Yan finished setting up the formation, giving plenty food for Lassy to survive on. For the simplest formation, she had put Lassy within a suspended animation. She walked over to Hamar, who was still mediating cross-legged, and tapped him in the shoulder. "I'm ready."
Hamar slowly opened his eyes and swallowed the iron taste from his mouth. He stood up, "Shall we go then?"
"You're the one with more knowledge than I, you lead the way." Yan gestured outwards and let Hamar go first.
He smiled and rubbed the back of his head, 'Well this is awkward...oh-' as he was almost planning to ask to wait longer, he thought of a plan.
"We need to stick low, we'll walk through the forest while keeping fluctuations as low as we can easily."
Yan thought back to the vulture she made Hamar had dealt with weeks prior, and concluded that what Hamar said sounded plausible.
Hamar started walking at a calm pace, at the same time he smirked. 'Mana can't be detected by Yan. I'll just recover while we walk there, under the pretence of sneaking...'
He took a deep breath and felt the mana realm open as he began using his aura gathering technique. This was the technique he had been given by Hou, meant for Royalty. He used mental energy to move into the mana realm and coax it into his body. As he walked, he paid deep attention to this process. This was for two purposes, to make sure it didn't cause any more injuries and so he had something to do while walking a distance.
The mana felt cold as it entered his body. Hamar's body was built similarly to a cultivators in that the Soul and Body were highly integrated with each other. In the cultivator this would be the Spirit Stone Soul, but in a swordsman practicing Hamar's technique this would result in the strengthened physical body. As the mana entered he would continue to apply pressure and transmute the cold mana into warm aura.
As he did this, his increased comprehension and increased attention caused him to have a small epiphany. This transmutation was based on the principle of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang were opposites, much like the opposing forces of mana (laws) and aura. However just like Yin and Yang they had a portion of each other inside of them. They were drawn from the same source, merely different expressions.
As Hamar continued the technique, that breath of mana turned into aura and covered his outermost layer of skin. It crackled them shed, leaving behind a stronger skin made of his own form of law. Hamar looked down at his hand quickly, and saw the surface almost glow. It was pure and smooth like a jade.
As Hamar walked, he continued his technique, but none of them had any other unusual effects. That skin strengthening was purely from his comprehension gained after looking into the relationship of mana and aura. After a few hours, Hamar had healed himself and even become stronger than before. He stopped walking and Yan who had not been paying attention walked into his form stance.
"Ow! What's the deal? Did you detect something?" Yan touched her forehead in light pain.
Hamar chuckled, "Nothing, it's just we're close enough now. If we jump up the trees, we should be able to observe the Time Pool properly."
Yan nodded, "Still keeping fluctuations supressed?"
Hamar didn't want to give up his rouse and nodded with a completely serious expression, "Of course." He watched as Yan looked at the looking trees and sigh.
Yan ran her fingers through her hair and as she did, she began using a body cultivation technique. Her body grew larger and her muscles inflated themselves. Hamar held back his laughter and closed his eyes at the sight. Yan saw this and shouted at him, "It's not my fault! I do formations and don't have too many strength laws, or body cultivation techniques to use them! This is the best I have,"
Hamar held out his hand, "no, no, no, it's...it-" he burst out into laughter and put his hands on his knees. Yan smiled but inwardly became angry, she ran over to Hamar.
However, even with her technique she was nowhere strong enough to do anything to Hamar even without using his aura actively. He kicked doff the ground and ran forwards, running directly up a tree with speed and strength alone. He burst through the canopy and into the air, gently falling down onto the treetops. He used an aura technique on his feet to lighten his apparent weight, meaning he was able to stand up ok the leaves easily.
He put his hands behind his back like an old man and shouted down, "It's a nice view!" He said jokingly until he stopped laughing and looked up into the sky above the forest.
Where one would expect clouds, Hamar had an idea from his earlier Yin Yang peering but now that he saw it, his mouth fell open. The sky was split in two and between it and upside down green river rushed by. And floating above the upside down river the person from Yi Sect stood glaring down. The gravity of the two sides was opposite and within the secluded Time Pool, the woman was standing upright while to Hamar it looks upside down.
She stared directly into Hamar's eyes and she winked. Holding her arms out, she floated up (down) and out of the Time Pool. Now high into the sky, she spoke quietly yet Hamar and Yan below could hear it perfectly, "Come on over now, I won't stop you doing anything. In fact, I can swear so over my Spirit Stone Soul...
Yan stopped the actual and undid her body cultivation, shrinking to her normal size. She activated a multitude of laws and floated above the treetops, "You dare to do a Spirit Stone Soul path!?"
The person from Yi Sect simply smiled and put her hand over her chest, "On the powers of this world, I swear..."
...