The Consequences Of Consumption

"Hmm..." Mateus paused as he neared his house. Looking at the entrance to the home across the street from his, he found the cat Kaiser still faithfully sitting, waiting; very much unlike any cat he had ever come across or even heard of.

'Aren't dogs supposed to be the loyal ones?' He sighed in thought before forcing any thoughts about the cat out of his mind. Right now, he couldn't afford to be sentimental and dwell on the cat that he could relate to.

After entering his house, Mateus went straight to his room. He locked his door and took a deep breath before preparing all the materials he would be using in the coming hours, if not days. He had enough Spirit Stones and, Body, Energy, and Soul Pills to carry him through to at least the next few Stages of Cultivation. He had even more raw alchemical materials to make enough pills to take him through most of the Mortal Realm, in fact.

The first thing on Mateus' agenda was to increase everything he could improve instantaneously. His eyes shifted over to the piles upon piles of Spirit Stones that formed a makeshift mound next to him.

The Spirit Stones he got from selling his Mortal Grade Pills would only amount to Neutral Mediocre Quality Spirit Stones — the standard Spirit Stones for Cultivators in the Mortal Realm. However, consuming them with his special ability would still increase his Energy Reserves and Energy Quality permanently at his convenience; albeit, by half the rate of the Good Quality Elemental Spirit Stones he used during the Affinity Assessment from when he was being recruited into the Sect.

Mateus was so rich that he could forgo using his Spirit Stones as efficiently as possible by first cultivating normally and consuming them to not only permanently increase his Energy Reserves and Energy Quality, but also recover spent Energy in the process. However, before doing even that, he reached over for the transcribed scroll containing the Heart's Embrace Heavenly Sutra.

[?Consume?]

Mateus paused, opting to hold the stare inquisitively at the scroll in his possession for the slightest of moments before going along with his plan.

Gah!

Mateus stained the floor to his side red as he coughed up a worrisome splatter of blood, almost immediately regretting his decision. His eyes became sunken, his pupils dulled. His skin paled and withered, the muscles underneath atrophying at a visibly alarming rate while his bones degenerated.

'Fuck, fuck, fuck!' Mateus panicked as he rapidly entered the most painful state of being he had ever experienced in either lifetime. His life was extinguishing from the inside out, drawing vitality from his very being to manifest something within his soul.

'Good Yang Affinity!' Mateus didn't even have the strength to yell as he struggled to grab ahold of the multitude of Soul Pills in his possession.

With his Soul Land just recently unlocked, it could barely handle the Water Affinity Representation he had formed from Mediocre Tier Water Affinity. Now that his Yang Affinity was forming another Affinity Representation from a Good Tier in Affinity, the decision to consume the Dual Cultivation Method had actually backfired.

He didn't have any pending Cultivation Methods to instantly increase the Skill Level of the Heart's Embrace Heavenly Sutra he had just manifested, so the only way he had a chance of pulling through his current ordeal was by increasing his cultivation of the Soul.

Under probably the worst conditions imaginable, Mateus went through the motions of consuming and upgrading pills to make all the Soul Pills in his possession of Consummate Quality. Popping a handful of them into his mouth with little regard for waste, he immediately felt the situation in his body settle; but he knew it would not stay that way for long…

Alchemical pills, unlike Spiritual Cooking, had instantaneous effects, but they would only work for a very short period of time.

Of all the pills Mateus had, only the False Force Pills had the benefit of instantly increasing his Soul Force permanently. But even then, the increase barely accomplished anything; like trying to reattach a severed arm with a band aid.

So, Mateus had his work cut out for him as he sat and meditated amidst excruciating and burning pain as he tried to decode the mysteries of the Water Laws to increase his Soul Force the old fashioned way.

It might have seemed counterintuitive to rely on his old Water Cultivation Method, which he only had a portion of that only comprised the Mortal Grade section, given he now had better Yang Affinity for an Immortal Grade Yang Cultivation Method. However, not only was Water a much easier element to understand; being a Lesser Element and all. But Mateus had the added benefit of having his Essense of Water Cultivation Method at Level 50 as well.

In fact, if not for his Level 50 Water Cultivation Method, he probably wouldn't have been able to do anything under the terrible pain he was existing in.

Mateus could only grit his teeth and periodically chuck in more Soul pills down his throat as he looked internally and delved into his Soul Land.

Materializing a copy of himself therein, he struggled to keep the domain of his Soul Land from collapsing in on itself as a literal sun of pure Yang threatened to obliterate it by going supernova. In the small little world within his soul, which couldn't have been more than a couple hundred cubic meters in size, Matues settled on the blue light that manifested as his Water Affinity Representation.

While in the outside world, he simply looked deep in thought — and terribly emaciated — within the world of his Soul Land, he was fighting a cataclysmic battle.

He had a wall of water materialize out of thin air and constrict around the raging sun. Instead of snuffing it out though, the water instantly boiled over and exploded everywhere. More or less expecting the outcome, Mateus tried to ignore the feeling of boiling bullet-like specks of water punching holes through him as he sat on his Water Affinity Representation.

His face betrayed the stoic look he tried to put on as he continued to repeat the process.

Water materialized, sometimes like a wall, sometimes like a blanket. Every time, however, it would either boil over completely or leave just enough leftover to come splashing down on his meditating form. The sun would only continue to expand and grow hotter as it approached the moment before catastrophe.

As minutes turned to hours, the only thing that changed was how long it took for the inevitable to take place.

Miraculously, Mateus' Understanding of Water was rising; perhaps not in the most efficient or safe way, but it was rising nonetheless. The water he materialized to combat the growing sun in his Soul Land was evidently stronger as it took longer to boil over and explode. The sun itself slowed its expansion as did the growing temperature of Mateus' Soul Land, until eventually…

There came about a moment of equilibrium.