Chapter 540: A Cold Iron Barrier

What followed was a meal that was technically hospitable and felt utterly icy to Kai. The strange thing was that Tusquo seemed unbothered by it, and his wife was so difficult to read that he couldn't be sure what to think of the entire affair. She was unfailingly polite, and Tusquo had clearly spoken well of them, yet Kai was left with the clear impression that she disliked him.

During the meal they discussed nothing but Irun and the potential training paths that they might try in the future. In the process Quinta formally lowered her shroud, which was an invitation to check her soul properly. Kai was hesitant, still unsure if he'd erred earlier, but since he could well be impolite to ignore the implicit offer, he viewed her soul.

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Name: Quinta Agyama of Irun

Total Power: 331

Souliron Essence: 9 (93)

Physique Level: E-9 (107)

Soul Level: 5 (25)

Path of Steel: Truesteel 2 (96)

Ironpath Physique (+10)

>

Quinta Agyama was only a little weaker than her husband, and with over 300 Power she was among the strongest Irunians. Notably, she had a Truesteel ability and something called Souliron Essence, both of which suggested she had ancient Irunian ancestry. Kai was most interested in the fact that she had the Ironpath Physique, which she could only have gained after they left the previous time, which meant that Irun had fully adopted the techniques.

When he said as much, Tusquo and his wife were both positive about the developments and the future of Irun, yet Quinta seemed to become even icier. By the time the meal was over, Kai had no sense for the woman and wasn't sure he'd heard a single meaningful word from her beneath the polite formalities.

Once they were all fed, Kai and Omilaena were escorted to a small room - the equivalent of the guest wing for the modest home. They had plans to pick up Mariyay and begin training, but it seemed they were being given some time alone first.

"Wow." Omilaena flopped down onto the gray-sheeted bed. "Can you imagine the two of them banging? Normally I would say my prurient imagination is quite strong, but I've met my match... 'Wife, I submit a motion to initiate coitus, do I have a second?' 'I suggest we table the activity until child-rearing duties have been completed.' Ugh."

"I don't know," Kai said, "I can imagine them making very intense eye contact the entire time."

"Wow, outdone by you? I'm getting soft." Omilaena looked up at him coquettishly. "But wasn't I well-behaved during the dinner? I let them make all the polite conversation about trying to have children without so much as intimating that it means Tusquo blowing loads inside her."

"You know, it's odd how some cultures are so restrained about sex, yet childbearing seems like a valid topic of conversation. Never really thought about that before."

"Ugh, am I completely losing my touch? Get down here, Kai!"

He chuckled and bent over the bed to kiss her, but they actually didn't have any time to mess around, euphemistically or in general. Now that they were in Irun, the only limiting factor was Tusquo making arrangements, and once that happened they had to work aggressively to catch up to Yuinafal.

"Quinta hates us, right?" Kai asked while resting against his wife. "I'm not just imagining things?"

"Oh dear, your understanding of women is still absolutely atrocious. Obviously she's in love with you."

"I'd say 'nice try' but apparently you really are losing your touch."

"I don't know, I somehow got you right where I want you." Omilaena wiggled underneath him with a smirk. "No, you're obviously correct, and I didn't pick up on anything in particular. Tusquo is your biggest fan, so... unless that biased her against us somehow, I'm not sure what's up her ass."

"It doesn't seem like just asking would work." Kai sighed and pushed himself upright. "Well, it doesn't matter for now. I'll go gather up the trainees while you begin your experiments. We have a lot of work to do."

Over the next several days, Kai took care of business, gathering up a variety of Irun's top soldiers. Just as Tusquo had promised, they were somber but inventive warriors, eager to try Omilaena's new methods. There were also some elites from before, back to further strengthen themselves, and while they wouldn't count for the competition with Yuinafal, Omilaena didn't hesitate to help them out as well.

Despite what Kai had said, he didn't have much work to do himself. He sparred with the trainees, using their Irunian weapons to refine his Physique further, but otherwise it wasn't his job. Occasionally he exchanged information with Krainuun or Zae Zin Nim, as Krysal continued without him. Sometimes he spoke to the Irunian elites, who offered Mariyay a normal metallic pool and required more convincing to let her use the hidden Insanity - at least she was getting Irunian training meanwhile.

His other major task was countering Yuinafal, so he attempted to spy on the opposing Irunian trainees. But according to rumors and Tusquo's info, Yuinafal was training them under some sort of elite barrier, so it was hard to find out any concrete information. The only upside was that Yuinafal still had no idea that Omilaena and Kai had begun work, so he couldn't try to interfere.

With that done, Kai was free to use his time for his own training. Aside from his usual cultivation, he spent all his time on refining his Physique, and soon enough he felt confident he'd reached the peak of C-9. Reaching B rank was almost unheard of, but he had the Twisted Immortal Carnal Seed, which he had been attuning, so he was ready.

Once it was time to break through, he meditated on his body while making final preparations. There wasn't much: he had a few potions and medicinal pills in case the transformation inhibited Behemoth's Heart, but otherwise he didn't anticipate problems, just a little pain.

Actually, his biggest concern had been making sure that he wouldn't scare Ruotu, but the girl had gone on a trip with her mother, so he had the house to himself. Kai sat down in the garden, hands cupped in his lap around the Seed, and began to work.

It took qi to activate the pill, which began to grow curved spikes in all directions. That was part of the normal method, but his wives had discussed it on the flight to Deadwaste and suggested that Kai use mana and chakra as well. The thorns extended, plunging into his palms and beginning to work their way through his body.

There was pain, of course, but Kai was accustomed to pain. His biggest struggle was holding back Behemoth's Heart to prevent it from destroying or diverting the thorns digging through his flesh. They needed to follow his meridians according to Cloudspire principles, tearing the channels in his flesh wider and thus ripping open a new rank - in theory.

Yet as the thorns plunged inward, Kai could feel that something was wrong. It wasn't the pain, actually the lack of it: even though he was flooding qi, chakra, and mana into the seed, it didn't feel like the thorns were impacting him spiritually. The whole point was to unify the two, yet the pain felt purely physical, as if it was running up against something...

No, a lack of something. Kai was puzzled at first, since it didn't feel like any sort of barrier he could break through, or like previous Physique advancements. Eventually distant memories combined with theory and his heart sank.

The problem was the 999 Power limit.

Some transformations could break through on their own, and some could create limited power, but the way the Twisted Immortal Carnal Seed was only damaging his body felt deeply wrong. If he used it now, he would waste all its power and not break through, or worse, only unlock a limited Physique. After seeing how much Physique could do with Zae Zin Nim, Kai couldn't sacrifice that much future power for the sake of a little now.

So he began to push back the energy, healing his body at the same time. The process wasn't designed to be reversed, but he wrestled control of it and forced the thorns to retract. In the end, he was left with the spiky seed he'd started with... now with a red tinge from his blood. It sat in his hands, motionless and yet somehow malicious.

Kai cursed as he stared at the seed in his palm. This pushed him even closer to B rank, and might have strengthened the seed, but he knew he was never going to break the barrier this way. Problems like this weren't solved by will or excess power - he needed a specific method to expand his soul into four digits, and those were in short supply.

Technically there was no rush, since he already had excessive power for the upcoming incursion. But everyone else was working so hard, preparing for the fight of their lives, that Kai was unsatisfied to be blocked here.

He'd find a way through... but what? The problem with surpassing all his peers was that there was no treasure that could solve the problem for him, no ancient path to provide easy answers, no mentor to pull him up. There was no choice but to forge a new path on his own.