After some time, with red tears staining his face, Tristan spoke.
"I don't think I've ever been this close to death before."
He thought about what had happened; there were only two possibilities.
One was that his newly created breathing technique was very bad, which would result in an imbalance between the world's energy and his essence inside his body, causing a collision that damaged his essence pathways.
The other possibility was that his Light and Darkness breathing technique had been successful, and it should have started to alter his essence pathways. The problem was that his energy veins had already been slightly altered due to his Fire cultivation technique. The new energy pathways being created conflicted with the old energy pathways, destroying part of his energy veins.
Regardless of which option was correct, damage to the energy veins was one of the most dangerous and difficult-to-heal conditions, almost always permanent unless one knew a divine doctor.
"This hurts; it feels like my body went through a meat grinder."
He was completely exhausted on the ground. He didn't know how much time had passed; he only knew his life was hanging by a thread.
After hours of agony, the sound of his potential salvation finally reached his ears. The small feeding door finally opened after more than a week.
He turned his small, bruised body and began crawling, feeling like he might die on the way.
After much effort, he managed to reach the food plate. The 'food' was a mixture of flour, water, bones, cartilage, and fat that could no longer be used. Tristan grabbed that disgusting mass with his hands and began to eat.
'With this, I can live for a few more weeks.'
He picked up one of the bones and started gnawing on it.
'Should I keep practicing this new breathing technique? Even if I find a cure for my previous condition, this technique could also cripple me, destroying my energy veins,' he doubted his goals for a moment.
Tristan shook his head.
'What am I thinking? I have no other choice; I need to succeed!'
'Besides, the Light breathing will increase my vitality, which will reduce my chances of starving.'
After gnawing on all the bones, he collapsed unconscious on the ground and slept deeply.
***
Another two weeks passed. Tristan was sitting in his meditation position. He had spent the last few weeks perfecting his breathing technique. After a while, he noticed small changes in his body. Because of this, he reached a few conclusions.
First came the confirmation that his breathing technique was successful. If it weren't appropriate, he wouldn't experience any changes.
Second, since the reason for the blockage in his cultivation had not yet been resolved, his new cultivation technique, like his Fire cultivation technique, was also unable to improve his core, so only the effects of a normal breathing technique worked on him.
And because of this, the changes it caused in his body did not become permanent.
But there was still hope; his cultivation was still blocked and his body couldn't improve, but he still managed to create a connection with the Light and Darkness present in his vital essence.
This meant that, theoretically, he could create an ability related to these elements and even develop a martial combat technique.
Therefore, his first goal was to master the element of Light so he could create a diagnostic ability and discover what was wrong with his body.
(Light, Light represents order and change; Light is the element of life, nourishment, and fertility. Light is the structure that supports the universe. Light is the beginning. Light reveals what is hidden and dark. Those who do not find the Light within themselves will never be able to master it.)
After two months of studying and trying to interpret the information from the Divine Fragment artifact, this was what Tristan managed to understand. Although not everything was clear, he believed he had grasped the general idea. He divided his new Light and Darkness cultivation technique to create an exclusive technique for Light to improve his focus.
Another thing he developed was a pillar for his cultivation, something he learned while reading cultivation tales. It was that people who could relate a characteristic of themselves to one of the foundations of an element had an easier time learning to cultivate.
That was why the Sage of the Forests told his apprentice, who would later become a master known as the Giant Destroyer Axe, to become a nomad and embark on a journey, gaining life experiences that would increase his understanding of martial arts.
So, as a pillar for his cultivation of this element, he chose the concept of 'Control'; after all, one of the things he most desired was to gain control over his own life. He knew better than anyone what it was like to have his life controlled by others.
With all this, Tristan came to the following conclusions:
'First, healers use this element for diagnosis because its main characteristic is to spread quickly. It also reveals what is hidden, which is very useful for detecting injuries.'
'But this is also its main weakness and what makes it very difficult to master. Light is very fast and easily disperses. If someone does not have very strong control, the essence of this element will continue its path against the conjurer's will.'
'In other words, the secret to mastering this magic is control and limitation.'
"Well, I guess it's time to put this knowledge into practice."
Tristan stood up and began to meditate. He repeated what he had learned about it several times.
(Light, Light represents order and change; Light is the element of life, nourishment, and fertility. Light is the structure that supports the universe. Light is the beginning. Light reveals what is hidden and dark. Those who do not find the Light within themselves will never be able to master it.)
After a few moments of concentrating on what he had understood, he managed to feel the essence of this element within his own body and then made it resonate with the world around him.
He extended his hand, and a small white light began to emerge from his palm.
A wide smile spread across his face, and he celebrated in excitement. This caused him to lose focus, making the light disappear, but that did not diminish his joy because this was the possible first step toward curing his condition.
Of course, things were still not easy. He found this element harder to control than Fire.
As time passed, when Tristan decided that his control over the essence was good enough, he decided it was time to start developing a method to create a diagnostic technique.
The method he developed was simple but extremely difficult to execute.
First, he needed to put his energy into an object. At this stage, he had to wrestle with the power of Light so that it didn't escape his control.
The next step was to make the Light take the shape of the object, then he had to use his concentration to maintain the shape of the Light 'hologram' and guide it into his body.
Then came the final and most difficult step: He had to use his mystical senses to analyze the hologram while using another part of his concentration to prevent the hologram from dissipating.
Mystical senses were something people had to be born with; it wasn't something that could be taught. You either had it or you didn't.
Finally, the last step ended up taking three times longer than the first two combined.
But then, after five months of receiving the Divine Fragment of Tales, he heard a sound he had never heard before.
[You have learned a ability]
Tristan stood up and thought of the magic word to activate the runes.
'Magush.'
Then, once again familiar to him, the golden runes appeared before his face.
Name: Tristan
Species: Human
Age: 10
Realm: Mortal
Core: Solid Red (Blocked)
Talents:
Ability : [Tyrannical Eye]
Artifacts: [Fragment from the book The Tales of the Creation of the Heavens and Earth]
Great joy surged through his body; he fell to his knees, almost crying with emotion. If his heart hadn't been broken so many times, he probably would have cried. For so long in his life, he thought he would never have an ability, and now he had one.
Of course, it was a terrible ability , but still, it was his. It was earned with his blood and sweat while he was trapped in this filthy prison.
"Let's take a look at it."
Ability name: [Tyrannical Eye]
Rank: 1
Element: Light
'This is the beginning of my first ability !'
His lips curled into a smile.
***
Several months passed, during which he tried his best to develop his diagnostic ability.
Fortunately, he discovered that the more he understood the elements that make up matter and their characteristics, the easier it was to analyze the holograms. This helped him compensate for his limited mystical senses.
'Unfortunately, all the contact I've had with biology since I finished high school came from the series and webtoons about doctors that I sometimes read, but I highly doubt anything I learned from those sources is reliable.'
"Luckily, I had several chemistry courses in college."
After all his effort and dedication, he managed to evolve his diagnostic ability to level 2.