Spiritbending

His Spirit Projection had left his body.

This was no exaggeration, but a plain statement of fact. Just as the words literally meant, his Spirit Projection had left his body. His soul and flesh had separated into two distinct parts!

Looking at his somewhat transparent soul, then at his motionless body before him, Kahn was utterly dumbfounded.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?

What was this supposed to mean? Had I meditated so hard I sent myself into the afterlife?

This was fucking ridiculous.

Kahn had no time to savor the wonder of moving freely as a soul. He frantically searched his memories for anything that might help, growing somewhat anxious.

After all, in most of the stories he had heard over his two lifetimes combined, a soul being involuntarily separated from its body was no good thing.

What was more, he had read in books that gods apparently existed in this world. What if he happened to run into this world's Black and White Impermanence, and they hooked his little life away?

He certainly had no ability to turn the underworld upside down!

The results of his thinking, however, were not encouraging. He found no way to resolve this situation.

Fortunately, though, he did find some relevant memories:

He had experienced Spirit Projection because of meditation, and he remembered that Iroh had said something baffling about meditation a while ago. Perhaps Iroh would know something.

When in doubt, go to Iroh. This was an absolute truth he had realized after living in this world for several years.

Iroh, the eternal GOAT!

As it happened, Iroh had not gone out at this hour and was taking a nap in his room.

Kahn therefore rushed straight to Iroh's room. At the door, he was just about to push his way inside when his hands passed straight through it, making him stumble and nearly fall.

Normally, he probably would have explored this out of curiosity, but right now he had no mind for that at all.

Although he did not know whether anyone could still hear his voice while he was a soul, he shouted as loudly as he could, trying to wake Iroh.

"Uncle Iroh! Uncle Iroh!"

"Can you hear me?!"

"Moshi moshi?!!"

Under Kahn's frantic shouting, Iroh could not help frowning. He groggily propped himself up in bed and, before even opening his eyes, began to lecture Kahn:

"Disturbing an old man's sleep isn't very good behavior, you know. Why are you in Spirit Projection?"

Seeing the state Kahn was in, Iroh laughed.

Kahn paid no attention to Iroh's laughter. His reaction alone had already put him somewhat at ease:

"You can see me directly?"

"Of course."

By now, Iroh had finally woken up completely. After a little thought, he deduced what had happened and said with a calm smile:

"You overdid your meditation, didn't you?"

Iroh's calm expression and words finally reassured him. Since Iroh knew what was happening, it probably was not a major problem.

But the way Iroh put it...

"Does meditating too much cause Spirit Projection?"

The corner of Kahn's eye twitched. Wasn't that a little too ridiculous?

"Hahaha, ordinary meditation certainly won't do that, but Spiritbending is a different matter."

Iroh said with a smile.

Back when he first surmised that Kahn's soul might be stronger than an ordinary person's, he had a feeling something like this might happen in the future. Today, it had indeed come true.

And his earlier conjecture had indeed been correct. Although Kahn's soul was also translucent, it was considerably more solid than even his own.

"Calm your mind and return to a meditative state. Imagine yourself floating in the air, then slowly settling onto the ground below, feeling the earth again..."

Kahn followed his guidance. A short while later, when he opened his eyes again, he had indeed successfully returned to his body.

Iroh, the eternal GOAT!

Kahn relaxed, but he had not forgotten everything he had just seen and heard. His curiosity immediately rose, and he asked Iroh:

"What exactly happened just now? And what is this Spiritbending you mentioned?"

Iroh gently stroked his long beard and said:

"How should I put it? It's a bit of a long story..."

"Then tell the long version!"

Kahn took the hint, prepared fruit and tea at lightning speed, and obediently sat down.

He loved listening to Iroh tell ancient legends, especially when those legends might well be actual history.

"According to legend, long, long ago, before the world had an Avatar, before the four kinds of bending-air, water, earth, and fire-or their benders existed, Spiritbending was the only form of bending humanity possessed..."

"Spiritbending means the art of commanding spirit. And 'spirit' encompasses the mind, the soul, and even gods... All things possess 'spirit'..."

To speak of Spiritbending, one had to speak of "spirits," as well as the strongest among them-

Gods.

All things possessed spirit. Not only living beings such as humans and animals, but even every blade of grass, every tree, every mountain, and every body of water possessed "spirit."

Gods, however, were different from the rest. They were born as "spirits," without any material vessel, and did not age. They were the oldest and most powerful group in this world.

According to legend, in ancient times, before the Avatar and the Four Bending Arts existed, gods ruled the world, while humans could barely scrape out a living under the protection of certain benevolent gods.

Spiritbending was humanity's only means of communicating with the gods at the time.

Later, the gods bestowed the Four Bending Arts upon humanity and withdrew from the stage of history. Led by the Avatar, humans relied on the Four Bending Arts to become the rulers of the world, while Spiritbending gradually declined because of its exceedingly low awakening rate and the gods' concealment.

"Spiritbending, the oldest bending art, the primal bending art..."

As the story ended, Kahn's thoughts also emerged from that unenlightened ancient age when gods were everywhere and humanity was weak. He now had a different feeling toward Spiritbending.

At the same time, he asked with some anticipation:

"So what happened just now means I've awakened Spiritbending?"

"Haha, not only have you awakened Spiritbending, you successfully used the technique of Spirit Projection the moment you awakened it!"

Iroh's teasing made Kahn's smile stiffen. That had hardly been a pleasant experience.

Still, judging by the series of events just now, Iroh had clearly awakened Spiritbending too, because ordinary people and benders could not see souls. That was an ability exclusive to Spiritbenders.

Although his experience of Spirit Projection had not been particularly wonderful, thinking back carefully, there had still been quite a few marvels worth talking about. Besides, he had already awakened the ability; not using it would be a waste. And so-

"Uncle Iroh, that Spiritbending seems pretty interesting..."

Seeing Kahn's expression, Iroh rubbed his head in amusement and said with a chuckle:

"If you want to learn, of course I can teach you."

"That's great!"

At this, Kahn hugged his powerful backer's leg and once again shouted that classic line:

Iroh, the eternal GOAT!