Chapter 19: Supreme Conduit Codex

It was finally done. They had finally created the skeleton of their cultivation techniques. Now, they could move on to the experimentation phase.

[Newsflash. You cannot just use the techniques that you have created without experiments. As Mrs Carter once said and I quote, "This is real life."

You absolutely cannot be the first test subject for your own techniques unless you like exploding. Either that or you have somehow become a C Grade Player and have a Life Affinity with a side of masochistic tendencies. But hey, no judgement from me. I'm the last person who would judge you, given my family history.]

They had designed their techniques to work in tandem with the Celestial Trinity Racial Trait. They took inspiration from the celestial phenomenon that had appeared when they had initiated it. 

Apart from that, they also took inspiration from two concepts that used to be very common in web novels that the Olden Humans often used to read. The first concept mainly appeared in Eastern fantasy novels. The Duality of Yin and Yang. They chose it because it just clicked with them how they complimented each other despite being opposites.

The second concept was a bit more universal. It didn't matter if the novel was Eastern or Western fantasy. They usually had this concept as a core component. A separate circulatory system for qi/mana. Commonly known as Meridians or Mana Channels/Veins.

Neo-Humans, like most species, didn't have a separate circulatory system for mana. Their cells were capable of absorbing mana directly. But that begged the question, if their cells could absorb mana, why would they need a separate circulatory system for it? Wouldn't it be redundant?

The answer was, no. It wouldn't be redundant. Because absorbing mana through their cells was very inefficient. The mana had to pass through their cells to reach their mana centres. Although it was easier for them because of the Mana Blood Racial Trait, it was still inefficient. A separate circulatory system, on the other hand, would provide a direct channel for the mana to reach their mana centres and circulate in their bodies.

The techniques that they created were variations of a single technique. They named it the Supreme Conduit Codex. It was a complex but simple technique. To completely understand it, one needed to know how cultivation worked. And that's why, Leonel and Zeke were giving Cass a detailed lesson. Well, Leonel just observed them, occasionally adding inputs.

"Before I start explaining cultivation to you, you need to know about the Vessels."

"But I do know about the Vessels. We have three Vessels; Body, Mana, and, Soul."

"That is not what I meant, genius. You just named them. What do you know about them and how they function?"

"Nothing."

"Exactly. As you so wisely stated, we have three Vessels. But that is a common misconception. We don't have three Vessels, we are comprised of them."

"I don't get it."

"That's fine. This is a complex topic. It would be weird if you did. Anyway, in simpler language, we can be divided into three parts. Soul, Body, and Mana. The Vessels aren't separate parts. The Soul Vessel refers to a soul that is capable of utilising mana. The Body Vessel refers to a body that is capable of utilising mana."

"But what about the Mana Vessel? It can't refer to mana that is capable of utilising mana, right? Because that doesn't make any sense."

"Good observation. Now, this is where it gets interesting. The Mana Vessel refers to all of the mana contained inside a being. It is the only Vessel that is actually capable of containing mana and directly utilising it outside in the material world."

"What about soul spells and skills? And the auxiliary skills and spells?"

[Dumb Realm_Weaver is at it again. He forgot to tell some crucial details. Spells can be considered as prototypes of skills that haven't been recognised by the System. For example, a person has Fire Affinity and they can create fireballs without using a skill. That would be considered a spell.

There are certain requirements for the System to recognise a spell or an action as a skill.

If a person gains some mastery in a certain spell or action like slashing a sword, and it is not an original spell or action, the System recognises it as a skill. The proficiency level of that skill is Proficient. If it is an original spell, then they need to completely master it to a point where they only need a thought to do it. Only then does the System recognise it as a skill and they get the System Achievement, Skill Architect. The proficiency level of that skill is Perfect. Finally, if a person used a skill book or gained the skill as a reward from a System Achievement, the proficiency level of that skill is Initial.]

"The soul spells and skills do not directly manifest in the material world. They use the Spirit Dimension as a medium to affect souls. As for auxiliary skills and spells, they manifest inside our bodies. For example, the skill Haste increases our speed by temporarily strengthening our leg muscles."

"What is the Spirit Dimension?"

"A topic for another day. Now tell me, do you have any doubts so far?"

"No."

"Great. Now we know what the three Vessels are, we continue to how they function. Each of the three Vessels has a core."

"A core?"

"Yeah, a core. For the Body Vessel, it's the heart. For the Mana Vessel, it is the mana centre. And for the Soul Vessel, it is the Origin Soul."

"Origin Soul?"

"Do you remember the anatomy of a Null Slime?"

"Unfortunately, I do."

"There is nothing unfortunate about that. Anyhoo, the anatomical structure of a Null Slime is almost identical to a soul."

"Wait, what?"

Leonel, who was calmly sipping his tea, sprayed it out in shock. He looked at Zeke incredulously. Then he started thinking about it and realised that Zeke was right. How had he not noticed it before? And what about the experts with a Soul Affinity? Did they not know or did they keep it a secret? Cass on the other hand, was confused. How were a soul and a slime similar?

"The Origin Soul is akin to the core of a slime. It is an amalgamation of memories, will, and a substance that I know nothing about. The soul is like the slime's body. Except that its shape is completely identical to its owner. The stronger the Origin Soul, the stronger the soul. As long as the Origin Soul is not hurt, it can heal the soul. But it will take a lot of time and resources so do not injure your soul."

"The comparison with the Null Slime made it easier to understand."

"Now, we can finally start the lesson on cultivation. Cultivation is the process where using techniques we absorb the atmospheric mana and strengthen our Vessels' cores, which in turn strengthen our Vessels."

"Sounds easy."

"Except that it's not easy. The atmospheric mana that we absorb is not our mana. It is the planet's. So we need to first make it our own before we can use it. Think of the mana as your smartwatch. It is imprinted with your blood, so nobody but you can use it. If I want to use your watch, I have to remove your imprint and imprint it with my own blood. Similarly, the mana that we absorb has traces of Planet Earth's will in it. We need to erase that will and integrate our own will before we can use it."

"But how do we do that?"

"That's where the techniques come in. They have two purposes; absorption and refinement. First, we absorb the mana in our mana centre, then we refine it whilst adding our own will to it and then we send the refined mana to the cores of the other two vessels."

Cass had a few doubts and Zeke cleared them all so that he could teach him the Supreme Conduit Codex. First, they would have to create the blueprint of two circulatory systems and completely memorise it. These circulatory systems would work something like our blood circulatory system. They would have two important centres each, In one circulatory system, they would be the mana centre and the heart for the Body Vessel, and in the other, they would be the mana centre and the Origin Soul for the Soul Vessel.

The circulatory system for the Body Vessel would be created with a combination of Solar Light and Life attributed mana. The one for the Soul Vessel would be created with a combination of Lunar Shadow and Soul attributed mana. 

Now the important question came, how would they create the two circulatory systems? And what about their Mana Vessel? They were still not sure about the first question. But the second question, that was easy.

Like the blood circulatory system had two types of blood vessels; veins and arteries, the circulation systems that they would have to design would also need two types of channels. One that takes the mana from the mana centre to the Vessels' cores, and one that transports the mana back to the mana centre.

So, the first stage of the Supreme Conduit Codex would have two parts. First, designing the circulatory system and second, actually creating it. After they were done with that this technique would work something like this. The stellar cores in their mana centres would start rotating. This would help them in absorbing the ambient mana.

Although the stellar core was made after condensing Star Fire attributed mana, it mostly consisted of Star attributed mana. There was only a small amount of Fire attributed mana in the centre of it. Then they would have to use their willpower to refine the mana. Some of the mana would be absorbed by the stellar core and the rest would then reach the two Vessels' core through their respective circulatory system. Whilst the mana reaches them, it would change attributes according to the circulatory systems.

So the mana that reaches the cores would be Stellar+the attributes of the circulatory system. The cores would absorb this mana but because the mana also had a Stellar attribute, the cores wouldn't be able to absorb all the mana that is reaching them. That leftover mana would return to the stellar core. So, the stellar core would receive mana of all five attributes and grow.

Now that all of them had a clear understanding of the technique, it was time to experiment. Their goal would be to check the feasibility of this technique and to find a way to create the circulatory systems. The subjects would be Angels and Demons.

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Author's Note:

Hey guys, I hope you like the novel.

The official art will take some time because, one, I don't know any illustrators. And two, I am broke. But I would love to see your fan art. Who knows, maybe I'll choose the official art from them. 

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