Chapter 829 Four Pillars: Epiphany
Of course, with how Valyr already knew what to do in order to ascend his mana to the stage of 1st Cleansing, it also took the young man far less time than Sellifer expected to achieve the purification.
Though, unlike the 30 minutes he took to improve his mana to the Pure stage, it took a bit longer for him to ascend it to the 1st Cleansing stage as he felt a bit of resistance from the mana itself.
Nevertheless, it only took him about six hours in total to move his mana up to the stage of 1st Cleansing, prompting his newly obtained [Arcane Mark] to undergo its second upgrade.
At the same time, he felt as if the insides of his body had reached a sense of balance he had never noticed before, being reminded of the same thing happening to Sellifer back in the past.
"..." On the other hand, Sellifer was left at a complete loss for words after the young man had subverted all of her expectations, not even needing half a day to push his mana to the next stage.
Recalling how she had taken weeks and months to arrive at the same level, Sellifer felt a hint of indignance bubbling up within her.
Taking in a few deep breaths to compose himself, she then decided not to compare herself to the young man in the world of mana, reminding herself that her affinity with it was only more than average.
Unfortunately, even if she compared her achievements in purifying Shadow Energy to the young man's progress in purifying mana, she was still beat by a long shot.
'Truly monstrous,' thought Sellifer to herself once more, being reminded there and then that she was teaching a Zeihardt the secrets to obtaining Azure Energy.
Inwardly letting out a faint sigh as she imagined how quickly the disciple would surpass its master, Sellifer returned her thoughts to the matter at hand, asking Valyr to show his mana and Shadow Energy to her once more.
Nodding in response, he did the same thing he showed at the start, extending both hands outward as he conjured a flame of either mana and Shadow Energy on top of them.
Looking at how the intensity and the power behind the flame was now equal, Sellifer nodded in satisfaction, getting the feeling that balancing the quality of his two energies alone would result in some immediate benefits.
In fact, Sellifer also noticed that there were areas in the skills he used that automatically had Shadow Energy and mana fusing together without his knowledge, feeling like the young man was finally progressing in the right direction.
After taking a quick break, Sellifer then asked Valyr to upgrade both his mana and Shadow Energy to 2nd Cleansing, going over the steps needed to make it happen.
At the same time, she told the young man the other requirements she felt that were necessary for him to eventually achieve the Azure Trace.
"For one, both of your energies need to be at the stage of 3rd Cleansing at the very least," said Sellifer, to which Valyr nodded. "Then again, it might be possible to do it at a lower stage since I'm just basing off the requirements from my memory."
"You've already nailed the part where you need skills to make use of both Shadow Energy and mana at the same time. You just need to expand it to where it would be used by all of your skills."
"However, the last requirement is the one that might take you a while," Sellifer told Valyr as she wryly smiled. "You'd have comprehend at least two Intents, one focusing on Shadow Energy, the other on mana."
Hearing that, Valyr told Sellifer that he'd already comprehend a pure Intent Seed on Shadow Energy to the 2nd Stage, which caught the latter slightly off guard.
Nevertheless, after taking a few deep breaths, she returned to her previous expression as she noted that he only needed to comprehend an Intent based on mana at that point.
Deciding that they would talk about the Intents some other time, Valyr soon delved deep into his psyche once more, choosing to upgrade his mana first to the stage of 2nd Cleansing first before his Shadow Energy.
Though, just as the sight of the blue star at the center filled his vision, a great amount of information on mana began to inundate his mind.
Collating all of his understanding and experiences with mana thus far, as well as seemingly irrefutable truths on mana that came out of nowhere, the gears in his mind whirred on overdrive as he felt like he was touching upon an overdrive.
At the moment he felt the world attempting to form a connection with him, it was there that Valyr knew.
He had gotten an unexpected epiphany.