Ch-36:Treasure Matured

Just as Raon experienced immense pain for a mere five seconds that evaporated as if it never existed, he finally felt that he had an understanding of the broader perspective, yet he didn't.

He looked at the spherical orb that was transparent, showcasing its inner contents to be a burning and freezing yellowish-green leaf with a stalk that was still clenched in his hands.

It eventually vanished as it had entered his body, although he had no information regarding the orb except for the fact that he was given it.

He tried really hard to remember the events with all his concentration focused on them, yet even after that, all he saw was a blurry form of a female.

"Hexine..." Raon muttered as if enlightenment had struck him.

He felt enlightened by various pieces of information that seemed odd yet new to him, but he didn't focus on that but on the name 'Hexine' as he couldn't recall anything besides her name.

Due to the strain of the knowledge he gained, he couldn't avoid the inevitable as he closed his eyes and tried to piece together all the information that had been transmitted to him.

'Planet... planetary spirit... solar system... cluster... Universe... treasure...'

'Unique... Chaos... Dangerous... Eradication... Death... Seal soul...'

'Who? Just who? If it's that rare, how did she know?'

'Ugh... space-time alteration... space-time laws... divinity... realms...'

'Immature... Finally activated... Go back to the past... Defy death...'

'...'

Raon spent the next few hours piecing together the huge amount of information that he got access to, as it was a daunting task even for him.

All he got out was that Hexacuran, the world he lived in, was a celestial body revolving around a sun in the void, and it formed a solar system based on the sun. Those many solar systems form what is called a cluster that goes on ahead to form the universe after several groupings unknown to him.

The second thing he got was that 'Hexine' was the planetary spirit that is born very rarely, and she could access all his thoughts and memories. She somehow was able to identify the treasure inside his heart as something called a universe treasure that is unique even for the upper realm.

The only thing that he felt could equate to this treasure was the pure vitality source required to heal Altair and bring her back to her initial state, as thoughts of exchanging his own life for his daughter's entered his mind, yet he was brutally told that the treasure he beheld was much rarer.

He understood that it was a treasure that had its own will, and no one could actually control it as it selects its wielder itself on maturity, and its current state is the most effective and ludicrous time to take it by killing Raon since it resided in his heart.

The sole reason Raon was even deterred from such thoughts was that Altair would be killed after Raon due to the strength difference, or he would just get it stolen without anything in return, harming Altair in the long run.

He had no idea at the time that he had escaped a catastrophic event, as only immature universe treasures could be nurtured and made one's own, as they would go on to choose their proper host if their first host was killed post-maturity.

Raon understood the majority reason as soon as he was told that his soul or his memories would be traveling to him of the past, which can make that person correct their flaws and regrets throughout life.

Unfortunately, given how unique and rare it was, no one genuinely knew how it worked, and there was no guarantee how far back it would lead you to the past, maybe to your infant stage, maybe just a few seconds into the past.

Raon had barely recollected the events as he woke up from his daze-like state and opened his eyes after realizing that these memories were going to get sealed and inaccessible to even him. The last thing he remembered was the soul-sealing method.

After Raon's weird encounter and a lot of strange events that happened to him related to the encounter, a major realization dawned upon him as the entire heavens echoed a loud thunderclap.

The thunderclap was loud enough for all the residents of the world to hear, but no one really understood it except for Hexine, who was weakly smiling.

"I leaveth ------ fortuna ---- thy -----" An old, archaic voice echoed out of her lips as her eyes lost their luster and her form crumbled apart.

That day, the entire world rumbled alongside her crumbling parts. Unbeknownst to others, the entire world seemed to weep, yet the heavens seemed to celebrate something.

It wasn't just Hexacuran's cultivators that heard the resounding thunderclap, as all the worlds throughout heard it, including the upper realm.

The entire upper realm went into a frenzy and uproar to find the cause of it, yet how could they expect it to be somewhere in the lower realms?

The two figures who had isolated the upper and lower realms in the past also heard it, yet they didn't care as it was just too wide an area to be searched for.

Raon, unaware of the chaos he caused, felt all his bottlenecks ease up, opening the path straight to the final realm, after which he could ascend in less than two centuries.

Raon, feeling bothered about it, crippled his own cultivation to prevent him from ascending without Altair, as it would surely spell doom for his little child.

On one hand, he was worried about ascending before Altair. On the other hand, he had to make preparations if and when he returned to the past.

He was unaware of it until now, but as soon as he thought about it, a long string of information entered him, and a weird black ore appeared in his hand.

"I see..." muttered Raon as the universe's treasure matured, signaled by the loud thunderclap that he missed.

It had sent Raon the information regarding itself that it could take Raon from a minimum of a century to his infant stage in the lower realm.

The black ore in his hand shed its outer shell with Raon's understanding of it as transparent quartz-like structures took form from its center in opposite directions.

The rock grew to be just fist-sized as it stopped before a brownish color enveloped its outside, making it translucent, while its core changed to black, surrounded by amethyst fog.

The amethyst fog traveling throughout the quartz crystal turned its visibility blurry and changed to be extremely hard yet brittle in nature.

Surprisingly, Raon himself could not harm it as it would directly weaken him and hurt his heart, yet he could tell that it was extremely brittle due to his blacksmithing experience.

After gaining the knowledge inside and checking it out, Raon spent the next entire day awake as he planned his steps to prepare for his return to the past.

He started by creating cultivation techniques for Lia, Altair, himself, and then his followers, as well as consolidating his knowledge regarding all the side occupations.

His craze for perfection made him fasten the pace of wars as he personally challenged the emperors of the warring nations to a duel over empires.

Without a doubt, he swiftly defeated them as he made their empires turn into vassal states using soul-binding contracts on every royal family member.

Raon went crazy with fervor for the next decade as he defeated the Emperors one by one and took over them. He spent the rest of the time studying and devising cultivation techniques.

He had an astounding amount of cultivation techniques stored inside his mind as he kept on reading them and even tested their viability himself.

He was content with the weakest to the strongest to create the best-suited cultivation techniques in case he went back to the time Lia was alive, as she was his biggest regret.

Raon spent more than the next century taking over the entire Arcane Empire without anyone figuring out his identity, even now.

He had already carved near-perfect cultivation techniques as he also reached the final realm before ascendency, despite crippling himself.

Due to testing out various cultivation techniques, he had accumulated enough energy to advance despite holding back for as long as possible.

Even Altair was just two realms below, as she caught on to him with the extensive resources and many life-and-death situations she faced, using her potential to the fullest.

Due to Altair's growth, Raon had improvised her cultivation technique to almost thirty percent better efficiency than her previous one, which she had improved by herself.

What Raon had neglected was taking care of Altair as the crown princess since she had the second highest authority after Raon, who was the Emperor.

During the time Raon went crazy to make preparations, Altair handled all the affairs related to the Liakroso Empire that now enveloped the entire Arcane Empire and was now the new Titled Empire, except for its missing title.