Because of the increase in faith, Linley's level of perception shot through the roof. He had always been a top-tier genius, but now… he found gaining insights as easy as breathing.
Although he hadn't started attempting to fuse his separate Laws, after almost six hundred years since becoming a soul mutate, he had comprehended a total of six new concepts for most of his elements – three new Concepts for Water, two for Earth, and one for Wind – bringing his new total up to 24 units of Willpower.
The only thing that was still lagging behind was his insights into the Laws of Fire. Not only had he not comprehended a single Concept for it, he still hadn't even finished fusing the Law of Fire's six Profound Mysteries. Still, he wasn't too disappointed – he knew it was his worst affinity, even so, his comprehension had still managed to reach the level of a Commander.
Even so, thanks to his hard work, Linley had managed to reach a level of power that had firmly surpassed the Lesser Sovereigns and was starting to approach the Intermediate Sovereigns.
As for his rival, since his return, he had only managed to make a single definitive breakthrough. Still, it was far from a minor breakthrough. His having fully comprehended his first Pure Yang-based concept not only increased his Willpower by yet another unit but also did wonders to increase his understanding of the Mandate of Pure Yang.
Between that, his accumulated faith, which had surpassed that of a Chief Sovereign and the fact that the Pure Yang essence being diffused through the universe was steadily increasing with each day allowed Ace's comprehension to skyrocket.
After only 200 years into his training, Ace was only half a step away from fusing all ten mandates of Pure Yang. Unfortunately, the biggest bottleneck one had to face in becoming a paragon was the last one. Stepping past it often had little to do with one's innate talent and more to do with luck. If you were lucky, you might see something that sparks an insight that allows you to make a breakthrough that same day, whereas if you were unlucky, it was very possible to never make that breakthrough.
It was why, even after the surge of new paragons recently, there were still far more experts who had reached that 99% stage of their comprehension.
Deep down, he was very much aware of that fact. Still, he was desperate to hurry up and make a breakthrough so he could help his master share in the burden. Unfortunately, he also understood there was little he could do to change things forcibly. The more anxious he became, the more stubborn his bottleneck would become; as a result, he decided to force himself to change his approach.
Since he reached a bottleneck in the path of comprehending the Mandates, he would refocus his attention on his Pure Yang Concepts. As it stood, he had only comprehended a single Pure Yang Concept, meaning he had the space to comprehend another three Pure Yang Concepts whilst still a deity.
Not wanting to destroy his new Pure Yang Realm, Ace and his friends and family would limit their strength to that of a saint whilst sparring against each other to speed up their training, and it did wonders for all of them.
On average, the Natural Laws would descend at least once a decade. Still, it only happened once for Ace before he ran into yet another bottleneck.
His understanding of the Mandate of Pure Yang had reached near perfection – the fact that he had comprehended two Concepts of Pure Yang proved it – but Ace could feel that he was still missing something; he just had no idea what it was. It was only during a sparring session against Yunaia, Linley's wife, that everything fell into place, not only for him but for Yunaia as well.
It had to be understood that Yunaia was literally the polar opposite of him. Whilst Ace's Pure Yang Divine Essence could be considered as the evolved fusion of Fire and Light, Yunaia was a two-way soul mutate who had completely fused the Laws of Water and Darkness.
This wasn't exactly news to him. In fact, hoping to gain new insights from a foreign perspective, Ace had previously asked to study Yunaia's fused divine essence, but after he realised that although Yang was born from the fusion of fire and light, thinking of it as mere fused divine essence was too limiting; as such when studying Yunaia's fused divine essence, it didn't do anything for his comprehension.
But Yunaia's Sword Concept based on the fusion of Water and Darkness was different. Yunaia hadn't let the fact that it was based on fused divine power limit her comprehension. Yunaia's sword art was seemingly flexible like water but untraceable like darkness. Still, there was a hint of something else inside that truly made it threatening.
Every time Ace and Yunaia's weapons met, Ace felt something cold and almost sinister devouring the power of his strikes, subtly transferring it to Yunaia's own.
Ace knew that one of the Law of Water had the profound mystery of Ice whilst the Law of Darkness had the profound Mystery of Evil; as such, he instinctively felt that Yunaia had just incorporated some combination of either or both of those aspects into her sword art. It was impressive, but Ace refused to be outdone.
His third and final Glaive art was based on the tyrannical and overbearing aspects of Pure Yang. Despite him limiting his physical body to that of an ordinary saint, each strike reached a level of power far beyond, and yet, no matter how he tried, despite it looking like Yunaia was on the losing side and was being suppressed, he could see the truth, Yunaia's swordsmanship was slowly eating away at his glaive art, getting more and more powerful, whilst his glaivesmanship was slowly waning.
It was an odd and unnerving feeling, to say the least. Still, Ace's eyes never lost their light; in fact, the more they fought, the more excited Ace became. He could feel his bottleneck slowly loosening.
He still couldn't put his finger on what it was he was missing exactly, but he knew deep down that whatever it was, the answer lay in Yunaia's swordsmanship, and Yunaia felt the same about Ace's glaive art.
After what may as well have been the thousandth strike, the eyes of both Ace and Yunaia glazed over as the natural laws descended around both of them.
He was still in the midst of his epiphany, but Ace began laughing boisterously as he realised how much of an idiot he was.
He began muttering to himself how there could be no Yang without Yin and no Yin without Yang.
He then thought back to the moment he created the Pure Yang Mandate; whilst he was receiving heaven's blessing, heaven had passed him a message about the new mandate. Unfortunately, Heaven didn't actually use words to communicate; it was more like it was translating a feeling which was ordinarily easily translatable.
When Heaven "told" Ace the name of the Mandate, Ace translated it to the words that made the most sense, "Pure Yang." It was only now that Ace understood that it was never "Pure Yang" but "True Yang!"
The difference was only a single word, but it was that single word that had caused Ace to unknowingly force himself down the wrong path.
Whilst Pure Yang symbolised an overbearing and tyrannical element, it was one that was ultimately brittle and susceptible to breakage – it was why, try as he may, Ace was slowly but surely being suppressed by Yunaia.
True Yang, on the other hand, allowed Ace to retain the overbearing and tyrannical aspect he had previously comprehended whilst also incorporating part of the soft and supple flexibility of Yin.
All this time, although he had long since surpassed the level of what a paragon should be able to accomplish, to the point where he was more than capable of slaughtering Sovereigns in a single strike, he still had never accomplished his dream of becoming a paragon, but now, finally, he had done that!
And if that wasn't good enough, not only did he manage to break through to become a Paragon. With his comprehension of True Yang being fixed, he subconsciously corrected his other Pure Yang Concepts, and heaven rewarded him for it.
Before, when he comprehended his first two Pure Yang Concepts, he was only awarded one unit of Will. At the time, he didn't think much of it, but now, after his corrections, he realised that comprehension of the Concept of Pure Yang actually grants two units of Will.
As the Natural Laws dissipated, feeling the incredible raw power coursing through his body, Ace couldn't help but erupt in a boisterous laugh.
He was still far from a match for the Overgods, but among Sovereigns, he could be considered an invincible existence!
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