Chapter 57
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Dantian and Mana Circles
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Dantian and mana circles.
To Ruyan, both were merely intangible vessels.
Though the powers they manifested differed, their origins were one and the same.
Whoooong.
The mana contained within the mana circle seeped into the dantian, swiftly filling the empty vessel.
At the same time, his protective aura glowed white-hot as it began to push back against the crushing gravity.
"I swore to Blanc. That I would never kneel twice."
Thick veins bulged prominently on Ruyan's forehead.
His cheeks trembled violently, as if seized by spasms.
Yet even in the midst of it all, Ruyan's hand defied gravity, inching upward bit by bit.
Crack, crack.
Sinister sounds of bones twisting in his shoulders and arms reverberated, but Ruyan did not stop.
The bow stood straight.
Soon, a quivering arrow was nocked onto the string.
Crunch.
And at last, the bow bent.
Defying the rampaging great mage's colossal mana, he wrenched it back with all his strength.
Twang.
It was the faintest whisper of sound.
Against the titanic force bearing down on the world, it seemed far too frail—even pitifully laughable.
"Hmph! As if a mere arrow could do anything!"
Juler scoffed.
The gravity across the entire area was already firmly in her grasp.
An arrow like that wouldn't even take flight; it was obvious it would simply plummet.
But would it really?
Screeeeech.
Divine Bow's Arrow!
Once loosed, it does not halt. Nor does it veer off course.
The flow of qi trailing from the arrow had already locked onto its target with unerring precision.
Splat.
The instant the arrow flashed, Juler's head exploded in a spray of fragments.
Not merely pierced—the arrow spun as it tore her entire head clean off.
As Juler staggered and collapsed, the spell shattered.
Whoooosh.
The world-crushing gravity ebbed away, and the rampaging mana scattered harmlessly in all directions.
The end of the catastrophe!
The final curtain for a mage who birthed abominations that should never exist.
That much was certain.
But soon, an eerie voice rode the wind and assailed Ruyan.
-How dare you! How dare you harm my body!
Headless, Juler surged to her feet in fury.
Her movements, popping like a jointed doll's, were nightmarishly grotesque.
-This body was destined for greatness! Not to be defiled by vermin like you!
A shrill voice echoed as pitch-black mana stirred back to life.
Fwoosh.
From Juler's hollow neck stump, black mana erupted like bile, writhing and coalescing into a crude head.
Evil spirit!
Juler was no mere chimera.
She had long surpassed that.
As the blazing black tresses rose, her body soon underwent a horrific transformation.
Pop, pop, pop.
Black thread-lines emerged across her skin, weaving over her like spiderwebs.
Magic circle.
As dark mana surged through it in thick pulses, the array bulged like throbbing veins.
'Not... human after all.'
Juler hadn't remade her own body into a chimera.
Her flesh had always been one.
She herself was a stitched abomination of assorted meat chunks.
The startled Ruyan lifted his bow anew when Juler cooed sweetly.
-My child... obey your master.
Theo, barely clawing back his sanity, shuddered violently once more and dissolved into shadow.
"Grrr..."
This time, even the gleam in his eyes vanished, both sockets igniting with pitch-black fire.
Witnessing it, Ruyan knew instinctively.
'If I release Theo now... there's no coming back.'
Should that baleful mana seize his mind completely, it was over. He'd be forged into a monster beyond redemption.
'Theo first—for now!'
No time to tangle with Juler.
Even a moment's delay would seal it all.
"Theo!"
Ruyan cried his name urgently, lunging to embrace him fiercely.
"Fight it off. You have to break free from that curse yourself."
Was he even hearing?
Theo roiled harder, spewing waves of murderous intent.
"Unchecked power brings only torment."
Ruyan bellowed, but to no avail.
Vast heat erupted from the shadow.
Fwoosh.
Black flames latched onto Ruyan and roared fiercely.
Sizzle! Pop!
Blue internal energy and black inferno devoured each other, showering sparks.
'I already took you under my wing.'
Even as the blaze charred his skin red-raw, Ruyan refused to release Theo.
He clutched tighter still.
"Begone! That's not your power. Realize you've never truly owned it!"
Final flames bloomed across Ruyan's body.
He consigned every shred of internal energy to the blaze, shrouding Theo completely.
"Urk..."
Swallowed by blue fire, Theo thrashed in pitiful agony.
Yet in the end, he wrenched free of Ruyan's arms.
Ssshh.
Theo's right hand sharpened into a needlepoint talon, poised perilously.
The black spike rent the air.
Swoosh.
Ruyan had burned through his last reserves, but he kept his eyes locked on Theo to the very end.
A gut-wrenching shriek soon tore the air.
-Kyaaaak! How... how dare you...
Theo's right hand plunged dead-center into Juler's gut.
Craaaack.
The magic circle comprising her body splintered apart, unleashing torrents of mana.
Could Juler ever have foreseen it? Her own creation turning the knife on her.
-No! Impossible!
Juler wailed in hysteria, but her form frayed away—slow at first, then accelerating.
-Arrogant scum! Wait for me. I'll rip out your hearts and guzzle the blood!
Even in dissolution, Juler spat venomous curses.
Whish.
Freed mana rejoined the natural flow, a soft breeze caressing the mercenary band.
A pathetic demise. Or perhaps fitting for base vermin.
Ruyan watched Theo's back in silence before glancing sidelong at Cloryang.
"Cloryang."
"Y-yeah?"
"Look after Theo."
No sooner were the words out than Theo began reverting to his true form.
And with a soft ssshh, he crumpled.
A child's frame, fragile beyond words.
Yet Theo was profoundly changed from before.
He was now a full-fledged warrior, self-liberated from his shackles.
Having carried Theo back to the inn, Ruyan gently stroked his hair.
'You overcame it well.'
Now Theo could choose his own path and walk it himself.
The greatest triumph imaginable.
After tending to him at length, Ruyan suddenly felt his vision whirl and bit his lip.
'Still a long way to go.'
Classic signs of internal energy depletion.
Excuses? Endless, of course.
The foe wasn't human, and he had far too many to protect.
But Ruyan indulged no such frailty.
Saving everyone didn't mean he'd performed flawlessly.
'Must hone myself further.'
Even getting snagged by petty vermin, wasting time—that alone warranted reflection.
'Recovery first.'
Cross-legged beside Theo, Ruyan first scanned his inner state.
A profound hollowness radiated from his utterly drained dantian—more acute than usual.
Why?
'A light Lesser Heavenly Circuit for now.'
About to circulate fresh energy, Ruyan recoiled in shock and reined it in.
'What's this?'
The dantian's capacity had grown.
Not from meditation.
'Roughly twenty years' worth.'
Filling it full would grant that much extra internal energy.
Far too much for happenstance—an unanticipated leap.
And the dantian wasn't the only beneficiary.
Mana circle capacity had swelled too.
Mana alone equated to about a decade's growth.
Completing the circuit, fresh mana brimmed over the third circle's barrier.
A new threshold! Fourth circle beckoned.
'Ha! And I thought fourth circle was distant.'
What on earth had transpired?
Ruyan sat motionless, retracing events.
'Could it be... then?'
-Realize you've never truly owned it!
The heartfelt plea to rouse Theo resurfaced.
Perhaps it was a message to himself all along.
A life he'd never truly known.
Now, Ruyan glimpsed facets he'd never possessed.
'So this was my shortfall.'
Finishing circulation and rising, hazy moonlight filtered through the window.
'Night's nearly spent.'
Dawn would bring departure from Tvente Village.
As planned.
Thus, one final task before moonset.
'Milord, I'm on my way.'
Ruyan vaulted out the window, vanishing into shadow—moonlight be damned.
Viscount Piron simply could not sleep.
Even his favored wine soured on his tongue tonight, refusing to go down.
Crash!
He flung the glass aside savagely, snorting in fury.
"Damn that bitch! She's utterly ruined this city!"
Allied with Juler from the outset? Biggest mistake ever.
'If not for that plague source, I'd never have touched the likes of her!'
Plague source!
A vile artifact summoning pestilence.
And it had surfaced beneath Tvente Castle.
Ignore it, and plague would ravage unchecked—reeking pyres everywhere.
But Viscount Piron fretted not for peasants.
'Irreversible now. No one can know!'
Whispers to the capital? His doom.
Plague-control pretext to seize the fief, oust him seamlessly.
Prominent northern noble or not—no exceptions.
Fief lost, he'd dwindle to a hollow noble, peasant-equivalent.
-Shall I conceal it for you? No one will ever know.
Viscount Piron couldn't resist Juler's siren call.
Price? Plague-afflicted villagers as lab rats.
He turned blind eye to chimera labs dotting his domain.
Even surrendered his knights.
No alternatives.
Doomed anyway upon losing power.
"But why! After all I sacrificed—why keep botching everything!"
Viscount Piron could only stew in impotent rage.
Then a reply drifted from behind—wholly unforeseen.
"Indeed. Makes one curious just what, and how much, you 'did.'"
"Eek! Wh-who's there?!"
He jolted in terror, toppling backward to whirl around.
Ssshh.
Like a curtain parting, darkness yielded to reveal a man.
The reaper come to collect his consigned death.
Divine Bow had arrived.
"You're from the Alize Mercenary Corps..."
Viscount Piron clocked Ruyan's face at once.
How could he not? Alize scum he'd cheerfully pulverize and drink.
"Wrong."
He'd spotted Ruyan, true enough.
But his response fell short of what Ruyan sought.
-Answer not the Divine Bow's query with queries of thine own.
In the Central Plains, it'd drilled into his ears raw.
Viscount Piron, alas, remained blissfully ignorant.