All We Can Do Is Wait

Cifer had never felt so exhausted in such a short time, but he'd managed the run in just a few seconds over 5 minutes. By the time he arrived, he could seem Momo falling to her knees, mace torn from her hand after swinging at the closed doors. What shocked Cifer was that the doors remained closed and undamaged. That meant someone had locked up the lecture hall.

What made this truly strange was the feel of the Essence that had been used for that purpose. Nobody in the Aoi Kani Clan used the Essence of Evil as their primary cultivation. Certainly nobody that strong! Cifer wasn't sure exactly how strong the person who locked up the lecture hall was, but he would have to be far stronger than Akemi at the least. After all, Momo had struck hard enough to make her hands bleed and the mace fly from her hands at the impact, but the blackened wall of Essence didn't even ripple in the slightest. This was a difference in strength of several Tiers, not simply Stages.

It was well know that an advantage of a Stage didn't really matter in front of a capable enough expert. Which didn't mean it wasn't an advantage, just that it wasn't so overwhelming that only the greatest of geniuses could fight above their level by a Stage. It would take two Stages for the gap to be significant in that way, and three to be overwhelming to the point that losing would be absurd.

A Tier was a different story. Even if one were at the very top of Low Tier while fighting someone at the very bottom of Mid Tier, the expert who had already reached Mid Tier enjoyed a huge advantage. Similar to having two or even three Stages if it were within the same Tier. And that was considered a smaller gap in Tiers, with larger ones being simply impossible to bridge. As for a difference of an entire Tier? From Beginner Stage to Beginner Stage? To make such a thing even a fight the lower Tier needed to have an Origination Weapon while the higher used his bare fists!

Even then, to safeguard an entire area as large as the lecture hall with his Essence and still not even notice Momo's best attacks was crazy. Something was going on in there, and it was something that the owner of the Evil Essence was prepared to go to great trouble to keep secret. But Momo obviously knew something. Why else would she rush over here and try, however uselessly, to break open the door.

"What's going on in there?" Cifer asked after he had his breath back.

"The most important lecture of the entire graduating class. A lecture that is conducted by a member of a Sect that has so much power that even at our highest point we were nothing compared to them." Momo explains. "And that Akemi actually went through with making sure that you wouldn't be here to hear it." She was strangely calm, presumably having already spent her emotions.

"What's it about?" Cifer couldn't help his curiosity. The students certainly hadn't been told anything about that.

Momo summoned her Manifestation in answer. It was in the form of a white Dove and the Essence of Mercy came from it. Cifer knew that due to the Ring of the Horses she actually had 5 Manifestations, but the Dove was her official one. And there was good reason that Momo chose to make that the Manifestation everyone knew about.

There were 7 famous Essences that often formed the backbone of the myriad of specific and unique Essences in the world. The Essence of Mercy, Evil, Death, War, Famine, Tyranny and Wisdom. Almost any Essence found could be connected back to at least one of these great and foundation Essences, or a combination of several of the same. And among them the Essence that was the most demanding to cultivate and the most overwhelming in power was the Essence of Mercy.

To many who did not understand the first thing about mercy that seemed strange. Why would it be so strong to the point of being an entire level above the others? But that question itself is naive. There are two things that are absolute prerequisites to having the option of being merciful to another person. The first is that there must be something that justice or fairness demands be done to punish the offender. The second is that you have the ability, the strength, the authority, some would even say the duty, to execute justice or fairness if you wanted to hold up the law. Only than are you qualified to show mercy and turn aside from the deserved punishments.

Otherwise you aren't showing mercy. What you are doing is admitting you are too weak to enforce justice and trying to put a good face on it.

Cifer stared at her Manifestation for a moment. "They... are learning how to connect with their own Manifestations? But doesn't the Clan already teach us how to dive into the Essence Sea and bond with a Manifestation?" He was confused. Cifer had already made a couple of dives before himself, and the methods of the Aoi Kani Clan alone were already enough for him to dive to something like 1,000 feet on his first try, and to remain at that depth for 15 minutes on his second attempt before the pressure finally got to him.

Cifer was certain that he would continue to improve if he truly put his mind to making the deepest and longest possible dive. After all, there were so many fascinating Manifestations down there that all prostrated themselves in willingness to connect to him. He'd decided that he wouldn't accept any Manifestation until he reached a depth that required him to pursue the bond himself instead of passively receiving one. Otherwise he'd feel he was wasting his Potential.

Momo sighed. "They teach guidelines for selecting the best Manifestation for yourself, like my Dove only works because I'm the strongest in my year and the daughter of the Clan Leader. I meet the bare minimum requirements to show mercy in judgement. They also teach a special meditation technique that allows you to dive much deeper and for longer. I was able to reach 1,400 feet and look around safely using their methods while the Clan's methods only allowed me to reach an absolute limit of 700 feet where the pressure would crush my projection instantly."

"They only give the instructions orally, and they never repeat any part of it. It's hard enough for most students to manage to even apply it on the spot to do a single dive of much greater depth and range to look around and get the best possible Manifestation. Actually, given the focus on doing just that along with the overwhelming complexity of the technique, it's impossible to remember all the steps in the correct sequence again even if the entire class were to spend days arguing over what they remembered. The Clan's technique itself is actually only the best we've managed to do at piecing back together the original taught once to each graduating class in this special lecture."

It was impossible to miss the implications of what Momo said. "Isn't that more than doubling the depth you can reach? Maybe even more since you were able to stay at 1,400 feet long enough to search for the Dove?" Cifer realizes. That would mean he could reach the crucial depth of 2,100 feet or deeper. Each 700 feet of the Essence Sea went in a cycle.

The first 250 feet of a 700 foot zone would largely be barren, though a few that had unpredictable strength would occasionally appear. Then the next 250 feet would be absolutely teeming the the Manifestations of the Tier that the area belonged to. After that would be 100 feet of dwindling population as weaker Manifestations stayed higher where the pressure wasn't so overwhelming. Then the last 100 feet had only a few Manifestations that were all overwhelmingly strong for the 700 foot tier. Momo had selected her Dove from this section of the second tier depth of the Essence Sea.

But if Cifer were to make more than double his current record it would be enough to let him reach the strongest zone of the third tier of the Essence Sea. Something like that would give him a rather noticeable advantage on others.

Momo nods. "But Akemi's shut you out solidly. You'll have to wait until next year if you wanted to take advantage of this lecture. The Sect that teaches this is extremely secretive about it, probably because controlling it gives them an enormous advantage over Zhou itself. Now that they've shut the door we won't be able to break in. All we can do is wait here for the lecture to end, then beg the teacher to give you consideration."