Naath stopped here sensing both his bones and his dantian to be at their limit. He did not want to go against what Alchemy had told him. Especially due to the dire warning he was given. Naath got up from the bed to stretch his body feeling slightly uncomfortable from being right on the limit of breaking through. After stretching and getting comfortable he sat back down and decided to start cultivating his soul instead. It took him to adjust his mindset and start running the empty soul method. He decided to run only the first half of it though to expand his four souls as much as he could to strengthen himself.
Once he calmed his mind and began circulating, the energy inside of his souls immediately went into the linings of them and they started to expand rapidly. As the energy went into the lining of his souls the mark on his forehead slowly began to become more noticeable and the colors became vibrant. Through this mark vast amounts of martial energy seemed to be converted into soul energy. Naath was completely unaware of this as he was in an empty state to cultivate his souls. The souls began to expand more and more rapidly and seemed like they didn't have a limit.
In a matter of five minutes they had doubled in size! This created turbulent waves inside of each of the souls as it rapidly flowed outwards, disappeared and then refilled all at once. Alchemy who was resting inside of Naaths soul of creation was annoyed with this and his rest was disturbed. He started to wake up and at first he was going to snap at Naath for disturbing his rest. However when he saw the insane expansion rate of each of Naath’s four souls he shut his mouth and simply watched in silence. Naath continued to run the first part of the empty soul method for an hour. At this point the mark on his forehead was as clear as it was the day he regained his memories.
It began to slowly rotate as well, as it rotated it started to expand and grow ever so slowly. This slow rotation that wouldn't complete itself for another hour seemed to double the rate that energy was pulled into Naath’s soul. Alchemy was stunned at the rate that energy was pouring into Naaths soul and expanding it. It was already 20 times the initial size that it was, this capacity for soul energy time four due to Naaths extra souls made him seem like a monster to Alchemy. Finally he couldn't stay quiet anymore and yelled out.
“Naath, what soul cultivation method is this?! Where on earth did you get it?”
Naath jumped hearing this, interrupting his cultivation. The energy stopped pouring into his souls and they stopped expanding. The mark on his forehead slowly began to fade back to what it normally was as well. However it stayed just a little bit more vibrant than before. Naath after gathering himself and his thoughts spoke up.
“Ah sorry I didn't mean to disturb you, senior Alchemy. This is the empty soul method given to me by your king, he said it suits my true void arts perfectly. I'm only practicing the first half right now in order to expand my souls and increase the amount of soul energy I can contain. The second part actually refines the energy and lets me breakthrough. Since senior is up, can I ask for your help in knowing how to break through in my cultivation without harming myself?”
The rune let out a sigh and silently accepted everything it had just witnessed. If it came from the king it was understandable, reasonable even. Saying their king had god-like soul arts and knowledge of the soul and formations and anything even remotely related was not an overstatement. After taking a moment to accept everything and stop reminiscing about his king's abilities.
Alchemy spoke up saying “The method to advance without harming your cultivation or body beyond repair? There are two ways to achieve this, firstly you could simply advance both cultivations simultaneously and that would keep them in balance. This method is risky and can slow a cultivator's advancement speed and sometimes one cultivation type while breaking through will leech on the other and cause an imbalance. Too risky. The second method is to add in a third cultivation method type which will paradoxically merge everything into one cultivation method.
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Before I tell you how to cultivate this third method I should tell you what it does and why it’s important. The term the mind leads the body and the soul leads the mind is apt. Body forging cultivation I.E bone hardening and up represents the body. Energy sensing and the like are of the mind. The one I am going to teach you is of the soul, it will complete your body and transform it fundamentally fusing all of your methods into one. In some ways the fact that you have practiced all three methods apart and individually will be very good for your comprehension. First, though I’m going to pass you a method to seal your own cultivation, it is a soul art, one of the few I'm any good at.
You need to seal your cultivation to keep the balance and to understand this third method individually. If you don't seal your other cultivations right now excluding soul based cultivation it will create an imbalance. Your body will still try to transform but it won't be a perfect transformation and may in fact leave you crippled your whole life.”
The rune silently let the information on how to seal Naath’s cultivations into his soul sea. Naath after receiving this information didn't even hesitate to use his soul energy to form runes that wound around his bones like serpents and tightly wrapped up his dantian as well. Once the runes had completely covered Naath’s bones and dantian two soft clicking noises like locks sounded out. The feeling of energy swirling around him that all cultivators had vanished like smoke and he seemed like a normal mortal child again. Naath smiled at this because he realised he had neglected training his body as a mortal before he bagan cultivation both times.
The mortal body was the base of everything and he had neglected training it both times. It was an oversight he wanted to slap himself silly for, even on earth people with just mortal bodies had been able to move hundreds of pounds, be flexible enough to limbo in spaces of only 3 feet or less. Had the endurance to run for miles and miles, or swim across vast sections of water. Naath made up his mind that he would fix this by training his mortal body now to each of these extremes. Alchemy felt these thoughts and chuckled before speaking.
“Naath, don't bother with that quite yet, first do the last cultivation method I’m about to teach you. After that when you merge all three and obtain the body of a primordial human you can reseal yourself and start training then. Doin it now is utterly pointless, those goals you have for your body right now is the starting point of most children with the primordial body.”
With that Alchemy released the information into Naath’s soul sea on how to cultivate the third type and completely transform his body. When Naath received the information he was a little overwhelmed. Essentially this cultivation method wanted Naath to use his souls to forge a type of tool or artifact. It was called a true treasure, it would have unique abilities or even a unique form depending on how Naath designed it. Swords that could transform and be used for flight. Cauldrons that could suck in and refine martial energy for the cultivator to use. Even a pair of scissors that were able to cut through any beasts hide and prepare them for crafting while still alive! Naath would have to contemplate for a long time before he started to form his treasure.
One could only form a single treasure that would last for as long as the cultivator still had a soul. This made Naath a little nervous, he decided he would wait until he found something that could perfectly fit something like the true void arts and the various things he would inevitably practice and learn due to the runes. He immediately went into silence and began thinking of a vast list of weapons and tools he could use to try. Naath knew that this process would not be a short one though. Finally he got up from the bed and began to walk outside into the yard. He absentmindedly sat down on top of the boulder his father first taught him on. His mind always seemed to calm and process better here, and he definitely needed to think for a while.