[186] Choosing Another New Path
<span style="font-weight:400">Chapter 185: Choosing Another New Path
<span style="font-weight:400">—
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubasa''s heart raced as Aqua climbed the stairs, leading her to his room. It made her feel even better, briefly meeting the gaze of the two devils.
<span style="font-weight:400">The adrenaline of the battle and the thrill of her sessful advancement had her on edge, and she could feel her primal instincts wing at her self-control. Mostly because of the smell – that <i><span style="font-weight:400">smell </i><span style="font-weight:400">– that he was releasing. What was up with that?
<span style="font-weight:400">It had been weeks since theyst had sex, and the thought of being intimate with him again made her body ache with desire. More than ever. He closed the door behind him and led her to the bed.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Now," Aqua said, dropping her onto the bed with augh. "Try to hold in that urge, try to pull it back inside like a dot. Focus. Try to revert to your human side. Or else-"
<span style="font-weight:400">But Tsubasa''s hybrid form was truly active, and her body was begging for release. She grabbed him by the cor and pulled him onto her, her sharp nails and fangs on full disy. Aqua''s eyes widened for a moment, but then he chuckled and pulled her close, his body tense with anticipation.
<span style="font-weight:400">Their kiss was fierce and demanding, and Tsubasa could feel herself losing control. She wanted to revert to her human form, but the urge to mate was too strong. She tore at Aqua''s clothes, her sharp nails making quick work of the fabric, and he did the same to her.
<span style="font-weight:400">It’d have been more optimal to just teleport the clothes, but who could logic with primal instincts?
<span style="font-weight:400">As they tumbled onto the bed, Tsubasa''s tail wrapped around Aqua''s waist, pulling him closer. She could feel his hardness pressing against her, and she let out a low growl of pleasure.
<span style="font-weight:400">Aqua''s hands roamed Tsubasa''s body, his touch sending shivers down her spine. He cupped her breasts, his thumbs brushing over her nipples, and she moaned into his mouth. His fingers trailed down her stomach, teasing the sensitive skin there, before finally reaching the apex of her thighs.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Nghn…” Tsubasa''s body was on fire, and she couldn''t get enough of Aqua''s touch. She arched her back, pressing her breasts against his chest, and ground her hips against his hand. Aqua''s fingers slipped inside her, and she gasped, her nails digging into his skin.
<span style="font-weight:400">"You''re so wet, Tsubasa," Aqua growled, his lips trailing down her neck. "So ready for me."
<span style="font-weight:400">"Y-yes," she panted, her body trembling. "Aqua, please. I need you."
<span style="font-weight:400">Aqua''s cock was rock hard, and he couldn''t wait any longer. He positioned himself at Tsubasa''s entrance and mmed inside her, making her cry out with pleasure. She was so tight, so hot, and he could feel himself losing control.
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubasa''s fangs sank into Aqua''s shoulder, marking him as hers, and he responded by biting her neck, iming her as his. The pleasure was almost unbearable, and like that, the night grew hotter.
<span style="font-weight:400">****
<span style="font-weight:400">Two dayster, I was not home. Morning birds chirped and gentle wind filled the mountain range. I sat at the peak, with my legs crossed and all my focus pinpointed on collecting Sun Qi.
<span style="font-weight:400">I sat like that for hours, until at noon, I felt a sense of fulfillment in my Qi Pool. I opened my eyes, my pupils bright and zing.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Whew, finally,” I let out a breath. “My second path reached Sage rank.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I fought against Indra when I was at Overlord Qi on this Path of the Darkest Sun. I’m even stronger than that now, and I’m not stopping here.
<span style="font-weight:400">This means that not only was my Qi Pool twice the size as before, making it at least ten times that of an average Sage''s, but this single Qi Pool now had six attributes as well. Wind, water, cloud, and lightning affinity from my first path, and sun and moon affinity from my new path.
<span style="font-weight:400">At this rate, after training in a few more paths, I should be able to use any path without needing to gather Qi from scratch; the empty ‘infinity’ state of my body will finally reach its true potential. <b>Grandmist</b><span style="font-weight:400">, the Totality Qi, will have all the affinities in the universe. I’ll be able to perform techniques from all paths in existence with a single thought, without ever learning them manually like this. The concept of a path at that point would be irrelevant.
<span style="font-weight:400">That reminds me, since I finished Darkest Sun, I could learn a new path right away. “Let’s see…” I decided to use Soul Reflection to make a list appear before me.
<b>Path of the Celestial Radiance: A path running on the brilliant nine-colored Qi, a variation of pure Qi but with more destructive prowess. It can earn simr results to the legendary Hollow King path, though the mana-negation part is less focused, in exchange for stronger attack powers. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, your eyes will be transformed into the Nine-Colored Eyes.</b>
<b>Path of the ck me: A path running on a mixture of Qi affinities between darkness and fire, turning you into a machine of destruction. Experienced users can demolish a continent into mere ashes with the [ck Dragon’s Dance] attack. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, you’d gain ess to partial dragonification, as this is a path derived from a line of ck Dragons.</b>
<b>Path of the Hungry Deep: A path focused on devouring Qi; a mixture of blood and hunger affinity. Outside the usual advancement using Cycling Techniques, this allows the users to grow by another means. They can [Devour] the physical and spiritual strength of magical beasts and theirtent authority, using them to empower the user. This devour is only usable on monsters and beasts, and is unusable on a humanoid creature due to the fundamental structure of the technique. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, your forearms would be ckened and will give you an urge of constant hunger.</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">These were the three that I have yet to learn from the five initial paths I chose for this life. I would usually wait for a few weeks to let my Qi calm down before picking up a new path, but time is scarce. I''ll only rest for a day instead, no, just till this evening.
<span style="font-weight:400">I stood up, dusting off my hand. “I should decide by evening which one I want to learn. Then prepare the environment needed to absorb the new Qi type. I should go take a shower now, and see if Irina is done with what I told her to do,” I stretched a little and then took off into the air.
<span style="font-weight:400">My body let out a brilliant dark sheen, and I streaked across the sky faster than ever before. My speed has improved by a mile.
<span style="font-weight:400">….
<span style="font-weight:400">“Wow.” After freshening up, I was at our gigantic gym, chuckling to myself. “Looks good, this is a great sword now.” I held the Ex-Durandal in the air, looking at all the enhancements it received.
<span style="font-weight:400">Xenovia’s Durandal was a very special holy sword. It could easily assimte with other swords if handled by an experienced cksmith. And luckily, this household had a million-year-old cksmith here.
<span style="font-weight:400">Smithing is a basic skill to have for a powerful warrior, it is best to make your own weapons, after all. And when you live as long as me, it’s a fun hobby to have. Yet for this, I didn''t even need to grab a hammer to merge this big sword with the Excalibur pieces. It was more a merging between the soul and spirit of the multiple des with one another than smelting.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Um… wow…” Xenovia was staring at her new sword with glittering eyes. I let out augh, I understood what she felt. I handed it to her and allowed her to see the new enchantment for herself.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright, it''s decided then,” I said a momentter, after observing her swing the sword a little. I turned to Irina, “You two will being to the other world as well. Since we’ll be fighting Demon Gods, holy sword users are always wee. So be sure to train more, or you’ll not survive there. Now, two more spaces are vacant.”
<span style="font-weight:400">That meant me, Gxara, Ai, Ruby, Tsubasa, Ranefer, and these two exorcists would being to Pangeal. I still had to raise them as Angels to power them up, however.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ah, thank you, boss!” The girls bowed, and I waved it off.
<span style="font-weight:400">Irina''s new power was quite extraordinary. I already had four Excalibur pieces, but missing the other three was a hassle. Thankfully, Irina''s power was all about making Holy Swords. So she made replicas of those three Excalibur swords that wecked.
<span style="font-weight:400">Since she had seen and trained with them before back in the church, she had a greater understanding of them. So even though it took a bit of time and a lot of focus, she could make replicas almost as powerful as the real ones, and they even had the same abilities.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">To think such an easy solution was right in front of my eyes</i><span style="font-weight:400">. I was a little embarrassed to have missed this. Here I was thinking about messy ns to deal with the Angels.
<span style="font-weight:400">I left the two girls behind, allowing them to train with Kwarna, and returned to the living room. Ai was with Kana, chatting about magic, and my Goddess and Asia were on another couch, where the former was telling thetter a story from Pangeal.
<span style="font-weight:400">Shoko and Yuzuru weren’t here today, they had a family program, and Ruby was in her room, cultivating. Tsubasa was doing the same in her house. I walked over to the coffee maker in the kitchen and began to prepare a mug for myself.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Get one for me too, please,” Ai called when I was measuring water, and I nodded.
<span style="font-weight:400">“How do you feel, by the way, Asia?” I asked the nun, my eyes on the coffee maker. “The advancementst night went perfectly, but if you feel anything weird anywhere, just tell me.” Ranefer provided her with a phoenix''s dead body, as promised, and using that I raised her into Gold.
<span style="font-weight:400">“It’s alright, I feel great,” she said with a smile. She sounded as gentle as the first day Ai bought her here, even though now she held the power to destroy a city block at her fingertips. “Sorry that I’m not training right now like the others, I was quite interested in this story.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It’s alright, you can rest for a day.” I chuckled. “I… helped Tsubasa rest too after her ascension, it''s only natural you get a day off too. Which story though?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Malebranche, the Twelve Demons Kings,” my Goddess replied instead. “Those who were defeated by the former hero, your senior, who established the Erebian Empire after freeing the world from those demons.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, that story. I heard that from the former hero too, she wouldn’t stop bbering and bragging about it when we were traveling together,” I said with a chuckle. I was not the first hero of that world, although I was the only one from another world.
<span style="font-weight:400">The former hero, Jasmine, connected her soul with her legendary sword. So after her death, when she lived in heaven, she couldmunicate with the new heroes through the sword to guide them. When a new demon king appeared, one stronger than all twelve from before, as well as far more intelligent too, the Goddess summoned a hero from another world. I received the holy sword of the former hero andmunicated with her using it too. She materialized as a flying orb with a single eye that only I could see, and we journeyed together till the end.
<span style="font-weight:400">“She wouldn’t believe me when I said that my Demon King was stronger than all twelve of herbined, since that’d make her appear weaker than me,” I let out a chuckle, pouring the coffee in two sses. “I was looking forward to the day I would die only because I wanted to meet her in heaven and beat her up to see who’s truly the strongest. Unfortunately, that day never came…”
<span style="font-weight:400">I let out a soft sigh and took a sip of the coffee. It felt alright. I walked over to Ai and handed her the ss, and my eyes met with Kana briefly. I nodded at her and looked at my Goddess.
<span style="font-weight:400">“So,” I took another sip, “How’s she these days?”
<span style="font-weight:400">She was a mentor of mine, one of the few women in my life who I would always respect. It was her techniques that I performed to y Demons, and even in Murim in my 4th life when I was called the Vagabond de of Destruction, I taught my blind disciple like how Jasmine taught me.
<span style="font-weight:400">“...I reincarnated her,” Gxara said, lowering her gaze. “Before my battle with the two Outer Gods, I reincarnated her. I boosted her growth spurt, so she was an adult in just a few days and is fighting in the front lines now. I… am not sure if she’s alive or not right now.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I hummed. “She’ll be fine.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I knew too well that if she wasn’t fine and ended up dying… I’d never see her. Since the Goddess is gone, the Angel of Death is too, the dead souls wouldn’t reach heaven or hell and would rather perish. So I wanted to believe that she’d be fine.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, she will be,” Ai looked at me and said. “Don’t worry Aqua, I’m sure she is fine and is holding off against the Outer Gods as humanity’s vanguard.”
<span style="font-weight:400">She didn’t even know much, yet she was consoling me. I nodded. Kana was looking at me with odd eyes, as she had been for thest couple of weeks, but I didn’t heed her. Her powers weren’t exactly what I thought it’d be, so sadly she couldn’t speed up our growth, so she was low on my priority list for now.
<span style="font-weight:400">Still, the ability that her Sacred Gear [<b>Kingprotea</b><span style="font-weight:400">] granted her, the only one for now, allows her to grow in size and mass, depending on how much Mana she has. And it''s not as if it took much mana either; Kana just had 2nd-circle’s worth of mana, and she showed off by growing into the size of a whale in under three seconds.
<span style="font-weight:400">I think, if she’s supplied with 7th-circle mana, she can grow asrge as a in a few seconds. If notrger. So I requested Ai to train her in magic, especially in Mana control and growth. She’ll get stronger in no time, but not fast enough to be a part of this expedition.
<span style="font-weight:400">After finishing my coffee, I put it down on the table. “I’m heading out again, mom.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? You were outside all morning and noon, though…" She looked at me and I just smiled. I was busy. She nodded, “When will you be back?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Late at night,” I replied. “I’ll see you.” I said and left the house, taking the air.
<span style="font-weight:400">I wasn’t heading to the mountain this time, but to a forest not far from here. It was a dungeon, housing magical beasts inside. For the path that I’m about to learn now, I’ll need a little blood-bath to train. If I had this path in Vedas, I could have gotten it to Sage easily, for my new path grows stronger when the blood of my enemies flows.
<b>The Path of the Hungry Deep </b><span style="font-weight:400">is the only path that could satiate my desire to grow.
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