Way of the Knights

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"Bummer…" 

Raven murmured as he felt quite disappointed that he emptied the Soul Purifying Water at the cistern. He gave a longing look before walking away while sighing. 

It was then he suddenly realized something...

"Wait…" Raven paused as he just thought of something. "There must be a source right?"

He suddenly felt electricity coarse through his body as he thought of this. He raised his senses and inspected the spot where the cistern was. And even though he couldn't see it, he knows that there is some sort of tubes connected to the cistern. 

"If I follow this tubes around, I would arrive at the source. Who knows how much Soul Purifying Water is still there? Who knows how much recovery my soul will get once I consumed it."

Raven's heartbeat quickened at this thought. A grin was plastered at his face as he found a new objective here. Now aside from the ingredient that he needs, he has to search for the room which leads to the main source of this cistern.

He let out a long breath and calmed himself down. Haste makes waste, he told himself. There was no need to rush and charge in blindly. He has time and patience, he could use them to make sure that he won't miss anything that this castle has to offer. 

His attention was then brought to the bookshelves nearby. Feeling curious, he walked towards them with the intent of reading every single one. 

As he stepped closer to the bookshelves, the tentacles around him wriggled, giving one an impression of threat. Raven raised his brow and ignored this. 

Mere inches away from the bookshelves Raven suddenly felt movement all around him. He glanced around and saw every single tentacles on the walls, ceiling, ground, even the ones far away from him, all aimed at him and tried to strike his soul with overwhelming fury. 

"Hmph."

A snort was released from Raven's nose and all of a sudden, the tentacles were frozen from where they were. 

Every single tentacle was trembling, it was almost like they were being electrified but they weren't. 

Each of these tentacles have a little bit of consciousness within them, this is how they could differentiate their targets and follow orders from the Kraken Priestess. Needless to say, it also became their biggest flaw since they could also feel the unadulterated might of Raven's soul. 

Comparing his soul to that of the Kraken's Priestess would be a disservice to him. 

To these tentacles, Raven's soul didn't feel human at all. Instead, it was like a natural disaster that had a very bad temper. All of their attacks before were ignored by him because it didn't harm him in the very slightest, in fact he found it a bit cute. But this doesn't mean that Raven would just allow them to strike him indefinitely. There is a limit to his patience. 

The aura that his soul was emitting is not even scratching the surface of its true power. If it weren't for the fact that Raven didn't want to waste the power of his soul for useless matters, he might've already crushed everything here, including the Kraken. 

"Go back your posts and don't bother me. Else I'll erase you and your priestess." 

Raven snorted once more and ignored the tentacles. The fearsome presence of his soul and his unshakeable will caused the tentacles, who were used to punish the souls of their targets, to obediently go back to where they come from and shrivel in their place. 

In fact, it wasn't just the tentacles inside this room. Every single tentacles that is present in the castle shriveled and didn't dare to move, lest they irk him once again. Their shriveled state looked like they were just some aloe's growing out all over the place, and this was their original state to begin with. It was just on the orders of the Kraken Priestess that they unfurled themselves and waited for their target. 

It just so happens that their target is too much for them to handle. Now, even if their priestess were to order them, they would most likely not listen. 

Raven's soul is just that powerful, but what he displayed is just scratching the surface of his real power. 

Without the disturbance of the tentacles, there's nothing preventing Raven from reading the stuff at the bookshelves anymore. He randomly grabbed a scroll, he unfurled it and started reading it's contents. It reads:

"Year XXXX, 

The final preparations are done. We already packed our bags and belongings, completely ready to migrate to the promised land. Oh, how I wish there is a way for me to expel all the excitement I'm feeling right now. I'm afraid that I'm looking forwards too much that I won't be able to have even a blink of sleep. 

Master Sun had been extremely busy too. I'm sure that he's the most excited amongst us. I can't say I blame him since he was the one who discovered the path towards the promised land anyway. 

I could still remember the first time he told us this information. I could still remember the contempt and disdain of the majority for him, thinking that he was insane and desperate. Even I pitied him, I even thought that he was going senile from old age. But he didn't falter from the discouragement of the crowd, his Will was firm and he told us that he's going to prove his words. 

He disappeared for 100 years. We all thought he died but he came back as a changed man. The first thing he did, was to challenge every single Master of this land. We all thought that he had gone crazy but it he astounded us with what he had shown.

The Ten Fabled Masters of this land, was trounced by him using one hand. None of them even made him step back from where he stood. He slapped them like flies. 

When he was asked how he got strong, he only said that it was due to his fortuitous encounters at the promised land. He told us his journey there and what's unbelievable to us, is that he didn't even conquer a single island from that place. 

Although some were still unconvinced by his words, he showed us a concrete proof of his words. 

He summoned a gargantuan monstrosity. A beast that has a head of a horse, bat like wings, body of a salamander and scales made out of stone. 

I remembered gazing onto the eyes of that monstrosity for the first time and nearly died from shock. It's size was incredibly massive, it's power was something that is completely unheard of too. I imagined that even if every single one of us were to join hands, we wouldn't even scratch the skin of this thing. If I remembered it correctly, Master Sun had given a name to this thing…

Dragon. Yes, he called it a Dragon. 

What's even more ridiculous is that, this monstrosity is a but a mere child according to Master Sun. He said that he was only able to tame it because of it's young spirit. 

I couldn't believe that. To be more accurate, I refuse to believe that. How can anyone convince me that there is an existence like this? And this is a child! A child of a beast of all things! All of us here had accumulated years and years of experience of battle and cultivation, and you're telling me that all of that couldn't amount to a beast that's not even half of our age? How can anyone expect me to accept that?

 But at this point, is there even any reason for him to lie? He already brought a concrete proof didn't he? 

Needless to say, he became the focal point for us from that point onwards. He said that anyone that wants to migrate to the promised land, is welcome to join him. And as expected, almost everyone wanted to join. Those who decided to remain didn't even amount to a percent of our total population. 

Against our expectations, we didn't move right away. He said that we have to prepare ourselves first since the promised land, although beautiful, is incredibly unforgiving. Master Sun told us that even breathing is difficult there. He said that the energies in there are incredibly berserk but plenty. He wasn't confident that all of us will manage to even set foot in that place. So he thought that we have to do some preparations first. 

The training lasted for a whole decade. Even us who had firmly stepped at the absolute peak of this world, had difficulties adjusting to his training but we managed to do so. I thought about giving up at first but Master Sun found a way to show us the situation on the promised land. 

I forgot to breathe upon laying eyes on that place. I had lost count on how many times I imagined how it looked like on my own, I thought that it couldn't get any better than that but I was wrong, at the same time I was glad that I was wrong because what I saw was even prettier that I had imagined.

And tomorrow, all of us will get the chance to see those sights with our own hands. Oh, how excited I am.

- 4th Sea Master."