Path to Transcendence

Chapter 529: Just Like That

Reward generated…

He smiled eagerly, and a bright light enveloped his hands. He felt a weight fall into his palms and lifted it to his eyes to inspect what kind of reward he might have gotten.

When the light died down, he was finally able to get a look at the item. However, his smile slowly faded away as he examined the worn leather book in his hands.

“Oh,” he said lamely.

“Not what you expected?” Eileen asked.

“No, no. It’s wonderful,” he said with fake excitement. It was like pretending to enjoy a present someone got you for Christmas or your birthday.

He didn’t know what to expect, but he was confident to say that he hadn’t been expecting a book of all things. He was somewhat hoping for a token or something similar that might help him improve his control over life mana.

He reminded himself that he couldnʼt judge things by appearances, look at the crown he was wearing. He leaned forward and took a closer look at the worn leather-bound book. He turned it over in his hands to examine the title.

Foundational Primer of Life Mana Hearts and Body Modifications. He lowered his gaze and spotted the authorʼs name barely legible underneath the title. It was written by some guy named Tezuko the Undying Revenant.

He widened his eyes in astonishment when he read the title and slowly looked up at the ceiling. “Is this…?”

“Yes. Unlike some of the fakes and copies out there, this is a personal record of the foundations of body constructs and other body modification techniques. Specifically, of life mana techniques, such as the one Tezuko used in the early stages of his path,” she explained; however, there was a complicated expression on her face for some reason.

He looked at the book with loving adoration. He had been thinking about things like this. He had read several different accounts of people who used body modifications and similar techniques. However, there was almost never anything beyond general details about what they did. He hadn’t found anything that talked about how to accomplish or copy it.

“Isn’t this a valuable reward? I thought you said that I barely passed,” he muttered.

“It’s not that valuable to most people. It’s not like a direct instruction manual for his actual signature abilities. It is more of a starter book for those who are interested in that sort of thing. For some people, it would be no more valuable than a book on the history of agricultural magic. But for others, it is worth more than Pinnacle Grade Token,” she explained.

“Who was he?” He asked curiously.

“He was a Tier 6 from Corvus. I believe he helped create a sect there as well. It was called the Verdant Willow Sect. I am not sure if it still exists, but he was known as an unkillable monster in his days.”

Julius recognized that name. It was one of the Ten Great Sects in Corvus. He believed they were only ranked ninth of something, but that was still impressive. In a country where all the sects are competing to get into the top ten rankings, it has established itself as a known powerhouse.

A book from one of the founders of that sect sounded like a valuable treasure to him. He said as much to her.

“You wouldn’t be the first one to try and learn from him,” she said ominously.

“What do you mean?”

“Well… Tezuko was known for his… unique personality,” she said plainly.

His brows furrowed. “What does that mean?”

“He wasn’t known as the Undying Revenant without reason,” she said.

“Are you saying that this book is full of nonsense?” He asked, dreading to hear the answer.

He heard a sigh. “There have been plenty of people who tried to learn from his teachings. But I don’t believe many, if any, have ever successfully followed his path.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound promising.”

“Yeah, many complained about his methods being… barbaric and downright mad.”

“Oh, wonderful,” Julius said with a grimace.

“But that’s why you might like it,” she offered.

He glared at the ceiling. “What does that mean?”

“Terradon mentioned that you were a masochist, so I picked out this reward for you, taking that into consideration.”

Julius cursed the boy with antlers internally. However, he also realized that this book was actually quite a prize. While it might not be valuable to others, it might be something arguably more valuable than anything else he could have gotten. There werenʼt that many treasures that excited him anymore.

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With his healing skill, he should be able to experiment with these constructs and body modifications with more enthusiasm than others. He would also have Freya to help him if needed.

So while he complained, he wasn’t too unhappy. As long as the book contained some good insights, he would happily accept this reward.

“Thank you,” he said with a grateful nod.

“You are most welcome,” the woman said with amusement. “Don’t try to do anything it mentions until you reach Tier 4, though. You will only be able to start making serious modifications when you are officially in Tier 4.”

Julius frowned upon hearing that. He didn’t know about that. But he would ask Freya about that later.

“Understood,” he said with a nod.

“Good, now get out of here.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Julius pouted; he wanted to ask her more of the questions he had prepared. However, before he could even open his mouth for a second time, he was whisked away.

***

Eileen POV

She looked over at where someone had teleported into the room.

“I see you met the boy. I am surprised you decided to meet him in person,” Kaelther noted.

“I had to after all the drama he created,” she said, and slowly formed a corporal body. She flattened out her dress and stared at Kaelther with a pointed look.

Kaelther shrugged. “At least he was interesting. I overheard that he was friends with that Reinera girl whom you talked to not long ago.”

“Yeah,” she confirmed with a nod.

“Hmm. You didn’t want to offer him something else?” Kaelther asked.

“Is there any need to? You wanted him to have that book,” she said with a glare.

“I didn’t break any rules,” he pointed out.

“No, but you certainly pushed the boundaries,” she said with a glower.

He shrugged uncaringly. “Nobody was going to use that book anyway. It has been sitting inside this realm for way too long as it was.”

“No, but we are not supposed to meddle with other people’s paths. Especially if they are not part of the royal bloodline.”

“It is like you said, yourself. That book isn’t that valuable to most people. It requires a unique individual, actually, to learn from it.”

Eileen held back a snapping retort about the boy being a perfect candidate for it. They both knew it. She had seen his status and his abilities. He was a monster who had more epic skills in Tier 3 than she had ever seen. Almost ten epic skills at Tier 3 were unheard of, and a Phoenix Concept-backed healing skill was insane.

She had no clue how his body, soul, or mind had held up under the earth-crushing stress such a skill must have taken to use. But Kaelther was right; if anyone was able to make use of Tezuko’s methods, it might be the boy. If he somehow accomplished this, the book would be the greatest reward he could have received. It was a gamble.

If not, Julius would quickly find out why Tezuko had no true successors. The man had been truly mad; it was no wonder he had died trying to ascend to Tier 7. Deservedly too.

“What is the status of the anomaly?” She asked Kaelther with a more serious look, changing the topic to the more critical issue.

“We don’t know. I suspect it entered with the help of the recent opening of the realm. But I can’t track it down. Someone went to extreme lengths to hide it from us,” Kaelther said with a grimace.

She frowned as well. Being able to hide something from them whilst in this realm was quite an impressive feat. She didn’t think many people could do such a thing. Whoever was behind this intrusion must be powerful and very knowledgeable.

She wondered whether it was another country or someone with a vendetta against the Empire.

“Have you taken the appropriate precautions?”

“Yes, all of the essential enchantments and important functions have been protected. However, depending on what the anomaly does, I am not sure how extensive the damage will be. But we are preparing for the worst.”

“Good, what about the participants? Will they be safe?”

Kaelther gritted his teeth. “The issue is after the trials are over. The protections afforded to them are compromised. I believe they are using the period between the end of the trial and the exit of the realm to their advantage. The device will likely activate once everyone has finished their trials. We won’t be able to interfere either.”

“That is not something I want to hear, Kaelther,” she said with a deep frown. “What can we do?”

“There’s not much we can do. Our authority is limited once the trials end. If we want to do anything else, we would need to sacrifice some things,” Kaelther said after a moment of thought.

“Do it.”

“I know I don’t have to explain to you what this will mean to the realm, but are you sure?”

“Yes, I will explain to the royal family what has happened. If they have any disagreements with my decision, then they should have done a better job at preventing something like this from happening.”

“Undertood,” Kaelther said and closed his eyes. She could feel him reworking several of the enchantments manually. His ability to control and manipulate the countless threads of mana was impressive. He was truly suited to managing this realm.

Unfortunately, it was also unavoidable that certain parts of the enchantments were damaged in the process. Perhaps if they had more time, they could have avoided this, but alas, time wasn’t on their side.

“I have started the process. We won’t be able to stop the entire situation from unfolding, but I have ensured there are protections for the people inside the realm. The rest is going to be up to them,” Kaelther said, sounding a little tired from reworking the enchantments.

“It’s fine. You did what you could. But more importantly, I was hoping you could find out who is behind all of this. I also want to find out if they have any more plans. If they do, I want to stop them before they can get started,” she said with a dark look.

Without the protections afforded to them, participants would be in for a rough time if they were attacked. The life-saving preventative measures should still work fine, but she worried that the soul damage would be pretty bad if they were to experience death.

The temple trembled slightly in response to her emotional turmoil. However, she quickly reigned them in.

It wasn’t the time to be emotional. Being rational and efficient took priority.

But if these people thought they could mess with her realm and get away with it, they were profoundly wrong.