Death... and me

3067  Meaning?

"He... absorbed?" Those words came as bolts of lightning over Diliy and the others' heads. "Can your Sword Intent improve like that?"

Roan held his White Star in front of him. "You saw it yourself. I was able to slightly absorb some of your Sword Intents. Kruwan wanted to do the same thing to Diliy. Of course, Diliy wouldn't allow him to let his Sword Intent be absorbed. Just now, you all understood straight away what happened and blocked my absorption by instinct. So... Kruwan had to kill or maybe heavily injure Diliy to be able to do such a thing."

Diliy's expression turned dark. In his eyes, robbing him of his sword intent was even worse than trying to kill him. "That piece of shit!"

Roan shrugged. "And yet, he almost caught up to you in Sword Intent. Considering how much of a Sword Maniac he probably is, can you blame his actions. A chance to reach the Fifth Level of Sword Intent was right there in front of him."

Diliy glared a Roan, not entirely convinced. "There is a hole in your logic. Why would he even bother to come after me? If he needed Stage Four Sword Intents, he could find a lot of them between his elders and older disciples in his sect."

Roan knew the answer to that, though. "Oh, there is no need to worry. I'm absolutely sure he did just that... many times."

"What?!" Everyone was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

Roan concentrated in the tiny bit of Sword Intent he absorbed and how it integrated into his own Sword Intent just now. "Yes, there is no doubt. There is a barrier to overcome." He turned to Diliy's group right after. "It is quite simple. Absorbing Sword Intents that are clearly below your own has only so much effect. Kruwan must have reached the limit of what he could do with his elders and disciples' Sword Intents. He needed someone with a Sword Intent at the same level or higher than his own if he wanted to progress further. This is a two-edged sword."

Woterto turned to Diliy, who nodded back at him. They seem to have thought the same thing just now.

"Can I go bring one of them?" Woterto asked.

"Yes, go ahead," Diliy gave his approval.

Roan didn't say anything, aware of what they wanted to try. A few minutes later, a cultivator held in chains was brought to the training area. He had his eyes and mouth covered by a helmet that seemed to have many inscriptions on it. Roan could feel the guy's cultivation at the Saint Realm Peak Stage.

"His name is Tynin, a former Disciple of our Sect... until his greed took the best of him, and he betrayed us. Don't ask what he did or why he is still alive," Woterto commented. Roan had no intention of getting involved in those affairs anyway. "So be it. Have him use his Sword Intent. However, he can't fight against the absorption process."

Woterto nodded and removed the helmet. "Little shit, it seems like you got one last chance in your life."

"El-Elder Woterto, Elder Tassio, Sect Master Diliy!" The guy almost pissed right there and then, seeing all those top experts of his sect.

Woterto ignored that and spoke. "We are trying something new, but we need someone with a Sword Intent at Level Four." Woterto passed a fairly good sword to Tynin. No one there was afraid of Tynin trying anything with his much lower cultivation. "You will get one chance of being set free. But for that, know that you might lose your Sword Intent, and we can't guarantee that you will be able to learn it again. Choose whether you want to give it a try or if you want to be sent back to the confinement."

"I'll try! I'll try!" Tynin didn't think twice. No one did anything to Tynin after he was captured for betraying the sect. However, that was exactly the torture he was going through at the moment. For the past thirty-three years, his cultivation was sealed, as was his Soul Power. His body was completely immobilized, and the helmet prevented him from seeing anything with his eyes or Spiritual Sense. He couldn't even hear any sound. Simply put, he lived in complete darkness. He lost the count of how many times he wished he had died.

Tynin immediately activated his Sword Intent, obviously at Stage Four. At the same time, Roan explained to Tassio and Woterto what to do. After all, it is better if Woterto and Tassio try it instead of him showing everything. Diliy didn't try it, though. It would be useless for him since Tynin's Sword Intent was at a level much, much lower than his own.

Tassio and Woterto nodded. It seemed simple, but it was actually a lot more complicated than they could imagine. Sword Intent is only one intent. There are many intents, and weapon-related ones aren't the only intents in existence. For example, there was the Killing Intent that Roan could see.

What they had to do was to acknowledge the existence of other Intents, which was fairly hard to do as pure Sword Cultivators. Yet, the key could be found in this one fact. It was this fact that allowed Kruwan to find out he could absorb other Sword Intents. After all, both Kruwan and Diliy started to improve in their Sword Intents after they felt the Divine Realm Expert's Spear Intent.

Woterto and Tassio weren't important elders of the World Splitting Sect for nothing, though. It took some time, but they finally got the gist of it. Then came the absorption part. They had to see it as if Sword Intent was some kind of energy source, just like cultivation.

Finally, after receiving Roan's further explanation into a few more tricks, they managed to absorb Tynin's Sword Intent as well. However, it only lasted a split of a second before Tynin cut them off.

Worterto and Tassio were taken aback, then looked at Tynin with anger. "What is the meaning of this?"

And as always, any Golden Tickets and Stones are welcome. ;)