Immortal Paladin

The forest air still smelled faintly of smoke and scorched wood as I walked beside Ren Jingyi. Her steps were steady now, though I could still sense the lingering exhaustion beneath her excitement. She kept glancing at me as if waiting for a lecture or praise, so I decided to nudge her thoughts a little.

“So,” I asked, nudging her shoulder with mine, “what do you think? How did I beat that old man?”

“Isn’t it obvious, master?” she replied with a confident grin. “You’re just too strong…”

“Well, that’s true,” I admitted, “but think a little deeper. I used Divine Possession on you. Sure, I have more combat experience, but the body was still yours, right? So does it really make sense that I was able to suppress that old man and destroy him that easily? If it’s your body, shouldn’t you be capable of doing the same?”

Ren Jingyi’s smile faltered. “When you put it like that, I feel stupid. I’m sorry, master… for being so weak.”

“Hey, cut that out,” I said, flicking her forehead. “You’re plenty strong. Leave the self-loathing to Lu Gao. That’s his niche. You? You’re supposed to be the cheerful one. Anyway, answer me at your own pace. We’re not in a hurry.”

She walked for a moment in silence, considering her words carefully. When she finally spoke, her tone was calmer.

“It’s my body, yes… but the difference in experience made all the difference. Even if you gave me another five minutes, I still don’t think I could subjugate him. But experience alone isn’t enough for you to beat him so one-sidedly. There had to be something more. The old man was at the Tenth Realm. Under Divine Possession and Animal Path: King of the Wild, my body reached a similar level. But even then, it wasn’t enough.”

She clenched her fists, frustration giving way to clarity.

“If I must guess, then it was the techniques. Master knows more techniques than I do. So I’ve decided, I want to learn new ones. But I don’t know which technique to learn next. I have Bless, Blessed Weapon, Blessed Regeneration, Cure, all the Smite techniques, Zealot’s Stride, TriDivine, Flash Step… and if I add more, my proficiency might drop. If possible, I want to learn how to combine them. If I could use Zealot’s Stride, Flash Step, and Divine Speed together, I could reach incredible speeds, too. But I can’t do Hybrid Skills. Senior Dave tried to teach me, Yuen Fu too, but I can’t do it.”

She exhaled and raised her chin. “So if I can’t do Hybrid Skills, then I’ll aim for the Ultimate Skills!”

I couldn’t help smiling. Watching her think seriously about her growth always made me weirdly proud. Knowing what you wanted mattered, but knowing what suited you mattered even more. I went through my mental list of disciples. Only Yuen Fu had managed to learn an Ultimate Skill so far, and he even reinterpreted it. Lu Gao wasn’t far off, especially with Alice teaching him on the side. Gu Jie? If that girl actually dedicated time to learning instead of wandering into misfortune, she’d master an Ultimate Skill in a week. Hei Mao… well, Hei Mao was Hei Mao. I’d figure him out eventually.

“So,” I asked, sliding my hands into my sleeves, “what Ultimate Skill do you want to learn?”

Ren Jingyi looked at me with a seriousness I rarely saw in her. “Master… what kind of Ultimate Skill would let me maximize Reflect?”

Her eyes burned with determination, and I felt a grin stretch across my face.

This girl really was my disciple.

An image flashed across my mind, a massive dragon plated in thick scales, so durable that every attack against it would rebound several times stronger. Just imagining it made me grin. That was it. I already knew the perfect Ultimate Skill for her.

Sanctified Resurgence.

It was an Ultimate Skill that empowered the caster based on the amount of health they recovered. The more they healed, the more buffs they gained, including an absurd increase to Reflect damage. It paired perfectly with heavy healing spells. I had been using it more and more lately, since far too many enemies could pierce my defenses these days.

While I was at it, I realized she could benefit from two more high-tier skills: Retributive Restoration and Righteous Reckoning. The first multiplied damage based on health restored; the second multiplied Reflect damage specifically. If she learned both, her output would skyrocket.

And on top of that… yes, she should learn Divine Word: Life. Another Ultimate Skill, built entirely for healing with massive boosts, stacked amplification, and the ability to turn any healing technique into something terrifying.

Just imagining her with that toolkit made me feel like a proud parent watching their kid accidentally invent a nuclear bomb.

“Master, I have a question,” Ren Jingyi suddenly said.

“Shoot.”

“About the old man… I still don’t understand how you took him down so fast. Can I do the same? I mean, with my current set of techniques? And if not… what skill would have let me win?”

Her eyes held a stubborn spark. I respected the determination, so I answered honestly.

“You can’t win with your current powers,” I said. “With attrition, maybe. If you dragged the fight long enough, you could force it into a fifty-fifty match. But under five minutes? No chance. There are too many uncertainties in a battle of attrition. Even if you pushed Reflect to the limit, the old man would still heal through most of it.”

Ren Jingyi bit her lip, clearly unhappy with the assessment.

“In terms of skills,” I continued, “Divine Word: Life would give you the best shot. It boosts your healing spells to insane levels. With that, you could keep Reflect going for much longer, and even use self-damage tactics to trigger Reflect spikes. The problem is the output. Your Reflect wouldn’t hit hard enough to kill someone like that old man quickly. His cultivation revolves around nature and life elements. His defensive and regenerative abilities were solid, and he carried an entire market’s worth of elixirs on him.”

She frowned more deeply.

“If you want the honest reason I killed him so easily…” I sighed. “It was the Manasouls I used to cast my Ultimate Skills. That’s something unique to me. You can’t replicate it yet. And beyond that, he was already heavily injured by your Dragon’s Breath. That hit hurt him more than you think. There’s only so much elixirs can fix.”

Ren Jingyi still looked conflicted. Like she wanted to argue, but couldn’t find the grounds.

“If you really want to win like that,” I added slowly, “you could try using quintessence through our secret technique. By clashing mana and qi, you produce quintessence. But hear me now: that method is dangerous. If you misalign anything, even for a moment, you could cripple yourself. Best case, you get qi deviation. Worst case, you lose your cultivation entirely and become an ordinary fish.”

She let out a long sigh, shoulders slumping. “I understand, Master… I’ll work hard on my cultivation.”

I reached out and messed up her hair. “Good. Because if you’re aiming to master Reflect-based Ultimate Skills, you’ll need every bit of power you can get.”

She nodded firmly, determination settling into her eyes like a flame reignited.

We finally broke through the last line of trees, stepping out of the dense forest and into clear air. Ren Jingyi walked beside me, while Wu Chen emerged from the ground like a sprout pushing through soil. She dusted herself off, took out the tiny perfume bottle called the Chibi Perfume, and gave herself two quick sprays.

Her form twisted and shrank. In seconds, she looked like an innocent little girl in the plain robes of an external disciple. If I didn’t know her, I’d think she was lost.

I asked, “How did you do?”

“With expected efficiency, of course,” she replied in her usual calm tone. “I hid the old man’s body and absorbed him for nutrients. Afterward, I led the reinforcements astray. They searched the east ridge for thirty minutes before giving up. None of them suspected me.”

“Good job,” I said, though a knot tightened in my chest.

For all her composure, Wu Chen was still walking a razor’s edge. If anyone ever discovered that the once-dead immortal had not only revived but was openly betraying the Heavenly Temple, things would turn catastrophic in an instant. I kept it to myself, but the worry gnawed at me. One wrong move, and her existence alone could blow everything wide open.

Trying to clear my head, I asked Ren Jingyi, “How are you for points?”

She winced like someone stepping barefoot on a nail. “Bad. Very bad.”

That wasn’t surprising after the chaos she’d caused. But the question lingered in my mind. Were the disciples of the Beast Court suffering the same way? After everything that happened today, all their standings were probably shaken.

Just as I was thinking this, my breath misted in the air. Ren Jingyi stiffened immediately, and Wu Chen’s expression sharpened, every sense on alert.

I frowned. The theatrics were unnecessary.

“My dear twin brother,” a familiar voice said, “I can see you.”

I turned to my left. I didn’t need to look as my Animal Soul already picked up the fragrance of her qi.

Da Ji dispelled her illusion and stepped into view, arms crossed, expression tight with worry. “You worried me to death, brother. Please tell me our cover remains intact…”

“I’m confident it’s intact,” I replied. “I beat the other guy to death, and Wu Chen buried him somewhere they won’t find.”

Da Ji closed her eyes and breathed out through her nose. “Of course you did.”

With a wave of her hand, she erected an illusory formation, muffling the area with layered distortions. Sight, sound, and presence were all hidden.

“Please,” she said, “tell me everything.”

“You don’t have to stress about it too much,” I said. “I’ll explain the details back in the dorm. But long story short, some creepy old man tried to kidnap my disciple, my disciple gave him the beating of his life, and then I finished it.”

If I had any regrets, it was not being able to cast Divine Possession on the old man before killing him. Someone that high-level carried a mountain of intel. But a single mistake could’ve meant Ren Jingyi’s death. I wasn’t going to gamble with that.

Da Ji turned her gaze toward Ren Jingyi, eyes narrowing. “We have a lot to discuss.”

Ren Jingyi flinched. Wu Chen pretended not to hear. I pretended my sister wasn’t about to interrogate my disciple.

We left the forest behind and made our way back toward the dormitories. The sun had dipped past the horizon by the time we reached the courtyard.

Chen Wei was waiting outside, tapping his foot anxiously. When he saw us, he straightened.

“What happened to all of you? Why do you look so tense?” he asked.

“It’s a long story,” I told him.

The rest of the day passed in a strangely mundane haze after all that chaos. We turned in a few mission requests we unintentionally completed while… well, fighting for our lives. Thanks to that, each of us received a decent amount of points. Ren Jingyi, especially, managed to scrape together just enough to buy a lecture token, mostly because Wu Chen hunted down several forest beasts on her behalf while she and I were busy beating the enlightenment out of a certain old man.

It wasn’t glamorous, but points were points.

The first day of lectures arrived quickly. The academy’s bells rang, and scattered disciples streamed toward different halls. I picked out a few classes that seemed interesting, hoping to learn something useful, or at least something that could give me an edge in this place.

One in particular caught my attention: Soul Symbology.

It turned out to be one of the more popular lectures. The hall was packed with disciples, both external, internal, and even some wearing green and red waistbands. Expensive classes always attracted the most hopeful. I overheard several students discussing it.

“If you don’t understand your soul’s shape, you’ll hit a wall in learning your Spirit Mystery ability later, everyone knows that.”

“Yeah, some senior said the shape of your soul can even alter your Spirit Mystery abilities. And vice versa.”

Huh. That part was new to me.

Ever since I learned about the shape of my own soul, I’d been trying to figure out what it meant. The image was clear in my mind: a cross. Not metaphorical, not symbolic. Just a literal cross shape.

If it was tied to my sealed memories, then the cross definitely held meaning. Christianity existed in that vague place that wasn’t quite a memory and wasn’t quite a dream, somewhere in the inspiration source for the Paladin class in LLO.

But the details were foggy. Everything I recalled about that world was like a torn painting viewed underwater.

The closest thing I found in my research was the concept of “crossroads.” Some scriptures mentioned the soul standing at a crossroad when facing calamity, carrying a “burden” of fate. But it didn’t quite fit. My soul wasn’t shaped like a place. Instead, it was shaped like a symbol.

Honestly, the whole field of soul shapes felt annoyingly vague. Not like Spirit Mystery, which already had a long period of accumulation of knowledge behind it. Still… vague didn’t mean useless. I needed every clue I could get in order to master the Three Cosmic Elements.

The lecture hall went quiet when a large shadow fell over the front of the class.

A familiar bull entered with broad shoulders, heavy horns, and robes strained by his sheer mass. It was Elder Zhu Bo. He turned out to be the lecturer of this class.

As he stepped onto the stage, disciples around me began whispering excitedly.

“That’s Elder Zhu Bo? I thought he didn’t teach this year!”

“They say he’s one of the strongest Ninth Realm  masters of the academy.”

“Of course this class costs so much. It’s him!”

I didn’t expect it. For someone who helped carry us to the academy while ranting about balance, Elder Zhu Bo had quite the reputation. If I’d known he was this influential, I might’ve asked him for free tutoring on the way here.

Zhu Bo cleared his throat, the deep rumble shaking the chairs.

“Welcome, disciples. I am Elder Zhu Bo of the Beast Court, and today, we begin the study of Soul Symbology, the art of understanding the self through the shape of the soul.”

He introduced the subject with technical precision, going through its theoretical roots, historical applications, and its connection to cultivation breakthroughs. His voice resounded with practiced authority, and even the air felt heavier as he continued.

Finally, he paused, his eyes sweeping across us.

“To recognize the soul,” he said, “one must first understand the self. Now, who here has a hobby?”