With a situation like this in his hands, only one thought came to Ruel's mind.
Either suppress or terminate the process.
Terminating it was harder with the amount of mental energy he had.
He would exhaust his mind even before being able to stop the lightning particles, then only one thing remained, to suppress and counteract the particles.
But then the question came how?
He couldn't even do anything other than add more elemental particles.
Wait, elemental particles!
An idea popped inside Ruel's brain. He didn't know if it will work but that was the only option.
Without even giving the vortex of lightning elemental particle another look, Ruel started.
He used all the earth elemental particles in his aperture, trying to bring them all closer.
This was a harder process than moving the particles one by one or in a bunch, he had to gather them all at once.
Gritting his teeth, he gathered them in a big cylindrical shape, Ruel's body was becoming faint, the more he forced the particles to move.
Yet, he had to do this, taking a look at the vortex, he pushed all the particles inside, puncturing just a small part of it, but that was all he needed.
The earth suppressed lightning, to give the spiritual root more breathing time, he used earth elemental particles. This was a bad option for his future, but it was all he had.
The more elements one spiritual root had, the worse it became. A pure elemental affinity would show much more power than a subpar elemental affinity.
If a person had a fully formed fire spiritual root and another had just half fire and another element formed spiritual root, the power of fully formed would be at least twice or more power than the half one.
This difference became more apparent as one progressed through realms.
Ruel had to do this to keep his spiritual root from being destroyed without it, his path as a cultivator would be over right there.
As the cylindrical structure seeped inside the vortex, it made beautiful dark lines on the purple spiritual roots.
It looked like a mystical tree with dark veins, and the lines became darker as time passed.
They extended from that point, suppressing the lightning within.
Ruel's plan was working!
But there was a flaw in it, the amount of earth elemental particles was much lower than the lightning elemental particles.
Ruel didn't for how much time could they hold the collapsing spiritual root.
The cracks didn't spread out more, but they were still there, they were suppressing and fortifying it, instead of healing the damaged part.
He couldn't do anything other than just keep sending the particles inside, now he was nothing more than a spectator inside his own body.
This was another kind of weakness he was experiencing here, yet he couldn't do anything.
As the concentration of earth particles diminished, they started forming a net around the trunk of the spiritual root.
Ruel looked at this scene for minutes, and just then another trembling happened. The elemental particles inside the aperture were disappearing at an alarming rate. This process didn't stop till there was none left.
Only a sigh of relief came out of Ruel's mouth.
"Finally"
It was all over, he had done it.
He had prevailed over too much today. In a way, it was more tiring for him rather than fighting powerful cultivators.
Suddenly his body started dissipating into light, indicating that the time inside the aperture was over.
A bout of silence met Ruel's ears as he started to wake up.
Opening his eyes, he looked toward the administrator.
Feeling his gaze, the administrator looked back at Ruel.
The people beside Ruel had all changed in the time he was awakening.
Standing up, he went towards the administrator with slow steps, he was exhausted beyond return right now.
Even a task as simple as walking felt tiring to him right now.
Giving him the root stone, Ruel cupped his fists in a farewell greeting and went straight outside.
After some more walking, he got out of the pavilion.
He took a deep breath, feeling the air flowing on his face always felt nice. While looking around, he spotted a person sitting under a tree with a jade slip in her hand.
Moving towards her, he stopped right in front of her, while putting his hand forward.
Without even looking at him, she grabbed his hand, examining his Spiritual roots.
She was the inspector for the awakening of Spiritual roots, every single person who had awakened theirs had to come to her for the inspection of the roots.
********
Lyla's day wasn't going quite well, she had been assigned this dumb duty for some months now.
Having slacked off on some of the work her master had given her, she was experiencing the punishment for it, which was to contribute towards the sect.
In these past months, no good candidate had been coming her way, she needed at least 20 candidates with at least 70 percent and above in spiritual roots formation.
Even after so many days she still hadn't completed it halfway. With a sigh, her eyes darted toward the entrance of the pavilion.
There were still cultivators going inside and awakening roots, just as she was slacking off, a person came near her.
'Ah, it is another one of those kids.'
The kid extended his hand toward her while staring at her to start the thing.
'No greetings? Kids these days are weird!'
Grabbing a hold of his hand, Lyla sent her spiritual energy inside Ruel's body, causing him to feel a minor electrifying sensation.
Her spiritual energy moved and navigated through his body. In an instant, it reached the aperture.
'Dual affinity?? Another waste!' she thought while pitying her condition for the next months.
But what she saw next, left her shocked.
'Huh!!'
"87 PERCENT SPIRITUAL ROOTS FORMATION WTF!!" her voice resounded everywhere, as soon as she said it, several eyes landed on her and Ruel.
When she noticed several people staring at her, then only did she realize the severity of the situation.
Putting a hand on her mouth, she heard a voice near her.
Ruel said in a tired tone, "Are you dumb? Screaming my information like that"
He was really annoyed now. Everyone knew about his formation rate and, within moments, it will spread around the sect.
Making trouble for him in many ways
Ruel thought, 'This is why I dislike it. Every time there is someone weird enough to say it out loud.'
It was compulsory to show the sect your talents, if Ruel tried to hide it, then getting resources would be harder and harder.
But this didn't mean he had to tell the whole truth to them.
He still hid one thing from them…
It was that, that his spiritual roots had mutated, meaning the elements he would use would be mutated and more powerful.
The mutation was always good for an element, even if the outcome was not desirable. They were always a boon.
"Ah, I am so sorry!" said Lyla while standing up and doing a 90-degree bow as an apology.
"Nevermind" With a stiff tone Ruel turned around, leaving through the still-forming crowd, he didn't want to experience any of this and what better way was there other than leaving.
Without looking back, he moved his feet, and with great speed, he went towards Sia.
They had discussed where to meet before the awakening, with a soft smile on her face she moved towards Ruel, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"How did it go?" she whispered while passing through ppl while guiding Ruel.
She knew how tiring it was for a person to awaken and to give him the rest he needed, she was bringing him to his quarters.
"It went well…." Said Ruel, explaining everything to her but still hiding the fact about mutated roots and the Demon Lord.
Suddenly, Sia stopped, looking at Ruel with a proud gaze. "You have done great!" she said in a cheery tone.
Her hand ruffled through his hair while she took out a plaque from her pocket, "Here, have this as a gift from me"