Chapter 24: Solution

Su Chen didn’t know that people from the Bai Clan had already found him. Even if he did know, he probably wouldn’t care.

At the moment, most of his attention was held by his study of the Origin Talisman Energy Formation.

The time he spent studying was both arduous and a delight.

The time he spent studying seemed to drag on forever, yet it also seemed so short.

Under Shi Kaihuang’s tutelage, Su Chen’s understanding of Origin Energy Talismans greatly increased.

Having a personal instructor who could give him pointers was very beneficial. Personal instructors could tell you things that weren’t covered in open classes, help explain concepts that you didn’t understand the first time around in class, or even give you pointers on your day-to-day cultivation. Although the Origin Energy Tower’s Origin Energy was much denser than in the dorms, Su Chen didn’t value this too highly.

Even though Ski Kaihuang never taught him any completed Origin Skills or soul techniques, he held nothing back when teaching Su Chen everything he knew about Origin Energy.

Under these circumstances, Su Chen finally began to realize how superficial his knowledge of Origin Energy actually was.

There were seven realms of Origin Energy cultivation: Qi Drawing, Blood Boiling, Yang Opening, Light Shaking, Burning Spirit, Thought Manifestation, and Ultimate Emperor.

These seven realms were not random divisions. They had been progressively reached by the human race over tens of thousands of years.

Qi Drawing requires the opening of a Dan Sea, Blood Boiling requires lighting a Heart Lamp, and Yang Opening requires creating a Clarity Palace; these were the early realms. Above Yang Opening, the requirements became more complex, including seven Lotus Platforms, eight Divine Temples, opening one’s Yin-Yang, and receiving the Heavenly Temple.

Every step was extremely mysterious. They were a great fortune for mankind, and they had changed the human race for the better.

In the tens of thousands of years that had gone by, the human race had relied on the power of bloodlines to progress through these stages. Without enough external support, advancing even one stage was incredibly difficult.

Shi Kaihuang had devoted himself to the dream that one day the human race would be able to reach such heights and such cultivation realms without bloodlines.

In comparison, although Mainbrooke had pursued the same dream, he focused on improving the external control of Origin Energy. Thus, instead of dividing the human race into seven realms, he classified the abstruse Origin Energy Patterns from one to ten, ten being the absolute limit of an Ancient Arcana Technique.

Rather than focusing on strengthening his own physique, Mainbrooke focused on improving his Origin Skills.

If a person could use a Tier 7 Ancient Arcana Technique, that implied that they were a Tier 7 Ancient Arcana Master. However, the opposite was not true.

Shi Kaihuang had a different viewpoint. Increasing individual strength was the most important, not Origin Skills.

If a person reached a certain realm, they were classified as a certain kind of Origin Qi Scholar. Even if they didn’t possess Origin Skills corresponding to their own level, it didn’t matter.

The two of them shared identical goals, but completely opposite approaches.

Both Ancient Arcana Techniques or contemporary Origin Skills possessed their own complexities and profundities. Su Chen was extremely happy to be studying this material.

Su Chen was studying when he suddenly saw Shi Kaihuang enter.

Shi Kaihuang didn’t seem to be in a good mood. His expression was very jittery.

After entering, he sat in a corner of the large formation, gazing at the starry sky as if thinking about something. After quite some time, he shook his head and sighed, “Placing the Arms Fixation at the Yin Exchange location makes the Sea of Qi too turbulent, while placing it at the Sea of Qi throws the Yin Exchange into chaos. This route is also impossible.”

He tossed out the paper in his hand that was filled with symbols and then left.

Su Chen knew that Kaihuang’s Heaven, an Origin Skill that Shi Kaihuang was developing, had most likely reached another bottleneck.

Kaihuang's Heaven was the other Origin Skill apart from the Origin Talisman Energy Formation that Shi Kaihuang had spent fifty years bitterly analyzing and improving. He was trying to create a technique that allowed someone to reach the Blood Boiling Realm without a bloodline.

Skyscrapers were always built from the ground up. In order for the human race to break through the restrictions of bloodlines, it was impossible to use the same method all the way to the end. Instead, humans focused on tackling one realm at a time.

Shi Kaihuang had spent many years analyzing Kaihuang's Heaven and had resolved many of the issues of charging into the Blood Boiling Realm. He was so close that it could be said that there was only a paper-thin barrier between him and his goal.

Even so, when it came to cultivation, a paper-thin barrier could often seem as far off as the horizon.

The further he progressed and the closer he came to his goal, the harder it became to break through.

This was the situation Shi Kaihuang was in. Although most of the issues with Kaihuang's Heaven had been resolved, he was at a loss as to how to resolve the last few remaining ones.

Shi Kaihuang had tried to think of all kinds of tactics, but any solutions he came up with would interfere with his previous steps. If he wanted to resolve the later problems, he would have to give up on everything he had done previously. Otherwise, he would find that almost all of the paths forward had been blocked off by a choice he had previously made. He was locked inside a cycle of death.

Shi Kaihuang had probably discovered another possible solution, only to realize that both options available to him weren’t feasible. In the end, he was forced to give up on that idea.

After Shi Kaihuang left, Su Chen walked over and picked up the piece of paper from the ground.

“So this time he chose the Arms Fixation talisman?” Su Chen understood.

The Arms Fixation talisman was primarily related to controlling the stability of Origin Energy.

If Origin Qi Scholars wanted to charge into the Blood Boiling Realm without the help of a bloodline, there was only one solution - strengthening their control over Origin Energy.

Thus, the thought process behind developing a method for those without a bloodline to enter the Blood Boiling Realm was to first find a way to increase the strength of the Origin Energy within their bodies. After achieving an appropriate amount of power, they could think of ways to control the way the Origin Energy was used.

Strengthening and controlling. Accomplishing the two simultaneously was no simple task.

Increasing the strength of Origin Energy that was already at its peak required the assistance of many different kinds of tactics, including causing one’s Origin Energy to go berserk or compressing one’s Origin Energy. There were many different methods, but each one required large numbers of Origin Energy Talismans to accomplish them.

Controlling this kind of power would require even more workarounds.

For instance, Su Chen had to first raise the durability of the Origin Energy Pattern when strengthening his Erupting Firebird skill before he could add in more Origin Energy, giving the resulting explosion much more force.

However, only the Origin Energy Pattern itself needed to be improved to increase the power of the Erupting Firebird; Su Chen only had to focus on the skill itself.

Charging into the Blood Boiling Realm required the human body itself to be strengthened and changed. It was much more difficult and complex than simply improving a skill.

There were many Origin Energy Talismans that could stabilize Origin Energy. The Arms Fixation talisman was one such talisman. It existed mainly to improve one’s control over Origin Energy.

However, Shi Kaihuang was conflicted about where to place this talisman.

If he were to place it in the Yin Exchange location, the Origin Energy in his Sea of Qi would would go berserk and become difficult to control, but if he placed it in the Sea of Qi location, the Yin Exchange location would become chaotic.

Because of how Shi Kaihuang had arranged the Origin Energy Talismans earlier, he could not simultaneously use two Arms Fixation talismans. Thus, after repeatedly attempting to combine them all, he could only admit defeat in the end. Either he needed to continue to search for new methods, or he could try out a new stabilizing talisman.

As Su Chen gazed at the flow of Origin Energy that Shi Kaihuang had mapped out, he suddenly felt as if he was somewhat familiar with it.

Su Chen found it odd. Where did this feeling of familiarity come from? After thinking on it for a bit, he suddenly realized that Shi Kaihuang’s Origin Energy flow diagram was actually somewhat similar to his Origin Energy Pattern for his Erupting Firebird.

Although the two were very different from each other, the thought processes behind resolving the two problems were shockingly similar.

Both had opted to compress the Origin Energy. The Erupting Firebird used compression fragments to increase the strength of the Origin Energy while Kaihuang’s Heaven used large quantities of Origin Energy Talismans to achieve the same effect.

While stabilizing the compressed Origin Energy, sections were dedicated to control the flow of Origin Energy in the body, clearing the path and allowing Origin Energy to flow unimpeded until the Origin Energy finally took form.

The only difference was how the Origin Energy was processed in the end.

It was precisely this change that had caused the Erupting Firebird to succeed, but Kaihuang’s Heaven to fail.

Upon observing these differences, Su Chen suddenly felt a trace of hope.

Could he use the Brooke Formula and its method of using Origin Energy to solve this problem?

A moment later, his whole being was completely engrossed in performing calculations.