Chapter 468: Fortitude

The Spiritual Sea was the embodiment of the mind. The control center his consciousness used to operate his body. While the soul was a separate entity without a body to contain it or a mind to drive it, it would discorporate and move on to the afterlife. Sage still found himself existing, but had no connection to the senses of his body. Given the attack that he had suffered, he could only hope that he wasn’t dead and this was merely a very powerful attack upon his mind. The moments of respite between each ‘life’ might be that moment of clarity when his mind was freed from the assault. Could that flame be forcing him to live out many lives filled with regret? What would be the point of that?

Only, he realized that after each reincarnation he seemed to be weakening. Was that the trick? Just purely mental exhaustion? After he lived a thousand lifetimes would his consciousness just fade out from fatigue?

Unfortunately, after thinking to this point, Sage found himself being born again. This time he gave himself an unceasing desire to reach the top of the world and unlock the full secrets of the mind at any cost!

The life that followed was particularly violent, fighting to reach the top was no serene pursuit and after some moderate success he was killed in his thirties battling over an ancient legacy.

After the usual acclimation and recovery of his memories, he hastened to find a way out of his predicament. He’d hoped to gain mental techniques to help him out of this situation, but thinking about it now, none of those techniques still existed in his mind. Were the lives he was living real? Could he take techniques from them and apply them to the ‘real’ world? After making dozens of attempts he found not only did they not work, he couldn’t even remember how to perform them. Just like the things that happened in a dream, the details quickly faded.

His time was up yet again and he gave himself supremely suicidal goals. The newest life was the most chaotic yet, the self harming fellow jumping off a cliff in his early teens after sabotaging every possible relationship and good thing that came his way.

This time, Sage was surprised to find that he was weakened less than the previous times he’d lived and died, but that wasn’t a solution in itself. If that was all he had he was still doomed. Fighting the urge to panic, he maintained his calm and ran through every mean he had available. Before he could formulate a plan he’d need to find out what tools he had left.

His connection to the outside world was severed, he had none of his senses. Yet, he still felt a subtle reaction. It took him a while to understand it, but he eventually realized it was a resonance of the soul. The Blacksilver Pawns! Or at least the Soul Fragments he’d placed within them. The Blacksilver King had been destroyed and with it the pawns he’d used to make it. Yet, they were just an amalgamation of his own powers and not profound objects. The Soul Fragments weren’t destroyed and just as before they responded like his own limbs. They were driven like appendages for his soul, yet without any external senses they couldn’t really be made into a body on their own. That was why Sage had only been using them as ‘controllers’ for mass created through his Heavenly Materials.

The Soul Fragments didn’t seem all that useful to him at the moment, as he was very much lacking in methods and techniques related to the soul. Even so, they pointed him in the right direction. After another quick and suicidal life and death, Sage tried to focus on his own soul. Normally, his consciousness could easily fall into his body and enter his dantian where that space nebula and planet existed. Except this time, there seemed to be some sort of force or power restricting him. He was locked into this dark silent space without any way to escape.

Thoroughly infuriated, he mustered all his strength and tried to smash his will against the walls that trapped him. Even if he couldn’t see or sense anything, he imagined his mind and consciousness charging forward and smashing through whatever contained it. He felt a sudden pain and weakness. Pain like he hadn’t experienced in years washed over him, but instead of being distressed he was excited.

Something other than darkness and silence!

He repeated his actions, imagining his consciousness to be a giant. An invincible mountain of strength that could stomp and smash its way through any confinement. There was more pain and weakness, but it felt great! He was still here! He hadn’t been thrown into another new life again! As if to celebrate this situation, he redoubled his efforts and went on another imaginary rampage.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light in the darkness. A large crack formed in front of him and light spilled through. He envisioned his mental colossus shoving his hands into the crack and prying it apart.

Crnk!

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Like glass shattering the darkness fell away and Sage’s realized he was back at the center of the Infinite Immaterial Seat. Yet, it was nothing like it had been before. The whole place looked like it was made of wax and it was left outside on a warm day. Everything was melting and drooping. Even the formations and patterns that had formed from consuming the Psionic Crystals were warped and destroyed.

Outside of the mental fortress, the human shaped giant of flame was still there and fire continued to fall from the sky. Only, the giant was no longer roaring. It was not staring right at him. It was like the many walls and obstructions of the labyrinth didn’t exist and the giant could see directly at him in the core. The flame giant’s face twisted into a smile and Sage felt a huge pressure weigh upon him.

Boom!

Everything went dark and then he felt cold and heard the wailing of a newborn once again. He tried to inspire suicidal thoughts to escape quickly again, but he suddenly felt powerless and his memories faded quickly.

After living sixty years as a humble shoe cobbler, Sage found himself in his mental fortress again and felt his strength had decreased yet again. His mind is just too strong!

Giving up thoughts of a direct mental battle, he tried to return to the real world. If he could find the source of the flame giant he might be able to kill his body. Without a body the mind would quickly fade. At least unless the enemy had become a Nascent Soul, and with how little these people seemed to know about cultivation there was little chance that was true. This world seemed filled with people that only used Spirit Power so they likely knew absolutely nothing about Qi Cultivation.

Failure!

While he’d broken free of the prison his mind had been in, there seemed to be a second layer around his Spiritual Sea. He couldn’t regain control over his body! Sage struggled mightily, bashing against the wall until he was forced into another cycle of life and death. He didn’t give up, fighting through three more cycles before there was finally a crack. He dove into that Spiritual Sea and sent his consciousness into his body. The flame giant didn’t follow after him, just laughing as he left.

Without inhabiting his mind, there was no way to drive his body, so the flame giant felt no fear and continued to burn and destroy Sage’s mental fortress. Worse still, without even the protection of that mental fortress if Sage tried to return to his Spiritual Sea he’d be completely helpless against the enemy. Once the fortress was gone he could work on the island and when that was finished he’d dry up the Spiritual Sea. At that point, Sage’s body would be an empty shell. A coma patient that would quickly pass away.

Sage couldn’t let that happen. While it may seem foolish to work so hard to ensure his own destruction, it was the only method he could think of to break free from this situation. Even if the enemy he faced had no Qi Cultivation, it’s Spirit Power was many times stronger. Sage had always had difficulty choosing a path for himself, spreading himself thin and always chasing after the next best thing he came upon instead of devoting himself to mastering a single subject. He’d thought that his drastic improvement in Spirit Cultivation and the fortress he’d built in his mind was enough to face anyone, but it seems he was mistaken. There was always a taller mountain out there and it was his misfortune to run into this one.

Faced with this deadly situation, he found only one route to salvation.

Get stronger!

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