"By the way Edward, weren't you in the Seventh Realm of the Qi Accumulation Realm? How did you beat vice-principal Gilbert so easily? He was at the peak of the Qi Accumulation Realm after all!"

"For me, defeating someone who's two levels higher is no big deal. Also, I myself am currently strong enough to break through to the peak of the Qi Accumulation Realm. The only reason I am not doing so is that I have not yet managed to attach an attribute to my Qi. I am preparing to cultivate an element for gaining an attribute. I have not yet decided what kind of element I am going to cultivate. You are already in the Qi Accumulation realm, what about you?"

"I have thought about it and decided that I want to walk the path of swordsmanship. That's why my goal would be to focus on cultivating the Metal Element. It would help strengthen my swordsmanship."

"That's a good decision. The day after tomorrow, we will be heading to the Royal Capital. For now, let's cultivate and prepare for what to come. Do you want to try taking in life energy once again? This time, it'll be your Qi fusing with life energy, not your physical essence. This will be the last time you can merge life energy within you. Your Qi will be having healing properties after that. You can heal yourself as well as others with your Qi. But it would be challenging to complete the process within less than two days. Do you still want to try?", Edward offered.

"What choice do I have? I have to be strong enough to beat Daniel the next time we meet, or how can I face myself?", Robert said with determination.

"Okay, then.", Edward channeled a tremendous amount of life energy into Robert's Body from the Seed of Origin Life.

Just like the last time, at first, it felt relaxing and refreshing for Robert, but soon his Qi started to get rejected by the life energy, and it became painful. But luckily, as Robert has already gone through a similar process once for his physical essence, the rejection towards his Qi wasn't very intense.

Robert sat down in meditation as he started the fusing process. Edward looked at Robert and sighed for some reason. Maybe it was because he could finally see that Robert also carried a pain inside his heart, a pain similar to his.

Edward also sat on meditation as he focused on cultivating an element. He hasn't decided what element he would cultivate for his Qi. He just let things go with the flow as he started infusing his Qi during meditation

Edward thought about Fire. Fire burns, devours, ravages, and turns things to ashes. He tried to let his Qi become fire. His Qi was getting hotter and hotter, and so was the temperature of the room. But just when his Qi was about to turn into Fire, it exploded and scattered. He tried again and again, only to fail.

"Maybe Fire is not the right element for me, let me try Water.", he thought.

As he thought of water, he thought how it flows, how it makes things wet, how it can drown everything. Water is a great force of nature. It can flow with a devastating force, yet it can also stand still forever. It can burn things after becoming steam, yet it can also freeze things after becoming ice. It can become protect like a shield, yet pressurized water can cut like a sword. The most amazing aspect of it is that it is everywhere. People, animals, trees, the soil, the rivers, the ocean, everything has water in it. To control water is to control life.

As Edward finally comprehended the nature of water, the nature of his Qi changed. Everything his Qi touched started to become moisturized.

"Maybe this is it.", Edward thought.

But just as the change in Qi nature was about to be complete, his Qi returned to normal, unable to sustain the change.

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"What the hell!", Edward became frustrated.

As time passed, he tried one element after another, and miraculously, he was able to fully comprehend every single element in nature and was able to achieve change in Qi nature with all those elements. Yet, he failed to sustain and cultivate that change. It was like he was made for every element in existence yet something was stopping him.

"What is happening? Why can't I sustain the change and complete the process?", He shouted in frustration.

"Wait. I should concentrate.", he finally calmed himself down and thought of something.

He focused his mind and dived inside. Inside his mind, he could see a black piece of paper. It was something that entered in his mind after the Old Winter's manual burned itself into ashes. This was info created by Old Winter's Qi.

He checked it thoroughly and finally realized what's going on. Snow had also warned him about this. She had told him once that he has an incomplete soul, a very incomplete one. Except for his Soul Core, he has nothing else. Snow had told him that it wouldn't pose a problem at first, but when his realm was high enough, he would find it impossible to cultivate further. She was actually talking about his current situation, where he is having trouble sustaining the change of his Qi nature.

According to Old Winter's manual, one has to use their Soul-Spirit to communicate with the forces of nature in order to sustain there change in Qi nature. The Soul-Spirit bonds with a force of nature and binds with an element like Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, etc. The Soul-Spirit acts like the brain for the Qi to let it sustain the change in Qi nature. Without a Soul-Spirit, it is not possible to permanently achieve the change in QI nature.

"Is this going to be the end of the road for me? Can I not cultivate any further?", Edward thought as he was starting to lose hope.

"No! It can't be the end. There has to be some way. If there isn't one, then I'll make one. If I can not achieve sustainable change in Qi nature without a soul-spirit, I will find a way to progress without sustaining it. If I can not connect with the forces of nature without Soul-Spirit, than I will create a force of my own. I will create an element that can integrate with my Qi even without a soul-spirit!”, Edward was full of resolution.

But it was easier said than done. One can not just come up with an element on their own. Elements are part of nature, if something wasn’t a part of nature, it wouldn’t be an element in the first place.

Edward tried and tried, every way, every means possible, only to end up with no result. The day ended,and the night had long since come, and the night was about to end too.

Finally he gave up. He walked out of his room, went to one of the mountain peaks of the academy and lied down on its grassy surface, facing towards the sky.

As he gazed towards the vast sky full of stars, many thoughts went past his mind. Are there also planets around those stars? If there are, do people leave there? What kind of people are they? What kind of cultivation do they have? And how many such planets full of lives are there in this universe? What is the universe? What lies beyond the universe? He might’ve known the answers to these questions when he was the First Paragon, but he couldn’t remember.

When he was the first paragon, he had just his soul-core also back then. How did he progress then? How did he become a paragon, from just a mere mortal? What did he do back then?

The Seed of Origin Life! That’s the answer! He, as the First Paragon, understood the principals of life energy, and turned it into an element. With the help of that life energy, he could also create a soul-spirit for him back then.

But in this incarnation, Life Energy has already turned into an element, and the Seed of Origin Life has become its source. So he can not use life energy as his element. Besides, he already has life energy within him along with the Seed of Origin Life so if he used it, it wouldn’t be a new element, and he won’t progress.

Then what can he do so that he gets a new soul-spirit without the help of life energy? It has to have the capability of creating a soul-spirit, something with life, yet in can not be similar to life energy, so it can not have power over life. What can give form to something with life without having power over life? He felt like he was stuck in a paradox.

“Form, Form, Form. Wait, form. Only something formless can take any form, and something stateless can any state. I have to turn my Qi into a formless, stateless existence. It will just be."

Edward sat down in meditation, struck by a whole new concept of Qi cultivation. He was so focused as if he was disconnected from this world, and with this, a new chapter was about to begin, and a new paragon had just taken the first step to create something out of this world, which will, in the end, pave his path as the Ultimate Paragon.