On the afternoon of the eighth day, as the Wyvern continued circling the valley, Gavin halted his comprehension of the earth element. He had originally planned to stop after five more minutes, but as he ascended to the eleventh foot of the mountain, he received a message from his clone.
The clone's spirit had fully recovered. Through his spiritual vision, Gavin observed as the clone cut seven fragments from its spirit, each fragment entering one of the seven large energy nodes. As they settled into the ritual, something astonishing happened—spiritual threads began extending from the 27 large energy nodes. These threads traveled through the energy channels, passing through the medium and small energy nodes, before entering the mysterious space and ultimately reaching his sea of consciousness.
Inside the clone's sea of consciousness, Gavin saw two centers of spiritual power—one large and one tiny. His connection to the clone had strengthened significantly, allowing him to control the smaller spirit. He tested its movement, guiding it outside the clone's body.
The moment the tiny spirit emerged into the sunlight, a sharp pain coursed through Gavin. The sunlight damaged the spirit instantly, forcing him to retreat into the clone's body. Grimacing, he directed the clone to move beneath the shade of a tree, then tried again. This time, when the spirit left the body, it remained undamaged.
"So, sunlight harms the spirit," Gavin mused. "If the spirit were stronger—or if time weren't so tight—I could use sunlight to temper and strengthen it."
After allowing the spirit to recover from the damage, he noticed something remarkable—the spirit had grown slightly stronger.
"The cultivation method is successful," he thought. "Now, how do I break the bloodline limit… or grow even stronger?"
Curious, he tested whether the spirit could manipulate spiritual energy. To his surprise, the spirit's control over the surrounding energy had noticeably increased.
"Is it because the spirit was exposed to the external spiritual energy?" he wondered.
Gavin performed several spells and immediately noticed that they were being cast faster than before. However, he frowned.
"This may allow me to fight back against the Wyvern, but defeating it will still be difficult."
As he pondered how to make his clone stronger, something unexpected happened—without his knowledge, earth elemental energy began gathering around the clone's spirit, swirling around it.
"Will I have to place spirit fragments in all the energy nodes to find a way?" he wondered.
Through his spiritual field, he sensed a sudden surge in earth elemental energy activity around the clone. It was as if the energy was being drawn to something.
"It's not just gathering randomly… It's where the spirit is."
To confirm his suspicion, he commanded the spirit to move. The moment it shifted, the cluster of earth elemental energy followed. However, his spiritual field only allowed him to observe energy, not see it in detail. Turning his attention to his clone, he directed it to look toward the gathering point. What he saw astonished him—the earth elemental energy was condensing, forming a stone-like structure around the spirit.
A realization struck him.
"The clone's cultivation is limited by its physical body. But… what if I transform it into an elemental body?"
Not entirely, of course. A full transformation could be too risky.
"A semi-elemental body should be possible."
He wasn't certain if it would work, but he wouldn't know unless he tried. Using his spirit's control, he began manipulating the earth elemental energy.
"Let's start with the skin," he decided. Even if it got damaged, regenerating a new layer would be simple.
The spirit returned to the clone's sea of consciousness, and immediately, Gavin felt his control over the clone's body deepen—down to the very cells. The clone lay down, allowing the earth elemental spiritual energy to slowly seep into its skin.
He knew this process wouldn't happen instantly, so he left the clone to manage it while he focused on something else—creating a new fourth-rank earth elemental spell.
He had already developed a series of obsidian-based spells, but he wanted something stronger. Stronger than obsidian… was diamond.
"If I can create a diamond using earth elemental energy…"
He recalled how artificial diamonds were manufactured in his previous life. They had been worthless, as common as pebbles. However, during his travels as a fourth-rank psychic, he had once arrived on an indigenous planet controlled by an extraordinary force, one with a combat power equivalent to a sixth-rank psychic.
Lacking money and resources, he initially hunted monsters to earn currency. However, his methods differed from those of the locals, drawing unwanted attention. Forced to abandon hunting, he needed another way to survive—and cultivate.
So, he had turned to creating artificial diamonds.
Using those diamonds, he had funded his growth, advancing to the sixth rank. Eventually, he overthrew the ruler of the extraordinary force and seized control of the planet.
Now, in this life, he intended to follow a similar path.
"If I can form diamonds purely from energy, then…"
A new possibility lay before him, one that could redefine the limits of his power.
But where should he start?
Diamonds were formed from carbon, but this world wasn't built on the same periodic elements he knew. Here, everything was defined by elemental energy, and he had no way of knowing if air contained oxygen, carbon, or any other familiar elements.
In his previous life, natural diamonds had been composed of 99% Carbon-12 and 1% Carbon-13. But in this world, he had no way of identifying whether such elements even existed.
As he scanned the valley with his spiritual field, something caught his attention—coal.
It was stored in the tribe's warehouse, a resource they used to endure the harsh winters. He had never paid it much mind before, as it was an ordinary supply. However, now that he was examining materials at a deeper level, he carefully observed the coal's elemental composition in minute detail.
For the first time, he analyzed a physical material at an elemental level rather than just sensing spiritual energy.
To his surprise, the elements within the coal were distinctly different from those in spiritual energy. Yet, he couldn't immediately discern what set them apart.
He began to comprehend each unique element within the coal, trying to understand their nature and how they interacted. So deep was his focus that he remained unaware of the passage of time—so much so that he completely missed the arrival of an intruder in the valley at midnight.
However, his clone did not.
The intruder approached from the north, the same direction his clone was facing. As the clone was enveloped in earth-elemental energy, its senses had sharpened dramatically, allowing it to detect movement within a hundred-meter radius through vibrations in the soil.
The moment the intruder stepped into that range, the clone immediately alerted Gavin.
Snapping out of his deep concentration, Gavin's spirit vision locked onto the newcomer. The sudden pressure of his spiritual field must have been felt, as the figure came to an abrupt halt.
Through his spirit vision, the form became clearer—it was a wolf, exuding the aura of an Initial Silver Rank beast. Its spirit and elemental attributes carried a distinct presence—Spiritual and Metal.
The clone started walking toward the wolf, closing the distance to get a better look.
The intruder remained still, seemingly unafraid, waiting for the clone to approach.
And when Gavin finally saw it through his clone's vision, his eyes narrowed.
A Silver Spirit Wolf.