Desolate Mage: A Legend Reborn! 187 Level of the World 5

They invested nearly an hour going through the rituals all the way from Initiate to the Hill-level, though Gatyon's Hill-level ritual was not yet complete.

Gatyon then patted him on the shoulder fondly, before sending him off to look for Saint Ren at Physician Yu's place near the east side of the homestead for his next lesson – to learn the path of Divinity.

As he walked to Physician Yu's place, Lars summarised what he had already learned as he flipped through the Earth Pulse manual.

'An Initiate nourishes their body to increase their nature affinity while practising the Praise the Land ritual. The ritual is a substitute for drawing an Earth Pulse gathering formation, even a partially completed formation allows a cultivator to absorb nature energy.'

'It seems that completing the Praise the Land ritual is actually laying a formation within one's body that allows Earth Pulse to be channelled – these are the ley lines Gatyon mentioned…'

Lars studied his body structure.

'So far, the Initiate level's strength seems to correspond to the Normal level back home, and the Practitioner level to an Adept. I can feel the nourishing power flowing through my muscles…'

'Each of the levels – Sand, Soil, Stone, Hill, Mountain and Land more or less match up with Yiluo planets levels of Elite, Master, Grandmaster, World-class, Legendary and Mythical. It's just surprising that a cultivation method up to the Mythical-level can be so widespread and easily found. The only barrier of cultivating would be affinity, mental acuity and a physique that can handle the nourishment of nature-energy.'

Lars then recapped the process of progressing to the next levels as Gatyon had explained.

'After that, a cultivator practices differing ritual dances to thicken the lines of the formation, laying more and more layers one over another. These rituals correspond to thicken the lines on 12 Earth Pulse nodes across the body called Life Foci – 2 on each arm and leg, with 4 others placed at the forehead, base of the neck, solar plexus and centre of abdomen…'

'At the Sand level – Lines in the Sand. Then Soil by the Wayside for the Soil level, Flesh of Stone for a stone-realm fighter, Peak ritual for a Mountain cultivator and finally Return to Innocence for a Land-realm powerhouse… All names that correspond to the levels, except the hill level, where the ritual is called the Sound of Music… Which is curious but… Oh well…'

'Pulse-line Arts are broken into four standard categories – Fist, Air, Earth and Water.'

'Fist represents close-combat arts reinforcing the warrior's attacks, while Air is the opposite –using ranged skills by emitting Earth Pulse from the body. Earth is defensive and also allows a user to mould the ground, and finally, Water relates to healing, control and various other miscellaneous arts such as poison…'

'The point that leaves me curious is Beast-Spirit. It seems all I need to do is to circulate Earth Pulse through the formation in my body to simulate a practitioner executing Praise the Land… Then let my soul reach out to the Heart of the Land…'

Lars rubbed his chin and thought about it for awhile, paces continuing as he considered connecting his soul with this Heart of the Land to obtain a Beast-Spirit. He had a bad feeling about it which he couldn't quite place his finger on. As such, he decided to put it off.

'Forget it. For now, let's see how far I can upgrade myself today. Only, this time I'll study and modify the formations a little to make sure there are no big fluctuations of Earth Pulse.'

Looking around to ensure there was no-one nearby and no-one watching, Lars found a quiet lane between two homes and found a spot to sit down cross-legged.

'From the Practitioner stage to the Soil-stage – the ritual of Lines in the Sand…' He simulated the formation lines multiple times in his mind and extrapolated how changing certain portions would affect the outcome. The more he studied the formations, the more impressed he was.

'I take back my words earlier. Yes, there's little complexity and the formations are straightforward, but in terms of effectiveness and efficiency… I can't even find a single thing to improve, at least not at my current level…'

'Now, since I can directly weave each level's formations, unless there's a problem, I should be able to break through whole levels. What about a way to contain the Earth Pulse fluctuations…?'

This time, Lars experimented mentally with dozens of formations, the number quickly turning to hundreds and then thousands of simulations – all within minutes. For each formation that looked promising, he would test it out and observe the effectiveness of hiding the fluctuations while circulating Earth Pulse at the Practitioner-level.

'Hmm… What about if I try this… That works… No, this wasn't the result I expected, never mind. How about if I tweak it like this…?

After countless experiments and tests, his theories converged into a single formation with two variants. Finally, his simulations and small tests could only do so much – anything further required him to confirm the effectiveness with an actual breakthrough – to the Sand-level.

Lars quickly checked his surroundings once again and made a note of how much time he'd taken – 3 minutes and 44 seconds – before he sat down again and prepared for his advancement.

'Alright… Here I go – to the Sand level…'

He breathed in deeply and focused his soul on the ritual – Lines in the Sand.

The lines of the formation were ephemeral, furtive at times, deep and intense at others. Just like it's name, the Lines in the Sand formation bore the idea of one drawing in the sand at the seaside or on the sandy ground beneath one's feet. Whatever one drew would not last – whether wind, rain, footsteps or on purpose, the lines would soon be swept away in no time.

As he meditated on the formation and the ritual's explanation, he began to enter an odd state. He felt as if he were walking on the shores of his home country, Malaysia, once again. He could feel the sand under his toes, smell the salty breeze, see the golden, powdery soft sands of the beaches.

He began to enter a state of enlightenment, a cooling sensation flowing through his person as he realised something profound within just the simple lines in the manual, the lines in his mind.

The lines in his heart.

Heart pumping furiously, Lars felt as if he were breaking through a fog and entering a land of wonder…

* * * * *

At the same moment, dozens of kilometres above Lars' head, unseen to anyone around, the clouds began to part. It was a small parting, such that only a person standing exactly where Lars was could look up and see a tunnel that ran through the sky, through the clouds, through the stratosphere and into space outside of the planet. But if one looked closely, one could see that this was not actually a tunnel or parting.

An unseen force was flowing from unseen places in the planetary system, flowing in unseen, undetectable, flowing in through the atmospheric layers and flowing down to Lars.

And despite being invisible, unseen, undetectable, there was a sense of… Rightness. Of favour and glory within that stream of energy as it flowed down from unknown places.

But this was not the amazing thing.

What was amazing was that this happened right under the noses of the might Divine realm tyrants of the planetary system, even eluding the higher still entities in the World Star realm and above.

And it was flowing down to Lars, continuing to flow until the moment when Lars achieved his breakthrough.

And the hole quietly closed.

* * * * *

Lars continued to sit there in a state of epiphany. Unknown to him, his body, soul and spirit were crazily absorbing the esoteric flow of power, sucking it up greedily.

And while this happened, he reached the breakthrough of his mental state.

'However many times we draw in the sand, the lines would be swept away… Just like how, in our lives, whatever we do will eventually be turned to ash in the flows of time… However…'

 'However, even if the lines in the sand do not last even a day… The lines drawn in our heart will last forever!'

A thunderous boom echoed in Lars mind as his eyes snapped open and he found himself no longer seated on the floor, but standing upright, face lifted up to the skies, looking at… Something? At nothing?

He felt, sensed, *KNEW* that something had changed in the atmosphere.

No, not just in the atmosphere… Inside somewhere, something had changed…

'But… What is it…?' He tried to remember the visions he had seen, but to his shock, he couldn't get a clear image. He looked around, then looked up, but being unable to find anything, he felt a sense of premonition.

'How can this be? Impossible!' His eyes were wide open with a grim expression. He looked around, a terrifying sense on his heart as his eyes returned to the manual in his hands, a manual that was lying in his grasp innocently and unmoving, unchanged.

'This world… This manual… Even such a low-level, one equivalent only to the Expert-level, even such a level can trigger a mental phenomenon and state that my Mythical soul cannot comprehend fully?!? What are the mysteries behind this cultivation technique?!'

But in just a moment, Lars once more felt a soothing calm in his heart, emanating through-out his person and calming his mind. He felt that the breakthrough had something to do with not his cultivation, but his mental state – his state of heart.

'I can't even remember what the revelation was, and yet… There's a sense of ease within me, as if though that, it's ok to not know, it's ok to not understand everything… And…'

He checked his mental capabilities, and to his shock, found that his soul had grown more than ten times stronger, causing his level of Insight to increase several fold as well. The growth was so much that he even wondered if he could lift a mountain with his soul's strength alone!

'With this increase in my soul's strength and Insight, it seems that everything is moving in slow motion. If before, I had the advantage of observing the world almost 5 times faster than others, now, I could even finish reading a book in the time it takes someone to cough… It'll let me fight as if though I had prescience, and I should be almost immune to most ambushes and surprises… But what other uses could Insight have?'

Lars frowned and came to the question he had dreaded and avoided.

'Others have powerful Soul abilities, like Duke Leanne with her Power of Distortion – the ability to alter the laws of cause and effect, such as an empty cup becoming full of water after one drinks from it, or an arrow striking an enemy's weak spot even before it is loosed…'

'What about Insight…? Again, apart from letting me grasp almost every skill, technique and ability, without a powerful ability, I'll be too weak against Mythical opponents…!'

Lars was troubled, and continued to ponder what other benefits or implications this would have on himself, when suddenly an idea struck him and his mouth fell open. His hands trembled and his eyes shook, nearly losing himself in excitement.

'Wait! What if I tried that…? Perhaps for others it might be impossible, but I'd be a fool to not make use of my core advantage…!'

Chapter end