The legend of ice - 20 The second piece

Once I stepped, I felt that the laws were more clearer now. I sat on the first step for a day and a night, then marched to the second. There where 365 steps, but some ones took me 3 to 4 days. As for the last step, it took me 4 months to reach it. All in all, it took me a year and a half to reach the first doorway.

My benefits were not expected. The power of ‘Blood Absorb’ was increased to an entirely new level. As of cultivation, I reached the early third stage of divinity in water, and peak second stage of divinity in wind.

The laws of water can be divided into 4 laws: Essence of water, circular softness, illusory fog, water body. I had some insights in the very four, but now, I can be considered to have a good level of insights in water body and in circular softness. As for the laws of wind, they can be divided into 9 laws so far: Essence of wind, Doppleganger, sound waves, music, wind walking, spatial wind, dimensional, fast, and slow. Before, I knew some things about the essence of wind and wind walking, now in addition to those, I also gained understanding in fast and in slow.

Once I reached the doorway, a face of a man appeared on the wooden doors. He said, “Touch my face, and you shall have the piece”.

I did as he told me, and my vision blurred. When it cleared, I saw a man that looked like me, not Richard, but like me. He had spiky grey hair,and grey eyes. He was bare chested, and his muscles were seen. An axe hung at his waist. He approached a pyramid that floated in and stroke down at it with his axe. Then my vision ended.

When I woke up, I found a blade identical to the one that Richard had given me before in my hand. I pulled out my wand and willed it to be a sword. I put the piece on the blade and tapped it with the magical hammer. Instantly, the piece melted into the sword and the sword buzzed. But this time, a voice said in my head, “Finally! I can’t count the number of years I was asleep in! Which year are we?”

“What the hell?” I said.

“What’s wrong with you, young man? Why are you confused? Don’t you know me?”

“A question at a time. I have bad experiences with head voices. Who are you?”

“Why, I am your sword of course. I had been trying to talk with you for over a year.”

“WHAT?

“Have you not heard of talking swords?”

“Oh yes. I have heard of Sumarbrander and of The Sword of Calabra, but I didn’t imagine that my sword would be one.”

“This is only my beginning. Once my ten pieces reunite, I can take a physical form again.”

“Again? Who are you exactly?”

“For now, it would be better that you don’t know. Where are we by the way?”

“We are in Gansu”.

“Gansu? Great! Take me to Emperor Song!”

“Um.. Emperor Song has been dead for many chaos cycles.”

“Which year are we?”

“2019”

“2019 after what?”

“After the birth of Jesus”

“Okay. Let me check what happened in my years of sleep.”And for the good of my mind, he shut up. I didn’t bother with it anymore and turned to the wooden face.

“Can I take a break before continuing?” I asked it.

“You can. Enter my door and you will appear at the bottom of the stairs. Once you are prepared again, reach the beginning of the stairs and call for me”.

I nodded and stepped into the door. I appeared at the bottom of the stairs just as the door promised. I marched towards the sect. The first thing I saw was Tulip battling one of the chinese young men. I approached calmly without them noticing me.

Tulip used Fire in her battle, it was the first time for me to see her doing this. She had grown more womanly over the year. Her red hair had grown long to her waist. She was more beautiful than ever.

After a while, the fight ended. The two bowed their heads, and the young man headed to the sect, which only left me and Tulip alone. She didn’t seem to take notice of me yet, so I spoke, “Great fight, but you have to be more specific in using the Explosion law.”

Stunned, she turned her head toward me, and I smiled. She rushed to me and jumped to my arms. We hugged for 15 min until I released her. I kissed her forehead and she said, “I missed you so much”.

“Me too. But I am surprised that you didn’t punch me”. And she did. We laughed and I asked her about the year, and she asked what happened with me. I even told her about the talking sword, and his mysterious identity.

She frowned and said, “You should talk to senior brother Sun about this.”

“Senior brother?”

“Yeah. He is one of Richard’s disciples”. I didn’t know how to take this news. If the emperor was our senior brother, then why didn’t he tell us from the beginning. I guess he didn’t trust us at the beginning, but now he do.