Chapter 51 – Clear Mind, Clear Soul

Adam stepped up to the podium and placed his hand on it.

After the twins had gone up and come back with such outstanding results, Adam was feeling the heat.

It was only natural that he hoped to receive something on the same level or better. He just had no clue if this library even had something better than what the girls had already received.

With a tepid heart, Adam channelled his will into the Book of Findings.

The girls to the side began badgering Pleck about Adam's possible results.

"Alright. Alright! I'll tell you. There honestly are five great books on this second floor." Pleck gave in and informed them.

"Five. So young master still has a good chance." Luna muttered to herself and a slight curve hooked on her lips.

"Yeah. The other three books are deep red, golden and dark blue in colour. Just watch and see if he gets one of these."

"Okay!" Elaine would always get excited at times like this.

All three of them watched Adam attentively.

A few breaths of time passed. Just as Elaine was about to impatiently call out, a book slowly hovered past the bookshelves.

Catching the first glimpse of it, they all were excited but soon became dejected. It was none of the colours that Pleck had described earlier. This meant that it most definitely was not a book on the level of the ones the two girls had received.

The book that floated in front of Adam was a crystalline book. If they weren't in a library right now, this book would easily be mistaken for a showpiece.

The crystal cover opened and glowing white tadpole-like inky writings, every letter looking as if it was painted with a flowing brush stroke, began to flow out of the book toward Adam's forehead.

"Why does this look even more majestic that when we received our manuals? You never said that there was a crystal covered book." Luna said. Their conversation had evolved into a who can whisper more quietly contest. Afraid that they might disturb Adam in the slightest.

"I did not lie. Ahh, What a pity." He said while shaking his head.

The girls saw his sincere expression and grew silent. They felt a sadness creep up in their hearts as if they themselves had been the ones who suffered a loss.

"What a weird feeling." Adam's voice resounded in the room. A heavy sigh came out of his mouth as he opened his eyes again. He watched as that crystal-like book disappeared into the bookshelves.

"Young master." The girls walked up to him with Pelk floating a distance behind them. They were contemplating ways to console him.

Adam saw the worried looks on their faces and flashed a smile. "What are you worrying about. I got a really good body refining manual."

"You don't have to lie to us young master, we already know which ones were the best in this library," Elaine said with a dejected look. They wanted to console him but he ended up consoling them.

"There is no best or worst. Only the one that is most suited to you. Isn't that right Pelk?" Adam said with full confidence.

The boy was a bit flustered and replied: "Of course, how could the mighty me not know this."

Adam let out a light chuckle out of the boy's sight.

"Is it really like that young master?" Luna asked this time.

"Jokes aside, yes. The ultimate goal of body refining is comprehending a law. What good is it if I picked up one that followed a path that did not align with me?"

"Hmmm, it would only slow you down or debilitate your growth." Luna understood after his explanation.

"Good. See, there was no point in worrying needlessly." He nodded his head.

The girls nodded their heads in compliance as well. Their smiles returning to their faces. It was hard to stay in any other mood other than being happy when they were around him.

"What refining manual did you receive anyway?" Elaine came to the point.

"Clear mind, clear soul. The First book in this library." He replied nonchalantly.

"This was why I said it was a pity," Pelk spoke up at this point. "This is a beginner level refinement manual. The simplified version of this was widely used as an introduction to body refinement by almost every refining master in the past."

"Isn't it a good thing if it is easily learnable?" Elaine asked.

"Yes and also no. The one thing that all masters in the past unanimously agreed to was discarding this refinement method after a certain period of use. As the name states, it is a refinement method that heavily relies on the soul. Its requirements for the soul, for each of its stages only grow steeper as one gains attainment in the method. It is a monstrous technique but in all the wrong ways, especially for the lesser races who are born with inherently weak souls." Pelk was someone who had been in this library for all of his long life. He had obviously read through the first book more than once or twice. He could be said to be the one who was most familiar with it.

"Congratulations young master!" The girls almost yelled in surprise.

"Huh?" Pelk on the side was puzzled. 'What part of what I said was good news?' he was truly unable to comprehend this turn of events.

This body refinement manual was untrainable for the lesser races due to their lacking soul purity. However, who other than the girls knew about Adam's soul than himself.

They knew for a fact that Adam's soul was a boundless world in and of itself from their conversations. They now realized what Adam had meant by 'There is no best or worst. Only the one that is most suited to you.'

"There is no need to overthink it. Just know that this method is the best for me." Adam gave a sly smile to the boy. Pelk already knew this smile. It was one he would only use when he was on the winning end.

The four chatted for a bit after that while Luna took the opportunity to explain things to Pelk. She had completely taken over the responsibility of looking after the boy.

After things were explained to him, Pelk spoke to Adam with a bit of respect hidden in his voice: "You should know that no one before you has crossed the second realm of this technique. Not even the first owner. You will be on your own with this technique. If you are able to… Will you tell me about its mysteries?" This boy was born by the mysterious 'Founder' who had also left this manual. He was very curious to know its mysteries.

"Sure." Adam could feel the melancholy in the boy's words. He wasn't a demon with no heart.

"How about we reconvene in a bit. I want to take a closer look at my refining manual." Adam turned to the girls and spoke.

The girls readily agreed and all three of them sat down crossed legged facing each other.

In Adam's mind, information kept spilling in as he willed it.

Clear mind, Clear Soul – Body refinement manual was a technique that used a pure soul to nurture the elements and wash the body with the internally nurtured element. This technique had 7 realms.

Hearth – A bonfire would be lit in the soul world. Atop which, the flame of the respective element would be lit.

Roving Tent – A tent would be erected around the hearth.

Earthly Hut – The tent would be transformed into a hut.

After this realm, the information of the realms after made Adam feel like he was looking through a parchment of baking paper. It was impossible to decipher their contents.

Preserved House – …

Vitrine Mansion – …

Enlightenment Pagoda – …

Dragon Palace – …

Starting from the first realm of Hearth, He would have to establish a base for nurturing an element. In the first realm, this was a bonfire.

The element nurtured in a body was in tune with the person itself and had a very mild nature as compared to natural elements. Thus this element could be used to wash the body.

This process would increase affinity with the element and strengthen the body.

Every successive attainment of a higher realm would enhance the base, which would, in turn, nurture the element that much more and help it grow in the body. The stronger the element grew the more powerful the body would be naturally.

Washing the body with an element was actually a radical concept that no one would even begin to imagine. The elements carried with them their attributes no matter what. The metal element, for example, had its sharpness.

Would anyone imagine letting this element rampantly wash through one's body without any damage? Even if the element was mild it would not lose its attribute.

Every realm of this body refinement would be a pain filled experience for sure.

After analyzing the body refinement manual Adam couldn't help but wrinkle his brows. It was an amazing technique for sure but he felt like it was missing something. To be more precise, there was something in it that he was missing and was unable to comprehend.

Looking through it a few more times he could not figure out why he was having this feeling and gave up in the end. He could no longer control his urge to begin cultivating this method.

His mind surged and he began chanting the verses of the refinement manual in his mind to form the first base.

Stacks of wood formed in a spot of his soul world. Every piece of wood had engravings of various runic designs that held an ancient aura. Slowly they stacked up one atop the other to form a normal sized bonfire.

Success.

Adam could not believe his ease in success.

This was a realm that put many of his predecessors into a quandary. What Adam realized with a quick thought was that his predecessors had the soul space that was the same as Elaine and Luna's before his soul cloud had invaded. This was barely enough space to fit a curled up small girl.

His predecessors had to cram a bonfire into this much space. This was their biggest challenge. Comparing that with his boundless world which had no ends… any of the masters would have grown green from envy.

Just as Adam was about to enjoy his quick success.

'Notification.'

'Element activation is applicable.

Activate element?'

'I almost forgot!' this is what Adam was missing. Why would so many masters pick and cultivate this method even though it obviously had a dead end waiting for them? It was because this manual allowed the complete activation of an element in the body.

Thus it was used as a beginner level refinement manual to allow the person to activate the element they had the most affinity with quickly. They could then switch over to a completely new manual with a lot more ease afterwards.

This was the beauty of the Clear Mind, Clear Soul Body refinement manual.

"Activate," Adam said in a clear tone. His head was whirling through the choices he had left.

'Water, metal and fire.' He pondered over these three elements.

Just as he was about to begin a whole process of going through the pros and cons of these elements a message popped up in his head.

'Element activation successful.

Element activated – Fire'

"Don't be so goddamn cryptic all the time! Just let me know if I have a choice. Is that too much to ask for?" He had a bead of cold sweat run down his back just thinking about how much of a headache he would've had to decide on an element to finally realise that he never had a choice, to begin with.

He got over his outburst pretty quickly. He did not see it as much of a problem regardless. Any element activated was an additional element he controlled.

Calming down, another headache crept up as he began thinking clearly.

'I now have three elements but only one bonfire….'