After swearing the Soul Oath, Yan Zaizen felt a little more assured facing this grey-robed beauty. Initially, he was skeptical of her intentions. He had been schemed against and attacked from angles of all kinds during his journey thus far, how could he not be? However, with the oath sworn, there was very little to be wary of.
Pinaka could sense Yan Zaizen’s change in disposition towards her. She found this boy interesting, especially one so young to have his soul cultivation, soul protection, and innate calmness. She’s seen many geniuses and talented warriors in her day, but this boy gave her a unique and fresh feeling. It was quite odd.
“Now. We need to establish a Dao Link.” She stated.
“Dao Link?” At first, he was confused, but then he recalled what Tao had informed him before. The dao could be transmitted to others, allowing them to become stronger, and it could amplify cultivation of all forms. It held miraculous qualities, but he didn’t know how one could take another’s dao as their own.
Pinaka realized this, “A Dao Link is simple.” She held out her hand, “Grab my hand, and channel your dao through your soul.” Yan Zaizen didn’t hesitate. She held onto Pinaka’s hand delicately, but when he felt her soul form, he was bewildered. As a soul form, one typically doesn’t give off any heat signature or feel temperatures for that matter, but he felt like a cool-breeze was caressing his hand constantly.
Whoosh!
A sound occurred, and Yan Zaizen felt a mysterious connection within his soul. This connection attempted to reach inside of him and grab hold of one of the infinite motes of white light within his soul form.
“Give me access to a piece of your dao. Deliver it through yourself and into my hand.” Pinaka instructed calmly. She wasn’t bothered by how Yan Zaizen held her hand.
“Okay.” He responded. A mote of white light within his soul form was isolated. This mote of light started to shine brightly, and he could feel a feeling quite similar to when he comprehended his three laws. The mote he’d isolated felt close, but the others were exceptionally distant and unreachable.
“This is...incredible!” He remarked. Originally, he had a theory that the dao and law were closely related, and it seemed to be the case. If he could gain access to the innumerable amount of light like this one, could he gain complete mastery of his dao? Would it be the same as mastering every law under the heavens?!
“Send it,” Pinaka instructed with a little impatience. Jolted back from his random thoughts, he controlled this isolated mote of light and steered it through his soul form. It reached his arm, his hand, to his fingers, and then into Pinaka’s soul form. The moment it landed inside Pinaka’s soul form, she released a moan that left one’s imagination in the wild.
She breathed in a wad of air, her eyes closed, and her soul form lighting up with a white light. Almost immediately, her dull silver hair transformed to a white color, and her eyes and robe turned bright silver. She seemed to have undergone a slight change of existence.
“You…” Yan Zaizen could feel an intimate connection with her. It felt like she was apart of him. “What happened?” He couldn’t hold back his curiosity as he asked.
Pinaka’s originally calm expression turned imperialistic and dominant, she was filled with confidence and an unyielding aura. It was a stark difference from her calm and near emotionless state from before. She looked at her robe and hair. The difference wasn’t much, but it left her sighing. That confident gaze turned towards Yan Zaizen, “Your dao is very tyrannical, you know. Who would’ve thought someone so calm outwardly would be so concealed inwardly. Truly wondrous.”
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Yan Zaizen felt a little embarrassed at her words but gathered some clues as to what happened to her. It seemed like her soul form was highly dependant on the dao of her user, and since she took his dao that held imperial tyranny and an unyielding confidence, her soul form took those characteristics.
In the Deep Mines, not once did he believe he was going to die there. When he was trapped in the chaotic space, he didn’t give up because he couldn’t. When his way was being barred by two clans, he forced his way through with sheer violence. A dao is shaped by one’s experiences, this is what Tao said. He truly believed it now.
“Haha, so what now?” Figuring it out, he decided to try to speed this along. He did have to escape the Deep Mines after all. Pinaka gave a soft snort at his actions, obviously affected by the imperialistic dao she’d just taken in.
“I promised you a cultivation method to use. After I give you that, I’ll stay within your soul form. I can directly absorb your soul energy to help myself recover.” She stated. Yan Zaizen was surprised, but then thought of the situation. What if she took a majority of his soul energy and leaving him without the ability to fight?
Pinaka noticed his thoughts, now being connected with him via his dao, she could tell the type of person he’s likely to develop into and even a fair bit of his thoughts. “You have no need to worry, I won’t take too much. You’ll still be able to use it as you like.” Her words reassured, but she contained a little bit of disdain as if his thoughts were beneath her. Feeling herself display this trace of disdain, she frowned. Yan Zaizen’s dao did affect her personality, but it didn’t determine it. She still had her own. Before this display of disdain would be concealed deeply, but now it was hard to do so.
Yan Zaizen saw the disdain in her eyes and couldn’t help but laugh. She reminded him of those cold beauties who fought beside the heroes in stories. “Alright. What’s this cultivation method?” He inquired.
“It’s called the Rudra’s Archery of Pralaya. It’s a cultivation method, but it does not contain arts. You’ll have to figure out that by yourself, as your dao is unlikely to match the arts I know.” She stated, extending her right index finger, she placed it on Yan Zaizen’s soul form’s chest. A mote of grey light shot out from the tip and into his soul form. It then traveled throughout his soul form before returning back to her fingertip.
When he saw this, his eyes widened. This was exactly like the Immortal Herculean Method from before. The book turned into motes of light and gave him information in regards to the cultivation method. This time wasn’t much different, and he could feel some information funnel into his mind as if it was always there.
“Archery of Pralaya. One Bow, Pure Destruction. One Arrow, Annihilate All.” He was completely stunned.
“This...this is a cultivation method of a conceptual law!!!” Not once, not ever, has he come across a cultivation method that trains into a conceptual law. The main reason for this lack of cultivation arts that practice conceptual laws were due to the requirements to create one. To produce a cultivation method such as this, one needed to reach the Sovereign Level of understanding in one’s law! Otherwise, how else can you properly comprehend a conceptual law to its zenith and inscribe it for future generations.
This was like how a white belt in karate wouldn’t be able to describe how to properly kick a person once and incapacitate an enemy, but a black belt would know dozens of different variations to do so and describe it sufficiently enough to instruct others with very little error.
Pinaka shook her head, her eyes once more filled with disdain she couldn’t conceal. A flash of white light erupted from her and she entered Yan Zaizen’s soul form. The sea of consciousness they were in started to be sucked into his soul form, and almost immediately he was propelled out and back into his body.
Tao had been waiting for hours at this point. Yan Zaizen had essentially turned into stone, unwilling to move, and unable to be moved. It was odd. When he tried to investigate, a silver-blue light sparked and sent him flying. He actually got sent nearly three li downwards before being able to stop him. Seems like Yan Zaizen’s current state had a defensive mechanism set up. He even tried to investigate a few times but to no avail.
Yan Zaizen finally awoke, looking towards the wary Tao who seemed to be a little worse for wear. “What happened to you?” He couldn’t help but ask. Tao chuckled embarrassedly avoiding the conversation, “Just been messing around. What happened to you?”
“A Spirit-Rank Armament by the name of Pinaka, the Wayward Bow, asked me for my help. I’ve agreed, and now she’s resting in my soul.” He replied calmly. Tao was stunned. One can get a Spirit-Rank Armament with just that? Seeing his reaction, Yan Zaizen couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, I think it’s time we leave.” He looked upwards at the endless darkness, but his gaze seemed to penetrate through it all to outside.
“Yes, lets!” Tao was excited.