Chapter 465

“What is it?” Arthur asked, once the pair had moved away from digging Rick and the whittling Mel.

“Your Yin body should be keeping you calmer.” Uswah stated firmly. “Yet, you’re getting angry. So, either you are sangat stressed; or there’s a problem with your Yin Body.”

“There’s nothing…”

Ignoring his interruption, Uswah continued. “You’re also flushed and getting a little bit of a tan. Neither of which should be happening.”

“You think there’s something wrong with my Yin Body?”

“When was the last time you properly cultivated?”

“I…” I trailed off, thinking over my recent few weeks of work. I had mostly been studying, working on new techniques, pulling in energy but only enough to fuel what I needed. I hadn’t really been adding to my base strength, mostly because I had so much to study and work on. I just didn’t have time utilize the Night Emperor Yin Body technique that Casey had gotten me – not beyond the basic.

“Susah lah.” Uswah shook her head. “We are now in a different Tower, you’ve got more techniques and a spirit – probably – possibly – Yang aspect. Tak boleh just focus on one thing.”

“You think the Tower energy here is more Yang aspected?” Arthur said, a thought, a feeling that he had been dealing with blossoming.

“I know lah.” Uswah tapped her chest with her single arm. “My techniques harder to use. Harder to pull more energy. Look at your own sheet.”

For the first time in a while, I dragged up my sheet to stare at it for more than a quick check on techniques and the like. In fact, I hadn’t truly called it forth in ages, since I could ‘feel’ how much energy I had just by sensing it, so it was unnecessary for more detailed directions.

  

Cultivation Speed: 3.143 Yin (2.47 Yin)

Energy Pool: 31 (2 Yang)/33 (Yin) + (7/7)

Refinement Speed: 0.1814

Refined Energy: 0.71 (40) +(0/3)

 

Attributes and Traits

Mind: 17 (Multi-Tasking, Quick Learner, Perfect Recall)

Body: 28 (Enhanced Eyesight, Yin Body, Swiftness, Fast Twitch Faster, Lightning Reflexes, Explosive Strength)

Spirit: 17 (Sticky Energy, From the Dregs, Strengthened Aura)

 

Techniques

Night Emperor Cultivation Technique (82% compatibility)

Focused Strike (118.6%)

Accelerated Healing – Refined Energy (Grade IVd) (6.1%)

Heavenly Sage’s Mischief (149.3%)

Refined Exploding Energy Dart (162.7%)

Steel Skin (108.9%)

Seven Cloud Stepping Technique (276.6%)

Poket Simpanan Tua (198.7%) (Refined Exploding Energy Dart 67% Integrity)

Imbued Strike - Yin Poison (116.4%)

Yin Aura (Level 1) (137.3%)

Yin-Yang Energy Exchange (100.2%) (99.9%)

Simultaneous Flow (275.7%)

 

Partial Techniques

Yin Poison Darts (52.6%)

Shadow Sense (91.3%)

Heavenly Sage’s Heaven Beating Stick (85.5%)

Water Walking (5.1%)

Book Spirit of Diligent Study (66.3%)

 

There was quite a few changes, upgrades to the techniques he utilized most. Things like his Simultaneous Flow and Yin Aura had increased, though he assumed he wasn’t being targeted just because the Yin Aura by itself allowed him to blend with the ghosts.

It was a bit surprising the energy in the Tower itself was Yang based; but it sort of made sense that it had to balance out the prevalence of Yin energy enemies. It might be more Yin based in higher level Towers, where the idea of balance was less useful; but the thing that caught his eye the most was not so much his slow increase in things like his Refined Energy – utilizing the cores they managed to acquire had helped him push upwards there – but the reserved and decreased sections for his Yin Energy pool.

“You see?”

“Yes…” Falling silent, Arthur turned his attention fully within himself, delving into his body and his core. Searching for the Yang energy that seemed to be polluting him. It took him some time since it was not split away from the rest of his energies but was instead mixed together.

Some Yang energy in the body was always necessary. After all, he was still alive – and the Yang energy was needed to keep his body running, to give him the physical energy to go ahead. It was a part of him – a greater part, some might even say – than his Yin energy. But the Yin energy was what empowered his cultivation, his techniques.

Having a too large mixture of Yang energy in his body would create problems eventually, was making his entire demeanour change. It would need to be fixed, before it got further out of hand.

“Thank you.”  Arthur murmured, realising what had happened. “My body… its not balanced.”

“It has.” Uswah’s lips thinned as she added. “It happens. The question is, do you want to change it back?”

“Huh?”

“The Yin Body, it came to you not because of a choice. You got it by accident, remember. If you stayed here long enough, switched your cultivation technique, you might be able to rebalance, especially when you reach the next threshold.”

Arthur remembered, that the Tower actually preferred to balance bodies out. You could avoid it, choose to keep what you had; but it was not the ‘normal’ setting. Especially not in the early Towers. If he progressed with what was happening now, he could perhaps return to the ‘normal’.

He had thought about this before, but here the decision had returned to him. The Yin Body gave him a number of advantages, including a cooling of certain urges. It made him able to think clearly, to study harder and longer, fight dispassionately.

It made him calculated – but it was also lonely. Remote, like viewing a world through a lens. Now that he had a taste of what he had been like, he remembered the passion, the ardour, the swings in temper of his past. Being filled with more Yang energy made him feel alive.

“But why’d I lose my temper?” He had never been that bad tempered before, not before his transformation. He was still mostly Yin focused, now.

“You’re imbalanced,” Uswah said. “Of course some of it will come up differently.”

A nod, as Arthur fell silent. Considering. Asked a question, while he thought it over, just to buy time and get more information. “What did you do? To fix it?”

“Adjusted my cultivation, focused on it a little more when I began. Once it’s adjusted, it’s not a concern – but you’ll need to do that in each Tower, I think.”

Arthur wondered if the others were having to do that with their own cultivation techniques. Probably not, since most techniques naturally balanced things out a little more, didn’t have to try to strain or filter or twist what energies there were to suit the body.

“So, just us, eh?”

“Ya lah.”

Taking one last look around, knowing they were mostly safe – this floor was all about political intrigue, running errands inside the palace and the various tasks being assigned to them, like a giant series of fetch and kill quests. There was a storyline you had to finish, but it wasn’t particularly complicated. In fact, in the forums, the complaint was how most people felt railroaded into finishing the quests since attempts at being ‘smart’ just meant having to redo them all over again or finding a new branch to begin.

“Let me think about it, eh?”

Uswah nodded, giving him one last sympathetic glance before she disappeared into the darkness to leave him to think. Sometimes, some things shouldn’t be rushed; even if he did know the answer.

Sort of like asking yourself if you wanted to marry someone that you’d dated for years.