Death... and me

While Rean worked on the formation, Roan came out of Kihin’s training room. Kihin, of course, was there as well. Kihin didn’t show Roan the thing he was working on straight away. Instead, he spent some time testing Roan’s comprehension ability and healing power. “Impressive. I wonder just what kind of place you came from to give birth to a guy like you.”

Roan didn’t care about that. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve already proved I can help you with that technique of yours. So, what was it that you wanted me to help you with?”

Kihin then passed a Soul Binding Contract to Roan that stated he would never show the information. Well, Roan expected that already, so he dropped his blood straight away after checking the clauses. Well, it didn’t really matter. He had the system’s dummy soul, which protected the twins’ soul regardless of the situation or how far away they were from each other. Naturally, he was just pretending there. “Alright, it’s done.”

Kihin nodded, satisfied. He then looked at his subordinates, indicating that they should leave the room as well. Only then did Kihin explain his ideas to Roan. “Have you heard of the Starlight Technique?”

Roan pondered in silence for a bit before shaking his head. At the very least, it wasn’t present on the first and second floors of the Divine Energy technique repository. “Is it a technique only available for those at the Core Sector and above?”

Kihin shook his head in response. “You’re thinking about the wrong repository. This isn’t a Divine Energy cultivation technique, but a body cultivation technique. I have to say, I was surprised when I heard that you wanted to check my family’s Body Cultivation Technique as your task also involved one.”

Roan found it strange as he read all the techniques in the body cultivation technique, and none of them went by that name. Still, he nodded and extended his hand. “Give me the jade slip. We can talk about it after I know its contents.”

Kihin did as Roan said and waited for Roan to finish analyzing it. With the comprehension ability he showed, he shouldn’t take long to understand how it works.

Sure enough, Roan gave the technique back to Kihin a few minutes later. “This is quite an interesting technique. It connects you with a star and uses the star’s power to refine your body. To be honest, I didn’t even know there were stars in the skies.”

Roan also took that chance to ask Sister Orb. ‘Didn’t you say there were no stars in the Realm of Gods?’ One must remember Sister Orb’s words when they arrived in the Realm of Gods. The Realm of Gods was just a single enormous piece of land. There were supposed to be no planets or suns out there.

[I did. However, you know very well that it has been countless years since Soul Gem left. Who knows what could have happened during this time? At the very least, we couldn’t see a single star in the skies during the night.] Let’s not forget that Roan’s group still doesn’t know how the light of the skies during the day was created since there were no suns.

Kihin didn’t know that Roan was talking to Sister Orb, so he simply began to explain. “It’s not that there aren’t stars. It’s just that they’re too far away for us to see.”

That was even more ridiculous in Roan’s opinion. The light of a star could travel, but it was just too, too far away. How come they couldn’t see it? Unless something was preventing it from arriving in the area where he was now.

Sure enough, Kihin explained exactly that. “Then again, the main reason for that is the atmosphere. Do you know what an atmosphere is?”

Roan nodded in response. “Don’t worry, go ahead.” Using the word ‘atmosphere’ was quite strange as the Realm of Gods wasn’t a planet. It wasn’t a round sphere. However, Roan didn’t mention that.

Kihin was surprised that Roan knew it, but he also didn’t ask how. It didn’t matter for his plans anyway. If anything, that made things easier. “Alright. The atmosphere is basically stopping the light from those stars from reaching the ground. Perhaps, if your continent is in the right place and the conditions are just perfect, you might be able to barely see something.”

That pretty much confirmed Sister Orb’s words. The Soul Gem System had been out of the Realm of Gods for way too long. Somehow, the space above it now had stars as well. Well, at least that’s what it looked like. There was also a chance that the stars Kihin was talking about weren’t the same stars Roan knew from the Mortal Realm.

Kihin continued, “However, the stars are definitely out there, and there are countless numbers of them.” He then pointed at the jade slip, explaining, “This Starlight Technique uses exactly that to strengthen your body. Of course, it also needs materials to be fused into your body. However, the results are much better when starlight is added to the mix. Believe it or not, but your gain in strength is increased by 7 to 8 percent on average compared to other top body cultivation techniques, including my family’s techniques.”

That was a huge increase in Roan’s eyes. Once something was refined too many times, it became hard for one to increase its efficiency even a single percent. That’s the case for top body cultivation techniques like the ones used by Kihin and the top brass of the Sacred Land. “That’s truly impressive. So, what’s the downside? I’m sure there must be one, or everyone would be using it. Could it be that because we can’t see the stars, no one can cultivate it?”

Kihin shook his head in response. “If that was the case, I would simply ask any subordinate of my clan at the Transition Realm or above to bring me up to the skies. At some point, you will start to exit the atmosphere and will be able to see the stars.”

Roan had to admit Kihin was right.

Kihin continued, “The problem…is the Starlight Energy itself.”