“What an odd little fellow…” Murmured a dark figure which was drifting through Kilian’s mind, “Human blood…plus almost broken Qi-paths, beast blood, and a training manual that works backwards to strengthen the body from the inside out, but you also train your dantian…You have even been contaminated by Yin-Qi once, and now it pulses through your veins! Even the crest on your coat stirs old, nearly forgotten memories… Who or what are you?”

  “Kilian… My name is Kilian Arian, and I am a member of the Inner Academy of the Kong Clan!” Kilian tried to answer with his thoughts, and to his surprise, it worked.

  “Kong? Clan? Hmmm!” The voice sighed again, paused for a longer time, and then added glumly, "So my master's lineage really disappeared after he left this world... Well, that at least explains why I feel nothing but disgust for the participating apemen every year. You, on the other hand, seem to be different! I want to speak with you face to face!”

  The next moment, Kilian found himself, as a brightly shimmering, almost transparent figure in a drought-stricken desert, next to a deep crater.

  In front of him stood a semi-transparent apeman, about one meter eighty tall, with dark, shiny black fur.

  “Where are we? Am I a ghost?” The young Qi-Gatherer asked, confused, and looked around.

  He stood on dry, claylike ground.

  Not even the slightest breeze stirred the hot, stuffy air, and around the two of them, there was not a single sign of any other lifeform.

  “Should you ever become a Qi-Lord and prepare to break through the next level, you will find your soulsea here. As your mental strength grows, rippling water will slowly gather in this crater, and with water comes life! Legends tell of all-powerful beings in whose minds a whole continent has emerged, populated by millions of living beings. Who knows? Perhaps we are merely a part of the soulsea of a powerful Qi-Master?" The semi-transparent apeman began to explain, observing Kilian's curious gaze, he quickly added, "Normally, one can only enter this place once one's core has been formed, but I opened it and forced your soul to take form for you so we could talk in peace. Besides, everything is already in disarray on your path to becoming a Qi-Master! Maybe you will even benefit from this! Who knows? From whom did you learn such an unusual cultivation technique?"

  “Everything is all mixed up?” Kilian asked, confused, “What do you mean? I'm training in the Path of the Ape to become a Qi-Master despite my damaged Qi-paths, and who are you, anyway?"

  “Path of the Ape? Never heard of it! For now, you can call me Yu Kang, because that was the name my creator used on Terrapin. I am nothing more than a memory, a thought created by my master to leave something behind in his old homeland and complete the cycle of karma!” Said Lord Kang’s memory, gazing at the boy in silence for a long time before finally murmuring to himself, “It might work… Besides, my time is slowly coming to an end anyway, so I don't have much to lose... I'm unlikely to find a better candidate, so why not?”

  “Why not what?” Kilian wanted to know immediately, while thousands of other questions ran through his head, “A world outside Terrapin? My soulsea? An entire continent inside one's mind? How strong can a Qi-Master become?”

  “Well, you seem quite talented, and your beast blood should have made your body sturdy enough to receive Lord Kang’s legacy without dying! Probably… I’ll reveal some of my master’s secrets to you if you agree to take on his legacy!” The apeman began, but seeing the boy’s doubtful look, he tried to explain a little more to leave a good impression, “A Qi-Gatherer who trains their body usually starts with their skin, then the muscles, bones, tendons, and finally fills their blood with Qi. Once that’s done, they possess powers comparable to a Qi-Condensator. The next step involves strengthening the organs, and finally, the heart transforms into an inner core that pumps energy throughout the entire body with every beat! Then one can call oneself a Qi-Lord. Qi-Masters who train the Dantian, rather than the entire body, accumulate so much gaseous Qi in it that the internal pressure rises to such an extent that the Qi condenses to a liquid form. With this, the pressure drops, and more space for bigger reserves of liquid energy is secured. After that, one can continue to cultivate until the fluid Qi almost bursts the Dantian again, solidifies, and forms a core. These are different paths, yet they share the same essence and goal: The opening of the soulsea and a fundamental understanding of one's own soul to utilize mental power!”

  “But my blood is already full of Qi, and yet I don’t possess the power of a Qi-Condenser!” Kilian replied, confused.

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  “Exactly!” Thundered Lord Kang’s memory, “Because you’ve got everything upside down. You have so much strength sealed within your body, but you cannot bring it out externally. It's a miracle you haven't exploded yet! But I could help you to use the power that already lies dormant within you and to even further strengthen it!”

  “What do you want for your help?” The young warrior asked suspiciously, “I hardly think you just want to be nice, do you?”

  “Hahaha! There you go! You’re right, of course! Nothing is free, for even death costs you your life! Hahaha! It’s good that you didn’t accept my offer immediately, for that shows you’re not a naive idiot who thinks he’s special, invulnerable, or some kind of hero of a fictional novel!” Laughed the dark, translucent figure, raising two outstretched fingers in the air, “I have two conditions before we can work wholeheartedly together! First, it’s my mission to find a student for my master’s teachings, but I’ve been waiting for many years, and no one is suitable! You at least partially meet the requirements. Furthermore, once I’ve fulfilled my task, I’ll be free and have the chance to transform myself from a mere thought into a soulwanderer. But for that, I need a haven, a place to grow in peace, and while I wouldn’t exactly call your soulsea a paradise, it can ensure my survival! If you accept me into your soulsea, I will support you with my knowledge! If not, I will fade away in a few years, and my mission will have failed!”

  “How powerful is Lord Kang’s true body? A simple thought can speak to me and develop into an independent living being?” Kilian asked, his mouth agape, and after a brief pause, he added, “What is a soulwanderer?”

  “These are all things that are far beyond your current capabilities as a Qi-Master. Normally, a person only has the chance to meet a soulwanderer as a Qi-Lord, since you need a soulsea to communicate with them. I will settle in your... let's say, souldesert, gather my strength, and wait for you to grow stronger! Once your soulsea fills up a little, I might even be able to support you in battle!" The thought replied, without really answering, "So do you agree?"

  Kilian carefully observed the apeman's facial features and tried to read whether something was hidden in them.

  A trap or something malicious, but he found nothing.

  “Agreed!” He finally said, and with a satisfied grin, the apeman moved his arm, and the boy found himself back in reality, outside his soulsea and returned to his solid body.

  A small, blood-red pill floated before him, and he heard the now familiar voice of the memory of Yu Kang in his head, “First, we must prepare your body so that you can use Lord Kang’s teachings! Swallow this pill and remain conscious with all your might! It will be very painful, but I hope you can endure, because if you pass out, nothing more than an empty shell will remain of your body! So stay awake!”

  With a steady gaze, Kilian, without hesitation, put the small pill in his mouth, swallowed it, and felt a wild force raging inside his body, first slowly, then faster and faster.

  Pain!

  Incredible, unimaginable, burning pain!

  His skin fell off in shreds, and the blood boiled in his veins beneath until they burst, but not a single drop of red touched the ground, for it immediately condensed into steam which, like a reddish cloud in the evening sun, covered up Kilian's body.

  Not even the faintest scream could escape his bone-dry throat, and he tried with all his might to remain sane.

  “How am I supposed to survive this???” He screamed inwardly, not realizing that the three dragon scales in his chest began to produce a thick, golden liquid which slowly healed his body.

  The small red pill, still undissolved in his stomach, began to pulsate more and more intensely after some time, and as if on cue, a dark, icy aura crept towards Kilian from all sides.

  A black cocoon formed around him, and only the red cloud, formed from blood, lay like an insulating layer between the golden liquid from within him and the black energy from without.

  “Now it gets exciting!” Thought Lord Kang, observing the boy closely, “If he can combine the two energies, my master’s theory will be confirmed! If anything is so changeable, it is the body of a human being!”

  With clenched teeth, enduring the pain, Kilian meditated, suspended in the air, while his body was repeatedly destroyed and regenerated by the various forces.

  New skin grew, but fell off again immediately because it was not yet strong enough.

  His heart produced fresh red blood, and it instantly evaporated again, ehile his tendons tore, only to mend, and every bone cracked terrifyingly.

  Time passed, and he went through the painful cycle of destruction and regeneration hundreds of times until his body began to glow with a faint golden hue.

  Just before he lost consciousness, he took a deep breath, and the red clouds, followed by the surrounding black energy, penetrated his body.

  “BOOM!!” He began to tremble from head to toe, and a fierce battle raged within him.

  The black and golden energies tried to devour each other, while the red energy, the power of Kilian's human blood, nestled between them.

  Slowly, a balance was created, and the tormented body finally began to heal itself one final time.

  A triple helix-like structure formed and pumped three different blood lines through Kilian's vessels, starting from the heart.

  As he continued to meditate and examine himself, he noticed a dark energy, which seemed familiar but somehow different, being drawn through his skin and into his bloodstream.

  The dragon scales continued to produce a thick, golden fluid, and with each muffled heartbeat, the two energies reached his chest, merging with his human bloodline.