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nDyon touched down to the ground, silently studying the area Alidor and his group had disappeared into.

nHe was quite content now. He had made a bet in his own array alchemy and had won.

nFrom what he could tell, although Alidor’s array alchemy fundamentals far surpassed his, Dyon’s soul strength was still stronger than Alidor’s. However, that made what Alidor was doing all the more impressive.

nAlidor’s soul stage was currently at the lower Essence level, while Dyon’s was at the peak of the 5th, only a few more soul rends from the Higher Essence level. Despite this, though, Alidor’s fundamentals were so sound that he could draw arrays at the very peak of the practitioner stage with speed Dyon could only match if he were to draw mid practitioner level arrays. In regards to complete arrays that is. Dyon’s speed arraying short cuts were another matter entirely.

nBut, that wasn’t all. The quality of his arrays were to such a level that describing them in the terms of a practitioner array seemed… lacking.

nA perfect example of this was in Dyon’s duel with the Elvin Kingdom’s formation and alchemy guilds.

nWhen he first stepped to the stage, Elder Dior’s son, Luvon, had provoked Dyon by stating that his 4th common level formation mastery far surpassed Dyon’s 1st common level mastery. At the time, the members of the formation guild had assumed that with Dyon’s supposed soul strength, he could only draw 1st common level arrays. It was just that he happened to be at a level of mastery that was hard to fathom in those low-level arrays.

nSo, Dyon, instead of refuting, agreed. Then, with the use of a 1st common level array, he completely crushed Luvon’s hope of retaliation.

nIf you take this into account, doesn’t that just mean Alidor was doing the same? His innate soul wasn’t even as powerful as Dyon’s, having only been at the peak of the Foundation stage. And, although most assumed that this was the cap for innate souls, Dyon’s perfect innate soul climbed to the Peak Blossom stage when he activated his manifestation.

nAnd yet, Alidor’s disadvantages didn’t end there. While Dyon had access to a peak divine level soul cultivation technique, Alidor had no such thing. What he did have was time, patience, Gautama clan legacies and maybe the greatest teacher in existence – the creator of the gates. This wasn’t to say that Alidor had ever met this creator, but… All one had to do was focus their 6th sense to suddenly realize that everything in this gate. Everything. Was an array.

nDyon was slowly starting to realize this as well. In fact, it was the very existence of the death core that made his thoughts shift into that direction.

nHe just couldn’t imagine the level of array alchemy you’d need to reach to be able to manifest the very laws of the universe… But, Alidor had taken their teachings to heart, slowly working his way from the simplest to the more complex.

n“Alright, time to study I guess…”

nDyon had already memorized the array Alidor had drawn. But, something was telling him that simply copying it wasn’t enough – the tower was much too enigmatic for that.

nThe only way to even make it close to this tower was to either have a powerful mastery of array alchemy or use brute strength. And yet, Kaeghan had shown Dyon exactly why just brute strength wasn’t enough. If that’s all you had to offer, your entire being could end up being like Kaeghan’s mangled hand.

nDyon silently chuckled to himself as he noticed Kaeghan’s limp hand lying on the ground. ‘What an odd guy…’

nShifting his gaze over the trail of dead monks and the fifth son, Dyon suddenly got an idea. ‘This dead guy is a member of the Uidah family? Maybe he has some important information about that family on him.’

nHonestly, Dyon wasn’t too worried about the Uidah family. Even if they sent someone, they could at most be at the peak of the essence gathering stage. Plus, he had just very clearly heard Alidor’s backstory. Alidor had something on him, but didn’t he also have something on Alidor now too?

nThe truth was that hearing this story wasn’t something Dyon needed, it was only an added bonus.

nAfter witnessing the first son battle, or at least try and battle Alidor, Dyon had already noted that the energy Alidor used was identical to the first son. And yet, this wasn’t an energy the Phantus or Basilisks used. And even further, Alidor went out of his way to not use that energy while battling Kaeghan. So, the deduction was quite simple. This was an energy that was exclusive to a very finite amount of people. It wasn’t one everyone in the Uidah universe had access to.

nSo, for Alidor to want to kill someone he clearly had close ties with, all while protecting a little girl that was much too young to be in the gate… The conclusion was clear for anyone who paid attention to see.

nStill, Dyon wanted to know more about an enemy that would probably be coming at him for revenge. So, he took the fifth son’s spatial rings before focusing back on the Epistemic Tower.

n‘This place is… dangerous.’

nIn the human world, there was a word to describe exactly what the Epistemic Tower was in the realm of physics… It was known as the perfect black body.

nIn the mortal realm, this was a concept that described the perfect absorber – a black hole of radiation.

nBut, this Epistemic Tower wasn’t from the mortal realm… It was a martial realm iteration of one.

nIf you made a single misstep, not only would you not feel pain as your body was beaten and mangled to a near unrecognizable state… You wouldn’t even know how you died as your existence was completely removed from the world.

nThat’s right. This Epistemic Tower was indeed a perfect absorber. It wouldn’t just kill you.

nIt would erase any thoughts or trace that you had even had existed.𝘪.𝑐ℴ𝘮.

nVisit .

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