Condemning the Heavens Chapter 69: Soul Crystal

Xue Wei felt excited. Although Lan’s training method was rather spartan, it was also proving to bring many benefits to him.
Lan was a tough but very skilled teacher. He would drill the abilities so hard into Xue Wei that he could do them even during his sleep.
The following day, they went to their special location on the field. Once more, Lan began to explain how to best understand and use the ability. He did this every time.
"The Seed of Mirage focuses on the word ‘mirage’. The mirage is based on illusions, and it spans over many different types of attacks. One can hide in the illusions and cover all tracks of oneself, making it so that no one can sense that they are there."
"It is possible to use the mirage to change the appearance of a person, and it is possible to make people see things that are not there."
"Your Seed of Mirage is creating a mirage – creating a replica of something out of nothing."
"As such, it is a very high ranked ability among the category of skills that use mirages, as it enables you to create something real from nothing. It creates real copies that can attack and not just confuse."
Lan introduced the mirage to Xue Wei. Xue Wei listened intently and made sure that everything Lan said was forever engraved in his heart so that he would not forget it in the future, and that his abilities would continue to improve.
The Seed of Mirage is an ability where one creates a seed from Qi. The stronger one is, the more seeds one can create. And at the same time, one could also determine how strong it would be by how much Qi was provided to it.
The strongest the copy could be was half of his strength, but the Qi used to create such a figure was equally high.
The first attempt of the seed that Xue Wei made was thrown out, and both Lan and Xue Wei were eagerly awaiting the three breaths of time for the seed to sprout, only to see that nothing happened.
They both felt rather anticlimactic as they had watched the seed with bated breath only to see it dissipate into nothingness.
Lan laughed at it, and Xue Wei felt rather embarrassed, but then they began anew.
The Seed of Mirage was harder to understand than what he had expected. The first seed that successfully sprouted turned into a blur that also dissipated into thin air, as it could not hold its shape.
After trying for half the day, Xue Wei was capable of creating a figure that lasted for five breaths of time before it could no longer hold its shape. Although it was a short amount of time, the clone was already capable of sending out a few attacks.
Every attack it sent out was aimed at Xue Wei so that he could get a feel for how powerful the attacks were and how much Qi he should send into the seed.
At the start, he had sent so little Qi into the seed that it was incapable of sprouting.
After that, he slowly adjusted it and found that the more Qi he added, the longer it lasted and the stronger the clone was.
As time went on, Xue Wei became more and more proficient at creating the seed, and he found that the clone would act according to his own thoughts without a need to command it.
It was completely loyal, did exactly what it could to work with Xue Wei's own plans, and he found that it complimented his fighting style quite a bit.
It took three days for Xue Wei to finally get it under control. During these three days, they were at the field from early morning to late evening.
Many an expert had glanced at them to see what exactly they had been doing, and they were curious as to what exactly Xue Wei was being taught by the prophet. Even the upper echelons of the army were curious. Some of them even felt slightly sour in their hearts for not being given the same attention.
Although the youngsters knew about Lan being a prophet from the center of the continent, they did not know exactly how strong he was or how outstanding his reputation was.
They were very well aware of what he could do, however. They knew he could topple kingdoms and destroy empires with the wave of his hand, and now he was patiently teaching a random youngster.
Xue Wei continued to study the Seed of Mirage for a few days more before he felt that he had grasped the technique.
Having been able to understand a technique in just a week was incredibly fast. During this week, Lan had been Xue Wei's sparring partner.
After Xue Wei had gotten a good understanding of how much power the clone had depending on the Qi he used, he and the clone had fought against Lan in an attempt to get used to the coordination between himself and the clone.
"I only have a few days left here," Lan said as the night drew close and they were walking towards the dining hall.
"You have already learned the Seed of Mirage, which you can use as you please. Your next ability to learn is the Kick of Forgotten Kings. Then you will be fully prepared for whatever comes your way," Lan assessed.
"You will have your Azure Light Finger for ranged attacks, your Shattering Mountain Palm for close quarters combat. You will have Forbidden Rush as a movement technique and Seed of Mirage as an auxiliary technique. For weaponry, you have Inner Might, and you will have Kick of Forgotten Kings as a leg attack."
Xue Wei nodded his head. When he learns the Kick of Forgotten Kings, he would indeed become an all-rounded martial artist.
The only thing that he would be lacking was a spiritual attack, one like the Mind Infestation, but that one required spiritual energy or soul power. Because of that, Xue Wei was not sure if he was suitable to learn it.
"I will gift you one last thing," Lan said as he sighed. "You will have to owe me a favor for this though," he continued.
"The thing I will give you is a Soul Crystal. Soul Crystals are crystals that resonate with one's soul; the brighter the light is, the stronger your soul is, and the more spiritual power you possess."
"This Soul Crystal can be used multiple times, and it is very sturdy. Just don't break it and you should be able to have use of it for quite some years," he continued, and Xue Wei nodded his head. His heart was heavy; he knew that this had to be a great treasure, but Lan still gave it to him.
"If you feel bad, then become a part of my collection," Lan snickered, but Xue Wei just snorted. He had no interest in becoming the property of someone else.
Lan shrugged his shoulders and did not mention it anymore. Instead, he tossed a small, transparent, faceted gem towards Xue Wei who caught it a bit awkwardly, fearing that he might drop it.
"Okay, now add some of your spiritual power to the gem," Lan said, and Xue Wei did as he was told. The gem started glowing with an azure light, and it became brighter and brighter until they were blinded by the bright light of the gem.
"Your soul is definitely strong," Lan said with a perplexed look. "But I should have guessed such, as special physiques often require a strong soul, so it makes sense for you to have such a strong soul. You can use Spiritual Energy to overcome many of your opponents," he said smilingly.
"With this amazing result, I would even suggest that you try out the Mind Infestation before you learn Kick of the Forgotten Kings," Lan decided.
"The next couple of days, we will focus on the Mind Infestation, and you will continue to train it while I am gone until you have it under control and can kill someone with only a glance," Lan said, and his words caused Xue Wei's eyes to widen in surprise.
"Is the Mind Infestation that great?" He asked, remembering that it was ranked as a superior grade technique with the potential to become a profound technique.
"Yes," Lan nodded his head seriously. "If your soul is strong enough and you have a useable technique, you will be able to make others fall into a deep slumber or even extinguish their soul. It is difficult to fend off an attack from a cultivator with great spiritual power unless your martial heart is extremely calm and determined, or your own spiritual force is stronger."
"You are one of the cultivators with a naturally strong spiritual force, but your martial heart is still being tempered as you are not aware of just what your goals in life are yet. You do not know your own martial path, and thus the shape of your martial heart is still in its infant stages."
Xue Wei nodded his head. He had some goals in life, but he understood that he needed to temper himself to grow a martial heart.
Xue Wei wanted the Soul Crystal so that he could assist Luo Zhirou and Shen Mu later on with their own soul power. If they had strong spiritual power, then he wished to teach them the Mind Infestation.
Although Xiao Lei had left the attacks for him, he believed sharing it with his best friends was acceptable.
He was worried about them. While it is true that the mortality rate of the Genius Camp was equal to the other camps, he felt that his chances of survival were much higher than theirs, so he wanted to help them as much as he could.
Because of that, he promised himself that he would go to visit them soon and see if he could teach them the Mind Infestation. If he could not, he would think about some other ability to impart to them.
Lan smirked as he saw Xue Wei in deep thought, but he said nothing. The prophet just waited for him to finish his thoughts.
"I want to learn the Mind Infestation," Xue Wei said after a bit of time, and then he hesitated to continue, but Lan nudged him on. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"You have had the Soul Crystal for a long time... how come you did not want to reveal to me until now? You could easily have done so back when we were planning the order in which I learned my new skills from the Heritage Ring, and when we talked about the Kick of Forgotten Kings being the next skill I practice?"
Lan's one eyebrow rose in surprise when he heard the question, and then he nodded his head. "Makes sense that you are wondering about this," he said.
"A Soul Crystal is very important and very rare. I only have around twenty of them," Lan said. "My decision to give one to you was based completely on your comprehension. If you were able to learn the Seed of Mirage before I was gone, I would help you examine your potential in regards to spiritual power, but if you did not have the necessary talent, then I concluded that it was better for you to not attempt the spiritual energy attacks. They require not only great spiritual energy but also a great amount of comprehension," Lan explained.
"I did not want to give you any pressure, so I said nothing, but you made it in time. So I will gift you the Soul Crystal as intended, and you can spend the next couple of days to gain an elementary insight into Mind Infestation."
Xue Wei understood this and nodded his head. He then kowtowed to Lan. "Thank you so much for all your assistance," he said with sincerity. "’You have been my first teacher, and I will forever remember your care and consideration in my heart. When, and if, I get strong enough to repay your kindness, I will walk over a sea of flames and cross a mountain of knives if need be."