As Seren and her loathed companions were finally headed into the Crimson Tide Mountain Range, starting from the outskirts and working their way in ever deeper, Lute had been healing. Over these past few days he didn’t talk to Isla, he didn’t bother with anything involving his inheritances, he didn’t even think. All he did was remain in the state of being one with nature; it was the equivalent of him remaining in a deep sleep or possibly even a comatose state as he was barely breathing.
Roughly four days ago was when he finally was able to move and start healing in earnest. Since healing and recuperating was the only thing he focused on, it was occurring multiple times faster than when he was drifting in and out of consciousness uncontrollably.
Observing his body, Lute was satisfied with how much he healed in these eight days. All signs of external injury had disappeared; the skin healed and stitched itself back together, all burns disappeared and he no longer had cuts or any wounds from the bear upon him. The only outward signs of injury he had were the scars that he always kept as a reminder of his past, if he so wanted, they would heal within a day, but he would rather keep them as a sentimental memory of what he had to go through to obtain his starting point in the universe.
When he switched his observation to his internal body, Lute was less than pleased. The dantian and meridians were mostly healed, with no obvious signs of permanent damage. The only problem was revolution of qi in his left arm from releasing the technique from days ago known as Shifting Time Collapsing Void. If it was as the name implied, it was a strike that was unhindered by time and could shatter the void around the origin of impact.
The other problem was his bones, the wrist bones were healing at an extremely fast pace, perhaps within a week they’d be healed, but right now his left wrist was still broken an unable to be used lest he injure it further. As for the rest of his fractures, Lute wasn’t too worried. He had come to understand the scope of the first level of his Primordial First Physique after this latest trial by combat and the healing afterwards. Fractured bones for him meant that they were then on the level of what he was before cultivating the Divine Chronicle of the Primordial Way, while fractured bones for others were a devastating injury that could impede their cultivation for weeks.
As long as he was careful in combat or any task, Lute felt that he needn’t worry about the fractured bones. His physique of the bones was now on the same level as those at the same cultivation as him instead of being superior, but that didn’t mean his muscle and skin were. His skin had already healed, the broken down and torn muscle was for the most part grown back and stronger than before. The same would occur with the bones, after suffering such extensive injuries; his body would grow and repair itself to be stronger than before, meaning he could adapt faster to withstand more pressure.
In a slow manner, tenderly standing up just to be safe and not reinjure himself, Lute began to walk towards the nearest source of water. Right now he was practically naked once again; the only thing that wasn’t caked in dried blood was the fur vest he’d taken off before fighting with the Vicious Beast, but that had been torn to shreds in mere moments after combat began.
So right now, the best Lute could do was wash out what little fur he could, and cut away any usable pieces to once again create a small loincloth to cover his little brothers.
Upon thinking this, Lute sighed slightly; his father would often scream “My Little Brothers” whenever his Mother hit him below the belt for doing something wrong such as looking at another woman.
Those were truly the blissful days, even if his family was poor and didn’t have much, if he had to do it all over again, Lute didn’t know what he’d do. He’d never admit it but he was growing attached to Isla’s existence, not just because of her extensive knowledge, but it was an indescribable feeling having someone who understood all one hundred percent of who you were, not to mention that they also had linked emotions and shared one body. They were connected on a level that some lovers could only wish to reach, but what they felt for each other was not love, it was only a give and take relationship, they both understood this and there was no need to confirm it.
But on the other hand, he wanted to do anything to live a normal life again; he didn’t need to be a cultivator, if he could live happily as a mortal, then he would have. So that left only one choice since he couldn’t do that, after he gave Isla a body, he would go on a journey for himself for enlightenment, he’d become a free spirit that travelled on the whims of his thoughts.
‘Damn emotions stirring up again’
Lute forced these thoughts out of his head as he found small lake he’d been to before. As he began to wash, he began to ponder over the important things he’d learned. This was the information that flowed into his mind after he opened the first door, or should he say path.
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The true name of the pentagonal formation surrounding his dantian was the Five Paths of Severance. What this meant was to sever one from the universes restrictions of predetermined laws and fate and anything that it would use to hinder oneself. What Lute took from this was the Spiritual God was able to sever himself from being controlled by the restrictions of the universe while staying connected to what wouldn’t hold him back.
This was the true source of the Spiritual Gods Powers; he could assimilate with any type of power to an absurd level while discarding any part of those powers negative aspects. He could also freely merge, dissect and change all that he controlled. Being able to wield contradictory things such as fire and ice at the same time was possible. Being able to wield taboo arts without the price, this was the aspect that made him terrifying.
But this wasn’t the end; he could also lock out powers rendering them ineffective against him. Because he severed himself from the universe, the only effective method of injuring him would be pure Qi, unchanged in anyway, something on the level of the Pear of Myriad Tribulations, or to ingest a terrifying poison that could kill even a God, Devil or Divine Beast.
However Lute clearly understood the drawback of this immediately, the Spiritual God’s physical body wasn’t as strong as someone like the Primordial God, no it could be said to be one of the weakest of the immortals physiques because he relied on the laws of severance to nullify anything except pure unchanged Qi. Had he also tempered his body like the Primordial God and not relied so heavily on the immunities he cultivated, the Spiritual God might've survived long enough to stay alive during the Age of Man and personally find an inheritor, raising them up as his disciple.
‘Damn this is really too much information, the benefits are a great boon, but these Arts and Techniques are seriously too strong for my body to bare and the new technique here is going to be a pain to learn.’
Lute massaged his temples as he forcefully comprehended all the information that until now was floating around in his head, he couldn’t forget since it came directly from the paths, there was no choice but to continue sorting through all this rubbish.
If anyone knew that Lute thought this knowledge was rubbish, they would probably die on the spot. This law was something anyone would die to get as they would basically be denying the universes right to control them.
In order to lock out the secondary effects of any Art, for example, if Lute wanted to sever himself from the flame attribute governed by Heaven. He would need to go to places of an extreme polarized version of that attribute. So if he wanted to be immune to the burning effect of Qi that had the flame elemental energy, Lute would need to go to a place of extreme flame elemental energy and absorb it, assimilating it with the laws of severance.
This was known as the Origin Art of Severance, it held no techniques. Instead there were three stages for each body. Minor completion, Mortal Completion, and Heavenly Completion, upon reaching Heavenly Completion, Lute would gain a new physique, for flame attributed energy it would be known as the Negative Flame Origin Body. He would then be completely immune to fire and its effects upon him, however if he wanted to use flames, how well he could control them and use their power was up to his own comprehension. The Negative Flame Origin body wouldn’t increase his affinity for using fire attributed attacks.
This alone portrayed why the Five Paths of Severance was so terrifying, Lute already had one physique, the Primordial First Physique, and yet he could learn more….many, many more. As long as it was a singular attribute that was its own type, he could cultivate a Negative Origin Body to be immune to it, provided there was a place that only had that energy for him to use. Lute even felt that if he used the Laws of Severance properly, even the attributes of Life and Death itself wouldn’t affect him.
It could be cultivated without going to places of polarized attributes, but the rate would be at the very least a thousand times slower if not more. But this didn’t deter Lute, he already had a plan in mind, he’d start off with all the elements, then any attributes after them, he would also cultivate a Negative Origin Body.
‘At the least I now have a course of action, should I become immune to everything, even the effects of pure unchanged Qi which would simply be the strength of its impact upon my body wouldn’t pose too much of a threat due to the Primordial First Physique, my chances of survival would drastically increase. I’ll simply have to wait until I can sense and use other energies and attributes besides Qi alone. The only problem is I can’t cultivate the Origin Art of Severance yet, for now, I am still bound by the heavens.’
As all of this came from the Spiritual God, this was why he was considered one of the strongest. But it wasn’t as if he was invincible. From the information that Lute learnt, it was also that the Age of Gods, which was ended by the Pearl of Myriad Tribulations was still the reason that the Spiritual God died. When the pearl went out of control, the Spiritual God rushed forth, ahead of all Gods, Devils and Divine Beasts alike, he grabbed the pearl and focused all of its tribulations upon himself, yet even with the myriad Negative Origin Bodies he cultivated and his laws of severance, he still died.
But his tenacity was certainly the strongest of all the Gods, Devils and Divine Beasts, he focused all of the tribulations upon himself, he was the first to be struck and the last to fall, giving time for all the other immortals to leave the last vestiges of their power behind before they were killed off by the tribulations.
This was the eye opener Lute needed; the resolution in his heart reaffirmed itself that despite all of his immunities and heaven defying abilities, and even what was perhaps the strongest immortal died. So for a Mortal Realm cultivator, he mustn’t get cocky with his abilities, for even if he was in the Spiritual Gods place taking on the pearl he would surely die.
The Age of Gods also known as the Age of Immortals was something Lute couldn’t wrap his head around. But there was one thing he was sure of, somebody somewhere had an unknown inheritance that not even anyone in the Divine Realm knew about which was on par with the Spiritual God’s Inheritance, it couldn’t be explained in words, Lute just “Felt” that he was on the mark with this guess, it was almost as if he sensed foreboding from his bloodline when such a thought came to mind.
Lute furrowed his eyebrows at this thought, despite what Isla said about the Spiritual God being invincible, from the information he attained he knew the Spiritual God wasn’t. But also it was because of intuition and one important belief Lute had. He believed that everything in the world had its opposite, nothing went without balance.
What that meant to him was if the Spiritual God severed from the way of the Universe, then there was an existence that was his opposite and of equal strength to him, maybe, just maybe the Spiritual God was having his own private war with someone that was his rival and his equal but opposite in every way. Perhaps this was why the Spiritual God was unknown; he wouldn’t be able to do anything if he had to be wary of his actions and his life due to an adversary. At the least that was what Lute would do, if he knew someone was against him, he’d take great care not to expose himself.