Before unlocking his potential to energy cultivate, Dyon had relied on spiritual fruit to body cultivate. The reason why was simple. Spiritual fruit were naturally occurring, pure forms of energy that were already processed. In comparison, energy stones were rawer. They required talent to both purify and guide, whereas spiritual fruit needed no such thing.
This was a large part of why higher ranking clans and universes had an easier time raising fine warriors. With enough money, cultivation could essentially be supplemented by using these spiritual fruits as opposed to the conventional and much more difficult to use, energy stones. That said, as Dyon’s bill at Heaven’s Wine would attest, this method was very expensive and very few could afford to do so.
As such, to many spiritual fruits, whether that be due to a lack of talent or lack of resources, were the best option. However, they were only the best option given those conditions. If one had sufficient talent and money, spiritual fruits were best used as supplements to cultivation while energy stones would be the main course.
Although this may seem counter-intuitive, the reasoning is sound. Spiritual fruits came into being by utilizing the very energy veins that energy stones themselves were mined from. As such, they were processed versions of energy, and although that made them easier to digest, it also made them less potent and efficient.
In fact, this was seen on an even larger scale with intent fruits. These fruits were the very reason Focus Academy students were very willing to risk their lives in the Elvin forest, but, as Dyon’s master would attest to: they hindered future will development despite helping in the short term. Although this wasn’t the case with other fruits, the truth was that there was always a point where the short-cut provided by spiritual fruits could no longer match up to that provided by the very reason for their existence in the first place.
So, when Dyon thought of how much his demon sage essence blood had stalled, and how even saint fruits were no longer of help to his improvement, he came up with this solution. If saint fruits were of no help, what about saint energy?
Dyon had a goal. He knew his body would be on the verge of collapsing if he pushed the essence blood integration too far, but, his pain tolerance had reached new heights. All he had to do was continue enough for his soul to comfortably break to the next stage.
Knowing that a 6th grade peak essence gather expert could withstand saint energy gave Dyon a bench mark. However, it was likely that this bench mark wouldn’t be enough. Why? Because the amount of saint energy a 6th grade expert would need to reach the saint stage was far less than the amount of saint energy Dyon’s soul was threatening to absorb.
However, what Dyon did have working in his favor was that his energy cultivation was much more robust than a 6th grade expert considering he was a peak 1st grade expert. Even now, it was likely that Dyon could fight with and defeat a mere 6th grade expert, even if they were well into their essence gathering cultivation. This meant that the fact Dyon’s body still couldn’t withstand saint energy meant he was absorbing an amount that far surpassed the wildest dreams of a 6th grade expert.
This was when Dyon got the faint inkling that maybe it wasn’t just energy cultivation that had graded experts. Maybe the soul did too. And it was likely that those grades depended on innate soul strength… Which meant, Dyon requirement for saint energy would be the peak-most among soul cultivators… Just how strong did his body need to be to accept that?
Dyon had no idea, so, everyone around him could only watch in awe as he continued to tear through saint stone after saint stone, his body reddening far more than a normal shade of blush or fatigue… It was as though he was becoming a true demon.
7%.
Dyon’s demon sage essence burst into 7% integration. His body bulked to another size before collapsing in on itself and shrinking. The strain his bones and muscles were undergoing was unprecedented, and yet he kept pushing himself.
His aurora raged, utilizing its keen energy controlling abilities to ram into the massive clumps of demon sage blood Dyon hid deeply within him.
The blood began to turn from its crimson red to a dense gold. It was so thick and viscous that it was like a melted metal. In fact, it felt just about as hot as such a thing to.
Dyon’s body felt as though it was searing itself from the inside out. Even with the brand new reconstructing of his body, the demon sage’s blood was just too domineering and seemed set on reconstructing Dyon yet again.
8%
Dyon’s veins popped and reformed, his body’s red-gold aura growing to a next level of sheen. Dyon had finally torn through the meridian formation cap on his body cultivation and had stepped into the essence gathering realm.
The red clouds above responded in anger, growing to another size and spinning even more viciously as Dyon continued to strain and hold back his soul from breaking through to the next level.
His body glowed, healing itself in what seemed like an instant. Dyon’s cultivation break-through had gifted him with a new level of tolerance, but it didn’t last long as his skin burst at its seams again. The lower essence gathering level just wasn’t enough for his soul.
Seeing Dyon’s breakthrough, the crowd got a new surprise – even Eboni and Ode stopped laughing. Just what was happening? Why was he surviving? In fact, why did it seem like he was improving? This wasn’t how cultivation deviation was supposed to go. Dyon was supposed to be struggling with controlling the energy he wasn’t ready to withstand, not using it to improve to he point where he could withstand it.
However, Livy Cavositas, the receptionist, wasn’t planning on waiting for an answer. He immediately appeared in the sky with about five other saint level experts, intent on taking Dyon out.
Sneering, Livy’s eye glanced over Ri who wasn’t even paying attention to him, but rather focused on Dyon. His lip twitched in agitation, ‘We’ll see how long you can ignore me, then.’
Suddenly, Livy’s voice boomed through the commotion, “This disturbance is intolerable in civilized society. To protect the peace and safety of Arena City’s civilians, this criminal will be detained and imprisoned.”
Hearing this, many recovered from their surprise and laughed happily at Dyon’s misfortune. The Cavositas family seemed intent on disrupting Dyon’s breakthrough and had even sent saint level experts! Even the slightest mistake in such a sensitive situation by Dyon would only mean his death, and that was exactly what too many seemed to want.
Seeing the Cavositas family acting to do what essentially would amount to killing Dyon, Connery Sapientia frowned. He didn’t know who this child was, but he was very much interested in him. And, it was likely that since he didn’t know who Dyon was, that he didn’t have a God Clan backing him – which made him think that there was a good chance that he could get him to join the Sapientia family.
But, just as Connery was going to move, one of his elders called out to him. “Head Sapientia, there’s someone who would like to talk to you about this boy.”
Turning back, Connery looked on in interest, “Oh? Did you find the information about him I asked about?”
“Mm.” The elder nodded toward the Sapientia branch elder that had been in attendance at Chaos Arena, and Pertinacis’ mother happened to be next to him as well.
Shifting his gaze toward the two of them, Connery waited patiently for the two of them to begin to speak.
After bowing respectfully, the elder turned toward Pertinacis’ mother who seemed to be the best option for relaying this information.
Clearing her throat, she began to speak, “This boy has a deep relationship with my step daughter, Madeleine.”
Connery’s eyes flashed with surprised. He didn’t really pay attention to the relationships between people too much. In fact, he had seen Madeleine’s parents on maybe a single occasion, let alone her step-mother. But, maybe the more interesting part was this boy’s relationship with Madeleine. Wasn’t this a good thing? He could easily use Madeleine to have him become a Sapientia, no? So, what was the problem?
“My son, Pertinacis, and his half elder brother, and Madeleine’s full brother, Oliver, informed me that Madeleine has already accepted this boy as her fiancé.” Bowing her head, she continued, “That is all I know.”
“Her fiancé?” Connery was surprised, but then he thought that this story sounded familiar… Very familiar.
His thoughts flashed back to a conversation he had had with Ester Sapientia, Madeleine’s master, about a fiancé. “Dyon Sacharro?” Connery’s facial features steeled. This situation wasn’t as good as he had hoped.
In his ideal world, he could just hand Madeleine to Dyon. No one else knew what was happening, but he knew very well. This kind of talent was just good for this universe. It was unprecedented in any universe. What bullshit prince or young master, even with a faith seed, could compare? But, that wasn’t the issue. Dyon was from a very taboo place… And his existence was too dangerous to tie to their futures so easily.
It wasn’t that he wanted to help out a love story, he could care less about such a thing. What he wanted was to use Dyon to improve himself and the position of the Sapientia. The point while Dyon still hadn’t become a powerhouse was the best opportunity to do that, and yet everything was ruined by his origins.
‘How is he cultivating right now?’ Connery thought to himself. ‘Does he realize that this shouldn’t be possible? How much does he know? What will they think when they find out about his existence? Do they already know? Since he’s stepped out of the human world, is the treaty even still in effect? Just what is going on?’
The people who knew of the history of this universe were limited. Very limited. In fact, those who knew weren’t decided just by age, but specifically, who had been present. With the Sapientia family’s wide range, they of course knew what had transpired and their elder experts were thus tethered to the treaty.
However, the Elves had clearly known not a thing about what had transpired. Although they had been surprised by where Dyon was from, they hadn’t reacted violently to it. They had only been caught off guard. But, then they had become very happy about the fact Dyon had no real connection to the human martial world, because that meant he would have no qualms about representing them.
But then there was the Daiyu. Their elders clearly knew.
Just what was going? Even if Dyon had all the information about who knew and who didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to guess how they connected… Until he reached a sufficient level to be able to unlock his master’s memories… A level he was slowly but steadily approaching.
“What do you want to do now, Head Sapientia?”
Connery was silent for a long while. He wasn’t willing to give up on a talent like Dyon so easily, after all, his philosophy heralded talent over everything. But, the weight of the danger Dyon presented was too looming and too vast. How could he be comfortable with allowing their, now, most valuable genius to be tied to Dyon? He would rather she never marry at all.
In fact, Prince Belmont had approached the Sapientia with a very good offer that Connery had been thinking of accepting. The truth was that he was planning on completely ignoring this offer in favor of Dyon after witnessing his talent, but, the prospect of being allowed to write an in-depth history on the Belmont and investigate their tombs – tombs known to be highly connected with the past peak supreme beast, Amethyst – was too good to give up knowing the cons of siding with Dyon.
“Do nothing. We’ll watch.” Connery couldn’t make a decision. The tombs of the Belmont family would put him in good standing with the Sapientia branches of other and more powerful universes, but Dyon’s knowledge and power would also do much of the same. In fact, it could be argued that a fifteen year old with soul power that was just about to break through to match his own, would vastly outweigh whatever the Belmont tombs could provide.
There was also the fact that with Dyon’s talent, it wouldn’t even be two decades before he was the most powerful existence in this universe. This was a simple fact Connery couldn’t ignore. He worked based on facts and logic. When new facts were presented, he formed new logical analyses. Something like Dyon becoming the most powerful person here in less than twenty years was something only Connery would ever think – but, he had no doubt that he was correct.
But… The problem was even if he became the most powerful person from this universe… Those that want to chain his people aren’t from this universe… And they’re much more powerful than what Dyon could match even with hundreds of years.
Ri looked up into the skies, pissed off at Livy’s accusations. He made it sound as though Dyon was doing this on purpose. Wasn’t it very clear that he couldn’t control what was happening?
Dyon, however, couldn’t be bothered with Livy’s words. He had to focus his entire being on the task at hand. Not only did he need to divert part of his attention to suppressing his soul from breaking through too early, he also needed to body cultivate with the rest of the attention he had. This was slowing down the process, but there was little he could do. He couldn’t even divert anymore attention to create clowns because he was already using the Acacia family technique to speed up his energy absorbing. There was just too much on his plate to worry about a busybody receptionist.
“Don’t worry mistress Sacharro, this clown won’t enter even a hundred-foot radius of the successor.” Thadius spoke with a bold smile.
Thadius’ voice was booming. He hadn’t bothered to hide his words at all. In fact, what he had said was so shocking that people didn’t even harp on the fact Dyon was a supposed successor of something.
Livy’s face twisted in anger. He understood being looked down upon in the Cavositas God Clan, after all, it was a God Clan. But, who was this person? And what right did they have to look down on him?
“Go ahead Thadius, this doesn’t need all of us to act, only one is necessary.”
Thadius casted a lustful gaze back toward the curvaceous demon general who had spoken. “That depends, River. Will you warm my bed tonight if I perform well?”
River rolled her eyes, “Why don’t you go and ask Ronica. She seems to be more your cup of tea.”
Thadius cringed at this rebuttal while Ronica chuckled before wrapping her delicate arms around Ri’s shoulders. “Don’t worry Little Ri. Even though Thadius is pretty weak, this is no problem.”
Ri giggled lightly at the interaction between the demon generals. They were always like this. They seemed like a cross between siblings and lovers – Ri couldn’t tell which was more accurate. It seemed as though every demon general had experienced something with the other. They were a close nit family that Dyon and Ri tried their best to ingratiate themselves into. Dyon because he was meant to be their leader, and Ri because she saw it as her duty as Dyon’s wife. This was essentially her husband’s kingdom, so she had to know his subjects.
Livy stood in the skies trembling at this sight, but, many took this differently. Just who were these people that looked down on the Cavositas so easily? And why were they following a kid who was supposed to have no backing? Just what was going on?
Those who had been at the last campaign in Earth’s Gate recognized the white hair as symbols of Dyon’s vice commanders, but those had obviously been essence gathering experts. Did he have even more powerful ones he had chosen not to use?
Thadius winked at Ri, trying to playoff his embarrassing moment after giving an apologetic smile to River who was still ignoring him.
In the distance, Voron, Ace, Elof and Vidar were among those who recognized the demon generals. But, that didn’t mean they were worried. After all, why would they think that Dyon would have experts powerful enough to deal with Livy and the other saints under him.
All the while, Dyon remained focused on his task at hand. Oblivious to the red and gold rolling clouds, the continuously cracking roof and the viciously whipping winds. The atmosphere was becoming so dangerous that those with low cultivation have been immediately evacuated out of the area.
9%
Dyon’s body buffed to a new level. His torso seemed to be bursting with muscles that no one had ever seen before and they were so vascularized that everyone around could see the pumping of Dyon’s blood as it slowly became a more and more solid gold.
10%
Dyon roared into the skies, cutting through all of the discussion that had been taking place. His music will had inadvertently torn through the intent barrier, shaking the entire city itself.
In that instant, he wanted nothing more than to express his pain and that had melded his mind perfectly with his music will. As such, Dyon had stepped into a state of one with mind seamlessly, sending shock waves through those in attendance.
The elders froze. ‘That’s… An intent?!’
Vidar’s face scrunched in anger. “Livy. Stop wasting time.”
Vidar Ragnor’s voice snapped Livy out of his surprise. After all, how could he not be? What kind of concept was a fifteen year with an intent? No one had information on Madeleine having mastered an intent yet, but, wasn’t Dyon still another year younger than her? And hadn’t he only been in the martial world for just under two years? This didn’t make any sense.
How could they know that Dyon had unprecedented soul talent? This not only allowed his array alchemy to reach levels unreachable for those his age, it also allowed him a deeper connection with the things around him, making it possible to learn wills even quicker than the average person.
Livy waved his hand, causing the saints behind him to fan out and prepare their attack. But, this was the moment that Thadius finally stopped messing around …
His eyes reddened, seemingly dripping in blood as his body slowly expanded. He was silent as a trident appeared in his large hand and he stepped into the skies.
“You have a lot of nerve, thinking of attacking the successor with his protectors here.” Thadius spoke faintly, but his voice had become such a deep and reverberating base that it seemed to replace the rolling thunder in the skies.
The saints froze. They hadn’t felt Thadius’ cultivation before, but, he had all of a sudden revealed it all at once. This pressure…
“A saint…” Livy trembled. He was a saint himself, but he was only of the first stage. And those he had brought with him, didn’t even have 9 meridians filled with saint energy. But this Thadius… He was a monster. An unfathomable beast they couldn’t see the peak of.
“Come on.” Thadius took a step forward, grinning a smile that looked like it came from the depths of hell. “Don’t back down now. Attack. Let me feel your so-called power.”
Thadius was emitting a thick red fog and his trident seemed to be continuously expanding.
“It’s too late for you to realize now.” Thadius said faintly.
The skies shook violently as beams of demon qi tore through air and slammed the saints to the roof of a building.
“UGHH.”
They struggled but their faces remained firmly planted. Demonic will wasn’t an attack on the physical, it was an attack on the psyche. And yet, the pressure was so strong that Livy and the Cavositas saints felt their bones collapsing in on themselves.
“Before the successor, people like you only have the right to face the ground and kneel.”
Standing domineeringly in the skies with Dyon protected to his back, Thadius faced the present experts – daring them to attack.