Path to Transcendence

Chapter 741: Is It Ugly?

The plan was quite simple. They were going to use Lora as bait.

Even more surprising was that Kaito was the one who proposed the idea in the first place. Julius didn’t think the man would want to risk his daughter, considering how protective he was of her. But he assumed wrong.

To be fair, it was probably the best way to set a trap. Nobody was going to expect Kaito to use Lora as bait either. Furthermore, Julius suspected that Kaito was only okay with this because Lora had gotten better and wasn’t as fragile as before. With Aurelia and her own recent advancement, she would be able to protect herself for long enough for someone to help if needed. Especially if she was given some protective measures.

“How do we know they will take the bait?” Julius asked, popping a fried potato chip into his mouth.

“Because we are going to make it too tempting for them not to try. The elders who oppose me understand that as long as I’m in the position of de facto clan leader, they won’t be able to accomplish their goals. Hence, removing me is a critical objective. They might even suspect a trap being involved.”

“Why don’t they just poison you or something?” Julius asked. After all, they lived in the same estate; it would probably be a lot easier to poison someone than to set up an ambush.

Kaito laughed. “They’ve tried. But I have a pretty powerful poison and ailment resistance skill. Lora has a similar version as well. I made sure it was one of the first skills she acquired and was partly why she was able to handle her previous condition as well as she did. We also have several items that will detect poisons and other related toxins.”

Julius hummed thoughtfully. The plan revolved around Lora heading off to the Cloudspire. Cloudspire was another large city not too far away from Goldmere. It was where the Flowing Cloud Pavilion was located, and, as a sect focused on those with wind and water affinities, it would be a good place for Lora to learn and explore her abilities.

Now that she was a Tier 3, she would have to find her own path. Kaito wasn’t the type of person who didn’t understand the consequences of keeping her inside Clan Yoshu for the rest of her life. A life of restriction and isolation wasn’t good for anyone, and she had lived a more isolated life than most.

Julius thought that it was a good idea too. Her connection with Aurelia would undoubtedly give her an edge, and the Flowing Cloud Pavilion would likely embrace her within their ranks. A dual-affinity spirit like Aurelia was rare and held unimaginable potential if properly cultivated. Not to mention that Lora was already quite skilled. Her control of mana was far beyond any of her peers her age, and her skill in martial arts didn’t lag behind either. Kaito and her brothers had done a good job at preparing her.

Speaking of her brothers, two of them were already at the Flowing Cloud Pavilion, so they would be able to look after her to some extent.

Kaito had four sons. The eldest had gone off to enjoy the life of an adventurer. The second oldest was a core disciple of the Flowing Cloud Pavilion. The third wasn’t really interested in combat and focused on crafting and enchantments. He was working underneath a master craftsman. And the youngest was an inner disciple of the Flowing Cloud Pavilion. So she wouldn’t be alone.

However, the trip to Cloudspire wasn’t an easy one. Separating the two cities was a dangerous region, called the Howling Skylands. It was an ancient ruin of a long-extinct civilization. Floating islands were sprawled across the region, and there were many monsters infesting the area. Many adventurers and sects made their home around there because of the danger. However, amid the danger, there were many opportunities for those who sought them.

That being said, accidents happened all the time out there, and it was a place that was often full of ambushes and bandits. So it would also make for a good place to attack Kaito and Lora.

Lily, whoʼd been quiet for a bit, nodded. “Let’s get started on it then.”

***

A few days passed in luxurious peace. He spent a lot of time with Lily. Their time apart meant they did their best to spend as much time with each other as possible. Meals, training, and many other things were all done together.

It was nice. He didn’t have to worry about hiding things from her and could be himself. She felt similarly and was able to relax by his side.

There was a good amount of time before the next enrollment period for the sect. At least a month and a half. This left them plenty of room to plan and, more importantly, for Julius to work on his other skills. New and old.

First off, his requirement for [Armaments of the Arcane] had just about finished. A week had almost passed, and he had made his preparations for the other tasks.

He had a nice long list of items he would be making. He felt pretty good about that one. The list was the most arduous part. However, the requirement to control a hundred constructs at once was still a little daunting. He had been practicing, though, and thought he might be able to pull it off if he really went for it.

He wanted to wait until he finished the other objectives though. Luckily for him, in a couple more minutes there would be one less.

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Congratulations, you have maintained a construct continuously for a week.

He gave a small fist pump in the air and picked up the dagger he’d been holding on to. He didn’t dissolve it; rather, he let it be. For some reason, the longer he maintained the construct, the less focus he seemed to need to keep it active. He was curious what would happen if he continued to maintain it for a month.

Once he was done with this, he looked at the other requirements once again.

Skill Evolution Test…

Requirements:

Create 100 different constructs within a day. (0/100)Successfully control 100 constructs at one time. (0/100)
He was glad to see it reflected his recent actions. But now it was time to cross off another requirement. He sat down in the center of the training chamber with a deep, calming breath. He gathered his mana and began to weave it together.

A pretty standard sword appeared in his hands. It wasn’t anything too special, but he saw the number beside the requirements tick up, which let him know it was enough. Once he saw that, he let the mana fall apart and dissipate. He wished he could have changed the form of the construct while not losing any of the mana, but it didn’t work like that. He needed a new construct, which was the hard part.

However, he got to work and was able to recycle some of the mana before it was completely gone. He made an axe next, and when he saw that it qualified as a construct, he let that one fall away. He rinsed and repeated this process for a while, losing all track of time.

It was only when the door opened and he heard Lily calling his name that he finally shook himself out of his focused state.

“Is this where you’ve been all day?” she asked and stepped through the barrier he set up. However, there was a weird look on her face.

He shrugged. “Yeah, why?”

Lily gave him another weird look and then stared at the mess at his feet. Particles of half-formed mana and shattered constructs lay on the ground like trash.

“What are you doing?” she asked and bent down to pick up what had been a lamp.

“A skill evolution test for one of my skills.”

“And it requires you to make all of this?”

“Kinda, the actual types of constructs are up to my desires. Why is there something wrong?” he asked worriedly.

“No, but you do realize you’ve been down here for most of the day, right?”

He widened his eyes. “Really? It’s been that long?”

She nodded. “Yeah, you almost missed dinner, so I came down to find you. Are you almost done?” she asked and poked what looked like a figurine of an ugly dwarf with her toe.

He checked his notifications real quick.

Requirements:

Create 100 different constructs within a day. (94/100)Successfully control 100 constructs at one time. (0/100)
“Almost, I have a few more I have to make, then I can call it,” he said to her and frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked again.

She looked a bit off, almost as if she was a bit dizzy. He stood up and walked over to her, checking on her vitals. He didn’t sense anything wrong with her body; his [Phoenix Mark] could monitor her condition to some extent, especially since she allowed it.

“Do you not feel it?” she asked with a wince.

“Feel what?” he asked with a bewildered tilt of his head.

“The mana concentration.”

“No?”

“How much mana have you used?” she asked with a frown.

He checked his reserves and noticed that he’d used quite a bit. His mana pool was sitting below the halfway point. He was also sitting on his blanket, so he had no idea how much mana he regenerated during this time.

“I don’t know. A lot.”

“The mana density is abnormally high,” she noted and took several steps back. However, just that seemed to be enough to alleviate her discomfort.

He facepalmed. Of course. He had set up an isolation barrier around the area he was using and completely overlooked what would happen if he used so much mana within an enclosed space.

He also realized that he could probably use a lot of this surrounding mana for his constructs. So he quickly began his work on the 95th construct. Just because he needed to make a hundred constructs didn’t mean he made them carelessly. For each construct, he made sure he put in as much effort as the previous one.

This current construct was supposed to be a small tree. He carefully twisted thin threads of mana together into the trunk and then used smaller ones to create intricate branches. Then he painstakingly carved deep grooves within the tree to mimic the natural grain of wood. While he did this, he noticed that Lily was still standing just beyond the edge of the barrier while he worked.

He took several more minutes refining the construct, and only when he was happy did he stop. He then lifted the construct and gently presented it to Lily.

“What do you think?” he asked with a proud smile.

She stared at him and at the tree with a complicated look.

“What?” he asked with a scrunch of his nose.

“How much mana did you put in there?” she asked with a hesitant step toward the tree and took it from his hands.

He shrugged. “I used a bunch of the ambient mana. Why? Does it look ugly?” he asked worriedly.

“No, no. It actually looks quite beautiful. I’m more concerned about whether or not it will explode,” she said cautiously, holding the tree a couple feet away from her face.

He laughed. “No, it should be fine. I stabilized it with my Concept of Balance, so it should be able to handle that much mana. I can probably—” he cut himself off and stared at the tree for a few seconds.

Then before she could ask, he quickly reached out and took the tree from her hands with a blank expression.

“What? What was that for?” she asked with a glare.

He stayed silent.

“Was it about to blow up?” she asked.

He didn’t respond and discreetly adjusted a small portion of the branches where he carved too deeply and messed up the structure of the threads.

“It was, wasn’t it!” she accused with a horrified look.

He mumbled under his breath and, rather than acknowledge her concern, turned away and began to work on his 96th construct.