Chapter 83: Meeting the Patriarch
Dyne immediately put on his clothes. He just showed them a bit of epidermis, and it drove these old men nuts.
“Strafe. Why’d you make a pair of pedos in Biron Monastery?” He asked furiously.
“What pedos?! You just showed them an Elemental Spirit Seed in a human body! Only Biron has had that!”
“Is it that hard? I mean… I had it easy.”
“YOU!” Strafe wanted to send another spirit blast at Dyne.
“Erm… Right. So about this Elemental Spirit thing. I have it because of luck.” Dyne smiled.
Kin was jolted awake.
“Tetsu! Wake Master Zopu! Master Dyne, how is it that you have this?”
“Guardian Kin. Allow me to explain everything that we’ve been through. I’ve already told a general introduction about Dyne Valiant and Vahn Helsing. But first, we must awaken Master Zopu.”
“Helsing? Vahn’s name is Vahn Helsing?” Dyne was shocked.
“Oh… You didn’t know?” Tetsu was confused.
“Never mind.” Dyne shook his head.
“Lord… Biron.” Zopu muttered as Tetsu woke him up.
Zopu then opened his eyes and looked at Dyne.
He then gave a humble bow.
“Lord Biron.”
“Erm… I’m not him. I did meet him, though.” Dyne smiled. Truthfully, Dyne was being honest. The soul of Biron must have been someone powerful, and therefore must have been one of the mighty entities that he saw when Strafe brought him to Elpida.
“You met him?”Dyne immediately put on his clothes. He just showed them a bit of epidermis, and it drove these old men nuts.
“Strafe. Why’d you make a pair of pedos in Biron Monastery?” He asked furiously.
“What pedos?! You just showed them an Elemental Spirit Seed in a human body! Only Biron has had that!”
“Is it that hard? I mean… I had it easy.”
“YOU!” Strafe wanted to send another spirit blast at Dyne.
“Erm… Right. So about this Elemental Spirit thing. I have it because of luck.” Dyne smiled.
Kin was jolted awake.
“Tetsu! Wake Master Zopu! Master Dyne, how is it that you have this?”
“Guardian Kin. Allow me to explain everything that we’ve been through. I’ve already told a general introduction about Dyne Valiant and Vahn Helsing. But first, we must awaken Master Zopu.”
“Helsing? Vahn’s name is Vahn Helsing?” Dyne was shocked.
“Oh… You didn’t know?” Tetsu was confused.
“Never mind.” Dyne shook his head.
“Lord… Biron.” Zopu muttered as Tetsu woke him up.
Zopu then opened his eyes and looked at Dyne.
He then gave a humble bow.
“Lord Biron.”
“Erm… I’m not him. I did meet him, though.” Dyne smiled. Truthfully, Dyne was being honest. The soul of Biron must have been someone powerful, and therefore must have been one of the mighty entities that he saw when Strafe brought him to Elpida.
“You met him?”
“In a vision. Master Tetsu should explain everything.” Dyne motioned to Tetsu.
Kin and Zopu looked at Tetsu.
Tetsu then started to explain everything.
Tetsu followed Dyne’s stories and explained what happened. He talked about how he had to rescue one of the Hunters in Rim Elm and met the Dyne.
“I managed to bring him out of the Mist. He is actually not from Drake Continent. Seven years ago, this youth passed through this very Monastery.” Tetsu began.
Kin frowned and looked at the youth.
Zopu was stroking his beard but shook his head in the end.
“Seven years would have been the appearance of the Mist. There were many villagers evacuating from this place. I couldn't recollect who passed by Biron Monastery.”
Dyne secretly sighed in relief. Although he expected this to happen, he didn’t know if this really happened when the Mist came.
“Lord Dyne… How did you know that there were many evacuating? I thought you were sent by Tieg directly near Rim Elm.” Meta secretly sent him a message.
“I was. I knew this through basic deduction, Meta. King Drake of Drake Continent already knew of the Mist even when it appeared in Jeremy. His orders would have made the Biron monks in Drake move back to Biron. It's natural that many who are actually from Jeremi would flee here." Dyne deduced.
“Amazing Lord Dyne!” Meta praised.
Dyne only smiled. When he was a soldier, his wits and thinking were what saved him countless times.
“We know about that. Dyne has already told us of the chaos back then. But this young man is from Karisto! Form the great Sol Nation!” Tetsu explained.
“Sol!?” Kin was stunned.
“Sol Kingdom… The Holy Land of Biron Monks.” Zopu sighed.
“What happened?”
“Allow me.”
Tetsu used Dyne’s prepared lies. They hid in a cave but had to flee towards Drake Kingdom. There was a Fisherman’s boat docked near the water gate, and Tetsu decided to ride it to get to Rim Elm.
“But the currents were too strong, and we landed on this site. We then tried to go here, but then, we were attacked by the Basilisk, which freed Vahn from his possession.”
“I see. It’s quite a tale you have there. But what of the Elemental Spirit Seed?”
“I didn’t explain this even to Tetsu in detail. But I am a Seer of Tieg himself. During my possession, I came upon a dream world and found myself in Noaru Valley.” Dyne began to tell his tale. He knew that those who were possessed could still somehow move as it was with the strong wills of Noa’s parents.
Despite being possessed by a massive Seru, Noa’s parents had a way of communicating with Noa through their dreams. Dyne knew that this would be related to Soul Cultivation.
“In that dream, there I learned of Soul Cultivation,” Dyne explained.
Even Tetsu was stunned.
Dyne smiled at him when he told him this. And Dyne observed that the soul of Tetsu was once more, changing for the better.
Strafe was once more amazed.
“You really are a freak. You knew that would strengthen his resolve.” Strafe laughed.
Dyne ignored Strafe’s comments.
“In that dream, he taught me of certain training methods. I never had any chance to do that until earlier this week.”
“That’s right! Master Zopu, Guardian Kin! There is a powerful monster, unlike any other we’ve seen before. It was the reason that our friend Vahn has his body petrified.”
“A monster that can pose powerful petrification… So powerful that not even Medicine can heal… It is intriguing.”
Back when they got the Zenoir, Dyne tried using the Medicine they got in River Reach, but it didn’t work.
“It's because it petrifies the soul. Instead of the body, it goes for the soul.” Dyne explained.
“Which means only advanced soul cultivators can face and survive it. It was strong enough to defeat Zenoirs.”
“No Monk can face a Zenoir alone. Its tough shell is just too hard to hit. The Mist has also made them larger than normal. To think such a monster can kill these Serus.”
“The good thing is, it is currently weak. However, its powers are still not to be underestimated. It was that monster that petrified Vahn and allowed us to rescue him. The petrification of the Basilisk wasn’t strong enough to petrify both Vahn and the Seru in his arms.”
“What kind of Seru is that?” Kin immediately turned towards Vahn.
“I can sense amazing powers within it!” Kin observed.
Tetsu was surprised and turned to Dyne. He was worried as the secret of the Ra-Seru might be revealed.
“A Sim-Seru. A powerful Seru made by human hands.” Dyne explained casually.
“What is a Sim-Seru?” Zopu asked.
“During the war against Conkram, we were winning. The first to appear, which changed the tide of the battle, were these Sim-Serus. It was stronger than a normal Seru and granted its wearers immense power. It looks like that Vahn somehow managed to acquire it when he separated from the village.”
“I see. What an abomination!” Kin was shocked to hear of such horrors.
Tetsu was tongue-tied. Dyne casually resolved a troubling plot-hole in their story.
“The main problem is the Basilisk is building an army. And we believe it was planning to attack here. Its main base is south of here. But it seems it travels through the river that passes through Biron.”
Kin and Zopu glanced at each other.
“So it must be this monster that has been attacking our Monks. We’ve lost several Outer Disciples and a few Inner Disciples, and they were gone without a trace. Some to the south and some on the north. But we never thought that the monster harassing us on these locations were one.” Zopu frowned.
“It seems it has set its eyes on you. Body Cultivators. Either that or the mysterious heat source under Biron. May I ask what it is?”
“Only if you tell us about the Elemental Spirit Seed.” Guardian Kin smiled.
“Of course. We all need to know this. The truth I got this because of the Basilisk.”
“How so?”
“The creation of this Seed varies from cultivator to cultivator. Elemental Spirit Soul is a very advanced level of Soul Cultivation. And it requires a lot of things. Tieg bestowed this power to me. But for normal cultivators, you need a Force Foundation, a Mind Chamber, and have a powerful energy source that can constantly provide energy.”
“Mind Chamber?” Guardian Kin was confused at this term.
“Is this the energy necessary to cast magic like how Va- I mean- Seru’s use magic?” Tetsu clarified.
“No. Serus use their soul to cast magic. So it’s technically Soul Cultivation. This is a totally different path. Think of it this way, you Monks practice the cultivation of the Body and the Soul. But there is a third path—the Mind. Biron must have created an Elemental Spirit Soul using other means. Maybe he even relied on Serus to harness the energy. After all, that era where he lived had so many monsters and powerful Serus.” Dyne explained.
“Then how can we create one?”
“I think… it’s impossible to create an Elemental Soul Seed. At least as of now. Tieg bestowed in me powerful life energy. By sheer chance, the petrification of the Basilisk was an Earth soul attack. And there was also the Zenoir that the Basilisk petrified. I used the Soul Fire of the Zenoir, the Basilisk Soul Earth, and relied on Tieg’s bestowed power to help me create this. I don’t think it's something we can easily create.”
Zopu and Kin sighed.
“As expected. The acts of Lord Biron are not easy to imitate. But the way you wield fire just brought us much hope.” Zopu laughed.
Tetsu also nodded.
“Wait. All you wanted was to wield fire? I thought you wanted to create an Elemental Spirit Seed! If it’s just that, it is possible.” Dyne clarified.
“Possible?”
“Wielding fire? Like the Serus?”
“Yeah. Did you think this wielding fire is because of my Seed? Well, it helps me… But wielding fire is technically Mind cultivation. Just cultivate as a Mind Cultivator.”
“PFFFFT!” In the Spirit realm, Strafe had spat out the coffee. He was not actually drinking coffee, but the sheer shock of Dyne’s statement caused him to spit out coffee as if he was drinking coffee.
“Wait. Give me a sec. I’ll try not to rely on my Elemental Spirit Seed.” Dyne closed his eyes.
The energy in front of him gathered. A few minutes later, there was a bright yellow glow on Dyne’s palms, which he held open as he sat in mediation. There was a strange warmth on his palm.
Dyne continued to remain silent and concentrated on gathering energy.
The bright energy continued to grow more and more. Soon, a small spark of fire could be seen appearing on Dyne's hands.
Dyne opened his eyes.
“Ugh. I didn’t know it was this difficult. But there you go. Fire. See? No Elemental Spirit Seed used!” Dyne smiled as he held fire in his arms.
Kin and Zopu kneeled down and kowtowed at Dyne.
“We serve Patriarch Dyne Valliant of Sol!” They declared with extreme fanatical zeal.
Strafe was also smiling as he watched Dyne gather fire, which was a skill for those who have walked on the Path of Mind Cultivation. Of course, it would take geniuses about a year to get where Dyne was.
“I am actually dead. This is hell. I died, and my sins have brought me to live in the Final Hell created by that Sovereign. Yup. That’s it. I am in hell. I am punished to watch this man practically demolish all that I believed to be true about cultivation” Strafe made his conclusion. His smile twisted, and he began to cry while wearing the frozen smile.