"So, what do you plan to do about it?"
Eyeing him curiously, as well as with a hint of worry, Cheong Suhyeon tilted her head. Right after their meal had come to a close, she and Theodore had excused themselves and made for a private room, where they were now casually reclining on a comfortable sofa together. Despite the relaxed atmosphere, her tone of voice was still relatively grim.
"Good question. But I've got to say that things aren't as bad as they seem. Due to my Energy Vein Incorporation, I'm already forming my Numen now. Therefore, it stands to reason that I might develop other essential characteristics in advance as well."
Sighing slightly, Theodore shrugged. His extremely vast Dantians hadn't come with solely benefits–rather, they had forced him into a very awkward, potentially dangerous situation. Whilst his Energy reserves would always be many times larger than those of others, he also required a greater Energy concentration to be present to rise to higher realms and stages.
Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but many cultivation stages enabled one to make use of vital aspects of themselves–for example, only once one reached the Soul Sculpting Stage could one start to manipulate the soul and harm the souls of others. Prior to that point, one would be nearly helpless when faced with them. Another example of this would be the pinnacle of the Dawning Numen Stage, where one would 'unlock' one's Divine Will.
Therefore, if he happened to be at a lower stage than his peers, and his foes had only just got to access another vital characteristic, then despite his monstrous Standard Attributes, he might see himself in a weaker–possibly even powerless–position.
Still, that was the price to pay for having such unprecedentedly large Dantians. In his eyes, even if he didn't get blessed with 'early access' to anything as important as the Numen again, it would still be a worthwhile trade-off.
"... I hope you're correct. For this round, I'm guessing that there is no way at all for you to possibly surpass the Dawning Numen Stage, right? That Energy limit is truly ruthless. Fortunately, at this point in time, this 'weakness' shouldn't be an issue, but who knows if it will be dangerous in later rounds?"
With furrowed brows, Cheong Suhyeon laid out her concerns. She had long feared that Theodore might have to lag behind the others a few realms, yet when she had realized how terrifyingly vast his Dantians were after the first Energy Attribute increase hit her, she had broken out in a cold sweat.
Battles between outstanding Supreme Pillar heirs wouldn't merely be reliant on whose numbers were bigger. Many Talents did not take a foe's Attributes into account and would be capable of harming them irrespectively. Then, there were also those essential thresholds to be met, which would serve as a gulf between the ones who had reached them, and those who hadn't.
"You're not wrong. I'll have to prepare some Compound Array Disks beforehand in a timely manner. While that won't be able to bridge the gap completely, it'll still be a sort of band-aid solution, and better than nothing."
Powerless to do much else, he smirked wryly. Perhaps in the future, he could find some sort of Talent to help deal with this issue, but for now, he could only live with these circumstances.
"I suppose so. Well, if you require any sort of help, just say the word. I'll be right at your side in a heartbeat should you need me~"
Choosing to do away with the somewhat discouraging topic for the time being, she grabbed his hand and teasingly interlocked her fingers with his. Seeing him raise an eyebrow in response, evidently slightly surprised by how forward she was being here in private, she leaned closer and gave him a peck on the cheek.
"See you tomorrow."
Whispering these words in his ear, she let go of him and rose to her feet. She left him with a wink and a deliberately seductive view of her backside as she sauntered outside.
'... this time, she was actually being serious. It seems she's truly made her choice. I, on the other hand, have not yet done so.'
Up until today, although they frequently appeared to be flirting with each other and had indubitably grown closer, both of them had still been in their probing phase. Naturally, during that time, Theodore wouldn't take much of what she was saying too seriously. But when she had grabbed his hand earlier, he hadn't sensed any sort of deception or dishonesty–and that was exactly why he had been genuinely taken aback.
After all, there hadn't been any particular personal development between the two which could have caused her to suddenly warm up to him this much. Was it simply the effect of having lived with each other for so long? Or did him rapidly improving by leaps and bounds result in this change? He couldn't say.
What he was certain of, however, was that he still had to figure out whether or not to truly accept her, or what kind of feelings he even had towards her.
'Oh well, there is no need to rush. I'll find my answer eventually. For now, I should get back to cultivating.'
Teleporting to his usual secluded room, he sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes, calming his mind to the greatest extent possible and emptying it of all distracting thoughts. It appeared effortless, yet without prolonged training, most wouldn't be capable of achieving such a state this easily.
Partly due to his composure, but also because a fragment of his soul had been fused into his Golden Cores, he soon felt a connection to that which housed the very essence of his being: his soul. It appeared like a transparent version of himself, yet upon closer inspection, it felt rather indistinct and fragile.
Its current condition came as no surprise to him, therefore he chose to begin weaving his Essence Cocoon right then and there. Letting lots of Energy rush towards his brain, which was the default residence of the soul, he soon had more than enough to begin working.
His plentiful Energy Vein Incorporation experience came into play here, making his progress even more swift and smooth than normal. A mere half a day later, it was complete, the result closer to perfection than ever before.
During this time, he had split a minuscule amount of his attention to continuously refine his Golden Cores, because he had already reached the maximum Essence Cocoon creation speed which he could muster.
Exhaling in satisfaction, he felt a sense of strong security. Although this thin film of woven Energy wasn't particularly resistant to attacks right now, it was still akin to finally having a roof over his head after camping outside for months.
The Incubation Realm which was next didn't require him to proceed nearly as carefully, hence he could simply progress in the exact same way as when he was refining his cores: By drowning them in Energy. And for now, that was the sole thing that he didn't lack in the slightest.
Even the greatest numbskull would find it hard to screw up something this simple, so he naturally didn't do so either. Except for a short dinner break, he spent close to 24 hours on getting this realm over and done with. The sensation of his soul within the cocoon strengthening nearly every moment was very refreshing and pleasant, akin to the morning sun's rays gently caressing him.
Right around this time, his cores' first refinement was also finished, perfecting and strengthening them just a slight bit further. Looking at his Status Panel for a moment, he got around to inspecting their grade for the first time, before raising an eyebrow.
[ Cores: • Upper: Golden Core (Unique), 1st Refinement: 100%
• Middle: Golden Core (Unique), 1st Refinement: 100%
• Lower: Golden Core (Unique), 1st Refinement: 100% ]
The reason as to why he hadn't done this earlier was that he was so used to always encountering the same sight here that it had slipped his mind. Usually, he started off with Supreme-grade ones, but this time, unsurprisingly, they clearly were a notch above.
'Normally, all of us would stop our refinements once our Golden Cores reach the peak of this grade, but now that the Heavenly Dao-grade exists, I should definitely continue. Come to think of it, eventually, many of my peers will discover this new grade due to this... But that aside, I cannot allow these comparatively 'insignificant' things to be ignored next time.'
Cautioning himself to not let something like this occur again, he shook his head and refocused on properly cultivating. This time, it hadn't been an issue, but what if he overlooked a vital detail by assuming that he understood well enough what was happening? That would be unacceptable!
The Thunder Tempering Realm was even more of a slow grind than the Incubation Realm had been, yet it was also much less comfortable. Every second, his soul had to withstand the invasion of trace amounts of lightning. Individually, they couldn't stir up much trouble, but the continuous bombardment was the problem. Although it served to improve it, it also left his soul sore and exhausted from constantly restoring itself to a healthy state.
This time, it took him five days of effort to reach his current realm's pinnacle. After having done so, he immediately stopped generating lightning bolts and focused on the very nucleus of his soul, waiting with bated breath.
Seconds passed by one after the other, then finally, a tiny spark ignited deep within him, before transforming into a roaring blaze! His Coreflame had sprouted at his soul's 'heart', just as big in size as that vital organ. Exactly like his cores, it was made up of pristine white and resplendent golden halves, yet it didn't show any signs of those three 'spots' of red, black and 'emptiness'.
Despite being relatively small and not uniform in colour, the moment it appeared, Theodore instinctively knew that it had far surpassed his previous Supreme-grade one. A quick glance at his Status Panel confirmed this.
[ Coreflame: Heavenly Dao-grade, Unrefined ]
Contrary to one's Golden Cores, the grade of a Coreflame could never be improved. Further refinements to it would still make it stronger and more outstanding, of course, yet it would not ever be capable of escaping the limits of its grade and evolving. Even more astonishingly, this time, his had directly risen to the Heavenly Dao-grade.
The reason as to why this was a surprise was that one's highest Talent grade didn't automatically qualify one's Coreflame to also reach that height. Many more factors could influence it, but in general, even the greatest Supreme Pillar heirs would usually have a Coreflame one grade lower than their highest grade Talent.
'... while I do have a great many Talents, I do not believe that they were responsible for pushing me over the edge, because almost all of them are utterly unremarkable. Whilst quantity can sometimes raise up quality alongside it, that shouldn't be the case when it comes to Coreflames. Yet again, it seems that the only explanation... is the John part of myself.'
Silently pondering, he considered everything that he knew about his past, before eventually recognizing that there were not yet any tangible clues which he could follow. Well, there was Faavi, but she didn't recall anything of value.
After sighing in disappointment, his spirits rose once again as he felt a bright smile blossoming on his lips. No matter what, at least in terms of his Coreflame, his starting point was the highest one possible! He truly doubted that anyone else in the Heavenly Succession could achieve this.
Right as he was lost in his momentary self-satisfaction, while he was inspecting his Coreflame, he suddenly noticed something about it that caused his expression to change from cheerful elation to a sober one.
Relatively close to where his Divine Gate was, there were another two spots which were absolutely not as they should be and stuck out like sore thumbs. Even at first glance, he could immediately tell: They were clearly seals!