Rivers of the Night

Theron was completely lost in the feeling. He didn't realize how long he had gone until he put down the last of his Mana Wood and made a move to go an pick up more only to find that he had actually run out.

Blinking, the first thing he felt was a wave of fatigue, and then he felt the odd eminating aura in the room.

It felt as though the Dark Mana in the region had multiplied several times over.

At first, Theorn thought that maybe it was an illusion. It was possible that his sensitivity to Dark Mana had increased substantially, enough that he had the perception that things had changed even when they hadn't.

But this was apparently only half the truth.

'The carvings…'

Theron's gaze flickered and moved toward the pile, ignoring his fatigue. He put his hands into the smooth carvings until he made it deep enough that his skin began to catch on a few snags. There was more than one time he almost suffered a hand full of splinters.

By the end, he had confirmed it.

The flow of Dark Mana coming from the more perfect carvings was somehow more substantial. No… it wasn't a flow coming from the carvings, but instead a flow coming toward it.

The Dark Mana Wood carvings seemed to be communing with the Dark Mana in the air, and especailly that of the river that flowed through the entire Core of the Sect.

The stream of Dark Mana that flowed over their Immortal Caves was a great source of energy. It was a special benefit of Core Disciples, allowing their cultivaiton to come with twice the benefits even with half the effort.

Theron's carvings at some point reached a threshold where they began to spontaneously pull Dark Mana toward themselves, increasing the concentration of Mana in his Immortal Cave even further than it would normally.

And yet…

'I'm still not there.'

As impressive as Theron's results were, he still had the feeling that his Dark Mana Control was a ways away from his Water Mana Control.

This shouldn't be that much of a surprise. After all, although he hadn't cultivated until he was a teenager, he had been controlling Water Mana since before he formed his Bronze Core.

That said… Theron's scope and understanding, not to mention his Third Eye and the fact he actually had a systematic method of improvement rather than just blindly leaping from one deduction to the next meant that Theron was improving far faster than ever before.

Theron's Water Mana Control could probably be considered to be at a Quasi Cloud Realm level. And now, his Dark Mana had reached a Gold Resonance level—though only just barely.

This was a huge leap to make.

However, Theron had run to the end of the booklet. By the end, he was just continuously making the same things over and over again.

Prisms, spheres, variations of the two.

That said… Theron didn't feel like he needed a book to tell him what to craft anymore. What he needed right now was more Mana Wood. He felt that he already knew the next step.

From shapes… he had to begin to form living things.

What Theron didn't know right now was that this was a step of Mana Wood Carving many would never take. Instead, when they reached their limits, they would either increase the grade of the Mana Wood or the carving knife.

Doing this would increase the difficulty and thus give them more of an opportunity to refine their carving and thus progress their control.

The realms that Theron was chasing… it wasn't something only the best of Celestial Resonance talents could touch the faintest edges of.

But for now…

Theron fell into his pile of wood, something that oddly felt like floating clouds beneath him now… maybe because he was far closer to the element than ever before.

And then he fell into a deep sleep.

**

When Theron woke up, his first thought was of cultivation.

For the moment, he pressed down his desire to progress in carving. He understood that the leap he wanted to take was substantial. Plus, taking the leap with Dark Mana alone wasn't something he wanted to do.

According to his calculations, he succeeded, he would probably be touching onto the realms of control only Dome of Heaven experts had, but even his Water Mana Control wasn't firmly at a Cloud Resonance level yet.

It was too large a gap.

Instead, he needed to improve his Dark Mana further until his comprehension was deep enough that he could more easily complete the fusion of his two Mana, and successfully forge the path he was looking for.

In which case, he knew he needed better Mana Wood or a better carving knife.

But… there was no better carving knife, and this was already the strongest Mana Wood abundantly available in the Sect. The latter was already deep into Gold Resonance, and the former was at the pinnacle of Silver Resonance.

Luckily, Theron already had everything planned out.

While munching on his rations in one hand, he pulled out his next task: [Elemental Refinement].

It was a simple title for a simple book. It taught the method of using an element to bind a treasure to yourself.

Theron read it three times before he put it down even though he was fairly confident he had memorized everything after a single time.

'… There are so many methods within it that are practically identical to [Entangling Blood Vein Pupils]. No… the methods themselves seem like extremely simplified versions of the entire Entangling Lineage…'

There were nine total techniques left behind in the lineage the unnamed cultivator could never completely figure out. It was just that the ones beyond the three Theron had chosen to learn first were too complicated and required a higher cultivation level as well.

But now, he was seeing the principles of the first three techniques reflected here. That made Theron realize something quite phenomenal.

If it came to it, he could probably mask the Entangling Lineage with these methods.