The demon watched the scene unfolding from a distance. His face was now a canvas of different colours. Shock, astonishment, disbelief, tension, happiness. His heart was now riding a roller coaster of every kind of emotion. ’Ninth Layer!.’ He mused in his heart as he saw the beam of light descending from above. He could feel its power. He had seen many geniuses, many powerful figures. So he had a very good idea about the astral energy. He had even witnessed the Demon King’s Astral Avatar. That was from the eighth layer. But even that paled in comparison at the moment. That could mean only one thing. Leon had successfully made a link with the ninth layer. He could now cultivate with the astral energy from the ninth layer to condense and grow his Astral Avatar.
Under the demon’s watchful gaze, Leon continued to absorb the astral energy. The embryo behind him continued to evolve. The limbs and the head matured. A pair of eyes appeared in its head. Then a nose. The mouth. Ears extended out.
Fingers grew from the limbs as nails appeared. The puffy-looking body shrank and shrank until a well-built chest exposed itself. Muscles developed, giving the building figure a dominant look. A layer of energy wrapped around the figure like clothes.
The more Leon absorbed the astral energy, the more the avatar continued to evolve. Finally, after two more hours, a notification popped up in the panel.
[Congratulations, Host. You have successfully condensed an Astral Avatar.]
[Choose a name for the avatar.]
Leon opened his eyes at the mechanical chime in his head and looked back. He was shocked to see what stood behind him. A hulking figure standing at around five metres. The aura it radiated was that of someone only at the first level of the body refinement stage. Yet looking at it, none would be able to help but gulp in astonishment. The avatar’s face resembled Leon’s. It was as if the avatar was a projection of his body. But Leon knew it. It was a separate entity itself. Leon stood up and turned to look at it properly, but strangely the avatar turned around as well.
"What the!" Leon took a step to go around it and take a look. But the avatar walked forward as well. The same way he did. Exact same way. "Wait. Is this how I am supposed to control it? But can’t I even take a look at it properly?" Leon exclaimed, his voice tinged with a little bit of helplessness.
"You can, master." The demon’s voice echoed as he walked toward Leon. "There are five types of commands for an avatar, master. The first one is ’Mirror’. This command is an auto command. Unless you give the avatar a different command, it will follow your every move and mirror that." The demon explained.
"Oh! Five commands, huh! What are the other four commands?" Leon asked.
"The second one is ’Inverse’. On this command, the avatar will follow your exact move like the first command, but it will do the exact opposite."
Hearing that, Leon looked at the avatar as it mirrored the movement and stared at the sky or a ceiling at the moment.
"Inverse," Leon commanded. Then he looked right. The avatar did the exact opposite, turning its head toward the left. Then Leon circled to the right while the avatar did the same to the left. "Interesting. If we fight in a battle together, it will be easy to confuse enemies, but it’s not like I will be the only one to have it. I will surely meet others in the future who will also possess Astral Avatar."
"Yes, master. There definitely will be others. But in this tenth heaven, there are none."
"Tenth? I think it’s called detached heaven now."
"Yes." The demon replied. ’But not for long.’ The demon mused inwardly.
"Okay. What’s the third command?"
"The third command is ’Mind’. With this, you will be able to control the avatar with your mind. But it will greatly exhaust your Qi, master. And the stronger the avatar will be in the future, the greater the Qi it will require."
Leon nodded. Then...
"Mind." The moment he said that, he felt a connection clicking into existence in his mind. He imagined the avatar to turn around and face himself. The avatar followed. Finally, Leon could see properly how the avatar looked.
For a brief moment, Leon simply stood there in silence, unable to believe he had created such a being.
He controlled it with his mind for it to jump and make some sword-swinging moves. The avatar performed them swiftly. Just the way he had imagined. But as the demon had said. It was greatly depleting his Qi.
[You have consumed Qi.
Qi consumed: 5000]
[You have consumed Qi.
Qi consumed: 6730]
With such simple moves, it was already consuming this much Qi. He could only imagine what would happen when the avatar would be in a higher cultivation realm and he would use it to fight with his mind.
After trying out a few more simple moves, Leon stopped. "This one was fun and a useful command. What’s the fourth command?" Leon asked.
"The fourth command is ’Independent’." The demon started again. "The avatar has a soul of its own. And as a result, it can think and make decisions like an individual. With the command ’Independent’, you will be allowing the avatar to act on its own, master.
Leon raised an eyebrow at that. "This avatar." He looked at the hulking figure standing before him. "It has a soul of its own! What kind of sword form did I actually unlock? Is this really just a sword move?" He whispered. After staring at the Astral Avatar of his for a few minutes, Leon straightened his back. "Let’s see what it does when it’s on its own.
Independent."
Whoooooosh!
The moment Leon said the word ’Independent’, a gust of energy exploded from the avatar in a wave, kicking up dust. A sword materialized in its hand. Leon was shocked beyond words to see the sword. Because the massive sword was actually the Demon Sword’s bigger version.
The avatar then raised the sword and pointed its tip toward Leon.
Leon froze. "You! You wanna fight??"