A Dance with Darkness and Light: Re-Origination

33: Event Horizon

The guards, of course, made way and Field Marshal Faolan, accompanied by his entourage of the two princes and three elders they passed the gates. The door to the embassy opened when the group just reached the steps. Three elders exited the embassy to greet the group from Ralun.

"It is quite an honor for the Guardian of the Arch to make a visit himself." The female elder in the middle said. This elder was the character with the highest authority, apart from the members of the royal family, that came along to this trip to Donar.

"It is also quite the surprise that someone of grand elder Arya's esteemed position would be attending such an event," Faolan said.

"Well, since my direct line disciple wished to attend to this times royal tournament for some reason, I myself could also not sit idle." She said with a smile that was clearly suffused with pride when she mentioned her disciple.

Both groups exchanged some more pleasantries before the third prince of Ralun, Karon, spoke up. "Could we cut to the chase, please? How is my dear little brother?"

Even though the way he spoke and the fact that he cut into the conversation proved to be a lack of etiquette. To the outside, it also seemed to be purely the agitated words of a worried older brother.

To the Ralunians among the two groups, and especially to Kuzan, this was merely a farce Karon used to seem magnanimous. A character like grand elder Arya was, of course, able to sense the subtle changes on their faces. Particularly the first prince's face had a thick black line between his eyes.

Grand elder Arya chuckled slightly and said. "Well, concerning that. You may wait in the lounge inside, but your fourth prince is currently not receiving visitors. About his injuries, he was indeed found severely wounded in front of our gates. He had lost quite a lot of blood, but his wounds have been treated, and he is out of danger now."

"What do you mean our prince doesn't receive any visitors? This is preposterous!" one of the elders lashed out.

"What exactly are you trying to do?" He followed up.

"Calm down, Ferra. I believe grand elder Arya will have an explanation." Faolan chimed in.

Waiting for an answer, Faolan only saw complicated expressions on the grand elder's and two elder's faces. Almost a minute of silence prevailed before grand elder Arya, shrugged her shoulders, sighed with a wry smile on her face and said.

"My disciple and your prince, they...they are currently in closed-door cultivation."

Another round of silence persisted before Faolan himself asked in befuddlement.

"They are...WHAT?! What do you mean by closed-door cultivation? You don't mean dual-cult..."

Grand elder Arya interrupted him with a wave of her hand and said seriously. "We are not clear on anything right now, so please don't indulge in flights of fancy grand marshal."

All the while, Karon seemed a bit lost as he could not follow the conversation, though his interest piqued when he heard that his youngest brother might dual-cultivate with the grand-elders disciple.

He looked around and found that his uncle still seemed a bit shocked. Elder Ferra Yael was seemingly lost in thought, the other elder, elder Delaqoa had a full smile on his face and a rather proud posture. His eldest brother had his face covered in his hands, although a wry smile still managed to peek out between them.

Disgruntled inside, he realized his younger brother might have hit the jackpot. He knew nothing about the identity of the grand elder's disciple but considering the grand elder's status. The disciple had to be just as imposing as the master. What he was sure of was how beneficial it would be to find a suitable partner to dual-cultivate with.

Again, dual-cultivation was not uncommon, even more so for a prince. Many princes would have several partners, and some would even use these women as vessels to be filled with many precious herbs and medicines before consuming them whole and then discarding their hollow husks. Of course, this principle would work equally so for women. But, having a suitable partner and having them work in tandem would therefore immensely increase the effects in the cultivation process for both parties. In contrast, any such techniques as mentioned above results, paled dearly if the latter was the case.

~~~

Inside Elanar's room, both her and Bazuul sat there silently, immersed in their worlds and the task at hand.

The core essence of the moonlight inside Bazuul's world had already begun to transfer toward Elanar's. More than that, it had formed a sort of bridge. Connecting both worlds and weaving their consciousness into one.

At first, this process seemed chaotic and out of balance, but much like the stars in the cosmos, both eventually locked onto one another and danced through the empty. The very being of both their souls grew exponentially.

As Elanar fed on the constant stream of moonlight Bazuul provided her, while he feasted on her magnificence, on her presence alone. Subsequently causing the light side of his inner world to - though still inaccessible - grow ever so slightly.

Together as one, they grew out of their inner world into the empty as their souls became astral forms, much like an observable constellation in the sky.

Turned into constellations, their whole bearing had reached something beyond majesty.

Soon though, their cosmic forms crashed into one another, weaving their very soul essence together. They disassembled, collided, and reassembled — each time creating massive explosions in this empty space that held both their worlds, again and again.

Hours upon hours passed, and both did not seem to stop anytime soon. The people inside Lumin's embassy had already transitioned to the dining room and could feel enormous energy waves flaring up from time to time. Afraid that the eyes of other groups would forget to show restraint after the first wave rolled over them. Grand elder Arya put up several layers of formations to prevent any such cases.

To be honest, this action was incredibly excessive considering the fact we were talking about two late-stage true qi cultivators, but the energy waves coming from them were the actual cause of this reaction from grand elder Arya. Usually, cultivators would gather the qi of heaven and earth. Depending on their elemental aptitudes, the environment for cultivation would change.

For example, a young cultivator with the fire element would rather cultivate in hot regions containing a lot of qi with a fire polarity rather than wet areas. Another example would be the revered blacksmith of the Vermillion Sword Sect, Huo Jin. An expert of the fifth spirit realm — Only three stages below Bazuul's father, the second strongest person in the Seven Kingdoms. Was said to be cultivating at the same place he would forge the swords and armor for his sect, inside a volcano nearby their domain.

The same would count for magicians, although not to such extremes since mages rarely trained their bodies.

Another example, albeit a rare one, would be someone such as Bazuul with an aptitude for all elements. Such a cultivator could be able to gather and condense the very essence of nature and then convert it into qi. Legends say those with this gift would be able to create out of nothing. So far, though, records of such feats were far and few.

The energy waves radiating from the Lumin embassy though, were neither.

Even field marshal Faolan and grand elder Arya, as experienced as they were, could only make an uneducated guess that this was an equally legendary form of qi called divine qi. Not daring to speak such thoughts out loud both kept this idea to themselves. Hoping the formations would keep this matter contained to the outside.