Reaper of the Martial World

historical

Book 5: Chapter 171: Second Trial (114)

By this point, Dyon was convinced that the complexities of runic veins were just as robust as those of array alchemy were. And, when he thought about how he was still thinking about it in its simplest form, Dyon could only become more and more intrigued.

All this time he was so focused on the changes he could make to the human body, but what about other things? If runic vein theory was applied to the earth beneath his feet, he could change it attributes. This may seem useless, but imagine making a seemingly simple piece of land into a haven for fire, or wind, or the ever elusive lightning! If Dyon then used the Energy Core in combination with that, wouldn’t he be able to forcefully create abyssal core areas?

And what if he applied this runic vein theory to plants? Although Dyon could create common level plants with ease, it was impossible to recreate plants that could only be matured through aging. However, runic vein theory changed all of that! If he could forcefully age plants without the use of time will, but by manipulating its internal structure to that of a more mature plant, wouldn’t he be able to recreate any plant in existence?

Unfortunately for Dyon, array alchemy was unable to do this because the energy constraints were far too much. He could theoretically do so, but even with his soul stamina, he would be hard pressed to finish even a meridian level plant, even with a celestial level soul, let alone an essence or sainthood plant. However, runic veins allowed him to split his stamina into two categories, thus making it much more possible. He could focus on creating the proper vessel for the veins with his soul, while aging it appropriately with the proper runic veins!

Dyon exited his master’s memories, taking a deep breath. Runic Masters were split into the same stages as array alchemists were, except it obviously relied on body cultivation instead of soul cultivation. According to these levels, his master was a mere Master level runic master.

To put this into perspective, both professions were split into 8 levels. Common, practitioner, master, grandmaster, comet, moon, planet and star. That means that while Dyon’s master was a star level array alchemist, in her life time, she only managed to reach the 3^rd level of runic mastery!

This was a bit troubling to Dyon. He had done all of this to find a way to unlock the last 18 pages so he could memorize them before quickly heading back to the Angel Clan. After all, he only had a little less than two days, yet it had taken him more than a day to memorize just the first 9 pages. On top of that, there was no doubt that the final 18 pages would be even more complex. He was running out of time!

If Dyon’s master was only at the master level, considering the level of originator of this tome, they were at least at the star level, without a doubt. That was the difference between heaven and earth, could this knowledge really help him?

Dyon shook his head. No matter what, he decided that he would leave this cave in a day if he was making no more progress. For now, he would do all he could. If he couldn’t unlock the remaining pages, he simply didn’t have fortune with this tome.

For every array alchemy equivalent, there was a medium needed to transfer the necessary markings. In array alchemy, there was the aurora flame. With it, one was capable of drawing the necessary symbols for the laws one wished to change, at the same time, it was capable of acting as an alchemic flame.

For magic, this was even more straight forward. Although it was possible to use special materials to form wands and staffs that acted much like crystal will did for array alchemy, all that was necessary for magic was to use your energy to etch in the laws you wanted to change. The quality of energy would thus decide the power of the spell along with the quality of the magic formations. One could only imagine how powerful Luna would be if she studied this discipline.

Then, there was runic vein theory. Its method was by far the cruelest of the three. It required creating a fire similar to that of the aurora flame, but the way to do so even made Dyon cringe. In order to create the runic flame, Dyon had to actually burn his blood essence!

The good news was that since the flame would become a part of him and be nurtured by his body cultivation exactly like his soul nurtured his aurora flame. This meant that there would, theoretically, be no loss in talent.

The bad news was that even the slightest mistake meant that it would become impossible to recover. This was because you were converting your blood essence to a form that made it impossible to re-integrate.

Normally, Dyon would be confident. But, according to his master’s memories, it wasn’t a surprise to fail up to ten or more times before finally succeeding!

The truth of the matter was that once the flame was created, it apparently became possible to supplement the lost blood essence through it using special runic flame supplements. So, as long as one succeeded, you could make up for your losses.

However… The problem was that failing once meant that you could not make your second attempt for at least a few months. If you failed twice in quick succession, your life would be forfeit!