After Cade fully learned the Void's Whisper technique, he learned the levels of mastery from Eldrin. They were, in order: Initial, Lesser, Greater, Complete, Perfect, and Manifestation.
Cade spent the next few months training, but he still was not able to learn the Void Stride technique. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't grasp its intricacies, forcing him to focus on his cultivation instead. He devoted himself to raising his comprehension of sword intent, managing to bring it to the fifth stage.
During this time, something else began to change—slowly, Eldrin started to withdraw more and more, leaving Cade to train on his own.
One day, Eldrin approached Cade in the middle of his cultivation. He looked somewhat ragged, but there was a light in his eyes. "Cade, you need some real-world experience, so it's time for you to leave," he announced.
Cade opened his eyes and looked at Eldrin before replying in a teasing tone, "What, sick of me already, Master?"
"Damned brat, you know it's not like that," Eldrin replied exasperatedly. "But you've reached a bottleneck, haven't you?"
Cade thought about it and realized his master was right. His cultivation and comprehension had been progressing slowly for a while now. (Cade is now at the ninth stage of the Spirit Warrior realm.)
"Plus, I can feel my own bottleneck loosening after a century, so I'm going into seclusion until I break through to the next realm," Eldrin added.
'So that explains the light in his eyes,' Cade thought, still somewhat shocked at how casually Eldrin spoke about an entire century.
"How long do you think it'll take?" Cade asked.
"No clue, but it'll probably take a few years at the very least. Which is why I suggest going on a journey to better yourself—maybe even find a lover or two." Eldrin's tone was playful.
"Okay, I'm convinced," Cade said, deliberately ignoring the part about finding a lover.
"Great. You can leave tomorrow after I finish gathering a few going-away gifts."
And just like that, the conversation ended.
The next day, Cade stood in the middle of the palace garden as Eldrin waved his hand, making a massive ship appear out of thin air.
The ship hovered a few feet above the ground, its sleek black hull adorned with intricate silver engravings that pulsed faintly with energy. Its sails, made of a strange, shimmering, almost transparent fabric, billowed despite the lack of wind.
Cade stared in awe.
"This is a Spatial Ship," Eldrin explained with a proud grin. "It can travel through the skies and the dimensional gap between worlds. It's how most lower-level cultivators travel."
Cade ran a hand along the smooth wood, feeling the faint hum of spiritual energy coursing through it. "You're giving me a flying ship?" he asked, half in disbelief.
"Of course," Eldrin chuckled. "You'll need a way to get around, won't you?"
With another wave of his hand, Eldrin made several items appear in front of Cade—a small interspatial ring, a dark purple badge with a faint aura surrounding it, a thick black cloak, and a thin book bound in silver thread.
"The ring has a decent-sized storage space—around 5,000 cubic meters. Enough to store the ship and then some. The badge is a safety measure; it'll let other cultivators know that you're my disciple, so none of those old fools will try anything. Though, you'll still need to deal with the young ones. It also has the added bonus of warning me if something happens, so I can appear to help you."
Eldrin then handed Cade the book with a smirk. "This contains some of my personal insights into the Sword Dao. You probably won't understand most of it now, but keep it close. It'll make sense when you're ready."
Cade carefully took the book, feeling the weight of not just the object but of everything his master had given him. He bowed deeply. "Thank you, Master. But you forgot about the cloak—what's that about?"
Eldrin smiled mischievously. "Ah yes, the cloak—the most important thing. Its main purpose is… looking cool."
Cade stared at his master, speechless.
Shaking his head, he asked an important question. "How will I come back to this world?"
"This is my personal world, so most can't enter. But I marked your ship so anyone can enter as long as they're riding it. All you have to do is think about coming back," Eldrin answered.
Taking one last look at Eldrin, Cade put on the ring before gathering all the items into it and jumping onto the ship. No goodbyes were said—because they both knew they would meet again.
As Cade stepped onto the Spatial Ship, a subtle hum of energy pulsed beneath his feet. The moment he crossed the threshold, the ship seemed to respond, glowing runes along the walls flaring briefly before fading back into silence.
The interior was surprisingly spacious—far larger than what the ship's outer appearance suggested, a testament to the spatial manipulation woven into its design. The main hall had a sleek, elegant feel, with polished dark wood floors that gleamed under the soft glow of floating crystal lanterns. The walls were reinforced with a strange, obsidian-like metal, etched with intricate silver runes that pulsed faintly with spiritual energy, maintaining the ship's protective formations.
At the center of the main hall, a floating console hovered—a translucent, rotating sphere of swirling black and purple light. Cade instinctively reached out, and the sphere flickered, displaying a vast map of the world with marked routes through the skies and into the dimensional void. He realized this was the ship's control hub, allowing him to steer the vessel with mere thought.
Thinking for a bit, Cade decided on a name. Slowly, The Dauntless started rising off the ground before shooting forward at a fast speed, tearing a hole through the dimension that closed after it. Eldrin watched the hole close before leaving to start his own cultivation.
Two days later
"I'm so bored!!" Cade yelled out while lying down on the deck as The Dauntless continued on its course. At first, he cultivated, but since that was all he had done for the past few months, he was bored and craving some human contact.
Suddenly, Cade felt the ship notifying him that they were approaching a world. Jumping up, he ran towards the command deck before taking a seat. Once the ship broke through the dimensional barrier, its system notified him with information about the world.
The world was similar to his own but set in the 1900s, and it also had one major difference—supernatural beings existed in the country of Japan, known as demons.
After looking at the information, Cade recognized the world as the world of Demon Slayer, but apparently, the people and demons here were much stronger than their canonical counterparts. Getting excited about meeting some of his favorite characters, Cade turned on the ship's cloaking features and started heading to Japan.
As he got closer, he looked for a quiet place to land. He found a clearing in the middle of a forest. Setting down, Cade jumped out and pulled the ship into his spatial ring before looking around excitedly. This was his first time in Japan, so he still needed to decide what to do.
Suddenly, he sensed a murderous intent nearby.
Curious, he went to check it out. When he arrived, he saw a beautiful, long-haired woman wearing a standard black Demon Slayer uniform with a dark-purple tint, tattsuke hakama pants, and a white butterfly-patterned haori that faded to pale turquoise and pink towards the cuffs and hem.
She was surrounded by ten monstrous humanoids, radiating a terrifying bloody odor.
As one of the demons stepped closer to the woman, Cade prepared to step in and help the damsel—before he heard the words:
"Flower Breathing, Fifth Form: Peonies of Futility."
The woman whispered, and thanks to his enhanced senses, Cade heard her clearly before she unleashed a flurry of nine consecutive sword attacks that flowed and weaved like the petals of a flower—simultaneously cutting off the heads of nine demons.
Leaving both Cade and the last demon stunned.
4o