Heaven's Greatest Professor

He had been dealing with the patterns for over a month now, yet he was still one huge step away from reaching the point Ariha termed where manipulating the pattern would be second nature, nothing too different compared to breathing.

Like she usually did, unconsciously or consciously.

He thought it was a Transcendent by-product of breathing, but she corrected him, saying he should be capable of it once his body adapted to the swirls of the pattern.

There was another weird thing he found out. Well, found out by her, but it was about him. After a thorough check-up on his body, Ariha mentioned his body wasn't like any normal rankers'. He told her about the [Void Vanquishing Physique], but her thoughts weren't about that.

Like a Gold ranker, his regular heart had transformed into a magical construct, very complexly connected to his mysterious Void Core, pumping essence to energy and energy to essence all the time. She theorised that if a regular Iron ranker were to carry such a heavy body without such an intricate system, the person would be tired all the time.

As a matter of fact, he did feel tired beyond measure when he first woke up near the stream and stayed in the village. More points in his attributes helped, and so did the efficiency performance; however, the Iron rank advancement changed it for the better. And then the boon of the Physique.

However, even with all her fascination, Ariha didn't forget to point out the complication he might face. For example, how much essence and energy he had to dump just to stay standing. And it was another story if he were to fight, leaping through the air.

According to her, his body was in a limbo state of a Transcendent body. He had the transcendent nature of it, just not with most of the benefits. Only through using his legendary artefacts could he exert some form of the transcendent power, albeit lowered to a great degree.

They were with Ariha while he meditated amongst the clouds. Yup, he was literally in the air, floating within the clouds using an anti-gravity script.

He was amongst the purest forms of the patterns, which was simply a by-product of the Way. He needed to get his body used to the pattern first, to the Way.

The runic patterns in his left arm were swallowing the swirls of chaotic patterns of the Way. It had been happening when he put his body under a great load of stress under the effect of the pattern. Thankfully, he didn't have to worry about it having any side effects on his body.

After a little discussion with Ariha, he learned this was exactly what she intended for him to do, though she hadn't thought it would be this easier. She implied it wouldn't be the inheritance of the Void Emperor if it couldn't do this much.

The Void Prison Realm, the fate mark, was absorbing the essence of the Way, and as an effect, his [Void Vanquishing Physique] was improving.

[Void Vanquishing Physique: Progress - 49%]

The percentage had been rising by a point or two every day—he hadn't seen such a steep increase in his Physique doing anything. Perhaps fighting in the Phantom Accursed Valley might have been a second, but it was far from being a close second.

Moreover, it was becoming harder to progress further in this path, the more his body was growing saturated with the essence of the Way.

Perhaps the only way for him to complete this would be to leave everything and put all his attention and lifeblood into absorbing the torrential currents of the Way. It definitely would be a bloody endeavour if he were to stick to it.

But apparently, his teenage looks had something else in mind.

He still had stamina left to go on for a few hours, but she called him down, shooting light in his direction.

Releasing the anti-gravity runes, he came down, his whole body riddled with wounds that even his dwindling radiant power was unable to heal quickly. After all, the only way to improve his physique was to be a fucking masochist.

"You haven't reached the intermediate level yet, huh," the angelic girl said. A statement, not a question.

"I don't think it would happen in a day or two, either." He clenched his jaw as she cast a couple of Radiant spells on him. His wounds visibly closed while the warmth of her pure energy washed over him. With his Radiant power dwindling during the month, he could only leave the job of his healing to her. Well, she was freakingly brilliant at it.

"Even though it was only a percent, there's a big difference between 49% and 50%," she said. "Thankfully, my dear disciple does not have to waste time in such a masochistic way to break through."

With that, a vial of potion appeared in her palm. A translucent liquid was glittering in the small vial. There were no more than a couple of dozen drops of the mysterious elixir.

"What is that?" he asked, frowning.

"Hmm, I didn't actually name it after I made it," she mumbled. After thinking for a moment, she added, "Let's call it Radiant Aether."

"Is that what you have been spending most of your days for the last month?" he asked, the frown deepening. Although Ariha, or rather the younger Avatar of her, had promised to teach him about the Way, she only instructed a few times. Most of his training had been self-imposed with her advice.

"Precisely," she said with a smile. "Well, not all of my time, but certainly a lot of the time, and all I have to show for it was twenty-four drops of Radiant Aether. Hopefully, you won't waste a single bit of your Master's hard work."

"What does it do?" he asked, instead. "Wait, what did you make it out of? I don't think there's much herbs present in here?" Stay with the story on m v l e m p y r

"There are some at the summit, but yes, two types of essences were the main ingredients for the elixir," she said.

"The Way of the Essence," he muttered, studying the vial. "And radiance essence?"

"Well, your instinct seems to have gotten better," she said with a mischievous smile. "Sit down and ingest no more than one drop of liquid essence."

"Only one drop?" he asked, catching the precious elixir she just tossed at him.

"Your body won't be able to handle any more than that," she said. "You have no idea how tyrannical the power of the liquid essence of the Way is."

"HOw much?" he couldn't help but ask, opening the cork to sniff the precious elixir.

"You used essence gem?" she asked, getting a nod, she continued. "Imagine a gold-ranked essence gem, but a couple thousand times more purer and more intense."

He sucked in a frigid breath. Apparently, essence gems contained a faint, diluted essence of the Way, but it was so minuscule that there was almost no threat to a ranker. According to her, the top gold-ranked essence gems contained only 1 to 2% pure essence of the Way.

"But obviously, the Radiance essence invested in it will keep you alive, so don't worry," she said like an angel.