Chapter 18: Future Turmoil

"So, a knight's inner potential is the result of a matrix-like flow of battle aura?"

"Yes, according to the research results released by the Royal Academy and data published in major journals, that is exactly the case."

"A matrix-structured battle aura can manifest quasi-magical properties, or perhaps even properties that transcend magic on a higher level; it is quite similar to sorcery."

"Could you give me some examples?"

"Certainly. Take my father, for instance. His inner potential is known as the 'Will of Winter'."

"When he engages in combat, his battle aura continuously lowers the surrounding temperature. As the fight progresses, the temperature drops further and further until it reaches a critical point."

"The opponent's battle aura flow becomes frozen, rendering them completely unable to utilize their power. And the most powerful, most mysterious aspect of this inner potential is that this temperature is 'false' to the wielder."

"My father himself is unaffected by this cold; only the external world is truly impacted by the power manifested through this inner potential."

"The path of the knight doesn't seem so disadvantaged after all. A mage's strength is displayed more through diverse abilities and wide-range destruction, but a knight is actually not inferior to a mage in terms of combat effectiveness."

"I'm starting to look forward to my own inner potential, but the biggest problem is that I don't even know how to generate battle aura. How annoying."

Wang Yu sat at the table in his room, beside him a tattered notebook filled with crude illustrations and his own messy, scribbled annotations.

It was time for Avia's nightly tutoring session; Avia's aunt and Garcia had to go out to attend to some matters.

For this month, the academy library would be unconditionally open to both of them.

However, afterward, while Avia could continue to read for free, Wang Yu would have to complete certain tasks to maintain his access.

Wang Yu, of course, knew he was merely an "outsider," so he didn't mind such trifles. His top priority was to improve himself as much as possible and complete his tasks smoothly.

Then, Wang Yu hit a wall again. The level of misfortune he faced was actually quite high, though he was oblivious to it himself.

The library's collection was vast, encompassing everything from various cultivation paths to historical secrets and esoteric knowledge that, according to Avia, were rarely passed down.

The problem was that many of these books were not written in the Common Tongue.

The Common Tongue was a relatively recent invention, only about five hundred years old.

After the "Battle of the Abyss's Bottom," the five major races—Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and the Winged Folk—declared an alliance.

They established the current continental order, and scholars subsequently developed the Common Tongue, teaching it for free.

This was truly a magnificent advancement. Once the languages and scripts of the five races were unified, progress exploded.

This language was crafted by the most highly qualified researchers from every nation; it was easy to understand and learn, and even contained traces of occultism—which was why Wang Yu had been able to learn a new language so quickly.

Only a portion of the library's classics were written in the Common Tongue, mostly consisting of kingdom histories and introductions to noble families.

This knowledge was vital to Wang Yu, and he spent three hours every morning, between his workouts, reading and memorizing it.

However, many of the texts regarding cultivation were written in ancient languages, such as Elvish or various pre-unification human tongues. Wang Yu found these absolutely headache-inducing.

What could he do? He had no choice but to ask the knowledgeable Avia for guidance. Wang Yu actually felt quite embarrassed about interrupting her cultivation, but Avia herself didn't mind.

In truth, when Wang Yu looked at her with eyes full of thirst for knowledge and admiration, Avia had to admit that she felt a small sense of vanity and pride.

Now, aside from his daily training, Wang Yu would come over between six and seven in the evening to ask questions about cultivation.

He would bring a few books on knightly training, ask Avia to look them over, and then pose his questions.

The days were quite monotonous: morning workouts, evening questions, and reading. Wang Yu felt as if he had returned to the days before the college entrance exams—the same routine, the same slight dullness.

The same sense of oppression. Yes, oppression. This world was not peaceful; wars between nations had begun over a decade ago, and now many wastelands were occupied by bandits, with many small villages suffering from raids.

The seemingly peaceful empire was internally riddled with strife, as factions vied for power and territory. In fact, the situation with Avia's family could be seen as a small microcosm of the empire's internal chaos.

Wang Yu had an urgent desire to grow stronger—strong enough to protect the things he cared about, so they would not be destroyed again. Wang Yu was, after all, a simple and authentic person.

Moonlight gently bathed the three wooden cabins of the Forest Cabin Magic Academy. After discussing his questions with Avia, Wang Yu returned to his small room.

It was simple: a bed, a table, and on it, a few books and a piece of wild boar thigh.

Whether it was intentional or not, Lilia and Garcia hadn't left any food behind before they left.

Therefore, Wang Yu had to hunt and gather his daily ingredients in the forest during the gaps in his training.

Wang Yu's survival skills were exceptional; with the physical enhancement of a knight's constitution, hunting was truly simple.

Sitting at the table, he channeled the void energy within his mental space, tracing runes in the air before him: "Low-level Rune"—"Temperature."

An invisible, illusory rune was etched into the air. It was the first sorcery rune Wang Yu had learned, the foundational rune for distorting the reality of "temperature."

Wang Yu applied the rune to the surface of the pork. As he manipulated the void energy, the temperature began to rise bit by bit.

One could see the fur on the boar leg curling and charring. However, after three minutes, only a palm-sized portion of the meat had turned charred and cooked through.

"Hmm, progress. About thirty percent more than yesterday. I'm starting to understand now."

"The more precise the target for distorting reality, the less void energy is consumed. A specific temperature of 500 degrees consumes far less energy than a vague 'high temperature'!"

Having exhausted his mental energy and void energy completely, Wang Yu collapsed into bed.

A normal sorcerer, having drained their mental energy, would be eroded into madness, but it didn't matter for Wang Yu; a night's sleep would replenish it, and perhaps even expand his upper limit slightly.

The oil lamp in Wang Yu's room flickered out, and a moment later, the light in Avia's room followed. The Forest Cabin Magic Academy fell into silence.

"What do you think of this guy?"

"Not bad. His willpower is terrifying, and he is very diligent and eager to learn. His talent for magic and sorcery is a bit lacking, but his mental energy is very special. Have you ever seen someone who could exhaust their mental energy completely without fainting?"

"No, that shouldn't exist at all. Why can't I do that? But you were wrong about one thing."

"What?"

"His talent for sorcery and magic is about the same as a baboon's!"

"..."

"But his secret ability is quite interesting. It's rare to see a secret ability so close to the origin of sorcery."

"That is true. His secret ability is very interesting."

"Hey, why is a Great Knight with the title of 'Sword Saint' discussing sorcery so seriously? Are you pretending to understand something you don't?"

"I have been following you for so many years, after all..."

"True. After all, since I am such a genius, it's only natural that those around me would become knowledgeable too!"

"I really was fooled by that heroic image of yours back then..."

"What did you say? Say it again!"

"Alright, alright. What do you think about what's coming next..."

"Hmm... Avia must become stronger as soon as possible. Both inside and outside the kingdom, things are becoming increasingly chaotic. The other races are also restless; many are dissatisfied with the current order where humans are the strongest. The Cursed Sorcerer Tower only gave me seven months to stay outside. I must properly cultivate my little niece; her talent should not be buried."

"Yes, the unrest is growing. Neither the Abyss nor the Void can be considered stable. After the Night's Edge headquarters learned that the fragment of the God of Fear had disappeared here, they also ordered me to return immediately. I pinned the reason for the disappearance of the fragment on you."

"What a coincidence. I told the Tower that you were the reason."

"Haha, you are indeed the person I know. So, have you ever seen someone who could just swallow a fragment of the God of Fear?"

"Shouldn't you be asking your own Night's Edge? You are the ones specialized in dealing with this. But no, I have never seen it."

"Hmm, my answer is the same. It sounds absurd, but the imprint left in the emblem within his gauntlet told me so. He really is a born member of the Night's Edge!"

"Is that so? I don't understand it anyway. Are you planning to cultivate him?"

"Yes, I want to. After all, the most important thing for the Night's Edge is willpower, and his conditions are excellent. Besides, Avia needs a knight. Perhaps letting him follow Avia wouldn't be a bad idea."

"That is not a bad idea; let him face the next trial alongside Avia. Our organization’s rules forbid interference in the kingdom’s politics, and she must withstand the coming storm on her own."

"Indeed. I hope to see them grow soon, but is he trustworthy?"

"We shall see how he acts. Unfounded suspicion is meaningless; it only serves to cost you allies and friends."

"Fair point."

"There is one more thing I must correct you on."

"What is it?"

"He will never follow Avia."

"Why not?"

"Though I do not know him deeply, he is a free spirit. His desires are few, his burdens light, and he possesses a mind of his own. More importantly, he is fearless—a quality neither you nor I can claim to match. If anyone is to follow, it would be Avia following him, perhaps as his knight. That promise of his—to serve as a squire for one year—I can tell he means it. He has his own path, and as he said, once the year is up, he will set off on his own adventures."

"I don't understand. The gap in their talent is too vast. How could what you say ever come to pass?"

"Who is to say?" Lilia’s eyes shimmered with an inexplicable light.

Garcia stood beside Lilia, arms crossed, gazing toward the Forest Cabin Magic Academy. Under the moonlight, their figures appeared incredibly faint, as if they had dissolved into the lunar glow—ethereal, unreal, their presence diminished to the point of vanishing.

Avia and Wang Yu remained entirely unaware of the discussion between these two powerhouses, nor did they have any real grasp of the turmoil destined for this world, though Wang Yu perhaps harbored a vague premonition.

...

"Clack! Clack!" A rhythmic tapping echoed through the woods as a longsword bit into the tree trunk, strike after strike.

A sharp blade is hardly an ideal tool for felling timber, and even forceful blows left only shallow gashes.

Around seven in the morning, Wang Yu began his daily ritual: one thousand full-power sword strikes.

Accompanied by the rhythmic percussion in the woods, Avia opened her sleepy eyes.

Not everyone possessed Wang Yu’s ability to decouple mental state from mental exhaustion; having drained her reserves during the night’s training, she still felt groggy upon waking.

Breakfast was already laid out on the table: mashed potatoes with slices of roasted meat, and two fruits resembling tomatoes.

Wang Yu had prepared it early; it was all the mountains offered, and Avia was not one to complain.

Wang Yu had been a decent cook in his past life, and the abundance of wild spices in the mountains was a pleasant surprise, making even a simple breakfast quite appetizing for Avia.

Time passed quickly; a fortnight had vanished in a blink. She had grown accustomed to being roused by the sound of steel striking wood, and the days had become monotonous.

Yet, Avia felt a sense of peace. The morning meal and the rhythmic tapping that signaled the start of each day brought her comfort.

Because she was growing stronger, she was training, and so was Wang Yu.

Finishing his swings, Wang Yu wiped away his sweat, carefully maintained the blade with a whetstone and oil, sheathed it, and prepared for the second task of the day.

Checking his bearings, Wang Yu began to run. His figure wove through the woodland, dodging trees at high speed and leaping over stones and pits.

Occasionally, he would vault high, using branches and trunks to tumble and leap through the air.

A ten-kilometer cross-country run, pushing his speed to the limit, constantly dodging obstacles and finding the fastest way to overcome any barrier.

It was training for reflexes, endurance, and explosive power.

Wang Yu sprinted through the forest, his body responding to every obstacle, striving for maximum velocity.

The ripples of energy circulated within him, optimizing his physical state, his powerful physique sustaining him through the long, high-speed run.

Sweat dripped from every limb, heat radiated from every pore, and the massive exertion brought muscle aches and the burning sensation of oxygen-starved lungs.

It was grueling, but to Wang Yu, it was nothing. Training was simply the act of breaking through limits, time and again, to reach a new peak.

The forest canopy ahead gave way to a sudden, bright clearing.

"Hoo." Wang Yu adjusted his breathing, filling his lungs with fresh air, and pushed his fatigued legs for one final burst.

He accelerated, picking up the pace, and surged out of the forest.

He collapsed onto the grass before the cabin, gasping for air as he let his sweat drip into the earth, pooling into a tiny puddle.

Wang Yu swiped his hand through the air, and a phantom stopwatch appeared: 34 minutes and 56 seconds—three minutes faster than before.

To measure progress clearly, one must lengthen the duration of the test; on a larger scale, improvements become more apparent.

For a fifty-meter dash, his simple self-made sorcery might lack the necessary precision.

His stamina and physical prowess were nearing the pinnacle of a squire’s potential, with some aspects already reaching or surpassing it; arduous training yields exceptional results.

There was progress in his sorcery as well. Though his runic studies were mediocre, Wang Yu had discovered a fundamental property of magic.

Magic is the distortion of reality according to the user’s will; strictly speaking, runes are not required to cast it.

Runes are merely a programming tool, or perhaps a chip.

They turn the process of reality-warping into a program, a simplification that allows one to trigger the effect simply by channeling mental energy.

But in reality, one can draw upon void energy to warp reality directly through sheer force of will.

Thinking this, Wang Yu snapped his fingers. A tiny flame ignited in his palm—small, yet undeniably real.

The temperature was low, no more than a normal fire, lacking the power of a mage’s fireball. It burned for half a minute before flickering out.

Wang Yu shook his head. His reserves of void energy were still too meager to sustain even such a simple distortion for long.

That was the difference between using runes and autonomous distortion. The cost of this autonomous method was more than eight times that of using runes!

But it opened a new path for Wang Yu.

If he could continuously refine the effect—shortening the duration to infinitely amplify the potency—the thought alone was enough to make his heart race!

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