Nayi's hand was shaking as her eyes overflowed with tangible disbelief. "S-s-say that again! How much?!"
Asura looked at Nayi with surprise, as he genuinely didn't expect this kind of reaction. "O-one thousand?"
Nayi's mouth froze in a half-open state and her hand in a half-raised state. She took a while to recollect herself and then plunged back limply. "Disciple. You worry this lady too much. I believe I don't need to tell you this but let me repeat just in case; NEVER. EVER. Reveal this information to anyone."
Asura immediately responded, not wanting to risk angering Nayi somehow. "Y-yes! I promise I won't, master!"
Nayi sighed heavily. "Good! Haaaah..." She steeled herself and said. "So, what's the case with the second one? That one should be a body cultivation technique, right? It seems the first one is a pure energy cultivation technique, at least if we go by what you told me. If you notice any changes when you use it, notify me immediately and stop cultivating. It's not worth it to risk your life. Also, my suggestion is you focus on body cultivation technique more than on the energy one since you will go through Heavenly Tribulations every time you break through."
Asura nodded, "Understood! As for the second one..."
He closed his eyes and recalled the technique which Tenri gave him. Like before, he took a while to digest everything and only started explaining when he got the grasp of it as a whole. "The Abyss of Sin—a technique which heavily focuses on cultivating and improving one's bloodline."
Nayi's eyes filled with intrigue when she heard this. "It seems interesting, go on."
With a nod, Asura continued. "The technique entails a formation of ten Sinful Stars. Each of the stars must be condensed from one's blood, which will raise the strength of the bones where Sinful Stars are formed and use blood as a medium to supply the energy to other parts of the body."
Nayi seemed even more interested in this technique than in the previous one. "Does it say what kind of existence are Sinful Stars?"
Asura nodded and explained. "Yes. Sinful Stars bear the name 'sinful' because they transform the body and doing so means committing a sin against creation. The 'star' part comes from the fact that every bone forms a blood crystal which shines like a star."
After pausing for a moment, Asura continued. "The initial realm is called Nihility Star, and it signifies the very knowledge about this cultivation technique. That means both of us are now in the realm of Nihility Star, now that we know about its contents. Put bluntly, it just means that you have knowledge that this technique exists, and it's up to you whether you want to 'advance' by training in it or not."
Nayi murmured, "Interesting... such a unique technique is truly intriguing."
Asura nodded in agreement. "From the first to the last realm, each of them has ten sub-realms, except the last one, which has only nine. Each of them represents a realm number ranging from zero to ninety-nine."
Nayi interrupted, "Ninety-nine? Not hundred?"
Asura confirmed. "Indeed. Those who reach the hundredth realm undergo a complete evolution as their bodies change, which is why it's not a part of this process."
"Oh, that makes sense then."
With a cough, Asura continued explaining. "Each of the Sinful Stars has to be formed in the core of one bone in the body. The spine is the only bone which contains three Sinful Stars, covering upper, middle and lower body. Each of the Sinful Stars will form an ability at some point for a total of ten abilities. Wow."
Nayi raised her hand and stopped Asura from explaining any further. "How confident are you in cultivating this one?"
Asura thought about it a bit and replied, "Pretty confident."
Nayi flicked her black sleeve and the three empty teacups, as well as the spilled tea, disappeared. "Come with me, we'll go inside the house for now. You will immediately begin practicing this technique—I want to check what effect it will have on your body. Is that alright?"
With a nod, Asura stood up and was about to wake up Xia, when gentle white light appeared around her and raised her up in the air. "Let her sleep. She must be tired. Actually, I'm shocked you aren't."
Asura didn't really know what to reply, so he just followed in silence. They walked towards the villa on the other side through a Cyan-colored bridge, where air currents chaotically changed. The air was extremely refreshing when the two stepped onto this bridge, which meant there was a very strong wind element here.
Asura only slightly paused to take in a deep breath and then followed in his master's steps. The fresh air coursed through his body and made him feel two points more refreshed.
After entering the Villa made from black stone-like material which contained many shiny points reflecting ten different colors of light, Asura started looking around with curiosity. At the end of the day, this is his new home. Being curious about it was a given, since he would be living here from now on for who knows how long.
His mind started wandering and recalling the scenes from the past life, the scenes from when he bought his first house and moved out. They were precious memories he would occasionally recall and even though his current mentality was heavily influenced by his body, he still felt a lukewarm feeling in his heart.
"What memories will I make in this world, I wonder? Will they be happy, or will they be sad?" Asura's distant eyes were full of wonders.
Nayi waved her head in front of the wall and sets of lines started spreading, similar to the lines forming a digital circuit, but here it was obvious they didn't conduct electricity. "Are these lines the channels for Spirit Energy? If so, then ... then! I've struck gold in this life! I'm so glad I studied math and computer science to my best ability, I smell profits! Profits I say!!!"
Asura suddenly noticed that Nayi stared at him with a weird expression on her face. "What are you grinning for? Do you think something's funny?"
Hearing her tone of voice, Asura's back filled with cold sweat. "Why is this woman's personality so chaotic? One time she's all kind and warm, and then the next instant she wants to kill me!". While thinking this, Asura replied in a humble tone. "No, master. I just recalled how you destroyed that mountain range and was a bit overwhelmed with excitement, don't mind me."
Nayi looked at eyes with only honesty in them and sighed. She hadn't caught a whiff of this yet, but Asura could perfectly fake any emotion. It was in his second nature to pick the most favorable outcome, of course—with some restraints. Even someone like him had some moral values left.
As he survived the predicament, Nayi pressed her finger in the center of the pattern inscribed into the wall and that part of the wall went inside, triggering a wave of light which represented Spirit Energy as it passed through the channels. After a brief moment, the wall suddenly manifested a thin black line on the top which gradually started increasing in area as the wall lowered into the opening in the ground.
Asura's only reaction to all this was "Damn!"
Even though the wall was sinking into the ground, not a single vibration escaped into the air. All the energy was perfectly contained somewhere. As to whether it was underground or somewhere else, he didn't know. After the part of the wall sunk into the ground, Asura saw a room full with intricate lines similar to the ones on the door.
Nayi shot a bit of her Spirit Energy towards the ceiling, and then it lit up with star-like glitter. However, despite these stars being so small, they were more than enough to illuminate the entire room. She then pointed towards the center of the room—to the nonagon-shaped area with no lines of any kind present. "Get in there and wait for me. I'll go put Xia to sleep and then I'll come back and help you with your technique. Don't try anything without me and also don't leave this room since you don't know how to release any Spirit Arrays yet."
Asura nodded and sat down in a nine-sided area and just observed the lines stretching all over the place. When Nayi left the room, he took the chance and lowered his nose near a cyan line. With a sniff, he felt a faint feeling of freshness. "As expected! These lines are the same as the wind bridge. Are they transporting energy from the lake?"
He then placed a finger on the purple-colored line and when it reached near the line, a faint spark shot into the tip of his finger, causing his hand to jerk back. It didn't hurt—rather; it was an instinctive reaction. He tried this out with every line, but by far, the one which had the strangest effect was the ashen-gray line. It caused the skin on his finger to dry up when touched. However, the green line stopped this effect and even seemed like reversing it. Asura kept his finger pressed against the green line as he waited for Nayi to come back while testing others out.
After a while, he had a full understanding of several elements present in the room.
Fire, Ice, Light, Darkness, Wind and Lightning were easy to figure out. The most troublesome one of these was Darkness. It didn't have any obvious effect, it only emanated a kind of icy feeling, but it wasn't cold in a physical sense—rather, the iciness seemed to seep into Asura's soul.
As he was wondering what the other three lines, namely green, ashen gray and silver represented—Nayi's figure appeared in the opening. "Curious, aren't we? The last three are Creation, Destruction and Space. Even though I told you not to do anything, you just couldn't sit still, huh?"
Asura felt a sour taste in his mouth—he didn't think Nayi would find out what he was doing.
Nayi came in front of him and spoke in a normal tone. "Fire, Ice, Light, Darkness, Space, Creation, Destruction, Wind and Lightning are the nine elements present in that lake. Oh, by the way—my element represents Stars. It's a unique one. Now then, let's start the experime—cough, let's start your training."