Having finished washing up, the blood all flowed away, dispersing in the water. What little fur was usable, Lute managed to make a loin cloth out of. So at the least he was no longer exposed in front of his master. An image of a wild savage was becoming an accurate depiction of himself.

Lute typically liked to keep shorter hair, but all of these months alone he had not so much as cut a single strand of hair. It was overgrown and messy, but somehow it added to his attractiveness. Combined with a fur loincloth, and all of his scars, and those piercing sky blue eyes that could inspire respect from even a Vicious Beast such as the wolf, Lute was most definitely a rustic and yet also a handsome person. The Spiritual Gods Blood had enhanced all his acceptable features while discarding the others, leaving Lute with the body he had now.

He seemed frail, but he wasn’t. His body mightn’t have excessively large muscles but they weren’t small either, they were also extremely toned and defined, not a shred of fat was visible on Lute’s body. He was extremely lean, and his body was compacted with an extreme explosive physical strength hidden within. This was something he’d learnt when he fought with Glen; he realized the difference between cultivators who didn’t body temper versus those who did.

Since he had yet to meet another cultivator who body tempered, he might as well surprise them in combat with his physical strength and end the fight quickly if possible.

Once a slightly cold lakefront wind came in, Lute decided to disappear into the forests once again. He gathered wood for a fire, even if he could withstand the colder temperatures with his physique and Qi, it didn’t mean he liked to feel cold. At least, not until he cultivated a Negative Origin Body for it.

Once he got a flame going, it was time, he needed to recalculate how he was to cultivate from this moment forward, he now had many other Arts and Techniques he could learn, even Taboo Arts were of no consequence to him. And the most precise decision that would lead to the most benefits would be to ask Isla, even if she never taught a disciple before and would certainly make mistakes as a teacher, she was a genuine Divine with more knowledge and experience, given the information he learned, Lute felt she would be able to help him make the best choice for the future.

With no further thoughts, Lute called out to Isla. “Master, I need your guidance.”

At first there was no response, it was as if she’d disappeared, her existence was frail, but after a minute, her existence within him became active again. Perhaps she had been slumbering for a bit. Eventually her spiritual form manifested and she looked at Lute grouchily.

“What… I thought we weren’t conversing until you fully healed, why’d you have to wake me up from a nice nap you dumbass.”

Lute was taken aback, but he quickly recovered, the way she was acting was still normal, her haughty attitude still apparent. But, Lute wasn’t too worried, once she found out the information he learned, she’d forget all about how he woke her up.

Lute slowly replied, making sure no words could be misinterpreted, “I have information about the Spiritual Gods Inheritance, and I have learned the origins of his power.”

Isla suddenly became stiff, her eyes shifting from tiredness to seriousness almost instantly, this was the reaction any Divine would have when talking about an immortals inheritance, and these things were never taken lightly. Her body language was clearly telling Lute to continue.

Within the span of twenty minutes, Lute recited everything he learned, and even his speculations of another entity on the same level as the Spiritual God and the sense of foreboding he felt from the Spiritual Gods Bloodline every time he had such thoughts.

Isla floated around in silence for nearly half an hour as she ingested the information, her eyes unfocused and uncaring about the world before her.

Five Paths of Severance and the Origin Art of Severance, Shifting Time Collapsing Void, a God, Devil or Divine Beast that could be on the same level as the Spiritual God, how the Spiritual God died, all of this was a treasure trove of information, the question was how to utilize it. The problem right now was Lute was simply too weak, he had five paths, and yet he could barely open one.

As she thought about it, Isla then came to a conclusion, Lute already might’ve had a decent comprehension, but now that he had the Five Paths of Severance, his ability to comprehend rose to an absurd level where the Heavens would want to eliminate his existence.

Something unique to an inheritance such as the five paths wasn’t unheard of. Lute would have an advantage until he met someone with a similar inheritance that was unique, and had something similar to the five paths, or atleast something with an ability on the same level.

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The way he would have to be trained would change drastically; they now had a reason for their time on this planet. Lute would have to go all over the world to places of extremely polarized attributes, and he would also travel and learn all the arts and techniques he could, even if they were created in the Mortal Realm. At this point, there was nothing he couldn’t learn given enough time.

Isla’s focus finally returned to the world before her, there was much to discuss with Lute about his future.

“I will start off saying this, the intensity at which you must train has now increased, you shall work a thousand fold harder than you were previously and even this might not be enough. Also, while it isn’t based on any concrete evidence, the chance of there being an existence on the same level as the Spiritual God is actually quite high, I don’t know why no one, including myself, has ever thought of this.”

Isla didn’t even give Lute a chance to talk a she continued, “Next, we shall have you learn as many Arts and Techniques as possible, normally this is bad, if you know too many, you won’t know which one to use in a given situation due to having too many options, so typically a cultivator will focus on a few categories of techniques and master them to their limits such as being a swordmaster; but I believe you will be able to given what you inherited. Also, you must never tell anyone what Inheritances you have in the Divine Realm, many people are adept at figuring out what Inheritances others have, although no one knows what the Spiritual Gods Powers are, if there is someone that has an inheritance on the plane of existence that is the Spiritual God, it is best to hide your powers as much as possible. In the mortal realm, you won’t have too, at least not as much since their knowledge is limited.”

All of what Isla said, Lute somewhat expected, although it still didn’t stop him from shifting uncomfortably upon the last thing he heard, he would have to be an idiot to say he wasn’t afraid of all his inheritances getting found out, especially if having more than one was unnatural, he already had two.

“Master, is it normal to have only one inheritance in the Divine Realm, can you acquire more?”

So, the question finally came out, Isla didn’t really know how to explain it as inheritances were so strictly controlled by the respective factions that it was uncommon to have more than one. All she could do was give her opinion on the subject and not facts.

“In theory I believe you can have more than one inheritance, provided they don’t clash with one another. Someone won’t have a fire and a water inheritance for example within one body. But yes, as far as I know, as long as your body and soul are strong enough as vessels of power to hold the strength of multiple immortals, then yes you can have as many as your body and soul can contain. But this isn’t usually put into practice as inheritances are strictly controlled, someone typically won’t have more than one, and most will only have diluted bloodlines if it requires a bloodline.”

Lute’s face blanched and became a slight pale color, when he eventually reached the Divine Realm, he’d have to hamper down his fighting capabilities and limit himself until he was able to protect himself and expose all his true capabilities. This was dangerous and safer at the same time. While he could hide his powers and potentially survive longer, it’d also be harder to survive if he couldn’t use his powers.

But maybe there was hope, as long as there were at least a few people who had three or more inheritances; then he wouldn’t seem abnormal with two. The possibility couldn’t be too far-fetched, as Lute recalled the Thousand Hand Martial Emperor was supposedly invincible in this Age of Man, he was able to go anywhere by himself and be perfectly safe, so just maybe he was like Lute and had multiple inheritances, if so then he was what Lute would aspire to be.

There was only one more thing Lute needed to be reassured of, he didn’t quite understand how the First Path worked, what was the point of opening it if he’d incur injury each time, and no matter how much he tried to execute Shifting Time Collapsing Void, he couldn’t. It was as if it hid once again behind what he had learned what was called the First Path of New Beginnings

“Master do you perhaps know how the First Path of Severance works. All I know is that it is called the First Path of New Beginnings and I incur massive injuries upon use. At the time, I wasn’t paying much attention to the changes in my body as I was barely able to retain rational thought and consciousness.”

Although she wasn’t the owner of the paths, Isla still shared a body with Lute, so she was able to witness first-hand the changes in Lutes’ body. From what she knew, eventually Lute would be able to use all five paths permanently if he so chose to, seeing as how the first path struggled so much to open for Lute so he could survive, despite it almost killing him.

“All I can do is to tell my thoughts on them as I am not the owner; it seems that fist technique can only be used when the first path is open. Also, you might not have noticed it, but when you opened the first path, your meridians and dantian forcefully expanded by five times, while they already are expanding naturally due to the Divine Chronicle of the Primordial Way, I am actually somewhat terrified at how much Qi your body will be able to hold when all is said and done. That is why they were so injured afterwards; thankfully your physique will heal and strengthen them to deal with this stress.”

“I am also quite sure you realized this, but even if you open a path, it seems that the amount of Qi in your body doesn’t increase immediately, you’d have to absorb it from the world like normal, this means if you successfully keep one path open permanently, your body will be able to hold five times more Qi in the Dantian and meridians. However if you close that path and your body is full of all that extra Qi, it might cause your meridians to burst or become severely damaged if you don’t use it quickly.”

“But even if it doesn’t increase in quantity, its quality drastically increased. The density of it increased many times over, you could use less Qi to acquire the same outcome or the normal amount to achieve something inconceivable. But don’t let this get to your head, just because the Qi became that way it still doesn’t mean your total amount of Qi increased when you open a path, so what I am saying…. Don’t wantonly waste it thinking the path gave you five times more Qi; it instead gave you the ability to fight long battles of attrition even more so than your physique already allowed you too.”

Lute gulped slightly, but he expected as much, this portion of the paths, he was already aware of the moment he opened the First Path of New Beginnings. From what he could tell, the key to all of this was a strong body, if he could withstand more stress on his body without being injured, it would be infinitely beneficial for him.

This was what his goal should be, since he couldn’t temper his soul, he left that to the Origin Soul Needle and his Qi purity was already fine, so all he had to focus upon was his body. The sooner he broke through to the second level of the Primordial First Physique the better. And the easiest way to do that was to break down his body and comprehension. He could bring his body to the brink of the second level through repeated abusive training over time, but in the end, he would have to have a bout of enlightenment while cultivating to break through to the second level.

Just as he finished this course of thought and planned his future, Lute shuddered in terror. Isla’s harsh voice resounded through his ears as if it was torture.

“I did say you will have to train a thousand fold harder, and also… you couldn’t win against a measly bear without injuring yourself to such a degree and opening a path. That is unacceptable, as punishment, we are going to get to the two hundredth stance of the Thousand Ways scripture from where we left off. I will not be lenient because you were an idiot and injured yourself.”

Throughout the rest of the day, in the mountains, Lute could be heard grunting in pain as he practiced, Isla was truly a devil; she wasn’t lenient and even increased the pressure upon Lute despite his injuries if he messed up.