Mortal Realm, Capital Planet of the Hoborg Empire, the ****** **** mansion in Cloudmount City.
Starting to calm down from the previous ordeal, Guang Yang adjusted his posture in his father's arms and said to him, pouting. “Dad, it's not fair!” Intrigued, the other asked with one of his brows raising up. “Oh? What is not fair?” To which the boy replied. “You're too strong, so I can't beat you. And you keep tickling me but I can't tickle you. It's not fair.” Keeping himself from laughing at his son's cuteness, he said in his serious magnetic voice. “So what you mean, is that, if you were stronger than me, you would tickle me back. Is that right?” Feeling himself in danger, little Yang's eyes darted around, trying to find a solution when he had a sudden idea. “Of course not, dad! What I said was that dad is so strong, it's not fair for others. And even if I become stronger than you I will definitely never tickle you back to avenge me. Never ever!” Although he noticed the crafty glint in his son's eyes, he decided to play along. “So that's what you meant. I misunderstood you then. It's a relief.” Realizing that he escaped with his life, the little boy sighed in relief.
The comical scene fell into the eyes of the others who were sitting in the pavilion's patio which was floating on the crystal clear lake, completely open on every sides. They were enjoying some delicious snacks and wine while waiting for the food. All of them laughed when they noticed the expression of relief on the boy's face as he thought that he had outwitted his father. The scene warmed the heart of every one and in particular Bai Yue, who felt her emotions being more and more unfettered during the past year, thanks to all the interactions she had with everyone present there and in particular the cute little golden fox currently in the arms of his father.
Speaking of foxes, the little child was not yet able to turn back into his fox form. The reason for it was the same reason that allowed him to be born in his human form directly without any visible mana beast characteristics. Indeed, only rank 2 mana beasts can take partial human forms and only rank 3 can do what he did, which is to have a perfect human form.
Going back to the why of this situation. It came from his Immortal Bloodline, as, although faint, it had a huge impact on him, and the most visible one would be his physical appearance. His Life Fox bloodline made his three 'cultivation characteristics' which were his body, soul and energy, extremely strong for his level. It also gifted him with an otherworldly handsomeness, similar to an Immortal Level cultivator, albeit slightly lacking the effect that cultivating the Law of space had on one's body. However, the most amazing perk he received was the aura emanating from him, which came from the Law of Life. The former increased the good feelings that people had toward him and decrease killing intent directed toward him. Of course, whether it would be as useful once he reached the Immortal Level was another story.
In conclusion, although that bloodline gave him amazing perks, it also made it hard to control, which was why he could not yet turn into his Fox form. However, with the rise of his cultivation, it shouldn't take long for him to succeed.
After all, mana beasts' beast bodies had a lot of advantages over human bodies, such as toughness, size, use of special bloodline powers, etc.
While thinking about all that, Bai Yue saw the man and his son come to sit with them. They then had nice conversation until lunch was ready, which prompted a cry of delight from Guang Yang and a smile on everyone's face when they smelled the delicious aroma coming from the food.
Laeroth declared. “I'm sure all of you will enjoy what I prepared. While I was in the Qin Empire, I collected many ingredients to cook for the little young Lord here.” He then turned toward little Yang with a look that seemed to say 'If you said that it's not good, I won't believe you.' Guang Yang understood what he was trying to convey and replied wittily with a smile. “Of course, Uncle Laeroth always cooks delicious food. It's definitely really really good.” He then added in protestation. “But I'm not little! I'm already over one year old. I'm almost an adult!” That made Laeroth and everyone else laugh and the former said. “Sure you are. Now eat before it gets cold.”
The delicious lunch lasted two hours until they were all done and the little boy was patting his belly which was almost bursting from his clothes, creating a comical scene. Once she saw that everyone were done with the food, Bai Yue then shooed everyone away from the pavilion and said to the boy in her serious teaching voice. “Now that we're done eating, it's time to comprehend Laws.” While she was bringing back to the part of the building where the boy was cultivating previously, the latter asked. “Teacher, which Laws should I comprehend? You said that I had the Life Fox Bloodline which was super duper strong. Should I focus on it?”
Once they reached the meditation cushion, Guang Yang sat on it, while his teacher sat close to him with her own cushion. After pondering for a few seconds she said. “The Law of Life is too complicated at your level and your bloodline is too faint to help you much. So you should wait until you reach rank 3. Maybe even Peak rank 3 before starting to seriously comprehend it. Well, we'll see in the future.” The boy nodded and she resumed. “What you should focus now is the Law of Light and the Law of Darkness.”
That surprised him and prompted his question. “But Teacher, you always said that we shouldn't eat more than we could chew. So shouldn't I focus on only one of them?” A smile of appreciation appeared on her face for his quick thinking. “For normal cultivators, that would be the correct way of doing things. However, did you already forget your situation? Didn't you refine something when you were a baby?”
Her remark made him think really hard but he couldn't remember. After all, he was just born at the time, so he did not remember anything. When he shook his head, she realized that fact and sighed for her thoughtlessness. Since she was not used to being around mortal children, she had a tendency to forget the difference between them and adults. Reminding herself to keep that in mind, she cleared his doubts. “It was my mistake. I thought you already knew about it. Then let me tell you now.” When he heard that, the boy started listening seriously. “When you were just born, a magic seal appeared close to you and plunged into your body. Apparently, you unconsciously refine it, or it refined itself, I'm not sure. The consequence of the refinement was the disappearance of your Dual Bloodlines of Light and Darkness Fox and the appearance of the Life Fox bloodline you have today.”
Noticing one point coupled with the mental link they had with each other, the boy then asked. “Then Teacher, if the Seal refined my bloodline once, could it do it again? That way I would have a stronger bloodline.” She nodded, then shook her head showing her confusion. “It's possible, but I'm not sure. The Seal I have doesn't do that. However it may have to do with the current level of my bloodline, my cultivation level or some other unknown factor. In any case, it's something that we'll find out in the future.”
“Back to the Seals. Since you never took the time to check its information, I can tell you one of its characteristics that is overpowered and be of great help to the both our cultivation. Although since the difference between both of our cultivation is so big, you'll probably get more benefits at first.”
Guang Yang then said solemnly. “Don't worry Teacher, I'll do my best to improve so that you can be stronger too!” That made her roll her eyes at his naive remark as after all she was a a few million years old cultivator and it would take a long time before his wish succeeded. She nonetheless gave him the answer he wanted before chastising him. “I'm counting on you then. But at least let me finish before interrupting me, little fox.” A proud smile appeared on his face at first, before he nodded embarrassed. “As I was saying, the Dual Yin Yang Seals are connected and allow the users of those two to share a similar connection in both cultivation and Law comprehension. Not only that, but they also have a passive boost to those two that increases with our closeness. And since we're now teacher and student, the boost should be quite significant.”
She paused for a bit to let everything she said sink into the boy's mind before continuing. “To go back to your first question, I, your Teacher, has reached the Peak Natural Level for the Law of Darkness, Ice and Water. So it will be extremely easy for you to progress in those Laws. Coupled with the Life Law which is connected to the Light Law, you can probably guess now, why I wanted you to comprehend those two.”
“There are also two other important reasons. The first is about your cultivation's foundation. The more Mortal Laws you comprehend and the easier it will be for you to progress with Immortal Laws. After all, every Laws are connected with each other in a way. Just like a root system. The second reason is connected to the first, and it's combat/fighting power. By mixing the different Laws, you can attain results impossible otherwise. All in all, learning multiple Laws will be good for your cultivation and unlike many other cultivators, you can afford to do it.” She finished her speech with that conclusion.
As Guang Yang nodded to show his understanding, he said. “I understand Teacher. Then which one of the two Laws should I start with?” She replied. ”We'll divide the session into two. The first part, you will focus on the Light Law and the second on the Darkness Law. You can start now.”
When he heard those words, he closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. When he felt himself completely calm, he focused his mind toward feeling the Light Law in the world around him. He remembered what his teacher instructed him to do. He thought. “The first step is feeling the Laws working around my by connecting to the ambient mana.” That step was the hardest since it was similar to the moment a new cultivator opened their mana channels for the first time. Although, it was not very dangerous at first, the higher your comprehension and the higher the risk.
One might wonder why comprehending Laws could be dangerous. It had to do with how cultivator increased their power. To be clear, one cultivated by integrating the Laws they comprehended in their bodies, souls and dantian, by using the ambient mana (or certain mana items such as Pills which contained such mana) which was itself a 'physical' manifestation of the Laws. Now, what would happen if one made a mistake in their comprehension and tried to forcibly integrate it to their body? Mana deviation, soul crumbling, body disintegrating. It could be one, two or all of those.
Well, that was the worst possible outcome. Actually what usually happened was that the cultivator became stuck at their current level. Unless they dissipated the 'erroneous' part of their cultivation and integrated the correct one then the situation would not change. And even that was a risky thing to do.
It was a complex subject and it was not even counting the Heavenly tribulations and other tests on a cultivator's path to the peak. It was not for nothing that cultivator are known to 'go against the three Realms' in the process of their cultivation, as most of them fell not because of their lifespan fading but by other causes, usually violent.
Back to Guang Yang. He was starting to feel the mana touching his skin, but this time, instead of absorbing it, he started to analyze it in search of those mysterious Laws. At first, he could not feel anything beside the energy enclosing his body in its warm embrace due to the tremendous amount of mana on the property. However, after around half an hour, he started to perceive something different. At the beginning, it was something very elusive, as if he was brushing his fingertips against rushing water, with no way of gripping it.
Despite the difficulty, Guang Yang persisted in his effort, not wanting to disappoint his teacher who was one of the most important person in his life. “Teacher, I will make you proud.” After encouraging himself, he kept insisting and thankfully after another half an hour, he could feel himself almost grasping it. Suddenly, it felt to him like something in his brain clicked and he could finally feel the Laws and their surface-level inner-working. Although it was a really shallow feeling, he knew that once his understanding of his targeted Laws deepened, he would be able to perceive the deeper inner-workings.
Once he succeeded in this step, he started to look for the Law of Light and the Law of Darkness. Although he could have focused on the Light Law, he was a bit curious about the Law of Darkness, since it was the Law that his teacher chose for herself when she started cultivating. When he looked around, he quickly found the two which seemed entwined with each other. When his consciousness focused on them, it was as if the two were two part of the same thing. Surprisingly, when he concentrated on the two, he noticed a weird phenomenon, that his teacher never taught him about. However, since it did not look dangerous he kept his attention on the two and started comprehending.
“I wonder why Teacher never told me about the fact that the two Laws of Light and Darkness are connected to each other and when one is comprehending them, they 'light up' the difficult part about each others' inner-workings. That makes it easy to comprehend them.” Happy about this phenomenon, instead of focusing his attention on only one of the Laws, he chose to analyze the two, since that would make it even easier for him.
“Mmh... Light and Dark... Light can light up a room and chase the Darkness. Just like the Darkness can throttle the Light. However, there is no Darkness without Light, just like there is not Light without Darkness...” While pondering, his understanding of those two Laws improved at a breakneck pace, and time became almost meaningless for him. He was not aware the he reached a state of enlightenment, a very rare state that happened only to a few lucky cultivators (including Immortal and Divine cultivators), and most of the time, only once in their life.
While the boy was lost in his trance, the woman at his side was also focusing on comprehending the Law of Light. However, similar to the former's experience, she found the same phenomenon of the Law of Light and the Law of Darkness revolving against each other, helping her comprehension tremendously. She wondered, bewildered. “What the hell is that? I've never seen those two Laws behaving that way...” A sudden thought appeared on her mind that might explain the phenomenon. However, she shook away her useless thoughts. “Whatever the reason, let's not waste this opportunity.” After which, she focused on comprehending those two Laws.
Because the difference of her comprehension for those two Laws were like 'Heaven and Earth' [A/N: Drastically different, with one much higher than the other], she progressed differently with the two. Her understanding of the Law of Darkness had reached the Peak of the Natural Level long ago, and she had been stuck at that level ever since. However, she only reached the Early Basic Level for the Law of Light, which made her comprehension shoot up at an incomprehensible pace. Let's not forget that, although she was restricted to the Peak Mortal Level for now, her comprehension potential almost reached the Peak of the Divine Level. That made her speed of advancement faster by an extreme amount compared to an average mortal cultivator.
The frantic comprehension session lasted until Guang Yang's stomach grumbled, which made him exit that trance like state. Instead of immediately opening his eyes, he thought about all his gains from this session, and a smile of satisfaction appeared on his face, already thinking about his teacher's praise when she will learn about his progress.
Once he finally reigned in his imagination, he opened his eyes and looked at his teacher, ready to tell her what happened to him. However, when he saw the bewildered expression on Bai Yue's face who was gazing at the empty space, as if looking for answers, he stopped himself and instead he tried to ask her. “Teacher?” He received no reaction from her, as she seemed lost in her thoughts, so he insisted. “Teacher? TEACHER?” The sudden yelling tore her from her thoughts and she looked at her student for a bit, before her eyebrows raised up in surprise. She asked. “You reached the Mid Basic Level of both the Law of Light and the Law of Darkness in just a few hours! What the h... Cough!” She suddenly coughed to hide her embarrassment, after which calmed herself and asked seriously. “I apologize about the outburst. I was simply surprised. Now, tell me what happened.”