Fenrir's Journey : I Shall Devour The Heavens!

After dealing with another tiring day of Sect affairs, Wen Xiulan was wondering whether or not she should promote someone to the position of Palace Head in order to free her from unnecessary duties. With the rapid changes occurring within the Sect, many requiring her personal attention, Wen Xiulan's cultivation was beginning to stagnate as she simply couldn't find any time to invest in the endless pursuit. What little time she could free up was spent monitoring the progress of her Direct Disciple, Jia Cai. The latter had started training with an intensity that her past self could never hold a candle to, causing the young maiden's Cultivation to rapidly increase. Though it was incomparable to the growth of Fenrir, Wen Xiulan was proud that her disciple had found the willpower to continue along her path without losing confidence after witnessing their Sect Guardian's ridiculous Cultivation speed...Thinking of Fenrir's progress, Wen Xiulan's blue eyes flashed with a curious glint as she wondered when, if ever, Fenrir would reach a bottleneck. From what she could discern, even though there were some 'instabilities' within Fenrir's foundation, there didn't seem to be any negative impact on her Cultivation. It was almost as if her body was correcting the flaws that could be found within every technique, causing Wen Xiulan to have slight doubts about her own path.Though she had never believed her technique to be the most superior amongst all Ice Elemental Cultivation methods but, seeing the proficiency in which Fenrir used the same skills, Wen Xiulan knew she had been too reliant on following a path set by others instead of blazing a trail for herself. Cultivation was, after all, the means in which individuals were able to oppose the very Will of Heaven. The path towards the peak could only be achieved through comprehending the Laws themselves and, while Cultivation methods helped you reach greater heights, it would never take you to the absolute peak that only a handful of practitioners could reach...Watching Fenrir essentially teach herself the Sacred Heart of the Ice Phoenix, Wen Xiulan was gleaning insights of her own into the shortcomings of her own Cultivation. Part of her wished that she could watch Fenrir's closed cultivation, as it would undoubtedly provide her with even greater insights, but she lacked the courage to trespass the rather cold young woman's domain. What she didn't know was that, instead of tirelessly practicing the techniques contained within the Scroll, Fenrir spent most of her time in a deep state of meditation. Though she was still practicing the Sacred Heart of the Ice Phoenix, her primary focus was on the 'balance' of her heart and mind. In many ways, Fenrir was doing the exact same thing that a Master would do upon reaching a bottleneck, even though her reasons were entirely different...Unaware of Fenrir's unique method of training, Wen Xiulan raised a jade cup to her mouth before enjoying the calming aroma of her tea. After allowing her mind to settle, she savored the crisp taste of the medicinal herbs contained within before releasing a small sigh of satisfaction. Then, just as she was preparing to enter a meditative state of her own, Wen Xiulan could feel a vibration through the floor that alerted her to someone's approach. Before they could lightly rattle on her door, Wen Xiulan fixed her composure before uttering in a slightly tired voice, "Speak..." She knew the person outside the door was one of the servants, likely arriving to report yet another issue that required her attention, so Wen Xiulan's mood was a bit dour at the moment.After a bit of hesitation, the servant on the other side of the door answered, "Sect Leader, there is a group of 'irregulars' that wish to join the Sect. The Branch Head has requested your presence..." Having sensed that her master's mood wasn't the best, the servant's hands were trembling slightly as she tightly gripped the hem of her robe. Fortunately, Wen Xiulan wasn't the type to take her anger out on others so, after a few minutes of silence, the door opened to reveal the latter's cold face as she said, "Very well, Inform Jia Cai that I will be away for the afternoon..." Then, without sparing the servant another glance, Wen Xiulan quickly alighted from the nearby courtyard before beginning her quick descent down the mountain...(Fenrir's Commentary: 'Meditation, focus, balance....mmm.....')

Unaware as to what was happening in the outside world, Fenrir found herself in a state of deep and focused meditation. A persistent sphere of stable blue energy surrounded her body as the sealed cavern, now bereft of oxygen in its entirety, rippled with spatial fluctuations. She had the appearance of a nebulous star but, instead of shining its light down upon the creatures of the world, only the fate of being devoured was promised to anyone witnessing this phenomenon.Even Fenrir didn't know how long she had been within her meditative state but, feeling that the density of the surrounding energy had started to dissipate, she released a slow sigh of stagnant air. With the devouring energy surrounding her body, not even air was able to reach her lungs so it had been a long time since she had even drawn a breath of fresh air.Accompanying Fenrir's exhalation, the energy surrounding her body retracted into her pores before she lightly landed on the ground with a gentle 'pa' sound. She could feel the pressure in the room had changed since the time she had entered into a meditative state, causing a powerful backdraft when she finally unsealed the chamber. Even with the sudden and instantaneous change in pressure, Fenrir didn't even flinch as she took slow and casual steps out into the cool mountain air. Though there was now a distinct decrease in the amount of Yin Elemental Energy in the surroundings, it was still very pleasant to feel the sub-zero temperature tickle her increasingly fair skin...With nothing better to do, Fenrir spent a few hours familiarizing herself with her newfound strength before ultimately deciding to descend the mountain. Though she didn't particularly care about the people of the Devouring Moon Sect, she was still supposed to be their acting Guardian. Until she had mastered the Sacred Heart of the Ice Phoenix, she would look after them and make sure they weren't bullied by the other Sects located in the Western Badlands.Upon arriving within the Sect's grounds, Fenrir noticed that the number of disciples had sharply decreased compared to her last visit. This caused her face to scrunch up into a frown before she practically sent one unfortunate Disciple's soul fleeing from their body after appearing next to her with [Shundo]. Even if there were a number of people who had yet to see Fenrir with their own eyes, everyone within the Devouring Moon Sect knew what their Guardian looked like. After all, she was the only person with icy blue eyes and midnight blue hair that many of them had even heard of. The fact she had a wild and untamed aura which wasn't all that dissimilar to a blizzard descending upon you only completed the image of her 'natural-disaster-like' existence...Not caring about the young woman's surprise, Fenrir immediately questioned, "Where is everyone? Was there an enemy attack...?"While doing her best to control her breathing, the young woman gave a deep bow and saying, "Su Jiuli greets Sect Guardian!" Then, fearing that Fenrir might not be fond of her delayed response, the girl immediately answered, "Sect Master and many of Disciples have descended the mountain to observe the selection tournament within 'Devouring Moon City'. In order to reorganize the internal structure of the Sect, it was decided to hold a tournament to determine who would be recognized as official Disciples...!"Even with Fenrir just staring at her, Su Jiuli felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff with a blade to her throat, moments away from her death. Upon finishing her report, however, Fenrir just gave a small nod before vanishing like a phantom moments later. Then, like a marionette with its strings cut, Su Jiuli plopped down to the ground with a thin layer of sweat covering her youthful face...(Fenrir's Commentary: 'No backbone...')(A/N: For those who haven't been keeping up with EPIC, I have just transitioned to a different world around two weeks ago. Because I have been focused on the direction of that story, even reaching 112k words this week, I haven't been able to split focus on Fenrir's Journey. Since things are starting to reach a stable point, I will try to release a chapter here every 2-3 days. If possible, I will release one per day but I can't make that promise with EPIC being my primary focus.)

After returning to the Devouring Moon Sect, Fenrir didn't waste any time before returning to her closed Cultivation once again. Though she had experienced rapid growth in her previous world, there were few ways to experience 'leaps' in growth just by practicing a simple technique. She didn't harbor the delusion that she would become one of the most powerful people in the world in a short period of time, Fenrir knew that she needed to continue growing as quickly as possible in order to avoid a disaster. Even if it ended up taking several years, there would come a point where she stood at the very apex of the world since, just as her Master had stated in the past, the only true limit was a person's patience and comprehension. So long as you never gave up trying, you were capable of functionally infinite growth, both physically, spiritually, and emotionally...While Fenrir had secluded herself in the mountain's peak, Wen Xiulan was busy taking care of the rather chaotic affairs of the Sect. Because of Fenrir's rather tyrannical actions, they were no longer under pressure from competing Sects since few people wanted to antagonize someone that could wipe out an entire group of Elders in a single day. The mystery surrounding Fenrir and her elusive 'Master' kept most people at bay while a veritable horde of Cultivators continued to show up in the hopes of joining their Sect. Because of this, Wen Xiulan found herself extremely busy since she needed to make sure those attempting to enter the Devouring Moon Sect weren't enemy spies that simply wanted to infiltrate and discover the truth...From amongst the Cultivators attempting to join the Sect, there were several faces that, if she paid them any attention, Fenrir would have recognized. They were the former students of the Blazing Sun Sect, led by the 'girly man', Hua Yan. This was the same man who had stayed back to buy time for his fellow Disciples, even knowing his own death was assured. Since he had known Fenrir was from the Devouring Moon Sect, he decided to try his luck by offering up the treasures he had looted from his prior Sect in order to follow in the footsteps of his benefactor. Though part of him also held a small hope that would have earned Fenrir's ire, it wasn't his main focus as, following behind Hua Yan, there were two young men, three young women, and a mature beauty who had uncommon purple eyes...The youngest in their group, only seventeen years old, was Hua Yan's younger brother, Xuan Yan. He had only managed to enter the Blazing Sun Sect with the support of Hua Yan and, compared to most Cultivators, had a relatively demure personality. Since he pursued the Scholarly Dao, meaning he preferred to avoid fighting, Xuan Yan was often the target of scorn for other Cultivators, even amongst his fellow Disciples. As for the other young man, he was the would-be rival of Hua Yan, Zhu Qiu, a man with uncharacteristically short hair and visible muscles. He focused more on the development of his body than his spirit and carried around a large ornate spear that had a blade forged from a rare blue ore...Lingering near Zhu Qiu was his own younger sibling, an adorable young maiden named Mao Qiu, possessing a petite figure and a perpetually smiling face that produced two dimples whenever she found something that caught her attention. As for the other two girls nearby, they were the close friends of Mao Qiu who, during the incident at the Blazing Sun Sect, followed after her to safety as their personal strength was relatively low. They were the type that pursued Cultivation to preserve their beauty and protect themselves, caring little about achieving the pinnacle of Cultivation since they lacked the 'talent' required...Completely contrary to the other girls in the group, the final beauty, with her deep purple eyes and long black hair, was anything but talentless. Her name was Gong Xinyue and she possessed a rare constitution that allowed her to practice Yang Elemental techniques without the detriments other women would suffer. In most circumstances, such techniques would not only be much weaker in the hands of women than other natures but it would also cause their body to experience changes, making them somewhat more masculine as their strength increased.Such things were enough to deter most women from even picking up such techniques but, having found a rare scroll deep within the mountains at a young age, Gong Xinyue had already reached a startling degree of Cultivation for her age. The only discernable downside had been that her body matured a bit faster than others, giving her the appearance of someone in their mid-twenties, even though she was only nineteen years old. Since most Cultivators aged slower when increasing their strength, it was a very noticeable change that had caused Gong Xinyue to become somewhat distant from others in order to avoid their curious gazes and incessant questions...(Fenrir's Commentary: 'Training hard to become the strongest...!')

Chapter 79: Fatigue