With his curiosity sated, Kairos kept all the tomes he was reading and instead directed his attention to another object. His weapon, the Swallow.

After the battle with Syriong, his weapon had absorbed quite a large piece of the guardian's artificial arm and transformed itself.

He took the weapon out to observe it, admiring how an enchanting silver shimmer, reflected off the light of the moon, washed over the area he is seated at and tinted everything with a beautiful grey hue.

A faint smile danced on his lips, as he saw the delicate workmanship of Siegfried who forged his weapon. The Swallow is a remarkable weapon that has the appearance of a twin-headed polearm and twice the elegance. His fingers traced across the runic symbols etched onto the flat of the blades. As his skin run across the cold metal, he could feel the two dragons throbbing within, dancing to his touch.

As their creator, these dragons instinctively displayed their love and reverence towards him, infecting him to give an affectionate smile.

Then, Kairos brought the weapon closer to his dimly glowing eyes, spectating the changes after absorbing half of Syriong's artificial arm.

The weight of the Swallow itself has changed, but he suspects that that is not the only thing that had been altered. The amount of mass the weapon had absorbed was large enough to coat the entire weapon or even change the blades itself, yet the Swallow's size had not increased, and its weight actually measured less than before.

Taking such a large chunk out of the artefact that is Syriong's arm, should mean a significant improvement. Though in traditional blacksmithing, even if one has found a higher-grade ore, they would rather create a new weapon than reforging an old one. To reforge requires one to throw their blades into the fire and melt it down. Wasting the previous folding process.

Kairos' weapon, however, could easily upgrade the material without destroying the weapon in the reforge process.

He curiously inspected his Swallow, wanting to know what changes are made to it. But after looking through a while, he could find hardly any differences even with the Veritable Sight. Unwilling to give up, he used his soul perception on it instead.

Now that he is unhindered by the amount of light, he could feel the minuscule details of the metal, and at once a gasp escaped him. The entire weapon has changed its material. It wasn't a coating on the surface, nor was it only a particular area that changed.

It was the entire weapon that has transformed into this new 'alloy' after absorbing Syriong's arm. Whatever the material that artefact was made of, it must have been immortal rank.

His weapon's original material is called the oceanic steel ore, a top tier Titan rank Heaven grade metal. After Siegfried's masterful forging techniques, it has easily become top-tiered within Titan ranked weapons.

However, his weapon could only be considered as a pseudo Immortal rank weapon, because although it has the ability to clash against a true Immortal weapon, it does not have any spiritual property.

But now, after its materials changed, when he sent his Ki into the weapon his power is amplified more than before and the frost and fire runes that flare into power holds a silver of spiritual strength. This spiritual strength was also what made his weapon lighter. Any true Immortal weapon will come with various abilities, and capacity to defy gravity. Now, Kairos' Swallow has begun its first step into the true Immortal ranks.

A single thought ran through Kairos' mind: His blade could now cut even a person's soul.

He put away his weapon and stood up. There is very little time for them to break through the checkpoint at the border before they are entirely encircled, and his friends have already begun recovering their energies. With the new Stratagem array, if everything goes smoothly, they would be able to set off the next day. When he walked towards the formation, he noticed that Jones was sitting outside of the circle. The boy opened his eyes when he felt Kairos coming over, and he looked at him, gesturing to talk at a private corner.

Kairos agreed, and they went away from the others.

"Kairos, I still couldn't cultivate. No matter what I try, I am unable to take in enough Heavenly Energy to break through to C rank."

"Is it totally impossible?" Kairos asked Jones curiously.

"Well, with enough time, I could still gather up the energy needed, but it is at least 10 times harder than before now."

"Want me to take a look?" He offered.

"Yes! If it's you, it'd definitely turn into a small issue" Jones said with a smile. He had been waiting for Kairos' help since the Crystal Valve had been created, but since his friend looked busy, he decided to study his swordsmanship while waiting. In the few hours that Kairos took to discover his abilities behind the glowing eyes and changes to his weapon, Jones has edged ever so closely to the 6th Swordsmanship stage.

He was only at the initiation of 5th Stage, but now after just a few hours, he is already at the advanced level.

If Kairos heard about this, he would get a heart attack.

Jones could still cultivate by using spirit stones, but now that he is on the verge of entering C rank, the amount of energy needed to break through a bottleneck to the next rank is simply too much for him to even consider.

The two sat down, front and back, with Kairos' hand upon Jones' back. Kairos sent a strand of Origin Energy into his body, searching for the seal that had been stopping the cultivation process. His eyes glowed as he activated his ability as he scans through the meridian channel systematically. In total, he found several spots that held the seals he had been looking for. It was told, that in the past, a Sealing Master first found these marks hidden within a person's body. This individual learned the symbols and successfully replicated it, thus becoming the greatest Sealing Grandmaster in history. Afterward, there were no one else who managed to see these seals again.

Today, Kairos, took a try and within several seconds he found them, clear as day.

He observed them like how he read the cryptic books, but to him, these complicated symbols seemed to be written like words that are familiar to him.

"Ah, I found the seals within your body," He said simply.

"What, really?! I thought you could... but... but... you're really a monster" Jones tried to compliment him, but in the end, though he expected that his friend would succeed, his shock was more than he thought he could handle.

No matter what, these seals within a person's body is something that everyone is naturally born with. It should be invisible to all except the most powerful deities or the most talented Sealing masters.

Yet his friend who is only at C rank, from a mortal realm, and without any sealing proficiency could see it. Whatever the abilities of the glowing eyes that Kairos have, it is at a level far beyond what they could understand.

"So, is there anything you think I can do to ...." Jones asked apprehensively. Even if Kairos could see it, this isn't a man-made seal but something that naturally exist. It is part of the Heavenly Laws.

Kairos had said that he could see the seals but to be able to understand it is much harder than just looking. Even that genius who became the sealing grandmaster in the past could not read it and only observed the seals.

But, since it is Kairos, at least there is some hope.

"Want me to try and change it?" Kairos asked softly. He wasn't confident if the fundamental seals could be controlled, but he has an idea on what to do after observing it for a while.

Of course, for Kairos, his 'for a while' did not last even a minute's duration. Compared to understanding the arrays from the Stratagem book, it is already ten times longer and therefore felt like it took a while to him.

Jones nodded his head with a pale face. He had met some incredible people before. Even fighting a Triple S ranker when he is only at Peak D, but he had never felt as though he was before an unbelievable monster like how he is feeling now.

Kairos' talents in cultivating might be incomparably slower than him, but for everything else, he felt that he is swallowed up by an ocean when he himself compared with Kairos.

Since Jones approved, Kairos closed his eyes in concentration, once again. His focus is on the Origin Energy within himself, directing the power to gather within his finger, then he lightly tapped on Jones' forehead. The Origin Energy he prepared went through the skin and gone into his meridian point in his head.

It travelled quickly into Jones' brain, finding three complicated looking seals symbols.

Kairos began by altering each mark, fusing his Origin Energy directly and controlling it from within. Once completed, he nervously tried to remove his Origin Energy from the seal. He took a risk but it worked perfectly, then with a sigh of relief, Kairos directed his energy to the second part. The heart.

Again, there are another three seals in this place. After repeating what he did previously, he sent his soul energy to the last place with three seals, Jones' Dantian.

And finally, after an hour, the work is complete.

Some parts of the seal of the birth land in those 3 places of Jones' body has changed. Originally, these seals only provide the benefit of cultivating in one's birth-land, but after those mysterious voices declared a change, the seals have become tainted with jealousy.

The land that birthed the person will prevent 90% of energy from another land from coming close.

With such a seal, the practitioner could only rely on spirit stones or other resources to cultivate.

"Is it done?" Jones asked, but seeing the smile on Kairos' face, he already knew the answer.

"Yep, I've changed the seals within you. The birth-land seal prevented Heavenly Energy from another land from coming close to you, while it boosted the energy you can absorb from the land you were born on. I've changed it to boost your energy absorption on all lands."

"Wha...," Jones said half way, but Kairos wasn't finished yet.

"There is also a seal which controls the bottleneck that one needs to destroy to enter the next cultivation ranking. I couldn't adjust the original version at all, but I took away the manipulation on it. Your breakthrough difficulty will revert to what was before those mysterious voices interfered"

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Now Jones could only open his mouth agape. He tried to speak, but his tongue felt dry, and his mouth sandy, and he only made funny noises instead.

Ignoring the dramatic reaction of his friend before him, Kairos rolled his eyes and continued, "The last seal is one that protects you. It seals the limit of your body, preventing you from using too much of your energy in too short a moment and injure yourself. However, I noticed it had been altered as well, to become a disadvantage. When you break past Triple S ranking it will limit your power so much that it would become impossible to burst through the mortal realms and enter the Immortal realm. And also, when you are ready to enter the Divine realm.

Of course, if you have powerful treasures by that time or limit removing methods, you could easily solve this issue, but since it was convenient, I had removed all the alterations for you. Again, I find myself unable to adjust the original seal, so don't expect your limits to be removed completely."

Jones, utterly speechless after he had been completely freed of his limitations from cultivation, checked his body for changes, but nothing seems different than before.

Then, he tried to pull in the Heavenly Energy from around him. A delighted look appeared on him when he realised that he is no longer stopped by that strange external force. And after a while, he realised that his absorption speed is even quicker than he had ever experienced.

Jones frowned for a second, but quickly remembered that Kairos told him that the seal of the birth-land was only meant to boost cultivation speed on the land one is born in, but he changed it to work on all lands.

If his absorption speed increased, that only means that he wasn't born here.

"Did I came across the seas to this land?"

Jones thought for a while but couldn't guess anything. The only person that should know would be his deceased father. Setting aside this mysterious of his birth, he went into the Crystal Valve Stratagem and began cultivation.

Whereas, for Kairos, he went to each of his brothers and quickly repeated the unsealing process.

As before, each person's seals within their bodies had been completely altered perfectly, and they couldn't help but feel as if a burden was lifted from their shoulders. Since the process merely took a short while for him, he lifted their curses as a way of convenience.

None of them know, that what Kairos had done was defying the 8 superior beings. Though the eight did not focus their strength on a single target and affected all the living creatures in the world, Kairos had countered their designs with the power of a mere mortal. What's more is his rank is not even considerably high.

"Whoa, could you do that for our other brothers?" Alan asked for the rest of Snowdrifts.

"You better not reveal such a thing quickly, son" Vouno shook his head and intervened. The knowledge that he could see into a person's body and the seals within, plus even altering them, would be too tremendous. Therefore, it would be a danger to fall into the wrong hands.

However, Kairos has another idea about this, "I only need to pat their shoulder for a few moments and I can secretly weaken their current curse instead of completely remove it. That way, they wouldn't notice it themselves, and it won't be easily detected. How about I weaken it to around half of the curse's original potency?" He said with a smile on his face as if it was a simple thing.

"Haha, can you guys believe it? I am already numb at the surprises he could bring" Alan said again. He had not expected this answer from Kairos. It is as though their captain could not only lift the curse upon them but also adjust it to his liking. Doesn't this mean that, within the limits of seal mastery, their captain is many times more superior to those 8 voices they heard?

"Y...yeah, I can't believe how little reaction I have as well. It's kinda within expectations to hear these sort of thing from him now" Jones sighed while thinking how he was still surprised a moment ago. But now, his astonishment has already gone through his body and mind for several cycles and made him immune to further shocks from him.

Since their bottleneck to the next rank has loosened like how it originally should be, and they also have a powerful cultivation circle here for them, everyone furiously trained.

They sat in a circle, with Vouno right in the centre. Since he has a Chaos Sea Dantian and could not refine Ki on his own, whenever the others cultivated they would transfer a part to him.

Kairos had also lifted the curse on his father as the rest of them, but unfortunately, he could only rely on energy sources to cultivate, and at a very slow pace.

Instead of converting energies into his own Ki, and using that Ki to strengthen his body like other cultivators do, Vouno can only absorb energy into his body and keep it in its raw state.

His body, however, will begin to strengthen itself to contain that power and use it as his own.

The reason why Vouno could not absorb the Heavenly Energy and use it as his own is due to how sparse and unrefined that power is. He could not purify any energy he absorbed, unable to process it like the others. In the end, he is only like a Ki-Container that requires refined Ki to run.

Along with the rest, Kairos joined in the cultivation circle, however, instead of trying to raise his level, he began to make use of the abundant Heavenly Energy in the air to learn magic.

He took out the beast tamer's glove he had and activated his eyes again. Then with effort, he began studying the artefact.

It can be said that Kairos had been interested in mana since a long time ago when he first attempted to talk to the Orcs.

Since then, it had been a series of failures for him to adopt the method to use magic, but he knows for a fact that it is not impossible. The southern countries composed mainly of mages, people who seep themselves within the power of mana.

In his pursue for the art, he had risked his life sneaking into the Orcs’ camp, studied two mana artefacts he bought at high prices, and did various experiments but only to result in limited successes. Till now, the only thing he managed is to detect the slight hint of mana in the air when the Orcs communicated.

However, a new option opened up to him recently. The use of these mysterious glowing eyes of his.

He had no knowledge of the origin of this new power of his, but one thing he noticed it could do is the ability to grant him an understanding of natural laws.

Ki itself, runic symbols, seals, Stratagems, and even Dao itself are no exception, none are hidden from his eyes. But this nigh-omniscient ability has a great limitation: Even if one has the capacity to read and understand all languages, one requires a book first.

In this case, the beast tamer’s glove is the best book he requires.

The dim golden glow of his eyes slowly brightened as he searched within the artefact. He could not identify the material of the glove but saw the complicated magic circles enchanted within when he sent his soul perception in. The moment he studied those symbols, the rest of the world seemed to drain away.

After an hour, he snapped out of the trance induced by his research. As he expected, the glove required a mysterious source of energy that he had never directly seen before. The ability of his golden eyes did not fail him and allowed him to easily read the meaning behind the input requirements. But to use mana immediately is still impossible.

Closing his eyes once again, he draws on the power of the thick concentration of Heavenly Energy in the Stratagem circle.

He realised that his body’s cultivation speed has increased several folds, and the amount of energy in this place is incomparably more than even the Spiritual Mountain of the Solitary Blades clan.

Just as how he intended when laying out this Stratagem, his training speed is now at least 7 times faster, meaning a day’s cultivation is equalled to a week’s worth.

The circle, strangely affecting only cultivation speed, did not speed up time as a whole. With this effect, he did not need to worry about ageing too quickly. This is a secondary effect that he did not expect when creating the array, in his mind he only thought that the changes he did to the Stratagem diagram would make it better.

A practitioner needs to be young enough to enjoy the fastest speed of cultivation. After growing beyond certain years, the practitioner would be out of the growth spurt.

But this ‘age limit’ increases every time one breaks through ranks and thus lengthening their life span, but the general rule of cultivation is to be as young as possible before entering into the next rank.

Kairos pooled the Heavenly energy he gathered into his palms and began moulding it into another form of energy. Mana

His aim is to create something that the beast tamer’s glove would accept. But the first few attempts caused his gathered energy to fizzle out like a candle.

In this way, he continued his tests one after another. The formation he is in allowed him nearly infinite tries without tiring himself out, but trying to reverse engineer mana, using the mana-input symbols was beyond demanding.

After his many attempts, Kairos felt that he wasn’t progressing at all, and felt a need to make his attempt in another way. It was his initial idea to uncover the use of magic was to seek the Orcs which are magical beasts, but that plan requires time that they do not have. However, wasn’t there an alternative in this place?

Kairos beckoned Wyrmy to resurface. Although he could not sense as much mana coming from it, there is no doubt the energy within the great Land Wyrm isn’t Ki but another form of power. A magical beast.

After a moment, Kairos placed his palm on the great Wyrm’s body and went into deep thoughts while his Soul Perception traced how the mana runs in the body.

The next morning, as the others have fully recovered and are ready to execute their plan to break through the checkpoint, they found Kairos still in closed-eyes training.

Believing that he knows what he is doing, the rest re-entered cultivation training. To increase in a single grade would be helpful for them, and in this place, an hour is equalled to 7 hours. It is an opportunity far too few to be missed.

The Heavenly Energy in this place is so thick that it felt as if they could touch it in the air and there is no need for using spirit stones as supplements as long as they are here. The only imperfection of this place is the lack of elemental energies that could further improve their cultivation speed. Edward, for example, would love a place with an abundence of wind Ki.

The second night they are in the illusionary barrier, Kairos reopened his eyes.

A new energy formed within his closed hands, and he lifted it before his eyes. A bright blue energy. Arcane power, Mana.

He had directed the Heavenly Energy within his body, trying to change it to mana within his Ki centre. But every attempt ended up in failure, with the foreign energy either disappearing or running rampant within him. Fortunately, the twin dragons that are sensitive to any wild energies quickly flew in and suppressed the situations. For the entire night, he had tried and failed. Then suddenly a strange piece of memory gave him the inspiration he needed.

He remembered when he looked for the seals within Jones’ body, and there he found three sets of three. The first set is in a person’s mind. The second in his heart. And the last in his Dantian.

If the Dantian could only create Ki, then maybe the mind or the heart is used for another energy source?

Almost immediately, he instinctively felt that he was right, and he deduced that the heart of a person should be for a person’s soul. Leaving the mind as the logical choice.

He daringly took in a small amount of Heavenly Energy and sent it towards his head. But because even a trace of energy could damage things he would not want, Kairos could only proceed exceedingly slowly.

A whole day passed before he finally succeeded.

At this time, he looked at the blue energy floating above his palm excitedly. With mana, he would have another source of energy as he had hoped, though, he does not have the ‘spells’ for using it yet.

He opened his mouth to tell the others who are still focusing on their training, but then Kairos felt an intense pain in his head, causing him to fall heavily to the ground in so much distress that he couldn’t even make a sound.

Curling up into a ball, he held his head between both his hands, applying pressure in the hope that it would relief him of that searing pain he felt.

Then everything turned white.

He looked around, trying to get a clearer picture of where he is at. The place he is now at is a strange place that is completely white. But when he paid attention to further away, he could see large images. He focused on look at them and reeled back in shock as he realised those were the scenes that he had seen before.

My memories?

Then is this place my sub-consciousness?

To enter one’s sub-consciousness is a common thing among practitioners. In fact, many higher-tiered cultivation methods provide the ability to do this. But it is usually of one’s accord to do so, and Kairos had not learned any techniques to do so.

Somehow, he had been forcefully sent here. He looked around for the purpose of being brought to this place, and as if answering him, a sudden glow appeared at a place further away from him. A blue shimmer, like the mana sphere he created.

He quickly ran there, though there are no flooring. Then, before his ‘eyes’ he saw a great blue crystal radiating a pure blue glow.

The next moment, he has already awakened from his collapse. Still in a curled up position, he tried to push himself off the ground, but he found that his friends and father are already standing around him.

“Kairos! What happened? You just collapsed!” Quite a few asked.

Kairos, however, focused his attention within himself. He sent his conscious scanning through the body, and in the centre of his head, he found the beautiful shining blue crystal. The gem is no longer as huge as it looked when he was within his sub-consciousness, but it is definitely there.

Just a tiny speck of crystal. But its identity, which he could easily guess, holds a tremendous weight.

He spoke half in awe, and half in quiet contemplation, “I just formed a mana core.”

Having already a soul core within himself, and knowing that all cultivators will create a Ki core once they reach S rank, he has a feeling that once he created all three cores, he would discover a new realm that had always meant to be his.

The students and teachers of Saint Cadets Academy have always said that as mortals they do not have the top-tier martial techniques of immortals and divines, so they had to work harder to transcend their fates.

They even said that those of the higher realms could learn such powerful cultivation methods that would grant them with all sorts of incredible abilities. The capacity to change fate. To stop the sun. To reverse the oceans.

However, all those things seemed puny when compared to what will happen when he forms the 3rd and last core within himself. He does not know what will occur then, only a sense of its magnificence.