“Your name is Neoth.”
Yousti nodded his head as he processed the name.
“That’s quite an unusual name.”
“Indeed it is. Then what is your name?”
“Yousti.”
“That is also an unusual name. Don’t you agree?”
Yousti nodded in agreement.
“So what’s your deal? You’re clearly not a normal baseline human, and you’re wearing golden armor.”
“I am a perpetual. Just like you I wield grand powers with immortality. I heard a great deal of your exploits as the Divine Silk Spirit.”
‘Perpetual?
Immortal?’
“People pray to you, to protect them on their journey upon the silk. A foolish superstition. But I must ask, what do you make of it?”
‘Am I in Warhammer 40k?’
“I’m a martial artist. I have gained the title of a spirit and my reputation precedes me.”
Yousti paused to think.
“I guess… It is what it is.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if you were to correct them in their thinking. So that they would not place their false hopes on your presence and defend themselves upon the silk road with a more rational mind?”
“I don’t know man. Besides, what is that thing?”
Yousti pointed at the rift in the sky.
“You seem like you’re knowledgeable on something like this, since you appeared the moment this thing did.”
Neoth looked towards the rift in the sky that Yousti was pointing at.
“Shouldn’t you be aware of the true nature of the rift. With your power it should be apparent.”
‘Does he think I’m a psyker?’
“I see a lot of things. But I’m best at observing the people around me. Besides I’m only in my 40s. I barely have any idea what you’re talking about. I need context.”
Neoth had an indiscernible expression.
Any grandeur that he emitted that could have awed any ‘mortal’ was completely ignored by Yousti.
He didn’t give a shit about the golden light he emitted or the psychic weight he felt pressing on him just from his presence.
Yousti ignored his five senses of Neoth, and instead only judged him through the view of his intent.
‘The Martial Record says that viewing an area of intent instead of a string can mean that I’m perceiving consciousness instead of directed intent.’
“Beyond that portal lies the damnation known as the warp. The choir of enuncia that you slaughtered hoped to reach within it to gain more power. More knowledge of the language of creation. Within it lay horrors beyond your comprehension, one day you too will know of its horrors.”
He emitted a bright golden light.
So bright in fact that Yousti was completely flash banged by it and couldn’t see for a split second.
As the light faded he quickly noticed that the rift into the warp was shutting itself.
It was disappearing by slowly losing its opacity before it would eventually disappear in totality as if never existing.
“So what’s a perpetual?”
“A perpetual is an immortal. Rarely are they born, but they come with powers wielded beyond the warps corruptive influence and posses the power to come back from death. I became sure that you were a perpetual when I saw you slay the choir in one fell swoop. Though you may be young, you have gained great strength.”
“Uh, I don’t think I’m a perpetual.”
“You are. Whenever humanity gives rise to one wielding special power without corruption, they are always a perpetual, anything else is for ages past or ages to come.”
‘I never knew I would be making the future emperor of mankind suffer from delulu.
I’m not even at the point in my martial arts where I rejuvenate and slow down my aging.
Can he read my mind?
I don’t know, but this might be the opportunity I’ve been waiting for.’
Yousti had felt disappointment at the closing of the rift.
He really wanted to have something to test his martial arts to the limit.
And though one door closed, another opened.
His excitement began building up again.
“As a martial artist I struggle greatly to find a worthy opponent to refine myself with. Ever since obtaining enlightenment I have never faced a truly worthy opponent.”
He put his hand and fist together and performed a martial bow to Neoth.
“Then senior, may I request a spar?”
Yousti had habitually repeated the mannerisms he learned during his time training martial arts in China.
Neoth took out a sword from seemingly nowhere and he felt a psychic agreement from him even though he remained silent.
‘Looks like we’re going to duke it out in silence.
Or that may just be his style.’
Yousti was already prepared to fight because of the rift so he simply took a fighting stance towards Neoth.
First Form: Center Cut
Yousti took the first move charging past Neoth before pivoting and attempting to cut him with a silk wire.
In response Neoth parried the blow and smoothly connected that parry with an elegant step forward while thrusting towards Yousti.
Yousti knocked the sword aside with his arm.
The silk wrapped around it harder than steel creating a loud clang as he did it.
He managed to punch Neoth in his chest right after, causing him to slide a few feet back.
Yousti shook his hand that had just hit Neoth in pain.
‘That chestplate is really freakin hard.’
They continued to exchange blows at blinding speeds.
Neoth’s swordsmanship was incredibly elegant and nimble, amplified even further with the sheer force and weight of his attacks.
Yousti’s Silk Song was however a more profound martial art and allowed him to keep up with their absurd stat difference.
Not only that but Yousti was even anticipating his every move by observing the red paths of intent.
Neoth was astonished by Yousti’s fighting prowess.
Despite his aeldari swordsmanship with a legacy of millions of years.
Combined with millenia of experience gained during his travels among the galaxy using his psyker powers to travel the galaxy.
Yousti genuinely outmatched him with superior technique.
He was even predicting him!
In the future, figures underneath the emperor like Constantin Valdor held enough skill to win against multiple people despite them having precognition.
The Lion demonstrated that he could change his attacks right after they were predicted with sheer instinct.
All of these warriors were inferior to the full might of the Emperor at that time.
Clearly precognition would be useless against Neoth even at a much earlier era, right?
Yet here Yousti was, anticipating Neoth’s attacks, predicting his every move.
He could do it because he wasn’t looking into any future but was directly observing Neoth’s intent, so no matter how much anticipating he did or how he switched up his attacks whenever he felt that he had been predicted.
Yousti would always be able to follow the changes in the paths of intent.
But Yousti was still on the losing side.
He may have been truly qualified to be able to confidently declare ‘Skill Issue’ right at Neoth’s face in a fight.
But the sheer stat difference was too much for him to overcome.
Neoth had even begun slightly using his ability to perceive the future keep up with Yousti’s sheer skill.
But he was actively holding back in terms of strength and speed.
As the fight continued and escalated in intensity Yousti began to feel a sense of urgency.
‘I’m running out of Internal Energy!’
Yousti had realized that this had turned into a fight of attrition.
Neoth was simply letting him tire himself out.
‘This is my opportunity to advance.
I need to enlighten myself now!’
Yousti had grown familiar with how he did just that.
He began to contemplate the questions of martial arts as he was fighting with all his might.
‘Why is my intent blue and everything else red?’
‘Why is the red intent from consciousness not hostile but the intent around the world hostile despite being the same color?’
He continued to strike, swing, pull, and cover the area with strings as he evaded the powerful strikes of Neoth.
Carefully observing the paths of intent coming from him.
‘Now that I think of it isn’t the intent I’m emitting and the intent he’s emitting serving the same purpose?’
Yousti followed his blue intent and successfully wrapped the sword Neoth was wielding in silk and began pulling it away with all his strength.
But the sword emitted a red intent all around it before it burst in flames, burning away the strings latching onto it.
‘My intent is used to attack and his intent is used to attack.
I can just see and follow mine while he can’t.
If all the intent I see is to the intent to attack then what’s the point of differentiating it with color?
Even the external consciousness I see is red.
So is blue just something unique to me?’
Yousti widened his eyes.
“No it isn’t.”
Neoth stopped attacking as Yousti spoke out loud.
He was curious on what Yousti might say.
“Of course it isn’t, it’s just subjective!”
He didn’t exactly know why Yousti was speaking out loud to himself but he decided to continue attacking since he requested this duel in the first place and wasn’t explaining anything.
But just as he was about to continue.
“I understand it now”
Three silver glowing white flowers appeared above Yousti as he emitted a silver aura from his body.
‘The intent I emit and the intent others emit is subjectively the same.
But intent isn’t just subjective.
It’s based upon the world around us, it reactively changes.’
He watched as the red lines of intent from Neoth slowly came back as the flowers behind him faded away.
He remembered how his breakthrough had caused his intent to dissipate because of his unexpected change.
‘The intent of others is like a mirror.
It reacts to me and changes with my martial arts.
I can observe this mirror to meticulously make sure that my techniques are flawless, like a dancer watching themselves in the mirror as they dance.’
‘I can see how I’ve been wasting my Internal Energy compared to before.
But now It’s returning.
Not only that but I feel that I can use the intent of the other and combine it with my own internal energy to create Gang Qi.’
The red and blue intents mixed together revealing a vibrant purple intent.
The third color of intent.
Revealing the truth that red and blue were never separate and could always connect.
Intent is a mirror.
All intent is the same.
Yousti has reached the fifth realm of martial arts.
Three Flowers Gather at the Summit (삼화취정/三花聚頂)