Chapter 26: Chapter 26

“Instructor, you want to give me a vial of Ignition Potion?”

Ron could hardly believe his ears. Someone as close as Jason had only given him five vials, which showed just how precious this potion was. Yet Morris, who had no personal ties to him whatsoever, was giving him one outright.

“Yes, you heard correctly. Now go dissipate the heat right away! Ignition Potion has gone through several rounds of refinement and can be considered a relatively mild, safe supplementary potion, but if used improperly, it can still cause damage to your body.”

Morris’s words made Ron grow anxious. He immediately dashed beyond the training grounds, stripping off his shirt as he ran, then plunged headfirst into a snowdrift outside the grounds.

“Sizzle…”

Ron’s mouth unconsciously mimicked the sound of snow landing on a red-hot iron plate, melting and evaporating on contact. And his body right now was indeed like a block of red-hot iron. Though it wouldn’t actually melt and evaporate the snow fast enough to produce a genuine sizzling sound like real iron would,

he could still feel the snow beneath him melting rapidly.

This process also drew away the final traces of residual heat from the Ignition Potion. Then came the expected bone-chilling cold. He hastily put his clothes back on and returned to Morris’s side, ready to follow the next set of instructions.

“Do you remember the sensation from just now?”

“I remember.”

“Good that you remember. Next time, I want you to complete at least one Fire Concealment on your own.”

“Yes.”

Since Morris had made it clear from the very beginning that his orders were not to be questioned, Ron could only accept for now. But in truth, he had no confidence in his ability to complete even a single Fire Concealment as Morris demanded.

So he decided to approach the matter from a different angle. “Instructor, what is the principle behind the Fire Concealment Method? Could you explain it?”

“If anyone else asked, I would tell them that this is a technique developed through long periods of trial and error by the pioneers of the path of transcendence. But for you,”

Morris deliberately paused at this point, casting a gaze of expectation toward Ron before continuing:

“For you, I’ll tell you that the principle behind the Fire Concealment Method is actually a fundamental application of the Life Seed by Formal Knights. Its essence lies in precise control over oneself.

“If you could perfectly control every internal change within your own body, you wouldn’t need to specifically learn any Fire Concealment Method at all. You would naturally know how to achieve the same effect as the Fire Concealment Method.”

Ron felt a bit dizzy listening to this, but he understood the gist of it. The Fire Concealment Method was no secret ultimate technique. It was merely a skill for controlling and regulating one’s bodily state.

“I see!”

If that was the case, then Ron could set his mind completely at ease. In two or three attempts at most, he would be able to find the Secret Pattern program corresponding to this technique among the vast array of Secret Patterns on his orb’s surface.

Or rather, for any technique, as long as he could reproduce it even once, he would be able to find the corresponding Secret Pattern program on his Light Orb’s surface, and then directly apply that technique by driving the Secret Pattern program.

Just as he could sit motionless and run the 【Comprehensive Body Refinement Technique】, which was essentially a fusion and refinement of various calisthenic exercises.

In other words, while others might need to train and practice in person to master a technique, Ron could conduct purely “paper-level” analysis and organization.

As for which approach was faster and more efficient, for now, the method of analyzing and organizing Secret Patterns held the edge.

And for Ron, he could perfectly employ both methods simultaneously. Through hands-on training, he could explore the higher realms of a technique, while through Secret Pattern analysis, he could rapidly max out his proficiency at his current level.

With this thought, Ron suddenly felt that he could completely create an attribute panel for himself. Perhaps he wouldn’t be able to allocate points freely, but his fundamental nature was sufficient to grant him an ability akin to point allocation when learning new techniques.

…

“Ron, you look deep in thought. What are you thinking about?” Morris asked suddenly.

Ron’s heart tightened. He had been caught zoning out by Morris. But of course, he wasn’t foolish enough to say he was planning to create an attribute panel. If he actually said something like that, he would probably be mistaken for an evil spirit invasion and struck down on the spot!

After a brief moment’s thought, Ron knew exactly what to say:

“I was thinking about the difference between Formal Knights and apprentices like us. Or rather, what it takes to become a Formal Knight!”

“Oh?”

Hearing such an answer, even Morris, who was already a Formal Knight himself, couldn’t help but grow a few degrees more interested. He very much wanted to hear what this exceptionally talented youth before him had to say about Knights from an apprentice’s perspective. “Tell me your thoughts!”

“Instructor, you just mentioned that perfectly controlling one’s own body would automatically grant an ability similar to the Fire Concealment Method. So a bold idea occurred to me: is it possible that perfectly controlling oneself is all it takes to become a Formal Knight?”

“Hm, this idea of yours…”

Morris was somewhat surprised that Ron had managed to arrive at this conclusion on his own. Even he himself had only realized it after the fact, when his own former instructor had told him.

At this thought, Morris grew even more expectant of Ron’s future. With that in mind, he decided not to brush things off as he would with an ordinary genius. Instead, he began from the very origins of the path of transcendence:

“You should know that the human body has limits. Without the Breathing Technique, no one can break through those limits. And I’m not talking about occasionally pushing past a limit for a fleeting moment, but rather sustaining a state consistently beyond the range of a normal person’s limits.

“The Breathing Technique also has its own limits. That limit is the level just below a Formal Knight, infinitely close yet forever out of reach.

“So what I’m about to tell you is that the key to becoming a Formal Knight lies precisely in how to control every change within your body.

“There are innate differences between people. Some are simply built more robustly and possess greater strength than others. Some Formal Knights, in terms of pure physical attributes, might not be any stronger than certain apprentices.

“But I can tell you that unless a Knight deliberately holds back, an apprentice has virtually no chance of defeating a Knight in one-on-one combat. The crux of this lies in the Knight’s control over themselves.

“The extreme force a Knight can unleash through perfect self-control is far beyond what any apprentice can match. Even the children of great families in the royal capital, relying on their own power alone, would most likely lose to a Formal Knight who had grown up as an ordinary commoner while still at the apprentice stage.”

“This…”

Ron’s breathing grew somewhat ragged. On one hand, it was from his thirst for Knight-level power. This was true transcendence. On the other hand, he couldn’t help but feel a certain lament welling up inside him:

Below the Knight, all were but ants!

The reality of the situation was naturally not quite that extreme. After all, even sources of chaos like evil spirits and Aberrant Beasts could be overwhelmed and slain by ordinary people working together. Knights, of course, could be as well.

Though they were not as suppressed by order as the sources of chaos were, as long as a Formal Knight’s power could not sustain itself indefinitely, the possibility of being overwhelmed and killed by ordinary people would always exist.

After all, from what Ron understood, even a Senior Knight like the Lord of Sis did not possess the ability to fly, and could still be injured when swarmed and battered by Aberrant Beasts.

As long as there were enough ordinary people, it was entirely possible to overwhelm and kill even a Senior Knight.