Born In Ashes: The Enigma

Azrael looked carefully at Ashara's face, and after confirming that she wasn't joking, he asked with a look of interest.

"Is it really that difficult for Unawakened people to refine twenty primary energy veins?"

"Let's not talk about whether it's difficult to refine energy veins just yet…" Ashara set her empty teacup down on the table. "What do you think about trying to find a primary energy vein among millions of secondary energy veins?"

'Easy,' Azrael thought subconsciously, though he didn't say it out loud.

For him, who possessed the Infinite Comprehension trait, it wasn't really difficult to locate primary energy veins. The only thing holding him back from finding all of them was his limited spiritual power.

But the same couldn't be said for other people. Unlike him, who just needed to sweep his gaze across the clusters of energy veins to find the primary ones, others had to painstakingly examine each individual vein to identify whether it was a primary one.

"It's difficult…" He finally answered Ashara's question.

"Yes, it's difficult," Ashara nodded, smiling faintly. "Though it's hard, many people still try to find primary energy veins before awakening. Do you know how long they can persist before running out of spiritual power and needing to rest for the entire day before trying again the next day?"

Azrael shook his head—he didn't know.

For him, if he pushed himself, he could last for four or five hours every day before running out of spiritual energy—and that was without using the Mind Stone.

"Normally, Unawakened people can hardly last even an hour before they run out of spiritual energy while searching for energy veins. And even if they somehow manage to find a primary one, they must use spiritual power to refine it, which is extremely taxing on the mental health of those with low spiritual reserves," Ashara explained calmly.

"Simply put, the effort put into refining energy veins while still Unawakened is not worth it. Instead of exhausting their spiritual power every day trying to locate a single primary vein—which affects their entire day and makes it difficult to do anything else—most people would prefer to do something more meaningful."

Azrael was quite surprised to hear that most people ran out of spiritual energy in just one hour.

After two months of training, though he knew his spiritual power was strong, he hadn't expected the difference to be so massive.

Ashara looked at him for a moment before speaking again.

"You have been practicing the Breathing Method for about six hours a day, completely exhausting your spiritual power before stopping…" She paused, then asked softly,

"Don't you get splitting headaches every time you run out of spiritual energy?"

Azrael placed his teacup back on the table and replied calmly.

"It's just a small headache. It doesn't affect me in any way."

Of course, the headache one experiences after depleting their spiritual energy isn't something simple. It's more like your head is splitting apart while someone is hammering your skull without pause.

But for Azrael, that kind of pain was nothing.

The memories of his time as a lab rat were deeply etched in his mind.

The pain he had endured back then was beyond description.

His pain tolerance was so high now that he was certain that even if someone cut off his hands, his expression wouldn't change much—and that was without even using the Cold Blooded trait.

If he did use it, even he wasn't sure what his limit would be when it came to enduring pain.

Ashara didn't respond. She lowered her head.

As a Cosmic King-level being, how could she not know how terrible it was to completely run out of spiritual energy—especially as a Level 0 being?

But she didn't want to interfere with his growth, so long as he wasn't doing anything overly dangerous.

"Try not to push yourself too hard," She finally said with a soft sigh.

Azrael smiled and nodded. He picked up a grape from the fruit basket on the table and casually tossed it at Ashara, who caught it perfectly in her mouth.

"The fruits from the Western Region really are the best," She said as she savored the grape's flavor, before tossing one back toward Azrael, who caught it just as effortlessly.

From their unusually refined movements, it was obvious that it wasn't the first time they were playing like this.

Thus, the two of them continued tossing grapes at each other while chatting.

"By the way, now that you have reached the entry level of the Breathing Method, what are you planning to do?" Ashara asked.

Azrael tossed another grape into Ashara's mouth and replied casually.

"Nothing is going to change. I will still practice the Breathing Method in the morning, do physical exercise in the afternoon, and combat training in the evening."

Ashara was stunned by his response.

The first thought that crossed her mind was— Is my son a workaholic just like his father?

The second thought was—

"Wait! Do you want to reach the mid level of the Breathing Method before your awakening?"

Azrael caught the grape Ashara tossed at him and nodded.

Seeing him nod, Ashara wanted to tell him that it would be extremely difficult— almost impossible to refine forty primary energy veins at his current stage.

But when she thought about how he had already refined twenty in just two months, she fell silent.

'Maybe… he really can reach mid level…'

She thought for a moment before speaking again.

"If you actually reach mid level in the Breathing Method before your awakening, you will gain a huge advantage over others."

Azrael raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "What kind of advantage?"

Ashara paused for a moment, then asked.

"Do you know how awakening works?"

Azrael shook his head. He had tried to look it up online, but there wasn't much information available.

Ashara wasn't surprised when he shook his head and explained.

"Awakening is basically the process of condensing the dormant power within your body into a source core…"