The truth of the matter was that, to elves, most humans had exaggeratedly normal appearances, as backwards as that may sound. However, Dyon’s devilish level of handsomeness had made even the hearts of Elvin girls flutter, how could they assume someone who rivaled even their most attractive people was just a human? What they had failed to notice were his obviously un-pointed ears.
Dyon didn’t seem to mind the scrutiny though, his smile never fading, “your soul is stronger than mine? Really? You’ve been trying to read through my defenses this whole time and have been failing, did you think that by just saying you were stronger, it would manifest into the truth?”
Dyon’s soul had reached the Essence stage just a few days ago, whereas he had to be weary of this group of senior’s Essence Gathering strength, due to the difficulty of cultivating the soul, it always lagged behind energy cultivation.
The only reason soul strength increased with cultivation is often by it being dragged along as opposed to it keeping up. Although their energy cultivation was comparable to the Essence stage, Dyon could clearly see that their souls were stuck at the Blossoming stage. In fact, Bene’s subordinate was at a measly lower Blossoming stage level.
Benes’ subordinate gritted his teeth. He had no idea how a boy clearly much younger than him could keep his defenses up in this situation.
“Do you expect anyone to believe that a 17 year old boy would have a greater soul strength than me?!”
The surrounding crowd nodded in agreement, sneering in disdain. 𝘪.𝑐ℴ𝘮.𝘤𝘰
“Senior brother Ryba is right, how could such a thing be possible.”
Seeing the crowds support, Ryba smirked.
“You must think that just because you can float in the air using some formation plates that you’re superior, huh? Maybe formation plates are rare in your little human clans, but everyone has access to them here! And yet all juniors have the common courtesy to understand seniority. If you don’t have the power to be in the air, you shouldn’t be up here!”
Ryba domineeringly released his soul pressure onto Dyon. It seemed he was quite confident in himself and the kind of result he would have from this. But, he was destined to be disappointed. If it wasn’t for the pointless jeering of the crowd who had seemingly already decided which side to stand on, maybe his later embarrassment could have been predicted by him.
“Look at him, nearly cracking under the pressure of Senior Brother Ryba’s soul,” someone in the crowd sneered.
During this whole exchange, Benes had a pensive look on his face as he seriously watched Dyon’s every reaction, ignoring the cute girl clinging to his arm.
“Is something wrong? Did he rile you up?” The girl giggled, holding onto Benes.
Benes didn’t respond, but his eyebrows furrowed as he watched Dyon be completely unperturbed by Ryba’s pressure. He felt that there was something deeper going on here, so he kept his mouth closed and observed. Still, none of his caution changed the feelings he was experiencing. He would love nothing more than to teach Dyon a lesson, an irrational dislike welling up within him.
Dyon smiled. “Oh, if it’s just about being able to be up here on my own power, then that’s simple.”
“Don’t be ridi – ” Ryba couldn’t even finish his sentence before his words were caught in his throat.
Dyon had lifted his hand, allowing lights of gold to flicker around, forming a new defensive array under the eyes of everyone. Then, he lightly hopped to it, sitting cross legged and continuing towards the back door.
“… That was a Practitioner 6th level defensive array. To draw it, your soul has to be at the peak of the lower Blossoming stage. So, I’m sure you understand what that means,” Dyon’s voice rang out faintly, slowly closing the door behind him as he floated away, leaving the hall in silence.
Ryba could only grit his teeth in silence. His rebuttals were caught in his throat, the veins of his forehead threatening to pop out from his skin.
Dyon didn’t even feel like giving a second thought to what happened, he instead preferred to eagerly head to the cultivation library. It was too bad he had no idea where it was, so he settled for wondering around aimlessly until he found a good person to ask.
Soon, he was lost in his thoughts as he walked around.
‘It isn’t that it isn’t true that the soul is highly important in understanding wills… it’s just that it isn’t the only important part. There’s a very important reason why you can’t understand an intent unless you break into the essence gathering stage.
‘In fact, those who weren’t considered as geniuses in their youth, probably would ever understand an intent even if they stepped into Essence Gathering.
‘The level your will reaches isn’t so much about understanding. Although understanding is important, a will is more like an aspect of the world you’re diving into. Like… someone might be able to train themselves to punch harder and harder as they progress.
‘However, a punch isn’t necessarily an art form. Thus, you could consider a martial art as a path of understanding in a will. The most basic difference between a 1st layer will and a 9th level will, is how much power it produces. The true understanding of how to use it, is where people truly differentiate.
‘It still isn’t so simple to separate the two, even then. Understanding and will level, that is. A good understanding can directly boost the level your will reaches. However, the only way to truly master a will, is by comprehending a path along with your will level…’
Dyon was fascinated by how the martial world worked. Everything seemed to be connected. Wills could temper your body and energy cultivation, but it also couldn’t be understood without a soul to connect to the world.
A soul could manifest, but it seemed like that was also fueled by your bloodline or body cultivation. And for some reason, Dyon was so absolutely sure that all of this somehow connected with array alchemy… or at the very least, the philosophy behind it.
Dyon smiled to himself, ‘I’ll figure this all out soon enough.’
What Dyon didn’t know was that Elder Flyleaf was far more correct than he had given him credit for.
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