“What is it?”

“Can you feel it?” Dyon asked again. “If you wanted to concoct a pill here, what would you do?”

For a moment, Alauna didn’t understand the question. Wasn’t concocting a pill easy? With her proficiency, she didn’t even strictly need a cauldron either.

However, the moment she acted on those impulses… She suddenly realized that something was wrong.

“… I can’t?”

Her words seemed to question herself. She couldn’t understand just what was happening.

“The laws of this world are completely different. The heavenly herbs are different, the evolutionary pathways are different, there aren’t even carbon-based lifeforms in this world.

“Our techniques of separation, of grafting, of extracting and expelling. None of it works here.”

Alauna could hear the frustration in her father’s voice. But at the same time, there was an underlying unyielding command that almost sneered. His intentions were clear. Her father had every intention of subduing this world completely.

“The theory of array alchemy we’ve learned, that I’ve taught you, are supposed to a flawless foundation. It’s supposed to allow us to comprehend herbs we’ve never seen before and concoct pills that we’ve never conceptualized. But the reality is that it’s flawed, it’s much too flawed.

“When I first saw the Dao of Array Alchemy, my first thought was of how arrogant such a title was. It’s only now I knew how ridiculous it really was to do such a thing.”

“Dad…” Alauna interrupted. “… Wasn’t Array Alchemy created in our world? Other worlds likely don’t have it.”

Dyon nodded. He knew that the aurora was created by the old man’s first disciple, following with array alchemy was also created by him.

“You mean to say that it’s fair for it to be called the Dao of Array Alchemy since it was only meant to encompass our own world to begin with, right? But I don’t see it that way.

“Array Alchemy is an attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of Fate. Its core is Creation itself. At its highest levels, it can not only concoct pills, but create the heavenly herbs the pills are concocted from. Such a lofty ideal couldn’t possibly be limited to one world.

“Yet, even now, the limit of Array Alchemy is the creation of Grandmaster Grade Herbs. I have no ability to create even Comet Grade Herbs, let alone Immortal Grade Herbs. The distance from the peak of this world alone is too far away, forget about the peak of everything.”

Alauna giggled. “Dad, most people can’t even create common grade herbs. You’re the only one who can create even Master Grade herbs, but you’re still complaining.”

Dyon shook his head, pinching his daughter’s nose lightly. “After slaving away for 80 years, the Grandmaster Grade is still my limit. That’s too pathetic. Before that, I was even worse, only able to create Common Grade Herbs.”

Alauna pouted. “Then what does that say about me?”

Dyon grinned. “That just means you’re still worse than your old man, no?”

Alauna slapped Dyon’s hand away from her nose, huffing with indignance.

“This is the key.” Dyon suddenly became serious, an imposing might spreading from his limbs. “You’re my daughter… I want you to see this first step. I want you to see what it means to disdain everything.”

Alauna’s gaze glowed, looking toward her father with a near reverential expression.

“Tell me, what do you know about Soul Nature?” Dyon’s own gaze softened as he met his daughter’s.

“A Soul Nature is something Soul Path cultivators can gain when crossing the mortal barrier and creating their Nascent Soul. It seems pretty important… But dad, I’ve never seen you try to gain a Soul Nature for yourself…”

Honestly, Alauna was a bit confused.

Her father had been stuck at the peak of the mortal realms of the soul for a long time now. By right, Dyon should already know what he was missing was a Soul Nature. However, Dyon pretended like he didn’t think of this and continued to try and breakthrough. It didn’t make much sense.

Dyon learned about Soul Natures back when he battled Orcus. In fact, it was due to the fact that Orcus was cultivating a Death Soul Nature that Dyon was able to defeat him with Madeleine’s Life Flames. If not for this, he may very well have died that day.

On top of this, considering Dyon was now asking this question of his daughter, it was clear he hadn’t forgotten. So what exactly was the problem?

“The truth is that I never tried to gain a Soul Nature because nothing spoke to me. I have my innate flames and lightning to choose from. Those would be my best options. But I could never settle out anything. So, I simply decided to not choose anything at all.

“As of now, I’m happy I made such a choice. If I had decided on a Soul Nature… It would be even more difficult to accomplish what I want to do now.”

Alauna’s lovely head tilted to the side, a curious expression furrowing her delicate features.

“Too cute.” Dyon grinned, pinching his daughter’s soft cheeks. 𝘳.𝑐ℴ

Alauna puffed up her cheeks, using the momentum of them ballooning to push Dyon’s fingers away.

“Cute? I’m a great beauty.” Alauna said proudly.

Dyon blinked. His daughter wasn’t wrong. She hadn’t settled on any man simply because there wasn’t one worthy of her on the mortal plane. Not only were her looks unmatched, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that she was the second most powerful on the plane behind only Dyon.

Whether this remained true if the experts of the Ancient Battlefield were included, Dyon wasn’t sure. But this didn’t matter much to him.

But he still shook his head, his smile blooming toward his daughter’s pouting expression.

“Definitely the most adorable.”

Seeing her father set on teasing her, Alauna tried to veer them back to the main topic. 𝘪.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“What is it that you want to do?”

“I want to find a way to break free of the Heavens. But, if I modified my soul to conform to one of its laws, doing so would be nearly impossible.”

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