Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

Seeing his decisiveness, Pinaka nodded in appreciation. "In accordance with our agreement, you can utilize me in any situation you need. With this, you’ll still exceed all those on this continent." Her words left Yan Zaizen a little reassured in his decision. Indeed, he possessed Pinaka, a spirit-rank armament with a profound power. If he used her in accordance with his qi cultivation base and laws, who could rival him?

He rubbed his nose softly in realization.

Wait.

"I don’t have any suitable qi arts to use." He stated, realizing his dilemma had yet to pass. Besides the Yan Clan’s low-grade arts and Tao’s Ascending Raindrops Technique, he didn’t have any other arts for qi. Not to mention, none of his arts enabled him to properly utilize his laws. If he decided to rely on his cultivation base, wouldn’t he be far weaker than others due to this?

Pinaka was shocked dumb for a second, looking at Yan Zaizen as if he was an idiot. If one truly looked into her eyes, they weren’t filled with contempt or disdain, but sheer disbelief at the highest form of stupidity.

Seeing this look on her face, he felt uncomfortable. ’Why was she looking at me like that?’ He couldn’t help but think, shifting his eyes away from that gaze.

"You...you..." Pinaka truly felt shocked hearing his words. As she was resting inside his soul, they were interconnected in more ways than one. Earlier, she had investigated the Meteor Ring thoroughly and found an incredible trove of books scattered about as if it was thrown around like trash. At first, she just assumed he was a disorganized person that placed very little value in arts due to his lack of talent, so she felt disdain, but now she felt truly complex.

"You!" She raised her hand almost instinctively, wanting so hard to make a swiping motion to slap some intelligence into this individual, but she restrained herself. After a long moment, she calmed down. "You have several arts within your sub-dimensional ethereal ring."

For a second, Yan Zaizen was confused. Sub-dimensional ethereal ring? However, it soon hit him. The Meteor Ring! He couldn’t help but remember him calling it that because it came from a meteor that struck him, but now it made a lot more sense. The sub-dimensional ethereal ring was like its own dimension and only the soul could interact with it.

The arts must be those books with the strange languages.

"I..." He wanted to respond with the truth, but he felt that he’ll only elicit an expression of disdain from her, so he couldn’t help but hesitate. Only after struggling internally for a while did he reply, "I can’t read any of those books."

Pinaka went blank for a second but soon recovered. A helpless sigh resounded, "You have an Aurora Soul Realm cultivation base, you can read and understand most languages." She pointed out, as if saying something that was fairly known in the myriad realms.

It was true, all languages originate from the soul, and despite them having different characters or writing styles, they all originate from that aspect to facilitate proper communication.

When one reaches a high enough soul realm, they could instinctively comprehend written languages or even understand spoken languages. Speaking or writing it would be incredibly difficult and takes practice, but being able to read it? That was simple.

There were exceptions, of course. For example, if a soul at the Astral Soul Realm or above created a language, then only those who’ve previously studied the language or possess similar cultivation base would be able to comprehend it. Some special code-like languages could only be comprehended with the proper codex for reference.

There were a bit more, but all of these were the minority. The majority of used languages synonymously with the same race typically are produced from the most basic of souls. As long as one was in the Perfect Nascent Soul, they’d be able to comprehend it.

Indeed, when Pinaka explained all this, Yan Zaizen realized why she thought he was dumb. At the time, he was at the Advanced Nascent Soul and because he felt he couldn’t read them again, he never tried again. This realization made him gulp with shame.

"I see." Feeling her gaze on him, he shifted to the Meteor Ring. In almost an instant, he was before the scattered books. Pinaka soon formulated beside him. He was going to pick one up, but a thought hit him. He turned to Pinaka and asked, "Which one is suitable for me?"

There was no need to look through all of them. He imagined quite a few was useless for him to practice and Pinaka wouldn’t lie, or rather, she couldn’t due to the soul oath, and he trusted her.

Earlier, Pinaka had already read all of the books. All of them were at the superior-grade or above. Unfortunately, many of them truly were unsuitable for Yan Zaizen due to his race, conceptual laws, or cultivation base. This was why she followed him, but seeing him ask for her help, she couldn’t help but feel a little happy.

She took a solemn expression, obviously taking this seriously. "Hm...Most of these books are all conceptual methods, so they train a specific conceptual law, and thus their arts are defined by the concepts. Unless you’ve comprehended the concept, you’d be unable to bring out the full strength of the arts. However, there are two exceptions for you."

She waved her hand causing two books to float before Yan Zaizen. He analyzed them and couldn’t help but be a little shocked. The first one had a violet cover with a single silver dot. This was the first book he ever picked up and he remembered it well. The second was a book with the depiction of a white planet with two black rings circling it.

"The first book is a conceptual method called Violet Way of Spatial Shifting. It details how to properly utilize spatial laws, but its concept pales in comparison to yours." She mentioned, recalling the Spatial Form of Infinite Stability. That conceptual law pretty much covered every concept except spatial chaos. Therefore, all the arts in that book should be usable to Yan Zaizen and even brought to greater effect than normal.

"The second book is called the Grand Heavenly Zone. It’s a pinnacle-grade aura-based conceptual art."

Pinnacle-Grade?!

In arts, pinnacle-grade arts typically referred to the absolute apex in its category. This indicated that this art stood at the apex of all aura-based arts!!

Wait.

"Conceptual art?" This was the first time Yan Zaizen heard of this. There were qi-arts, soul arts, and martial arts, but he’s never heard of conceptual art.

Pinaka didn’t even bother to give him the satisfaction of her disdain and directly explained, "Conceptual arts rely on your conceptual laws. The greater your conceptual law, the stronger the art. The higher your mastery, the greater the art." This art relied on conceptual laws, so the more profound the concept, the greater its effect. The greater the law it’s based on — Mortal, World, or Imperial — the stronger it becomes.

"I’m truly surprised you have this art in your possession. This was originally an art of someone who exceeded the heavens. With every word he said, all listened. With every movement he made, all bowed in submission. With a single wave of his hand, he could cause the heavens to collapse. This shouldn’t even exist beneath the heavens but beyond that." Pinaka spoke, her words filled with reverence and respect. One could tell she knew who this individual was and likely even had interactions in the past with him.

However, Yan Zaizen focused on her last words. "Beyond the heavens?" Inwardly, he was shocked. He knew of exceeding the heavens, but what was beyond? What could cultivators fight so hard to reach?

Pinaka looked at him with a bit of pity. This caused Yan Zaizen to be dumbfounded.

She only spoke a few words, "Below the heavens are the earths and the skies, beyond the heavens are the earths and the skies."

What?! What the hell did that mean?

"When you’ve reached a point where you take your first step towards the heavens, you’ll know. Until then, I suggest you focus on other things." With those words, she vanished from his sight, leaving him more confused than he had ever been before.