Mountain's Folly

1. Burning Lights

Seeing the burning ships of the righteous Sect Effervescent Light sinking to the ground brought a wave of joy to me I hadn't felt in a long time. At last I had proven myself to become an elder in my own right, not just under the shadow of my father and Grandfather.

Attacking the Sect as they moved their mortal assets from one spirit mine to another was a simple but highly effective strategy. Without any assistance from anyone inside the sect, purely from the force I had built up over the years as I grew in the sect I managed to deal a severe blow to a powerhouse righteous sect near us. This would set them back a century at least.

Allowing us and our sect to grow greatly, as even a sliver of resources diverted from their paladins was a great boon to us. Fighting those nascent soul elders had been a bit sketchy but with the strength of my Supreme Soul and my puppets, I managed to be very successful in the attack. Taking the three-down had been difficult but Thanks to them I now had three more soul puppets with Nascent Soul potential.

It would take some resources to get them up to the level needed for them to get back to the strength they had in life. Probably never really reaching it but still. More core formation soldiers to add to my force were always a boon. Also, none of the elders were particularly impressive. So there wasn't too much a need to put in too many resources.

The Remains burning down below was a welcome sight. There were quite a few of their young talents down there, with the ghouls happily reaping their souls, as I went about creating a few more puppets. It was a field day for my Unit. Each and every one of them advancing quite significantly. Young Ghure would even now be capable of consolidating his own soul cores for puppets, which was great to see.

Floating down towards the wreckage, pulled by the power of my soul sense, as It never really stirred me wrong. I came to a relativity intact section of one of the ships, the wards and formations of the Room still being extremely strong to my soul sight. It took a bit of hacking, but becoming a master of formations hadn't been for nothing. Moving into the completely intact room, filled with luxury.

A soulless corpse was lying on the ground. I could sense from the body the immense talent it had however, still talent doesn't stop your soul from dying In a giant soul transformation array powered by dozens of Core formation experts. The body had the remnant power of a qi foundation practitioner, but the effective strength of a lot more. The body seemed to contain boundless potential. Taking it into my storage glyph, I moved around the room carefully looking for what might have struck off my sense, that I had honed greatly for opportunities to become an elder.

On the desk was a letter, with a Sigel on it that brought me too a stop. The Towering Mountain sect had sent this kid a message. Quickly reading it I couldn't help but feel shocked. This kid had one of the greatest earthen innate body talent seen in quite some time. He was to be transported to become the disciple of one of the elders in the sect, with occasional teaching from the Sect leader Himself. One of two Infant Transformation Powerhouses on the continent, the other being my grandfather. This kid would have probably been a real thorn to my side in the future. Luckily I had snuffed him out before his talent could fully reveal itself. Suddenly my soul sense screamed at me to retreat. They must have sensed what had happened and sent some hounds to see if anything could be done for the talent.

"Flee" was the strong soul message I sent out to my forces, there was no way we would be able to face another force at the moment. My power was still very much recovering. I had to think fast, this was too good an opportunity to let go. Getting the body out of my glyph as well as a token my grandfather once gave me. I broke a piece of my soul off, immediately applying some healing elixirs and absorbing some nearby soul energy, still It would take proper recovery to be able to return to full power, I sent the powerful little split remnant into the body, Quickly adding a formation on the section of the airship that would protect against soul power, which would explain why he was alive. I also applied to the soul protection Glyph my grandfather had given me. The greatest soul practitioner alive. With that glyph added to the body in front of me, even the old fogeys in the Towering Mountain Sect would only see in my soul what they think it should look like in a positive way, Hiding any corruption my soul infusion might cause.

I wasn't worried about such things though. Fusing with a qi gathering level child should be incredibly easy, no matter how talented. Especially since his talent lies in the earth, rather than any force that fights directly against the soul, like light or purity. Explosions ringing from outside brought to a head that I would have to rush, Fully completing the infusion I had only just managed to make the scene look like I had just got there when the hounds attacked. Teleporting back a few times I used up another treasure to bring me far away.

It was up to my soul fragment now to make use of the opportunity I now had. I would have to go into long-term seclusion now. I would only be able to communicate with the soul when I reach core formation in the other body. So I had time for rest. For even the greatest talent needs time to consolidate and further their foundation. Something I was sure I was going to make as firm as possible. I was fully aware how important foundations were to your strength. So It would be my endeavour to make full use of this new oppurtunity.