After the Lectures for the day, Arthur had told Andrea to prepare for the excursion into the forest during the coming days, making sure that she was well prepared and safe for when they would leave the Clan confines.
For most of the younger generation, especially those of commoner descent, the exploration of the forest was akin to planning an excursion in to their own backyard. Most had spent time outside the boundaries of the Clan, playing and exploring when they were younger.
For most of the others though, like Borik, Alina and Ratimir, they had yet to explore or even familiarize themselves with the outskirts of the Clans territory, seeing as though they would've spent their time researching fae, or practicing martial arts under the guidance of their Elders.
Arthur had spent a lot of time in his youth outside the boundaries of the Clan. Even in his past life, in the times before he left the Kovacs Clan for good, he explored a great deal of the Winter Rain Mountains before he truly "left" and started exploring the rest of the known world.
There were quite a few secrets in this isolated part of the world. And even if they couldn't attract the attention of a Fae Immortal, they were still useful for someone like Arthur.
Under the guise of this "excursion", perhaps Arthur could, or in the future explore these places. He didn't want to go there first without at least reaching Rank 2 Fae Master, but if he had the Boundless Forest Yearning Sovereign Boundary Physique, things would definitely be different.
Arthur returned home immediately after walking Andrea home, and told his mother and younger siblings that he was going to cultivate.
He smiled slightly as his mother nodded.
A smile could be seen on her own face.
He was going to break through to solid quartz origin essence today.
Under the effects of a new second-tier talent, the bloodseeker leaf fae and the enhancements of the vein limit fae, Arthur had finally reached a point where he could firmly say he exceeded his past life.
Only a few months had passed since his rebirth, and not only has his cultivation increased dramatically over that time, but his strength and potential was far greater than what he initially anticipated.
The ability of the Winter Solstice Salamander was normally to create an icy blizzard within a large area. It would turn the sky to black and paint the land beneath it a cold, unforgiving white.
Over a long time, this particular fae could actually change the environment, making it excellent for any sort of large organization or Sect which had a wide variety of members.
It's second ability, the one it gained through becoming an Immortal Fae was time travel. The ability to send his Soul back in time and merge with his younger self.
This particular ability had the positive side-effect of strengthening the Soul, increasing Arthur's innate talent. Just one jump back and his talent had increased to the point where it caused his originally third-tier talent to become a second-tier talent.
If Arthur wanted to go back again, the effects might be less, but if he kept doing it, his talent would eventually exceed even Randolf's.
Only being exceeded by Andrea.
"But unfortunately, even though the Winter Solstice Salamander is my Origin Fae, it can only be used by a Fae Immortal. Even at Rank 5 I can't change that".
Arthur was in possession of a Immortal Fae, but couldn't use it. This was both a boon and con.
It meant that when the time comes that he can ascend from Rank 5 to Rank 6, everything will go even smoother and his foundation will become more solidified. But at the same time, if anyone discovered this fact, he would undoubtably become the target of countless Fae Immortals.
Arthur sat down silently in his room, the curtains closed and the only source of light a tiny flickering candle.
His attention solely focused on the rapidly expanding liquid origin essence sea within him.
While the transformation from vapour origin essence to liquid origin essence sea focused on condensing the entirety of the origin essence sea into a single point, creating a liquid form of origin essence, the transformation into the solid form of origin essence needed Arthur to expand it.
Even though his origin essence sea was only at 201%, it was still more than enough to expand to cover most of the origin essence sea, even the sections that were empty.
The higher the Fae Masters origin essence sea was, the easier this was to do.
But with a second-tier talent, along with his knowledge and understanding about the nature of origin essence seas, Arthur took in countless deep breaths, letting his 201% origin essence expand to take up the entire sea.
The idea was to form a crystal of origin essence. The shape of the crystal didn't matter to most Fae Masters, but it did matter to Fae Immortals.
It was just a fairy tail, but Rank 9 Fae Immortals apparently all possessed diamond shaped crystals of origin essence. This couldn't be proven, however the vast majority of Rank 8 Fae Masters possessed obsidian shaped crystals of origin essence, and most believed that they couldn't reach the next step due to this small error in judgement.
Arthur himself wasn't one to believe in fairy tails. But if given the opportunity, he would like to see if this particular fairy tail was true.
Such as, right now for instance.
His liquid origin essence quickly expanded to take up all of the origin essence sea. Reaching a point where it started to push on the maximum limit of an origin essence sea, more than 300%.
Arthur smiled slightly despite the small amounts of pain appearing all around his body.
At this stage in cultivation, pain was a common occurrence.
Humanity wasn't born with their origin essence seas awakened, and couldn't naturally connect with the essence of the Heavens and the Earth.
Unlike the Myriad Races, Humanities origin essence sea didn't possess the same natural blessing as them, but at the same time, were not limited by their innate properties, given to them by the Heavens and the Earth.
Humanity were free to discover and take all paths, and were not limited by racial abilities.
They were the only Race that could encompass all paths of the Heavens and the Earth.
The first daughter of the Shadow Race, the one born between the research of the First Man and the Shadow Race; Formless Night Shadow.
Despite being a half-blooded Human and half-blooded Shadow Race member, Formless Night Shadow could express both the strengths of the Shadow Race and the adaptability of the Human Race.
However, Formless Night Shadow was not born with a connection with the Heavens and the Earth.
As such, she was treated as a failure by the Shadow Race, and cast out into the wilderness without ever getting the chance to meet the "First Man".
She wandered the Earth, just like the First Man once did, questioning her existence and wondering why the Heavens and the Earth were so unjust, believing that her creators abandoned her as a result of her "imperfection".
She cursed the Shadow Race and their obsession with the First Man, and grew to hate them both.
As her hated boiled and her rage grew even stronger, she eventually attracted the attention of Hatred Fae.
Under the effects of Hatred Fae, Formless Night Shadow awakened her origin essence sea and killed any member of the Shadow Race that she could find. She became a devil and bathed in the blood of countless Shadow Race members.
But even then, her hatred still continued to grow, being fed on by the Hatred Fae, and amplifying her strength even more....
It was then that the second announcement came.
The enemy of the Shadow Race, and their opposites the Light Race, had created another half-human, half-Light Race member. Another partner for the First Man
This time.... in the form of a young man.
His name was-.
"Luminous Golden Light".
Muttering this name Arthur experienced a sudden surge within his origin essence sea.
The details of the
Arthur's understanding of the
Arthur felt his origin essence sea thrum gently as a formless power exuded throughout his body. The gentle hum of origin essence was far greater than that of a normal Rank 1 liquid quartz origin essence Fae Master, and its purity and quality was fae higher than it was previously....
Arthur's eyes flickered open, and a small smile marred his face.
"Solid quartz origin essence.... Finally....".