God Of Crafting

The idea that one could go through the body tempering of the fourth rank of mortal cultivation was flawed, which we accidentally discovered and proved when we went through this process for the second time.

With that, I just couldn't help but wonder—if one could temper their body more than once, for what reason would I believe they couldn't do it more than just once per cultivation cycle?

Sure, it was an awful experience to go through, one that I literally wouldn't wish upon my greatest enemy...

And yet, if there was even the slightest chance we could go through it again, I was willing to do it.

Not because I was into feeling pain. It was simply because going through this process yet again could, quite possibly, raise our potential in the future.

And so, gritting our teeth with anticipation for the new wave of overwhelming pain from our bodies reforming themselves, we waited. We simply simmered our flesh in more and more of this strange spiritual power while, all throughout the process, refusing the increasing surging of our power to break past its current limits and stabilize at a new norm.

I couldn't really tell how long this process lasted. It could have been a minute, but it could also have been an hour, both equally as likely as this whole process taking us a whole day or even a week.

And yet, regardless of how long it actually took, at some point, I sensed that something was indeed happening.

Claire, I thought, instantly turning my attention to the girl, who was the one source of fear and fright in the moment.

I didn't mind going through the pain of having my body reformed again if it meant raising my standing in the future. But when it came to my girl... having her go through this kind of abyssal pain was, quite literally, the worst thing I could see happening.

And yet, if I were to reverse the roles, it would be Claire worried sick about me going through the pain of the process while disregarding her own situation.

Still, contrary to all of our fears, when something started to happen... it was quite different from our former experience. For this time, rather than burning itself down into the foundational elements before slowly reforming itself back, our bodies...

Our bodies simply built up on the foundation of our first reformation.

With this weird energy having absolutely nowhere to go and yet growing in volume with each breath we took, and with no more room to be made by perfecting the very foundations of our bodies, this energy started to simply build up on our cells, layering them in an ever-thicker coat of spiritual energy.

Then, it just happened.

It wasn't at the start, the middle, or even the end of the process, but at the least significant point of it when suddenly, the energy that we couldn't really sense before revealed itself to our eyes.

Only for it to turn out not to be spiritual energy whatsoever, but the power of the rules that decided how the spiritual energy was supposed to work to begin with!

"What the hell..." Baffled, I muttered, not exactly sure what to say in response to the wondrous sight that appeared before my spiritual sight.

The power of the law itself was nothing like the spiritual energy, save for its ability to interact with humans in pretty much every way spiritual energy could and then some. Yet, when it came to how it looked...

If the spiritual energy looked like an endless weave of chaotic currents, all combining, mixing, and then splitting up in an endless dance of this infinitely complex tapestry of flows, then the power of the law that governed it...

It was the complete opposite of the chaotic mess of the spiritual flows.

"It's like a... well-organized grid or something..." I muttered, desperately searching through my mind to find something I could conform this sight to, something that would allow me to establish this sight as a kind of pattern.

Yet, when it finally struck me, I opened my mouth... but failed to produce a single word.

Is this a coincidence? A natural result? Or...

"Come on, say it," Claire urged me on. "I know you've figured something out, so even if it sounds like the utmost bullshit, how about you share it so I can weigh in on the idea?"

I pressed my lips together before gulping my saliva down in a bid to wet my parched throat.

"Have you ever doom-scrolled through random internet videos?" I started from quite the uncommon angle.

Claire squinted her eyes... only to then avert them and slowly, carefully nod her head.

"Then, have you ever chanced upon videos that tried to visualize the power of gravity in two dimensions? As in," I quickly added, "on a flat surface?"

Realizing that this wasn't just a random attempt to lecture her on the dangers of wasting one's life away by watching short videos on her phone, Claire turned her head back, thought for a bit, and then nodded her head again.

"But this... this force," she shook her head, "it looks nothing alike!" she protested.

And she was quite right in doing so because this wasn't the finish line I was aiming for, merely a pitstop on its way toward the conclusion.

"Then, have you ever seen the same visualization... but done in three dimensions? Of a grid depicting the strength of the gravity that grows denser and denser the closer it gets to the massive object?"

At this point, Claire took a moment to scour her memories before shaking her head.

"No, I don't think I did."

I took in a deep breath and quelled my desire to bring out my phone in hopes of catching a good enough connection in this part of the world to somehow connect to the internet and find what exactly I was talking about.

"Because that's pretty much exactly how this looks right now," I finally revealed, only to focus on the spiritual side of the world again and then gulp my saliva down for the second time.

The degree to which the structure of this strange power mimicked the three-dimensional gravity grid was uncanny. Yet, what was the most worrying part about it was how that grid, rather than condensing as it approached some sort of massive object... Your adventure continues at empire

It condensed as it got closer to the two of us.

"While I didn't see the video or visualization you brought up, I can clearly see what you mean with it," Claire said, her body twitching uncomfortably atop my lap.

I took a deep breath, taking in all those doubts, hesitations, and fears... and then pushing them all aside.

"Well, regardless of how similar it might be, if we think about it for a moment, it doesn't really change all that much, does it?" I suggested.

"Huh?" Even with our bond, my words still managed to catch Claire off-guard... at the very least, judging by how she nearly jumped up from my lap. "How can you not be bothered by it? What if you are right? What if, by some freak accident, we started to mess with forces we don't..."

Claire didn't finish her words.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

And even without our bond, I could quite clearly figure out what she actually wanted to say.

What if we started to mess with forces we didn't really understand?

While, as a question, it was perfectly valid... in our circumstances, it made little to no sense.

"Weren't we messing with things we don't really understand for quite a while now?" I asked with a small smile on my face. "From the very first tools I made, through that golden entity..." I shook my head. "And if we were to ignore what we just saw, isn't all of our cultivation thus far... pretty much the same as it would be if we used the spiritual energy instead?"

Claire pressed her lips together and brought her eyes down... either taking her time to think the issue through or actively trying to make out the shape of my currently soft penis bulging out from underneath the cloth of my pants.

"I guess...?" she muttered, her voice totally deprived of any spark of confidence.

"Sure, this energy is clearly more potent and it can have other uses than the simple Qi... but when it comes to cultivation, it's all the same, isn't it?"

After taking just a little bit longer, Claire finally ended up nodding her head right as she sighed out.

"I guess you are right," she admitted, only to then rest her hands down on my shoulders and then lean back a bit to get a proper look at my face. "So what now, should we try to refine our bodies even further? So that we can, by chance, get an even better understanding of it?"

This time, I was the one to take some time to consider our options. Ultimately, however, while we could still try to refine our bodies even further... this didn't really seem like that much of a good idea.

"We are already struggling to understand what it is that we just gained the ability to see. And even if we were to gain the ability to see even more, the chances are, this kind of sight would only mess us up in the head," I revealed my thoughts on the matter while shaking my head. "So, while it's tempting to try our luck for a bit more, I think it's best if we just call it a day and try to simply cultivate as far up as we can."

Hearing this, Claire's face relaxed a bit, along with her feelings shared through our bond indicating she was quite pleased with the outcome.

"Should we cultivate then?" Claire asked, only to then bring herself back to my chest before resting her forehead against mine and smiling as she locked her beautiful eyes on my face. "Or should we try to go and take a short walk first?"