Death... and me

Aien and the others didn’t understand a thing. “Invited…to a party?”

Rean then shook his head, instead telling them, “It’s something personal, don’t worry.” Soon after, he used his Light Element to recover the parts that were still hurting and got up. “Alright, it won’t happen anymore, so I’ll go back to work.”

Before Aien or anyone else could say anything, Rean had already disappeared from the room and continued his work.

Back in the Sacred Land, Roan finally opened his eyes again and got up. He now had his connection with his star…or a dead star, if you may. In any case, the Starlight from there was truly reaching him without any issues. ‘Guess this is it. Let’s hear what’s wrong about it from Kihin.’

Roan left his room, and a worker was already there, waiting for him. Naturally, Roan told the guy to call Kihin over as he was finally ready to discuss the Starlight Technique.

Sometime later, in the living room…

“You truly took your time, huh? Was there a need to be so picky about the star you wanted to choose?” Kihin asked him.

Roan shook his head, telling Kihin, “The fact is that I found what I wanted. Now, can you talk more about the issue with the Starlight Energy you mentioned earlier? What exactly is the problem?”

Kihin looked at Roan, puzzled. “If you cultivated the technique and got connected to the star, you should have felt the problem by now.” In any case, Kihin explained anyway. “Well, the fact is that when you start cultivating it, the Starlight from your star will cause a side effect called oppression. Because you’re connected to a real star, its Starlight is too strong for the body…or so everyone thinks. At first, you can cultivate with it and only feel some pain after each session. However, that ‘oppression’ will accumulate. Eventually, it will reach a point where it will cause irreversible damage to your body.”

Roan nodded in response. Kihin’s words pretty much confirmed Rean’s words, which Roan already thought about as well. “And what about your change to the technique. What’s it about?”

Kihin got excited and began to explain, feeling very proud of himself. “I found out in the Ruins of Yaz that someone tried to change the technique to calm down the Starlight Energy. Unfortunately, whoever tried it seemed to have met an unexpected ending. I just so happen to have this method in my hands right now.”

Roan found it strange. “If the previous owner died with it, why would you try it out?”

“Of course, I’m not trying it out.” Kihin shook his head. “Did you forget what I said? I said I made modifications to the original Starlight Technique, using this method as a base. However, neither the Starlight Technique nor the method I found is going to be used. I truly created a completely new version of the Starlight Technique, which I believe in having resolved both issues.”

Following that, Kihin passed the new version to Roan, saying, “Here you go. Take a look and see if you find any issues. Naturally, as my helper, you will have to test it first.”

Roan received the jade slip with the new version and checked it out. “I see…as a body cultivation technique, we need certain materials to be refined into our bodies. You found out that some types of material can have a calming effect on the Starlight Energy. That way, the efficiency of the Starlight reduces by about 50%. However, it helps cope with the oppression effect. Even if it takes longer to cultivate, this is the best Body Cultivation Technique you have here, so it’s worth the extra effort.”

Kihin couldn’t even feel surprised with Roan’s comprehension ability anymore. “You’re correct. So, what do you think? Do you wanna give it a try now, or do you have something to add? Obviously, I’ve already gathered the materials to use in this new version that I believe to be the perfect match.”

Roan pondered over it for a bit whether he should tell Kihin about what he found. After all, that was obviously not something just anyone could do. ‘Well, it’s thanks to him that I found out about the Starlight Technique, so I guess I owe him one.’

Roan’s expression then turned serious as he told him, “Kihin, I’ll talk through Divine Sense for now. Whether you want to make my findings a public thing or keep it to yourself, that’s your problem.”

Kihin was surprised to hear such a thing from Roan, thinking that he found something important in his own technique. “Alright, hit me.” Obviously, it had nothing to do with that.

Roan then resumed the entire story in one Divine Sense Message. There were so many things that Kihin had to spend a few seconds just to organize everything in his head. Of course, Roan left out that there were two dwarf stars and that Rean was brought there because of their connection. In any case, it was truly an amazing saga.

“This…” The shock on Kihin’s face was obvious for anyone to see. He even was having a hard time accepting Roan’s words. “Are you telling the truth?”

Roan nodded, saying, “I don’t mind signing a Soul Binding Contract, stating that I was absolutely saying the truth just now.”

Indeed, with Kihin’s background, even the expensive Soul Binding Contracts didn’t mean much to him. The fact that they were used to force the truth out of people was also a common thing in the Realm of Gods. Kihin didn’t think Roan was lying exactly because of that. Nevertheless, he still took a Soul Binding Contract and used it so that he could confirm without a doubt that Roan was telling just the truth.

Well, even though Soul Binding Contracts were of no use against Roan, he was telling the truth anyway. He also didn’t mind signing the contract as he would have done exactly the same thing in Kihin’s shoes.

Seeing that Roan suffered nothing from the contract, it was ‘obvious’ that Roan was telling the truth in the end.