Awakening the Divine Spark
Chapter 236: Harmony.

Chapter 236: Harmony.

Lee was prepared to settle at the mountain slope for a month or a year if needed, and the old lady living in the wooden shack clearly guessed that. The next morning before the sunrise she came out again, walked over to Lee with particularly annoyed expression.

She asked, "What do I have to do to get you out of here?"

"Madam Seris!" Lee got up to his feet and politely bowed, "I assume it’s you so ... if you didn’t want me to visit you, I would’ve never gotten this far."

"That doesn’t answer my question!" She snorted.

Lee froze for a moment, but then smiled, and said, "I came to ask for your help."

"I already helped you!" She said, still annoyed, but sat down facing east, preparing to enjoy the sight of sun crawling over the endless sea of trees, "Who do you think knocked you out? I felt the disturbance in the wind from here! And what’s wrong with you? Why would you even do such a thing?!"

Lee stared at her in shock, processing the implications. There was only one instance of him loosing consciousness and that was when he swallowed the wind spark. Clearly she was talking about that ... but ... right ... he had no clue who the overlords or the limits of their abilities were.

"Sigh ... there are so many things wrong with me, I don’t even know where to start." Lee said, and sat next to her, "But that’s why I’m here."

"To find out where to start?" She cheekily glanced at him through the corner of her eye.

Lee grinned, and said, "Probably. Actually you might find my story entertaining. Few lives ago I got this!"

He took off Xiao Lian’s glove and showed her his seal.

"Oh, boy!" She snickered, immediately recognizing the symbol, "You want me to deal with Trexian?"

"No. I don’t even know who that is." Lee said, "I came to ask for your advice how to get rid of this thing or how to get rid of the sparks in my Dantian."

"I don’t know much about seals." She said, shaking her head, "But if I had to guess, I’d say it’s somehow tied to your soul. Maybe the Overlord of Voidforge can remove it ... if it can be removed at all ... which I doubt."

"I guessed so." Lee said, "From what I heard, it’s supposed to faint away at some point, that is – if I die enough times."

"There you go!" Seris said, "That’s your solution!"

"There is a tiny problem with that." Lee said while inwardly applauding her sarcasm, "I kind of like to preserve my memories after each reincarnation. The problem I have is with the sparks."

"Then why do you keep eating them?" She looked back at him like he was a retard, and at this moment he actually felt like one.

"Sigh ... the first one was because of the ignorance, the second one was forcefully fed to me ... but the others ... I always kind of felt I was forced in situation where I had to ..." Lee helplessly said, "Anyway ... is there a way to remove them from my Dantian?"

While they were talking, Overlord Seris kept watching the horizon, enjoying the sight of the world waking up. Conversation with Lee was clearly a side task she didn’t take seriously, but Lee’s last question broke her composure.

She looked at him so closely Lee felt she was staring right through him. In fact, he even wished she would smack him on the head for asking a stupid question – so awkward it felt.

"How do you ... How ... I mean ... What?!" She tried ask something, but was as if Lee had triggered a short-circuit in her brain – she couldn’t even form a proper thought.

"I’m sorry I’m so clueless ..." Lee said, trying to find a polite way out of the situation.

"Clueless doesn’t begin to describe you!" She said, clearly in disbelief, "Do you even know what the sparks are?"

"Concentrated forms of elemental energy which cultivators ignite in their Dantians." Lee said. It was the common knowledge taught to every beginner.

"Sure, but that doesn’t mean anything!" The overlord said, "What is Dantian? Where is it? And what do you mean by ignite?"

"You haven’t had many students, have you?" Lee suddenly relaxed and smiled back at her, "Compared to you, probably everyone in the universe, apart from the other overlords, is a brainless bug. Obviously I’ve thought about these questions hundreds of times, but isn’t that the part of the so called cultivation process? Isn’t the comprehension what separates a cultivator from the rest?"

Seris looked away at the sunrise again, but then took a deep breath, and said, "For trying to be a smartass you owe me another joke, a really dirty one!"

Lee was caught off-guard, but fortunately she didn’t demand the joke to be told right away.

She said, "Look at the sight in front of us. What word would you use to describe it?"

This was what Lee learned in his first life, studying arts. It wasn’t the principle that was taught, he came up with it by himself. Obviously countless people had come to this conclusion as well – he wasn’t unique. The answer was simple.

"Harmony." He said with a faint smile, remembering the old days.

"Exactly. Everything is build from elements, from elemental energy, and elements maintaining harmony is what allows the world to exist." Seris said, "And so is a person. Their body, consciousness and soul, everything is built from elements that originally exist in harmony. Strangely enough, people hate the harmony within. In order to acquire unnatural strength they try to break it, concentrating on one particular element in their consciousness."

"Consciousness?" Lee repeated, furrowing his brows, "You mean ... Dantian is located in consciousness?"

"Have you seen an organ called Dantian?" The overlord snorted, "But that was not the point. Hmm ... it’s probably too early for you ... Let’s put it in more simple terms considering your situation. A regular cultivator manages to focus enough elemental energy in their consciousness to become an elemental master. The result, the spark, becomes a part of them, something that could never be removed because, in fact, it originates in the persons soul!"

Lee thought for a bit, and said, "It makes sense. The elemental affinity has to stem from the soul, thus the person’s ability to focus on a particular element. That, in turn, determines person’s talents, and the actual strength is only the end result."

"Your insight is correct, but my point is only partially related to that." Seris said, suddenly changing the subject, but it only looked like it at first, "The seal on your palm, Trexian’s seal – it doesn’t seal you memories. The damn Overlord of the Voidforge has managed to come up with something that seals the whole being except for their physical form! What a monster!"

"But ... why?" Lee asked. Everything sounded logical, except he couldn’t understand the reason.

"What do you mean why?" The old madam suddenly got worked up, "He’s set on forcefully creating ..."

She paused, looked at Lee’s clueless expression, took a deep breath, and said, "Every time a being is born, their soul creates consciousness that would accompany it for the current life. Trexian’s seal makes sure the person is born with the previous consciousness, including the experience, memories and the elemental spark! For any cultivator it’s a dream come true, but for you, my little friend, it’s a curse. The seal makes sure that the sparks you consumed become part of your consciousness, and carries them over to your next life. You’re fucked!"

Seris watched Lee in ridicule, but quickly deflated, seeing her passionate speech didn’t have any result on him. Her first thought was that the kid was even stupider than he looked, but Lee already knew the last part and wasn’t shocked the least. The information about soul and consciousness was interesting, but he had more pressing matters to solve.

"I see." He said, deep in thoughts, "To solve my problem I have to restore the harmony within me."

Overlord’s eyes widened, but she quickly looked back at the sunset before the kid caught her expression.

"I doubt regular cultivation methods could solve this mess." Lee said, "Madam Seris, do you have any ideas what should I do?"