Corvus kept on wandering within the rock forest with several lost spirits tailing behind him. It was obvious he'd tried to bind with each of them only to find out their abilities fell short of a battle spirit, so he kept searching while using the sky, which was mostly cloudy, to measure the time he had left.
The sky didn't seem different from the outside world which made him doubt if the spirit realm was a world of its own as they were taught to believe; regardless, he followed each movement of the clouds he knew there was still enough time left.
He eventually reached the ends of the rock forest, which gave way to a canyon that seemed to scare away the lost spirits that were clearly reluctant to accept his rejections. Corvus squinted his eyes at the wisps that scurried away, making him remember a teaching that highlighted that exact behavior.
While lost spirits were subconscious and relied heavily on their instincts to detect a threat or a beneficial core, they also seemed to detect the superiors and inferiors amongst themselves. Just like cores, there were grades to them, but unlike cores which had five grades in total, there were only three grades to spirits. And all the lost spirits Corvus had seen and tried were the lowest, for they didn't even fall into the main categories of spirits.
Corvus could tell that there was a superior spirit within this canyon somewhere, as could be seen from the lost spirits that refused to follow him into the area. It would seem this was the spirit's territory, which could only be formed by a superior spirit, and that gladdened him.
But at the same time, it also made him prepare his mind for the difficulty of binding it, because unlike the inferiors, this one won't exactly find his solid core enticing.
Though unable to spot any sign of the lost spirit, Corvus was not in a hurry at all. He couldn't help but admire the canyon; even though it was desolate with no greenery in sight, he enjoyed the peace and air of freedom.
Corvus took a deep breath, burying some chaotic emotions back into the depths of his heart before they had the chance to rise,ones he'd seen as useless and unfulfillable. But now....now that he would finally become a full-fledged spirit cultivator...maybe.....
'No, it's nothing...but just a dream, nothing but a pipe dream...'
'Or is it?' His eyes turned cold at the thought, but yet an image of someone dear flickered across his mind.
"But there's her."
He knew he couldn't be selfish even if he wanted to, for his grandmother was old already and he didn't want her to die because of his own selfishness and hatred.
He took a second deep breath, returning his eyes to their usual plain expression. He then turned his gaze to the northern direction where he'd spotted slight movements through the sands, kicking up small dust in the distance.
He tilted his head slightly before choosing to head in that direction.
The canyon wasn't that large to begin with, because it seemed to merge with a cliff wall that acted like its boundaries, making it narrower the deeper Corvus went. To his luck, he soon found the cause of the little dust cloud, which left him astonished because what he saw were two wisps clashing with each other, slamming themselves onto the sands and kicking up dust.
'A territorial battle?' Corvus wondered, but then he peered closer, making his eyes widen further.
The two wisps facing each other were different from the lost spirits he'd seen along the way, making him certain that these were superior lost spirits. The one that seemed to have the upper hand was made of a bigger and deeper yellow mist, making the one facing it look miniature in comparison.
Yet Corvus's attention was entirely on this small one, because for one, it was just the size of the inferior spirits he'd seen already, and most obviously, it was made up of a reddish mist
.
"Red? That's odd... aren't all strength spirits meant to be yellow?" Corvus couldn't help but murmur out loud. According to what they've been taught, spirits took the colors of their born affinities, with the strength spirits of this mountain taking the natural color of the earth qi that supported the colossal weight of Black Ridge Mountain.
This made this one questionable, with Corvus even starting to think that it might not even carry the strength affinity and might be of some other element, but he couldn't help but doubt the clan would make such a mistake, which made him conclude on another simple possibility ,this one was sick.
Now, maybe lost spirits gets sick or not, he didn't know; but he knew their spirit instructors were just servants as well, making them ignorant of much deeper knowledge, so he could only attribute its weird color to that. Yet, what he saw next made him rethink that possibility.
The bigger lost spirit kept on slamming itself against the red one, making it hit the ground. It was just about to rise once more to bring itself down when the red one's circular form seemed to flare up with a thicker reddish hue, making it rise abruptly and slam into the bigger one, sending it upwards.
That wasn't the end; as if unleashing a pent-up rage, it continuously slammed itself against the bigger one, beating it across the ground in a continuous bash.
Though to Corvus the lost spirits' duel seemed more like two floating balls of mist being thrown against each other, he was surprised and slightly amazed that the red lost spirit seemed to carry the mantle of 'small but mighty.' It was becoming obvious that the bigger lost spirit was trying to flee from the red one as it kept trying to dodge each lunge.
But there was no way Corvus was letting that happen; in fact, he saw their duel as the best moment to capture them both.