Chapter 859:Path To Acension

Chapter 859: 859:Path To Acension

Ethan was spending time with his younger children in the training ground behind the residence.

The children were running around the field while Ethan stood in the middle of them. Some were practicing their sword techniques, while others were trying to maintain their stance. Ethan moved between them and corrected their posture whenever he noticed a mistake.

"Keep your back straight."

"Don’t put too much strength into your arms."

"Again."

The children listened carefully and repeated the movements. Ethan didn’t rush them. He patiently demonstrated each technique before letting them try it themselves.

He also taught them the devotion of a Knight.

To Ethan, becoming a strong Knight wasn’t simply about increasing one’s rank. They needed discipline, determination and the willingness to continue even when the path became difficult.

After practicing for some time, the children gathered around Ethan and sat on the grass.

One of them suddenly raised his hand.

"Father."

Ethan looked toward him.

"What is it?"

The child tilted his head and asked curiously.

"What is beyond the Transcendent Realm? And when will you step into it?"

Ethan stared at him for a moment before laughing.

The children looked at him with curious expressions.

In the eyes of his children, Ethan was tall and mighty. He was someone who could speedrun through every barrier without much difficulty. Whenever they heard about his past achievements, it seemed as though every realm was nothing more than another step for him.

But only Ethan knew the truth.

Without the help of the system and everything he had received along the way, he was nothing more than fodder.

Over the past ten years, Ethan had given birth to several more children, and many of them had been born with extraordinary potential.

Before this, Ethan had never known what EX Rank potential truly meant.

He had never even seen someone with such potential before.

But now, after seeing a small group of children born with it, Ethan was horrified.

At the age of twelve, a few of them had already reached the Intermediate Stage, and they had done so with surprising ease.

One had to know that Knights had to train brutally throughout the day to improve their strength. They had to repeatedly temper their bodies and push themselves beyond their limits.

But these little ones?

They only practiced for one or two hours a day and spent the rest of their time playing.

Yet their breakthroughs came as easily as breathing.

They didn’t even need to rely on potions to reach such a level.

Seeing this, Ethan finally understood why potential mattered so much.

But that wasn’t everything.

If reaching higher realms were simply a matter of having enough potential, there would have been several young Transcendent Knights throughout history.

There weren’t.

Character, devotion, heart, maturity and training all mattered.

Potential could determine how far someone could go, but it couldn’t decide whether they would actually reach that destination.

Ethan looked at the children sitting around him and smiled.

"Do you want to know what my childhood was like?"

The children immediately became interested.

"Yes!"

Ethan chuckled and began telling them about his childhood.

He told them about the difficulties he had faced and the training he had gone through. He also told them about the people who had helped him along the way.

After listening to him, the children became quiet.

Ethan looked at them seriously.

"You should remember one thing. Without the people who supported you, you can’t reach the top alone."

He paused for a moment.

"Aside from that, I also received a lot of resources."

Ethan wasn’t going to pretend that he had reached his current position through hard work alone.

There had been too many opportunities along his path.

There had been the System, the resources, the blessings and the people who had helped him.

Without them, his journey would have been completely different.

Except for miscellaneous things, what Ethan had focused on the most during these years was the Laws.

He had gained comprehension of several Laws.

At present, the strongest among them were the Law of Fire, the Law of Light, the Law of Thunder and the Law of Wind.

For a Transcendent Knight to Ascend, everything ultimately came down to the comprehension of Laws.

At first, Ethan hadn’t understood why Laws were so important.But as his understanding deepened, he gradually learned the reason.

Comprehending Laws was simply a way to connect with the world and Heaven.

Mastering Laws allowed a person to connect with the world’s consciousness. Through that connection, the True Spirit or Soul could be elevated, allowing one to ascend to a higher realm.

But that was where the real difficulty lay.

Mastering Laws only gave someone the opportunity to interact with the world.

Whether they could use that opportunity to elevate their Soul and baptize their body was an entirely different matter.

That was also the reason why there weren’t many Ascension Realm experts.

Ninety percent of them failed to achieve it.

Ethan had eventually learned the reason after a conversation with Ophelia, who had given him some insight into the matter.

A Mage worked on the Soul, while a Knight worked on the body.

A Mage only needed to baptize their Soul and ascend.

However, most Knights did not have a Soul strong enough to handle such a level of connection. Their Souls could be injured when they tried to connect with the world at such a deep level.

In this sense, reaching the Transcendent Rank was more difficult for a Mage compared to a Knight, but reaching the Ascension Realm was more difficult for a Knight compared to a Mage.

That was why most Knights spent decades and even centuries sharpening their Souls.

But even that wasn’t easy.

The body and Soul had to develop together to maintain harmony.

Most people had Souls that had fallen far behind their bodies. When they tried to strengthen their Souls later, their unstable foundation could cause many hidden problems in the body to surface.

Thankfully, Ethan didn’t have much to worry about in this regard.

Both his body and Soul were quite robust.

There might have been more to the process, but Ethan hadn’t received any further insight from the System.

As for going to the Imperial Library of Eldorian, Ethan felt that it wouldn’t be a good move.

He had only reached the Transcendent Knight Realm during the last war. If he suddenly started searching for information about the Ascension Realm, it could give the impression that he was already looking for a way to break through.

That might make him intolerable.

After all, why did every Empire have only one Ascension Realm expert?

If one existed, why couldn’t there be two?

The reason was simple.

Once such a figure appeared within an Empire, the other Empires would take action.

An Empire with two Ascension Realm experts would have enough strength to contend with the others for hegemony.

No one wanted to see such a thing happen.

Ethan understood this clearly.So for now, he had no intention of rushing toward the Ascension Realm.

He still had plenty of things to do before that.

The children were still looking at him.

Ethan noticed their curious expressions and smiled.

"Alright, enough about that. You still haven’t mastered the Knight technique I taught you."

The children immediately became serious.

Ethan stood up and looked at them.

"Get up. We’ll continue training."

The children quickly stood up and returned to their positions.

Ethan watched them with a faint smile.

The children had just started practicing again when a figure suddenly appeared at the edge of the training ground. Ethan immediately noticed him and turned his head. Rathlos walked toward him with a serious expression. His usually calm face looked slightly tense, which made Ethan’s expression change as well.

"Rathlos?"

Rathlos stopped in front of him and gave a slight bow.

"Your Grace, there is an urgent matter."

Ethan frowned. He glanced at the children before looking back at Rathlos.

"Kids, I need to go. Papa has something urgent to do."

Saying this, Ethan’s figure disappeared.

"What happened?"