The frost slowly manifesting on Ovid’s face did not exist for long, as he and Anna soon entered the carriage. There, as if expecting the downpour, Cai Hua had prepared two blankets for the two, one thin and one thick.
Handing the thin blanket to Anna and after some delay, Cai Hua took out a very ordinary gourd.
The heavy rain was causing Ovid to feel colder than he ever had in his life, as when Cai Hua had exposed the contents contained within the bottle, Ovid felt an indescribable fondness of the strong smell that immediately overpowered any scent in the enclosed space of the carriage.
Abruptly, Ovid realised the contents were inappropriate, raising his head up, he said in a cold manner, “I don’t drink liquor.”
Perhaps it was due to the decreasing temperature in Ovid’s body, these words sound far colder than Ovid had intended, surprising him greatly.
Cai Hua smiled in a gentlemanly manner before he said very naturally, “In such a cold day, it would keep your body warm.”
They were in the South, where sunlight is abundant and river span throughout the lands, even if it was raining, how could the days be cold?
Ovid hesitated somewhat, before accepting the gourd.
As Ovid brought the groud closer to his lips, Cai Hua said, “This was brewed by myself personally when I had just started my cultivation journey, though it quite crude, after sitting for a few hundred years, it is the purest alcohol I have on me.”
Looking at Ovid, who was hastily consuming alcohol within the gourd without care, that even a good portion of the alcohol was dripping onto his clothes, Cai Hua sighed and said, “I'm a sentimental person, even if I’m acting as your teacher, you shouldn’t waste too much of it.”
Ovid remained completely silent before he finished the gourd.
As a small blush emerged on Ovid’s rather tender and pale face, the temperature of the room has decreased drastically, causing frost to emerge among the small cracks on the wooden frame.
It was then, that Cai Hua handed the thick blanket to Anna, who said a quick word of thanks, before wrapping both blankets around herself.
A small smile crept up on Ovid’s face, as he said in a soft voice, “Alcohol can make a person’s blood vessels expand, who knew that my inner core body temperature would be so low.”
In a manner unfit for Ovid, he demanded in a foreign language that had originated from his own world, “I want another bottle.”
Cai Hua could not understand Ovid’s word, but understood it’s meaning regardless, passing another gourd to Ovid, he secretly exchanged the liquor with a much mellower substance.
Nevertheless, Ovid drank it enthusiastically, leading to the liquor flowing down his chin, dripping onto the already damp spot caused by his previous drink, but since it was much less pure than the previous gourd before it reached Ovid’s stola, it turned into a shard of ice.
The grin on Ovid’s face became faint, after a small hiccup, he said, “The things I applied modern science to is actually insignificant, since the manual has spent less than a paragraph on it, I feel like I rambling nonsense.”
Anna coughed gentled, and said, “No, I feel like it is quite enlightening.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Ovid hiccuped again as he said, “The most important content that the manual dictates are the importance of manipulating magic. Since atoms state are determined by the speed in which they are moving, if I just said that the key in controlling the different types of mana is to just control the momentum it is going at, I would have saved a lot more time.”
After a long sigh, Ovid said, “Mother has always been disapproval of how much I speak.”
Anna waved her hand to indicate that she was not concerned with the matter, and requested Ovid to continue speaking.
Unfortunately, Ovid’s good mood had turned damp like the stola he was wearing, and thus, silence encompassed the room, causing it to become even colder.
At this time, Cai Hua spoke up, “Since I possessed the manual, I’ve read it a few times.”
Anna’s eyes lit up, and she looked at the scholarly pervert expectantly.
Cai Hua said, “From what it says, the most important part of the Southern ways of cultivation is to channel the Yang or the aether of a person by borrowing the power that is contained within their respective constellation.”
Cai Hua stared at Anna and said with a hint of shock, “It seems like you are born under the lamb constellation.”
His expression turned to pity as he said, “The lamb is similarly the constellation Julia possess, the only constellation worst to be born under would be the key.”
Anna seemed not to mind, her smile still persisting as she declared, “I don’t need the same amount of aether as Julia would need.”
Cai Hua said, “No, the problem would be that Julia dominates that specific constellation to heavily, by now, it is basically her private constellation.”
Anna’s eyelids closed, causing her to look at peace as she said, “Then, I will just get aether another way.”
Of course, the matter was far more difficult, if it was that simple, then everyone could become a saint, yet in the real world, less than one in a thousand would even become a deacon. Were these words said to a member of the clergy, in both the human kingdom and the Juliana Empire, Anna would certainly be ostracized.
However, Cai Hua was an individual from the North, thus, he only responded by saying, “Then the best way would be to forcibly seize aether from others.”
Anna tilted her head, and inquired, “How will I seize their aether?”
Cai Hua gave a satisfied smile before saying, “Of course, it’s to kill those born under more fortunate constellations and refine their corpses.”
“When you reach the stage of a matriarch, you will need to kill a saint to refine their body, so you can absorb the energy they gained from the constellation,” Cai Hua said with a refined smile.
In the Northern continent, the resource is even more scarce, as the spiritual essence that many relied on to ascend to immortality, originate from spirit veins, which are already few in number, and are already occupied by the few great sects and families.
Thus, the development of twisted ways is far more advanced, with devil cultivators running wild and capturing the disciples of those great sects and families, the devil cultivators would then forcibly refine the spiritual essence carried within their bodies.
Cai Hua was originally one such individual, having killed others as common as drinking water, he saw no complications for such a logical choice.
The world was not big enough for all the people living in the world since the matter would not be destroyed nor created, the mana that originated from the stars would not recover, especially after an individual has reached the stage of a patriarch. Instead, it enters the bodies of individuals like Julia, the Pope, the Emperor of the North, the foreign king, and naturally, Cai Hua himself.
The simplest way to solve this issue would be to kill these immortals and saints, but having lived for such a long time, is there anything they value over their own life?
Ovid was still expelling the cold from his body, frowned and said, “That would be immoral.”
Cai Hua shook his head and passed Ovid another gourd.
Ovid accepted and began drinking once again.
Aside from the slight flush on Ovid’s cheeks, it would be difficult to recognise him as drunk, in fact, Ovid appeared soberer than before.
After removing the traces of liquid near his mouth with a handkerchief, Ovid spoke in a tranquil voice, “Won’t it be simpler to extract it from the minerals below us, if aether is radiation, then you just need to mine uranium.”
“The electromagnetic waves given off by the stars would have surely experienced redshift, it would have been expanded to such wavelengths that absorbing it would be impossibly difficult. In comparison, the extraction of radioactive material, and the subsequence harvest of its energy would be far more efficient.”
Cai Hua said, “That would be impossible, the amount of spiritual essence required to reach the stage of immortality is far greater than what you can imagine. If it really were as simple as harvesting the energy given off by the earth, then in the millions of years in which this world has existed, there would certainly be recorded cases.”
Cai Hua became serious, no longer appearing like a scholar as he said, “Before a person becomes an immortal, their body would be far too weak, even if it were strengthened by spiritual essence. Were an army was sent to subjugate a person of the nascent soul or matriarch level, the army would eventually be victorious.”
“But immortals are fundamentally difficult to all other cultivators, as the amount of Yin and Yang we absorbed originated from outside this planet, from the world itself.”
“As an example, after spirit veins are no longer sufficient for me, I had to journey into the universe, eventually stumbling upon a nebula, I had to absorb all the Yin and Yang contained within to reach my current stage.”
Cai Hua turned toward the ceiling of the carriage, looking past its wooden making, he said, “Then, imagine what people like Julia, who had never felt the vicinity of this world, would consume to reach their current stage.”
Anna’s bright eyes turned foggy before she said, “I have never said I want to become a saint.”