There was a sudden Boom like a clap of thunder, the sound rolled and rumbled. The table vibrated and the milk in his cup swilled this way and that before settling down again, the vibrations was enough to throw Kangs carving knife off line. Kang sighed... he had made another mistake and ruined another block of wood... he accurately threw the unfinished carving over his shoulder where it was swallowed by the shadows behind him as it landed into a garbage bin with many similar unfinished carvings. Kang looked through his window with wide eyes, he then gritted his teeth and disappeared.

Hartley stood in front of the mini forest that now looked like a nice haircut ruined by an obvious bald patch. The natural woody perfume of the destroyed tree barks suffused through the air, the shock on his face was even more drastic than Kang's, he held up both hands to his eyes and inspected them as if something unfathomable had happened. His eyes slowly turned heavy-lidded and glazed, smiling slowly he rehea.r.s.ed in his mind the test strike. Under the influence of advanced state of focus instead of releasing one pulse with precision timing on contact with the tree, on a whim he had used one pulse to collide with another pulse just before he made contact with the tree.

He didn't know what to expect, he thought the pulses might even cancel out each other and make the strike useless, instead it was like splitting an uranium atom, The weak punch did as much damage as he could achieve with his strongest punch before he had control over his elemental power. His breakthrough contributed to the power of the strike as well, a late phase xanthian was much more powerful than a mid phase xanthian.

A group a people came running towards Hartley, armed and ready to repel any attack, led by the silver hair man wearing golden armor that had carried them here in the black metal carriage. He stopped ten meters from Hartley and looked around appraising the damage. For the first time Hartley heard the man's voice "You did this?" his voice sounded like wagon wheels grating over gravel stones, it was a low gravelly tone. Before Hartley could answer, Kang appeared, "Why, why, why my beautiful trees.... to make beautiful carvings...." Kang looked out at the patch of stumps and his eyes welled up like a dam was about to burst.

Guilt and a hint of shame washed over Hartley, he stepped forward and bowed from the waist and said "sorry senior I was experimenting with compressed circulation and lost control" Kang's face snapped back in Hartley's direction. "What?" his eyes opened wide "Already?" he looked Hartley up and down smiling persuasively, "tomorrow you and Goldie here can have a spar for our entertainment." Of course he was talking about the silver hair man with the golden armor, Kang's mood swing surprised Hartley, the man was no longer mourning the death of his trees, instead he beamed, teeth gleaming like a happy child, clapping both hands repeatedly like a captured seal performing in the circus and looking forward with glee in his eyes.

Everyone started to disperse as the darkness started to claim the evening as its own, but as everyone was moving Hartley heard a snide remark from the man in the golden armor, "truly sc.r.a.ping the bottom of the barrel" he had said through gritted teeth under his breath as he bowed from the waist and said "I'll be off now master" to Kang. Hartly paid it no mind and acted as if he hadn't heard but in his heart he was truly glad the eccentric Kang had set up such a short notice sparring match, he could figure out the might of a 7th layer xanthian and serve up some humble pie for the man who had looked down on them since the very first day they had met.

Once again Kang looked at the destroyed trees and sighed, a sigh from his belly, one full of regret. "Lets walk young man" he said. The wind blew his hair gently and their shadows started to melt away into the thick shadows forming on the gra.s.s. Hartley fell in step beside the man as they made their way back in the gloomy evening. "You did it quicker than I thought you would," he said as he walked with his hands behind his back looking for the first time in Hartley's memory wise and dignified. "So do you understand the theory behind spatial cracks?"

"No." Hartley replied honestly. Kang smiled and all the petulant child-like behavior he had displayed for the loss of his trees disappeared, he had a serious look on his face as he began.

"This is a physical plain." Kang panned his head from side to side to indicate the surroundings. "It is the weakest plain and can be manipulated with elemental energy easier than most, once one is powerful enough they can rip holes in the very fabric of it. Once one opens a hole in the fabric of s.p.a.ce itself, that is called a spatial crack, the plane in turn tries to bring back balance and maintain the integrity of the plain by automatically forcing them shut with ma.s.sive amounts of black energy."

"But if you are skilled enough or have an affinity with s.p.a.ce you can use cracks in s.p.a.ce as a tool to shorten distances, communicate with others from long distances or attack from long distances. The greater the distance one tries to launch a s.p.a.cial crack the more the plane fights to return balance making it dangerous and unstable, the duration it can stay open for also decreases. Trying to travel long distances through a spatial crack exerts ma.s.sive stresses on the physical body but if one is strong enough and powerful enough the distances that can be traveled is almost infinite. This is the concept of ascending from the mortal plain, but that's a lesson for another time."

"Usually people who attack through cracks only attack those weaker than themself. Because a counter attack would destabilize the crack and give the person who opened the crack a wicked backlash."

"Look" Kang's hand moved forward from behind his back and there was a black circular spatial crack roiling and rumbling over his outstretched palm, it was very distinct and easy to see even in the gloom of the evening.

"There" he used his left hand to point at a spot that was rumbling and s.h.i.+mmering. "If you are attacked by someone using a spatial crack, don't ever attack the person on the other end, even though your perception is showing the person standing right in front of you,

Your attack will have to travel the full distance that person is away from you, in other words if someone opens a spatial crack and attacks you from a mile away, if you try and attack them directly your attack would have to travel a full mile through the turbulent s.p.a.ce crack before it reaches them while they can attack you like you are an arm's length away."

"Always attack the unstable parts of the crack, even the most skilled experts with an affinity to s.p.a.ce cannot fully stabilize a s.p.a.ce crack, there are always weak areas." He used his index finger on his left hand and poked the weak spot of the crack and it rumbled violently then puffed out of existence."

Kang walked with Hartley all the way to the war mansion schooling him with essential knowledge before saying his good byes and disappearing....

It was bright, hot and dry, the sun glinted of the golden armor of the silver hair man who Kang had referred to as Goldie, he swaggered out to the middle of the dusty training field to the applause and cheers of the guards.

Kang was sat comfortable on what looked like a lawn chair under a gazebo, there was a small table in front of him,

he leaned forward to pick up a gla.s.s of milk and sipped it as if it was whisky.

He had arranged this sparring match to test out Hartley, he knew the youth was capable but not to what extent.

It was odd that he was a saint realm expert and couldn't tell precisely the strength of Hartley, when the youth didn't deliberately hide his aura, it appeared as if he was only a 3rd layer xanthian, Kang knew he had to be stronger than that but didn't ask. Every expert was ent.i.tled to their own secrets.

Hartley left Zhi Ruo, Qin Li and Yang Yi at the side of the training field and made his way through the raucous guards, his shadow loomed behind him as strode to meet the smiling and overconfident Goldie.

One day, not too long ago Goldie had been instructed by Kang to go a pick up some important guests, Goldie had suggested that such a job should be given to some of the normal guards, a flash of anger had swept by on the face of the usually immature Kang, he made no further complaints and complied.

After making the three day journey, he had discovered an unimpressive youth and a couple of low level xanthian. He was so angry he couldn't even bring himself to speak, he had resented them ever since that. The disdain he felt as a 6th layer xanthian towards Hartley's group was palpable.

Before Hartley reached the middle of the training field he stopped and turned towards Kang and gave a respectful formal bow cupping both hands and saying "senior." Kang smiled and nodded his head. Goldie burned with violent intent, he couldn't wait to wrap his hands around Hartley's neck and teach him a lesson.

What no one in the training field could have or would have predicted, was how short of a battle this was going to be.

The two combatants lined up ten meters apart, the crowd went silent and waited for Kang's signal

Fight! came the command from Kang.

There was an explosion of brilliant green, dust swirled two meters high as Goldie flashed forward using an open palm technique aimed at Hartley's chest, his right hand made several images as he pushed it forward and rotated it in a small circular pattern, everyone in and around the training field was dazzled by the flashy move, it looked as if Goldie's one hand had transformed into six, cacophonous

cheers erupted around the grounds.

Without hardly seeming to move, Hartley let Goldie crash past like a rampaging bull in a bullfight against a skilled matador, before he even realized that he missed his target,

Goldie was already twenty meters pa.s.s kicking up a storm of dust as his golden figure wrapped by green aura glinted under the sunlight.

The people watching in the sun-lit surroundings moved their heads following the trajectory of Goldie, but when they looked back again. Hartley was still stood there untouched, black robe fluttering in the dusty wind created by Goldie.

Hartley moved.....There was a loud rumble, the dust swirled like mixing cream into a cup of coffee....The airflow around him wobbled like jelly, the s.p.a.ce around the outline of his body groaned as if it was about to implode at any second... The s.p.a.ce finally shattered, it felt like every atom in his body was being ripped and torn. He was surrounded by a riot of dark s.h.i.+mmering colors.

Scared out of his mind Hartley engaged his time domain immediately, the pain went away in a flash and he stood there looking around in bewilderment, he was inside a thin dark mesh structure like a tunnel, he could see everyone on the other side of the tunnel frozen in their pose,

Hartley kept a count in his mind of the seconds that had elapsed in his time domain, he had walked around in the tunnel for the first five seconds and found out that the tunnel would curve to his will like his inner world. Anywhere he wanted the tunnel to exist he just had to think about the destination, another five seconds went by and his time domain was still engaged.

It finally dawned on him, This was a s.p.a.ce crack, not only that it didn't exert any pressure on his body when he was in his time domain.

Hartley's mind went back to the job at hand, he would explore in greater detail later, he willed the crack to exit behind Goldie. At this point he had his time domain engaged for fourteen seconds and counting.

Everything was quiet in the training field, Goldie had just flashed pa.s.s and the youth made his move, the guards stood watching as the youth disappeared and reappeared behind Goldie and delivered a punch with two bright blue flashes, a debris fountain of golden specks flew fifty meters into the sky twinkling like a quiet display of fireworks, if Song Zemin had seen this, he would have definitely been reminded of his mentor's demise.

The naked body of Goldie rose ten meters and was sailing away like a kite. Kang with a shocked face scrambled out of his lawn chair, knocking over his gla.s.s of milk and stretched out a hand, the air itself rippled and Goldie's body floated down gently, he placed a robe over the naked body of his disciple and they both disappeared. Leaving a stunned training field as quiet as a broken t.v.