Shen started to recite an incantation inside the magic circle, making it light blue that got brighter and brighter the further he got into the incantation.
Soon enough, the different orbs lit up in different colours ranging from red,violet, indigo, green and yellow. The orbs' colour tainted the brightly lit blue magic circle with their own colours as it made its way to Shen, who was at the center.
The magic circle that Shen spent a long time on was supposed to let a mage absorb multiple beast cores at once and it has a much higher concentration than if the mage themselves actively tried to absorb it.
This magic circle allowed mages to improve by leaps and bounds quickly and ascend to higher levels through collecting multiple high tiered beast cores. Such a discovery allowed mages to have an advantage of training apprentices in power much faster than a new disciple in the path of cultivation, making following the mage path very tempting to millions of individuals.
However, such a grand magic circle was yet to be discovered in the current timeline and would be developed during the second great war. Lucky for Shen, he had lived through the second great war and obviously heard of such a miraculous magic circle.
Though Shen wasn't a mage at the time, he took time to learn about the new inventions of mages, since they were always coming up with new stuff to increase their strength or make their life easier. Cultivators made their own breakthroughs through creating new cultivation techniques or arts and in other forms like alchemy, talismans, blacksmith etc but just less frequently as mages.
The magic circle was nearly filled with a variety of colours and glows, but it did not touch Shen's centre circle as if the doors to it were locked. Seeing that the circle turned out to be a success, Shen gritted his teeth and took in a few breaths.
The tome contained a demonic cultivation art called the demonic overlord path and in the description of it, to cultivate it, the cultivator must be around demon Qi. However,if the cultivator already has a foundation, the art can devour it and form demonic Qi as its new foundation which would cause the cultivator to lose their current level.
Though the price was outrageous, forcing the person to lose all their strength and restart, Shen did not care. Over thousands of years, there had always been the question of why a cultivator could not also become a mage, and why a mage could not become a cultivator as well.
It had plagued the two sides as to why that was the case and after years of studying and understanding the two respective disciplines; they learnt that humans simply did not have enough space for a mana core and Qi to be stored.
What made it even more complicated was that a cultivator doesn't start with a core straight away unlike a mage, so if a mana core formed, there would be no place to have the Qi. The body would reject it.
There have been studies of a mage breaking a part of their mana core and letting Qi be stored but the mana core never expands so not only did they screw up their own magic, they also failed at becoming a cultivator so they became a cripple.
However, for a cultivator, once they reach tier 2, a core is formed and during cultivation for higher realms, the core breaks down and reassembles itself in a purer form but each breakdown increases the size of the core. This had allowed cultivators to destroy a piece of their core for mana to form, but it had severe drawbacks, like lowering the cultivators' realm by one or two stages. Next, it made the process of cultivating back to their prime very difficult and near impossible, as it damaged their foundation. The next issue was investing time to hunt down magic circles and study them and then absorb mana to create them while also cultivating.
The benefits of being a hybrid caused much more problems compared to focusing on one discipline.
Shen suffered the same fate.
His cultivation dropped to a tier 4 Qi manifestation, and he was only a tier 1 mage with his cultivation foundation damaged, making it near impossible for him to recover his old realm.
But the difference between Shen and all the other cultivators was that he had already advanced to a high realm in his cultivation from his past life so he already had the advantage of insight in cultivation that other cultivators develop as they break through realms, so realistically Shen would have fewer bottlenecks or issues compared to others. This would let him focus more time as a mage, while the time loss wouldn't affect his cultivation too much. Plus, with Shen's knowledge of the future and all the opportunities and fortunate events that he takes advantage of, his cultivation and magic would rise by leaps and bounds much faster than normal.
Currently, with his broken foundation, advancing his cultivation will be too gruelling and the mana core is not perfect so even if he advanced, his magic would become more unstable the higher his realm.
'With this art, I will break through the impossible' Shen planned to use the demon art to reset his foundation completely, making it brand new.
He wasn't done though.
While the cultivation art ate away at his Qi, he wanted to inject mana to have a complete mana core.
In the future there was a theory about a way to cheat the drawbacks of a hybrid, but it hadn't been researched enough during the time Shen died. But, during the year he returned to the past, Shen deduced his own theory and ideas which resulted in him finding this specific demon art.
He hoped that the demon Qi would forcefully form in his body despite a mana core being present as well.
This was perilous and Shen could die from such an act but he believed he could handle it, he already made as much preparation as possible like cultivating a body tempering art that strengthens a cultivators body, making it more durable than those of the same level who don't focus on a body tempering art.
'Let's do this!' Shen followed the steps of the demonic art by swallowing a red gem that was embedded inside the tomb. He broke the gem down inside and circulated it around his center, where his Qi was stored.
"URGH!" Grunts and screams of pain could be heard across the inheritance ground.