Over the next few hours, Aiden, Ace, and Linley waited whilst Jordon, Kaymin and the others went to round up Killian and the other Acolytes of the Yin-Yang Pavilion, including the pale-faced Amira.
In that time, Ace had already explained Amira’s condition to his master, so when he saw her weakened condition, Aiden wasn’t surprised. In fact, he agreed with her decision.
He understood that as Ace’s soulmate, her talent was in no way inferior to his. Still, it was only after seeing the abilities granted by her bloodline awakening that he understood how true it was.
With her current level of talent, he didn’t doubt for a second that this adoptive niece of his would definitely be able to turn this disaster into a blessing; it was merely a matter of time.
When everyone had gathered, Aiden sent away all of those with lesser talents, including Linley’s family and friends.
Although each of them were incredibly talented, being descendants of the four supreme warriors, that talent was only regarding the path of warriors.
It was common knowledge that aside from the Violetflame Warriors, whose bloodline boosted their prowess as mages – and thereby affinity to fire – the other three all suffered from poor affinities to the laws of nature.
It was exceedingly rare for a descendant of a supreme warrior to be blessed with decent affinities, which was why, of the ten alive and present in this era, aside from Lauriella, who was a pure-blooded Violetflame Warrior, only Linley and Alissa were blessed with exceptional affinities.
After everyone else was dispersed, the only ones remaining were Ace, his fellow disciples from the Pavilion, Wukong, Leona, Linley, Bebe, and surprisingly, Ace’s mother, Milianna. Although, when one took the time to really think about it, her being allowed to stay made sense.
Not only had her pure soul completely recovered, as a haki user, the power of her soul was especially powerful. It had to be said, of all those present, the only ones with talent surpassing hers were Ace, Amira, and Linley. Even Leona and Bebe – two Apex Divine Beasts – could only be said to be on her level.
“What’s this about?” Amira whispered to Ace whilst sitting on Leona’s back, leaning against Ace’s lean body for support.
“The old man completed his breakthrough,” Ace said softly, gently holding Amira.
Even though, technically speaking, Ace and Amira’s relationship hadn’t progressed since their conversation back in the Rohault Empire – Ace still wanting to wait until he had finished his business with O’Brien before taking things any further – unofficially, they appeared to be getting closer and closer by the day – that was especially true after Amira got injured.
Unless he was training, Ace would spend almost all of his free time by her side. To be fair, even when he was training, Amira would spend her time by his side, silently focusing on her comprehension of the Law of Light’s Profound Mystery of Purity, as though being by his side gave her strength.
At first, they would still be embarrassed acting so intimately when others were around, but after a month, they had long since gotten used to it, as had everyone else. Even Amira’s ‘mother’, Empress Sharanthia, though still sceptical, didn’t say much else. She could see the joy being by Ace’s side brought Amira, and there was nothing she wanted more than the happiness of the daughter of her deceased, beloved older brother.
“He also somehow managed to create a new path that allowed his strength to take a giant step forward.” Ace continued with his explanation. “Now, he’s going to explain the specifics of this new path of his to each of us.”
Amira’s eyes widened in surprise when she heard that, but before she could ask anything else, the sound of her uncle’s voice caught the attention of everyone present.
“Now that all of you brats are here, let’s begin,” Aiden said lazily. “As some of you already know, I left the Pavilion to enter seclusion over a year ago so that I could attempt to push my soul into the realms of a deity, and thankfully, I was successful in my breakthrough.”
As he said that, the eyes of Linley and the others all constricted into pinholes as they felt an extremely tyrannical and overbearing energy surround them.
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“Godrealm,” Alissa muttered, feeling the familiar energy surround her – It was identical to her grandpa Cesar’s after he broke through to the deity realm.
Though it had done nothing to suppress them, it made each of them feel like they were mere ants standing before a deity.
“Show off,” Ace snorted, causing Aiden to give Ace’s soul a slight shock to teach him a lesson before continuing as though nothing happened.
“It was after making my breakthrough in the Twin Horn Peak in the mountain range of death and using my newly enhanced soul to observe the unique aspects of the wind that I had an epiphany, leading to my discovery of this new path,” Aiden explained.
“Twin Horn Peaks?” Killian asked. “Mountain Range of death?”
“The mountain range of death is one of the continents forbidden areas of the continent. It’s said that all who enter will find themselves unable to leave – or at least that’s the case for mortals.” Joel explained. “But to saints and experts on the level of Grand Elder Aiden, it’s just another slightly unique location in our continent.”
“The truth is the Twin Horn Peaks were formed in such a way that when the winds travel through It, it makes a howling sound that affects the soul of those who hear it,” Aiden explained. “But like Joel said, it’ll only really affect the souls of mortals and those saints with weaker souls.
But anyway, whilst observing the wind, I realised that even though I can’t comprehend the laws directly, there’s no reason I can’t comprehend the abstract concepts of the wind and apply them to my glaivesmanship.”
As Aiden said to there, he began to display his new and improved glaivesmanship.
Although he had no opponent, it didn’t stop Ace and the others from marvelling at the display. It was truly enchanting.
“It’s as though both Uncle and his glaive have fused with the wind, essentially becoming a force of nature,” Amira’s eyes sparkled the more she watched.
As someone with an exceptional affinity to the laws of the wind, she was able to take away more from this display than Ace was.
It wasn’t just her either. Be it Alissa, Kannal, or Linley, each of them had exceptional affinities to the laws of wind; as such, this display was especially mesmerising to them.
“As I’ve already said, this path is still very much in its embryonic stages, and although my experience can’t compare to those supreme experts in the universe, I genuinely believe that this is the true path of utilising the laws or at least half of it,” Aiden said, a gentle smile playing his lips as his glaive danced through the air with an undeniable charm. “I believe that when you utilise the profound mysteries, they should be used as the basis for your supreme and finishing attacks, but what about when you’re just attacking normally?
My wife’s family heirlooms include videos of supreme experts from the various higher realms who have done battle in our plane in the past. Although their supreme attacks are something I can’t even begin to fathom, when attacking normally, their attacks tend to be brutish at best, simply relying on raw strength and speed.
Some were skilled enough to create supreme attacks that could be used repeatedly over extended periods of time, but it was still a waste of their energy. They should focus on using their divine energy for their supreme attacks to kill their enemy when the right time arises.
A feat that becomes entirely possible by infusing the concept of a law into your weapon handling. Doing so wastes not an ounce of your divine energy. Instead, it relies solely on the body’s stamina and endurance, which, forget the deity realm, even at the saint stage, becomes virtually limitless.”
The reason why saints no longer use [impose] is that [Impose] is merely a way for mortals to become one with nature, using the force of mother nature to strengthen their attacks. But upon becoming saints, the body goes through an evolution, preparing them for godhood. This evolution essentially makes their body one with nature, meaning that without having to actively do anything, their attacks hold the same effect and power of [impose].
This evolution allows them to forgo the need for food or sleep; it also gives them a limitless amount of physical stamina.
“Unfortunately, there is one prerequisite for truly starting upon this path,” Aiden said as he gradually came to a stop. “And that is for you to become a deity, or at least your soul must reach that level.”
Everyone’s eyes were sparkling as they hung on Aiden’ every word, but when they heard the prerequisite, their expressions couldn’t help but drop.
Among them, the closest among them to the Deity realm was Wukong. After initially fusing two profound mysteries, his comprehension had already stepped into the deity realm, meaning that he would face no bottlenecks when increasing his realm until he reached the Demi-God realm.
Still, even if he stopped focusing on his comprehension and focused all his time and energy on increasing his realm, it would still take the better part of a decade to become a Demi-God.
It had to be remembered that comprehension, whilst the part that slowed most on the path to godhood was only one of two things needed when becoming a deity. The other was the accumulation of energy.
Although the process of absorbing energy was simple, it was still a gradual process, especially as the amount of energy needed was simply astronomical.
As such, it was no surprise that each of them was so disappointed by Aiden’s revelation.
“As I said before, this path is still very much in its infancy stage, plus I’m merely a cripple who can’t sense the laws of nature, so I don’t know if there’s another way, but as it stands, the only way to truly infuse the concepts of the laws into your weapon art, is via the use of a divine weapon,” Aiden explained, going back to his usual lazy and uninterested demeanour.
As he did, the eyes of all those present widened as they stared at him, or more specifically, his weapon.
“Your glaive…” Ace said incredulously. “It’s a Demi-God Artifact?”