Soul Stirring

Genma's answer surprised Feng more than the fact that he, too, would have been bested by the combination of blows that Rowan had just delivered. "Master, how is that possible? Don't you have equipment that could block that?" Genma nodded his head. "Yes I do, but it takes time to activate. His lightning would have stunned me and let's not discount how fast the lightning element can be. My abilities, other than that, are all geared towards my status as a seer. I have few offensive abilities and even fewer defensive ones. He is able to kill a being. Two entire mana ranks above him and while my words may have been a little of a stretch, I just wanted to confirm the most honest version of my thoughts. If I had not seen that powder keg move, as he called it, I don't think even my pre-cog combat would enable me to survive that. He executed it flawlessly, and in an instant, he left no room for anything but victory. What a fearsome young man."

Feng nodded his head, "Master, can he be given a slot for the trial world? It's supposed to open within another year and a half for all of this coming class of students, isn't it? I think he would benefit and that could be the stage for my fight with him." Genma scratched at his chin and nodded slowly while furrowing his brows. "I think I can swing that, but he will need to prove himself worthy of the invitation first. There are many other professors who have found a genius here or there that they want to give an entry pass to, and there are any number of families from the upper worlds that will want it as well. Some of them even offer us professors large sums of money for them."

Feng stared at the old man with a deadpan expression. "I think he is the type of man who remembers the gratitude that he has been shown. Genma looked at the kid that had more than a hard time showing real emotion and realized this was the first time he had been so genuinely interested in another human being. He shook his head. "Fine, he shows something even more spectacular than that. Then I will give him the pass token to the trial world."

Feng nodded and slowly began to stretch as his mana slowly began to pulse, surprising even Genma. "What are you doing?" He stood on the edge of the roof, ready to leap as he slowly bent down and studied Rowan from afar. "The moment he completes soul stirring, I'm going to go tell him who I am and why we are here and then we are going to fight. When the other professors ask how you gave the pass token to someone from the middle of nowhere, then you'll have a video of him fighting a tier zero thirty levels higher than him."

Genma's brows now actively furrowed. "Why are you going so far for this young man, Feng? You have never even met him before?," Feng could only shrug at that, though. "My harmony gene can tell that something is wrong. He's in such deep pain that he isn't harmonizing naturally with the mana around him like a tier zero should. He's in so much pain that he's subconsciously keeping the mana away and hindering his own growth. It is like when you found me master, you said someone needed strict things to have a double attunement. Here I am, my harmony gene perfectly stabilizes two opposing elements. It can also sense the harmony in others and Rowan Raid, needs my help and, for some reason, I wish to help him."

Genma felt a slight mist in his eyes. He had never seen this side of Feng, which caused the next words to catch him off guard. "I only have master. Master saved me when there was no one, but I think that he and I could be really good friends." Genma said nothing more than he patted the young man on the back and nodded. He would have to remember to thank whoever set him up in the first place because, without them, he would have never stumbled across the minor world where he found Feng.

He was a seer. He could naturally tell that just by saying that out loud, the threads of fate that connected the two young men had grown substantially thicker. He didn't even have to channel his abilities to know that was true. It hurt to scry tier 0 beings even as one himself, but he could not pass up the opportunity. But what he saw made his jaw drop in astonishment. It was the two boys, slightly more mature looking maybe in the Trial world. They were back to back in the center of a battlefield.

The vision instantly cut when he got that far and Genma rubbed his eyebrows and looked at Feng and smiled before slowly taking out a chair and some snacks before repositioning his mirror. "You better win, you little brat. I did not put all my time and resources into training you and finding you proper tutors. Feng nodded as he lightly tapped on the roof and appeared on the next rooftop as he slowly began to inch his way closer as the soul-stirring process was finally kicking off.

He had answered the words with a rarely seen smile before he moved. Genma could only shake his head and smile "Feng, my boy, I think that you need this for your own harmony as much as you say you are doing it for his."

…

Rowan never got a chance to wait because the moment his enemy was did the system turned in the quest, catapulting him to level 20. He only got a second to pick up some key shaped object that had been dropped by the bone collector as its only loot before a massive pain wracked his mind.

[Level 20 achieved! Soul-stirring commencing.Host Soul awakening.] Rowan dropped to his knees and let out a guttural roar as his vision was dragged inside himself. His mana space trembled and pulsed as he stepped into the second rank of mana cultivation. The mana started to pour from his mana space into his soul and back again.

The figure that was originally ethereal began to solidify behind him. [Mutation occurring due to spirit presence in the bloodline.] Rowan stood up straight, and an image of his soul formed behind him. It was featureless but had his long hair along with the falcon wings. A crown made of thorns floated above his head and it crackled with cyan lightning while wisps of cloud filled inside of it and made it seem more full.

A light rain came from the crown and coated his soul form; the crown represented his status as primogenitor as well as his storm attunement. [Battle Gene Awakening!] Rowan gasped once again as a clarity rushed into his mind as clouds started forming on the skin of the soul form. The clouds on his skin were the form of his battle gene. All of sudden, though, the clouds cracked and shattered.

[Mutation in battle gene due to berserker blood] [Mutation of battle gene into unprecedented soul affliction. Berserk Gene activated.] The cloud had now formed solid lines of might that radiated off of his soul form. Rowan's physical body began to shake and the same lines that formed on his soul form began to appear on his flesh. Rowan shook and held back another scream as the pain soared with every inch of the lines that wished to etch themselves into his physical body. He could feel a certain madness hidden in the depth of his mind, but he fought against it. Rowan sat like this for what felt like hours and before he knew it the pain finally ended and his soul had pulled itself back into his body.

His flesh now sported the same tribal lines that had formed on his soul while his hair had changed once again. His hair had thick strands of blood red that stood out from the deep cyan. Rowan flexed his fingers and he could tell that once again his power had gone through drastic changes and he meant much more than just the five levels. The mutation had caused him to drastically increase his power.

He was just about to stop what he was doing when he got another system message. [Grace period over, fully commencing effects of mutation.] Rowan could not really aptly describe what happened next. All he knew was that it took everything in him to not immediately black out where he stood. He was in more pain than he had ever felt, but it was more focused than it had ever been. The cases before this were really just pain in general. No specific spot or anything like that, it was just a pain that could be felt.

He bit into his lip and drew blood immediately while outwardly his skin had cracked and he had shed his skin, fingernails, and hair several times over. The scarlet red in his hair seemed to thicken but never blend with the cyan. His originally just-cut muscles began to morph as his body became less sleek and streamlined and even itself out. The perfect amount of muscle and his body became flawless. It was around that time he had that thought that the rainbow lightning struck him over and over again. [Bath of heavenly sin, will cleanse impurities and solidify all gains in this previous enhancement.] [Comment: Studying such high tier lighting will be beneficial to the host's storm attunement.