Heaven's Greatest Professor

"What do you think of my shot against her now?" he asked after completing the twelfth drop of Radiant Aether. These days his body was sizzling with power, even though for most of the day he couldn't feel much of it, on account of him being terribly stressed through the process of absorbing the transcendent-grade elixir, or through fights with Karim and Ovium.

His master had left him no room to rejuvenate, as though masochism was the only way to power. Well, her way was working so far, so he hadn't voiced out much in the way of complaints. His body had been adapting to all the changes, going beyond natural orders.

The Void Vanquishing Physique currently stood at 73%; he had made a lot of progress in the short couple of weeks, but even that was slowing down as his physique was adapting to it. Thankfully, he probably wouldn't have to worry about it; his little Master would probably find something to torture—no, train him.

"As you are now..." she deliberated over the question for a few seconds before letting out a brief sigh. "Well, it all depends on her, to be honest. If she brings out her full power, you won't last the blink of an eye, but thankfully, she was too prideful to implement all her power.

She'd implement only a fraction of her power, but even then, it would be tough for you to keep standing for over a minute."

He gritted his teeth. All this tortuous training and he felt like he had grown a lot, yet hearing he wouldn't last a minute was truly disheartening.

"Don't be discouraged, poor disciple," she said. "The contest was skewed in her favour from the beginning. It's not about you defying her or dominating her..."

"Then what's this about?" he asked.

She tilted her head. "To impress her," she said with a simple smile. "To get her acknowledgement, obviously. To make sure you're her chosen one, not a mistake."

He sucked in a frigid breath, some twirls of pattern inhaled along with the breath, though on a whole municipal level compared to his master. Still, it was an improvement.

"That's going to be a tall order," she said. "I don't know if you have noticed it already, but we do not get satisfied easily."

"Tell me about it," he mumbled and stood up to look for Karim or Ovium for sparring.

"I gave them a rest for today," Ariha said. "They have fallen too low, staying in this detrimental environment for too long; they alone aren't enough of a challenge to bring out your potential anymore."

He frowned. "Then?"

"We'll figure something out," she said. "But before that, we have to take care of the problem with your core."

He felt his anticipation growing.

"Sit down, it is about time you awaken your Radiance core."

He sat down on the spot again, unsure how she would want him to go about this. He had an ungraded void core, which was overly mysterious. However, there was no core of the light-attributed energy. After using the light quintessence, he did manage to form a Light Nuclei, but most of its power had diminished already.

"Before we can begin, you need to know that this is going to be a very excruciating process," she said.

His expression betrayed no signs of surprise. Knowing her, she could likely hammer through his body to make a Radiant core.

"Don't look at me like that, it's not my fault that your body is weird," she snorted and snapped her fingers. She came forward, still in her white sleeveless robe which clung to her body as though a part of herself. "Anyway, for this whole process, you need to trust me."

"I do trust you..."

An uncomfortable silence flew between the two of them as Ariha stared at him with a complicated expression for an extended moment.

"So..." she said, her voice turning a little awkward. "Do you know why you haven't awakened your Radiant core?"

He didn't have to think hard about the question to come up with an answer. "The void core?"

She nodded. "Void is a power that takes a heavy toll on the body and mind," she said. "You have mostly figured out how to take care of the toll on your body... however, it will only become more difficult the more your powers grow. I don't know if I told you already, but it was a great fortune that you haven't gone insane yet."

And he probably had to thank the dormant Radiant power for it. After all, it was because of the effect of Radiance essence that the traitor gods were hunting celestials.

"Your void essence is too strong compared to the radiance essence," she continued. "This was why the void core kept the radiant core completely dominated inside it, leaving no room for it to grow to its fullest power."

"It is time to change that then..." he muttered, feeling a surge of anticipation.

Ariha sat close to him and drew her right palm over his abdomen where the void core was located. She met his gaze and opened her lips again. "There are two ways to do it. The safer path is to awaken the radiant core inside the void core, while the second is more risky. It is to replace the Radiant core as your heart construct."

He whistled.

"Don't be happy yet, neither of the two is a perfect way. Well, far from being perfect. Honestly, it felt like my other self had no idea what she was doing."

"What are the benefits and demerits of both ways?" he asked.

"The first path is relatively safe, but considering the dominating power of void, your core will likely always revert to this state now. Eventually," she said. "I'm not sure how long it will take; it depends on the balance of power. Your void essence grows too fast; it's practically impossible for most people to ingest essence as you do...

Anyway, in this way, you'd have to put in at least a couple of hours or more to balance out the two powers."

He nodded in understanding. It didn't sound too bad, honestly. Power has a price, after all.

"What about the other way?"

"The other way is more permanent. It's risky, so risky that I don't intend to replace your heart with the radiant construct," she said. "If you are to have your void core and radiance core separated, you'll always have to be completely in control of your essence. You'll also need to create a separate path for the radiance essence to flow, as attribution between the two powers will only weaken you."

He thought for several seconds, with his mind initially leaning towards the first path as Ariha intended. However, he had to stop himself to question: "Why does the second path sound like it isn't worth the risk?"

Obviously, because she made it sound like that.
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"Which path will give me more of an edge against the other you in the battle?" he asked, letting out a sigh.

"You know it already," she said with a sigh. "If you replace your heart construct with a radiance core, your regenerative power will be beyond gold rankers. You'll likely never run out of energy, and your regenerative powers... well, let's just say most kinds of physical wounds won't be enough to damage you much."

His eyes shone...

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