The moment Illyan finally returned to his manor, he took down the sign indicating he was away from his door and sat in his bedroom, contemplating the words the woman had said.

He didn’t know anything about her, nor did he know if she could be considered friendly. But at least, the words she spoke resonated deeply within him.

An hour passed like this as he sat deep in thought before he took out his finger bone runes.

He wanted to know if he should listen to her words. While everything made sense to him, he still felt he should confirm it somehow.

He started praying to the spirits of the world, putting his all into this divination.

Then, he threw the runes high into the air and asked loudly:

“What will happen if I follow the advice of the crimson woman?”

His voice was emotionless, but it gave off an air of mystery as the runes stopped midair.

It seemed as if they were attracted to each other since they suddenly clustered together and fell into Illyan’s arm in one piece.

When Illyan looked at the shape of the cluster and the sides of the runes that were facing up, he felt this divination was successful. After all, he had never managed to get this result before.

“Eternal Glory…” Narrowing his eyes, Illyan decided that since he now had light illuminating his road, he should use it to the fullest.

“Let’s do this.”

Illyan took his belongings and entered his hidden room.

There, he took out the pouches of the three acolytes.

Each of them had two pouches: one for their belongings, while the other was stuffed with centipedes.

He put the centipedes into jars and set them aside. Then, he took out Bast’s pouch.

He found two dark stones, two hundred violet coins, and several miscellaneous items. The space in the pouches was limited, after all, so they probably didn’t carry everything on them.

Looking at the dark stones, he remembered the huge explosions. If one of the explosions hit him head-on, there was a chance he wouldn’t be able to continue the fight. It was, in fact, terrifying.

However, Illyan noticed that each stone had slightly different pulsations. It would make sense that each stone wasn’t perfectly cut, and so the energy levels of each were a little different.

He also found other vials of medicine that could even reattach limbs. He actually already had this medicine from Arwen, but only now did he realize how great the effect was.

The last item was a dried-up head. He recognized it as the tool Jaren used to find the bandits. He didn’t know how it worked, but it seemed useful, so he carefully stored it in a box wrapped in cloth.

He then checked the other two pouches but was mostly disappointed. They were definitely a poor bunch.

But it made sense. From what he read in Arwen’s diary, these acolytes were mostly involuntary disciples of the Black Obsidian.

They were kidnapped, bought as slaves, or scammed into joining. Once they joined, they became property of the organization. Those with acceptable talent usually made it into the inner circle of the Black Obsidian, becoming true members.

But common acolytes didn’t have that privilege. They were used however the higher-ups deemed fit and were always given the worst jobs with the least rewards.

This wasn’t limited to the Black Obsidian. Most human organizations under the reign of the Arkravav Empire operated this way. Mortals were livestock in their eyes.

In truth, most of the surrounding kingdoms were farms where most of the empire’s mortals were raised. Within the empire’s boundaries, only the large cities had mortals living inside them.

The Arkravav Empire, also known as the Empire of the Hundred Treasures, was the wealthiest force on the entire continent.

However, let alone mortals, even the lesser acolytes lived in poverty.

Most of the money they earned was immediately spent on resources to strengthen themselves.

And the result was displayed before Illyan’s eyes.

The final tally was seven dark stones, 1,200 violet coins, some red seeds, a barrier scroll, the magic model of the [Magic Hand], and a book called the [Darkglide Centipede’s Guide].

Illyan felt it was a shame, but since he had gained what he sought, he was content.

The Darkglide Centipede was the name of the centipedes they had infested the town with. Illyan browsed through the guide and was satisfied with it.

He found instructions on how to feed and breed them.

He also found some spells. There was a way to imprint their minds with Mind Power, thus fully enslaving them. One spell made them self-destruct, while another guided them to glide toward their enemies.

However, Illyan wasn’t interested in these at all. The centipedes were nasty but quite weak. Not to mention, the use of Mind Power was astronomical. You needed to imprint each centipede individually, which made this process strenuous without great rewards. Illyan could only imagine the frustration the men must have felt when they used up most of their centipedes during the fights.

For now, Illyan would use only the knowledge of breeding and feeding…

As for the [Magic Hand], he would wait to use it until he had cultivated enough mana. In truth, he preferred to accumulate mana without using it until he reached the Magister level, as it would take years to replenish it.

Illyan also examined the seeds but didn’t recognize them. He would need to look them up in the library or ask Vael.

Once he sorted out the loot, he decided to get back to work.

He went to the table where he had previously tortured Caleb, looking at the unmoving object lying on it with an expressionless face.

It was a naked human body, embalmed for preservation. It was the body of Arwen.

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At first, Illyan had only conducted a basic inspection of the body after Arwen died. Unfortunately, since his death, the energies inside his body had become unbound, causing chaos within.

A person with strong perception of these energies could learn a great deal from that, but unfortunately for Illyan, he wasn’t that kind of person.

Illyan decided to wait until the energies fully dissipated before beginning the dissection. Despite the energies vanishing, the traces left behind were what Illyan needed the most. He needed to find the pathways Arwen had used, the exact spot to build the Mana Sea, and so on. This would save him a lot of time and effort.

He took out a knife and began dissecting the body.

“Well, Arwen, this is the last bit of worth you have. So once I’m done, I’ll purify your body for cooperating so well.” Illyan’s mouth curled slightly as his eyes glinted with madness.

Having already gained experience with Caleb, he had no problem opening the chest and harvesting the organs, just as he would with wild animals…

……..

Another month passed, and the weather grew warmer.

Illyan sat in the hidden basement, sharpening what appeared to be a very thin needle. The length was only about that of a palm, and the thickness was like a blade of grass.

Its shine was wondrous but seemed to hide a dangerous quality.

The whetstone Illyan had previously bought for his nails was now being used to sharpen this needle, but it was a slow process.

This was, of course, because the needle was made from rods of dark crystal.

Illyan had to pour all the spiritual energy he could gather from the air into the whetstone to make any progress at all.

Beneath the needle and whetstone, another vessel was filled with fine dark crystal powder, which Illyan intended to use.

He wanted to create a set of needles for medical use, but seeing his progress, he knew it would take a long time. That didn’t discourage him, though.

As long as he completed the first one, he could assess whether the effort was worth it.

He also hoped to use it as a hidden weapon in a crisis.

The powder, on the other hand, had many potential uses.

But for now, Illyan, who needed to grow stronger, found the perfect use for it.

He would dilute it in water and bathe in it, just like with the medicinal baths.

He didn’t mix the medicine bath with the powder, as there could be a conflict between the two and decided to do it separately.

Not only separately but differently.

To absorb the dark matter in the water, he used the same technique the Bakur Tribe used with Cold Energy. In truth, it was very similar.

The only difference was that the element was darkness, not coldness.

He meditated inside the water, allowing the pores and acupoints to open and letting all the energy seep inside.

This energy was much more destructive than the Cold Energy inside Kennera Lake but was weaker than that in the sea.

Thanks to that, his body bloated with energy as it was invaded.

When that happened, instead of leaving, Illyan started to do the basic stances of [The Way of the Body], which were meant to teach him about his body.

The tricky positions stretched out all the muscle groups inside the body as the dark matter within him compressed a little, leaving space for more.

The energy flowed smoothly through his body, smoothing out a few of the blemishes that the woman talked about.

How did he know about it?

He never focused on it before, but since he owned Mind Power, there was no way he wouldn’t know the condition of his body once he was aware of the problem.

And this situation helped to some extent. On the other hand, it also caused the appearance of new blemishes.

This dark energy was destructive, thus causing injuries that were then healed immediately. But the regeneration wasn’t perfect.

That was a shock to Illyan. A minuscule flaw encompassed his entire body from head to toe.

Normal eyes wouldn’t notice such flaws.

But now Illyan did.

Illyan pondered how to solve this problem a lot.

Actually, he was thinking about it even now.

Slick

He finished the last stroke of the needle and put it down.

“Oof, that is enough for today.” Illyan had been sharpening it for two hours, and his mind was already filled with some ideas about how to solidify his foundation.

He stood up and went to the table that was filled with many parchments and books.

Some of these books were borrowed from the library. That was one of the benefits of being an Academic: he could borrow books and bring them home.

But most of them were books that Korin had given him. After the last time, he started to shower Illyan with more complex math problems and gave him some of his collection.

Illyan sat down at the table, looked at the parchments, and started to modify one of them.

These parchments were covered with drawings of male bodies lying in star shapes. Some of them showed the organs within the body, while some showed the nervous system.

The most detailed one had notes about magic.

Words like Mana Sea, acupoints, and Seat of Consciousness were marked on the body. Not only that, but several pathways within the body were also indicated.

Most of them came from the Mana Sea, going into the limbs, and two of them came directly into each hemisphere of the brain.

This was the magic circuit Arwen created.

While the mana was gone, the traces of it flowing within him for years took a much longer time to dissipate.

With this, he could take another step. He was very serious about this. Every time he made one discovery in the body, he immediately recorded it.

In this way, he had already found around 136 acupoints within the body.

It was quite shocking that he kept finding new ones.

But that wasn’t important now.

He took the parchment with the man doing a stance. The mana pathways and acupoints were drawn on it too, but they were distorted.

This stance was, of course, from [The Way of the Body].

Since the woman talked about the foundation technique, he started to study it more in-depth.

What Illyan found was shocking.

The illusionary Life Force he discovered recently was actually reacting during this process!

It was actually following the paths of the acupoints within the body, which wasn’t that surprising—at least until Illyan found a way to control that.

Thus, he started experimenting with the stances and tried to connect them together so that the practice was fluid.

And as the stances became more fluid, it made the life force resemble that of the tide, or rather...

‘This is a flow. A flow is made out of strands of life force.’ Illyan’s eyes shone.

And since the way of condensing flow was to use breathing techniques...

‘The act of condensing flow is using the spiritual energy within the air to refine the strands of life force. Thanks to that, even ordinary soldiers can control the flow with their thoughts and can even weaponize it.’

Thinking how both techniques went hand in hand, Illyan thought of integrating the breathing technique into [The Way of the Body]. After all, controlled breathing was also important.

But once he did so, he realized that it was quite difficult.

At the same time, he had fun doing so. Kennera should be able to come into contact with the breathing technique during her journey, but she didn’t incorporate it into her technique.

Thinking of surpassing someone in the technique they created was something that hadn’t crossed Illyan’s mind ever before.

Illyan continued modifying the stances until late at night.

Once he was done, he tried out the stances with the changes.

He started with the horse stance before slowly lowering his body.

Then his body sprang up. It looked as if he was doing some martial arts combined with dancing.

However, Illyan focused mostly on the life force within him. His life force was mighty, and it wasn’t difficult to make it burst, but it was very difficult to control it.

Fortunately, he didn’t need extremely accurate control.

Everywhere the life force flowed through, the blemishes became fainter.

The muscles were more elastic, the bones were harder, and the skin was more vibrant.

Illyan felt that he could even fight a troll now.

“Fuu...” Illyan exhaled as he finished up.

His mind was a little tired, but his body was pumped up.

‘I need to go to the waterfall. During the night, it is easier.’

Since the time Illyan sneaked outside of the town, he rarely went the honest way. It was a waste of time, and people could track his movements easily.

During the night, there would be nobody looking for him, so it was even better.

The entire process took several hours, which allowed him to leave at dusk and return at dawn.

That was taking into consideration the dark water process before the main one.

Normally, a person would not be able to absorb more energy within the body without any appropriate technique.

But Illyan had one: a crude one, but functional.

Every time his body was saturated with dark energy, he entered the medicine bath and continued the original training.

However, after using the [Blood Feeding Technique], the same thing happened to the excessive Cold Energy within him; it was absorbed deep within his body where even his Mind Power couldn’t perceive it.

But he wasn’t afraid that it was lost. Instead, he believed it was integrated deep within his body to the point of becoming part of himself.

‘Could it be that this is how affinities are polished? Arwen said in his diary that affinities toward the elements aren’t as fixed as mana talent and could be improved with the right resources. This must be one of those.’

Illyan was very satisfied. He felt like he found a good rhythm during his training. Time passed by so quickly he didn’t even realize...