Chapter 351 Spirit Art
Moon watched the smile on Tom's face disappear.
Moon had been waiting for this moment. This was exactly why he had asked the Association for a physical contract. Not because he was really considering the offer. Nothing they could put on paper would be worth surrendering his freedom. Being tied to an organization, answering to faceless superiors, carrying out orders he had no say in. That wasn't a life Moon wanted to pursue.
But Tom didn't need to know that.
The contract's real purpose was leverage. By walking into this room holding an offer from the Association's Special Squad, Moon was sending a message that didn't need to be spoken aloud.
'You've been generous, Tom. But you're not the only one interested. And if the competition is raising their offer, perhaps you should consider raising yours.'
Moon knew that a man like Tom Glassy didn't get to where he was by letting valuable people walk out the door unsatisfied with his offer.
"I have been invited. Yes." Moon nodded.
Tom folded the contract and placed it on the table between them. His expression was calm. Unreadable.
"And you said?"
"I rejected their offer. I'm signed to the Glassy Group." Moon met his gaze evenly. "But they insisted I take the contract regardless. They told me to think about it and return whenever I decide."
Silence held the room for a moment.
Then Tom's lips curved upward, and the smile returned. "Good choice. Ever since I heard about your evolution, I've actually prepared a gift for you. A really good one."
Moon raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"
An envelope appeared in Tom's hands. It was black, sealed with a gold wax stamp embossed with the Glassy Group's logo. The edges were trimmed in gold leaf, and the clasp holding it shut was a small metal latch.
Everything about it looked luxurious.
"Open it up."
Moon undid the clasp and slid the contents out. Inside was a single letter printed on heavy, cream-colored paper. An official stamp sat in the bottom right corner, deep red ink pressed into the page with an emblem of the Spirit Art Tournament's seal.
"Read it out loud." Tom said, grinning.
Moon looked down at the letter.
"To the bearer of this document. By the authority of the Spirit Art Tournament Organizing Committee, you have been granted a Direct Entry Pass. This pass exempts the holder from all preliminary rounds of evaluation, including power assessment, potential screening, and qualification testing. The bearer is authorized to enter the main tournament bracket directly, effective immediately upon registration."
Moon stared at the letter for a long moment.
In his hands was a direct ticket into the tournament with no qualifying rounds, preliminary tests or waiting in line while judges measured his output and debated whether he was worth letting through.
He was already in.
Moon understood the value of this pass very well. It wasn't about whether he could qualify. He was confident he had the power and credentials to pass any preliminary round they threw at him.
The value was time.
The preliminary evaluations lasted two full days. Two days of waiting in lines, performing controlled tests, sitting through interviews, and watching other Evolvers go through the same process. Two days of doing nothing productive while the tournament organizers decided what he already knew about himself.
'With this pass, I could spend those two days in the Second Sanctuary hunting. I could increase my strength by leaps and bounds during that time.'
Two days of hunting against the beasts and spirits near the pavilion.
He could better spend that time in filling his acupoints, leveling skills, and pushing his body further. In the early stages of cultivation, every hour mattered. The difference between someone who trained for those two days and someone who sat in a waiting room could be measured in acupoints.
Moon knew very well that Tom understood this. The man hadn't given him the pass as a gesture of status or convenience. He had given it because he knew exactly how Moon would use the time it freed up.
That was what made Tom dangerous. He didn't just invest in people. He invested in the right people, at the right time, in the right way.
"Thank you. I won't let this go to waste." Tom leaned back in his chair, his grin still firmly in place. "I know you won't. Also, I've prepared a Fair Rank Spirit Art for you. It will be more than enough for the time being. You can use it until the tournament ends."
'Does he think I will win the tournament? Or is he just using it as a time frame?'
Moon couldn't tell. Tom's words were always for a reason, but their meaning often had more than one layer. He filed the thought away and moved on to what mattered.
"Will using a lower rank Spirit Art affect my potential in the long run?"
Tom shook his head. "It won't. A Spirit Art simply helps you locate the acupoints within your body. Theoretically, you don't even need one if you can somehow pinpoint their positions down to the millimeter on your own." He held up a finger. "A Fair Rank Spirit Art will reveal twenty-five acupoints. That's more than enough to build a decent foundation. Once you move on to an Excellent Rank or higher, the additional acupoints that the Fair Rank couldn't detect will become visible."
"So the Spirit Art doesn't limit growth. It just determines how many acupoints you can find at any given time."
"Exactly."
Moon nodded his head.
Although he had received the leaflets, Moon decided to ask Tom directly. The man was sitting right in front of him, and asking an Ascender would almost certainly provide information that printed handouts left out.
"What about Spirit Art Manuals?"
"Spirit Art Manuals are what we as humans created from our experience to compensate for our weakness." He began explaining. "They are designed by veteran Surpassers and Ascenders to help Evolvers use their acupoints more effectively to exert more power." ***
(Mass Release Chapters 3/10)
NEW GT GOAL!