“Yea, yea. Keep your cheesy one liners to yourself kid. Do I look like an impressionable teenage girl to you? In the end, if you can’t figure out how that technique works, all of this is for naught anyway.”
Dyon’s mind thought back to the Elvin Tome and the first technique it had inscribed in it. The technique itself was named [Inner World: Sanctuary], but the name itself didn’t sound anything like an energy cultivation technique…
‘Grand Teacher… Do you wanna?’
“No. I don’t ‘wanna’. Learn by yourself.”
‘Can’t you give me a few clues? Why do you say that this is the best energy cultivation technique in existence?’
The old man sighed. “You know so little… This technique isn’t the best because it’s the fastest or the most efficient. It’s the best because it’s the most practical and the most flexible.”
Dyon say in confusion for a while. ‘Why?’
“You’ve already learned about the importance of wills, and especially religious wills, no?”
‘Ri told me that the second reason for conquering universes, other than to escape heat death, is to strengthen your wills.’
“Partially right. Many of the Gods you’ve come to know are simply powerful martial experts who’ve spread their wills far and wide. So, what do you think happens when you step into a universe like that?..”
‘You mean a universe that holds a dense amount of wills from another expert?’
“Yes.”
A sudden realization hit Dyon. If you entered the dominion of another expert – a place where they held the most will – wouldn’t that be a death wish?…
“Entering the universe of an expert on that level is near impossible. This is why the universes are in an odd balance right now. There hasn’t been a true universe invasion in a long time and this is also the true reason many campaign victories end with negotiations.
The defending universe doesn’t want to have to deal with a full-scale attack while defending their other gates. And the attacking universe would be at a disadvantage in a universe where their wills aren’t dominant.
Of course, this is less prevalent in weaker universes like yours. But, attacking the Uidan universe is nothing but a child’s dream for you right now.”
‘You mean their odd energy… right?’
“Mm. That’s no normal energy. It’s a supreme law. And, it happens to be one of my five abilities.”
‘Ethereal Permeation?’
“Exactly right. But, I’d say that many of their family can only use that supreme law because of a cheat available to their universe.”
‘A cheat?’
“Their Buddah’s Eye is an interesting technique. If the aurora had a bastard child, who then went on to give birth to hundreds of generations of children, Buddah’s Eye would probably be nearing a thousand generations removed.”
‘That’s… harsh?’
“Not really. You’re just an idiot who hasn’t been using your aurora to learn wills properly. Or, more accurately, you haven’t been in the right situations to do so. Actually. Both of those things are true. You’re so lacking.” The old man sighed.
‘So you mean their Buddah’s Eye has can learn a supreme law? That doesn’t sound like an impure ability to me…’
“Your scope is too narrow. A will is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Nothing. It can’t even compare to an intent, let alone a dao and beyond. And the truth is that their Buddah’s Eye is only potent enough to learn that supreme law up to the will level. In fact, many won’t even surpass the 3rd level watershed, let along the 6th or 9th.”
‘But then…’
“Again. Your scope is too narrow. Even if its limited to the level of a will, it’s still a supreme law! Of course it’s still useful.”
‘Alright. Fair enough.’ Dyon chuckled. Despite the old man’s odd teaching methods, he still appreciated having someone tell him things directly for once. ‘So you’re saying Ethereal permeation is much more useful in their universe, which would put us at even more of a disadvantage.’
“And that’s especially true because no one in your universe knows that will.”
‘But then, if I learn Ethereal Permeation, that solves everything. Right?’
“Theoretically. But, do you think it’s possible to learn a new high-level will tailored to every universe you want to attack? No one can do that. There are too many universes in the world. That’s why you use Gama energy to temper your meridians instead of learning every will yourself.
And that’s not even to mention the fact that there are some wills, like religious wills, you quite literally can’t learn unless you share a particular bloodline.”
‘Then…’
“I don’t feel like telling you anything. I’ve never seen such a waste of talent. Imagine having the full scope of my aurora and using it like you do. That’s like using a priceless artifact like a paper weight.”
‘Aw, Grand teacher, don’t be like that. I’m new! Remember?’
“I don’t care. You haven’t even thought about it before. You keep learning wills by staring off into space and thinking about them.
Imagine if artists were like you. Instead of observing the real world, they close their eyes and imagine what the world looks like before drawing it? Doesn’t that sound ridiculous to you? You can’t start from the abstract to create the real. You need to start from the real before you can branch out into the abstract.
The only time you used something tangible to learn a will was in the demon sage’s inner world. Well, that and the death core plus your master’s celestial will. Think about those moments, wasn’t it much easier? Instead of meditating like an idiot.”
‘Ah…’
Thoughts ran through Dyon’s mind with each word the old man spoke. He couldn’t have been more right!
Although Dyon’s celestial and demon will had been lacking before he used his master’s blood essence as a catalyst, that was only because they were much higher-level wills… On the surface, it seemed like he was learning sword and wind will much more efficiently, but that was only because of his affinity and the fact those were lower level wills!
If he had used a proper will learning method, it was likely he would have learned wind and sword will even faster than he had. He was effectively handicapping himself… It was clear he still had much to learn.
‘Tell me more grand teacher!’
“Hmph. At least you’re listening. Truthfully speaking, it’s not all of your fault. Most people have to meditate much like you did. In fact, it’s a testament to your intelligence that you even came this far by just relying on meditation. However, when you have an aurora, you don’t have to take the slow route.”
‘That’s right grand teacher… Before senior disciple created array alchemy, what was the original purpose of the aurora?’
“You disappoint me. You only just thought of this? I’m losing all hope in you.”
Dyon laughed at himself. It was true, he should have thought of that much earlier.
If array alchemy was created after the aurora, then it wouldn’t make sense for the aurora to have had no purpose before array alchemy. Therefore, the old man must have created it for a purpose.
“At its core, the aurora is meant to increase your connection with the world around you. In enhances the way you think, the way you see, the way you feel.
The reason people think the soul is so important to learning wills, is because it is. It may not be the only important thing, but it is important. So, I took advantage of that.
I created the aurora to enhance the soul’s already strong connection to the abstract. It was doubly important to do this because the aurora also needed a power source.
The best method anyone could have in learning wills is their aurora.”
‘But then, how did Buddah’s Eye come into being?’
“I never claimed to be the first to try and create such a technique, and I won’t be the last. However, Buddah’s Eye is specifically tailored to learning Ethereal Permeation. It’s not very useful for learning anything else.
That’s why it has the secondary ability of predicting and seeing through attacks. Although, it doesn’t do that as well as the Mathilde family technique either.”
‘Interesting… So the main purpose of the aurora is communicating with the laws of the universe. No wonder why it translated so well to being used in array alchemy…’
“Glad you understand. Now go figure out that technique. I’ll be back once you’re at the peak of the 9th formation stage. No earlier. Begone!”
‘Grand Teacher Wait!’
In typical fashion, the old man sent Dyon away without listening.
A blinding light disrupted Dyon’s senses before his eyes slowly adjusted to his new surrounding.
‘Tch…’
The room itself was quite large with massive pillars wrapping around the outside. In fact, it looked like a bit of a classroom with multiple cultivation platforms hanging around at various heights. But, maybe the most interesting thing was that in a clearing in the middle, there was an orb of floating light..
‘The key?!’
Dyon wanted to rush forward, but, something was telling him that it wouldn’t be possible even if he did. The old man wanted competition… He would have to fight Alidor for the right to take the key. But, first, he had to cultivate.
‘How do I learn a technique I know nothing about… I can’t even read it…’
Dyon walked around until he found a platform he liked before taking out a ridiculous amount of spiritual food.
While he ate, Dyon continued to observe the room and think.
Although he had never energy cultivated before, what he did know was that this room had the densest essence energy he had ever felt before…
Essence energy was important for the three first stages of energy cultivation.
It primed one’s body in the foundation stage. Connected meridians in the meridian formation stage. And then filled those meridians in the essence gathering stage.
The truth was that relying solely on wills for the meridian formation stage was the best option. Using essence energy to temper the connections between meridians was a bit of a cheat. In fact, using essence energy as a replacement is often what led to clogged meridians and an inability to proceed to higher levels.
However, it seemed clogged meridians wouldn’t be a problem in this room. The essence energy that warped around in the air had been filtered to such an extent that Dyon’s aurora would only pick up the faintest traces of impurities. This energy was definitely pure enough to allow the opening of 99 meridians by relying on it alone.
That being said, what Dyon needed to focus on now wasn’t meridian formation. In fact, if his grand teacher wasn’t lying to him, he could skip having to worry about meridian formation entirely. What he needed to do now was focus all of his energy on the foundation stage.
The problem was that Dyon was still worried about Ri.
Madeleine should be fine now because she had not only gotten reinforcements, the trials of a legacy relied on one’s self. He had been slowly learning that he should trust his fiancées in situations like that.
But, Ri’s situation was different. She was at a severe numbers disadvantage, their scouts weren’t reliable, and it was likely the basilisks would soon call in stronger reinforcements. And yet, Dyon was very clear on the fact he would need a few weeks if not months to do what he needed to do.
His first step had to be solidifying his array alchemy foundation. Then there was meditating on the technique. And then there was the actual time it would take to cultivate – not even mentioning the time it would take to integrate the new set of meridians to himself. Even Dyon’s quickest estimations required half a month to three weeks.
‘Hang in there Ri. I know I’ve given you a lot to shoulder… But just hang on. Your useless husband is coming.’
Dyon immediately delved into increasing his foundation in array alchemy.
The problem with his foundation stemmed from how he started off. Much of his base knowledge in array alchemy didn’t from his master, but rather, Focus Academy. So, one can imagine how damaging that might be.
This was made worse by the fact he had immediately tried to find shortcuts even in those lacking methods.
Dyon couldn’t be blamed for this, in reality. He had done this out of necessity. Had he not sped up his learning process, his life would have been in danger.
For one, he would have died in his very first encounter with Akihiko, the man who had tried to marry his Madeleine. Without his array alchemy, Akihiko’s arrow would have without a doubt flown right through him, ending his life. And that was only one occurrence of his array alchemy saving his life. He even had examples of him using it to trick the higher experts of the big sects so that he could escape to the Elvin World.
However, because of this learning process, Dyon had skipped over many things.
For example, array calculations. He had completely ignored this theory because his simplifications were like cutting straight to the answer while array calculations were the equivalent of showing your work. But, that didn’t mean they weren’t highly important, especially when it came to higher level arrays.
With complex shifting array like the Elvin tome’s technique, calculations became all the more necessary. This was because the array was constantly shifting in relation to itself, resulting in completely new configurations with each passing second. If one didn’t ‘show your work’, so to speak, it was impossible to reach the resultant answer. Thus, this was Dyon’s first barrier to leap over.
In addition to array calculations, there were many branching topics that related to it. These included things like array placement. This was a set of theories that optimized arrays in many ways that included the time of day they were used, the time from creation it was used, even to the areas of weapons and the body such arrays worked most effectively with.
The foundational studies of arrays even touched topics like the depth to which arrays should be drawn into array plates, how to properly prime those plates to be drawn on, and even array maintenance.
In the end, it took Dyon a bit more than a week to fully ingrain all of these things into his memories and put them into practice. It was lucky for him that much of these things were within his master’s memories, or else it was have taken much longer. But, he was still frustrated with how slow he was being.
‘Let’s hope this helps…’ Dyon’s hand flashed as the Elvin Tome appeared in his hand.
Over the past week, Dyon had spent a lot of time thinking about what his grand teacher could have meant. He had settled on one most likely possibility…
‘If this technique is meant to overcome the disadvantage of attacking universes that aren’t yours, it’s likely that it’s a way to tap into your own being to sustain your own wills without relying on the world around you.’
This idea hadn’t come out of thin air for Dyon. In fact, it was highly linked to the fact that the technique itself was drawn as an array.
Because Dyon had recently learned the origins and true purpose of array alchemy, something had clicked for him. If the peak of array alchemy was meant to reconstruct the universe in its purest form.. Then what if that was what this technique was meant to do?
Inner World: Sanctuary? Creating your own internally driven world that sustained your power… A way for your wills to not have to rely on anything else but your own self.
As Dyon began to tease apart the intricacies of the complex array, something else was becoming clear: this so-called energy cultivation technique was also linked with his soul as the old man had said.
His energy was what filled the world, but his soul formed its containers and shape.
In the end, the technique still used his meridians as a focal point. In fact, it could be used as a regular energy cultivation technique if one so wished. But, that would of course be a waste.
So, Dyon immediately decided on the world building option. However, without meridians to use as a focal point, he had to first begin by slowly and diligently refining his body with essence energy.
The foundation stage was quite straight forward.
The first stage was an overall strengthening of the body. Here, Dyon had to flood his body with essence energy, slowly allowing it to become accustomed to the energy.
Often, techniques would be separated in quality at this level. More broad and overarching techniques would simply try and fill the body with essence energy before draining and repeating.
However, Dyon’s technique focused on each cell, slowly priming them for later and more focused tempering.
The second stage focused on the flesh, removing all outward appearance of impurities and blemishes.
This stage was often responsible for the difference in attractiveness between the martial and mortal realm.
As Dyon’s impurities were removed slowly, but surely, he was in fact becoming more handsome. Without being weighed down by bad genes and the like, Dyon became the perfect version of himself.
This led perfectly into the next stage, the bone tempering stage.
By focusing on purifying and restructuring the bones with essence energy, you could effectively boost not only their strength, but also their flexibility.
This stage allowed one to better handle taxing techniques that were heavily demanding on bodily strength.
Following this stage, was the fourth – the marrow tempering stage. This was a stage that allowed for purer blood, but also a nice priming for future body cultivation as well. Although blood essence was a short cut, self body cultivation started with bone marrow which was the source of the body’s blood.
The next stage, the internal organ tempering stage, is what was responsible for the health and longevity of martial artists. In fact, this stage was so important that it took two stages to complete to perfection. Thus meaning this stage was both the 5th and 6th foundation levels.
And yet, the next stage was probably the most important. So important that it took not two, but three stages to complete…