"An Origin Heart Technique."
"What?!"
At that moment, Mais's hands, which had been caressing the Immortal White, suddenly stopped. He raised his head in surprise.
"Which heaven helped you create an Origin Heart Technique? Only in the Core Realm!"
"Well, actually, I had reached the Sage Realm when I created the technique."
Even so, this didn't lessen Mais's astonishment in the slightest. Mais already knew that Kasuur couldn't create the technique in the Core Realm. Not only could he not create a technique from a realm two levels above his own, he could not even use it. Usually, only exceptionally gifted minds could create techniques in such higher realms. Moreover, they would need to spend years understanding the structure of these realms. Only then could they create a technique in a far higher realm, where they wouldn't be able to use it.
'Perfection in an Origin Heart Technique. Kasuur seems much stronger than I expected. Like Maria's, his weapon is probably a mid-level Origin Heart Weapon.'
For Mais, Kasuur's improved fighting skills were a good thing. After all, Kasuur was his ally. Yet Kasuur was unstable, and Mais had often doubted whether trusting him was a mistake. He overlooked this, assuming that geniuses might be eccentric, but Kasuur's peculiarities knew no bounds.
'Well, I don't have to completely trust Kasuur anymore.'
Despite his doubts about his abilities, Mais was currently at the 8th stage of the Sage Realm. The four immense Divine Kingdoms, the four limbs of the Empire, possessed many terrifying geniuses. Similarly, the three Divine Kingdom-level clans residing within the Empire had no shortage of geniuses. There were still many Divine Kingdoms within the planet, though they were not as powerful as the four surrounding the Empire. There were even a few empires, such as the Alchemical Empire. Just imagine if even a mere ordinary kingdom like the Forgotten Kingdom — formerly a divine kingdom, but now just a regular kingdom — could produce Kasuur and Maria. Even if Mais couldn't become the youngest Origin Heart Lord of his generation, he had a chance of becoming the youngest Ascendant at this rate.
To be an Ascendant! Mais pulled his staff to his body and embraced it. He couldn't hide the smile spreading across his face. From the moment he was born, he had thought that he would never ascend to the heavens. He had imagined his life ending on Earth while watching others tread the heavens. At least he should rule Earth.
Mais could look back and see how meaningless his desire to be emperor was. What would change if he spent a century ruling over everyone? He would still be just an ordinary person on Earth. The people he ruled over could rise to the heavens and look down on him. They would outlive him, their lifespans exceeding Mais's. Besides being a nurtured emperor, he was worthless. That's why his older brother was considering relinquishing his right to the throne back then, passing the reins to Mais.
Now, of course, all of those plans were just stories of the past. Since their father was dead, Mais had to seize the throne and avenge what they had lost. He had no choice but to march towards his goal. But he wondered:
'Do I still want it?'
A thoughtful expression fell over him. He wasn't sure of the answer.
'Which Tao did you base the technique on when you created it?'
Finally, Mais decided to ignore his own question. Kasuur answered in a hoarse, unsteady teenage voice.
"Earth Tao."
"Just an ordinary Tao. Probably only in the Feeling Stage. Hmmm... I'm not sure if it's luck or talent."
Kasuur chuckled and ran his hand through his green hair. He was often praised, but Mais's praise was the hardest to obtain.
Although Mais was also, in a way, belittling him. Kasuur had only grasped the Earth Tao. Mais knew that Maria had also seen the Tao Trace in the Lightning Tao. This made Kasuur slightly weaker in this regard.
"Maria developed a mid-level Sage technique. You know, the Flames of the Horizonless World. Under normal circumstances, she perfected this technique, but she made progress in her Fire Tao and wanted to perfect her technique by using her body's advantages to fill in its gaps. Actually, I only attacked after she had done that. If she had attacked using her original technique, she might have had a better chance."
"But what if Maria perfects her technique? How would the competition between you two be then?"
Mais remained silent. Not because he didn't know the answer. To be honest, Mais didn't want to answer.
A technique at the pinnacle of the Sage Realm was not much different to one at the beginning of the Origin Heart Realm. They were definitely not the same, though. The Origin Heart Technique was clearly stronger under certain conditions. Still, the similarities were evident. At this point, Mais would be slightly behind in terms of attack power. But in other aspects, Mais's superiority was inevitable. He knew more techniques, and his realm was higher. If Mais weren't blind, despite his weaker attack, he would have crushed Maria.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and Mais knew it.
"I guess that's all you need to learn."
Kasuur remained silent. He doubted that he was in a position to decide what he should and shouldn't know. He hadn't only spent a few weeks in the Legacy; even though he hadn't experienced the maddening effects of loneliness while under the influence of enlightenment, it hadn't completely isolated him from the outside world. Kasuur still felt its effects to some extent.
"What happens next?" he said, his voice tinged with the effects of adolescence.
Mais simply continued stroking the white fur of the Immortal White. Who could truly know the truth? Mais would try to survive, and Baro would try to corner him. It was also undeniable that he would make every effort to introduce Maria to a True Alchemist. Mais, on the other hand, would try to stop him. He wanted Maria to recover, but not yet. He still needed time.
"There will be a war."
A cold war, perhaps. A direct clash seemed impossible. Yet, lurking in the shadows, war seemed inevitable. Sufkro was gone. Wuma was gone. Yahut was gone. Baro thought he had got rid of everyone trying to corner him. But when had things ever been so easy? Now he faced Mais.
Mais also realised that he had made a mistake. He had underestimated Baro far too much. It was that which had caused him so many problems.
Kasuur left shortly afterwards. Mais knew he was tense. With his technique, Kasuur was probably the strongest Sage Mais had ever known. Although Mais didn't know the details of Kasuur's techniques, based on what he saw of Kasuur, he assumed it was an offensive technique. If so, Kasuur would have impressive offensive power even in the Origin Heart Realm. However, Kasuur was weak in defence, speed and perception — qualities that could mean life or death in battle. Mais didn't know how powerful Baro was when he was in the 10th stage of the Sage Realm. Whether he was truly a Sage when Mais first saw him was also questionable. But excluding this suspicious man, Kasuur, despite his various shortcomings, was the most powerful Sage he knew.
Kasuur was like an executioner. One move. If you let him attack even once, survival would be difficult, even for the Lords.
And now this young man was showing signs of recovery. Mais noticed that he was beginning to dislike being dependent on others. He was probably about to start hunting in the Red Road Forest. If he gained some combat experience with a few Sages and started learning new techniques to exploit Kasuur's weaknesses, he would become a genius that even Mais would find difficult to keep up with.
Mais didn't know if this was good or bad. But Kasuur was growing. He was maturing.
'I expected adolescence to make him lazy.'
This shrill-voiced boy was now beginning to show his potential.
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