The Hidden Enemy: Spirit Link!

Will stomped on the ground and shook his head. This startling action resulted in some sort of change as his swaying reduced greatly and some focus remained in his eyes. His right hand was enclosed as if he was grabbing something but there was nothing in his hands. Gianluigi, Mercedes, Natasha and Ulysses narrowed their eyes at this scene. But no one knew what the quartet of prodigies thought about. Francis van der Merwe paid attention to the hand after noticing Natasha's attention on it.

Natasha took it a step further, she directly infused Truth into her eyes! A moment later, the other prodigies noticed her stunned expression. The sharp prodigies reacted quickly and activated their own Truthseeking eye. It was an eye that allowed one to exhibit some sort of trait Truth had. The Truthseeking Eye was the most basic ability, and that was to see mental, energy and spiritual beings in their true form. It also allowed one to sense energies.

One had to train their eye to detect specific energies and this was also affected by talent. Mage-type Truthseekers often trained their eyes to detect mental and spiritual energies most, because this ability also assisted during the creation of spell circuits. Thus a handful of the observers, including Natasha, spotted a small rope of light stretching into the tent. The rope was coiled around Lydia's body and was attached to her back. It looked like a thin serpent of light that had coiled around its target and bitten its prey.

The thin rope of light was expanding at a slow rate but it was still visible to the vision of these prodigies.

'At this rate, it will double in terms of circumference every five hours.'

This was a common skill that could be used by spiritual beings called Spirit Link. Any experienced Truthskeer could identify it. But it could only be seen by Truthseeking Eyes that were adept at sensing a few types of mental and spiritual energies.

Spirit Link allowed the caster to create a worm of spiritual energy that could not only sense the target's location, it also fed off the target's mental energy and supply it to the attacker. Once the worm matured it would convert itself into poison and this would lead to the target experiencing hallucinations. If no action was taken quickly targets often died, due to most beings being unable to sense spiritual creatures, let alone damage them. Once it reached a certain amount of thickness, it would mature and within seconds release the poison. During its moment of maturation, it becomes visible for only a second, allowing its existence to be known.

Will was precisely holding a severed part of that worm in his hand!

There was no energy fluctuation at all. Only mental energy can do this so silently. His control over it must be magnificent.'

Natasha could not help but frown at the implications of this. Mental energy could be released in any form, but to be undetected by her it must be extremely small and as thin as a string of wool.

"Lydia, activate your Truthseeking Eye. You should see this." Barked Mercedes with a grim expression."

Lydia activated her Truthseeking eye and was stunned to see the coiling serpent of energy around her. It was withering after having been cut off by Will, but it was still large enough to draw attention. Lydia frowned as she understood the implications of this.

She was confident in being able to deal with the creature the moment it appeared, after all, she was an elite of Spectralia's young generation, so she was well-equipped to handle a Spirit Link Worm. But the realization that an unfit Solitary had sensed something she could not sense while at full capacity bothered her.

'He didn't need to use the Truthseeking Eye to see the Spirit!'

It was impossible to use Truth in an undetectable manner at level 99. In front, any emission of Intent was extremely hard to mask. Will casually crushed remnants of the worm and continued to steady himself. What befuddled the others was how Will had managed to see the worm. It was thanks in part due to the training he had received from Jingsung Ha and Narcissus by the side.

Unknown to the group, the Seventh Scion of Ha was present among them, his form originated from the pendant Will had absorbed at the Atlas Columns. The moment the group had arrived, Will's tutelage had begun.

The moment the party had arrived, Mercedes ordered the group to camp and wait for the Tsimikas group to finish their adjustments. They ignored whatever fuss happened because people reacted to the adjustment in different ways. Some would release Intent in uncontrollable bursts, while some would act like a drunkard. Some drastic changes included violent tendencies that could not be understood. Will's teachers planned to use this situation to their advantage by having Will perform a few tasks that would otherwise garner unnecessary attention.

Jingsung's first task was to teach Will how to utilize mental energy. A task that required Will to take a different approach from the usual.

"The mental realm is the most esoteric and incomprehensible. It has strange laws that physical beings such as you and I fail to comprehend. An example of this is its wave-particle duality."

The lesson began before Will could take stock of his surroundings. Jingsung couldn't care less about Will's situation and started, "Mental energy has two forms. A waveform, and a particular form. It can act as a wave and it can act like solid matter.

Most cultivators only know how to use it in the form of waves. To use it as matter requires steady control and practice because you need to condense the mental energy until it becomes tangible.

There are some such as you who are born with the innate ability to condense mental energy. One could say that this is a prerequisite for becoming a Truthseeker, but what most cultivators do not know is that there is a proper way to go about it.

The area you can influence directly with your mental energy is called your mental energy field or Area. Many believe that a larger Area means greater mental energy mastery but that is incorrect. Bigger doesn't always mean better. "

According to Jingsung Ha, most water element users struggled with maintaining a calm and steady mental energy field due to the water element's formless nature. Metal element users were the opposite, finding it difficult to change the shape of their mental energy fields due to the rigid nature of the metal element.

"You possess both the rigid and formless traits of these two elements. You also possess the ability to switch between them. But you have not been using this to your advantage at all. First practice by reducing the size of your Area as much as possible. Do this during your Negative Feedback Adjustment. You can consider the first stage of your training to be complete if you can limit your Area to only a few meters around you."

Jingsung Ha's task seemed simple, but it was incredibly difficult. Mental energy radiated outward naturally, containing it was taxing on the mind and required focus. For Aqua Sense to work, Will used his sensitivity to Intent along with the water molecules in the air. Will was now used to being able to monitor his environment freely without worry. The Flowing Tide Restriction had limited his capabilities, but Will was still able to see all around him due to his mental energy having a great range. But asking Will to reduce his area was no different from blinding him.

It was no different from asking an ordinary person to walk while only paying attention to close objects despite being surrounded by countless diversions. The mind easily got distracted and it was difficult to force an untrained mind to only focus on the space nearby. Doing this under the drunkenness of Negative Feedback Adjustment made the task even more difficult. Despite this, Will struggled on and did not give up. According to Jingsung, he would benefit greatly if he was capable of doing this during the Adjustment and thus Will persevered.