Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 1037: Pressure

The brilliant light show was too much for even Sage and his Body of Laws to observe properly. Not even the strengthened form of a Nascent Soul could stare directly at the bright light and energy being released. Yet, Sage didnt give up just yet, as he had more options than others did. His eyes shifted, pupils splitting into three as he used the eyes of the Sea Locust, shifting his vision through different spectrums of light. At first he was unsuccessful, but then he found results at the extreme end of his visual range. The blinding lights had died down to only bright lights and he saw a shifting mass of red and black. A molten liquid swirling and conglomerating, releasing blue and green circular arcs that swept out of the mass and then folded back into towards its center.

His vision gave him a peek that others would not be able to see, but that didnt stop Sage from using the more traditional method that Guan Zhenyan had told him about back when he first bound this place to himself. Sages Spiritual Sense spread outwards, the spherical radius slowly expanding from his body as he put his full effort into fortifying it against the harsh energy released by the Realm Heart in front of him. Other Cultivators would not be able to see the Realm Heart with their eyes and so they relied upon feeling the energy that it emitted. By carefully sensing the energy and its changes, they could peer into the secrets of a universe as it was being formed. It would be hard not to advance ones understanding of laws in such a situation, but it was up in the air over which of those laws they would be drawn to.

Sage felt the foreign energies bombarding his Spiritual Sense, feeling just how powerful they were and how necessary it was for him to keep his Spirit Sense restrained to strengthen it. He felt the power that was being emitted splashing unevenly against his spherical Spirit Sense. Expanding his Spirit Sense over a greater area would also submit him to greater pressure, which limited the amount of information he could gather. Guan Zhenyan had even told him a trick to help him gather more information. If he reshaped his Spirit Sense into a wall rather than a spherical shape it would cover a larger surface area for the same volume which would allow him to better feel the energies it was emitting. Yet, Sage was from earth and he knew an even more efficient way to collect these energies. Instead of a flat wall, he reformed his Spirit Sense into a concave disc. Then he extended that disc backwards so he was standing in front of it.

Someone from Earth would recognize this shape as that of a satellite dish, or its more official term: parabolic reflector. The shape of the disc and his placement in front of it were optimized to collect, or project energy. All of the energy approaching from the front of the disc would be reflected towards the place that Sage was standing. Only it wasnt that simple as this premise only applied if the energies reflected off of his Spirit Sense. It took him a few hours of experimenting while researching the results on the Inner World to perfect the method. Using some Aura style techniques to alter his Spirit Sense along with infusing his own understanding of laws seemed to work, reflecting the energies towards where he was standing. The layer of Spirit Sense around his body was not altered in the same way as the disc, allowing him to sense all the energies rather than reflecting them. Combined with the Sea Locust eyes, Sage was able to see and feel far more than others should be able to.

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He didnt care about wasting a few hours to set this up as the events in front of him would take years to unfold. The Realm Heart was strange in that it was the core of a new universe being formed, but the scale of time as well as its physical size were drastically altered. There was no way he could stand next to the core of a new universe being formed, nor would he be willing to wait around for millions of years. Instead, this one was on the scale of thousands of years and this strange platform he was standing on allowed him to experience the roiling energies without being harmed.

Minutes turned into hours. Hours into days. Days into weeks. Weeks into months. Months into years.

Sage could feel a great revelation before him, separated from him by just a thin layer. Yet, that layer had been resisting him for years. So close, yet so far away. The reflector hed made with his own understanding of laws seemed to amplify similar energies from this budding universe. Rather than enlightening him to random laws like he was told would happen, he felt a much greater connection with Corruption and the law he called Thermodynamics. He could feel that if he were to focus on only one of them then he would be able to find rapid improvement, but there was also something greater there. There was a tenuous link between these two Primal laws, which he didnt think was possible, but it also made him curious.

Was there some sort of way to combine two laws together?

Many of the Primal Laws were the combination or interaction between two opposites. Hed heard of the example of the Law of Fire and Water, the combination of two opposing forces, releasing even greater power than either on its own. Two opposing Major Laws turned into a Primal Law when combined. Could he combine his two Primal Laws to make a Core Law? How could Corruption be the opposite of Thermodynamics? What did change in heat have to do with change in purity?

His understanding of the Law of Corruption was at the second degree, while his grasp over the Law of Thermodynamics was greater, the third degree. A Primal Law at the third degree was enough to push him to the peak of rank six, a level 70 on the verge of becoming a Saint. If his grasp of this law were to advance by a single degree he would finally breaththrough. That temptation was right in front of him, but he chose to resist it. Groping blindly at the fleeting feeling that there was something greater, but just beyond his grasp. For some reason he had a deep suspicion that if he were to give up on this feeling he would never be able to find it again. He would break through, but his curiosity would never be sated.

What sort of person was he? He put his life at risk not for the pursuit of power, but to sate his curiosity. With this opportunity right in front of him, there was no way he was going to take the safer route. He had no idea what this might lead him to, but he always sought to study the unknown.

A breakthrough finally came from an unexpected route, as they always did, when Sage added a new variable. He constantly studied the strange connection between the two laws of Corruption and Thermodynamics, but could never quite pin it down. Yet, Sage did not only have two Laws. There was another law he inherited from his merge with the Swamp Genesis Spider, the Minor Law of Filtration. It was also incorporated into the reflecting disc behind him and when he noticed a slightly different reaction he was reminded and focused his attention upon this drastically weaker law. That was when he realized that the connection between the Law of Corruption and Thermodynamics was actually to something else and not to each other. The Minor Law of Filtration added a third variable and worked to help him triangulate the source.

With that lead, the mystery was solved.

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