Crushing Attuned Fruit of Enlightenment (Uncommon)—4,000,000 SP

3,000,000 SP (-25%)

Piercing Attuned Fruit of Enlightenment (Uncommon)—4,000,000 SP

3,000,000 SP (-25%)

Cleaving Attuned Fruit of Enlightenment (Uncommon)—4,000,000 SP

3,000,000 SP (-25%)

Getting into the elysian crystal trade, he’d done his due diligence when it came to research gathering.

What he was attempting right now wasn’t too dissimilar from a tactic the elite have been using to supercharge their children on the path of cultivation for centuries. It all had to do with the inherent nature of elysian crystals.

Because, while it’s effectiveness as a spiritual insulator is undeniably singular in scope, the benefits of elysian crystals, to the beast core trade, is, in actuality, twofold.

That is to say, by coating a shattered beast core in Elysian dust, then heating it up until a hardened shell was formed, it’s entirely possible to contain what spiritual energies would otherwise dissipate, indefinitely.

This special property was what most referred to when denoting the inherent value of elysian crystals.

Very few people were aware of its secondary value, however. That being, it’s capacity to, not only trap spiritual energy, but house conceptual matter as well. The manufacturers that routinely process beast cores realized the potential of this discovery fairly early on, and, in turn, developed ways in which to capitalize on this rare and potent commodity.

Draining the concentrated stuff of the cosmos itself, each drop of universal truth heavily flavored by the lives of the beasts who’d conceptualized them, into shards of crystal rarely larger than one’s thumb.

A shard about the size of Jun’s pinky nail containing the condensed matter of cutting, for instance, could easily sell for several hundred million apiece.

And, depending on the quality of the cores used, even that was being rather generous.

They could just as easily sell for billions. That was just how valuable these little glowing crystal’s were. After all, they supplied something that no amount of money had been able to buy previously. Hard earned experience.

Several lifetime’s worth of epiphanies, breakthroughs, and mistakes to learn from. A series of recorded, and even sometimes viable, paths to power. All right there and ripe for the picking. That it normally it took upwards of ten thousand shattered beast cores to harvest a single drop of understanding was neither here nor there.

A shard of the aforementioned size, just for easy reference, containing as many as twelve such drops. Needless to say, what Jun attempted here was nowhere near on the same level. Still, the idea was essentially the same.

Though that ultimately brought him back to the natural treasures he’d purchased. Because if the cores would act as a guiding compass—outlining how he might progress his path without it taking a lifetime—then the fruits of enlightenment should serve as the fuel.

Jun stared down at the three uncommonly ranked treasures neatly arranged before him.

The one on the far left, imbued with the concept of crushing, was a round thing that easily fit inside the palm of his hand. A shriveled, desiccated looking berry, it was as if any juice it’d once held had long since evaporated into nonexistence. A thick stem stuck up from the top of the little fruit with a vibrant green leaf affixed to it like a flag. In all honesty, if it weren’t for the aura of crushing spiritual weight it gave off, he wouldn’t have believed it to be anything special. As it was, it exuded the aura of a sleeping predator—immobile for now, yet ready to lash out with explosive force at even the slightest provocation.

Next came the piercing attuned fruit. From the stem downward it looked more like a root system in disguise. Bright green and vibrant, looking almost unripe, the length of the elongated fruit split apart into a disparate tangle of winding appendages. From where he sat, it emanated a sharp, singleminded focus. Like a raging river it felt somehow indomitable, while at the same time infinitely adaptable. As though, just because it’s only way to move was forward—to advance—the form it took in achieving that advancement could vary almost indefinitely.

And lastly, the cleaving imbued fruit. It kind of resembled a smooth wedge of cheese, with a waxy rind that was covered in minor discolorations. There was no visible stem, and it was larger than the other two combined. Still small enough to fit in his hand, but only just. The aura it emanated was not a complex one, though it did not lack substance for all that. In the place of complexity arose a terrifying aura of unapologetic might. It seemed to promise that, irregardless of how many swings it takes, when it’s blow eventually landed the very world itself would be torn asunder.

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Jun shivered at the palpable waves of intent billowing off of all three. It was an intimidating sight to behold, that was for sure.

A niggling feeling of doubt surfaced then.

A fear that maybe, just maybe, he was getting ahead of himself by the tiniest bit. Biting off more than he could chew seemed to be a reoccurring theme in his cultivation after all.

Before he could second guess himself, Jun reached forward and plucked up the crushing attuned fruit.

I mean, I’ve already bought them, right? There’s really no use in second guessing myself now.

He wasn’t entirely sure whether the twig counted as a part of the fruit or not so, just to be safe, he decided to swallow everything—fruit, stem, leaf, and all.

It was only a few seconds into that particularly difficult swallow that he was able to confirm that, no, he hadn’t needed to eat the damned stick. On the bright side, the leaf actually had a pleasant piney taste to it. So, there was that.

After picking most of the splinters from his teeth, Jun sat back and waited for inspiration to hit him—a handful of attuned cores resting in his palms. And he waited. And waited. Aaand waited…

Just as he was beginning to think he’d been cheated by the system store, a feeling of euphoria swept over and through him. It carried him upward on currents of awe, and right into the waiting arms of inspiration’s loving embrace—his eyes mimicking his soul as they widened in sudden comprehension.

As if he’d been blind all his life and now, suddenly, he could see. And while his environment itself hadn’t changed, he now saw everything around him in a completely different light.

It was as if epiphany lurked around each and every corner. As if the intrinsic truths of the wider universe were just one unobstructed glimpse away. That the cosmos could be peeled back to its very base components, if only he had the guts to reach out and draw back the curtain. It was a tantalizing proposition.

To see further, deeper, than any mortal mind had any right to. To reach out into the ether, and, in so doing, have the ether reach back in turn. If anything, wasn’t it too great of an invitation for him to reasonably ignore?

Jun bit down on his tongue hard enough to taste blood. The flood of pain bringing back some semblance of reason. Leading him away from the brink of… well, he didn’t rightly know what.

Something a part of him had known to distrust almost instinctually. Something he wasn’t entirely sure he could’ve come back from. He was suddenly very aware of how much time had passed while he’d been in his little trance.

Or to be more exact, aware that he had no idea how long he’d been out of it. A few seconds or a few hours, he couldn’t even begin to speculate which. Regardless, the thought that he might’ve wasted this very expensive opportunity daydreaming was so horrifying that his hands were moving before he’d fully formulated the thought.

With a circulation empowered clench, he crushed the handful of beast cores—a part of him still reveling in the application of such a fundamental truth. Maintaining his focus with an effort of will, he lowered his head and inhaled the dense cloud of silvery vapor. In the next moment he was blindsided by a deafening cacophony.

Brief flashes of memory, intense emotions, and overlapping voices all blending together to the detriment of all. An unholy cocktail of soul quaking proportions. The overwhelming medley jarring him senseless with each passing flicker. Dozens of lives led, hundreds of days lived, thousands of tiny little actions that, when added all together, amounted to a life, a number of lives, many. Far too many, in their totality.

And if that was all, if he’d gone into this with nothing more than a few beast cores and a dream, it was likely this maelstrom of memories would’ve remained inscrutable.

As it was however, thanks to the fruit’s much needed assistance—acting as a focus within the jumbled knot of confusion—finding a single thread, a lone path among dozens, and untangling it from the chaotic tapestry proved difficult, though not impossible. And in that way, after what felt like an eternity, he soon finished.

Eyes closed, and with his mind still enraptured, he felt more than heard the simple chime likely heralding advancement. With that in mind, he realized that, were he to simply call it quits here, he’d likely come away the proud owner of a crushing aspect. That, in addition to whatever random mantra the path he’d disentangled from the roiling mass had gifted him with.

Which ultimately begged the question.

Was he satisfied with just that?

And more than that, had he really come this far just to stop at the bare minimum? To his surprise, he found that the answer was no. And so, without even an ounce of hesitation, he rolled up his metaphorical sleeves, and began again. And this time he wouldn’t stop after extracting a few more paths. No, on the contrary, he wouldn’t stop until he’d unraveled the confused tapestry as a whole.

And that was exactly what he did—feeling as if he were untying the most complex knot in existence. In what felt like a moment stretched out into infinity, his mind was further inundated by dozens upon dozens of life defining revelations.

He sifted through myriad flaws, ingenious connections, and crippling misinterpretations that’d stymied, blessed, or otherwise impacted an individual’s path. And, as he did so, not only did he see, but he catalogued as well.

He sorted, and he managed, and he extrapolated from where they’d left off. He took from the good and learned from the bad. He used similar, and conflicting connections to make great leaps in his own understanding.

He followed chains of connections through to their most logical conclusions. Conclusions that’d never been fully realized. He unraveled the devilish knot of experiences until all that was left was a series of threads.

Threads which he’d expanded upon and specified in equal measure. And then, with each path neatly defined, he did something unbelievably foolish. Something he’d already prevented himself from attempting once before.

Deaf to better judgment and acting purely on intuition, he tore away the curtain which screened his true soul from the ether, grabbed hold of the myriad conceptual threads laid out before him, and then, ever so slowly, he began to weave.