With the Cloud Sword spell, Juechen’s sword became faster than sound, and it reached a level where even Kata could not see it.
With this spell, Juechen regained the advantage, but this was only the beginning.
The two cousins seemed to hate each other more than water could ever hate fire.
Kata watched them use more than a dozen immortal spells each before the fight came to an end.
In the end, Juechen gained the upper hand and won by half a move.
Shuran vowed revenge before she left.
There were cheers and discussions as the news spread through the clan.
This was not the first time these two had fought each other.
In their previous fight, it was Shuran who won, and this time, Juechen gained revenge after cultivating his immortal spells to a higher level.
After practice, Juechen went to the Scripture pagoda.
This was a tall pagoda made from what seemed to be some sort of exotic black jade.
In this pagoda, the clan stored all their immortal spells and techniques that allowed them to seek out the Dao.
As a slave, even seeing this nine-storey pagoda was a privilege, let alone entering the place.
Kata stayed at the entrance while holding Juechen’s sword.
At this point, Kata realized that he had become some sort of sword-bearing slave.
This was better than what most slaves were forced to do, but Kata hoped for more, and if it was not given to him, he realized that he had to create opportunities for himself.
Juechen entered the pagoda and stayed there for three hours.
Kata spent all this time standing with his back slightly bent and with the sun beating down on him.
Fortunately, he had refined his body and he had taken the pill that stopped the adverse effects the sun had on his kind.
Otherwise, his skin would already be red and his body covered in blisters.
Kata waited patiently without saying or doing anything that any of the many immortals passing by him would consider disrespectful.
When Juechen came out, he went to the back of his mansion.
In his backyard, there was a sudden cliff and a waterfall.
The place was covered with tall trees and even a small pond in which exotic fish could be seen moving about.
This backyard was Juechen’s favorite cultivation ground.
He had grown his power in this place ever since he was young.
This was the first time Kata entered this place, and even though he could not feel or see Immortal Qi, he still managed to sense a heaviness like nothing he had ever experienced before.
There was a kind of white mist that moved about freely, making the place even more otherworldly.
Kata stood by the entrance and waited as Juechen cultivated.
The young man sat on a large boulder right at the edge of the cliff, in the middle of the waterfall, and closed his eyes.
All Kata could see was that Juechen was breathing in a strange pattern, with each breath affecting the flow of energy in the cultivation grounds.
Kata observed intensely for a long time, but no matter what he did, he could not gain any of the secrets of the immortals.
This cultivation went on until the sun fell.
By then, Kata, whose mind never rested, had come up with a way to measure his power.
It would require him to take a few risks with the Yue immortal clan, but he believed the benefits to himself would be worth it.
Kata escorted Juechen to his grandfather’s mansion, where the family had the best food Kata had ever seen.
Kata saw that Kara, his mother, was one of the people serving the food.
He even saw the way Juechen looked at her.
Later that night, Kata sat in his room with pen and paper.
He began drawing up plans for a device that could be used to measure a person’s power.
He wanted the sphere to do this after it had been squeezed or the person has channeled energy into it.
To achieve this, he needed a material that was capable of both physical compression and deep energy conduction.
Kata settled on using Fluidic Astral Ore.
During the years he worked with the mundane blacksmith to forge pipes for plumbing, Kata had seen this ore in the workshop.
In this world, it was called star metal.
It was very precious, but the immortals had few uses for it.
This was the reason the blacksmith, who was a slave, was allowed to use this ore to create jewelry for the immortal clan.
Kata could not believe the ignorance of this.
Fluidic Astral Ore, or Star metal as it was called in this world, is a starlight blue semi-translucent mineral that has the ability to permanently fluctuate between solid and liquid states.
It appears like smooth cold glass containing trapped stars drifting through space and yet it ripples like thick mercury when pressure is applied to it.
This ore had perfect elastic memory, allowing it to compress and disperse immense physical force without fracturing.
On top of this, the ore has hyper conductivity with zero resistance to any form of energy.
It could act as an energy stabilizer, shifting its internal colors and light velocity to safely capture, hold, and visually display volatile energetic inputs.
Even though it was already night time, Kata left his pavilion and walked to the metal workshop at the back of the mountain.
He had the key to the place, and so he found it easy to enter and get a chunk of star metal for himself.
Back in his room, Kata began working on his new creation.
Kata began by designing four arrays.
The first array was the deformation matrix.
This array was meant to measure physical prowess.
He made it to use micro-inscriptions that would act like highly sensitive strain gauges.
When the star metal is squeezed, the matrix measures the exact displacement, kinetic impact, and compression force exerted.