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Chapter 67

I think they said that not even Elders are allowed to use this room without the permission of either the Chief Elder or Towermaster.

The average mana chamber was integrated with twenty to thirty times more mana than the natural amount existing in the air. If a mage wanted a higher capacity, they had to go to the upper floors. Esther’s room, for example, had a little less than fifty times the natural amount, while the Elders probably had over a hundred.

However, the special mana chamber that was only readily available to the Towermaster and Chief Elder was integrated with close to a thousand times the amount of naturally occurring mana. It was so dense that formidable mana cultivators and mages had trouble even breathing inside it.

This world already has several times the amount of naturally occurring energy found in the Central Plains, but to think that this room has nearly a thousand times that... it makes the Enchanted Forest look like the normal wilderness.

Of course, having an incredible amount and density of energy wasn’t inherently good. For example, as Leonard had realized at the Cardenas training facility, the fact that there was several times the amount of naturally occurring energy made it outright impossible to use the Breath Control Technique.

If martial artists below the Creation Realm wanted to use this mana chamber to open their upper dantian, they would first have to not be crushed by the sheer amount of energy. That was how dense it was.

However, this concentration is beneficial to me.

Since Leonard’s body had been strengthened after he reached the External Force Tier, this wasn’t something he had to worry about. When the Five Elements True Dragon Ring was created, not only were his muscles and bones enhanced, but even his veins and meridians started to pump in a way that was almost inhuman. Since he had several times more control over energy, he barely needed to worry about qi deviation.

Is this family truly descended from dragons?

Though Leonard was improving several times faster than members of other families, it was unusual to gain so much power simply by ascending to the next mana cultivation tier.

In the Central Plains, he’d fought some martial artists who were descended from ancient entities and were stronger than their level of technique should allow. Descendants of Garudas and Gandharvas had also possessed great power, but he’d never seen people grow at such unbelievable speeds as members of the Cardenas did. Considering the supernatural powers he’d seen from direct descendants, their ancestry was likely tied to something incredible.

I should look into this once I have more time.

Leonard cut off his thoughts and emptied his mind completely. If all he needed to do was absorb more energy, he had to focus closely when handling mana. Besides, this was his first time in all his lives doing breathing exercises in a space with a thousand times more energy than the natural amount.

“Hoo...”

As his inhales and exhales became longer and finer, they grew so quiet that it was hard to tell that he was breathing at all.

Leonard fell into a trance and opened his acupoints. The abundant energy looked for paths to spill into and began to pour into him like water flooding from a reservoir. He sensed that if it weren’t for the fact that all the small veins in his body were refined, he would have been crushed by the pressure regardless of being in the Creation Realm. That was how much power was sweeping through him.

It would only take the smallest error for me to die.

After all, even dancing on a well-crafted blade would be less dangerous than this. Sure, if he slipped, he could lose a few toes or receive a few cuts on his ankles, but right now, making a single mistake meant instant death.

Honing his willpower as taut and delicate as the silk of a Divine Silkworm, he guided all the energy that got stuck in his meridians. His eight extraordinary meridians and twelve main meridians swelled up so much that they seemed as if they were about to explode.

No! I can do it!

Unable to handle the pressure of the energy, his capillaries broke, and blood dripped from his nose. Leonard simply brushed it off.

Fortunately, the energy integrated into the mana chamber did not have an elemental affiliation, unlike naturally occurring mana. Like mana stones, the energy wasn’t restricted to a specific type or element, so it was easy for the Five Elements True Dragon Ring to manipulate.

One cycle.

Two cycles.

Three cycles.

The energy poured through him like a waterfall. With every cycle, he had to create a stable path. Though it was extremely difficult to direct such potent energy, once he had it under control, it flowed steadily.

Thump!

Leonard effortlessly broke through the bounds of the Third Degree External Force Tier and opened the way to the next stage. Then his lower and middle dantians made his acupoints wider and looser and his meridians finer and thinner.

I have definitely reached the Fourth Degree. At this rate, the Seventh Degree is worth aiming for.

This mana chamber was more effective than he’d presumed. It was high risk and high return, a principle he had also followed in his past life.

Thump!

As he approached the Fifth Degree, the mana in him became denser, ready to be activated as augmented energy at any time. He no longer needed to spend a few seconds to create and activate augmented energy. This also applied to augmented sword energy and augmented energy shields, so their effectiveness essentially gave him an extra life.

He was now close to accumulating 130 years’ worth of cultivation. As his energy increased, so did the duration of his ability to retain and recover it. It used to be three minutes, but now it was ten minutes.

I can stand a chance against a Transcendence Tier fighter as long as some extra conditions are met. As long as my opponent isn’t as skilled at swordplay and augmented energy as Fabian is, I will be able to win at least three out of every ten battles.

The Fifth Shadow’s skill was only half as good as Leonard’s. If they’d had the same amount of mana, Leonard would have been able to behead him within three hundred exchanges. If all he needed to do was incapacitate him, it would have taken less than one hundred exchanges.

However, Fabian was so skilled with the sword that it was difficult even for Leonard to see any openings. On top of that, Fabian’s movements were so smooth, swift, and elegant that Leonard would need to risk his life to find a way to counterattack him. Based on the way he manipulated augmented energy like a long, thin thread, the Commander probably had close to Leonard’s level of control over energy.

Thump!

Leonard reached the Sixth Degree External Force Tier. His eight extraordinary meridians and twelve main meridians expanded, and the rest of the energy condensed inside him, making every small vein into simplified energy centers. Before, he could only use them as pathways, but now, he could use them to cultivate energy using Breath Circulation. In an instant, the amount of cultivation he had shot up to 180 years’ worth. He now had so much mana that he didn’t have to worry much about running out when using augmented energy.

It took a lot of stamina and strength to reach the Sixth Degree. Perhaps the Seventh Degree is too much.

He wouldn’t reach the next stage if all he did was blindly circulate energy. Though the room was still brimming with mana, Leonard knew that he wasn’t yet ready to reach the Seventh Degree. He had a feeling that he’d reached the limit. Even if he absorbed more energy, it would only shred his meridians.

However, just as he was about to stop his breathing exercises, a change occurred.

Thump!

The leftover energy inside him suddenly rushed toward his heart. A strange pull was coming from the Five Elements True Dragon Ring as if the True Dragon Ring knew he was finished ascending through the Tiers. The excess energy should have spilled out of his acupoints and into the air, but it instead swirled around the True Dragon Ring as if it were in the eye of a storm before being absorbed. After swallowing such an immense amount of energy, the five-colored orb made the boy’s body shake as if it were humming.

Rrrrrrr—!

Leonard instantly recognized the change.

My mana mastery has improved. Before, I could only overpower Class 4 mages, but now I can stand off against Class 5 mages. It makes me wonder if the True Dragon Ring is better used for magic than for mana cultivation.

The True Dragon Ring could optimize spells, give him mana mastery without needing Circles, and even condense and amplify mana on an enormous scale.

What in the world was the secret behind the origins of the Cardenas bloodline, and how was it passed on to its descendants?

As always, he had no answer.

“I should leave soon,” he remarked.

Leonard reset the energy of the mana chamber and soon left the room.

He’d entered as a Third Degree External Force Tier knight and left as a Sixth Degree External Force Tier knight.

Moreover, it had only taken him three days.

*

Thump!

An arrow flew through the air and buried itself in the target.

Thump!

Another arrow flew through the air and landed next to it.

Only the archer’s stance and distance had changed, but the arrows had landed in the same spot.

Before Leonard went into the mana chamber, he had given Ninian one assignment. She had to go back to the basics because her reliance on wind spiritual arts made her pick up a number of bad habits.

“Since your sense of distance was impaired when you lost your eye, it’s good that you use wind spiritual arts to make up for it. Everything else receives a failing mark. You must start from the very beginning.”

There were two main stages when training in basic archery skills. One could only move on to the second after completing the first, which was the drill Ninian kept repeating.

Thump!

She took two steps to the side and dropped to one knee before she shot again. The arrow landed precisely on the same spot as the one she’d shot while standing.

The very first step of training in Yeon Family Archery was hitting the same exact spot in different stances and distances. Leonard’s words echoed in her head.

“You must be able to see one point ten thousand times, and see ten thousand changes with one look.”

Ninian had to be able to hit the same spot in ten thousand positions and account for ten thousand changes when shooting a single arrow. If she could achieve that, there was nothing she couldn’t shoot down.

This was called Legion Archery, but it was said that no one had ever reached that stage, including Yeon Gaesomun. Unless an archer could shoot nine suns,[1] they stood no chance.

Thump!

Ninian couldn’t count how many times she went through Leonard’s exercise. She wasn’t in the hundreds or thousands, but in the tens of thousands. After she’d shot countless arrows, the skin on her fingertips was peeling, and the tendons and ligaments in her hands and arms were on the brink of snapping. Yet she carried on, brushing aside her injuries with potions. She focused on just one target with no end in sight.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Where had all the time gone? There had been a time when not even Ninian believed she could save her sister, but now Vivian was just within reach.

She had to gather as much power as possible, for Vivian’s sake.

Twing!

The bowstring snapped and grazed her face, drawing blood. But Ninian didn’t even bat an eye as she reached to fasten it again.

“Not paying attention to the state of your bow is another sign of an inexperienced archer,” a voice interrupted.

Leonard was standing behind her as he had their first meeting, but this time Ninian didn’t point her arrow at him.

When she turned, her eye widened. She was seeing something unbelievable.

This was a boy who was more skilled in combat even though she was several Degrees above him. He was also sharp enough to surmise her situation with just a few clues, and he could meet with the Magic Tower’s Chief Elder whenever he liked.

Despite knowing all this, she never would have expected this.

“What in the world are you?”

Her sense of time was distorted because she hadn’t left the range, but she was confident they had met less than a week ago. Within that time, Leonard had become much stronger than her. She’d thought that she at least had a higher mana capacity than him, but now, she had no advantage over him.

The boy had advanced an impossible amount.

Leonard said, “Who knows? For now, I would say that I am the person who will save your sister.”

His simple answer pushed away the fear in Ninian’s eye.

They said nothing more as they left the range and headed to Bermuda to find Frances.

Frances had the most important role in their plan.

1. This is a reference to Hou Yi, an archer from Chinese mythology. According to the story, ten suns came down to earth to play but ended up scorching the land. Hou Yi shot them but spared one. ☜