Knowledge memorized is not knowledge mastered. A master takes context and transforms it into their strength and does it in a way that is meaningful to them. This is why those that copy how to do something will remain beginners—at most, they might reach an intermediate stage. Even knowing why a bottleneck exists, everyone finds this transitional shift the hardest to initiate.
~Ogma, God of Eloquence and Inspiration
The next several days went by with little happening. During that time, Crow spent almost all his waking hours studying his new Auras. Understanding where the power comes from is the first step in mastering auras. Crow had to remap the energy flow through his meridians. The trick was he needed the aura to power up the foundation of a technique without losing mana or letting it run rampant. The second stage was redesigning each ability to match up to the aura—or auras, which would power it. It was like creating a spear haft but creating interchangeable tips that could be swapped out.
Crow was sure his current concept would revolutionize techniques but knew his Sage’s Mind was a big reason for his comprehension. What he designed wasn’t something a low-talent cultivator could master. Cognition played a significant part because the cultivator needed to realize the origin of each aura’s energy and influence.
Aura of the Body’s influence came from his chakras and body cultivation method and was the most straightforward of the three auras. That was because the aura originated within his Body, and all he needed to do was infuse his flesh, blood, and bones with it. Body attacks were physical, so enhancing them with his aura was enough to power those abilities.
It was this understanding that opened the door to grasping the dominant influences of the other two. Sage’s Mind was the key to his Aura of the Mind. It became the influence of abilities related to his consciousness. Aura of the Spirit took him the longest to find the key; eventually, it revealed itself when he used the Three-Eyed Crow’s vision-related ability. That connection between karma and the insubstantial energies or mysteries of the world opened up a new world of understanding.
The final bit of understanding and necessary component to mapping out a similar structure required that the cultivator had three appropriate cultivation methods, one for each aspect of the Soul trinity. It was the foundation for the auras and his biggest gain. The gain that might shock the entire world was that he could activate all three auras during cultivation and effectively advance all three. In all his reading, he’d never heard of anyone able to cultivate Mind, Body, and Spirit simultaneously—most books said it was impossible.
Consolidating the foundation of his auras took him almost two weeks, and in all that time, he never once left the coven. He only took minor breaks to eat, bathe, and spend time with Zoe and her sisters. It was a process he refused to stop until he reached what he’d consider a large success state. Crow wasn’t so delusional as to think he was even close to mastering it. Still, he was confident that the major issues were solved, and he was in a polishing state. Advancing it beyond that point required luck, epiphanies, or a hell of a lot of research.
The next part of his rebuild was already giving him a headache just thinking about it. While he’d already remastered some of his abilities, he’d have to redo it once more to ensure complete compatibility with his auras. Not only that, he had to take each one of them and strip out their power source and elemental affinity. Since he’d already figured out how to add in the elemental affinity at the end of the abilities formulation, it was one less worry. However, he didn’t realize how ridiculously simple the process was, which left him confused as to why it seemed like no one noticed. Even if he left it up to environmental factors, it’d take almost no effort.
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Right now, the main thing he needed to remaster was his Ghosting abilities, similar to the Ghost Eaters. More importantly, Wraith’s Touch was something he couldn’t afford to neglect now that an elder had given it to him.
“Lily?”
*What are you up to now?*
“Heh, I have a task that you might enjoy.”
*Oh?* Lily asked, trying to mask her excitement, but it was impossible since they shared an empathetic bond. Crow chuckled as he felt her trying to resist.
“Scout out all the forbidden areas of each clan. Especially the Durex clan, but be careful around the Ghost Eaters. I’m not entirely convinced they can’t detect you. See if you can find methods of breaking into those areas.”
*Am I allowed to play?*
“Don’t do anything drastic because I don’t want them to have their guard up. In common areas and dorms, you have free rein to create havoc. Faelan, Mara, and the others are in danger, and we must keep Unhulde distracted.”
*This is a task I live for.* Lily said and pumped her fist in the air while chuckling evilly. Crow wasn’t sure if that influence was from him or Nin. He had a feeling his bond with Nin was also affecting her personality. *When can I start?*
“Now, but you need to check in regularly.”
*When are you going to tell Zoe about me?*
“You trust her?”
*I trust you, and I’m positive you wouldn’t marry a green tea bitch.*
“That’s definitely Song Xue’s influence,” Crow sighed but agreed. It wasn’t convenient to hide Lily all the time, and the marriage ritual put some restrictions on them. So she couldn’t betray him without suffering some severe backlash. With a shrug, he opened the door and asked one of the coven sisters to send Zoe to him. A few minutes later, the High Priestess arrived and sat on the bed with a flushed face. She assumed Crow called her over to have an afternoon tryst.
Crow couldn’t stop laughing when he saw her blushing face and down-turned eyes. She looked like a drowned cat but didn’t want to reject him because she cared too much.
“Silly, I’m not calling you over because of that, but… one second.” Crow sent out his senses to their max to make sure no one was spying on them from nearby. This sect made him paranoid, and he did this several times a day. “Lily, introduce yourself.”
Zoe gasped when the little fae appeared and flew in front of her. After getting over the shock, her eyes grew round and glittered as if filled with starlight. “She’s so cute!”
“She is a fae royalty, and her name is Lily. She’s been by my side for a long time and is one of my future wives. She’s family.”
“I saw her the night of our marriage.”
“What?” Crow was stunned.
“I wasn’t completely asleep that night when you brought her out, but I didn’t want to say anything, even though I’ve been curious this whole time. I wanted your trust and wasn’t sure how to discuss it without potentially angering you.”
“First, never think that way. I would never be mad at you for speaking your mind or asking questions you have a right to know. As my wife, I won’t hide anything from you—at least not deliberately, unless it is for your safety.”
“Can she talk?”
“She can, but it depletes her energy because she needs to become larger first. She’s trying to evolve and gain a human-sized shape. But hold out your hand, and she will land on it. Contact can establish an empathetic connection which allows her to communicate with you. I’ll let you two talk first while I redesign my abilities.”
Crow sat at the desk and, out of habit, wrote all his techniques before prioritizing each. Blood Thorn and Wraith’s Touch were at the top of his list. After deliberating for a while, he kept Blood Thorn as the name since the sanguine abilities were still a central part of its structure. Crow renamed ‘vine’ to ‘tendrils’ because, without an element, they had an amorphous quality that did not behave like a vine would.
Inside his Sage’s Mind, he had already started taking apart all the patterns of the original technique. The girls saw Crow with his eyes closed, but the eyelids twitched as he processed information faster than cultivators four times as strong as him. Even other Bards with Sage’s Mind wouldn’t have his processing power.
Another week flew by before Crow effectively broke down each of his fundamental techniques. However, most of the time was spent redesigning Wraith’s Touch since it wasn’t part of his original repertoire.
Mentally and physically exhausted, Crow climbed into bed and slept for three days.