't continue taking in the energy after the next one was presented to him. Instead, he simply looked at Lei Chen, trying to formulate a sentence in his mind that didn't sound too scathing.

His Master had urged him earlier that he shouldn't waste any time but now, here they were, training something he knew how to do but not shedding any light on what he didn't know. It was as if this Elder Lei had really taken him as a disciple at the beginning of the Qi gathering stage and was trying to get him to practice diligently.

Mei Chao Bing took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled. "Elder Lei ..." He had some trouble using that address for the man opposite him but still forced it out between gritted teeth. Anyway, he was an Elder of the Wu Yun Sect from the looks of it and since he didn't know what else to call him, this seemed to be the best way. "I don't mean to cause issues but I do know how to take in spiritual energy. What I don't know is how this exercise will help me with doing as ... Elder Feng has asked of me." He couldn't bring himself to call the other person involved in this his Master so he fell back on the address of Elder. Anyway, after just calling Lei Chen this way, it didn't seem to be as difficult.

Lei Chen inclined his head. He kept quiet for a moment until that voice was projected once again. "Learn to differentiate the minuscule differences between energies. Separate the one you need. Take that one in and ignore every other."

Mei Chao Bing faintly turned his head, his mind churning. To differentiate energies in this case should mean learning to recognize the different types they had shown him before. After all, that scroll shouldn't be for naught. If he knew all of them, he could likely latch onto the energy of the person trapped in that array as well and could take it in. Still, he wondered about the logistics.

"Correct me if I am wrong but it seems that that person's energy is quite special. When I went to the southern chasm, I believe I felt it once." Yes, it should have been that time when he approached the far end of the chasm. At that time, he had felt an energy unlike any ever before. He hadn't been able to describe it well even to himself. It simply gave him a feeling of wrongness. Such an energy ... he couldn't mistake it for any other.

Lei Chen inclined his head, not contradicting him. He didn't say anything else though as if his previous words had explained everything.

Mei Chao Bing's lips twitched. While he had hated how strict his Master had been when he was young and just learned the way of cultivation, his explanations had at least always been coherent if concise. There was usually nothing left he had to ask because all the important points had been covered and only details he could figure out himself were left out. With this Lei Chen, it wasn't the same.

"Since it isn't difficult to differentiate this energy, why are we practicing this? My original issue was how I am supposed to take in the energy of somebody who is unlikely to just let me do so. If it was a cultivator weaker than me, fine. But we are talking about a person here who should be at the end of the demigod stage." In fact, from the descriptions he had read, he felt that it might be even higher.

He had heard in the past that there was the possibility of reaching the end of the demigod but not ascending. This certainly wasn't something many cultivators would do as attaining immortality was usually the goal so ascending to Heaven was paramount but in theory, this possibility existed.

If he had to wager a guess, it would be that this person had destroyed the continent they originally came from in pursuit of strength. By doing so, they had gone against the way of Heaven. Burdening themselves with a cause and effect that was too heavy to still allow ascension. Because of their strength, they managed to escape the usually fatal fate of being unable to ascend and simply remained here as what should probably be called a wandering immortal.

In the end, they were finally sealed and their cultivation base slowly plummeted under the effect of the array although it remained to be seen by just how much that would be. Surely, it wouldn't be too low though. After all, it should have taken them hundreds if not thousands of years to originally reach that level. Even with that array working at its peak state, chances were that it would take just as long to erode that person's cultivation base.

More than likely, they were still a nascent soul stage cultivator or at least in the golden core stage. While the latter was lower than Mei Chao Bing's own level, that was only in theory. In cultivation, apart from the strict separation of cultivation realms, other factors had a major influence on your actual strength.

The skills you knew were one aspect. This was the one that Yun Bei Fen who had never gone outside to experience the world had struggled with. He himself was good in this regard as his Master had always urged him to study when he wasn't practicing or out on a mission. But still, he couldn't be compared to somebody of that age who had terrorized two continents.

Apart from that, there was also the purity of your energy. The longer you cultivated, the more lucky encounters you had, the purer your spiritual energy and the higher your strength. In this regard, he was also unable to compare.

So even if his nominal level was higher, he doubted that he would easily be a match against that person. In that case, how was he supposed to take in their energy? He still didn't get it.