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A new day started for Rhys, albeit calling it a 'new day' was in itself wrong. After all, there was no such thing as 'day' or 'night' within the Void, only eternal darkness that was lit up by the wisps of aether or chaotic elements.
This was Rhys's first week within the void, under the tutelage of Eternal Paragon, but she did not teach him much. Simply helped him make smooth progress when he cultivated her technique, everything else was left to Rhys.
To quote from Eternal Paragon, 'One must always find their own way of doing things, following what others show you will damage your individuality in the future when you make your own techniques.'
Rhys made sure to keep those words in his heart, today was the same, fight fiends, train aether, recuperate, repeat. Eternal Paragon usually came in for some time before she vanished once more or moved him to different areas.
Rhys stretched his body as his runic tattoos all over his body glowed a dark amethyst. Rhys remembered asking Eternal Paragon about them, and her reply shocked him.
[
'Eternal Paragon, what are these tattoos over my body?' Rhys moved his mouth, wording what he wanted to say.
"Tattoos?" Eternal Paragon replied as if she did not know.
Rhys revealed his upper body and showed Eternal Paragon the dark, lavender tattoos plastered all over his body in weird, runic, ancient ways.
"Hmm." Eternal Paragon tilted her head cutely before she moved her robes away, revealing her slender pale-purplish midriff. Rhys stared at that beautiful slender skin before Eternal Paragon spoke, "I don't have those." She then covered her midriff once more.
Rhys's pupils dilated, 'What do you mean!? Then why would I have them!?'
"Uuuh... I don't know." She spoke out before she walked, or in this case, floated closer to Rhys before she touched his chest and traced his tattoos with her finger, her eyes shining a pale golden as she stared intently at his tattoos.
It took a few minutes of her intense stare and touch that something other than worry began to rise in Rhys. But it quickly died down when Rhys saw his reaction.
"Mhm," Eternal Paragon closed her eyes and hummed, before her eyes opened and her eyes stared directly at Rhys's body before her mouth opened.
"I have some thoughts, individuality. That is something every being will acquire when they enter the Immortal Realm and form an origin.
"Individuality is, just as its name states, what makes a person unique. Individuality will play a big role in your future development, anyways, the gist is that individuality will manifest special properties into your attacks, techniques, laws, and more. So my guess is that your individuality, whatever it is, manifested in this way. Although I do not know why it manifested in the third stage and not the fourth."
Rhys was shocked, his individuality had manifested, hell, he had never heard of the term, individuality.
Rhys thanked Eternal Paragon, but before she left, she left some words of advice for Rhys.
"Make sure you carve your own path and not one made by others. It will affect you badly in the future otherwise." With those words, she vanished from the spot she once was.
]
'She was kind enough to give me some advice... not to follow a path made by others.' Rhys thought, his thoughts immediately moved to Swarshlen, the inheritance he left behind. Everything was prepared as if he had foreseen his own future, from the technique, void caller, and more.
'Just as I thought, I shouldn't trust him, but how could I escape the fate of a being who is more powerful than me, wouldn't he foresee this too?'
So while Rhys contemplated about his future, he did not know he had been freed the moment he started to use the Eternal Paragon Void Body Cultivation Technique, which generated karma with Eternal Paragon herself, connecting him with a Paragon.
Rhys did not know that Eternal's Paragon strength outclassed Swarshlen's by a lot, comparing a child to a dragon. So with her mere presence, fate twisted and Rhys's original destiny had changed. Swarshlen would not have been able to foresee any future relating to Paragons.
Swrashlen was not unique, sure, he did save the universe along with a few others, but in the end, that was when no Paragon's existed, at least in their eyes, for Paragons don't involve themselves in such matters, their presence makes the flow of fate twist, so they keep to themselves very often. This is why no one knew of their existence since they showed themselves for their own reasons.
The grade termed as 'Supreme,' is nothing more than a simple title, in reality, not many knew that the grading system differ so much from the one they used, only Paragons knew the true grading system, of things and worlds. Although they kept that information to themselves, why? Who knew. [A/N: I do.]
Ina, Void Caller, he could use them without worrying about Swarshlen using him, as long as he did not cut off his karma with Eternal Paragon, Swarshlen's Foresight would never reach this, either way, he was dead, even if the him of the past, who is alive, tried to do something, he could not prepare for things he did not know about.
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Rhys was next to Eternal Paragon who seemed in her own world as she moved and hummed. He was following her to a new 'training' zone, although he knew it was nothing but days to being beaten by fiends because of his lack of mastery when it comes to aether.
'Eternal Paragon...'
"Hmm?" Her answer came a millisecond later, it was as if she expected it.
'The Eternal Paragon Void Body Cultivation Technique, how did it come into fruition? Please don't answer if you don't want to, I am not forcing you to.'
Eternal Paragon went quiet, making Rhys realize she chose not to answer, 'Sorry for aski—' Except, he was cut off by Eternal Paragon's melodious voice.
"My Void Body came to be via an experiment, you see, before becoming this strong, yours truly was a scholar. My talent was low for cultivation, so I dedicated my whole life to picking up information, by chance, I one day came upon a book of the void and its chaotic wonders.
"As I read its contents, I was astonished and wished to explore such a place that even mighty cultivators dared not. But I was mediocre in cultivation, so I had no power to speak of. As I continued reading, I saw a section of aether and its reaction to everything else.
"Naturally, it destroyed things due to its chaotic nature. But that was not always the case, it won't destroy things like your Jade ring without any reason, it is as if it has its own will. It won't destroy objects as long as it's not channeled inside of it that is.
"Many different experiments tried to find what its best reaction was too. As I read, I realized that the way it reacted was just like how energy of different nature reacted to energy of its opposite nature, it always tried to get rid of it. Just, aether seemed to be against everything.
"Anyways, let's skip a few years ahead, by then my passion for the void had increased to the point I actively tried to find places where the space was weak enough for me to make an easy connection with the void.
"I got lucky, fell into a crevice where different spatial gaps opened at certain intervals, and at one such place, a connection with the void opened, aether rushed in and tried to destroy the energy in the air, but I was also close.
"So naturally, the aether tried to destroy my body, but instead of trying to fight back, I let it do as it wished. I turned out to have a special body termed by the people of my era as, 'Flawless Adaptability Constitution.' As its name said, my body adapted to the chaotic aether immediately and even suppressed it and sent it to my small dantian, which changed to fit aether.
"Naturally, to match such overbearing energy, my talent in energy manipulation increased to the point I passed most divine beings. By the time I realized what had happened, my body had changed to the point the aether coming out of the void was making me stronger instead of weakening me.
"So I faked my death, was forgotten by everyone. Then used that chance and waited until the place to the void opened and jumped in, my physique adapted over time, making me get stronger and better with aether. In the end, I got to this point after a long, long point in time.
"The technique was based on my own body, which I studied for so long. Multiple experiments were also conducted on the bodies of the fools who died in the void trying to find some wealth, I saw their bodies' reaction, although they were dead, there was a period of time where their cells were awake.
"I used their changes and slowly, made by a technique by ensuring a safe, painful way of evolution. Making one's body adapt, of course, the pain one had to go through is great.
"That was how the technique was made." Eternal Paragon turned back to Rhys and made a foolish smile, she seemed so carefree.
'Wow... then, what about your physique? If it was already named, then doesn't that mean that there were other users? Then why didn't they try the same?'
"Well, yes. Only two others before me possessed the physique, the first one became a great Emperor, but they never knew of their physique. The second one became a Divine God, yet they could not rise too much since this physique will ensure absolute adaptability to any situation, no matter how the body has to be changed. In that person's case, they died from them trying to rush through cultivation, thinking their physique would ensure a safe path.
"Sadly for him, it did, but not in the way he imagined, it instead bloated his body to increase the size of his dantian and meridians, but he was killed because that was used as an excuse to kill him, saying he used some 'wicked' technique."
Eternal Paragon sighed before she kept on moving.
'Thank you for telling me this, my horizons have been widened.' Rhys bowed, his dragon blood did not react because it was a sign of respect and Rhys suppressed his own blood instincts.
"Hehehe. No worries kid, now then, time for you to start your training." Eternal Paragon giggled like a little girl before she turned back and made a wicked smile at Rhys, making him shiver as he felt fiends coming closer.
"Good luck!" Wap, like that she vanished into the space she was in.
Rhys remained in a black state as he thought of what he heard today, 'Crazy how her life today is nothing but luck! Her constitution allowed her to become like this. I wonder how my future will be like?...' Rhys's thoughts went and changed in many ways before he came back to reality.
'I must focus on what is in front of me first!'
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Eternal Paragon floated freely in the void with her eyes closed, 'Did I do fine in telling him? I hope he doesn't incur karma.' Eternal Paragon thought that if the kid, Rhys, died because of her and made her bore, then she would be sad, for like a day that is.
'No way, I, a Paragon is connected via karma to him, he'll be fine.' She giggled like a little girl before her smile turned into a frown, feeling energy fluctuations approaching her.
'How long will that damn pest keep on annoying me!?' Eternal Paragon's fair body shook before, boom, her body rushed outwards into the void. Her speed was so fast no one could see her.
'This is the reason I leave the kid alone most of the time, otherwise, they'd know about him and make my life harder.'
Wap!
Quickly, she reached a spot deep in the void, "Scram!"
Kekeke. Why. So. Mean?
A voice from within the void spoke.
"You are annoying me in my free time, scram."
I. Came. To. Talk. Again.
The voice sounded again, it sounded hoarse and static.
"Fiend Emperor, I spoke to you once! I will not join your stupid little squad, I am not interested in any fighting."
You. Will. Or. Die.
"Heh, you always act like this, just because I hate fighting doesn't mean I won't!"
Eternal Paragon's body radiated no power, but with a simple punch forward, space ruptured and aether shook wildly.
No technique, no flashy movements, or anything of the sort! This was the prowess of a Paragon! Her normal actions could bring forth disasters if she did not hold back.
Damn. You.
The voice cursed before a wave of aether spread in the surroundings.
"Hehe, you are not my match!"
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Author's Note:
Enjoy!
Try and leave reviews if you can... it'd help me know what I can improve.