Michael moved to the side chambers. He could see four tubs placed in these chambers. In his past life, these tubs had been empty. But right now, they were clearly filled with some black sticky liquid. Michael did not take long to realize that this was the essence of cultivators. When a cultivator was refined, their energy would be distilled to form essence. This was the essence of body cultivation of several experts that had died here! He knew this as devils had also used cultivators this way.

He remembered the black monster and felt that this tub was meant for increasing the monster's power. While he was not sure, he could feel a connection. Michael observed the bubbling liquid with all the methods he could think of. All in all, it was a tonic. It was just that the energy was too potent. A dragon with its powerful body might be able to withstand it. But any human would explode. Even Michael was not confident in absorbing it. But, looking at all the energy evaporating slowly, he did not want to leave just yet. This was such a precious resource. He was also in immediate need of power.

Just as Michael was considering his options, a bold thought occurred in his mind.

What if he fully focussed his perfect persona blessing to absorb the liquid? Would he be able to do it?

Michael had been too frustrated with his weakness. He remembered how he had to run for his life against a mere monster, not even in the saint realm. He remembered how he had cowered in a corner when the immortals fought. The desire for power that was usually suppressed in his heart emerged with full force. Michael knew that it was dangerous. But, so what? If he was not willing to take risks, he would not get anywhere. How would he stop the devils without any danger?

Michael threw caution in the wind and proceeded to strip naked and stepped into the tub. The vigorous energy entered his body through his pores and he felt as if a storm had erupted inside of him! He could feel that if he did not refine this energy quickly, he would explode. He activated his perfect persona blessing to the utmost. In all his years, he had hardly dared to activate it to the fullest. He had a feeling that something would break if he did that.

The energy was getting absorbed at crazy speeds inside his body. He pushed his body harder and could feel injuries emerging all over his energy passageways. Even as he was being injured, he let out a scream of frustration and kept his perfect persona blessing activated.

If an expert was to see Michael now, they would think that Michael wanted to commit suicide by blowing himself up. His body was accumulating injuries with time. It was only a matter of time that he would have to step out. Or else he truly would die. Just as Michael was frustrated, he felt a feeling. The feeling of life energy! It was emerging out fro his body as if refusing to submit. As Michael understood what was happening, he started to get used to the feeling.

After some time, he had a thought. He tried to increase this feeling by using his perfect persona blessing. And somehow, it worked!

Thus, he started deviating some of his perfect persona blessing's power to the life energy part. As soon as he did that, the feeble life energy increased. This also caused the breaking down of his energy passageways to slow down! Michael knew the function of life energy at that moment. This energy was supposed to support life.

Michael knew that his blessing was related to his willpower. But there were some subconscious threats that he refused to ignore.

If Michael was to use his entire willpower with the fully activated persona, he had a feeling that his body and soul would implode. Thus, whenever he used his persona, the amount of willpower he used was minuscule.

The power of persona allowed Michael to exert higher power than what his body or soul was capable of. But the power of his blessing itself was dependent on how much willpower Michael poured in. It was a perfect blessing for Michael who had a terrifying amount of willpower. As long as his body could bear it, he could make his body exert strength of immortal realm or perhaps even higher! But, his body would most likely be destroyed into a bloody mist if he ever tried to do that.

Michael had figured this blessing out over the years. It did not increase his combat power. It allowed him to manifest his willpower! It was a double-edged sword that allowed him to exceed his limits! But, it came at a price.

Right now, Michael used a monstrous amount of willpower to reinforce his life energy. As this energy came from law comprehension, it would not harm his body or soul in any way. It was as if a barrier had been erected facing the storm of energy. His energy passage started healing at visible speed.

Michael had no idea why his willpower and blessing could affect the laws but he decided to take it for granted at the moment. It would naturally be revealed when he reached higher levels.

Checking his condition, Michael's eyes shined as he began to pour more willpower into the refining. The rate of refining increased like crazy. Earlier, it was as if the energy was flowing in at its own accord. But, now it was as if Michael's body was absorbing the energy forcibly! Even the ferocious energy was subdued!

Michael maintained a precise balance with his willpower. Thus, he kept on increasing his absorption rate. His energy passageways were being destroyed and reconstructed in real time at an inconceivable rate. If there was a mistake, his passageways would blow up. For others, it would be a crippling accident. Michael may be able to restore them with life energy but it was not guaranteed on what all could be healed with this power.

His body was like a taut string that would snap any moment. But, Michael maintained his speed. His body cultivation shot up at a speed visible to the naked eye. Slowly, it increased as it crossed to the mid-king stage. Michael did not notice it much. After a few minutes, he had absorbed all the cultivation essence. He then moved to other three tubs and absorbed them entirely.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Within just an hour, his body went from early king to peak stage king! This was definitely the record in entire Aterna for cultivation speed.

But, it was naturally not all good news. Due to the ridiculous speed, his cultivation had become unstable. If he continued cultivating, he would undergo cultivation deviation! This was a problem even for Michael.

Michael got out of the tub and got some water from his luggage. After washing his body for a bit, he dressed up and started thinking his next move.

He had progressed too rapidly and needed to consolidate his cultivation. The only way in Aterna to consolidate one's cultivation was martial arts. Using the different stances, one's body would be brought to the peak stage. This was the reason all cultivators were martial artists as well.

Thus, he decided to remain at this location and train his martial arts. He would fight the beasts in the forest to practise. He would also need to measure the extent of his new ability. He did get the ability to heal himself but he did not know till what level of injuries could be healed.

He knew that law comprehension would start once he developed sufficient energy. He had already finished the requirements to begin the conception of a grand law in under a day. Thus, Michael settled down in the ruins.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Micahel's cultivation session was followed by intense training in martial arts. He practised the Flowing River Art - 12 to 14 hours daily. He would regularly go out to hunt beasts. Due to frequent rainfall in the region and a nearby pond, he did not need to worry about water either.

Initially, when Michael had entered the forest, he would kill the monsters with his soul energy. But, after absorbing the cultivation essence, he began fighting the beasts with his bare body. He would use his full power in all battles. At the verge of life and death, he even started gaining comprehension about life energy.

Michael also found that life energy could heal his body and soul. But the healing speed would become constant to some extent as he poured more willpower in his persona. He could feel that this was the limit of the law itself.

Thus, when Michael fought these beasts, he fought without care for his injuries. He accumulated several injuries in each fight. But the power of his accelerated healing made sure he was ready every day. His fights continued to grow tougher as Michael picked harder beasts to conquer.

The greatest progress Michael made except for the laws was in the domain of martial arts. His Flowing River Art constantly improved. After all, he was training using life and death battles! No one would be crazy to such a method. The injuries themselves would make sure that cultivators training like Michael would be crippled. Only Michael, after he got the power of laws, could train like this.

As time passed, his strength kept growing. After around 6 months of training, his cultivation at been consolidated at the peak king realm. There were no weaknesses left remaining in his foundation. His Flowing River Art also reached half-completion. It must be known that in the current generation, only the Beast Emperor had practised this art and he too dropped it at the half-completion stage. This was a testament to how powerful the art was and how difficult it was to master.

Michael's strength stagnated at this stage. But, he was unwilling to stop here. He decided to breakthrough to the emperor realm! In the fights with beasts, he found that he could only handle early emperor realm beasts with his strength and could not kill them. Even with Divine Strength, Flowing River Art and Life Energy, he could not break the barriers of race. Had he been in the beast race, he would have been able to kill early emperor realm beasts quite easily. As Michael was preparing for the final test, he would do all that it takes.

Usually, a martial artist would break through after absorbing sufficient energy to avoid internal injuries during a breakthrough. It was also so that the foundation was not weakened. But Michael ignored everything! He used the breakthrough medicine he had obtained from Paul Miller for winning the fighting competition.

As soon as he swallowed the pill, a tremendous amount of energy started emitting from it. Micahel again activated his persona and used his willpower to absorb the energy crazily and attacked the bottleneck! A muffled boom rang out as the chamber shook. Dust exploded and Micahel coughed out several mouthfuls of blood! But, there was a twinkle in his eyes.

He had succeeded. Even though he suffered severe internal injuries, he had stepped into the emperor realm. If someone else was to do the same thing, they would have to spend many years treating their internal injuries before they could try to advance further. But Michael was different. As soon as he broke through, life energy emitted from his body and started healing him.

It only took him a full night to recover fully. This was how fearsome his ability was. Even though it was not instantaneous regeneration, he could heal hundreds of times faster than others. It did not particularly help during the battles as the rate at which one got an injury in the battle still surpassed his healing ability. A serious wound would take a month to recover for normal emperor experts. Michael could recover in a few hours. But, getting a serious injury did not take hours of beating. A full powered blow from an expert of the same level would give you a serious injury.

The ability was helpful to recover between battles and training regularly. But it was still of great help to Michael. There was also the fact that it was only the first level of the law. Who knew what abilities the later chapters would have?

After healing himself, Michael again busied himself in consolidating his cultivation. It took him another month to fully consolidate his power at the early emperor realm.

Emperor realm!

This was the goal of millions of commoners. And Michael reached it at the age of 11! This was definitely beyond the understanding of current Aterna. Adding on the power if Divine Strength and Flowing River Art, he could hold his own against early saint realm humans. This was in a fight with only his body without any soul arts.

Divine Strength gave him a powerful body, but it was only a supreme blessing. In the early stages, it gave a boost of an entire realm. But, now the boost was decreasing. Currently, Michael's body was comparable to peak emperor realm human. But, with prediction and Flowing River Art, he could fight early saints as well.

This had all happened in less than one year and six months after he left the tower.

Hell, people were still under the impression that he was a peak knight!

If their informers sent them information that Micahel Rageberg was firmly in the early emperor realm, they would fire their informers!

There was still some time before he needed to move back. Now that Michael lived in the ruins, he had long since found the control mechanism of the illusion array. Thus, he had many other plans for this place. He would naturally put them in motion later.

After reaching the emperor realm, Michael was set to do something that had been bothering him for a long time.