CHAPTER 204— STAGNATION
A few days went by in silence as in no time .the first week passed quietly, and in that time Leylin failed. By the second week,failure still..And by the third week, even the river seemed tired of watching.
The silver waters continued flowing beneath the Everroot while crimson leaves drifted lazily overhead. The seed remained hidden somewhere amongst the canopy, refusing to grow, refusing to reveal anything further. Meanwhile, life continued.
In that short but grueling span of three weeks, Séraphine had made remarkable progress..enough to earn a nod from the spirit as it seemed as if it too .were satisfied by her progress...As for the anomaly which was leylin...well, he was seen sitting at the edge of the river circling the Ever-Root as his fingers stayed extended outward,as if trying to conjure some magical fireball into existence..but even that seemed futile
This had gone on for the past week as every morning they trained. Every afternoon they cultivated. Every evening they discussed the principles behind Manifest. And every time, Leylin ended exactly where he started.
Anchor.
And as if mirroring him, The realm remained unchanged. The stars remained unchanged. The chained sun remained unchanged. Everything remained exactly where it was, as though cultivation itself had decided to ignore him.
"Again."
The spirit sat cross-legged beside the river, it's eyes fixes on Leylin as he stood several paces away, a single crimson leaf floating above his palm. For the last hour they had been attempting the same exercise,extend, reach, externalize, manifest. Leylin went through the same practice the spirit had given him, envisioning his body as a dam holding water,and then slowly, methodically,he tried to creat a tiny hole in that structure. Allowing the tiniest of water to pass through..and as expected there was a reaction..The leaf trembled slightly, momentarily vibrating as Leylin narrowed his eyes.watching it lift and hover above his palms as hope returned to his eyes
But just as hope return,it was shattered by the deflating sound of failure as everything settled as if nothing happened.
Several seconds passed as leylin just watched the leaf drift sideways and land in the river.
Seeing this, the spirit sighed.
Followed closely by a stifling sound as Seraphine struggled to resist the urge to laugh
As for leylin ??..he resisted the urge to throw something at her smug expression
Then he turned to the spirit who seemed to be deep in thought
"I don't understand." For once there was genuine frustration in his voice.
The spirit glanced toward him. "Neither do I."
That answer somehow made things worse, because the spirit wasn't lying. It genuinely didn't understand. Everything pointed toward Leylin being capable of Manifest, his perception exceeded Anchor, his control exceeded Anchor, his understanding exceeded Anchor.
Yet every attempt collapsed before it began.
Across the river, Seraphine sat upon a stone while dozens of tiny ice needles danced around her fingers. Three weeks ago she could barely maintain two; now there were nearly fifty. Each one moved independently, each one carried enough force to kill an ordinary cultivator. She wasn't even concentrating anymore. The needles rotated lazily around her while she watched Leylin fail for what felt like the hundredth time.
"You know," she said, "this would be significantly funnier if you weren't usually the talented one."
Leylin ignored her. But strangely today,the spirit did not.
"It isn't funny."
That immediately caught her attention. The spirit rarely sounded serious anymore. Its crimson eyes remained fixed upon Leylin, thinking, calculating, searching. For nearly a month now it had attempted everything it knew. But Nothing worked.
Eventually Seraphine dispersed her needles. The riverbank became quiet. The spirit remained motionless, then suddenly spoke.
If manifest is all about externalisation...then doesn't it mean that it requires a body to do so, a host..for all we know, leylin is practically spirit at this point as his form was destroyed 7 month's ago when he first tried cultivation,if I were to guess,then he needs to either create a new vessel,or find out what holds his current self..then externalise it.""
Suddenly, silence enveloped the realm as The spirit stood Motionless beside the river A strange look had appeared within its eyes..then it came to a terrifying hypothesis
If Leylin could not manifest... then what exactly happened to that leaf?
And more importantly, if the leaf truly disappeared, and leylin was just a physical representation of his signature in this realm...then what if he was never seperate from the realm in the first place