Chapter 132: Exploration

In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.

In that year, Su Chen remained in the Thousand Poisons Mountain’s restricted area, not taking a single step out from it.

His Origin Ring was filled with rations. After all, he had been prepared for something like this to happen during his expedition to Harpy territory. He just hadn’t expected for it to turn out like this.

In addition, Su Chen found it very easy to ignore the passage of time.

In this past year, Su Chen’s understanding of method power had greatly increased, particularly his mastery of spatial techniques, which had already undergone a qualitative change. His maximum teleportation distance and perception range had both increased substantially.

However, Su Chen couldn’t fully confirm these perceptions yet - if he were to accidentally jump out of the restricted area and then had no way of nullifying Kelesda’s seals, he would be in big trouble.

For this reason, Su Chen didn’t really know how to deal with Kelesda’s restrictions.

But regardless, Su Chen wasn’t planning on trying to break out by force as long as he wasn’t in a desperate situation.

He was also a bit unwilling to do so.

Having a legendary Arcana Master keep him company was too great.

In addition, the two of them complemented each other quite well.

Su Chen had the consciousness crystal, which gave him incredible analysis abilities. Kelesda, on the other hand, had lots of experience as a legendary Arcana Master. As such, he was able to put many of Su Chen’s ideas into actual practice.

The two of them actually made quite a good pair.

Over a period of time, Kelesda discovered that his bottleneck was loosening rapidly, as if he was about to make another breakthrough. No one knew what would happen if a legendary Arcana Master were to make another breakthrough. They would probably remain a legendary Arcana Master, and their exact tier wouldn’t change much, but their strength would still probably increase greatly.

Once you were as strong as Kelesda, any further breakthroughs would bring you incredible strength. As such, Kelesda had lots of hope for Su Chen.

“I tried one of your suggestions yesterday, nameless friend. Your deduction about Electromagnetic Storm is correct, but there are still a few problems with its practical use……” Kelesda ‘reported’ the outcomes of his experiment to Su Chen.

Su Chen sat in a cave, writing things down carefully. The cave was filled with living necessities. Most of them were given to him by Kelesda, as long as they couldn’t be used to help Su Chen escape.

Su Chen made another deduction after Kelesda reported the results to him. His consciousness crystal allowed him to make calculations incredibly rapidly, so Su Chen was always able to come up with further directions for Kelesda to test.

Throughout this process, Su Chen wouldn’t tell Kelesda all of his considerations. Some of them he left for himself to study in future experiments. At the same time, Kelesda wouldn’t tell su Chen all of the outcomes of his experiments. Each of them reserved some secrets for themselves, but did so in a way that wouldn’t impact the other party’s functioning.

In that sense, Su Chen was keeping many more secrets from Kelesda than vice versa.

It wasn’t that Kelesda’s character was better; Kelesda just subconsciously believed that Su Chen would never be able to escape, so there wasn’t much point in keeping too many secrets. His keeping secrets was mostly to justify to himself that he was still wary - a habit of his, in some sense - and not because he felt like he needed to. There were sometimes things that Kelesda would withhold from Su Chen at first before giving in and handing them over to Su Chen later anyways.

When Su Chen heard the report from Kelesda, he paused for a moment as he wrote down what had been said before saying, “Fine, I got it. It’s pretty similar to what I had imagined. I will change how to use it later.

Kelesda had no questions about this. A year’s worth of time was more than enough for him to better understand this nameless opponent of his.

However, he didn’t leave immediately. Instead, he said, “Nameless friend, a year has already gone by. How many more rations do you have? Do you need help making some back?”

“I don’t have much left, but I don’t really care for anything you might give me. I wouldn’t dare put that stuff in my mouth,” Su Chen chuckled.

Kelesda sighed. “Friend, why do you insist on being this way? You have already more than demonstrated your value to me in this past year. I can promise you that I will not kill you. Actually, I will make you one of my officials……”

“But I will never be allowed to leave again, right?” Su Chen countered.

Kelesda fell silent.

Yes, Kelesda’s desire to kill Su Chen had greatly decreased after Su Chen had demonstrated his value, but to just let Su Chen go…… Well, Kelesda would rather kill him.

After a moment’s thought, he could only say, “You won’t be able to escape.”

He had already said this a number of times throughout the past year, and every time, Su Chen would respond with, “I can escape.”

Kelesda chuckled and didn’t say anything more.

He left.

Even so, he left behind some backup in the area. As soon as Su Chen stepped out of the restricted area, he would know about it immediately. Su Chen wouldn’t have any opportunity to find another restricted area to hide in.

Su Chen wasn’t in a hurry.

He continued his research and conversed with other people.

Yes, conversed with others.

Kelesda had made a big mistake from the very beginning. He had only restricted Su Chen’s movements, but not his ability to communicate remotely with other people.

Patelocke!

Patelocke was now in a well-preserved ancient transmission puppet and could communicate across almost unlimited distances.

Su Chen had used Patelocke to send word about Jade Clearmist’s secret realm.

As such, the Boundless Sect had found out nearly a year ago that Su Chen was in captivity.

They hadn’t charged over recklessly partly because the Thousand Poisons Mountain was an unfriendly stretch of territory and partly because Su Chen had instructed them not to come for him - all he needed them to do was cooperate with his instructions from the outside.

“How’s it going today?” Patelocke asked.

“Kelesda confirmed my electromagnetic theory. I can basically confirm now that this method power is most likely chaotic in nature. It’s much more profound than any kind of power I have ever encountered before, and it is incredibly powerful and violent, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t begin to understand it,” Su Chen replied.

“That’s impossible,” Patelocke refuted. “Method power can only be comprehended from inspiration, not understood.”

“That’s just because we don’t have enough of a foundation to understand it yet,” Su Chen countered in response. “The method power system is incredibly powerful, and its effects are great, which is why it is so hard to control. But if you succeed, you will become immensely powerful.”

After a year’s worth of research, Su Chen’s understanding of method power had finally reached a certain level. Origin Energy was like money; once you had a bit of money, you would be able to use it to do business and affect others’ money, resulting in a chain reaction. This chain reaction resulted in the desired Arcana Technique or Origin Skill.

However, method power was different. It was much more profound and vast.

Method power was more like a complicated mechanical instrument. Mastering just a component of it was totally useless. Instead, you needed to have control of a few key locations, such as the power switch, the hinges, and other areas before being able to control the entire instrument.

This analogy was still imperfect, however. Su Chen was able to determine one truth from Kelesda, which was that method power and Origin Energy were still directly linked.

This linkage originated from the fact that a person’s Origin Energy mastery would need to reach a certain level before they could even begin to receive inspiration from method power.

This was why comprehending method power was very closely related to a person’s cultivation base.

That person would need to have mastered something to its limit, no matter what that something was.

The vitality limit, elemental limits, or even cultivation limits all applied.

Kelesda had reached the peak of his understanding of thunder, which was how he received inspiration concerning thunder method power and became able to control sound. The biggest difference between method power and Origin Energy was that the former was related to a person’s soul, and would purely be activated by a person’s soul.

In simple terms, things like Origin Skills and Arcana Techniques all had a fixed form. If a person wanted to unleash a lightning storm, they would need to first select the corresponding Origin Energy Pattern. It was impossible to use a Whitetower Teleportation pattern to unleash a lightning storm. A person’s talent only affected how quickly they were able to form these patterns, but the patterns themselves wouldn’t change.

However, method power was different. After all, it obeyed the soul, so once a person controlled method power, they would be able to use that power with but a thought. Origin Energy Patterns were totally meaningless in the face of these principles.

However, that didn’t necessarily mean that you could do as you pleased. Methods had their own corresponding characteristics. For instance, Kelesda’s thunder method power only allowed him to manipulate sound as he pleased, but not anything else.

And doing this required complete mastery of a certain kind of Origin Energy.

As such, to say that Origin Energy was the foundation of method power was not false.

The problem was that there was a huge gap between mastering a kind of Origin Energy and receiving inspiration. This gap was not one that could be closed with cultivation. It required comprehension, which came from inspiration, followed by learning how to control the method power.

This process relied almost entirely on the blessing of the Heavens.

In simple terms, it depended on character.

This was the biggest difference between Kelesda and Su Chen. Su Chen believed that this was not necessarily true. There was definitely a path that connected mastering a kind of Origin Energy and receiving inspiration.

The two of them had debated over this matter for some time.

Kelesda, who had been inspired once already, had no way of understanding why this nameless friend of his, who also possessed method power, would insist on the calculability of method power.

Kelesda believed that method power was bestowed by the Heavens, an acknowledgment of an individual's strength and a granting of a certain measure of authority.

This was also what most people who received inspiration believed as well.

Method power, as its name implied, was related to the fundamental principles that governed the world.

Controlling this kind of power was essentially the same as mastering the principles of operation for that element. This was the highest possible accomplishment.

How could such a process be calculated, analyzed, or researched?

No, it had to be bestowed by the Heavens.

Kelesda wanted Su Chen to analyze not how to search for inspiration but how to best “placate” the Heavens and obtain more inspiration that way.

However, Su Chen obviously disagreed.

He firmly believed that method power could be obtained in a systematic way.

The only reason people hadn’t been able to do this before was because their research wasn’t deep enough.

In that sense, even Patelocke felt that Su Chen had gone a bit mad.

He sighed. “Method power is the power of nature itself. If you want to calculate it, you essentially need to be able to compute the fundamental rules of this world.”

Su Chen replied, “You’re right that it won’t be easy, but just because it won’t be easy doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. Right?”

Patelocke was immediately rendered speechless.

Yes, not easy did in fact mean something different than impossible.

Su Chen said, “The difference between Origin Energy and method power is the difference between a system that is well understood and a system that is not. Exploring the unknown requires you to stand at the peak of what is already known. This is a reminder from the very world that we live in. When you reach a certain level of mastery, you will be able to begin to try and understand it and predict its behavior. As such, we shouldn’t be scared by the vast, unclear future. What we need to do instead is to continue to advance without stopping……”