Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 1038: Solution

What Sage was looking at was not the key to connecting the two opposite laws together. There wasnt a secret between how the two were opposites at all. Instead it was a common thread not just between Corruption and Thermodynamics, but also Filtration. The three laws all had something in common and with the help of the Realm Hearts nascent energies, he faintly grasped their source.

Once he got just the tiniest glimpse of this mysterious Law he clutched onto that tiny thread and wouldnt let it go. Days passed as he focused everything upon not losing grasp of that fleeting trace. Each of those days was nearly three years on the Inner World, and there was a flurry of activity there, everyone acting in support of Sages training. Unfortunately, the study of Laws was something that had always been difficult to share with others. The secrets of imparting such knowledge were hidden among those at the highest levels, of which Sage had no access. Even as good as his relationship with Guan Zhenyan was, it was the one thing the man had never given him a price for.

Even so, the time dilation helped Sage have more time to grasp all the changes and intricacies of this new Law and also created lots of data for the researchers to study. Finding places rich with law power like Icefire Valley was very rare. Every one of them were tightly guarded by the powers that discovered them and their defensive measures would therefore be overwhelming. Such a place could easily give rise to a first rate power and Sage highly suspected that the resources each of the Kingdoms were built around were something law related. The most loyal provinces were likely also guarding similar places to Icefire Valley, where Law energy was involved but were very slow to accumulate.

Despite his seemingly high level among Cultivators, Sage was actually not that advanced in his understanding of Laws. He had never improved any of his laws beyond the third degree of mastery. He had merely lucked out and found the even more rare path of improving the class of his law. That improvement created a jump in his strength that correlated to those with higher degrees of mastery using lower classed laws. He was merely lucky so far, stumbling into enough opportunities that his blind groping happened to catch hold of something that he just wouldnt let go of. Someone with a Minor Law had to reach the ninth degree of mastery to reach the same level of strength that Sage had at the third degree with his Primal Law.

Unlike Icefire Valley, there wasnt a limited quantity or timeframe for this experience. The Realm Heart would remain in this state for many years, giving him a training ground unlike any other hed experienced. He finally had the luxury of choice and that meant he wasnt going to give up on the lead hed found. Along with the teams of researchers, they studied all the feedback from his vision and Spiritual Sense, working tirelessly to try and define reproducible methods to control or even properly measure Law energy. If the greater powers in the world wouldnt share their methods of training Law power, then the only path remaining for them was to come up with their own training methods. If he were to focus upon Corruption or Thermodynamics he felt he could advance rapidly, and he might completely master Filtration if he spent all his attention upon it.

As time passed, Sage realized the problem. Resonating with a Law to influence the energies of heaven and earth was something of a feeling. It was mystical, esoteric and mysterious, a thing that could only be felt. Trying to measure and quantify this thing that could only be touched upon with feelings was considerably difficult. How can you perfectly explain the exact state of mind and feelings?

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Worse yet, interacting with Laws was not just a passive experience. It was like a blind person trying to teach another blind person to throw a ball. Not only did the right state of mind and emotion need to be met, they also had to be exercised and manipulated, yet the only feedback was the end result. Which muscles should he use, were they muscles he even knows how to manipulate? Did he even know they existed? What order should he activate them in? All he had to gauge it was feelings and the end result. Like the blind people throwing a ball, they could listen for the speed or how hard it strikes something, but how would they rate accuracy? Set up a target with a bell? How would they know if they threw it straight? Would it be possible for them to throw a curveball? Throwing in a narrow hallway or through a hoop with streamers or bells.

They needed to develop these training tools like the narrow hallway or the target that dings when struck. If they could come up with these measuring implements they would be able to slowly discover better methods of training their understanding of laws.

Yet, all of this was secondary to his grasp of that fleeting feeling. Holding tightly to it for a few years, Sage finally felt like hed climbed up from the tips of his fingers to get a firm grasp. He had enough room to do some testing, tweaking the connection with his three laws, trying to explore a little more of the mysterious law. Every change was recorded rapidly by the Adjutor, using the bio-computer inside its body to feed all the data to the research teams. This added a second stream of information to compare against the connection between Sage and his Soul Clone. The two links were slightly different, as the Adjutor used the Insect Immortal Index Merge link, while the Soul Clone was an evolution of the Twin Soul. Both of them could act autonomously, but the Twin Soul was more of an avatar while the Merge link merely allowed him to take control and share their senses.

The Adjutor was an insect, which meant it had less intelligence than humans, but it was also a bio-computer. That made it extremely robotic, being high in logic and processing ability, but lacking in social and emotional functions. Yet, in this case, analyzing feelings from an extremely logical viewpoint was actually helpful.

There was one final variable that tilted things into his favor. Heavenly Materials. Sage gave them all a try and with some experimentation found some results from the orange fires of the Samsara Flame. It used the soul as fuel to make its victim experience other lives, giving them a glimpse into their souls past lives. Or at least thats how it got its name. It was hard to know if such a claim was the truth, or just a convenient explanation for illusions of living other lives. Whatever the case, its power was affected by the waves of Law energy he was being exposed to. The Eye of the World restored the damage to his soul, which meant he could use the Samsara Flame upon himself as much as he needed.

The experiences of another life remained with him for a short time after the Samsara Flame was extinguished and he used this time to get different perspectives upon the Law energy. He couldnt practice his control of the Heavenly Materials on the Inner World, but it was simple enough to send a wisp inside to scorch his Soul Clone. The experience of other lives from the Samsara Flame was already time compressed, letting a person live a whole life in just a few minutes of burning, so using it on the Inner World allowed him to keep his grasp upon the mysterious law in the outside world without being interrupted.

Then, after almost a decade of effort, it suddenly clicked. From pulling at a thread, to holding on tightly, he suddenly felt like hed fallen into the deep end. The law powers that were constantly washing over him, which constantly threatened to shatter his Spirit Power from their intensity suddenly transformed into a warm and inviting bath. He suddenly felt like a fish in water as he resonated with a power of law greater than any hed ever experienced. The other laws were pushed away as his newfound connection to the new Law was too great. He was rapidly improving his connection, giving him little control, and forcing away all the other types of law power. Even so, it felt like a huge portion of the law energy was still washing over him. Even without any outside confirmation he suddenly knew what it was.

A Core Law. The class of law above Primal Laws like Corruption and Thermodynamics. He also knew exactly what to call it: Change.