Chapter 235: Mandala Arts

Snakes went through one of the doors in the building and came back with four emerald jars floating around her. She floated the two empty jars towards Jade and he filled it with the required knowledge after which Snakes sent the two knowledge jars to him.

After absorbing the knowledge, Jade turned to Ocean and did the unexpected; he asked a question. He said "Since knowing about you causes you to know about who ever has such information and almost every merfolk knows about you, then doesn't that mean…"

Ocean smiled and said "I know something about every merfolk". Jade thought 'To think the perfect job for a ruler was a Knight job not a King job'. Ocean asked "What are you going to do when people eventually find out who you are?"

Ocean had gotten information on why Jade was trying to hide his name when Jade knew why he didn't hide his own name. Jade answered "I'm quite strong so killing me will not only be hard, but also stupid. But that won't stop some people though. I'll expose my identity when I feel I have contributed enough that the amount of people who want to kill me is equal to or less than the amount of people who believe I should live".

Ocean said "Thank you for talking with me". Jade said "It was a pleasure". Jade then went back to Core 1 with Eye to complete what he was doing. Jade entered the room where he had sealed Undying Hatred with Spacetime freeze. He thought 'There's a lot of work to be done'.

Jade reassessed the information on how Mandalas were naturally acquired. The process was fairly easy compared to getting a soul glyph. One just had to maintain a certain mental state or quality for a very long time and a Mandala would naturally form.

The time required for the process ranged in the hundreds of years. Maintaining a certain mental state or quality was not an easy task to most people but for people with indefinite or infinite life spans this would come naturally to them as they would eventually get bored or find a hobby. The longer they lived the less they would change.

Hence a Mandala would form, converting a part of the mind and making it a part of the soul. The Control Mandala that Jade got from the Soul Parasite could only be gotten by always having one's mind under control; no emotional outbursts, no drunkenness or other external mental influences, for about 300 years.

It was no mean feat and both Jade and the Soul Parasite didn't deserve such a powerful Mandala that had such a harsh requirement, but the duel event made it possible.

Jade assimilated the knowledge of Mandalas, the one's that didn't have anything to do with the soul, the Mandala arts. As Jade sunk into the knowledge his consciousness entered a class with only him as the student and Ocean as the teacher.

Ocean said "A normal Mandala is a map of the universe, an expression of something that has been understood… to an extent. Mandala arts come from the knowledge that our body is a universe and the more we understand it, the better we can use it.

But if that were all we would all just look at a drawing of our internal organs and gain Mandalas. The trick is in knowing that everyone's body is different in its own way. Even if you were born with exactly the same traits as someone else you would still have different Mandalas"

The scenery changed and Jade was before a mountain with Ocean beside him. Jade thought 'Was he the pioneer?' Ocean said "I will show you one of the things my Mandala can do".

He touched the ground with one finger and said "With a simple touch I can't do much to the ground but with a Mandala art I call Force Stream, I can do this". Ocean tightened his fin, his abs and the muscles of his other arm and the ground caved in from the point where it touched his finger.

The scenery changed and they were back in the classroom. Ocean said "Everyone's Mandala has formed and grown since birth. The experiences we go through form this Mandala. In a sense, the Mandala is the thread that connects the soul to the mind and the mind to the body. The stronger it is the harder you are to kill because you're entire being would held up together very well.

But one problem remains; what is the effect of our evolutions on our Mandalas? The answer is obviously that the Mandalas change or to be more accurate, they reset. Someone who swims most of his life would most likely make a Mandala that improves swimming or something associated at first.

Mandalas evolve with the user so the Mandala won't just help with swimming it might grant the user the ability to enhance other factors; maybe defense, sensing, energy, intelligence, etc.

When the person evolves the person would have to reconstruct a completely different Mandala based on the capabilities of the new body. Yes, Mandalas are constructed. This might be a pain but since the person already has experience constructing a Mandala the second or third time will be relatively simple.

The new abilities of the Mandala would certainly give better results". The outline of an 8 petal flower drawn out of yellow light appeared in the empty water and Ocean said "This is an example of a basic Mandala, you will get this after your first soul dispersion. The amount of petals indicates how complex the understanding you got first is hence how long before you get the next flower.

The more petals the more complex the ability you get. The next flower comes after understanding the first to a certain extent"

Various small images and floral designs filled the petals before a new 3 petal flower outlined with blue light formed at the center of the 8 petal flower. Ocean said "That is how the stages progress. You get inner flowers as you progress. Now that you understand the theory, it's time for practicality. True meditation is what allows you to disperse your soul. A person's soul disperses when they die but with meditation you just disperse your soul to an extent before compressing it back, like breathing.

You are to focus on yourself; what makes you, the things you've gone through, the things you plan to do. Do note that your senses will not be sharp and important parts of your soul can get attacked when it is dispersed.

The new abilities of your body and mind will affect what type of Mandala you get. If you have a soul glyph or a soul Mandala it will greatly enhance the power of the first Mandala you get."

The experience of dispersing one's soul was transferred to Jade's mind and he looked at the frozen tentacle armor and thought 'Don't attack me'. Jade focused on his soul, the thing that held the grey particles together and made them adhere to each other so much was experience, the more grey particles he had the more solid his soul would become.

Experience was a combination of both memory and the emotions and feelings attached to said memories. It was what differentiated a mind from a computer. The process of dispersing one's soul was to dampen the feelings in various memories. After forgetting those feelings the person then had to remember them again by going through those experiences. This made the feelings attached to the memories clearer and more flexible.

Jade breathed in water and breathed out water as he began his first attempt.