Reaper of the Martial World

Book 2: Chapter 50: Victory or Defeat

Zaltarish’s blood boiled. To the crowd this was just a debate, but to the geniuses below the terrace, this was a battle just like any other.

“Then, I’ll have the honor of beginning then,” Zaltarish’s usual faint voice held a different sort of power now, a power that seemed to want to sway everyone in the crowd to his side.

‘so… this is how debating works in the martial world? They’re using some sort of technique to sway the emotions of people… do you really think you can compete with me in something like that?’ Dyon smirked thinking of how easily he could manipulate people with his celestial, demonic and music wills. But, he decided to play along for now… after all, what fun would there be in the victor being so obvious from the beginning? He’d first crush Zaltarish with pure logic. Then, he’d crush him with his will.

Zaltarish’s voice was soothing, but powerful, yielding, but domineering. Dyon could only smile as he began to listen to a discourse oddly similar to Elder Flyleaf’s.

“From the time our Elvin Race came to this universe, to this very day, we have always been incomparable in the understanding of wills. The reason for this is simple: we have the best understanding of what is without a doubt the most important aspect of cultivation: the soul.

The soul is an enigmatic existence, one that has baffled the minds of countless experts. It isn’t as straight forward as body cultivation. It also isn’t as simple as energy cultivation. It’s delicate, yet strong, fragile, yet powerful.

However, this is far from the only reason souls are of such importance. Think about how manifestations effect wills. They aid us in understanding them better. They help us in boosting our understanding in battle. With our souls, we can reach a level of comprehension unmatched by anyone else.”

The crowd seemed to be lost in Zaltarish’s words, hanging onto his every syllable.

“However, the world of cultivation isn’t as simple as I’ve painted it, correct? We need a strong body to support a soul. We can’t surpass a will and tap into intents without the proper energy cultivation. So, you may wonder, why is the soul most important?”

Dyon raised an eyebrow at this. It seemed Zaltarish wasn’t as simple as he first assumed. He was delving into thoughts Dyon himself had had. The question was… what would his conclusion be?

It seemed that even the geniuses had perked up at this point of Zaltarish’s.

“The answer to this is quite simple, no? The flaw is not within the soul, but instead, within ourselves.”

Murmurs flooded the Coliseum. Zaltarish’s words were powerful. Catching the attention of everyone listening.

“When the soul wants to surpass the body, it can’t. Why? Because it is our bodies that are too weak. When our understanding matches an intent, yet is held within the peak level of wills, it is because we ourselves aren’t powerful enough to sustain qi at the level of an intent.”

Dyon’s eyes sparkled. He was well aware that wills, when used, manifested themselves in what would be called qi. This is why he referred to Darius’ spear will as spear qi. And why he referred to his sword will as sword qi. However, as he himself thought through earlier, there was a reason intents couldn’t be “understood” unless you reached the essence gathering level of energy cultivation. It was because it was only at that point that your cultivation would be able to sustain qi that powerful.

Zaltarish continued, “as those of outstanding intelligence can deduce, the fault hardly lies on the inadequacies of the soul. Our souls, if powerful enough, have the abilities to understand intents long before we step into essence gathering should our genius be up to par. We are the ones holding it back,” suddenly Zaltarish smiled, “but this isn’t the end of that.

When one’s cultivation reaches dao formation, the body undergoes a qualitative change. Suddenly, the body and soul become one in the name of the daos we have chosen.”

The air seemed to get sucked out of the coliseum. The dao formation stage was a legend of unprecedented heights. To the point where there was not a single such expert in this universe of that level of power as far as they knew.

However, Dyon’s eyes sparkled with a different light. One of an inevitable anticipation, a wanting and thirst for power. An unyielding sense of belief.

He suddenly thought back to the sage demon and his song, ‘if dao formation is so powerful… how powerful was he to have surpassed it…’

“once such a level is reached, would the soul ever be held back again? When the soul is the body, and the body is the soul. A union of perfection and unmatched glory, would either ever hold back the other? A perfect amalgamation of cultivation. An epitome of faultlessness.”

A small smile graced Zaltarish’s features as his eyes burned with passion, but, he lightly chuckled to himself, “I’ve said all of this and yet haven’t truly delved into wills. I’ve explained what is most important in understanding them, but not what they truly are.

Wills are the essence and core of everything that is. Whether that be living, or dead, strong or weak.

They are the laws that write what is and what isn’t. When one understands a will, they understand what it means to be that thing.”

Zaltarish lifted his hand, a small blade of sword qi appearing. Condensed to the 8^th level of will, it slowly swayed above his palm, its gentle movement sending tsunamis of wind every which direction.

“Wills are what makes a sword a sword. In its purist form, it follows one path. And that one path… clean of impurities and false beliefs, acts as a beacon. When that path is found, your will becomes indomitable. When that path is found… your sword cleaves through everything… even should you want to cut a person in half, and have them remain standing as though nothing had occurred, you could do. Even if you wanted to slice this world in half with a single flick of the wrist, you could do it.”

Zaltarish flicked his wrist.

WHOOOSH

The sword qi flew threw the air, slicing inches from Dyon’s cheek.

It wrapped around him, dancing domineeringly before sped towards the arenas.

There was no large explosion. There was only the sound of the air that rushed to fill a now gaping valley.

Zaltarish’s sword qi had sliced a 10-meter scar into the center arena. But, it seemed as though it had no end to its depth. It was clear that Zaltarish could have made this scar much longer, but instead chose to restrain himself. However, as a display of power, dug deep into the earth instead.

“As your understanding increases, the depth of your will increases. And as that depth accumulates, you will level will increase along with it. With each sinking step, with each dive into comprehension, with each breath of enlightenment, one taps further and further into wills. Raising a raging tempest of will of the purist form.

What else must be said? The philosophy of will is exactly as I’ve described it. It isn’t any less complex, and it isn’t any more profound. Because it many ways, it is both. It can be as fleeting as autumn leaves, yet as everlasting as the stars in the sky.”

The eyes of the crowds sparkled with glee. They felt as though their own understandings were deepening, as though their thoughts were Zaltarish’s thoughts.

A slow and steady clap reverberated through the crowd. Cheers erupted, shaking the coliseum’s foundation. The roars of infatuated women and idolizing men were many. To everyone, it was as though there was no need to continue.

Suddenly, Dyon coughed.

Like a hot knife through butter, his disruption seemed to not care about the disparity in volume. His will was the most important and the most domineering.

Instantly, a feeling of uneasiness and displeasure spread through the crowd. It was almost like they had been on Zaltarish’s drug and Dyon’s interruption had sent them into withdrawal.

Boos rained downwards.

“Who do you think you are interrupting our praise of the young master!”

“This debate is over, what need is there for you to speak!”

“We won’t be listening to you anyway! Everyone, let’s leave!”

Zaltarish snickered. He was at first apprehensive about the fact Dyon had so easily cut through his suggestion technique. But, it seemed like his forceful slash didn’t reveal to the audience Zaltarish’s ploy, but instead made him an enemy that cut off a good feeling from them.

‘idiots. They don’t even realize he saved them from essentially becoming my slaves in this life and the next.’

Kymil lightly chuckled, “you see, Jade? This is the shameless man you tried to protect. You really are too kind hearted of a beauty.”

Darcassan smiled in agreement, but Jade held a complicated look on her face. As a member of the Eostre family, suggestion techniques were useless against her. And although she didn’t know how Dyon escaped it, it was clear that even her friends were affected.

Uncle Acacia looked down towards Dyon with a worried expression. He didn’t know whether he should use his authority as the Acacia Academy headmaster to force them to stay or if their leaving would prevent Dyon from taking too much of a loss. However, as he was conflicted, Dyon began speaking as though this had nothing to do with him at all. As though only those who were worthy could listen to his words at all.

However, this only made Uncle Acacia pale further, because Dyon’s voice had no suggestion, no wills and even lacked his usual domineering qualities!

“wills are nowhere near as simple as you’ve made them out to be… for a member of the Elvin race – one who claims to be of a culture that strives for the peak of all understanding – I find it surprising that you of all people would say what you’ve said…”

Zaltarish’s eyebrows furrowed. But, he immediately relaxed as he noticed that the crowd had forewent leaving to instead boo Dyon.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It seemed as though they were intent on forcing Dyon into submission before they happily left the coliseum.

However, no matter how loudly the booed, it was as if Dyon’s words couldn’t be drowned out.

“For one… you claim that the soul is the key to understanding wills and that what holds our understanding back is nothing but ourselves, but you’ve already made a logical error. The idea of us holding back the soul isn’t mutually exclusive with the idea of the soul also holding us back.

You then claim that dao formation is the cultivation level we must reach for us to never have to hold the soul back, but you fail to even understand what being a dao formation expert means, yet to claim to be able to deduce its benefits. Don’t you find that to be ridiculous?”

Zaltarish’s eyebrows frowned as the crowd suddenly felt something shifting in the air. But, they weren’t willing to calm down so easily, so although they quietened, their anger had yet to be satiated.

Zaltarish’s voice rang out, “you speak as though you yourself understand dao formation? If you claim that I know nothing about it, your knowledge has to at least surpass mine.”

Dyon chuckled, “wrong again. My knowledge only need be equal to yours for me to understand that you know nothing. Because then, if I’m aware of my own lack of understanding, wouldn’t that mean that you also don’t understand?”

Zaltarish grit his teeth. He didn’t like this game Dyon was playing. Although Dyon was technically correct, to Zaltarish, this was petty and unnecessary.

Dyon seemed to have read Zaltarish’s thoughts and chuckled, “you must think that was petty?”

The crowd roared in agreement, hating Dyon’s shamelessness.

Dyon didn’t seem too bothered, “interesting. I think it’s only about as petty as sending your sword qi to dance for me before marking an Acacia Academy arena as though you owned it.”

Dyon’s words cut through the noise. Immediately silencing the crowd. It seemed as though they were finally beginning to see flaws in Zaltarish. And yet, Dyon had still not used any suggestion techniques. To him, his logic and reasoning was more than enough to crush Zaltarish.

“dao formation isn’t the soul becoming one with the body. That concept in and of itself is absolutely ridiculous. Dao formation is the soul becoming a body, not your body.”

Zaltarish’s eyebrows furrowed along with everyone else’s. What Dyon was saying was ridiculous.

“The way you speak, people would assume a no name like you had a dao formation expert for a master.”

Dyon chuckled. In fact, he did. But, with the looming mystery of the Celestial Deer Sect destruction, he didn’t think it was right to reveal this for now. He was reckless, but not this reckless.

So, Dyon didn’t respond to Zaltarish’s digs directly, “you’re so lost in your own bubble that you believe everything revolves around an Elvin way of thinking.

You must think that because your manifestations already constitute as your souls gaining bodies, that it would be redundant for it to once again do so once reaching dao formation. But, you’d be wrong, as you’ve been all this time.”

Zaltarish’s serious expression just continued to harden. It seemed as though every time Dyon spoke, he cut right to the source of the problem. Leaving no room for Zaltarish to lead him on in circles, or even to at least use pseudo-logic to sway the crowd his way.

“the truth is, that your current manifestations are only a pre-cursor to what happens during dao formation. For you, manifestations boost will and gift you understanding. However, dao formation experts form their own wills and forge their own manifestations. To reach dao formation means to take fate into your own hands. To change worlds on a whim. To bend even reality itself to achieve your own goals.

Did you think that such an expert would rely on chance to hand them whatever manifestation they may receive? How ridiculous does that sound to you?”

Dyon’s voice was growing more domineering and unyielding. His words were beginning to become irrefutable. Almost as though his word was law.

“When you reach that level. Your wills have transcended intents, to become daos. You’ve understood auras and domains. You’ve cultivated. You’ve won. You’ve failed.

Imagine such a transcendent existence being boiled down to simply being ‘the soul becoming one with the body’.”

Dyon didn’t seem to have any intent on laying off of Zaltarish. Dao formation was a realm that should be esteemed. He didn’t like the idea of the goal his master worked centuries for being boiled down so simply by this fool.

“Dao formation solidifies wills and intents using your soul to then form manifestation bodies to create daos. I don’t know what cheap book you read that taught you it was the soul becoming the body, but throw it away. It’s not good for such an esteemed young master to have such faults in his knowledge.”

The geniuses were stunned. They hadn’t been able to pick out a single flaw in Zaltarish’s speech. But, right now, they got the strange feeling that everything Dyon said was the unequivocal fact.

“continuing on with the rest of your logical flaws, we can go back to the idea of the soul being held back, and the soul holding us back not being mutually exclusive. Although to me that statement was as clear as could be, it’s been brought to my attention that your knowledge is a bit lacking,” Dyon’s smile was like a poison in Zaltarish’s eyes. He wanted nothing more than to be rid of this boy.

“you claim that we hold the soul back, when that is only part of the equation. Because you’re so caught up in what you can’t do, you’ve completely missed what you can do. The level your will reaches is of no consequence.”

Discussion erupted. What did Dyon mean by that? How is the level you will reaches of no consequence?

Dyon raised his hand. Soon, a small condensed bit of sword qi appeared.

The crowd erupted into laughter.

“first level sword will?”

“and you dare to question the thoughts of young master Zaltarish?”

“who do you think you are?!”

The geniuses below the terrace sneered, looking at Dyon with disdain. This caused Zaltarish to finally calm down. Although Dyon’s word made sense, debating was also about swaying the crowd. Him revealing his pitiful sword will was essentially shooting himself in the foot.

However, Dyon didn’t seem to notice. The sword qi in his hand suddenly warped.

Level 2….

Level 3…

Level 5… 7… 8…. 9….

Level 1… it was almost as though it hadn’t changed at all.

The crowd was stunned.

Ri could only shake her head bitterly, ‘level 9 music will and level 9 sword will? You’re almost as exaggerated as me,’ she thought grinning to herself.

But, what Ri brushed off, sent the elders staggering. They all were thinking of one thing: ‘it’s possible to control the level your will is at?’

“you’re all ignorant.”

Dyon’s voice was like a dagger, slicing through the pride of everyone in attendance.

“if you haven’t reached a level of understanding to be able to decide what level your will is at any given time, can you really say you understand it at all? Ridiculous!

Do you know why I spent months learning how to control my wills in such a way? Because of another mistake you made. In fact, it was because I made the same mistake myself that I tried so hard to fix it.”

The crowd listened intently as Dyon spoke. It seemed they had no will to oppose this boy anymore. Every time they did so, everything would change against their expectations.

“no need to ask,” looking at Zaltarish’s struggling features, “I was about to tell you anyway. I owe it to Uncle Acacia to win this debate, no?”

Zaltarish could only grit his teeth in silence as the geniuses around him felt their very foundations shaking.

“I used to also think that every will had its own pure path. That one path would transcend all,” Dyon thought back to his talks with Madeleine. It seemed Madeleine had realized the flaw in his logic. In fact, if it wasn’t for her messages about it, Dyon may very well have stuck to those thoughts.

The crowd could only look on in confusion, watching a genuine smile spread across Dyon’s face… a smile only he and Jade knew the root of.

“However, is that really the case? Who’s to say that a sword’s will should be more emperor-like or more flower-like? Maybe it should be the rising sun, or like the falling rain? Should it be more like a dance between lovers? Or like the spar between friends?

I once thought that the purest form of music will was the voice,” suddenly, Dyon’s every words carried a domineering will, “but, is that true? Maybe the only reason I can access my music will better with my voice than with an instrument is simply because I use my voice more than I play the piano or a lyre?”

A sudden realization hit the crowd. They shivered. It was almost like a door of endless possibilities was opening before them.

“You must all be wondering why I would bother reigning in the power of my wills. Wouldn’t an attack from a 9^th level will always be more powerful than one from that of a first level?”

Many nodded.

“But, you’d be wrong again. For the very same reason that there is no single path for wills, because wills can be combined.”

An endless silence filled the coliseum. The amount of secrets Dyon was revealing were akin to books that only the highest levels of the Sapientia family would author. And yet, he spoke of them like it was nothing. Why? Because Dyon knew that even if he told everyone in the world this, no more than a handful would be able to copy his path.

“did you know… there’s a very interesting human mortal realm concept…” Dyon’s hands began swirling with first level space and time wills, together, but separate.

The sparkling black and grays coated his hands, causing a collective breath to escape the coliseum. Space will was rare enough, but the will of time was so rare and elusive that had Dyon’s hands not been moving in a fashion much too slow for the speed of his actual body, it wouldn’t have been recognized.

“space is actually a fabric… a piece of paper layered again and again in every which way….”

Dyon’s words were confusing, but his voice made them oddly understandable. It gave the crowd and geniuses an odd feeling.

“the dimensions of the world… ie forwards and backwards, up and down, and left and right, actually have a 4^th level to them – that being time.”

The wills in Dyon’s hands spun more vigorously, giving the geniuses near Dyon a suffocating feeling. They felt as though their bodies were growing heavier as time went on.

“meaning… movement forward in time, is the equivalent of you taking a step in any direction.

So, why is this significant? Because, mass causes dips in the fabrics of space… bending the paper inwards, if you will.

However, curves are very interesting in their nature: they force straight lines to come together in response to their movement in the 4 dimensions. What does this mean? It means that the natural tendencies of objects in curved space is to come together.

Don’t believe me? Take a large round ball, and two elastic strings. Tape the strings parallel to each other, and draw lines at that starting point to prove that the strings never deviated from their straight path. Then, spin the ball, slowly stretching the strings. What you’ll notice, is despite the string remaining straight at the taped end, the other ends of the string come together.”

The crowd had no idea what Dyon was talking about. What does this have to do with wills and their combining? But, despite their wishes, an array appeared above Dyon, manipulating the experiment as he described. And under the shocked gaze of everyone, the un-taped ends of the strings came together, but, the taped ends were still straight!

Dyon smiled, “you must think that this is just an optical illusion. Even worse, you must think it has nothing to do with wills. But, you’d be wrong.

The ball spinning and stretching the strings was an example of movement in the original 3 dimensions. But, what about the fourth?”

A sudden realization hit the crowd. Their faces froze in shock and understanding.

“That’s right, movement in time. Curvature of space. Coming together despite the original configurations of the object. The combination of these things is exactly what you’d call… GRAVITY!”

BOOM!

Dyon’s hands clasped together. The coliseum shook. The knees of the weak creaked and groaned. The structures shook violently, suddenly unable to support their own weights anymore.

The shock on the faces of the crowd soon reached the elders. They could no longer maintain their nonchalant attitudes.

Dyon combined his space and time will to exponentially increase gravity!

Dyon chuckled, seeing that everyone had suffered enough. His wills dispersed, returning everything to normal.

A cold sweat appeared on each and everyone, ‘this is the power of combining wills?…’

“The reason I learned to change the depth of my wills at will,” Dyon chuckled, “is because combining wills is exceedingly difficult. It’s much easier to control should their levels be lower. Yet, their affects are much more powerful than even them at their peak.

I hope you understand now that wills have no set path. There is an infinite amount of possibilities and possible avenues of understanding. There is no path better than another, and no one cares, or should care, what level your wills are at.

So what if you soul allows you to reach a deeper level? You clearly don’t even understand the basics, so why would you dive deeper?”

Dyon suddenly jumped up from his seat. His shirtless torso rippling as he stretched and yawned lazily.

Stretching his waist, he winked at the beauties and jumped onto an array platform, floated up to Ri.

“Wanna go see Little Lyla?” Dyon asked, stretching out his hand.

Ri smiled, nodding her head and ignoring his hand to jump onto the platform.

Dyon chuckled bitterly, “you could at least give me some face, you really know how to hurt a man.”

Ri rolled her eyes, “why don’t you go ask ‘Madeleine Sapientia’ to take your hand.”

Dyon’s robust laughter filled the quiet coliseum, “you’d like her. You two would bully me quite well together.”

Ri looked at Dyon. It seemed she understood that he wasn’t lying either. But, it was only a feeling.

Dyon waved to Uncle Acacia who held a proud smile on his face, “see you later Uncle Acacia.”

Uncle Acacia nodded in acknowledgement, his smile never fading as he watched them float away.

The crowd and the geniuses watched Dyon and Ri disappear into the distance, still not knowing how to feel or what to do.

Zaltarish could only maintain his calm outer appearance, ‘you’ve won this time… we’ll see how long you can jump around happily in my kingdom.’