Awakening the Divine Spark

Lee’s plan was simple.

He intended to win the Hall of Ascension’s preliminary competition held before the Midsummer Festival. Afterwards he would challenge Victoria to end their feud once and for all.

There were two problems with it.

First of all he had to win, but after witnessing the skills of the youths two years ago, he wasn’t sure he could go against someone like Jian Wuji. A thought of that guy allowed to think of a solution, though.

Lee directly went to the inner sect and found Jian Wuji who had transferred to the Hall of Justice. Not beating around the bush, Lee asked for a favor.

"I need your help." He said, "I need to win the next Hall of Ascension’s tournament."

Jian Wuji looked back at him with furrowed brows, pondering about the implications. It wasn’t that Lee asked an elemental master like him to attend in his stead, but he couldn’t ask to manipulate the ruling of the judges. Thousands of people would spectate the events and it was impossible to blatantly cheat.

Lee guessed his thoughts, and said, "I need you to rig the tournament. Not the results. I need my opponents to be the weakest ones possible. For example – set the ceiling for the contenders to not be over thirteen or fourteen years of age."

"You do realize I’m part of the Hall of Justice now?" Jian Wuji slowly said.

They were meeting in the Hall of Justice’s main building, and while currently there was no one apart from them in the hallway, Lee’s request was audacious.

"Mhm." Lee nodded, "But I saved your life."

They both knew Jian Wuji owed him a favor, in fact a huge one. But to waste it on a useless competition between kids was beyond stupid. To not speak about the difficult position Lee put Jian Wuji in because of a silly whim.

"Why?" Jian Wuji couldn’t resist, and asked.

"I need to kill someone." Lee honestly said, "At the end of the competition I’ll challenge the person who killed my parents."

Jian Wuji was taken aback by they honesty, but also by the fact that instead of asking for his help to deal with the person, Lee intended to solve the problem himself. And since he intended to challenge at the end of the competition – it only could mean the target was inner disciple, an elemental master. Otherwise the situation would’ve been resolved long ago, no matter the means.

Jian Wuji looked at the young boy in front of him, then slowly pulled off his robe, revealing his right shoulder. Two inches below it, there was a dark line – a scar that encircled his arm. Around that scar was a distinct imprint of a palm – with fingers and everything, and it looked as if the palm was clenching the arm, holding it tightly.

The imprint was dark and looked unnatural, but Lee didn’t need to guess to know where it came from.

"How did you do it?" He asked.

Lee looked at his hands, then at the youth in front of him, and shrugged.

"I honestly don’t know. No one knows." Lee said.

"Sigh ... and how do you intend to deal with an elemental master?" Jian Wuji asked, pulling up his robe.

"I have a plan." Lee said.

"I’ll need more than that." Jian Wuji said, "How certain are you of your success?" freёnovelkiss.com

"Sixty percent!" Lee pulled an answer out of his ass, but it looked like it was enough to persuade the young genius.

"Alright!" Jian Wuji said, "I’ll talk to some people. But you better be prepared. There are few monsters in the sect even at the age of fourteen."

"Thank you!" Lee said and left.

The easy problem was partially solved. The rest was on him – during the upcoming months he’ll have to work his ass off to be able to compete with his peers in a fair fight, but he wasn’t really against it. He intended to use the opportunity to hone his footwork and combat techniques, mostly focusing on one, though.

The second problem was at the same time easier and harder to solve.

In order to do it, Lee needed a place where he could safely lay low for two months – a period that usually was needed for him to recover after he did something stupid.

He went to the Hall of Ascension to cash in the two months of cultivation time, promised him by Elder Wang back in the day.

The junior elder on the job was not thrilled by his arrival. Clearly Elder Shen had put in a good word for Lee. After a long discussion that involved logical persuasion, threats and begging, he was allowed to occupy one of the rooms on the lower floor.

There was an awkward moment when Lee couldn’t figure out what element the room should be designated for, but in the end he went with the earth – the most neutral one, according to his understanding.

On the fateful day, he arrived to the most sacred place of the whole sect, the Tower of Ascension. Every single disciple worked hard to be allowed to cultivate here, and this was the place where the most breakthroughs happened.

After getting their cultivation techniques first, this was where everyone spent most of their contribution points. But contrary to the rest, Lee didn’t intend to use the superior environment the Tower of Ascension was designed for. He only needed a place to stay undisturbed, with everyone leaving him alone.

On the lower floor the rooms were the most primitive, but Lee wasn’t too picky. He settled in a small one, at most hundred square feet in size, and sat in the middle of it, after making sure the doors were tightly shut.

There were beautiful rune carvings on the floor and walls, but Lee knew those were not works of art, but meant to amplify the elemental fluctuations. He wasn’t going to experience it, though.

If anyone was asked, Lee occupying the place was a complete waste. But he couldn’t care less. He needed to increase his firepower.

After witnessing the abilities of elemental masters both during the attack on the Nethermoon sect and in the war, Lee was certain that no matter how hard he trained, there was no way for him to ever kill Victoria in one hit. That was the reason he was so delighted after learning about the disappearance of the sparks – he thought he was about to get his own spark and become much more capable.

The problem was – the two beast sparks returned, extinguishing his hope to complete the revenge by advancing his own abilities and techniques.

That led to the only other option – he had to use an external assistance and Lee knew only one source that could grant him the necessary firepower, literally.

He sat in the middle of the cultivation room, and from his bag took out a large wooden box. It was the one he stole from Lunax’s vault back then, purely on a whim.

At the time he thought the box was covered in runic markings and the yin-yang symbol, but it turned out to be words written in the language he just didn’t know how to read yet.

Scorchadon Behemot’s fire spark, half step to old god. Tribute to ... and then there was the yin-yang symbol.

Before the war with the Blackwater Sect, Lee hid the box, along with Soulcleaver, beneath the loose planks under his bed. His guess was that it was an old habit of stashing things, and this time it worked in his favor – no one confiscated the most valuable items he had.

Now he would use one to become capable of properly utilizing the other.

He knew that back in the day he promised Tess he wouldn’t do anything stupid again. Swallowing another spark was very likely to fall under that category, but Lee’s educated guess was that he would be fine in the end. It might hurt, maybe even a lot, but he would acquire the necessary strength to deal with Victoria.

Afterwards he would spend the rest of his life in the library, studying techniques, preparing for the following reincarnation.

With these thoughts in mind, Lee opened the box and was greeted by a flaming object. Scorchadon behemot’s spark didn’t actually burn, but it was so hot it was hard to pick it up.

It was the first time Lee witnessed such phenomenon, because the waletaur’s water spark seemed gentle and peaceful, but the earth spark ... that one he didn’t remember, because it was forcibly shoved down his throat.

The sparks they acquired with the Arax’s group were much dimmer and seemed plain in comparison, but in a way that made him even look forward to the results he would have.

’It’ll hurt a bit!’ Lee said to himself with a wide grin, and decisively swallowed the spark.

He was wrong.