Chapter 22: A Royal and A Commoner
’Just tell me where you were, I am begging you.’ asked Santiago, his voice trembling with a mixture of exhaustion and deep seated frustration. His eyes were bloodshot, locked onto the figure sitting across from him.
’It has been a week already just leave it, what would you do even if you get to knew, it’s just better not knowing alright,’ Evan replied, his tone was flat and dismissive as he leaned back against the stone wall.
He kept his expression perfectly neutral, trying to conceal that he had gone outside the sect.
Santiago punched on the bed that was above him or rather it was Evan’s bed that he punched out of anger. The violent impact rattled the heavy iron frame of the bunk bed, sending a shower of fine stone dust down from the ceiling joints.
The echo of the strike boomed off the cold, unyielding walls of the room, marking the boiling point of his frustration.
The dormitory was completely empty, except for him and Evan. Everyone else in their cohort had gone to take their classes under the strict supervision of the academy masters, but these two had decided that they would cultivate in the meantime, choosing the quiet confinement of the dormitory to push their limits.
’Whatever, I am about to reach peak stage, so lets be quiet for sometime,’ said Santiago, snapping his jaw shut as if Evan was the one who had been disturbing him all along, using the hostility to mask the immense pressure building within his own soul.
Santiago crossed his legs, closing his eyes as he sank deep into his inner consciousness. Deep within his soul space, his aperture was undergoing a violent transformation.
In an aperture filled sixty percent with red Qi, the volatile red Qi slammed against the silver aperture walls like a tsunami crashing against a crumbling cliffside. The internal pressure was immense, causing his physical veins to throb visibly against the skin of his neck.
Inside the aperture, two blood worms shook violently from the sheer impact of the sloshing energy, their small bodies trembling as the red sea tossed them back and forth.
The crimson Qi gathered its strength and slammed against the wall again, producing a huge crack on the wall, almost about to break.
Santiago breathed heavily as his stamina was running out. His face grew incredibly red, drops of cold sweat rolling down his forehead as the strain of the breakthrough threatened his consciousness apart.
Recognizing the danger, he reached out with a trembling hand, snatched a dark crimson crystal from his side, and sucked the energy from a blood stone.
His stamina returned to normal, as if he had never been tired in the first place. His heartbeat stabilized, fueled by the fresh energy sucked by the blood stone.
The red Qi slammed against the wall again, this time with more strength than before.
The wall, not able to bare the the impact anymore, blasted inward with an imaginary shockwave that rippled through his entire nervous system.
A new aperture formed out of the ruins of the old one. While the previous aperture was silver one, having a silver colored wall that marked a , the newly formed aperture was a dark silver one, having a dark silver colored wall. Though the color of the Qi itself still remained red.
’Oh yes I finally did it!’ Santiago shouted, his voice bursting with pure happiness as his eyes snapped open.
Evan listening Santiago shout jumped off his bed to see him, landing silently on the stone floor.
There he saw him and in front of him was a dark silver colored aperture filled fifty percent with a red colored Qi.
In the newly expanded aperture, two blood worms were present, basking in the upgraded environment.
One was a caterpillar emitting a golden light swimming in the red Qi known as the Blinding Light Blood Worm, its tiny segments glowing like a miniature sun amidst the crimson liquid.
The other one was a moth made up of white smoke flying inside the aperture, known as the Distracting Smoke Blood Worm, its wings leaving pale, shifting trails through the dark silver space.
Both of these blood worms were enjoying themselves, clearly happy as the quality of the Qi had improvised through reaching Peak stage and absorbing the potent energy of the Blood Stones.
’So you have reached peak stage huh, now we are on the same level,’ Evan said smiling, keeping his voice light and casual, though his mind was constantly calculating the hidden gap that still separated them.
Santiago hearing this laughed, shaking his head as he wiped the sweat from his brow, and said,
’Even if I was a peak stage Fledgling and you were a middle stage fledgling and we fought you would still win because your aperture is filled ninety percent so you have more Qi to activate your blood worms. Though, if I was an awakened and you were a peak stage the difference between the two of us would be like the peak of a mountain and the land below that mountain.’
’So the difference between every rank and the other is like that of a peak of a mountain and the land that is below that mountain?’ Evan asked, leaning against the wooden bedpost, pushing for deeper information.
’Not necessarily,’ Santiago replied, his expression turning deeply serious as he looked down at his hands.
’The difference between an Ascendant and a Transcendent, a Transcendent and a Sovereign, Sovereign and a Celestial is like that of the Heavens and Earth. It’s a completely different reality once you cross that line.’
An absolute silence fell between them as Evan started to think about something profound, his gaze drifting toward the small window of the dormitory.
Santiago, noticing his friend’s distraction, didn’t press further, he closed his eyes and began to cultivate again, because he knew deep in his heart that if he wanted to be with Evan and keep up with his footsteps, he would have to cultivate all the time so he can become an Awakened as soon as possible.
As Evan stood there in the quiet room, watching the dark silver aura flicker around Santiago, a cold realization settled into his chest.
’Like the difference between an Ascendant and a Transcendent was like that of Heavens and Earth, the exact same could be said for an A-Rank talent and a C-Rank talent,’ he thought.
In the brutal world of cultivators, equity did not exist, Heavens were fair yet unfair in every sort of way.
Even a single percentage of Qi could decide the ultimate factor of life and death in a desperate situation, let alone the thirty percent difference in Qi that permanently existed between their apertures.
He was like a Royal trying to act as a commoner, who now knew what the difference of life between a Royal and a commoner is like.
