After he exited the dream, Draven felt his mind operating at a significantly higher speed than before. The momentary confusion he usually experienced between reality and dream did not occur this time. His mind seemed to have rationally analyzed and distinguished reality from dream on its own.
Draven nodded in satisfaction. The Asura Spear Intent combined six different intents, while the Asura Seven Sense Mantra had honed his mind to an unprecedented sharpness. "The mantra has granted me the 7th Sense, an ability typically reserved for cultivators of the taboo time element. But while their predictions show only possible outcomes, mine are one hundred percent accurate."
He was especially pleased with the Asura Seven Sense Mantra. This was an ultimate skill every weapon cultivator in the world would covet. If you could see exactly how your opponent was going to attack, what technique could possibly pose a threat, unless the difference in power was too vast?
With the improvement from this technique, his Ultimate Demon Physique also improved by 100 points. This meant his cultivation was now equal to someone at the 5th stage of the Ascendant Realm. But in reality, he was confident he could easily beat even a 7th stage cultivator, unless they were also a body cultivator like him.
[Dreamer Slab: 1]
[Ultimate Demon Physique (Mortal): 500/1000]
....
"Now the time is only 1:30 pm. There is still time," Draven looked at the clock and decided to enter one more dream since he still had 500 dream points left.
Looking at his dream slabs, the Butcher Heart Sutra and the Five Mountain King Body Forging Art were both at the perfection stage. He didn't consider the inherent techniques of the Chaos Divine Ape Bloodline at the moment, as he lacked an elemental core. Practicing it without one would be a waste of time.
The same went for the Heavenly Star Core Formation Scripture and the Mirror Spirit Heart Sutra. The options left were to enhance either the Shadow World Behemoth Bloodline or the Astral Nexus Bloodline, both of which could improve his physique further. There was also the Paper Man Puppetry technique. While it didn't improve his physique, it could be a powerful trump card in critical situations.
After thinking for a while, Draven finally chose to push the Paper Man Puppetry skill to perfection first.
"Add 100 points to the Paper Man Puppetry," Draven commanded the Dream God Ring, and once again, he entered a dream.
In this dream, he transformed into a little girl around seven years old. She looked cute, with her hair combed into two braids. She wore a cyan dress that reached her knees, and her eyes were the same cyan color. She hugged a small teddy bear in her hands like a little mother holding her child.
"Little Lilly, you have to listen carefully. Grandpa is going to teach you a very powerful ancient technique which can make you control the vital chi of other cultivators, even creatures that are already dead. As long as you master this, you will be invincible in the same realm, provided you can make your paper man enter your opponent's body," an old man with features similar to the young girl said to her in a coaxing manner.
Lilly turned her head to the side and said with a pout, "Lilly is still a child and cannot learn any techniques right now. If you force me, I will complain to Grandma."
The old man was helpless against his extremely talented but equally lazy granddaughter.
As he was wracking his brain for an idea to make her cultivate, one suddenly popped into his mind. He feigned disappointment and said, "Forget it then. This technique would have made your teddy walk and talk like a real human. But since you do not want to, Grandpa will not force you."
The little girl's ears perked up. She excitedly grabbed the old man's hand and asked, "Is that really possible?"
The old man nodded. "It is, of course, possible."
He simply waved his hand, and a white paper made of vital chi appeared in his palm.
"First, you must construct the soul structure of the thing you are going to control. Since your teddy has no soul, we can simply create one for it. But if you use this on another creature that can house a soul, you must first observe its soul structure using the special eye technique of the Paper Man Puppetry skill before proceeding."
After saying that, the old man used his finger as a knife and drew the shape of the teddy on the white paper. When the drawing was complete, a mini cut-out of the teddy stood up like a living creature under the old man's control.
"This paper man we just cut out is called the paper soul. Now, the next thing is to make the paper soul enter the teddy's body." With a wave of his hand, the paper man floated in the air and flew towards the teddy before getting stuck on its body.
"This happened easily because there is no vital chi barrier protecting your teddy, as it is a non-living thing. If you are dealing with a living thing, this step would not be so easy. Anyway, now for the final step: assimilating the paper soul into the body." As he said this, the paper stuck to the teddy's body turned into an illusionary mist and seeped inside.
The next second, the lifeless teddy suddenly came to life. It struggled free from Lilly's hands and ran around the floor, dancing and giggling in the voice of a little girl.
Lilly's eyes widened in surprise. But before she could run over to it, the teddy bear lifelessly fell to the ground.
Lilly tried to shake the teddy awake, but it showed no sign of waking up.
"Cough..." The old man pretended to cough and said, "Grandpa is getting old and cannot maintain the vital chi in the paper soul for long. It seems if little Lilly wants to see the teddy move again, you must study the Paper Man Puppetry and create your own paper soul."
"You are lying! I will tell Grandma that you are bullying me!" Lilly angrily pointed her finger at the old man and shouted with teary eyes.
But the old man did not show any sign of backing down. "Go ahead. I will just say that I am busy and do not have time to play with you. She will, at most, scold me. I am not afraid of that."
Lilly gritted her teeth in anger, but in the end, she reluctantly agreed to study the technique with her grandfather.
The old man nodded in satisfaction and began teaching her. "The initial step of creating a paper soul is the creation of the soul paper. For this, you must combine 108 ancient runes written with vital chi. So first, we will be studying these 108 ancient runes and their different combinations..."
A month passed like this. Being naturally talented, Lilly easily grasped the Paper Man Puppetry technique in just a month and reached the perfection stage by the time she was seven and a half years old. At that point, the dream ended.
[Dreamer Slab: 8]
[Paper Man Puppetry (Mortal): 100]
....
When Draven opened his eyes, all the experience from his dream filled his mind. The ease with which Lilly created paper men from vital chi became as fluent for him as it had been for her.
"Just six months to master such a complicated technique to perfection. Compared to her, that old Asura God's comprehension was simply trash," Draven thought to himself in awe.
Since the dream had not even lasted a year, it ended in just half a minute. There was still time before the meal he ordered was delivered.
After thinking about it, he decided not to add any more points. He simply sat there cross-legged to rest. Alexandria was sleeping on the bed, and if he also slept beside her, it might make her uncomfortable when she woke up.
Although Draven was not a gentleman, he always treated women with the respect they deserved. As a brother, he knew how he would want his own sister to be treated, and he held himself to that same standard.