The attendant boy glanced around a bit before bowing his head. "I don't know."
"I only know that I easily absorb spirit force even without trying. And the sparse amount of spirit force that naturally exists in the atmosphere is also quite overwhelming for me."
Wen Yu frowned. Naturally spirit force existed, in tiny amounts, in the air in this world. Just like there were various chemical components in the air such as oxygen, nitrogen and others, an addition being spirit force was also a component.
It was so small that it was almost negligible. This was the reason spirit masters needed hex stones in other to absorb spirit force. The hex stone acted as a channel to concentrate the spirit force in the air and magnify it significantly.
This made it easy for spirit masters to assimilate and advance quite smoothly, according to their talents of course.
Now to think that this almost nonexistent quantity of spirit force in the air was overwhelming to this kid. It was unimaginable! Even Shi Anjing frowned slightly. He seemed quite clear headed at this moment.
The kid clenched his little fists and continued. "My spirit sea pulls spirit force into my body, whether or not I make any effort. It is of course a beneficial situation but contrary to expectations, once my spirit sea fills up with spirit force, I don't advance."
"Instead I have episodes where my body feels so hot it's as if my organs are melting. It causes agonizing pain and when it stops, my spirit sea becomes empty again."
Wen Yu's eyes widened. Such a thing was possible? He scrutinized the kid before him. He was such an adorable child, albeit malnourished and always frowning. Who knew he had to silently go through such torture.
Even him as an adult was nearly pushed to tears from his cold episodes and yet this kid was able to grit his teeth through his pain.
He'd seen the kid assimilating before. He always had an expressionless face on with clenched jaws. Wen Yu had thought it was a result of intense focus. Apparently not, why was this universe full of pitiful people?
The kid stared at them with clear eyes but although he was expressionless, he was still a kid and had yet to fully master the art of controlling his emotions so his lips were slightly quivering.
Shi Anjing bit his lower lip before walking out of the room and returning a few moments later. He was holding a really old book.
Wen Yu was very surprised. In this universe, books were a novel existence. Everything here was either directly controlled by spirit energy or indirectly controlled by AIs.
The technological advancement had written out the usefulness of books so not many books were in existence. If one wanted knowledge, the broad data base of detailed information, on anything, was just a click away.
This made Wen Yu all the more curious about this thin and weathered paperback. How and why does Shi Anjing own this 'ancient fossil'?
Shi Anjing threw the book at Wen Yu and was about to speak when he suddenly frowned and looked at them in confusion.
His eyes widened when he seemed to realize they were in his home and he shrunk his neck and stepped back in fear. All semblance of clarity gone from his limpid eyes.
Wen Yu sighed and called out to him but Shi Anjing just took a few more steps back and directly ignored him.
Both boys stared at each other before walking out of the deformed building.
Soon enough, they reached their dorm and the boys decided to check what the book was about. There was no title so they moved over to the first page.
Their eyes widened the more they read. It seemed to be...an assimilation manual?
Apparently their episodes was a result of having an extremely rare constitution that offset the heavenly balance and would only last for the first ten years of their lives before dissipating naturally.
What troublesome constitution! It was supposed to be rare so why were they the unlucky ones? What were the odds?
In Wen Yu's former world, this might be nothing but in this universe, the first ten years was actually a crucial part for a person's assimilation. Missing this period was akin to being mediocre for the rest of one's life!
The manual talked about a method involving two extremes. Fire and ice. They were various depictions that described supplementing each others assimilation by absorbing spirit force together.
This was really good stuff! How on earth did Shi Anjing get this? That was a question for later as the eyes of both boys were glued to the benefits. Their change of heart was so quick.
Wen Yu's spirit sea was as bottomless as a still ocean and the attendant boy's spirit sea was as shallow as a fish pond.
By supplementing each other, Wen Yu could fill up his own spirit sea with the insane amounts of spirit force the boy was able to refine naturally without triggering his cold episode from lack of sufficient spirit force.
On the other hand, the boy could directly hand over the excesses that always triggered his heat episodes and stunted his advancement!
Both boys stared at each other with trembling excitement. They could already foresee their immediate future filled with assimilation glory. This constitution was both a curse and a blessing.
If they found their counterpart, it would be a blessing as they could advance by leaps and bounds. If they couldn't, they would only be mediocre for the rest of their lives.
They belonged to the former group! The boys looked at each other with satisfaction and approval in their eyes before they got to the last page and immediately stiffened.
A problem arose. Supplementing each other's assimilation as the book described meant that they needed to have access to each other's spirit sea. This required absolute trust but in a world like this, who would be willing to trust another person with their lifeline?
Kids or not, no one was stupid. Wen Yu would never let his guard down due to the boy's connection to the Han family and the boy would never be able to trust Wen Yu because of the experience he had of trusting people in his short five years of life.
This led both boys to come to a stand still. You needed to be alive to become strong. If the other person did something unscrupulous then...
Both boys shuddered at the thought.