Chapter 1387 Essence
When one looked back on his life now, it was easy to say he was just very lucky to stand where he was, but how many people would have made the choices he had?
Back at Focus Academy, how many would have taken Madeleine's Elder Brother's strike for the sake of protecting a woman he cared for? How many would have put their life on the line for a frail boy he didn't even know in Eli? How many would have had the courage to kill a God Clan's young master? How many would have risked everything to save the elvin kingdom?
How many would have given themselves up to despair if they had to fight Loki and Elder Daiyu? How many would have fallen from grace after facing Ancestor Daiyu? How many would have forgotten about the nonsensical trial they were in for the sake of Amphorae?
How many times had Dyon put his life on the line? Would anyone in this world dare to say they had 100% confidence of escaping with their lives? Of course not. It was easy to look back on things and point a person out as lucky, but it was far more difficult to live through those things yourself.
Few had Dyon's talent, but even fewer had his tenacity and perseverance. This was something Yandevere would never understand even if he spoke out all of these words to her.
"From today onward, you will be my puppet. Consider yourself lucky, I had planned to make you into a corpse warrior, but various circumstances are impeding me from doing so."
Yandevere didn't so much as turn her head away, it was as though she didn't care, and why would she? She had already spent her life as a puppet of the Golden Crow Sect all because she was born with these unique flames, so why did any of it matter? She was just going from one master, to an even more powerful master.
Dyon pointed his finger toward Yandevere. Suddenly he felt that The Seal was more excited than usually. He had never felt it respond to openly and happily to him.
A line of sealing qi shot out from Dyon, entering Yandevere's forehead. "For the record, with my soul strength, I'll be able to tell immediately if you attempt to use your Devil's Fog flames to eat away at my seal. If you'd like to stay human and not become a corpse, it's best you don't do anything foolish."
"What's the difference?" Yandevere muttered.
"The difference is that one can fight, and the other can't."
Dyon didn't bother to explain his words. He stood Yandevere up. Not caring for her reaction, he stripped her of all her clothes.
At first, Yandevere had expected to be raped. She even prepared some snide comments about Madeleine and Dyon's relationship. Clearly, even she found it difficult to remain unflustered in such a situation. Since when did she make snide comments?
However, Dyon didn't care about Yandevere's thoughts. He directly spun her around and found what he was looking for on the small of her back. The scar of a forcibly etched magic circle sat just above her slight, but well-shaped ass.
Dyon's finger touched the scar, but he ended up frowning. An energy path-based seal was definitely novel to him.
"This seal is connected directly to her meridian pathway. If she disobeys, her cultivation will be crippled." Little Yin explained.
"This is a bit troublesome." Dyon muttered. "If she has to deal with conflicting commands, it'll cause her to self-implode."
"It's more complicated that even that." Little Yang suddenly said. "It's a magic circle, but it uses concepts of runic vein theory for its inscription. This is a rare branch of magic…"
By concepts of runic vein theory Little Yang was referring to the practice of inscribing one's body with runic veins, similar to Wilder. Much like runic veins, magic circles are found within the body as well. By etching this magic circle into Yandevere, it was like using her own power to bind her. Objectively speaking, it was ingenious.
Unlike Dyon's seals where he had to mind his soul strength in comparison to his opponent's, this type of seal didn't care about such things. In fact, the more powerful the victim was, the more powerful the seal was. In reality, it was only a question of whether or not your opponent would just lie there and allow you to inscribe it.
After thinking about it, Dyon came up with a solution. He would sever her meridians and cripple her. This was shatter the seal easily. Afterward, he would feed her the Meridian Restoration pill.
Pills for curing crippled cultivations were incredibly rare not only because of their healing properties, but for the after-effects as well. The restructuring of the meridians that occurred afterward would be akin to a rebirth. In fact, it even allowed its taker the chance to advance in Order, if they were talented enough, that is.
The only trouble was that this was a peak Moon Grade pill, Dyon obviously hadn't had the skill to make it before. In addition, its success rate was dependent on its percentage purity. Whether Yandevere would be crippled for life or not was dependent on Dyon's skill.
Weeks later, Yandevere sat in her cell stunned.
After Dyon said he would sever her meridians, she felt nothing but despair. It wasn't that the martial world didn't know about Meridian Nurturing pills, but rather that no one would ever bet their lives on them.
For one, they were obscenely expensive. Even if one was somehow lucky enough to have a Moon Lord willing to concoct them for free, the spiritual ingredients would bankrupt any Sect or Clan ranked below 40 instantly.
Secondly, the success rate was tied to the purity of the pill! Meaning, if the pill created was only 20% pure, then its likelihood of success was also only 1 in 5. One might think that this wasn't such a big deal since pills, even the worst, were normally around 50-60% pure, but those only referred to normal pills!
One had to understand that within the Sapientia Guilds, there was only a single Moon Lord alchemist, the Head of the Alchemy Guild! Even if one took into account all of the Moon Lord alchemists of the tower quadrants, there wouldn't be more than 15 to 20 total.
With such a shortage of Moon Lords, it obviously followed suit that the legacy of alchemy within the tower quadrants was incredibly poor, so how could their purity rate be high?
This was why the guilds almost unanimously wanted to leave Dyon be after learning he was a Moon Lord. With alchemic legacies being so scarce, the only way to learn more was by conferencing between experts. This made every new Moon Lord an incomparably valuable resource.
Simply put, even the best Moon Lord of the tower quadrants would only be able to guarantee 30% purity of a Moon Grade pill at most. How could Yandevere feel good about such odds even if it might give her a chance to reclaim her lost Orders?
From what she knew, Dyon was likely just a recently promoted Moon Lord. In all likelihood, he might have moon qi, but not have the knowledge backing it. But who would have expected him to not only concoct the pill in just a few days, but also produce a 92% pure pill?!
What made Yandevere's lip twitched was the fact Dyon all but threw a tantrum after seeing this result. He knew quite well that this 92% purity was only a result of Battle Cauldron and the fact he had used Planet Qi to concoct a pill that only needed Moon Qi. Without these factors, his pill would have been 50% pure at most. How could Dyon not be disappointed in himself?
While he had spent his third trial of the Epistemic Tower studying comet grade knowledge, he hadn't spent nearly as much time on the moon grade, now he had suddenly advanced to the planet grade. His knowledge was lagging far behind his prowess and he didn't like it.
In the end, Yandevere could only steady her heart. She didn't know why she was so moved… He was only healing her because having a crippled servant would be inconvenient. So, she bitterly swallowed the pill and began to circulate its medicinal essence.