Chapter 39 – Heavenly Sun Body

Kieran's consciousness returned to his body. Opening his eyes, he saw Runihoril standing before him.

"Alright, now that's done, let's move on to the next steps. Do you have a spatial ring?"

"A spatial ring? What is it?" Kieran asked when he heard the words he had never heard.

"A spatial ring is a ring forged with a spatial gem, having a pocket dimension inside that can store objects. If you don't have one..."

Before Runihoril can finish speaking, Kieran interrupts him.

"I don't have a spatial ring, but my aurora collar has a spatial gem equipped with a pocket dimension."

"Aurora collar?"

Now it was Runihoril's turn to be confused by the new word, Kieran quickly explained to him what an aurora collar was, but with what little knowledge he had of crystal engineering, it was impossible for him to explain perfectly how an aurora collar was created, but the only information he explained to Runihoril was enough to make him curious.

"It's really an interesting technology. My first impression of your race may have been biased. As you have an object equivalent to a spatial ring, you will be able to store my coffin inside."

At Runihoril's request, he approached the coffin again, preparing to stock it inside his aurora collar when he paused, staring at the materials that formed the coffin.

"What is your coffin made of, Runihoril?" Kieran asked as he put away the coffin.

"I'm not the one who created it, so I only know three materials used in his creation. One of the materials used is wood from the World Tree. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. The World Tree is like a deity to my race. Every 10 million years, we plant a seed in the heart of our planet. Thanks to the energy of the planet and the entire elven race, the seed germinates until it becomes what has been called a World Tree. Once mature, the tree gives back to the planet and its inhabitants all that has been given to it in the form of a blessing, the crystal essence around it would grow by several folds and become of such purity that it would contain practically no impurity and those until the World Tree eventually dies.

The second material is a dragon scales which were given to me by a friend who was a True Dragon of Eternal Light who took them from his own body.

The third was a golden lightning from a Golden Thunder Kirin that penetrated inside the wood of the World Tree and the scales of the Dragon of Eternal Light during the forging process."

"World Tree? True Eternal Light Dragon? Golden Thunder Kirin? What kind of existences are these?"

The more he talked with Runihoril, the more he realized that he knew nothing about the universe he lived in. Hearing Runihoril's words, he had the impression of seeing a glimpse of the immense universe in which he was only a speck of dust.

"These existences are too far from you for you to even begin to understand a tiny part of their power. Explaining it to you right now will only confuse you. Let's hurry to the cultivation room. The less time we waste here, the more you can cultivate inside."

"Okay, I'm with you."

He followed behind Runihoril inside the palace, the two going through a long corridor where he could see large doors with inscriptions on them.

After more than thirty minutes of walking, the two arrived inside a room filled with inscriptions. Wherever Kieran looked, he could see inscription symbols.

Each symbol seemed to gather in a spiral until the middle of the room.

Runihoril moved forward until he stood in the center of the room before calling Kieran.

"Come stand at the center of the formation."

"Yes."

He followed Runihoril's instructions before standing cross-legged in the middle of the room. He waited patiently for Runihoril's next words.

"I will now pass on the cultivation technique to you, but before that, I must ask you to make a soul oath to never teach this technique to anyone."

"What is a soul oath?"

"There are laws that govern everything in the universe. One of them is the soul oath. When a cultivator takes an oath on his soul, he must follow that oath, or his soul will disintegrate and be gone forever."

"How do I take a soul oath?" Kieran asked without hesitation.

'This kid is really brave, I just told him that his soul could disappear forever, but he didn't even flinch for a second.'

"Concentrate on your spirit world and say the following words. I, Kieran Arvost, swear on my soul that I will never teach the techniques learned from Runihoril Sylnorin without his consent."

Kieran focused on his spiritual world, as Runihoril told him. He appeared in front of his two crystal trees. Looking at his spiritual world, he pronounced his oath.

"I, Kieran Arvost, swear on my soul that I will never teach the techniques learned from Runihoril Sylnorin without his consent."

He felt an inexplicable feeling after saying those words. It was as if a weight had been attached to him. Leaving his spiritual world, he stared at Runihoril.

"I will now teach you the cultivation technique. Close your eyes and open your mind."

Runihoril placed his palm on his forehead before an immense amount of information entered Kieran's brain.

He kept his eyes closed for 20 minutes before finally opening them. As if two suns had just appeared in the room, his eyes emanated a light out of this world.

"Heavenly Sun Body," whispered Kieran.

"This technique was inspired by a sun, like a sun that yields to nothing and to no one. That’s the purpose of this technique."

Kieran looked at Runihoril with a lost look.

"A sun that yields to nothing and to no one... If it yields to nothing, why does the sun disappear every night? Shouldn't it illuminate the planet even if it is on the other side of the planet if he doesn't yield to nothing and to no one? I don't understand where the 'don't yield to nothing and to no one' part comes from."

"Haha, your way of thinking is quite interesting. Did you know that the sun doesn't disappear every night? He decides to die every night to let the moon live. He sacrifice his light every night to shine on the moon so that she can be seen in all her beauty. That's how a real sun should be! Yield to nothing and to no one but be ready to die every day to let the moon shine even for a moment."

Runihoril's words seemed to contain a hidden meaning, but Kieran couldn't understand it.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

"It's nothing. You'll understand one day when you find the moon."

Kieran still had a lost expression on his face.

"Don't give too much importance to my words. It's just the name I came up with for this technique when I witnessed the birth of a sun. Try to follow the information that I transmitted to you to cultivate."

He felt like Runihoril wasn't telling him everything, but he decided to ignore that feeling and started using the Heavenly Sun Body technique.

As he began to cultivate, Runihoril formed several seals with his hands, causing inscription symbols to activate throughout the hall.

An immense amount of crystal essence was drawn into the center of the formation as if all the crystal essence of the heaven and earth came together in one place.

Kieran was fully focused on the Heavenly Sun Body technique, not noticing the change in the crystal essence surrounding him.

Although he could only glimpse a tiny part of the Heavenly Sun Body that matched his cultivation level, he could feel that this technique was on an entirely different level than the one given by the Aegis Alliance to all citizens.

The first step of the technique was divided into several parts. The first part was to attract the crystal essence of the atmosphere into his body, but unlike the technique he had learned from the Aegis Alliance, the Heavenly Sun Body did not allow any impurity to enter his body.

He had to concentrate entirely on the crystal essence that he would attract into his body to discern all the impurities within it to separate them from the crystal essence that he would circulate in his body.

Very soon, he began to notice some difference in the crystal essence he was attracting. Although most of the crystal essence looked blue, a small portion had a slight golden sheen.

'It's as stated in the technique. I have to attract the crystal essence and separate the impurities from it to give it that golden sheen and then form a golden path flowing non-stop through each of my cells, muscles, organs, bones, brain, and spinal cord, not forgetting even the tiniest part that makes up my body, I must not just pass the crystal essence through my body mindlessly. As I do a full rotations of crystal essence with the Heavenly Sun Body, I have to make every single part completely filled with it until not a single drop can enter inside.'

Time passed slowly. Two hours later, the golden crystal essence inside him had almost traveled all over his body, from the soles of his feet through his chest and arms, to reach his brain. The golden crystal essence had nourished every cell that composed his body until reaching the last part of his body, which had not yet been nourished by the crystal essence, his spinal cord. According to the information that Runihoril had transmitted to him, this would be the most difficult but also the most painful part.

He took a deep breath of air before pushing the golden crystal essence into his spinal cord. He felt an immense pain invade his body. The pain was so excruciating that the blows he received from Allen during the inter-class competition felt like mere gentle taps on the shoulder in comparison.

He endured the pain, not giving in. He continued to send the crystal essence into his spinal cord. Yet, despite his efforts, the crystal essence had difficulty penetrating inside his spinal cord, causing him to feel even more pain.

Eventually, it took him five long hours to nourish his spinal cord, which was more than double the time required for the rest of his body.

Kieran gasped heavily for air. His whole body was drenched in sweat.

Having finished the last part of his body, he now gathered the crystal essence to bring it into his spiritual world.

'I must refine my crystal trees in order to control the entirety of the crystal essence within my spiritual realm. I cannot let the crystal essence wander freely and form a hollow lake of unsubstantial energy. It is crucial that I assert control and compress it into a unified location. Only when all the crystal essence in my spiritual realm is thoroughly condensed within a single point will I attain the initial stage of the Heavenly Sun Body.'

Big drops of sweat trickled down his forehead as he used all his concentration to control the crystal essence in a single point.

Runihoril watches the whole scene with seriousness on his face.

"It took him seven hours to do the first full rotation inside his body. Although I can't call him an unprecedented genius, he sure has talent. Let's see how long it will take you to complete the first step of the Heavenly Sun Body."

***

While Kieran cultivated with Runihoril, outside the palace, the expressions of the guild representatives were grim.

"You knew him! Are you pretending you don't know how to get into the palace so he can collect all the treasures for you?!"

Kade yells in Alexei's direction as a cold light shines in his eyes.

"I only met him recently. I don't know how he managed to get inside. If I knew, I wouldn't be staying here with you!"

A heavy tension invades the whole place. Each representative begins to express doubts about Alexei's actions.

"Are you telling us that a mere middle stage Iron rank has more information than the Cold Ocean Guild on a secret realm you've discovered!?"

"I'm telling you one last time. I don't know how he got inside."

While speaking with Kade, Alexei used his aurora collar to try to contact Kieran without any success.

Alexei couldn't help but think back to the appearance of Kieran, who had disappeared upon entering the palace. 'How did he do that?'

Suddenly all the representatives felt the crystal essence around them being pulled towards the palace. Even the crystal essence on the other side of the space cracks began to be drawn into the dimension by the formation in the palace.

The guild representatives stood silent, watching what looked like an endless amount of crystal essence being drawn into the palace.

"What is happening?" asked Sheyla, who was standing next to Anna.

"It looks like a formation to attract the crystal essence, but I have never seen one so powerful. Even the formation of the master of our guild is not able to attract even a small percentage of all the crystal essence that is currently attracted," replied Anna.

Kade's face darkened.

'I didn't intend to use it here, but if I don't do something, I will have come here for nothing!'

A ten-meter-long black cannon appeared in front of Kade.

Seeing the huge cannon appear, every guild representative was surprised.

"What the hell are you doing with an X-521 cannon for spaceships?"

Alexei's voice was agitated as he stared at Kade.

"I'm going to open this damn door!"

Kade activated the cannon in front of him. A beam of light formed at the head of the cannon, growing brighter with each passing second.

"Stop it! You could destroy the palace if you break one of the pillars holding it together!"

"I don't care. If I can't have it, no one will!"

Kade's hand moved on the cannon before the glowing light shot from the cannon, and a loud noise echoed through the secret realm.