Chapter 1985: 1977: Venturing Higher |
"Slow! Slow! Slow!!!" Kratos complained as if aggrieved by time itself. Its complaints were valid, however. After the bestowal of merit and War Souls, Wei Wuyin obtained the right to participate as a 'Soldier' within the Ascendant Battlefield at his current cultivation base. This was an irregular development, but not too uncommon amongst demonic geniuses, especially in recent generations where cultivation as a multi-galactic societal standard has shown great growth.
But upon receiving the upgrade and permit, he had to take the spatial channel to the Ascendant Battlefield from the Stellar Battlefield. This transportation process took two whole weeks! According to the Envoy of Order handling the reward of merit and War Souls, the three Battlefields were organized like an upside-down cone within a strange, isolated region of chaotic space.
It was easier to enter from outside, but harder to travel within. Almost immediately he thought of personally traveling to the Ascendant Battlefield, but there were two problems—well, one in particular: the marking as an accepted entity, which can only be received via access formations either externally or internally. If he left without that, he wouldn't be allowed back in without ascending to the Earthly Saint Phase through any access formation.
This marking was why he avoided the Nexus Battlefield, which automatically expelled a Soldier or Commander upon success. In the rules of the Battlefield of Order & War, the Nexus Battlefield was the final battlefield of that category, and the expulsion was integrated as an immutable law.
The other reason, but far less relevant to a True Void Dragon, was that the isolated spatial region was inherently inhospitable to a lethal degree, and even Supreme Sages would find traversing it difficult, if not outright impossible in certain circumstances. Then, finding the next Battlefield was extraordinarily challenging, especially as the battlefields were housed in Chaos Realms.
Wei Wuyin could only begrudgingly accept the slow pace under Tilly's escort. However, while traveling, he was no longer under any suppression or pressure. Theoretically, this was the perfect opportunity to ascend further, and then Demi-Mortal Lords ascending to Earthly Saints to become proper soldiers for the Ascendant Battlefield was possible. Clearly, this was intended by those who structured these rules.
Wei Wuyin couldn't even use this calculated opportunity, even if he wanted to. His cultivation base was too low, only at the Soul of Mysticism Phase, and ascending would take a little longer than two weeks to complete. Still, he could only occupy his time with his escort, Tilly Winehart.
As for his Mystic Souls, only Kratos was complaining out of sheer boredom. Ori and King attended to Element, who was in the process of refining and digesting the Mote of Heaven with cautious observance. Magus had gone silent, accepting the mental crystals carrying the insights, lineages, legacies, methods, arts, and more taken from the Creationists of the Inner and Outer Stellar Battlefields.
His dastardly actions of siphoning knowledge and fortune from others were bound to elicit a response from those galaxies in the future, especially since he relied on oath-dissolving potions while simultaneously doing so in a position where their leaders couldn't halt the distribution or foresee the occurrence of this theft. Normally, countless cultivators sought to blackmail or use brutal force to extract legacies, and various organizations at all levels, from planetary to starfield, to stellar region, to galaxy, would have ways to prevent the abuse of this tactic.
This type of art, spell, method, or obscure and ancient Concoction Method was highly valuable. Wei Wuyin was merciless in his acquisition, especially those that were protected under oaths.
For others, the excessive amounts of knowledge were mostly unusable as digestion and proper usage of these arts was like an extremely fat mortal stuffing their mouth further after their stomach was full. It could only get trapped in their throat, offering no nutrition. But for Wei Wuyin, especially Magus, this was not the case.
Curious, Wei Wuyin once inspected the Library of Eden's functionality before Magus became his fifth Spirit of Cultivation. What he saw expanded his horizons on what it meant to be organized, studious, and precise. There were thousands upon thousands of Mental Incarnations at the time, handling the task as librarian, scholar, and author. Magus had an extraordinary ability to act as a hive mind.
There was a specialized room where Magus' Mental Incarnations were debating each other. The sight was indescribably strange as they both had good points, including an arbiter to decide who was right. That person was obviously another Magus. Each section of the library was marked for its category. But what was truly shocking was the condensed and critical knowledge regions that held only the most useful parts.
After Magus became his fifth Spirit of Cultivation, the palatial library that was the Library of Eden was transformed into itself, and as such, he couldn't imagine the world that was created. When he once got insight into Ori's world, it was a gargantuan white star.
Was this a library with the immensity of a star? Thousands of Incarnations? Perhaps millions might be too low of a guess! As a Spirit of Cultivation, he didn't know if Magus even needed to establish Mental Incarnations. Moreover, the evidence of greater levels of Enlightened Scholarly Mist pouring into his Sea of Consciousness like a waterfall proved that Magus was constantly generating theories, conclusions, correcting imperfections, locating immutable errors within arts, spells, or the path of a Cultivation Method, and new ideas.
While he lay comfortably by Tilly on a makeshift bed within this spatial bubble transporting them across space, Wei Wuyin sent his thoughts to Magus: "How long will it take to digest all that information?"
Recently, Magus has taken to only sending and transmitting flawless manuscripts of organized insights. It was no different than a textbook for him to consume with annotations, clarifications, references to earlier or later mentions, and just a great source of information. By doing so, Wei Wuyin could digest the information concisely, avoiding coming to incorrect conclusions.
The manuscripts also covered commonly seen or explored errors, how to avoid them, and why they existed in the insights of others. The recurring nature was often a flaw of cultivation's innate difficulty to convey in words. Magus perfectly encapsulated the reason and explained how to navigate such difficulties with key points and instructions. This allowed Wei Wuyin to not only gain knowledge but also to regurgitate it without issue as a teacher or even in a debate.
According to Magus, it lived by a set of particularly odd concepts of scholarly arts, one of which was: "If you're unable to explain and teach a topic within a subject with a clear lack of bias and understanding of the contentious issues that arise on all sides, you have not learned the topic in question."
This helped immensely in grasping insight into alchemical products, especially when concocting using the Freestyle Method of Alchemy. If he couldn't explain why a specific spell in this phase of a product was the most suitable and effective, then he shouldn't be using that spell. And to know that, he would have to similarly know why a specific spell on a particular phase was bad for the product's outcome.
This standard greatly assisted his cultivation as a Creationist.
Fortunately, if necessary, Magus still retained its ability to share minds. It was even better than before, allowing him to etch knowledge soul-deep.
Meanwhile, Eden was nourishing the Neo-Dawn Ascension Cauldron that held Bai Xiu and the other Bai Xiu. After the Transcendent Mystic-Heaven grade concoction process, they experienced great damage and great gains. Since then, Eden has been constantly nurturing them within its Mystic Form like a maternal figure.
Kratos was left with nothing to do but complain about the slow travel. Eventually, it wormed its way to his Mind's Eye and bothered Athena like a draconic braggart. The nonsense it was spewing made little sense despite boasting about its powers. After the unique experience that Kratos was constantly under was felt intimately by Magus, the unexplainable habits of Kratos began to make some sense.
"Magus," Wei Wuyin called out. The palatial library within his Primordial Expanse, not his Sea of Consciousness, thrummed softly in response. Magus was still non-verbal, only sending feelings and emotions. "Do you still want to take the lead in the Ascendant Battlefield of Order?"
." The palatial library that was his Mystic Form shook. It was as if it was saying: "Of course!"
Wei Wuyin only asked to get assurance. Magus' situation was odd, and it was occupied by a task that required its fullest attention. He could feel his mental energies exhausted rapidly, almost at the rate of its natural recovery, which was stupendously high. "Okay," after receiving that response, he calmly relaxed.
"Tilly," Wei Wuyin abruptly called out as Tilly lifted her watery eyes, releasing an acknowledging humming sound as her mouth was too full to speak. "Can someone participate in both the Battlefields of Order and War in the same run?"
The question caused her to blink. Then, she nodded. With a popping sound, she sniffed as she caught her breath. "You...you can only enter one as a Soldier or a Commander within a single entry. So, uhm, you can enter the Battlefield of War as a Soldier, and enter the Battlefield of Order as a Commander in the Inner and Outer Battlefields, but you can't repeat it in reverse. Each upgrade of rank and status is considered a new entry, and that's because you can't be demoted without special circumstances."
"Perfect. It seems like I'll be able to check on the Prime Ascendants," Wei Wuyin's eyes gleamed with interest. He wondered how well Su Mei was doing.
Outer Ascendant Battlefield of War.
Howls of death, cries of pain, and final breaths of fleeting existences erupted, camps lay in ruins and severed heads tumbled without bodies about like tumbleweed.
An unexpected calamity had struck!
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