Nameless sovereign 2 a c.., p.1
Nameless Sovereign 2: A Cultivation Progression Fantasy, page 1
Nameless Sovereign
BOOK 2
A CULTIVATION EPIC
NAMELESS AUTHOR
First published by Timeless Wind Publishing LLC 2024
Copyright © 2024 by Nameless Author.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Nameless Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
First edition
Editing by J. Massat and Silas Sontag.
Cover art by Kart Studio. Typography by Lorne Ryburn.
Contents
The Story so Far…
1. Examination
2. Return to the Desolate
3. Weapon
4. Full Moon
5. Sparring Session
6. Back in Town
7. The Man Named Bernard
8. Continued Progress
9. Deep Sea Sword
10. Mountain
11. Spying
12. Breaking and Entering Again
13. The Box
14. Emergency Meeting
15. New Moon Reappears
16. Wanted
17. Plans for Departure
18. The Grand Escape
19. Encounter with an Old Enemy
20. Old Friend
21. Threats
22. Clean Up
23. Sweep Up
24. Fire Ball
25. Discovered
26. The Rogue Appears
27. The Secrets of the Forest
28. Hidden Tunnels
29. A Talk with the Dead
30. Encroaching Darkness
31. Reuniting in the Forest
32. Into the Darkness
33. Endless Tunnel
34. Inner Conflict
35. Back to Reality
36. Into the Labyrinth
37. Closing Paths
38. Lost
39. Dancing with Wolves
40. First Rewards
41. The Right Path
42. Bear Attack
43. Temporary Alliance
44. Deer Monsters
45. Large Scuffle
46. Interrogation
47. The Trial Behind the Door
48. Flaming Stag
49. The Ice Talisman
50. A Hopeless Struggle
51. Burning Conclusion
52. Hawk Spirit
53. Exchanging for Rewards
54. The Lightning Trenches
55. A Deadly Path
56. Lizard Den
57. Spiritual Tree
58. Hidden Acupoint
59. Valley of Snakes
60. A Brief Slaughter
61. The Imperials Appear
62. Reuniting in Battle
63. Pill Empowerment
64. Lightning Strikes
65. A New Alliance
66. In the Enemy’s Footsteps
67. Devourer of Lightning
68. To Prove Oneself
69. Towards Death
70. Radiant Current
71. Speaking with the Mist
72. Challenging Death
Afterword
Groups
The Story so Far…
Red, a young slave trapped in the depths of the moonstone mines, has spent his life scavenging for scraps and avoiding death at the hands of both monsters and fellow slaves. His only solace are the strange, prophetic dreams that haunt his slumber.
His life changes when he meets Viran, a hardened ex-soldier with a secret: the knowledge of Spiritual Cultivation. Viran offers to teach Red in exchange for his help in escaping the mines, a bargain Red cautiously accepts. Red’s training progresses rapidly thanks to a secret deal with a mysterious, energy-spewing blob he discovers deep in the tunnels.
However, the increasingly frequent appearance of monstrous insects and the disappearance of slaves point to a growing threat in the mine’s depths. The source turns out to be a new monster, an intelligent insectoid capable of disguising itself as a human. After orchestrating a devastating insect assault on the slave population, the creature targets Viran, leaving him gravely wounded. A desperate fight ensues, during which Red discovers that the insectoid has unlocked its Spiritual Sea, granting it access to terrifying power.
Viran sacrifices himself in a final, explosive confrontation with the monster, giving Red an opportunity to escape. Following Viran’s incomplete map and carrying the strange insectoid core, Red ventures deeper into the mines, facing horrifying spiders, navigating a massive subterranean jungle, and encountering a group of intelligent insectoids searching for their infected brethren—the same insectoid who killed Viran.
Red escapes with his life, arriving on the surface and seeing the outside world for the first time. Injured and alone, he’s found by a group of Spiritual Cultivators from the Water Dragon Sect—Eiwin, a compassionate monk; Narcha, a hot-headed warrior; and Rog, a skilled but unpredictable hunter.
They take him to the town of Fordham-Bestrem, where Red joins the Sect thanks to Eiwin’s insistence despite the protests of Hector, the Sect’s gruff Grand Elder. He trains with Domeron, a one-armed but incredibly skilled swordsman, and apprentices under the blacksmith Goulth. He also meets Allen, the Sect’s sheltered but talented Young Master.
On the night of his first full moon, Red senses a lunar entity looking at him and absorbing a strange energy from his body. Fearing that this is the curse of the moonstone mines, Red believes he must recover his stash of hidden moonstones in order to complete the special acupoints taught to him by Viran. With Narcha’s reluctant help, he ventures back into the forest where he’s caught in an escalating conflict between bandits and a newly emerged undead. He witnesses the zombie’s inhuman prowess and discovers that it might be controlled by a powerful Necromancer who’s taken interest in the region. The situation worsens when he encounters a demon—a monstrous humanoid fueled by death and carnage—and discovers that the bandits have allied themselves with Gustav, a powerful merchant and the Sect’s rival, who seems intent on hunting them down.
Red finally reaches his stash, but the area is completely devoid of any life. He encounters a red mist, a mysterious entity that seems to beg him for help. Red accepts, and the mist enters his body. Digging up his belongings, he retrieves his monster cleaver and the page from Viran’s diary. The moonstones are completely empty, but luckily the insectoid core is still full of the green energy, though it is now missing the red flecks it once had.
Red narrowly escapes with his life thanks to the timely arrival of Narcha, Rog, and Eiwin, but his problems are far from over. The creature on the moon is still there, watching, waiting… and Red doesn’t know how long he’ll be able to resist its influence.
Chapter 1
Examination
As evening fell upon the town of Fordham-Bestrem, Red lit a lamp to illuminate his room. He had just gone through an arduous trial to recover his buried belongings, and although he was exhausted both mentally and physically, he still took the time to examine the items before allowing himself any rest. His life and future potentially hinged on them.
The first thing Red did was check the page of Viran’s diary he’d taken. Unfortunately, as he looked over the paper, he couldn’t help but frown.
I can barely read this.
The real problem wasn’t Red’s limited reading ability, but the letters themselves. Viran plainly hadn’t cared about the quality of his writing, and the page looked more like a bunch of notes than a structured text. That, on top of the low-quality paper and ink, made each word extremely hard to discern.
He clearly didn’t write this for anyone else to read.
There were, however, a few words Red could make out. “Energy,” “moon,” “vein,” and “stone.” Other than that, he suspected it would take some time before he could decipher the page’s contents. For now, Red set it aside and turned to his other items.
He had no use for the underground map anymore, but there was still something he wanted to check. Red found the path on the map that corresponded to where he had met the blob, which Viran had marked with a red skull and some words he couldn’t understand before. He hoped to discern something new about it now that he could read, but to his dismay, he only noticed another peculiarity.
These aren’t letters.
At least, they weren’t any letters Red knew. In fact, they resembled random symbols, and he couldn’t help but wonder if this was some kind of foreign language or secret code. Still, he could only sigh and stow the map away.
Perhaps one day those words would make sense to him.
Then there was the iron knife. It looked shoddy and in disrepair, ready to fall apart at the slightest touch. It was likewise not of much use to Red anymore, but as he stared at it, an idea dawned on him.
Technically, this knife came from the mine guards. Perhaps Goulth could discern something about it that would point towards the
Finally, only one item was left. The insectoid crystal.
Now, with the crimson lines gone, it glowed even more intensely than Red remembered. Unlike moonstones, the fist-sized green crystal looked more like a gem, its light much more intense.
He grabbed the crystal and inspected it. A few seconds later, a familiar tingling sensation spread through his hand, indicating the presence of Spiritual Energy.
Red frowned in confusion.
Was it this powerful in the past?
He’d held it plenty of times in the underground, yet he didn’t remember so much Spiritual Energy resonating from it. The only things he could attribute this change to were being on the surface or the disappearance of the crimson lines, but it was hard to tell which one was responsible.
Did Hector notice it?
Now that Red thought back, the elder had given him a weird look inside the meeting hall. With a crystal emitting so much Spiritual Energy, was there even a chance someone like Hector wouldn’t notice it? It had been wishful thinking on his part.
Yet the old man didn’t say anything either, which at the very least told Red the elder had no intentions of forcefully taking it. It was scant comfort, but Red simply didn’t have the time to concern himself with that at the moment.
Now for the most important part.
He’d gone in search of his stash because of his predicament with the lunar being. The creature hidden in the moon’s shadow had absorbed moonstone energy he didn’t even know was present in his body, and when his reserves weren’t enough, he’d felt something else taken away from him. Up to this point, Red still didn’t know what that was exactly, but it certainly couldn’t mean anything good.
His hope was that this insectoid crystal could recharge his special acupoints and help him open new ones. Of course, he didn’t know how to do that, so he resorted to the only thing he knew—practice.
Red entered his training stance and went through the movements Viran had taught him until his veins were stimulated. Surprisingly, he even crossed the three-minute mark, blowing past his previous record. He was puzzled by this change but didn’t stop his training.
The familiar tingling feeling soon appeared on his skin, and Red sat cross-legged on the bed with the crystal held tight in both hands. He could feel its energy being siphoned into his Spiritual Veins. Compared to what he was used to, there was far more energy—and of a far higher purity. This, however, also made it harder to manipulate it within his veins. After much struggle, Red managed to direct the energy towards one of his special, opened acupoints. A sharp pain spread in the region, and he couldn’t feel any changes.
Still, he didn’t give up and continued to direct the energy to that same acupoint. After the strands passed through it a few times, Red noticed a change as the energy waned and the pain diminished. He couldn’t personally check the state of his acupoint, but he was confident his experiment was a success.
Eventually, the energy dissipated, but the pain hadn’t disappeared completely. Red assumed it would take a few training sessions to recharge his special acupoints, but this minor success made his efforts over the last week worth it. Now that he’d confirmed his plan for the immediate future, his mind turned to another matter.
That crimson energy.
Even now, Red could still feel the presence of his companions within the courtyard. There didn’t seem to be a way to turn off this power, no matter how hard he tried, and he suspected the changes to his body weren’t limited to this new sixth sense.
When he’d first merged with that energy, he hadn’t noticed any transformations. His physical prowess hadn’t improved, and he didn’t feel like his mental capacities had been compromised. Yet, now that he thought about it, some weird things had happened.
First, when Red and his comrades were running away from the bandits, he’d kept pace without becoming exhausted. With their lives on the line, nobody had thought about it, but thinking back, Red noticed this oddity. His speed remained the same, but he’d managed to run for much longer.
And now there was this other discrepancy while training. Red managed to last fifty percent longer in his practice than the last time—such an absurd increase couldn’t be explained by conventional means. Thus, his mind turned to the only plausible explanation.
Did that crimson energy improve my stamina?
As far as Red knew, an improvement in stamina would generally accompany an improvement in other physical areas too, but nothing else had changed within his body. How could the crimson energy target such a specific attribute?
Red needed to investigate further, but there was an obvious problem. How could he look inside his own body? Was he supposed to tear open his skin? He considered asking Hector for help but immediately eliminated that option.
What if the elder found something he considered dangerous inside his body? That would be a tragic way to get himself killed. No, the only way he could figure this out was by careful experimentation, and the first thing to study was his crimson sense.
Red had noticed a difference in intensity between each presence he could detect. He didn’t necessarily know what that represented, but it seemed to be tied to strength—Hector, for instance, had a far more powerful flare than anyone else in the Sect. He suspected the power might sense the density of Spiritual Energy, but that didn’t make sense.
If he followed that theory, Hector, having opened his Spiritual Sea, would have the strongest presence. But people like Narcha and Eiwin also gave off powerful signals to his crimson sense, and neither of them had Spiritual Energy stored inside their bodies. This went against that theory.
He had other ideas but no way of verifying them. What he could test, though, was how this power worked.
Red had noticed the sense differed in more ways than just intensity. Allen’s presence, for instance, was weaker than most, but pulsated in his crimson sense. It was like it was in the process of growth. Compared to Hector’s much stronger signal, the child’s flare was more active.
Then there was also Domeron’s, which seemingly disappeared when Red wasn’t paying attention to it. He didn’t know what that meant, but it was an indication that he shouldn’t be completely reliant on his new ability.
Red wanted to study as many people as he could to find a pattern across them. Perhaps that way, he could tell exactly what his new sense detected. Of course, when entering the town, so many flares had assaulted his crimson sense that he’d been overwhelmed.
But Red was determined to practice his mental fortitude to parse that information. He wasn’t a fool and could see the usefulness of this power—it had already saved Narcha’s life once.
But that was a concern for another time. Right now, Red needed to open as many acupoints as he could. After all, he was still working on a tight schedule. If he didn’t have his third set of special acupoints opened by the new moon, who knew what would happen?
Without hesitation, he stood and sorted through his dresser. There, he fetched a glass vial holding the last two Vein Opening Pills.
After that, he went through his exercises again with the help of his improved stamina. A few minutes later, the tingling sensation returned, and he sat cross-legged on his bed, grabbing the insectoid crystal with one hand. He popped one pill out of the vial and swallowed it.
The power spread through his body, and Red directed it towards his Upper Leg Vein. He began the arduous process of opening his acupoints.
By the time the effects of the pill ran out, he had managed to open two more acupoints.
Five down… five more to go.
Chapter 2
Return to the Desolate
By the time Red was done practicing, it was already night. The lunar gaze had set upon him again, still waning in intensity. He’d thought this meant the being itself was growing weaker, but he noticed something off.
Every few minutes, the gaze would vanish before abruptly returning. It wasn’t just a matter of decreasing intensity. The pressure completely disappeared out of nowhere, as if the creature had difficulty maintaining its concentration.
That was, however, an absurd train of thought now that Red reflected on it. Whatever the real reason might be, it helped his peace of mind. At least he could sleep comfortably now.
