RISE OF THE ALMIGHTY WARLORD GRANDMASTER

Chapter 11

Sylvester heaved a sigh of relief as Emily walked out of the house. He heard the car start up and the engine rev, and somewhere in him was a peace that calmed his soul.

When Emily left the house, there was a smile on her face. It was unlike there had ever been since they had been married, and for the first time in three years, things seemed to be looking up.

‘Optimism?’ his mind sought to tear down his hopes, but he didn’t mind it. A fair dose of skepticism was allowed. Besides…he was sure that Emily couldn’t just go from wanting to divorce him one day, to loving him wholeheartedly the next.

“No,” he said to himself out loud, leaning into the soft cushioning of the couch. “Not optimism. Hope,”

He reminded himself that hope was something different. It was more than being positive in the good ending of their story. It was seeing the light in the darkness. Peace in the fact that if they ended bad, he would not lose his smile.

The energy from seeing his wife smile flowed within him and gave him a new found strength. He had to do this for her. He had to be stronger, so that for every time she ahd frowned…every time she had cried, she would smile double.

He had to be the hero she so desperately deserved, and at least, wipe her sorrows.

He didn’t need her to love him. He just needed her to be happy.

“I won’t be sorry. I won’t be sad. I would be better,” he mumbled to himself as he forced himself off the couch and up to his meditation spot. He needed to solidify his cultivation levels and get even stronger than he already was.

Something big was coming. As a cultivator, he could feel it, and he could feel how heavily unprepared he was for it.

He took a stroll around his house first, flexing his legs and his new found ability to walk. After three years, the motion felt alien to him, mostly when he woke up for the day and when he had sat down for too long.

Standing up straight was a blessing he was sure that way too many people took for granted.

When he was done with his leisure stroll, he settled down on his meditation mat and closed his eyes, letting his breath and the positive energy that accompanied it flow through him..

It felt good…recovering like this.

He was still in his lowest state, but at least, he was more powerful than when he was in that wheelchair.

As the light coursed through his body, he felt a strong sense of peace in the thoughts of he and his wife happy. Her smile was fuel for him, and he imagined her in all sorts of peaceful scenarios, through that smile alone.

It was glorious.

The ringing of the doorbell interrupted his cultivation.

He almost groaned, but he didn’t want to ruin his cultivation process by imbueing his mind with negativity of any sort.

Opening his eyes, the bright light coursing through his body, outlining his veins, receded very slowly and he stood up from his spot in the meditation room, making his way to the front door.

It was a delivery agent.

“Package for Mr. Wright?” the young girl smiled brightly, her blue eyes glowing with the same youthful optimism that Sylvester had when he was her age.

“Yes, that’s me,” he shrugged and offered a smile back, hoping he didn’t creep her out.

“Ah,” she beamed in response and thrust the package into his hands, a small carboard box. It was bland and uninteresting, but that was the default packaging that the company used to maintain anonymity and privacy between their clients and the agents. “From…Verity,” she read out of the manifesto in her hands.

“Oh?” Sylvester mumbled.

“There’s also this,” the young girl produced an envelope from beneath her manifesto. “Same person. Just sign here and here, and I should be on my way,”

Sylvester did as he was told and bid the agent goodbye.

When he got back inside, he opened the envelope, and it was a letter form Verity who encouraged him greatly, and stated how everyone believed he was coming back stronger than ever.

“…we know you might not feel it, Mr. Wright, but we all do. You might not be able to sense it because you’re still turning the ropes, but you’re more powerful than us all combined. More than before the accident. That’s why I’m giving you this gift,”

Verity wrote that in the final paragraph of her letter, and Sly chuckled at it.

He tore the box open and the true packaging of the item lay inside, a small, white box. Its stitching was pristine, like it was done by someone who could stitch origami perfectly with their non-dominant hand.

Opening the box, he was almost blinded by the aura of the pearl inside. This wasn’t just any normal pearl.

“The Heart of Cursedes,” Sly gasped. It was a rare gem that helped triple the effectiveness of cultivation by channeling the positive energy of everyone within a 500km2 radius.

With tears of appreciation streaming down his face, he put the object to his heart, and closed his eyes. Even with his eyes closed, the warm light still filtered through his lids and bathed his vision.

The entire room had blinding light streaming around it, and at this point, Sylvester was in the air, channeling every smile, every feeling of hope…every sexual satisfaction…every pleasure in the good taste of a snack…everything that brought joy to the hearts of everyone around him, he drew strength from.

It didn’t affect them significantly in any way, but for him, he broke through the second phase of the warrior cultivation path.

He was stronger. Not just twice or thrice…

He had the strength of three months’ worth of non-stop meditation.

“Phenomenal,” he hummed to himself in delight, floating back down into the ground.

Just as he did, the door was pushed open and Emily burst into the house, a bigger smile plastered on her face than when she had left in the morning.

“Sylvester, you wouldn’t believe it!” she hopped all the way to him and took his hands in excitement.

“Wow me!” he responded with a smile. She took the papers in her hands and waved it over his face.

“I got the partnership contract!” her eyes could have popped out from their sockets with how widely she was smiling.