Chapter IX: The Quill and Inkwell

A little over ten thousand years ago, an almighty entity was about to reach the pinnacle of immortality. On its journey, it encountered countless problems, challenges, and near-impossible missions.

It was the moment when it was about to transcend that everything failed; someone plotted from the shadows to prevent it. In its desperation, the stunned, surprised, and somewhat bewildered entity chose to leave its soul container to become spirit only. Its great power would allow it to maintain this ethereal form for a few hundred years.

As long as the supreme entity remained in intangible form, its power would weaken more and more. It was then that it decided to hide in a territory that was hostile for its time, a place that was barely habitable. The energy emanating from the pseudo-continent was virtually nil. The perfect place to recover its natural form and hide for a while. The spirit residing within the inkwell couldn't stop thinking of one name: Heyosin.

After hundreds and hundreds of years wandering the pseudo-continent it used as a hiding place, the spirit of the inkwell began to notice how its memories were becoming blurry, and mental gaps started to transform into rivers. When the rivers began to mutate into waterfalls, that was when it decided it would stop being ethereal and become physical again.

Fear choked it like a snake strangling its prey, but it knew it was necessary if it wanted to continue existing. The form of a quill and inkwell would be the correct option, the only option. Words fade like the spirit, but what is written in stone will never be forgotten, with that last thought, it fell into a deep sleep that would lead it to the present with its new owner.

With Shoneyi's return to the Heaven Sect and the uproar this caused, everything was out of control. Everyone was already beginning to understand his personality a little: addicted to showing himself better than others, afraid of nothing. He didn't care about getting hurt or fighting members older or much stronger than him. He was someone addicted to adrenaline. Sadly, public opinion could not have been further from the truth. Shoneyi was a greedy, fearful, shameless person, someone who lies to achieve what he wants.

When asked how he had survived the Forest of Beasts as only a slave without strength or spiritual power, he said that someone in heaven had helped him. A force, an almighty entity, guided him through teachings, dances, and songs.

All worthy of a fantastical storybook tale to read to children, but nothing further from reality: two years of pure torture, of desperation. Every movement was being watched by the surrounding beasts, but at the same time, because at that moment he posed no danger to them, the beasts ignored him.

“And that’s how I survived…”

Finishing the story, Shoneyi held out his hand to charge for his services. Every individual who heard the story had to pay one-tenth of a bottle of Stardust to enjoy it. Many of them suspected it was fabricated, but there was the question of what if Shoneyi was truly blessed. No one could deny that in just two and a half years he had achieved the unthinkable: entering the Outer Circle, and not only that, he had also managed to stop a kick from Lord Rao with nearly four cores of power, and another kick from Faanao at maximum power. No one knew for sure how many cores the boy possessed.

One impressive thing about the Heaven Sect that managed to attract the attention of other sects in the Terrestrial Continent was the ease with which the mountains could hide their presence. Thanks to this, Shoneyi learned to do it too, even with his own home.

If you concentrate your spiritual energy to form two cores and use them around you with the intention of concealing your movements, no one in a range of more than four meters will be able to detect what you are doing. The only way to break the concealment matrix is by exerting a differential pressure of seven cores.

Thanks to this technique, Shoneyi was able to survive in the forest for so long. The boy didn't use a four-meter concealment radius, but only a few centimeters beyond his body. This allowed that, even though he did not have the spiritual cores to defend himself, the necessary pressure to break the concealment matrix went up from seven to almost ten. That is to say, no one in the sect, other than the leader, would be able to know what Shoneyi was doing.

“Gambi… Keep explaining how they work.” A voice like that of a middle-aged man began to resonate in the boy’s mind.

“I am not your servant to be called whenever you please, I am the almighty—” The concern in its voice was almost palpable, followed by a small pause and a deep inhale of air.

“Gambi, we already discussed this, if you don't say who you are… it's all an invention and unfortunately, I don’t believe you.”

Shoneyi said with a slight mocking smile while he was meditating. After long inhales of air, the boy could feel his body becoming stronger. With the help of all the Stardust he had collected after telling his magnificent exploits, the aura surrounding Shoneyi became denser with every second.

“So, Lord Gambi, do you truly not know how to magnify an object since you regained consciousness?”

Shoneyi meticulously planned his words before speaking them. He knew how impressive the entity of the quill and inkwell was. That was one of the reasons why he learned the concealment matrix and how to reduce its diameter; the technique had been lost for about three thousand years. Logically, the entity should be at least a little over three thousand years old, according to the boy’s reasoning.