48- Breakthrough!
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Adel began exploring the library for this "Gyre aphrodisiac," which had enough power to alter one's mind through their bodies, providing him with the ultimate clue he needed to understand the mind-manipualting skills.
He kept walking around the library, looking for books about the aphrodisiac, but he couldn't find it no matter how long he looked.
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After about two hours of wandering around the library, he came across a section with gold-infused shelves, inferring that the clan's most covert books were kept there.
He came to a halt in front of a book on the first shelf labeled: "What are aphrodisiacs? And how does one make a Gyro aphrodisiac? "
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"...An aphrodisiac is a drug that increases sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior..."
"...Aphrodisiac substances have included a relatively wide variety of plants, medicinal herbs, and even unique treasures..."
"...Hence, they can be classified into two types: natural aphrodisiacs like normal alcohol or wine that affect mortals, and spirit aphrodisiacs that affect cultivators..."
"...Spirit aphrodisiacs are made up of medicinal herbs that are combined into a liquid, food, or other form..."
"...Natural aphrodisiacs were first created by mortals with the ability to enhance their sexual drive in their bodies, but it's useless to cultivators and only effective for mortals, as cultivators' bodies get enhanced more... "
"...On the other hand, spirit aphrodisiacs have an effect on one's soul without coming into contact with their bodies, as they can affect their reason and thinking..."
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Adel nodded his head several times in approval as he skimmed through the first section of the book that described the aphrodisiacs.
But since the book mentioned things he already knew, he only read a few paragraphs here and there rather than the entire part.
He quickly arrived at the Gyro aphrodisiac section, where it began talking about a brilliant way to connect both the body and the soul using the said drug.
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"...Among the seven rumored mysterious points in the body recorded in our clan's old notes, one of our clan's ancestors discovered one that helps connect the mind element of the soul to the throat part of the body..."
"...The Gyro aphrodisiac uses both Ki and Nao energy to send it from the throat to the mind, thus it requires two cultivators to be made: a body cultivator and a soul cultivator; it then affects the essence of one's thoughts, emotions, and reason..."
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Adel's excitement grew as he read more, until...
*BOOM*
A low boom was heard in Adel's mind, as he finally had a breakthrough!
He'd finally found what he was looking for: this enigmatic point that connected both the mind and the soul!
Only in this way could he truly manipulate the essence of a person's memories.
However, this only gave him the ability to erase memories. He was a long way from being able to change them or create new memories.
Even so, it was a tremendous success and would help him a lot!
He could now do many more things in public while erasing the memories of those who met him, without caring about others finding his trail!
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Although the Gyro aphrodisiac made one's emotions suppressed and focused all of the stimulant energy of the aphrodisiac into the lust emotion, it wasn't something that Adel could understand at the moment.
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Adel continued reading a few more books, which gave his progress in mind-manipulating arts progress, albeit slightly.
He didn't mind the slow speed, since the smallest bit of progress was beneficial to his current understanding.
He was a lot more lacking in mind-manipulation arts compared to his mind-reading arts, so he wanted to progress in them as fast as possible.
Besides, he knew that it wouldn't be as simple as enabling him access to their libraries. Such knowledge would make kingdoms on the scale of Katrina's wage war against each other for even a single page.
After all, soul cultivators were extremely rare, and the knowledge concerning the said pathway was even rarer and more precious.
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As soon as he left the library, he was met by the same beast he'd saved in Katrina's clan's beast territories.
It approached Adel with a tense expression on its face before it sighed, shook its head, and motioned for him to follow him.
Adel did as he was told until they arrived at a remote room.
This time, the beast walked like a human while also cautiously looking around to see if anyone was following it.
After scanning its surroundings with its soul energy for several seconds, the beast exhaled a breath of relief and nodded to Adel.
Adel realized what it meant and trailed behind it as they entered the room.
A peculiar altar was in the center of the room, large enough to hold ten people at once.
Many formations were made around it, preventing energy fluctuations from seeping out to the outside world, making Adel wary of why the beast chose to enter this room.
He didn't have time to inquire, as the beast went to the center of the altar and spilled a few drops of its blood, motioning for Adel to do the same, before the alter shone brightly crimson.
Soon after, the light began to fade, and when it did, the beast was nowhere to be seen.
Adel took a moment to consider the pros and cons of his given situation while staring at his white karmic stars in his chest, before sighing, shaking his head, and following behind it...
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A large area encircled by boulders, with some kind of energy in the area, likely Nao or Ki energy, which caused it to glow brightly like the sun during the day, had a faint red light flash at this instant.
A figure... no, two figures materialized out of nowhere.
Adel and the beast who had brought him here were these two figures.
He arrived here due to that altar. Adel had no idea where he was right now, but there was no doubt in his eyes that he was still in the room, as he could sense with his soul energy that he was within close range of the room.
When he examined across, he noticed that this region had a lot more energy than the outside world, making it more connected to the two pathways—soul cultivation and body cultivation—implying that it was... connected to the other continent?
This continent contained a peculiar barrier that kept the three energies from the three pathways low, preventing one from progressing past the fourth step due to the little energy being put out by the pathway to this continent.
Adel was taken aback. How is that possible? But then he observed that his white karmic stars were rapidly decreasing, leaving only about forty or so on his chest.
He hadn't counted it before, so it was somewhere between seventy and seventy-four.
With a sigh of relief, he exhaled softly. This was a fortunate encounter! So all he could do was shake his head and keep up with this beast, to see whatever that was going to happen...
{
Author's Note:
Sorry if the info dump has been too much lately. It is necessary for the future chapters, so there wouldn't be a future mention of it later on.
I've been personally stuck on writing this upcoming arc for a week with no ideas. So, I'm sorry if it gets boring on some chaps. I'm trying to make them better by constantly editing mistakes here and there.
Thanks for reading.
}