Prime Originator

An unknown amount of time passed before Leon was able to regain his consciousness. The turbidity in his eyes cleared and he immediately inspected himself for any damages. There was none.

As a doctor, he understood that the pain that comes from tempering his meridians would be like striking his nerves. The pain would be much greater than creating Body Runes, but he still underestimated his own pain tolerance and passed out.

"You're awake." 

Maya said nonchalantly on the side.

"How long had I passed out?" 

"10 minutes." 

"Only 10 minutes?" 

Leon creased his brows. It was a lot shorter than he expected, but he immediately understood why after he finished his self-inspection. He had run out of pseudo-Grandmist energy. 

The few strands he had refined had already merged with his meridian channels during the tempering process and became a part of it. 

He could see parts of his meridians shining with a soft tinge of grey, the color of pseudo-Grandmist, but it was only part and not all.

"Only about 20% has been tempered, huh?"

Leon quietly murmured. It was not bad for a few strands. 

"However, If I want to completely temper both inner and outer body, I will need so much more energy."

Leon slowly lapsed in silence.

The artifact spirit said that he could not use his Revolving Core until it completes its transformation, but as he discovered that Grandmist energy should be used for body forging, it makes no sense to continue the energy refining path.

It was already problematic in the Revolving Core realm. Who is to say that Heaven Ascension realm and Void realm won't have their own sets of problems? 

Leon could already foresee the problem that awaits in him on the energy refining path if he was to continue with it.

Grandmist energy was the source of all matter that formed the universe. The stars and stellar bodies were all formed by Grandmist energy.

Hypothetically speaking, if he was to make it to the Heaven Ascension, his pseudo-Grandmist energy might reach a certain level of density and solidification that it might just condense into a star. 

Even if it's just a miniature star, the weight and gravitational force isn't something a normal Heaven Ascension Realm practitioner can handle. It would crush him to death.

And to go beyond that, the Void Realm, this realm requires shattering the core to mimic the big bang and form their own miniature universe, the inner world. 

This was the first big hurdle of divine practitioners, the tribulation of man before they face the Divine Damnation of heaven.

Most practitioners fail at this step and blow themselves up into nihility, but he might not even put a crack on his core even if he miraculous make it to this step.

Since the future of energy refining with pseudo-Grandmist energy was wrought with problems, he might as well focus all that energy into body forging. 

He would simply just be converting his cultivation from an Energy Refiner to a Body Forger, albeit with a lot of pain to endure in between.

Having decided on his objective, Leon had a look at his Revolving Core. It was slightly smaller than the last time he checked. 

This was not good news, but it did not mean it was very bad news either. It just means that he had no time to waste. It will be harder to revert the core energy back to a lower state, the denser it becomes.

He currently had no control over it, and he simply cannot wait for the transformation to be completed on its own. But what method could he use to regain control of his energy?

"Seems like I have to result to pills," Leon concluded. 

Alchemy was his area of expertise and there were indeed a few pill formulas that appear in his mind without having to browse through the Archive in the Whitespace.

It was not uncommon for divine practitioners to advance their realms without establishing a firm foundation. 

The ignorant ones would continue to press forward and hope to correct their mistake by establishing a firmer foundation in their new realm, but courageous and ambitious ones would go back when they realized their foundation was not firm enough.

These are the ones that would seek alchemists to help them correct their mistakes even if it meant dropping an entire realm in cultivation. 

After all, a person cannot build a skyscraper with weak and shaky foundations. It would crumble at some point and the whole thing would come crashing down.

Leon took time to check the inventory of his grown herbs and browse through his memories, before settling on a single pill formula.

'A Tier-3 Realm Reversal Pill should do the trick. Thankfully, I collected a wide range of herbal seeds and planted a lot of supplementary herbs, but I am barely meeting the demands. Out of 10 pill formulas, I only have the herbs available for 2 of them.'

'Now that the available herbal garden had grown larger with the artifact spirit's small recovery, I should plant more miscellaneous herbs. I might not need it now, but it's hard to say in the future.'

Leon began to plan ahead and started grabbing a selected bunch of herbals seeds from a small mountain of seeds he had thrown into one corner of the Worldspace. 

He should really get a cabinet to organize his seeds, but since he could easily identify each seed anyway, he didn't think it was necessary.

'Hmm.' 

Leon suddenly thought of something. A Realm Reversal Pill was designed for spirit energy, but would it work on pseudo-Grandmist energy?

'It seems like I will have to cross-check with the Archive for answers in the end.'

Leon spent a few minutes in the Whitespace, browsing through the related information before making some revisions to the Realm Reversal Pill by adding another 5 supplementary herbs.

Returning to the Worldspace, he grabbed all the required herbs from the herbal garden before planting new seeds in its place. After he was done with that, he grabbed his pill cauldron as well, but then he suddenly froze.

'Well this is awkward. I won't be able to refine pills as I normally would without my fire manipulation ability.' He thought to himself.

"It seems my only choice is to go back to using lowly earthly fire. Although there will be a drop in quality, I don't really have any other options available to me." Leon muttered to himself.

He did not have the materials to start an earthly fire in his Worldspace, nor was it possible in the subterranean space. He would need to return to the surface for that. 

"It also seems like I have to temporarily postpone my plans and return to the Capital first before I can resolve my issues and head back hereafter to treat the treants."

Leon said wryly while scratching his cheek. 

That was life for you. Not everything will go the way you want it, and more often than not, you have to work around what the world had in store for you instead.

Exiting the Worldspace with nothing except the black spear he usually carries, Leon was prepared to head outside the spare dwelling and bid Elder Evergreen a temporary goodbye. Little did he know, some startling changes had taken place while he was absent.

"Your Highness." 

A palace guard greeted as soon as he exited.

Leon noticed the palace guard's yet-to-fade-away awed expression and asked, "Had anything happened while I was away?"

The palace guard opened his mouth with the intention to explain, but words did not form. He did not know how to describe the situation. In the end, the palace guard said, "It's better if I take you to see for yourself, Your Highness."

"Oh?" Leon raised an eyebrow, before he nodded, "Alright. Lead the way."

The palace guard complied with respect. 

The path was unsurprising. It led towards the tunnel, but due to the large open space of the treetop and the layout of the treant's village, Leon only had to climb one point and turn one corner to see what was up.

It was currently the peak of the day upon the surface. The sun was the brightest at this time and the reflective mirrors in the tunnel had been set up. 

Leon could see the beam of sunlight shining down from the tunnel hole above.

What was surprising to see was that some of the supposedly crimson leaves in the sunlight's path had already turned a vibrant green. 

But this was not the reason for the palace guard's hard-to-describe expression. It was due to the treants bathing in the sunlight. Elder Evergreen was also seen among them. 

At this moment, the Old Treant along with the others looked a lot less like 'treants'. They seemed to have shed their bark-like wooden skin and regained their mortal flesh.

However, more leaves seemed to have sprouted from their head. It was big, green, and very vibrant.

Looking at Elder Evergreen's change in appearance, he finally looked a lot more… well, evergreen.

Making his way over, Leon asked with surprise, "How did this all happen, Elder?"

"You're here, Child." Elder Evergreen acknowledged his presence, before shaking his head. "I don't know. It just happened after we walked into the sunlight. However, I have not felt this refreshed and pleasant for a long time. I feel… young again." 

Leon also noticed the newfound vigor in the surrounding 'treants'. They were practically overflowing with lifeforce and youthfulness. 

Apart from the green jewel on their forehead and the few branch and leaves on their head, they looked practically human again and they did not look like they were over 500 years of age. Even the Old Treant seemed to have lost a few wrinkles. 

Was this a miracle of life? 

The treants seemed to have undergone a round of evolution, but what about the elder tree? Leon immediately returned his attention back to the elder tree. 

Nothing significant seemed to have happened to the elder tree yet, most likely due to its sheer size. However, the green leaves were spreading beyond the sunlight zone. 

Will all the crimson leaves turn green eventually? What will happen after? Leon couldn't wait to find out. 

He knew the sunlight would bring about a positive effect, but he would have never thought that the effect would be so exaggerated! 

It was overpowering.