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Chapter 100

Aquamarine was not a ship that could operate without a crew. Although she hadn’t fought on the front lines, Frances had been continuously steering the ship against the onslaught of the Demonic Octopuses. She had disrupted their advance with Impulse Wave and used the Incineration Cannons to scorch the ones attempting to launch large-scale magic.

If Frances hadn’t been working around the clock to help with the defense, the crew fighting on the deck wouldn’t have lasted half the time they had.

“Fran, you don’t look so good,” Leonard remarked. He knew that compared to the others, Frances had less stamina. Although her battle had been indirect, it was still grueling enough to wear out even a seasoned adventurer.

Frances acknowledged his comment with a bitter smile. “Haha, is it that obvious? It’s been a while since I focused that hard, so it was quite exhausting.”

Many people have the wrong idea about mental strength, forgetting that it ultimately comes from physical endurance. Even someone with indomitable willpower wouldn’t be able to keep going without sufficient food and water. Unless one reached a state where the body and mind could function independently by unlocking their upper dantian, finding a workaround would be quite difficult.

“Let’s keep the report on this Rift expedition short. We can go over the details after you\'ve recovered.”

“...Uh, fine. If you’re saying this, Leonard, then I must really be in rough shape. Alright, please keep it short.”

Accepting his suggestion, Frances firmly patted her cheeks, fearing that if she didn’t, her eyelids would droop and her sinking consciousness would succumb to sleep.

“After leaving the Aquamarine, we soon came across the Rift Guardian in the heart of the Deep Sea City. It was a giant octopus-like monster without a physical form. We named it the Mind Kraken, and we quickly began our battle against it...”

Leonard’s explanation was concise, but the details were so fascinating that both Marianne and Frances quickly found themselves immersed in the story.

The Mind Kraken—fighting a giant monster from another dimension, estimated to be Rank S, and returning victorious? Of course, Archmage Jack Russell had played a significant role, but it was nonetheless a remarkable feat for Leonard.

Marianne and Frances looked bewildered when Leonard explained how he had flown on a sword. He even gave them a demonstration of Sword Flight.

“Wh-What? This can be done with aura as well, not just with magic swords?”

“Yes.”

Marianne was more astonished than Frances and was curious about the principles behind Sword Flight, but without unlocking the upper dantian, it was beyond her reach. Even though she was disappointed, the sight of Leonard standing on the sword fueled her determination to train harder.

“Let’s continue.”

Leonard resumed his story. Reporting the battle’s details didn’t require much time. Although the battle with the Mind Kraken had been fierce, the report itself could fit on a single page if all the unnecessary details were left out.

Leonard described how neither his augmented qi nor Jack Russell’s supreme magic could inflict significant damage. Frustrated by the prolonged battle, the Mind Kraken resorted to its ultimate move—Mindscape Invasion. Leonard used this to their advantage, inflicting a critical blow and destroying the core hidden within the creature.

“Ah, I was very curious about that,” Russell interjected, having just listened up to this point.

“The Mind Kraken was undoubtedly a psychic lifeform. Both of us could resist its mind control with our mental strength, but defense and offense were a totally different story. How did you manage it?”

Jack Russell was not exaggerating. Fighting a psychic lifeform within a mental realm was like trying to swim faster than a fish. Blocking a mental invasion and using it to counterattack were as different as night and day.

And yet, Leonard had managed that with ease.

“It let its guard down. While I haven’t reached the Transcendence Tier, I’m able to wield my sword with my mind. I lured it into my Mindscape to level the playing field and struck its vital point. I would’ve failed if the creature had realized what my plan was.”

“You lured it into your Mindscape...? You... Did you intentionally submit to its mind control in order to counterattack?”

Jack Russell\'s eyes widened with astonishment, something rare for him. “Bold” wouldn’t even begin to describe Leonard’s tactic. Had the Mind Kraken realized his plan and countered, Leonard would have lost his body to the monster, ultimately facing a fate worse than death.

“Given that the alternative was a prolonged fight, I had to take the gamble.”

“...I won’t say more, since it worked, but that was reckless.”

“Sometimes you have to take risks.”

With that, the battle report on the Abyss of the Demon Octopus was concluded. Although brief, the report was good enough to submit to Bermuda.

Having dexterously recorded Leonard’s story, Frances finally put her quill pen down and sighed deeply. This whole ordeal had left her utterly exhausted, beyond what a few cups of coffee could fix.

“I don’t think we should go for the third Rift. Everyone is already exhausted, and we don’t have enough intel anyway. It’s too dangerous to rely just on the two of you,” Frances said.

Indeed, the Aquamarine Expedition Team had learned their limits through this expedition. The team was small, and exploring the Rift for the purpose of sealing it proved to be incredibly difficult.

While Leonard’s gamble had led to a successful mission with no casualties, the slightest error could have proven catastrophic.

Unlike the Abyss of the Demon Octopus, which had been explored to some extent, the Corrupted Spirit Legion was completely unknown territory with no reliable information. Furthermore, Aquamarine didn’t have enough Antimagic artifacts to deal with it.

“Let’s stay around the area for a bit as per the navigation schedule, and then return to Atlantis.”

Frances’ tone was firm, and no one opposed her decision. With that, the discussion in the meeting room came to an end.

Exploring the Fifth Sea District was far from easy, and this adventure had made that starkly clear once again.

* * *

Returning to his quarters, Leonard immediately entered a state of meditation.

“I must act quickly while it’s still fresh in my mind.”

Despite being physically and mentally exhausted, having expended more than half of his internal energy on Sword Flight and delving into the Mindscape, Leonard knew this battle had been too valuable of an experience not to reflect on.

There was nothing to be gained from the Mind Kraken itself. It wasn’t human but a monster, and its combat style, relying solely on power output, was crude. However, the heart devil’s method of crushing the monster within the Mindscape was something that couldn’t be overlooked.

It’s just a representation of Dan Mok-Jin. It can’t use martial arts I haven’t experienced or replicate the true nature of the Heavenly Demon himself.

Ultimately, the heart devil, born from the life-or-death battle where Yeon Mu-Hyuk had been defeated, had clear limitations.

127 seconds—the demon could only use the martial arts and replicate the prowess displayed by the Heavenly Demon in that 127-second fight.

Although the heart devil used its internal energy generously, it didn’t even get to use the powers of a Profound Realm master or the ultimate techniques of the Asura’s Royal Dance. It was able to defeat me with thirty percent, if not less, of its full power.

The Asura’s Royal Dance was the pinnacle of martial arts that one could master after fully comprehending the Heavenly Demon Cultivation Method. Of those techniques, Leonard had only experienced four.

The unavoidable restraint technique, Six-Direction Total Rampage.

The unblockable destructive technique, Emperor Destroyer Immortal Killer.

The absolute counter technique, Controlling Otherness.

The death technique that no one could survive, Heaven’s Annihilation.

However, after awakening the Five Elements Augmented Qi, the first two techniques, the Six-Direction Total Rampage and Emperor Destroyer Immortal Killer, were no longer significant issues. The truly formidable techniques were Controlling Otherness, which he hadn’t been able to overcome, and Heaven’s Annihilation, which had ended Yeon Mu-Hyuk’s life.

Leonard spent several minutes reflecting on that brief moment—the defense that the Mind Kraken hadn’t been able to penetrate with its dark tentacles, psychic waves, telekinesis, and otherworldly magic.

“...I didn’t see Heaven’s Annihilation, but I saw Controlling Otherness. It’s the ultimate counter technique capable of repelling psychic waves and otherworldly magic. If you don’t stop the user from unleashing it, not even ten times the power can break through.”

Controlling Otherness was said to be a heaven ruled by Marapapiyas, the King of the Sixth Heaven. Those born within it could freely steal the pleasures of those born outside.

True to the legend, the technique of Controlling Otherness could not only absorb all incoming attacks but also convert them into the user’s power or unleash them back at the enemy with several times the power.

The Five Elements Augmented Qi couldn’t fully penetrate it, and Leonard had suffered critical injuries from his power being absorbed and turned against him more than once.

While the Shaolin Sect’s Mahayana Prajna Zen Art is known as the pinnacle of counter techniques, this is beyond even that.

The principle itself was simple—a curtain of augmented qi was deployed to absorb and accumulate all power flowing within it. The fact that it could absorb the Mind Kraken’s abilities despite not being martial arts suggested that the technique could counteract any phenomenon.

The user could then convert the absorbed power into internal energy or enhance it with their own strength and fire it back at the attacker.

Truly absurd, this martial art...

It was akin to the legendary technique of ancient times, the Shifting Flower Grafting Jade Divine Art. As he marveled at its capabilities, Leonard pondered on how to break it.

If Controlling Otherness is deployed, breaking its defense is impossible. Attacking it recklessly means facing several times the power in return, and leaving it alone puts me at a disadvantage. It’s truly a dilemma.

Even considering various ultimate techniques of the Five Elements Style, he couldn’t see a way to break through the technique.

Sweat trickled down Leonard’s forehead as he sat cross-legged in the center of the cabin. Despite overcoming countless crises with the power and experience of his past life, he wasn’t confident at all in regards to this issue, even with all his expertise.

The Profound Realm—a level reached by the Seven Commanders of Cardenas, a boundary where one would transcend the very limits of humanity. Even after perfecting the Five Elements Augmented Qi, Leonard could only consider himself on par with that level.

“...Hah, interesting.”

Although facing a seemingly insurmountable wall, Leonard smiled. It was only natural. For someone at a standstill, the most terrifying thing wasn’t a high, steep hill or a wall, but an endless barren plain where there was nothing. Simply having an obstacle to overcome gave him a reason to keep moving forward.

Clearing his mind of all distractions, Leonard closed his eyes. An inexplicable tension filled the cabin, and no one outside would be able to sense this atmosphere.

The concentration that allowed him to reach depths comparable to or greater than that of secluded training without actually being in seclusion was the very foundation that had built the Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-Hyuk.