Book 7: Chapter 4: Dung (4)
‘Wait, I have the Energy Core, don’t I?’ Dyon would have slapped his own forehead if he could move. However, this worried him even more. He wouldn’t usually forget something so simple.Dyon cast his mind into his inner world to connect to the Energy Core. As long as he had it, the difficulty of dealing with Primordial Energy would be next to nothing. He could use the Energy Core to indiscriminately suck in energy, then have it emit the purified version for his easy consumption.Theoretically, due to these abilities, the Energy Core made manipulating energy and cultivating far easier. However…‘Why isn’t it responding?’ Dyon froze. He suddenly understood why his mental state was being affected so easily… It wasn’t that The Seal was failing to work, it was that it wasn’t working at all.What Dyon would soon come to understand was that this was occurring due to the treasure of the 33 heavens following the legendary path. Weapons and treasures of this caliber were capable of calling upon the heavens to power them which was why Dyon with his previously poor energy cultivation talent could use the Energy Core with ease, or why he could accomplish feats far beyond himself with the help of The Seal.This was what it meant to follow the legendary path.But… What would happen if you suddenly found yourself in a place where the heavens didn’t lord? If a treasure of the legendary path could no longer rely on the heavens, how could it be powered at all?Dyon’s eyes widened in understanding. He wasn’t worthy of activating these treasures alone. Although they often took much of his stamina to use, Dyon was hardly doing any of the heavy lifting. Now that it was entirely on him to activate their abilities… he had run into a brick wall.Coming to this point, the first thing Dyon did was actively pour his soul energy into The Seal, hoping to alleviate himself of these subtle attacks on his mind.As expected, The Seal whirred to life, its intricate gears and symbols moving in relation to each other.Feeling the drain on his soul strength though, Dyon could only bitterly smile. It seemed he had taken the passive abilities of these treasures for granted. As it stood now, he wouldn’t be able to maintain this expenditure for more than 3 seconds…However, the clear mind Dyon gained for that brief moment allowed him to lay down a plan.Dyon pinched his nose and steeled his stomach, allowing a small gap to open in his concealment array. His hand stretched out and entered the disgusting, mushy substance.‘Don’t throw up… Don’t throw up… Don’t throw up…’ Gritting his teeth, Dyon absorbed the energy as fast as he could.As Dyon analyzed the energy, he tried his best to distract his mind from the reality of the situation. Oddly enough, the beast dung told him quite a bit about the world he was in.By common sense, feces shouldn’t have so much energy in it. In fact, a beast as powerful as the one Dyon encountered should have transcended the needed to use something as primitive as bowel movements.As far as Dyon knew, and experienced himself, after tempering your organs during the 5th and 6th foundation stages, there was no longer a need for such things. Of course, if one takes the body path, the requirements are similar.So, there were two oddities here. First of all, a beast of that caliber should have long since passed such a stage. And secondly, even if Dyon ignored that, the point of bowel movements was to get rid of waste after taking all of the energy from your nutrients.Knowing this, why would this beast dung have so much energy?The answer was simple. There wasn’t just one kind of energy in the martial world. In fact, there were countless kinds.In a place where there wasn’t any sign of true cultivation as far as Dyon could tell from his divine sense, beasts likely used eating as a form of not only gaining sustenance, but also training. This meant that whatever waste the beast excreted were simply forms of energy it didn’t need.The good thing for Dyon was that the beast was far more powerful than he was. While Dyon needed essence energy equivalents, or at least something as docile as essence energy, what this beast needed was likely something far higher on the food chain.From what Dyon could tell, there wasn’t any readily available soul energy, but that was to be expected. However, what was curious was that there were multiple forms of energy he didn’t recognize at all.In the end, Dyon had no choice but to simply use his instincts. Choosing a mishmash of energy was likely not a very good idea, especially when he didn’t understand any of them very well, so he could only test them one by one, allowing them to slowly enter his body before checking their characteristics.Some of the energies were extremely fluid and light, allowing quick usage. But, because of that they lacked a certain punch to them. It seemed that they would be incredibly useful for cultivators who emphasized speed and piercing power, but not so much strength or defense.There were other energies that were incredibly violent, so much so that Dyon was worried his meridians might burst. These were likely useful for those individuals who emphasized explosive attacks, but it was terrible for stamina and defense-oriented individuals.Still yet there were solid, thick and slow flowing energies that very much reminded Dyon of what happened due to his silver mirror constitution. They were perfect for those exact stamina and defense types.Dyon was almost overwhelmed by the new world he had entered. Just what had happened to all of these energies? Why could they exist here while his own world only had access to the conventional, balanced path?