Entering Seclusion

After he was taken away from the arena and returned to the 4th pagoda, Yaan immediately forgot about his unconventional victory just now.

Yaan planned to seclude himself within the temporal chamber for a good period of time. He would still be engaging in matches from time to time since he still had multiple outstanding challenges, but these challenges would be spaced a few days apart, due to the accelerated time within the chamber.

Yaan knew that his current state was unusual, and even now, he found himself thinking back to those illusions, and to his own life experiences. He most likely needed to spend some time meditating until this state remedied itself. He was fortunate in his last match, but this sort of mental state was not conducive to surviving life and death battles.

Yaan had some errands to run outside of the tower, but this would take him at least a few hours. Since he had already rented out this chamber for another three days of outside time, he didn't want to waste his money by leaving.

And so, he decided to have Zue Yin run his errands after forcefully suppressing his strange mood to quickly deal with her.

At first she refused, not even accepting a generous offering of Astral Crystals as payment. Not wanting to waste anymore time outside of the temporal chamber, Yaan sighed and took out something that he knew she would be interested in.

"This, this is…a phoenix bracelet!" She cried out, dropping her proud demeanour and almost drooling over the treasure that Yaan held out in his palm.

"There's a single strand of hair from a phoenix feather within the centre of the bracelet. As for the external material, it needs to be strong enough to protect the core, so it's inferno gold…"

Yaan was somewhat reluctant to give her this expensive thing, but he really didn't want to waste anymore time.

He would be training alone for some time, so he needed to purchase more suitable cultivation resources for himself, whilst he also needed to sell many of the things that he had gained from his recently defeated opponents. The best solution was to pay Zue Yin to handle this for him.

"Wait…pure inferno gold?" Zue Yin turned to him as her gaze flashed with a greedy light.

"Mm. Do everything on this list, buy the resources that I need with your own funds, then you can keep it."

"That's…" Zue Yin hesitated as she stared at the bracelet and the list in Yaan's outstretched hand. When she saw everything that she wanted, her eye twitched slightly. Some of these things were absurdly expensive, if she had to pay for everything herself, it wasn't really worth it.

Seeing her hesitation, Yaan added:

"I'll pay you back for the top few highlighted materials, since they're so expensive."

After mulling it over for a moment, she gave him a nod, took the list, then quickly departed.

Since this bracelet was quite valuable, Yaan wouldn't give it away easily. In the end, they came to an agreement that suited both of them.

Finally, Yaan was able to return to the temporal acceleration chamber to continue training.

Whilst he did intend to remedy his unusual state of mind before his next battle, right now, he actually had no desire to leave this state. In fact, he wanted to continue delving deeper into the blood essence illusions…

Yaan slowly sat down, once again opening the dark green case. He had already consumed all 50 of the pills in the case's lower drawer, and two of the 12 pills from the second drawer. There were five drawers in all, with seven pills in the third drawer, three pills in the fourth drawer, and a single pill in the fifth drawer.

Even without opening that top draw, Yaan could already feel the powerful aura of a high ranking, well refined pill…for now, he ignored this temptation and focussed on the tamer medicines.

For a seemingly simple case of pills, this was practically a treasure trove in Yaan's eyes.

He didn't immediately consume the next medicine, but first read through a small manual within his spatial ring. The manual described blood essence as a resource in general, but it also touched on Blood Essence Pills, and other refined resources relating to blood essence.

He finished the book in a couple of hours, leaving Yaan feeling even more excited to continue on. He now knew that his previous conjectures were spot on - by consuming the untainted, undamaged blood essence of a living being, it was possible to catch a brief glimpse of their memories. Generally speaking, this glimpse would be the final and most intense moment of their life, resulting in a few second long illusion that could only be seen by a wild stroke of good fortune.

Yaan again realised that he was very unusual in this regard.

Why was he able to see these illusions each and every time? Was it due to his illusion dao comprehension? Or was it due to something else entirely?

With no way of knowing the answers to these questions right now, Yaan swallowed the next pill. Learning from last time, he decided to consume all of the Rank 3 versions before daring to touch those Rank 4 pills.

Even though he felt certain that he could at least survive the Rank 4 medicines by now, they would be too intense. He wanted to become accustomed to the illusory experience so that he could reap greater benefits from the Rank 4 pills.

Yaan consumed the third pill from the second drawer, and once again, he found himself engrossed in a human illusion.

The man was the great warrior of his mortal tribe, revered for having superhuman powers.

His life was grand and royal. He ruled for tens of years, a truly prestigious reign, a king well loved by his people. Cultivation was a complete unknown in the man's tribe, but in his youth, he stumbled upon an old inheritance, allowing him to become a 1st Layer Qi Gathering Realm cultivator!

As he got on in age, the battlefield was no longer an appropriate place for the king. He often lamented the ongoing deterioration of his health and his strength, reminiscing about the past whenever he saw the new generals of the kingdom.

The king was happy with his life however, because he had multiple sons and daughters. His people had food, and due to his tribe's strength, the people were more or less safe…with satisfaction in his heart, he intended to enjoy his retirement, drinking fine wine whilst playing with his young grandchildren.

Yaan felt as if this illusion lasted for close to a life-time…he almost forgot about himself, becoming engrossed in the old king's life. He felt regret when the old man regretted and he felt happiness when the old man's grandchildren grew up strong and healthy. In fact, watching his descendants go from new-borns to competent adults gave him an even greater joy than the victories he had achieved on the battlefield during his younger years.

Yet at the back of his mind, Yaan knew that this story could not possibly have a happy ending. This man's blood essence had been taken and refined into a pill, his fate could not be anything pleasant…

One day, as the old king was standing in his garden and watching the sunset with a faint smile on his lips as he reminisced over his long life…

He was betrayed.

Stabbed in the back by the son he loved the most. Killed by the child he had nurtured with the utmost care, and loved more than life itself.

"All reigns are supposed to come to an end, father, that is the nature of empires and war. A mortal king should not continue sitting on his thrown past 140 years of age…he should leave at least some time behind for his descendants!"

The king staggered backwards, but he did not bother to pull out the dagger from his back. He knew that if he removed the blade, he might be able to live, however, he could only stare on with shock, confusion and grief in his eyes.

Right now, it wasn't only his favourite son, but each of his children, his brothers and his four wives, stared at him with resolute gazes.

The old man showed a bitter expression, and due to failing to remove the blade, the poison finally kicked in. He was unable to even let out a single sound. As a single tear dripped down from his aged face, he finally fell back, dead.

The blade happened to pierce into his heart, drawing out his one drop of blood essence, which mysteriously fused into the blade which felled him. As for how the blood essence ended up being refined into a pill and reaching this inheritance, Yaan had no way of knowing for sure.

Yaan kept his eyes shut for a long period of time. He didn't want to open his eyes, he didn't want to see the true world that he belonged to. He felt like the illusion had been his life, and this reality was just a cruel trick.

"No…" Yaan's eyes slowly opened. His previous daze was nowhere to be seen, and now, his eyes were filled with a chilling glint. "Even such a joyous life still ended with betrayal, sorrow, and regret. Whether it is an illusion or reality, the core principals of the cruel nature of this world stand true…perhaps, even mortals cannot escape from the pain of pursuing something greater…"

Yaan muttered to himself before falling silent for a few minutes.

Unknowingly, his altered mental and emotional state had returned to normal. It was unexpected that he would break out of this trance without even meaning to after experiencing a single illusion, but reflecting upon the life of that old king caused Yaan's lonely feeling to be replaced by a cold ruthlessness. This cold feeling enveloped his heart, giving him the overwhelming urge to continue training, because…he wanted to become stronger.

After seeing through the cruelty of life, the only thought on his mind was to grow stronger.

After snapping out of his daze, Yaan became aware of the Vital Energy building up within his body. He instinctively went to suppress it back down into his body, but to his surprise, six Astral Tattoos suddenly appeared on his body!

When he saw these tattoos appear, he immediately became more interested in this compared to the Blood Essence Pills.

After he defeated the 18 astral spirits and managed to retain control over his own body and mind, the astral spirits disappeared without a trace. Honestly, Yaan even wondered if they had somehow escaped whilst he was preoccupied!

He stared down at his arms and saw the deep black tattoos, which emanated a black force known as 'Astral Power'. Yaan could now feel the presence of these tattoos, and when he focussed on this presence, he immediately became aware of the other 12 tattoos!

With a single thought, all 18 Astral Tattoos materialised on the surface of his body. Some had been hidden on his skin the entire time, but they were now made visible after he urged them to surface. Others were clearly rising up from deep within his body, escaping from his organs and bones, until they formed similar tattoos across his entire body!

Before doing anything else, Yaan pulled out a mirror and examined himself all over. His body was now partially covered in black tribal style tattoos, making him look quite strange due to his childish face and body.

With a few minutes of experimentation, he mastered the control over these tattoos. It took very little effort to reach this point, and he was now able to materialise and conceal the tattoos at will!

"Astral spirits…Astral Power…a very sketchy 'path', if it can even be called that. It is a type of power that can be lost much more easily compared to other forms of cultivation…but for now, power is power, and these spirits are the best way to rapidly accumulate strength!"

Yaan shut his eyes and urged the Astral Tattoos to pour their Astral Power inwards, filling his body with darkness. He kept a plain expression whilst curiously observing how this dark power could be used to manipulate, seal and withhold his Vital Energy.

After a few moments, his eyes burst open and his jaw dropped. Even though he had only been testing this idea for a few moments, he was already left feeling shocked due to the simplicity and effectiveness of this method!

Vital Energy was not easy to manipulate, especially below the 4-Star Realm. Usually, when Yaan controlled his Vital Energy, he needed to focus, placing his utmost attention on urging it to move in minute ways. A brief halting or a slight reversal of the flow, or a single surge of his Vital Energy towards its target, was about all that he could muster.

It was said that after forming the Vital Core, it became hundreds of times easier to manipulate one's Vital Energy, to the extent that the body could be covered with Vital Energy, allowing the body temperer to soar through the skies!

For now though, Yaan was nowhere near such a level. But this Astral Power…

Even though he had only just started to control his Astral Power, he already possessed fine control to a high degree of precision. More incredibly, this Astral Power could gather and surge out like a tsunami, suppressing any and all energies within the body!

Of course, Yaan had no need to seal his own Vital Energy, that would be pointless. What excited him, was the fact that this Astral Power could actually be used to control the usage of medicinal pills to an extent that Yaan had never previously imagined possible!

He would be able to consume any pill, then control the rate of its effect, or even seal the effect entirely! He could direct the medicinal energy in whatever direction he pleased, via whatever route he so desired, towards any destination of his choice!

One of the biggest annoyances that he had always encountered in body tempering, was that many the usage of many body tempering pills was extremely inefficient.

Often, a large amount of the medicinal energy released by a body tempering pill would be refined into Vital Energy, but this was not the desired outcome. Doing this was the same as wasting the intended effect of the pill, and just turning it into simple energy.

As Yaan stared at his palms, which were flashing repeatedly with black light, he looked around and licked his lips. He no longer had the heart to sit around and read, nor to ponder illusions or dao…

He wanted to see just how useful Astral Power could be for his body tempering cultivation!