Ascension of the elder

Chapter 97: I've still got it

"Don't worry it's just some information from my inside man."

Kyle hadn't been just training in these last few years. Over time he had successfully made contact with and flipped a member of the Miles family to his side. Hey if the conspirators could infiltrate his family why couldn't he return the favour?

This member of the Miles family succeeded in giving him information about some of the enterprises the Miles family were involved in and Kyle and his teams had successfully broken many of them. As time had progressed the information Kyle's inside man had provided became less in quantity but better in quality.

Kyle would read through this letter fully later as even though they made contact through Kyle's 'steel lotus' the letter was still encrypted just in case and Kyle would need a little time to decode it. With that done he put the letter away in his pocket before leading this group to the training area.

When they saw the different training the people were undertaking they were surprised as they had never seen people training in this way before. Some were doing laps others were doing yoga and other calisthenics while others were sparring, the strangest thing however was the fairly large number of people using 'soul shaping' to train their soul force.

"Kyle what are those people doing?" Clyde asked as he was the most bookish of this group and he knew about array projection but he could see they weren't creating arrays.

"That is called 'soul shaping' it's a training to strengthen the soul but you don't need to worry about that for now. So guys what we are here for is to train you in cultivation and combat, this is going to be harsh but you don't have the option to quit so get some space and I'll guide you in cultivation first. Bruno you can do a little physical training I'll call once we are ready for the sparring."

Bruno nodded before happily running over to some weights and he began to do his lifting. The others saw Bruno was lifting a strange bar with arrays on the weighted ends which began to glow when he picked it up.

"Um Lord Kyle how much is Bruno lifting?" This was asked by generic family member A who was watching Bruno strain. Kyle looked over and saw the weight Bruno was lifting and responded.

"He's lifting about 300kgs but he's only doing a light workout before the spar. Okay get in your positions and I'll instruct you in our technique, I'll also be inspecting your spirit realms so if anyone has issue with that let me know now."

Everyone gave Kyle permission to inspect them so Kyle gave them the techniques before analysing their cultivation. Neil had reached the first stage level 8 so just a little ahead of Kyle and at the age of 23 this could be considered as a good level. Clyde had reached level 6 with a little more too level 7 so again not bad for a 19 year old. The generic family members had reached level 5 at 17 years old and level 6 at 25 years old so again not bad just not as good as his cousins. Archie had reached level 8 the same as Neil but he was only 22 so he was a little ahead of the curve.

Kyle saw the usual damage to the channels and nodes but out of all of them Archie had the most damage by a long stretch so it could be seen he had pushed himself too far and if Kyle didn't intervene he would have limited his future growth.

Once they started cultivating using Kyle's ridiculous technique the damage they had incurred began to heal and they could feel the relief from injuries and infirmities they didn't even know they had. Kyle began to cultivate himself while he kept an eye on these guys and after a few cycles he felt the rush of clearing all the nodes he had at level 7 he was ready to breakthrough to level 8 once he had accumulated enough mana, this had to be a record as he was still only 11 years old.

The men were amazed at the speed this new technique was progressing but they did have an advantage over the servant, craftsmen, former thugs, guards and ex slaves that made up Kyle's forces in that as relatively high grade members of the Powell family they had access to better resources than others.

With that in mind they had either cleared or almost cleared some of their nodes so once they had cleared the remainder Kyle would fully open their gates. He was aiming to get as many gates fully open in the short amount of time they had as he could but he knew they wouldn't be able to open all of them.

Even for Kyle it had taken time to clear the level 7 nodes which numbered 512 and he could only thank the god known as Dan Aykroyd that the nodal system would clear the sub-nodes itself. As they were training Kyle was pushing them in their cultivation similar to how he was pushing his forces earlier but as they were operating at a much lower level than them he had a much easier time watching over them.

After an hour Kyle called a halt, they had trained and were now brimming with active mana so it would be good to keep that energy moving with a training and sparring session. They began with sprinting around the yard and were joined by Bruno as he wanted to take part. In order to give them a target Kyle ran a little faster than they were capable of with Bruno running beside him. The new victims were barely keeping up while running out of breath and having sweat running down their faces in a short time, but then the final bullet came and hit them when they heard Bruno ask Kyle.

"Hey bro why are we running so slowly?"

With that the followers who were only hanging on now with pure will collapsed just leaving Archie and Neil in the running while Clyde and the generic family members were left in the dust. Even with their higher cultivation they Archie and Neil could barely hang on and only lasted for another half lap before falling.

"Okay guys take a breather for five minutes then cultivate for fifteen then we're onto the next training."

They could only groan and move to the side and watch Kyle's forces that were still training with even more intensity than when they first arrived. Kyle and Bruno left the bodies and began to do some training on their own with Bruno using a punching bag and Kyle was using a long weighted staff to make vertical strikes and stopping it an inch from the ground to strengthen his wrists.

Once the 20 minutes were up the others returned and seeing what Kyle was doing were intrigued. Neil felt this would be good training for using his heavy sword and was hoping he could train like this. Kyle saw their curiosity so to keep them interested he decided to show off.

"Alright guys do you want to try this training next?"

"Yeah I'll give it a go." Responded Neil as he wanted to get some dignity back.

Kyle casually tossed the weighted staff to Neil before *clang*, Neil caught it but it weighed far too much and he couldn't hold it so it ended up hitting the reinforced floor making a loud clanging noise like a gong being struck.

Neil was now looking at Kyle like he was a monster. At his level Neil could lift nigh on 500kgs but what Kyle was simply swinging around weighed more than this. It showed a great deal of physical strength and control as the staff was balanced at both ends so to be able to consistently stop it an inch from the floor without falling over meant each time Kyle was finding the centre of gravity.

Seeing their amazement Kyle felt a little bit arrogant but quickly squashed that down as he knew if he got arrogant someone may come up behind him with a knife and he wouldn't see it because his nose was too firmly stuck up his own ass.

So with that they restarted their brutal training, this was on a similar level to how Kyle trained the first eleven of 'shadow hand' and during their spars Kyle and Bruno began to tag team them. Throwing them around but gradually they began to get the instructions they were being told.

The most surprising amongst the five was Clyde who while being a little bit scholarly managed to pick up on Kyle's teaching and took to this new style like a duck to water. As they were training Kyle was watching how they moved and attacked trying to pick up on traits and tells so he could give them an appropriate weapon to train and fight with.

Clyde favoured a Dutch sabre while Neil had switched to a pole axe. The generic family members both leaned towards long swords and finally Archie went to a single headed great axe with a hammer end.

Once their weapons were selected Kyle began drilling them in their use, due to having trained with so many people over the last few years Kyle had a good grasp of the pros and cons of all the weapons that he currently possessed. While he may only have a proper training schedule for swords a lot of his experience could be imparted allowing these men to develop their own style.

He hoped that as their styles developed, they would share their experiences and this would allow them to form a proper school of combat for each of the weapons, so now came the fun part weapon sparring.

This lasted for a few hours until all that was left was five bodies while Bruno and Kyle were having a little spar themselves just so they didn't fall into bad habits. After Kyle had won again they began to tidy up and Kyle wanted to check the letter he had received when he heard his girls calling out.

"Hey Kyle it looks like you had a good session."

"Yup all five down, I've still got it."