There is Always War V

He felt a splitting headache as he opened his eyes, the blaring sunlight nearly blinding him.

He had reincarnated again, or transmigrated, or whatever the hell had happened to him.

He had read about this type of phenomenon in his past lives, though mostly in fiction.

Continuously being transported to a different world every time he died, although he was happy that he didn't have to face true death, he was a bit annoyed that he had to start over from the beginning every time.

Such as this time, he found that he was a mortal and an exceptionally weak one at that.

He was ironically standing in the middle of a battlefield, and as usual received no memories belonging to the previous owner of this body that could explain why he was standing in this scorching hot stretch of short, grassy land covered in the scattered, bloody bodies of countless soldiers.

In the body of a mortal child, about fourteen years or so old, covered in dirt and soot, and wearing rags, he stood there dumbfoundedly, staring at the vast expanse of a plain where the blood dyed the grass red.

Far off in the distance, he could barely make out the figure of a living person.

The man had long cascading gray hair that was wetted with sweat and dirt, was wearing shining silver armor, and was carrying a pair of longswords at his waist, he stood with his chin up at the sky.

Suddenly, he bowed very deeply and for a very long time, but just as he was about to get up a force seemed to push him down onto his knees.

But before both of them could hit the ground, he balanced himself by landing on a single knee and left his head staring into the ground.

"Fucking... traitor..." A man from behind Han Xuanyuan croaked, seemingly with his last breath as his body stopped struggling and his eyes lost focus, but Xuanyuan could still see the anger and hatred lingering in his eyes, as though transcending life and death to relay his immense resentment.

~~~

"Tell me, child, what did you see within that battlefield?" A kind-faced old man in black robes embroidered with golden leaves called out to Xuanyuan from the side as he managed to stumble his way out of the battlefield.

The journey had taken him 2 days and 3 nights with his mortal body and he was on the verge of utter collapse, training his physique in his last life had helped dearly in preventing his premature death in this one.

As he turned around to look at the old man, he felt all the strength in his body fading as he fainted and instantly collapsed.

But just as his body was about to hit the ground, the old man caught him and carried him away.

~~~

"What is your name, child?"

Han Xuanyuan heard the old man ask gently as he opened his eyes.

His throat was dry and his body felt extremely powerless. But he still answered with a weak voice.

"Han Xuanyuan, sir"

"Haha, so this is fate huh?" The old man was apparently incredibly happy at hearing his name, his voice reeked of excitement and the broad smile on his wrinkled, ancient face was unconcealable.

"I guess I shouldn't be rude, my name is Han Wutian. We share the same surname see?" Han Wutian laughed as he brought a bowl of porridge to him.

Han Xuanyuan, lying down on a soft mattress with a deep pink blanket covering him, was touched.

This old man had saved his life, if he had not brought him here and offered him food, he sure would have died either of starvation or to wild animals.

And now was offering him warm food in the comfort of a wonderful home.

He accepted the bowl with shaking hands and couldn't speak properly, so he could only give the man a slight nod of gratitude. His eyes filled with gratitude, which deepened Han Wutian's smile.

"I had a son, you know. If he had married at the right time, he would probably have a son about your age."

The man spoke slowly, and a slight shake appeared in his voice as he ended. His eyes moistened, but his smile remained.

Han Xuanyuan had finished eating some time ago and was sitting up on the bed while Han Wutian sat on a chair beside a bright wooden desk next to the bed.

"What happened to him?" Xuanyuan asked despite already knowing the answer, he had seen countless such people throughout the years.

"He perished on the battlefield you came from."

The man's voice was terrifyingly calm, but despite being wrapped in a thick and warm blanket, Xuanyuan could feel the coldness and contagious sorrow.

"I was hoping you could give me some answers about the place since you came out of there."

The man followed up quickly, showing Xuanyuan a pleading expression that simply melted his heart.

Han Xuanyuan coughed slightly to clear his voice and told the old man with a sympathetic expression.

"I am not sure if this is what you want to hear, but I don't know anything else sir."

"There was a man in silver armor who knelt to the sky, and one of the dying soldiers called him a traitor."

And the moment he said the word "traitor," two beads of tear streaked down the man's face as his smile faded and his face contorted into one of intense sadness, giving him a pitiful appearance.

But he quickly regained his composure and projected his smile at Xuanyuan once more.

"I don't suppose you have any relatives Xuanyuan, would you like to live with grandpa?"

Han Wutian offered to adopt Xuanyuan, making him feel terrible for the old man, he must have gone through a lot to be opening up so much to a child he found near a battlefield.

Of course, in this scenario, there is only one real answer and it was also Han Xuanyuan's.

"Yes Grandpa, I would like that."

~~~

Two years later, Han Wutian's courtyard

"Listen Xuanyuan, in this world there are four roads to cultivation."

"You may travel them all, or just one. It matters not, what matter is how far you go in these roads."

"You can strengthen your body through countless methods and achieve immensely powerful physical capabilities to become a martial cultivator. Producing battle force and fortifying your vitality, you can shatter the mountains and sunder the skies with your bare fists."

"You can absorb the countless energies between heaven and earth to develop entire realms within yourself and become a mystic cultivator. Expanding a domain and manifesting an avatar, you can overturn the starry sky at a flip of your palm."

"You can refine your soul with the countless powers of the world and create divine characteristics within yourself to become a spiritual cultivator. Extending your divine senses and suppressing your intentions, you can become immortal and explore the mysteries of nature."

"Or you can comprehend the countless Daos and acquire control over the universe to become a Dao cultivator. Spreading your sequence particles and releasing your dharma body, you can become a scholar that shakes the universe and establishes an unquestionable authority."

"The road you travel on is decided not only by your own choices, but also by your innate talents so we should first assess your qualities."

And as Han Wutian finished his explanation, he instructed Han Xuanyuan to sit down cross-legged inside a complex array formation.

As he got into position, Han Wutian turned on the array formation and began to perform several calculations.

During this time, Han Xuanyuan had several incredibly distinct experiences.

First, he felt as though his stomach was going to explode as an unnatural pressure built up in there and descended down his intestines and rested right above his groin.

Then he felt an intense pain scatter across all his nerves, as though he had been electrocuted at minimum amperage on all the receptor cells in his body at the same time, ending with a large shiver being sent down his spine.

Next, he felt a searing hot pain within his glabella. It made its way down the back of his nose and along his windpipe till it reached his heart where it turned into a massive ache that remained for the rest of the procedure.

Finally, a chill spread across his entire body as he felt as if his brain was completely freezing over. This time he couldn't stop himself, he could bear it but his instincts fought tremendously against staying still.

He commanded his body to move but it was completely immobile, as if turned into a solid hunk of ice. Then even his thoughts began to slow down as a dull ache permeated his head, and in a few moments, he blacked out.

When he woke up he could see Han Wutian staring at him with wide and excited eyes.

"Yuan'er," the name Han Wutian had started calling him since the previous year had stuck and he somewhat enjoyed such an affectionate address.

"You're truly a genius! A full score on all fronts, this is simply unbelievable!"

Han Wutian was incredibly excited, he probably felt as though he was back in his middle ages, re-experiencing the time when he tested his own son's talent.

"That's great Grandpa, when can I start practicing?" Han Xuanyuan was unfazed though, he knew that regardless of the body, he would have the same impeccable aptitude he had in his previous lives

"From today if you want!" Han Wutian was very pleased with how things were proceeding, he had braced himself for Xuanyuan to have mediocre and even bad aptitude but watching him gain a full score sent tremors of happiness shooting through his veins at mach speeds.

~~~

'Awakening the spirit, this will be my first time doing this, I hope I don't fuck things up, gramps said it's hard to recover from an injury gained during this process.'

Han Xuanyuan was grim, he did not expect the spiritual awakening procedure to be so risky.

Apparently, even a tiny deviation could cause disaster.

And with such thoughts in mind, he began the awakening making sure that every ounce of force was administered with the utmost control and precision.

Han Wutian used his own spiritual power to contain the rest of his body so as to prevent damage in case of an energy surge.

First and foremost, Han Xuanyuan had to locate his Linghun Aperture. An ethereal structure set deep within one's brain, even the slightest power surge could cripple the most talented genius.

To avoid reckless risk-taking, Han Wutian probed the surroundings of the Aperture after finding it, helping Han Xuanyuan find it also.

After it was located, all Xuanyuan had to do was visualize the scenario in his head.

This was a technique that used the power of imagination to broadcast a virtual representation of the Linghun Aperture to the mind, effectively utilizing the Placebo Effect to the fullest in order to achieve the most perfect "first touch" with the spirit.

And as Han Xuanyuan connected his thoughts with the location that Han Wutian pointed out, he was transported to a completely different realm.

It was a completely white world.

At the center of this bleached void, there was a titanic golden lotus.

Spanning an unfathomable distance it towered over everything in Han Xuanyuan's cognition like a mountain blocking the path of a mortal.

This was not akin to crossing the tribulation, this was a test for taming the divine.

He approached the golden lotus, it was in full bloom and spread out with countless petals, each large enough to hold an entire universe, or so Han Xuanyuan thought.

The stem of the lotus was embedded into the ground and Xuanyuan could not see it, but the flower itself was so breathtakingly beautiful that he fell into a trance-like state while walking towards it.

He felt like a zombie as the only thought floating across his mind was the lotus, approaching it step by step he soon appeared right before it.

The vast golden aura of the lotus completely enveloped him as the white in his vision was replaced by a deep and unwavering gradient of gold.

But suddenly, with a loud popping sound, this was all replaced by a true void, colorless and vacuous.

Surrounded by a boundless darkness that rapidly consumed him, he felt as though he was falling with an unstoppable acceleration.

As though an abyss had magically appeared right before him, devouring the ground beneath his feet and swallowing him up like a coin tossed into an open manhole.

He kept falling and falling as his mind began to rotate rapidly, making him feel a dizziness that threatened to make him explode.

The wind whistled past his ears as the lack of control over his body made his fingers tingle and his palms to sweat.

His stomach rumbled in disapproval but his eyes were already crossed and his feet had become exceptionally cold.

He felt as though he were drowning but instead of water, he was stuck in a more viscous fluid that exerted far more pressure on him as he descended with a lightning-esque speed.

His vision began to fade, merging with the darkness of the void that had now consumed him.

His thoughts began to move backward.

First he remembered the golden lotus, somehow its figure had become deeply etched onto his mind as he remembered even the most minuscule details.

Then he remembered his visualization of his Linghun Aperture.

A dark shadow around which a white blur continuously whirred past.

The shadow was in the form of a human, and the white blur shaped like a thick cylindrical object, dancing around the shadowy figure at extremely high velocities.

He thought it looked oddly familiar until another memory struck his mind and he realized.

In the memory, Han Wutian was patiently explaining something to him, he listened closely.

"What you're describing Yuan'er, is Battle Force. It is a power as much as it is a feeling. The unyielding desire to achieve nothing but victory in a fight. To challenge your physical limits, reach them, and shatter them like glass."

"Battle Force is not just about your physical strength though. It has another name - Battle Spirit. It signifies far more than your body's tenacity and strength but also the endurance of your mind, that of your soul."

"To achieve great heights in Battle Force, a cultivator must not only refine their physique to the peak, but also balance their state of mind to acquire the perfect time for an epiphany and break through to become invincible!"

As these words floated across his mind, a transformation occurred to his apparition.

A cerulean aura appeared on his body, thickening to become a mist and settling around his body like snow on an unsalted road.

From deep within this mist, emerged specks of white light that attracted each other and almost magnetically, joined together to merge completely and form a singular, thick white line.

And just like this, nine more white lines formed, with each addition the other lines became thicker until his body seemed like a vast ocean within which nearly a dozen sea dragons swam around in a brilliant draconic ritual.