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During the past few days, Edward not only learned about Alkahestry but also about Xing's understanding of Qi. Like how to use it to augment the body, how to sense it from your opponent, and how to mask it to hide your presence.
Adding to that the knowledge he learned from the homunculi Wrath, he has developed a good method for the people of the Empire to break the limit of their bodies besides genetic modification--which has a high failure rate.
However, Edward was not satisfied; he wanted to create a new power system based on Qi. After research, he realized that his method had an upper limit--which happened to be the level of Wrath.
In other words, through training, ordinary people can only reach the level of strength of the homunculi Wrath. This level was actually quite high since the man could dodge an attack from a tank. More than that, he even used a sword to cut a rocket launcher from said tank.
This kind of strength is similar to people in the Empire that underwent their second genetic modification, which is quite powerful.
Nevertheless, he was not satisfied yet, especially since this method had little value to Wizards and Mages that can strengthen their bodies with mana.
So, he had an idea: what if he could merge mana with Qi to form a new kind of energy that has the same physical benefit as Qi. Of course, this energy should not have a limit.
To achieve his goal, Edward excused himself from these Xing Alchemists and secretly entered his dimension.
In a white room, Edward held two swords from his hand as he trained. During the process, his eyes were closed as he felt the Qi or Life Energy circular inside his body, along with the mana in his core and other organs.
He controlled the two of them to merge, and the process was easier than he anticipated. Unfortunately for him, his man just swallowed the Qi without having any changes.
So, Edward changed to a different ratio and tried again; he failed this time as well. So, he tried changing the frequency of his mana, while at the same time trying different ratios of mana to Qi.
Time seemed irrelevant to him as he continued to swing his sword, then, after countless trial and error, he mixed the perfect ratio and the exact frequency. So, a change occurred in his body as a new form of energy was created.
Edward opened his eyes and he gazed at his hand; he could feel an invisible white energy surrounding his hand. On instinct, he chopped one of the swords with his bare hand.
Bang!
The sword made of pure steel was cut in two, which slightly surprised Edward as he did not use much force. In fact, he used the force equivalent to an ordinary adult.
The reason that the sword was cut in half was because he concentrated this new energy into his hand which allowed him to have such destructive power.
Immediately afterward, Edward controlled this energy to his legs' muscles and bones, then, with the force of an ordinary person, jumped in the air. And to his surprise, he actually jumped more than 5 meters.
"Morgana," said Edward out loud.
"Yes, master," said the purple-haired little elf.
"Create a new file and name this energy Aura. Now, let's begin an overall test."
"As you command, master."
After that, Edward and Morgana did a comprehensive evaluation of aura and how to use it.
"So, what's the result?" asked Edward.
"It seems that Aura can exist in the body without the need to have a special place to hold it like the magic core; it flows to every part of the body, from the skin all the way to the cells. And so far, we have not found a limit to is quantity like mana."
"Interesting. We can do some tests later on whether we can create an Aura Core in the body and the possible consequences. What else?"
"So far, Aura seems to function as a more advanced form of Qi, however, based on our initial analysis, there are some differences."
"Like?"
"Aura is a weaponized version of Qi, so increasing it cannot increase life span; or at the very least, it is not as good."
"That's not a problem. The main reason that I created this system is so that wizards have a way to fight in close combat, and to have another method to defend themselves in case their mana runs out."
"In that case, master, you have succeeded. Aura can exist in the body without mana. As long as it is created, it does not need mana to maintain its existence. However, if you want to increase the amount of aura inside your body, you still need to absorb mana and life force."
Edward frowned after hearing this, "There should be a way for ordinary people who do not have mana inside their bodies to use aura. Alright, let's do some tests."
He entered his Gate and took out a muggle prisoner. He injected his mana inside his body and mixed it with the prisoner's Qi with the appropriate ratio.
"Excellent, aura was born."
He then proceeded to do the same to another prisoner. However, this one was different as he was a person who suffered from Mana Rejection Syndrome; meaning that mana was poison to him, so, as long as it entered his body, he would become sick.
After injecting mana into the second prisoner's body, he winced in pain despite being in a coma. However, after the mana quickly mixed with his Qi, it turned into Aura.
"Well, this is a relief. This new system can be used by the people in the Empire that can sense mana but have Mana Rejection Syndrome."
"Yes, although they cannot become mages, they can become Aura Master," replied Morgana.
"Aura Master? That's a good name.
"Glad you like it, master."
Edward nodded his head as he looked at these two prisoners. "There is still a big problem: it is not universal enough."
"That's true. If an ordinary person that cannot sense mana wants to become an Aura Master, they would have to either rely on wizards or the Empire have to create machines that can install mana into their bodies.
"With our technological capabilities, it should not be a problem to do so, however, not everyone would be able to afford such a machine--no matter how cheap we made them," analyzed Morgana.
Edward agreed with her. "In that case, let's see if there is another way to increase aura without the use of mana. Let's begin with intense training."
Edward proceeded to place these two prisoners in a Time Dilation Room inside the Gate. Two days later, 6 months passed inside that room. During those 6 months, while being controlled, all these prisoners did was intense training while also taking the necessary nutrition.
"How is the result?"
"After monitoring them, their Aura has indeed drastically increased. However, compared with the control group that absorbed mana, it was simply too slow."
Edward frowned after hearing this. The Empire was already dealing with the issue of classicism and equality; he did not want to further aggravate the problem.
"In that case, let's try plan B. By now, the Mana Trees should have been planted all over the world, thus making each planet in the solar system a mana-full environment. What we have to do is create a method that allows Aura Masters to passively absorb mana from the environment without sensing it."
"I'm on it, master."
Edward nodded his head and prepared to observe this experiment, however, he received a message from Hughes. Since he told the latter not to disturb him unless something important came up, he checked it:
"The Xing Emperor wants to see you."
"So, you finally could not wait," muttered Edward before leaving the dimension and returning to the real world.
"AN: Before anyone says anything about this chapter, I can guarantee that this novel will not turn into a Martial Art or Xianxia Novel; it's still about magic. However, every powerful wizard should also be a master of hand-to-hand combat.)
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Next Chapter Title: False Immortality