Reaper of the Martial World

Book 5: Chapter 169: Second Trial (112)

There was, of course, another reason Dyon thought about this. If there was anything body cultivation related that would be set in place to detect and trigger something, it would have to be this equivalent, no? Maybe the reason array alchemy was so poor in this time was because people relied more on this form law bending instead!

Dyon immediately started rifling through his master’s memories. He knew that his master had some information on magic, albeit a small amount. Maybe she also had some information on this body cultivation equivalent. After all, his master was a beast at the end of the day. An array alchemy equivalent for body cultivation might be easier for her to grasp, so she might have studied it more. Dyon thought that this was a good possibility since beasts tend to have weak souls, but powerful bodies.

In truth, the Celestial Deer was a Totem beast of the celestial deer sect. The Celestial Deer Clan and Sect were two completely different existences. The former was a family of beasts that was befriended by the founder of the latter. Because of various great deeds performed, the Celestial Deer Clan agreed to become the protectors of the sect. This was a story for another time, but the important aspect were that the celestial deer didn’t start off as array alchemy intensive beasts, it was just that their unique crystal will made array alchemy many times easier.

That said, celestial deer also had slightly better soul talent than most beasts. This was because of another unique will of theirs: Celestial will. Because of its purifying effects, it had subtle effects on Life Essence which in turn had good effects on the soul.

This was all to say that Dyon found the likelihood of his master using this body cultivation equivalent to grasp more difficult concepts of array alchemy that a beast might not have the talent to understand to be very likely.

Suddenly, what he was looking for flashed in Dyon’s mind: Runic Veins. The practice was also colloquially known as Rune making, Totem forging, and those who practiced it were known as Rune Masters.

Dyon was highly intrigued because just this discovery told him so much about how the martial world and the universe’s laws worked. He also suddenly understood why the Dragon King told him that the Demon Sage was too arrogant to ever absorb the blood essence of anyone else. If what he was seeing was true, if one believed in yourself enough, there would be no need to do such a thing!

Much like magic and array alchemy, runic vein theory was capable of changing the laws of the universe on a scale dependent on the user’s mastery of the discipline. However, unlike the former two, it did so by using the theories surrounding the creation of living things.

To Runic Vein purists, the foundation of all life was blood, while the foundation of blood were the veins it coursed through. According to its theory, every detail of a body can be decided by its veins.

If a person had particularly good stamina, it was likely they had more capillaries surrounding their lungs, allowing for better oxygen exchange. If a person was particularly strong, their network of veins would be more robust and thick walled, allowing for faster blood movement, thus supplementing the muscles with more energy, while also doing away with toxins that slowed their uses. If a person was particularly intelligent, their blood brain barrier would be much more complex, thus allowing faster thought due to energy provided.

For a person who was quite familiar with the human body, much of this was pseudo science to Dyon. In truth, there were half truths mixed in with nonsensical lies. For example, while more blood flow in the brain would allow things like more energy and better waste management, without better neuron connectivity, it would mostly go wasted.

However, while Dyon understood this, he wasn’t apt to underestimate Runic Veins. This was because when you delved further into the theory, it seemed to imply that the resultant betterment of bodily functions were entirely due to the structure of the veins. This meant that maybe it meant that better neuron connectivity was a direct result of the vein system that was capable of supporting it.

Dyon was immediately intrigued. This Runic Vein theory was essentially telling him that if he mastered it well enough, he could change the capabilities of any living thing? What if he applied this theory to his array alchemy, it might even be able to lower to requirements for creating higher level plants!

Thinking to this point, another wild idea flashed by in Dyon’s mind.

Array Alchemy was supposedly created by his grand teacher’s first disciple. Although it existed in an exceptionally crude form in this time, it couldn’t match up to his senior brother at all, not even remotely. However, the expressed purpose was to save the universe, yet it had failed even to this day… Even someone as powerful as his grand teacher wasn’t able to create a universe with his knowledge of Array Alchemy…

With Dyon’s arrogance, he didn’t allow this to stop him. He believed that one day he would surpass his grand teacher and thus be able to do things he couldn’t. However… What if his grand teacher didn’t fail because he wasn’t good enough? What if his grand teacher failed because array alchemy was flawed? And what if those flaws could be covered by magic and runic veins?