Watching from the shadows

On the day that Shui returned to Cyrus, there was a feast in the siblings' house. They weren't lacking in funds but everyone insisted on getting the ingredients and doing the cooking themselves, so Shui was left waiting with Lilia's son, Matthew. The toddler lacked Shui's astonishing beauty, but he was still a cute child with puffy cheeks.

"Hey, Matthew. Do you remember me?"

The small child shook his head with a dull expression, but he didn't seem too wary around him. Since he couldn't fully suppress his aura, Shui's charisma was much stronger than before so it was easy to leave positive impressions. Even small children which were very sensitive to malice would lower their guards around him, not that he had any intention of harming them.

During the time it took to prepare the feast, the two got close enough for Matthew to be grabbing onto his shirt when Lilia tried to take him away. He eventually gave up after a few gentle tugs, but Lilia was still surprised since the only other person Matthew was so close to was Lily. Not even Yur or Sia could get this reaction from him.

As Shui enjoyed his first taste of real food in a long time, he was badgered by Lilia for an explanation of what happened during the past few months. Of course he couldn't say the truth, but Shui was already prepared for this situation. He made up a story about how he was sighted by a few members of the Black Dog Bandits after he reported to Bartos, and had to run deep into the mountains to escape from them. And then, he said that he was trapped in a dangerous part of the mountain where he luckily found a treasure-grade mutated flora that helped him recover and gave him the power to escape.

It was a story that sounded like a folktale, but due to the surprises that Shui usually gave her, as well as his vivid description, Lilia believed him. Shui no longer wanted to hide the truth because of it attracting greedy wolves, but because he was absolutely sure that nothing good would come from knowing about the Primordial Library and the gods.

At one point of the feast, Ryan went next to Shui and quietly asked, "Did you have something to do with the corpses rising in the Heaven clan?"

Shui was a bit surprised that Ryan figured it out, but there was no problem with telling him so he nodded. Ryan's face brightened and before he went back to his younger siblings. Lily and Ryan both thought it had something to do with Shui, but while Lily simply believed in him, Ryan wanted confirmation. It was not to clear his doubt, but to affirm how amazing Shui was. Even without being there, Shui managed to take revenge on those who killed his family. Ryan wished he could be at least as half as capable as that.

When the feast was ending as the children started getting drowsy, Lilia asked Shui another question as she was on the staircase with Matthew who slept peacefully in her arms.

"...How was Bartos?"

"...I put his bones to rest."

"So, that flower was you."

"Yeah."

"I see. It was beautiful."

Lilia continued up the stairs without saying anything else, but Shui couldn't imagine what she was feeling.

'If only I was stronger.'

Shui knew that his current strength would be enough to stop the disaster that happened to the clan, but would it really end there? If he beat them back, would there really be no other enemy? Shui wasn't sure, but he didn't think so, he had a feeling that things wouldn't be so simple. Even so, Shui also knew that thinking about what-ifs was a waste of time. Instead of doing such a thing, it was better if he tried to fix present issues.

Shui closed his eyes and focused on a connection he had created. While he obviously hadn't noticed it, Shui had made a faint soul imprint on the butler who he met at the warehouse. It wasn't enough to take over his body, but if Shui wanted to, he could tap into the butler's senses.

That butler was currently bowing and trembling before his furious mistress.

"I gave you one job, and you couldn't do it?!"

"My deepest apologies!"

"Useless!"

The butler was at the fifth level in the Soul Realm, while his mistress was only at the third level, but he didn't dare raise his head. Putting aside that she was the wife of the house's master, her family's background was also something he couldn't look down on.

"Hmph, and what's this about some mysterious figure?"

"We've already started a preliminary investigation. We should learn more about him soon, but I recommend we delay the attacks on them until then."

The mistress didn't care about this person, but if he was as strong as her butler reported, it would definitely be hard to find someone they could trust to take care of him.

"Hmph, we just need to make sure he can't interfere. We'll have to target them while they're at the academy. Don't screw up this time."

"Yes Mistress."

Shui cut his connection there. He hadn't verified certain matters yet, but it would probably be hard for him to sneak inside the academy and protect the kids 24/7. However, now that he knew their plan, he could quickly and easily make countermeasures.

'I should be able to make do with what I already have.'

There was an extra room upstairs which was prepared for Shui, so he went there to meditate. He wasn't even close to reach the third level in the Soul Realm, but cultivation wasn't his focus this night. Sitting under the moonlight reminded him of the World Assimilation Art and the trial, but he wasn't going to practise it this time. He didn't plan on using it in the first place, but now he had two more reasons.

Heretical Ascension was different from other cultivation methods. Other cultivation methods gave detailed instructions on how to cultivate through each realm and the way to use energy. Even though the cultivation realms were the same, the slight differences in the instructions and usage of energy made every method unique.

However, Heretical Ascension wasn't so straightforward. It didn't give detailed instructions on how to cultivate, rather it explained a perspective towards cultivation and only gave general details about how to cultivate. If anyone else had it, it would just be a philosophical book, only someone with an incredibly high comprehension ability like Shui could look at this method and use it to build their cultivation.

Since Heretical Ascension emphasized on total control, it didn't mix well with the World Assimilation Art which talked about being one with the world, and this sort of conflict could lead to flow deviation or mental collapse.

Additionally, he had no idea how the rune inside of him worked and didn't plan on rashly testing it with natural essence.

And so, rather than rushing to improve his cultivation, Shui focused on getting familiar with his new power. Becoming able to fully control his body would make him unafraid of any opponent below King Realm, but since his soul wasn't strong enough, he could only slowly get used to the power inside him.

He already managed to get a good grasp of the thick divine energy inside him, but he could feel awe when he investigated his own body. When his soul made contact with the divine energy, he was engulfed in serene comfort and felt his senses get sharper and his mind become clearer. However, there seemed to be a thin wall between his soul and rich vitality of his body. While he could still perceive the hint of divine aura mixed in his transcendent force, he could no longer manipulate it. Although this vast power was inside him, it still wasn't his to use.

'Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I did that.'

While partially frustrated, Shui decided to try something. He used his martial intent as the glue and attempted to enter the state of harmonic trinity. Since the three powers inside him were very unbalanced, he didn't think it would work, but as expected of a natural law, harmonic trinity was somehow triggered. However, its effects weren't what Shui hoped.

For an instant, his spiritual senses reached every nook and cranny of Cyrus, alerting everyone in Soul Realm and above. It was very rude for a cultivator to use their spiritual sense so brashly, but none dared to complain during this short period, not even the mayor. This vast spiritual sense gave the feeling of powerlessness to everyone including him. The spiritual sense went away soon after, but everyone spent the night wondering what terrifying figure was passing through the area.

Meanwhile, Shui was rolling on the floor while gripping his shirt.

"Ha, ha, ha..."

What had only been a short moment for everyone else, severely weakened him. Entering harmonic trinity had definitely boosted his soul, but it also exhausted him far too quickly. It was something he quickly solved with a 'Calm' talisman, but the experience still left a deep wound. He quickly guessed that his body cultivation was too far ahead so he couldn't handle the increase given to his soul and energy cultivations.

'Damn, it. I'll have to seal it for now.'

After this discovery, Shui wondered how he could strengthen his soul. He didn't know when he would get the chance to reach nebula three-stars, but if he could at least strengthen his soul then he would be able to control his body in less time.

Shui contemplated if there was some method he could use to strengthen his soul, but he couldn't think up anything. However, something suddenly popped into his mind.

'Huh? When did I learn this?'

Somehow, a method of strengthening his soul appeared in his memory. Shui was sure he had never heard of it before, but it was fresh in his mind.

'Where did this...? Could it be?!'

Shui couldn't remember reading this method, but he could guess where it came from. When he actually focused, he realised that there were several new pieces of information in his mind and figured that he must have gotten what he wanted directly from the Primordial Library.

'So I can just ask for what I want to know. That's rather convenient.'

Shui was very tempted to play around with this new function of the Library, but he reluctantly went back to the issue of his soul.

'Omniscient Eyes, huh?'

The method that came to mind was called 'Omniscient Eyes', and could only be cultivated by races with special eyes. Considering how well it fit him, Shui didn't think it was a coincidence that this was the one he got.

All races with special eyes tended to rely on their souls, and so they had a rich heritage of soul training arts, with this being one of them. 'Omniscient Eyes' came in three stages, Accustom, Unlock and Evolve. The Accustom stage was about learning to fully control the power of one's eyes by manipulating the amount of astral energy entering them. Through this, he would be able to better control the power of his eyes and refine the power of his soul.