Chapter 2395: The first disciple

"...Why don’t we use that humiliation itself as a weapon against the very purpose it was created to serve?"

"...." Robin leaned back against his seat once again, settling comfortably against it as he looked at Jabba with a calmer, more contemplative expression. "Go on. Explain what you have in mind."

"Alright, then hear me out properly." Jabba shifted forward until he was sitting right on the edge of his chair, clearly intending to explain the entire idea before Robin could dismiss it. "You want me to abandon the Second Cultivation Path entirely and devote myself to finding a cure for humans, and perhaps eventually even finding a way to return those who already use beast blood to being pure humans again, right?"

"Yes." Robin replied immediately and without the slightest hesitation, clearly seeing no reason to debate that point.

"That’s irrational." Jabba shook his head firmly. "It’s the most widespread cultivation path in the entire universe. Out of every hundred internal energy users, ninety-nine of them follow the Second Path. How exactly are we supposed to return all of those people to being humans? How much time and effort would a project of that scale require? And more importantly, how many of them would even support the idea enough to willingly invest their own time, effort, and money into transforming themselves?"

"...." Robin slowly nodded, acknowledging the problem. "I was thinking we could simply forget about the old users and erase the Second Cultivation Path entirely from this point onward, while you focus your efforts on strengthening and completing my Sixth Path."

"What about the children of Second Path users, then?" Jabba shook his head again, refusing to let that solution pass so easily. "We’d essentially be abandoning the largest segment of the universe, throwing them aside and excluding them from what comes next because of things they never had any choice in. What the ancients did before the beginning of the cycle truly wasn’t fair, I agree with you on that, but your prejudice against the victims who inherited the consequences of what happened isn’t fair either."

"...." Robin remained silent for a moment before nodding again, then gestured toward Jabba with one hand for him to continue explaining his point.

"I’ll still do what you want. My next step was already going to be researching how to activate the variable particles inside human bodies without requiring any external catalyst. After all, I’m human myself, and you have an enormous human army that can’t simply be left stagnant, nor should they be forced to depend entirely on the Sixth Path alone. Whatever results I reach through this research will undoubtedly make them stronger."

Then he gestured to the side as though physically putting that subject away for the moment. "But let’s leave that part aside for now. Together, my research and yours will elevate humanity to a position it hasn’t reached since the beginning of the cycle, perhaps restoring what was taken from us in the first place, but that still isn’t enough." He then pointed toward the thick book beside Robin. "If we implement what’s written in this book as well, we’ll raise the strength of the entire universe at once without having to sacrifice or abandon anyone."

Then he pointed toward the cliff. "Take your new personal guard, for example. What exactly are you planning to do with her? Walk up to her and tell her that she’s an abomination and that she needs to return to being human after spending hundreds of thousands of years inside her current body, growing accustomed to it and even coming to love what she has become? How would that make you look in her eyes, even if everything you’re saying is technically correct? Now take that example and apply it to every other creature in the same situation."

"..." Robin gestured impatiently for him to speed up and get to the heart of what he was proposing.

"I originally started this research mainly because I wanted to remove the limits imposed on Second Path users, but after everything I’ve seen and heard today, I think I need to take my work several steps further." Jabba furrowed his brows slightly as he organized his thoughts. "I need some time to develop a method that turns beast blood into nothing more than a serum used to activate the variable particles, while simultaneously removing the existing limits from old users. Doing that should also greatly reduce the appearance of any beastly traits in new users."

"New users?" Robin furrowed his brows slightly at that particular choice of words.

"Master, don’t forget that humans aren’t all equal when it comes to talent. Even if we successfully find a method to activate the variable particles without using beast blood at all, the problem of innate talent will still remain. These activation serums would be perfect for creating enormous armies without having to take innate talent into consideration when choosing who can cultivate."

Then he winked at Robin, finally returning to the phrase that had started his entire argument. "That’s exactly why I said we’ll use the punishment and humiliation as a weapon. Everyone is already accustomed to taking beast blood, so we don’t even need to convince the universe to accept something completely foreign. If we simply make that experience better and remove the limits imposed on them, we’ll earn the gratitude of the entire universe and put them all in our debt. You’ll make them stronger while simultaneously erasing the effects of the sabotage and weakening that have hindered this universe throughout all these years... We’d be targeting ninety-nine percent of all cultivators at once. Just imagine how much B-14’s entire cultivator base would advance if all of them suddenly had their old restrictions loosened or completely removed!"

"....." Robin began tapping his fingers against his seat as he considered the idea from several angles. "Using the punishment itself as a weapon... that doesn’t sound bad at all." Then he gestured toward Jabba with his head. "What will you need to accelerate this task? Or rather, these two tasks, if we’re being precise about what you’re planning to accomplish?"

Now Jabba had to greatly improve upon the preliminary solutions he had already developed, because this was no longer merely another step forward in his research as he had originally believed. What rested on those solutions had suddenly become a matter of life and death for the entire universe, and if he failed to improve them sufficiently and turn them into something truly reliable, his master would abandon them and move on to another solution.

And on top of all that, there was still the separate task of finding a method to activate the dormant variable particles inside humans without using beast blood as a catalyst at all, a problem that was clearly more fundamental and difficult than merely improving what he had already developed. That would take even longer!!

"...." Jabba looked down for a few moments, silently organizing everything he would need before finally speaking. "I’ll need more samples of the beast blood people use in the Second Path for transformation and advancement. I’ll send the Shadow Swords to the markets to collect every sample they can possibly find. The more samples we have, and the closer those samples are to the original source, the better it will be for my research. I’ll also need a large amount of different resources to combine with the beast blood and reduce its negative effects as much as possible, so for now, what I need is a large number of Shadow Swords to handle the collection and a respectable amount of money to cover everything."

"Closer to the source, you say?" Robin’s expression immediately changed slightly as a smile appeared on his face. "What if I sent you directly to the source itself?"

"...?" Jabba furrowed his brows slightly, trying to understand what Robin meant before a certain possibility came to mind. "You mean the Savage Behemoth?"

Jabba had, of course, seen Robin’s entire conversation with Savage and Kiryan from beginning to end through the memories Robin had just given him, so he knew perfectly well who Robin was talking about and what sort of existence that person was, but he hadn’t expected that he himself would suddenly have to deal directly with someone of that standing.

"Then that’s where you’ll be spending your coming days. I’ll have him bring you blood from every beast in his garden, and I’ll have him provide every resource you need entirely out of his own pocket. Just take your time exploring the Harvester blood within his beasts, study it however you want, and remove any contaminants or anything else you find harmful to your serum. Something like that shouldn’t be too difficult for you now that you possess the Master Law of Identity." Robin chuckled lightly when he finished explaining his arrangement.

This might sound somewhat like a punishment or as though Robin were deliberately picking on Savage and forcing him to bear the expenses, but he would most likely be delighted when he heard that he might finally have an opportunity to participate, even indirectly, in repairing some of what had been ruined.

Then Robin stood up from his seat. "Come with me." He turned his back on the cliff overlooking the ongoing war against the space beasts and began walking at an unhurried pace toward the opposite side of the mountain, while Jabba immediately followed behind him.

"Jabba," Robin spoke while continuing forward slowly, his tone becoming somewhat more serious, "I chose Shaddad as my second disciple because I admired how firmly he clung to the power of the body, his passion toward it, and the purity of his love for that path itself. And indeed, with some support from me and the help of Sky Opening City, the Fifth Body Path is now in the process of reaching completion." He slowed his steps for a moment before continuing, "Why do you think I chose you, despite the fact that you were merely an officer who knew practically nothing about research or science when I first took you in?"

"...Why?" Jabba furrowed his brows in genuine confusion, unable to understand why his master had suddenly chosen this particular moment to bring up something that had happened so long ago.

Robin had already reached the opposite side of the mountain by then. He pointed toward an empty patch of desert below and began doing something with his hand that immediately caused the surrounding area to become disturbed and unstable.

Yet he continued speaking while working, as though what his hands were doing required little of his attention. "Because you were smart, extremely smart, you knew I was from another planet before we exchanged a few words." Robin answered simply and without embellishment. "And an intelligent person will excel at anything he personally chooses to specialize in, so long as he truly commits himself to it." Then his tone became more serious as he added, "And you chose your specialization yourself, then proved that you could excel in it."

Hooooom

A massive square golden gate suddenly opened in the middle of the desert, its enormous frame stabilizing as Robin threw four discs and two rings toward it. The gate immediately began reacting to those six objects, its structure interacting and interlocking with them until they became part of the formation.

Then Robin created a second gate directly beside the first, repeating the same process and giving it exactly the same details and structure.

Only after both gates had completely stabilized did Robin finally withdraw his hand. He turned away from them and looked directly into Jabba’s eyes again. "The one on the right opens at Zavaros’s palace beside the garden. Tell them who you are and they’ll let you enter, and tell them to expect more visitors to arrive through this gate later, because it will remain open."

Then Robin raised his hand and placed it firmly on Jabba’s shoulder, looking at his disciple with a serious expression as he gave him his task. "Go and rebuild the Second Path. Claim the pride and glory that come with accomplishing it, and rewrite history with your own hands."

"..." Jabba nodded firmly, clearly affected by those words as his expression filled with determination. "One day, everyone will say that the disciple of Lord Robin Burton has— Waaaaaaaah!"

Before Jabba could finish his grand declaration, Robin had already grabbed him by the collar and, with one swift movement, hurled him straight down the mountain toward the gate below.

"Hmmmm." Robin placed one hand behind his back and remained where he was for a moment, calmly watching his screaming disciple fly farther and farther away toward the golden gate. "Children grow up so fast."

Then, as though nothing unusual had happened, he calmly turned around and began walking back toward his chair.