I raised an eyebrow. "You know about it?" I set the book down, my skill with interpreting dense texts was still pretty weak after all.
"That's the one I use," she said with a nod.
"Really?" That meant her circulation speed must've been insane… and her control, too. The Spiritual Root method didn't auto-circulate energy, yet she'd still managed to form a Spiritual Weapon.
She turned to face me. "Well, it was actually pretty simple. Think of the Nexus as a seed. You feed it World Force slowly, being careful not to overwhelm the body. Over time, the Nexus starts to grow these tiny... hairs?"
I blinked. "Why are you asking me? Wait... is that what it's like talking to me?"
She flushed slightly. "Anyway… you use your Internal Force to grab at the hairs, pull them outward while feeding them more energy. Like plant roots, they grow appendages. You repeat the process until a transformation occurs. The more talent you have, the more intricate and far-reaching the root network becomes."
"What does the transformation do?" I asked. With the Spiritual Reservoir, it had been the creation of the Grand Channel, a natural circulator. With the circuit system, the transformation allowed automatic force conversion. Only one effect remained that I could think of.
"It acts kind of like a pre-core energy generator. But instead of producing its own internal force, it—"
"It absorbs World Energy!" I jumped to my feet as the realization hit me. Every nerve in my body lit up like firecrackers. "Ha… HAHAHA!"
I couldn't help it, I laughed like a madman.
Synthia gave me a look like she was wondering whether I needed to be sedated.
I managed to stop, grinning as I looked down at her. "Thank you. That helps me more than you could possibly know."
Whether or not my body could handle two more foundational cultivation methods rather than just the single new one, I wasn't sure. But if I couldn't? Then I'd just have to take drastic measures to make it happen.
"Synthia, I'm not sure if I should tell you this."
"What is it?"
I sat back down and exhaled slowly. "We're in… similar situations. I don't have a system either. So, for the sake of survival, I'll share what I've discovered."
She listened closely as I explained everything. My journey with Thea, our creation of the Spiritual Reservoir Formation, which seemed like a vastly improved version of the Pillar Formation. We confirmed that just by flipping through the text. I told her how systems could mimic the skills we developed and vice versa. I explained Body Refinement, though I made sure to emphasize the massive dangers it carried, and how to mitigate them.
"That's… that's insane," she breathed, eyes wide. "But… is it really okay to go against something that powerful?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. But if I—we don't, aren't we just going to suffer here anyway?"
She looked down, silent. I could tell her thoughts had drifted to her own pain. Her struggles in this world went back far longer than mine.
"But that's not the part I was hesitant to tell you," I said, cutting gently through her silence. "This is the dangerous part. The one I haven't figured out how to make safe."
I pointed at the books between us.
"All of this, it doesn't feel right that they're separate." I started to think of it like the Force types. Somewhere, sometime, everything was broken apart. But the original state… it's unity. Pure light. Pure will."
"They complement each other," I continued, tapping the book covers. "Each one adds something the others lack."
"But… you can only form one structure at a time," Synthia said, her brow furrowing.
"Yeah. One at a time and once the transformation happens, there's no turning back." I nodded slowly. "Unless…"
I looked at her.
"What if you damage your roots?"
Her eyes widened. "Why would I cripple myself like that?"
"To move the energy outside of the structure. To form another one. Then another." I explained my idea, how I'd repair my own shattered Grand Channel by building the circuit system around it.
"B-but… what if it doesn't heal the old injury?" she asked, real concern in her voice. "And how the heck did you even shatter your channel that badly? Or expect me to damage my roots?"
I shook my head. "I think the transformation will heal me. Probably. As for the shattering... I kind of blew myself up. No idea how I survived. But there has to be another way. Maybe..."
I paused. But the look in her eyes had already changed to one of intense calm and focus. She was already determined.
"Wait. How did you blow yourself up?"
Yeah, no. That was a very bad question to answer. "There has to be another way. Near-suicide isn't the solution."
But the look didn't fade. If anything, it sharpened.
My chest tightened. Maybe I was still underestimating this world. Maybe she was more desperate than I realized.
'Hey,' Luna's voice cut in.
'Kinda busy, Luna.'
'You mentioned the Grand Carving technique to her... it changed your channel. It could damage the roots too. Probably.'
Oh. I blinked. 'Luna, you are a terrifying creature.'
The implication wasn't lost on me. The carving had hurt, but she was right. They had technically been 'damaging' my Grand Channel. What if you damaged them further? "Maybe you could use cores instead," I offered cautiously.
"To shatter the roots?"
"Yeah… slowly. And painfully. Very painfully I bet. You'd need a safe place to recover. And honestly, I have no idea how safe it is in the long term." I rubbed my forehead. "Another issue, you'll leak Internal Force. So you'd have to constantly re-cultivate while the organ's damaged."
She stared at me for a long moment. Then her voice softened.
"Peter, this… this could change everything for me, for you. For anyone like us. How can you just give it away so easily?" I heard the honesty in her voice. The mix of gratitude and disbelief.
"I'm just… tired of everything," I muttered. "Since I got h—ahh, whatever. Since I arrived in this world, only a handful of people have ever actually tried to help. Everyone else is always at each other's throats. And for what?"
She turned away from me, ignoring my slip up. Her back now faced me, her voice quieter. "The first statue I ever found in the wild… it gave me a red energy. Like a bolt of lightning."
Beast Force?
"It gave me the power to sense elemental energies. To harness them and I've learned to control all but one up to now... But I still can't cultivate with it yet."
The realization hit me. Not everyone who received a blessing from those ancient statues got the same ability. Hers was unique… or at least different from mine, and so might the others.
"But I can't do anything else with it," she added with a sigh. "The second statue sent me to a trial. I barely passed the first round. That's where I learned the Spiritual Root Formation, from the memory it gave me."
She turned slightly, looking out the window.
"And the third… is this place. Another trial. I don't even know where I am anymore. I've come so far. I—" her voice cracked slightly, "I didn't think I'd ever see Greyson again."
There was a weight in her tone, a longing, grief, maybe even guilt. I wanted to say something, to let her know I understood. I knew what it was like to leave everyone behind. To be ripped away from the only people who cared.
But before I could speak.
*Knock.*
I sighed and stood. "Feel free to use the books," I said softly. "Just remember… there's always a path forward. And if there isn't—" I paused at the door, "—you make your own."
She didn't answer.
I slid the door open.
"I have the beast ready," Elder Ramus said simply. The fading sunlight framed him in gold, but it didn't soften the edge in his presence. With Janus' warning still echoing in my mind, the man standing before me now felt far more dangerous than when we'd first met.
"Give m—"
"We leave now." Elder Ramus didn't give me a chance to finish, grabbing my shoulder with a firm grip. But he paused when Synthia stood up. "…You have a minute."
The way he said it made something in my chest tighten. Why did he say it like that?
Synthia rushed over and pressed something into my hands, the bangle. "I'll see you when you get back."
I gave her a nod, but there was no time for more. Without another word, or that promised minute, my body was lifted into the air.
Flying was… humbling. Even though it wasn't my power, rising over thirty meters off the ground made everything feel distant and small. My limbs floated weightlessly as we ascended.
Below, I could see the entire sect courtyard laid out like a map. The surrounding valley walls stood tall in every direction. This level of movement—this power… How far was I from reaching it?
"You're that impressed?" Ramus said, glancing down with a faint smile. "Just remember, Peter, those bastards with Guidance are capable of far more. But you… if you can truly harness your ability, you could lead us to greatness."
A chill ran down my spine at the way he said it.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
He didn't respond. We kept rising until we hovered above one of the taller hills in the mountain range, then suddenly surged forward, my body dangling behind like a ragdoll caught in a gust.
After just a few minutes of gliding over forested terrain, we arrived at a small wooden hut perched high above the sect. A place that overlooked everything.
Finally, my feet touched the ground again.
Ramus walked ahead, the early moonlight casting his long shadow across the stone path.
"Come in," he said.