91 Book 4: Chapter 3 – Profound Mysteries
After splitting from the others, Ace followed Ariana into the Yin-Yang mountain, but instead of going up, Ariana used her Identity card to open up a secret passage underground.
"I had no idea this was down here," Ace said as he followed the Pavilion's guardian all the way into the depths of the mountain.
"The library you saw near the top of the mountain holds all the techniques and teachings needed for mortals, but this library holds teachings for and about the various immortal realms," Arianna explained calmly. "Originally, we all believed Julius would be the first one to be taken down here as he's only a few years from stepping into the profound realm of comprehension himself, but since you managed to step into that realm on your own, it's best you learn the truth about cultivation after becoming immortals to make your path a little bit easier."
When they reached the bottom, Ace looked around in surprise.
"What's wrong?" Arianna asked when she saw her husband's disciple's reaction.
"Nothing," Ace replied. "I just thought it'd be more… showy than this."
In the main library, there were hundreds of bookshelves, each holding dozens of books on everything from spells and warrior techniques to the various types of fauna and plants that can be found in the Yulan Continent.
Ace doubted whether the Ernst Institute or the War God's Academy had such information held in their library for their students to read, so when Arianna told him that this was the library detailing cultivation for immortals, he thought there'd be more than a singular bookshelf with only a couple dozen books and scrolls.
"Haha, I guess it is a bit plain, isn't it?" Arianna chuckled as she walked over to the bookshelf and picked up a simple scroll. "But cultivation after becoming an immortal is much simpler than you would likely believe. Plus, it's a lot more personal than cultivation as a mortal, so there's only so much you can teach others with books, but we're getting ahead of ourselves now.
Here, things will become more apparent after you read this."
As Ace began to read the contents of the scroll, his eyes widened in surprise before being overwhelmed by understanding.
The more he read, the more fascinated he became. Arianna watched as Ace entered a trance-like state of focus.
Though it wasn't enlightenment as his comprehension didn't actually progress, but to Ace, it was no less helpful as it gave him a clear path on how to progress.
The scroll simply explained that to become a saint, one must have started comprehending one of the seven laws of nature or one of the four edicts.
Each of the seven laws of nature are composed of six profound mysteries:
Profound Laws of Fire:
1. Essence of Fire
2. Profound Mystery of Heat
3. Profound Mystery of Explosions
4. Profound Mystery of Flamebody
5. Profound Mystery of Mirages
6. Profound Mystery of Spiritual Flames
Profound Laws of Water:
1. Essence of Water
2. Profound Mystery of Ice
3. Profound Mystery of Illusory Fog
4. Profound Mystery of Circular Softness
5. Profound Mystery of Waves
6. Profound Mystery of Waterbody
Profound Laws of Wind:
1. Essence of Wind
2. Profound Mystery of Velocity
3. Profound Mystery of Spatial Winds
4. Profound Mystery of Sound of the Wind
5. Profound Mystery of Doppelganger
6. Profound Mystery of Wind Walking
Profound Laws of Earth:
1. Essence of Earth
2. Profound Mystery of Strength
3. Profound Mystery of World Walking
4. Profound Mystery of Gravity
5. Profound Mystery of Vitality
6. Profound Mystery of the Throbbing Pulse
Profound Laws of Lightning:
1. Essence of Lightning
2. Profound Mystery of Movement
3. Profound Mystery of Thunder
4. Profound Mystery of Lightning-Body
5. Profound Mystery of Bioelectricity
6. Profound Mystery of Judgement
Profound Laws of Darkness:
1. Essence of Darkness
2. Profound Mystery of Devouring
3. Profound Mystery of Dark Clone
4. Profound Mystery of Shadows
5. Profound Mystery of Evil
6. Profound Mystery of Dark-Body
Profound Laws of Light:
1. Essence of Light
2. Profound Mystery of Lightspeed
3. Profound Mystery of Light Doppelganger
4. Profound Mystery of Refraction
5. Profound Mystery of Purity
6. Profound Mystery of Light-Body
Though he skimmed over all of the laws, he, of course, paid the closest attention to the Profound Laws of fire, and it was then that he thought back to the moments before he died in his last life.
'I'm such an idiot!' Ace thought to himself as a helpless sigh escaped his lips. 'I was so focused on making my flames bigger and more powerful that I forgot to focus on the aspect of fire that made it so dangerous in the first place – Heat!'
Ace suddenly raised his right hand in front of him and created a small flame no bigger than his palm, but what caught Arianna's eyes was the fact that he was imbuing it with the power of a profound mystery she hadn't seen him use previously.
His ability to turn his body intangible originated from the profound mystery of 'Flamebody', and his ability to create a large fist-shaped flame came from the profound mystery of the essence of fire, but this time she could feel the heat in the surrounding area start to rise from the small flame hovering above his palm.
'This boy really is the most talented child I've ever seen!' She thought to herself while silently watching Ace meditate on the profundities of 'heat'.
An hour later, Ace finally opened his eyes, and a wry smile appeared on his face. 'If I had made this realisation earlier, I would've been able to awaken my devil fruit, and that idiot, Akainu, never would've been able to burn me.
And to think I actually believed him when he said that lava was hotter than fire when the truth was that it was simply the lava from his awakened devil fruit that was hotter than my non-awakened one.'
Ace seemed to forget that Arianna was still with him as he focused his attention back on the scroll to finish reading its contents.
It was there that he learnt that cultivation wasn't as simple as just comprehending each of the six profound mysteries of your chosen law. The end goal was actually to fuse all six into a singular law.
'Interesting…' Ace thought to himself as he began to think about what that would look like.
"Finished?" Arianna asked softly when she saw the teen in front of her lower the scroll onto the ground.
"I am," Ace nodded as he returned the scroll to his master's wife. "Thank you, that helped me a lot.
But I did have a couple of questions. Why is it that each of the seven laws of nature has five individual profound mysteries but all share one? What does the essence of an element refer to?"
"I guess it is a bit vague, but I'm surprised you have to ask as you've already begun comprehending that specific mystery," Arianna replied whilst placing the scroll back on the shelf.
"So the essence of an element really does just refer to one's ability to control its shape and size?" Ace asked.
"Pretty much," The blonde-haired saint answered. "The essence of a chosen element is by far the most simple of the profound mysteries; as such, it tends to be the one most choose to start on as it's the fastest way to become a deity, but therein lies the first and biggest mistake most make."
"Mistake?" Ace asked, not following his martial aunt's logic.
"The first thing you need to understand is that although the increase in power after becoming a deity is like nothing you can imagine, the same is true for the increase in difficulty when comprehending the laws," Arianna explained seriously. "You see, there are many factors in play when comprehending the profound laws, but there are two that stand above the others:
The first is the soul – the more powerful one's soul, the better their perception.
The second is that every time you make a breakthrough into a higher realm, it becomes significantly more challenging to comprehend each law."
"That doesn't make sense," Ace replied. "The old man said that every time you breakthrough into a higher realm, your soul becomes that much stronger. Surely that increase in spiritual essence would become more pronounced after becoming a saint and as a deity, in which case, wouldn't your perception rise drastically as well?"
"I don't understand it much myself as I'm still just a mere saint, but the way my grandfather explained it when I was just starting to comprehend the laws was that essentially there were two factors in play. First was the internal factor, I.e. your soul, and second was the external factor – heaven.
According to my grandfather, the universe was created in such a way that mortals have a much stronger connection to heaven than immortals. Still, because of their weak spiritual essence, they're unable to truly comprehend the profundities of the various laws.
Still, as you grow stronger, though your soul is also getting more and more powerful, your connection with nature is waning at a higher rate. That's why rushing to a higher level is rarely the best way to progress.
It's also why I made sure each of my disciples put a larger emphasis on their comprehension than blindly racing through the ranks.
And it's especially true for those like your mother and especially you. As a warrior of the fifth rank and mage of the third, your soul is already equal to a newly promoted saint. So the more you can comprehend as a mortal, the easier it'll make your time as a saint; likewise, the more you comprehend as a saint, the less you'll struggle as a deity.
Do you understand?" Arianna asked, her tone unnaturally serious.
Though he wasn't her disciple, he was still part of her martial lineage; she couldn't bear to see him waste his talent.
"I understand," Ace replied seriously.
Ace had dreams of standing at the very apex of this world, and he understood that the best and fastest way to do that would be to create the most solid of foundations as early as possible.
"Out of curiosity, how many laws have you comprehended so far?" Ace asked with a hint of anticipation.
After reading that scroll, he was finally able to understand why it was Arianna; despite only being at the mid-stages of the saint realm as both a warrior and a mage seemed far more powerful than any of the other peak saints he'd ever seen, including Shelia – The Dark Empress.
"I've comprehended three so far, but I'm not going to make my breakthrough until I've completely fused all three of them," Arianna replied lightly, not seeming to take any pride in it.
Ace, though, looked at her with wide eyes. He couldn't be sure as he had no idea how powerful deities were, but he believed that despite her only being a mid-staged saint was no weaker than the average deity.
"C'mon, we should head back out," Arianna voiced. "The rest of your classmates have returned."
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Book 5 - Chapter 16
