Echoes of the Abyssal Blade: Path to Free Will

In the library of the distinguished Starfall Family, a miracle was taking place, "screeechhhhh, damn damn damn it all, what the heck is this", thought Jonan.

His eyes were bleeding, his mind was filled with a tremendous amount of pain and agony, all of his body was fidgeting left and right violently, and he couldn't even comprehend the reason for his suffering.

All he knew was, that the moment he said those words "Battosii", written on the cover of the black leather journal, he felt something open in his mind with a plop sound, it was a sharp stinging sensation in his mind, perplexed by his situation, he could only suffer in silence.

Eventually, the painful stinging feeling in his head subsided. First and foremost, he adjusted his posture, wiping thin lines of blood smeared on his face, he started taking deep breaths and promised himself, that he would never in future study something of unknown origin.

Some of the books written by his predecessors often mentioned things of unknown origin, and also about Forbidden knowledge that must not be studied under any circumstances, no matter how high your cultivation realm can be, they can cause unknown irreversible side effects, and are matters of Taboo, not to be touched upon.

Jonan scrunched his face with a frown, never expecting to fall into such a trap, even after gaining such wisdom from his predecessors, he still fell for it, looking at the now open black leather book, he felt it best not to read it's contents, after what happened to him from just reading a single word from the cover of the book.

While it would be smart to just leave the black leather book be, he felt tempted; after all, different from other books present in the library, this one was a magical book. He mused to himself, what if this book contains the answer to his problems, not being able to extricate himself from such fantasy.

Gritting his teeth and with great determination, Jonan went towards the open black leather book, after picking it up with fear plastered over his face, he finally opened the book, and to his surprise, all the pages in the book were blank even flipping the pages didn't help him.

With surprise plastered over his face, he flipped back to the first page, and only when he stopped, did he notice that words were beginning to form on the first page of the journal, he instantly closed his eyes in worry.

Only after noticing no reaction from the journal, did he slowly open his eyes, and read the words carefully, which had finally turned into paragraphs.

Jonan felt shocked and glee after reading the contents mentioned in the journal, from what he could see, this journal was by someone named "Magnus", which was mentioned on the back of the cover.

On the first page it was mentioned, "Congratulations young one, if you have opened my journal, it means you broke the limit on the intelligence attribute, which is nearly impossible for many, of course not for someone as great as me, and you were also quite lucky to have encountered my journal, which will help you move forward in the modern way of cultivation as well as the ancient way of cultivation, while the modern way of cultivation uses weapons for cultivating, and is a marvel on it's own, hidden behind it are shadows of some greedy yet powerful fellows and while the ancient way of cultivation may seem outdated, it is safe."

"Regrettably, the way of ancient cultivation has been completely eradicated by those greedy mongrels, even the Nucleus which was gifted to all humans by the universe."

"Now only modern weapon-based cultivation can be used, in which humans use their weapons as their Nucleus, this is the sole path for Humans if they want to move forward in their path to supremacy."

"Fortunately, following many years of research, I was finally able to find a way in which not only can a human cultivate the way of ancients, but also the modern weapon-based cultivation, which will increase their strength twice from their peers, after all, they will have a larger pool of energy to access."

"Make no mistake and don't take the great geniuses of the world in contempt, just because you can have a greater pool of energy, for there are geniuses who have enormous energy pool to access from, or there are also those who use their energy in such efficiency that there is no need for such great amount of energy, consider this a warning from my side, with my methods you might become a genius, but to be a 'TITAN' among those geniuses, that's not possible even with my help, so do tread your path carefully, and don't let even an ounce of arrogance in your heart, for arrogance is usually the main cause for their downfall."

"In the end, I failed, I have long wanted to transcend, unfortunately except for research, I wasn't good at other things compared to my peers."

"Young one who will inherit my lifelong research, living in this era, you must already have weapon affinity, now using the ancient way of cultivation you will have great control over your aura, which will not only speed up your cultivation but also use it with great efficiency."

"While using the ancient method of cultivation, heed my advice, first never give in to your desires on your path to power, you may not understand it now but the better control you have of your desires from the start of your cultivation journey, the better it will be for your future path and second never challenge 'HIS HOLINESSES', not even indirectly, no matter how sure you are of your power or backing trust me young one, in front of their might, everything is fragile."

"haha we were all so wrong, they are not as simple as one might consider them, those three show their weaknesses deliberately while having everything, and I mean literally everything under their thumb, anyway this doesn't concern you much, but if you were to ever have the misfortune of facing them, don't lie, nothing escapes their eyes without batting an eye they kill liars so never ever challenge them and when in their presence no matter what it is, never lie in their presence".

"Finally about my method for learning the ancient way of cultivation, because of the current environment, it's nearly impossible without the nucleus of humans to cultivate using the ancient way, so after extensive research and help from multiple beloved friends of mine, I was able to create this method, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't affect much except for those greedy fellows, whom you will be able to recognize in future."

"Regarding the method itself, I have engraved it in this book, you just have to drop blood, on it, and the method will be transmitted to your mind."

Jonan was shocked by the information present in the Black Book, most of which he couldn't comprehend. He was grateful for the fact that if he got this book earlier, he wouldn't have been able to understand it even one bit, only after reading multiple books and getting all sorts of knowledge, was he able to understand some of the contents of the book.

The best part is that, there really is a solution to his problem present in the black book, taking a short knife out of his pocket, Jonan gently pricks his thumb and a single drop of blood falls on the book, which makes the black book glow and shimmer with intricate runic symbols.

The glimmer converges, forming a concentrated beam that is aimed directly at his forehead, which contains the method for cultivating the ancient way, Jonan closes his eyes for a bit letting the knowledge he just received settle within him for a while.

After reviewing the contents of the ancient method of cultivation, Jonan breathed a sigh of relief, though the contents of this method overwhelmed him, he couldn't help but finally smile with anticipation at the prospect of embarking on his journey of path to power.

The ancient method of cultivation made him understand why was breaking limits important, and out of the attributes of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence. Intelligence is the toughest limit to break, not even many geniuses of the great clans can do that, and as luck would have it, his first limit that he was able to break was the Intelligence attribute, while breaking limits for other attributes was also quite hard, he will still have to go through this, because according to the ancient method, to even start cultivating, there are three prerequisites one has to clear.

The three prerequisites for Jonan's advancement are, first he must surpass his human limitations in all attributes while others just have to break one or two and breakthrough, that is not the case for Jonan, without the weapon affinity, he cannot break through the next stage unless and until he breaks through all his attributes.

Second, he has to acquire two cores for any of the foreign races, and the third one is to collect the heart of a dragon species, the purer and higher in the hierarchy the race of the dragon heart he could get, the better in quality his core will be, and it will also set his future achievements.