Book 7: Chapter 102: Veins (2)

Dyon was growing frustrated. Never in his life had he faced such a difficult hurdle, he couldn’t understand why it was so difficult for him to control his own runic flame. Shouldn’t it be easy?Unfortunately, what Dyon didn’t understand was that a runic flame, and his runic flame in particular, was a fundamentally untameable beast. They were wild and unrestrained, very similar to ancient aurora flames. If it wasn’t for his grand teacher forcing ancient aurora flames into submission, they would be just as difficult to control.Similar to how Dyon took far longer to unlock his constitution’s hardening ability due to the fact he took too many steps forward at once, he was facing the same problem with his runic flames now. It was like giving a child an entire fleet of battle ships and expecting him or her to control them all with the deft flexibility of a veteran commander and pilot.“This is for your own good.” The Demon Sage snorted when he saw Dyon’s frustration. “You have no idea how much easier runic flame control will make your body cultivation.“Runic flames in the very life source of your blood essence. They can only be formed through forceful combustion of this life blood. As such, it’s a guiding light of sort. Without control over it, you can forget about becoming a body cultivating warrior.”Dyon rolled his eyes. “At least tell me something useful while I do this. How does it help?”“Body cultivation is fundamentally about raising the grade of your blood. Usually this is done by drilling energy into your bones to slowly purify your blood marrow. Over time, as your blood increases in strength, so does your body cultivation.“Before what you did couldn’t be counted as true body cultivation. You utilized my essence blood and that of others as a short cut. This made your foundation weak.”“Why couldn’t you have told me this when you gave me your blood essence instead of waiting until now? Was your grudge really that deep?”The Demon Sage snorted. “My blood essence is the greatest to ever exist. The fact you squandered it is your fault! Not mine.“With deft control of one’s runic flame, its possible to guide this purification with added speed and efficiency. By the same extension, understanding of magic circles can speed up energy cultivation. However, aurora flames have lost this ability because they were “tamed”. But, it seems that your soul cultivation probably should speed up anymore…”“You still haven’t told me, why is it that my body cultivation hasn’t increased?”“I’ve already told you haven’t I? The body path is about blood. However, the path you’re going down isn’t the same. That path is specifically known as the Body Refiner path. It’s wrong to assume that these two paths are the same although they can feed off of each other.”Dyon’s eyes glowed with an odd glint. He remembered that when he entered the Titan World, or so he called it, he couldn’t sense the cultivation levels of his opponents. Maybe it was more accurate to say they followed a cultivation path he didn’t understand or couldn’t gauge?If this was the case, it would explain a lot…“Listen carefully.” The Demon Sage started. “The Body Path is a path of blood. One increases along this path by improving the quality of their blood. Think about it logically. The most important thing to the body is blood. Whether it be energy or oxygen, it is all distributed to the body by blood.“If blood is more powerful and flows faster, the body is then able to tap into level it was incapable of before.“A by-product of the body path is the strengthening of the bones. This is because the constant drilling breaks down the skeletal system of the body. Over time, one’s bones grow tougher and denser. This is what is responsible for the sturdiness of the body cultivator.“As the body path cultivator progresses, his or her body would slowly evolve. As the blood’s grade increases, so does its ability to nurture the body.“After a certain amount of time, body path warriors then begin to be capable of using what are known as ‘blood manipulation techniques’.”Dyon’s eyes flashed. These were another set of techniques Dyon’s master wanted him to master 400 of in the common grade.“These so-called blood manipulation techniques are simply related to runic veins exclusive to the human body. For obvious reasons, it’s impossible to use the blood manipulation techniques of a species not your own.“When blood manipulation techniques are used, similar to energy techniques, they activate a specific set of hidden runic veins within the body to provide a variety of effects. These can include a minor boost in strength, speed, and even speed of thought in some rare techniques connected to runic veins of the brain.“The more one uses a blood manipulation technique, the stronger the formerly weak runic veins become. As the path strengthens, so do the techniques. One can reach the great circle of success realm in a common grade blood manipulation technique by strengthening the path way to a great enough extent.“The Demon Emperor’s Will is, in fact, one such complex blood manipulation, however, it is of a much higher realm. By using demonic will, this strengthening of the path far exceeds normal methods, allowing for inconceivable heights not possible without it. These are heights formerly only attainable by beasts which was why demonic and titan will were so important to the ancients.“It’s because of the versatility of the body path that the path of the body refiner was replaced… However, the path of the body refiner should not be looked down upon.”