Heaven's Greatest Professor

Three days and eight hours before the promised date, his master stopped letting him do any heavy lifting work, like intense sparring with her, or trying to absorb any more of the essence of the way.

He had argued with her for several minutes that he could use the remainder of the time. His [Void Vanquishing Physique] stood at 93%. The progress had slowed down in the middle of the 80s after his body adapted to the liquid radiant aether, but since his heart transplant, it had been growing without him working purposefully on his physique.

He wanted to complete the progression before the promised fight, hoping it would give him an edge in surviving the five-minute challenge.

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However, Ariha cut him short by saying, "Who is the master, is it him or her?"

He could do nothing but shut his mouth after that. She had done a lot for him in these short few weeks, even though she was merely a shadow of the being she truly was. But her sacrifice and devotion had moved him greatly, enough that he wouldn't go against her wishes so long as they were done in good faith.

"What?" she asked. As she said, she had healed up well; no signs of the previous injuries could be seen on her body. "Not going to argue your point?"

He glared at her and then snorted. "Are you trying to get a rise out of me?"

She only smiled. "Do you know for sure what would happen if you complete the progression of your Physique?" she asked. "Yes, there might be a power-up, might even be new abilities, but do you know for sure it would leave you exhausted beyond measure, so much so that you won't even stand a minute against her."

His face turned ugly, as he gave her no answer.

"I know for sure the complete mastery would take a lot out of you," she continued. "Far more than when you reached intermediate mastery. Very low odds with the time you have left... do you want to gamble on it?"

He wanted to say yes, but that was the rash part of him. The radiance essence circulated in his body, easing his heart, as reasons became far more evident. He sighed. "What do you think my chances are of withstanding her?"

Ariha shot him an extensive look, from head to toe. He had asked her the same question multiple times after his strength grew, but on none of these occasions had she given a definitive or promising answer.

Ultimately, her expression turned sour as though she had to admit something bad. "I hate to consider it, but a large part of it depends on her mood," she said, clenching her jaw for the first time in his watch. "I'm very wilful, and I fear that has only become more destructive as I grew older... so..."

"So..." he repeated, sucking in a deep breath.

"But I have complete faith in you that you'll manage to impress her," she said.

He gave her a nod.

"You have exhausted all your scripts... Prepare whatever you can in the last two days... for the remainder of the time after that, you'll only rest or meditate."

He nodded again.

"I'm serious," Ariha told him again, her tone laced with great weight. "If I see you pushing yourself too hard these days, I will..."

She didn't need to complete her sentence as he bowed respectfully like a disciple giving the proper respect their master deserved, while saying, "I won't defer from your advice, Master."

Ariha's back shook a little as she stared at him. "Good," she said and turned around. "And don't be too sincere, or serious... do you remember my talk from day one?"

He nodded, and she didn't even give him another look as she shot into the air, her celestial wings unfurling into existence as she disappeared.

He already had all his runesmithing instruments and materials laid out. Considering the limited time remaining, he wasted no time to rest his buttocks and began working. He would need a great load of Anti-gravity, Empower, Magic Amplification, and Restoration scripts if he wanted to stand a chance.

Ariha had shown him a way on how to infuse Radiance essence efficiently into the runes to boost their effect. Well, he had already discovered that the light attribute has an augmenting effect on the runes, and began to implement them in his formations. However, with her teaching, he had managed to avoid a lot of wrong paths and learn quickly.

Of course, she couldn't teach him all she had learned in the short time they had, and he wanted to do some experiments, but there was no time for that. On that note, he was curious how the younger version of Ariha learned so much about the ways, runes, and healing in just about nine years of her life.

Yes, she was brilliant, madly talented, but he didn't think it was possible to advance to transcendence with only a decade of practice. Ultimately, he asked her the question, and she answered straightforwardly... It wasn't as complicated as most of her answers, but it poured on him a great deal of envy.

For one thing, she was born with the station of a Gold ranker, with talent greater than anyone else. This alone would have caused jealousy and envy among the masses if they knew it. But apparently, it was a common phenomenon for celestials (obviously, not true for an artificial celestial like him).

And for another matter, all celestials are born with a certain realm of potential. Like at birth, it was determined how many steps they would take on the Grand Path.

But there was no time to mull over or be envious of that. Nothing was set in stone, as even the monolithic existence like the Void Emperor of history, the strongest being to ever unite thousands of realms under his wing, had no semblance of recognition in current times.

Now, lost in the void.