Chapter 437: Power Cannot Be Gained Without Sacrifice

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"Why not ask your wife, then?" asked the Ten Thousand Poison Master. "Wasn’t she the original wielder of a fragment of his power? Or, well, the one blessed by the fragment, or the authorities as you call them... What a stupid name!"

"Right," Riven nodded.

He suddenly realized that the old man had a point.

Elisa had been blessed by a fragment of the Divine King’s power, and she was considerably more familiar with those abilities than he was. Even if she couldn’t directly teach him everything, she might know a few things that could help him understand how to cultivate the element properly.

"Maybe I should ask her... Perhaps she has ways to cultivate Ice Elemental Mana this entire time, and I could have just asked for her help. I’ve been pretty selfish myself, it seems, only thinking about myself but never about others in that way."

He lowered his gaze for a moment, thinking about it.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Elisa or that he didn’t want her assistance. Rather, he had become accustomed to solving most of his problems himself. Whenever he encountered a new obstacle, his first instinct was to find a way to overcome it through his own abilities, resources, and investments.

However, that wasn’t necessarily the best approach.

Elisa had her own knowledge and abilities, and there was no reason for him to ignore those things. They were married, after all. He wanted to protect her and provide her with everything she needed, but that didn’t mean he had to do everything alone.

"I wouldn’t go as far as calling you selfish, boy. You’re just thinking too much about her without actually realizing she could also offer her assistance in more ways than just... well, her damn presence," said the Ten Thousand Poison Master.

"Anyway, the Divine King is resting, so don’t expect him to appear any time soon... I am still rather baffled he would go out of his way to save you."

Riven glanced at the old man.

"You wouldn’t have?" Riven asked.

"It’s not like you would’ve died. You’ve got a lot of power, but you seem unable to understand it!" the Ten Thousand Poison Master sighed. "Perhaps a few days being tortured and parasitized by those beings would’ve helped you tap into it."

"...What? I could’ve been brainwashed or died..." Riven muttered in disbelief.

He couldn’t believe the old man was saying something like that so casually.

The Hand of Inevitability wasn’t exactly a group of harmless opponents. Their methods were extremely dangerous, and the fact that they could interfere with his mind made them particularly troublesome. If they had managed to establish a stronger connection, he might have lost control over himself entirely.

And yet, the Ten Thousand Poison Master seemed to think that being captured by them would have been a perfectly acceptable opportunity for cultivation.

"Ah, those are just details! Do you expect to gain power without any sacrifice?!" the Ten Thousand Poison Master asked in disbelief. "You’re simply too na?ve. The very heart of my cultivation method and its teachings is to risk one’s life and endure unimaginable pain and suffering to emerge even stronger from that. If you are not even willing to die every time you want to grow stronger, that power will never respond to you."

Riven remained silent and nodded, although he still disagreed with what he said. He couldn’t help but find some truth in the old man’s words, even if his methods were far too extreme for his liking.

There was a difference between taking risks and deliberately throwing himself into situations where he could lose everything. He had a wife, friends, and plenty of people who depended on him. He couldn’t simply gamble with his life whenever he wanted to become stronger.

Still, he understood what the old man was trying to teach him.

Sometimes, he needed to push beyond his limits and face situations that made him uncomfortable. His Heavenly Poison Body had just demonstrated how much he could gain by enduring something that should have killed him.

"Thank you for your enlightenment. I still won’t let them do anything to me, though. I can’t," said Riven.

"Fine by me," the old man said. "Bye for now. I must preserve my own mind as well, or I’ll get torn to shreds like that idiot..."

"Wait, where’s the Asura Emperor?" asked Riven. "He doesn’t show up. Why?"

"Oh, him? He drowns his sorrows in alcohol every day. If you want to speak to him, visit the Dreamscape we’ve built within your subconscious," the old master said. "Until then, goodbye."

The purple-haired old man disappeared, leaving Riven with more questions than answers.

It was really as if these three ghosts were using his mind as some kind of house where they all lived together as roommates. They each had their own personalities, habits, and peculiarities, and somehow, Riven had become responsible for hosting all of them inside his subconscious.

He wasn’t entirely sure how he should feel about that.

One of them was constantly trying to teach him increasingly dangerous cultivation methods, another was apparently spending his time drinking away his sorrows, and the last one had decided that protecting him was worth sacrificing his own Psychic Avatar.

They were certainly an unusual group.

"Haaa..." Riven let out a small sigh. "Alright..."

He looked back at the sleeping Vladimir.

The young man was still unconscious, and his body hadn’t completely recovered from the ordeal. Riven checked his condition, making sure that his breathing was stable and that there weren’t any unexpected complications.

His mechanical arms had performed remarkably well, but the entire process had been rather demanding. Vladimir would need some time to recover, especially considering the amount of energy he had expended while using them.

Riven didn’t want to leave him unattended for too long.

However, there was something else he needed to take care of first.

He blinked, moving at lightning speed and disappearing from where he was, reappearing inside the mutant village.

The transition was practically instantaneous. One moment, he was standing beside Vladimir, and the next, he was already surrounded by the familiar structures and buildings of the settlement.

The mutants had been busy working on their various projects, but the moment they noticed his arrival, many of them immediately stopped what they were doing.

"Divine Lord?!"

"Oooh!"

"He’s back!"

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