Chapter 177: Dust
As he learned, he couldn't help but compare engineering to puppetry, feeling like the two disciplines were actually quite connected.
If there was a difference, Minos would say that engineering was 'static' whereas puppetry was 'dynamic,' one dead and the other alive.
It wasn't to say puppetry was better, but rather that engineering pursued a completely different path, preferring the cold hard logic of metal to the creativity of humanity.
In fact, engineering also reminded him of weapon refining, though again, the two were different in critical ways.
Engineering seemed like a more comprehensive field of study, one where both weapons and wisdom were melded organically.
One of the first machines he read about was called an 'Arrow Turret' which was actually a guide on how to create the same turret Minos and Tinka had been attacked by at that Lukalu person's gravesite.
He actually still had that same turret stored away in his spatial ring, but he hadn't really done much with it given how busy he had been.
With this guide though, he didn't even need to waste time learning how to use it, and in fact, now he could even create one of his own.
However what interested him more was a device called a 'Crystal Display,' which was the technical name of the large screen at the center of the room.
But the Crystal Display would be useless without the Crystal Recorder, the device used to record images and sounds.
A thousand different ideas couldn't help but come to mind as Minos saw the Crystal Recorder, the first being connecting one to his puppets such that he could receive real time playback of their activities instead of having to go in blind.
He was incredibly inspired by all this new knowledge, having all sorts of thoughts about ways to improve both his weapon and puppet refining.
For example, what if he created a puppet, but installed a turret onto it as well? He would no longer be limited to using his puppets in a short range.
He could even replace a lot of the puppet material with the special alloys that the Lukalu people had discovered, increasing performance and lowering costs.
This naturally extended to his weapons as well, giving him a whole new avenue of material to refine weapons with.
Minos was so obsessed with learning, that he seemed to have forgotten he had just broken through to the Inner Heaven Realm and hadn't even properly cultivated yet.
It was only after a dozen hours passed, and Potin had begun meditating in a random corner, did Minos put his learning on pause.
His brain needed some time to cool off after such intensive thinking, so it was a perfect time to finally begin to experience what it's like to cultivate in the Inner Heaven Realm.
Using the Pure Nux Ascension technique, Minos began slowly absorbing the surrounding Nux into his body, filtering and purifying it before giving it rest in his Inner Heaven.
The small wisp of Nux entered his Inner Heaven, floating around like a cloud through the sky.
Despite looking as soft as cotton, Minos knew that even this small amount of Nux could easily kill a few Mortal Renewal Cultivators if used properly.
Now his job was just to keep absorbing Nux until his Inner Heaven was filled to the brim, afterwards, he could try to break through.
This was actually the reason why Inner Heaven Cultivators tended to avoid using Nux as much as possible, because each time they did so, their cultivation was essentially receding.
Idealing, Inner Heaven Cultivators would only use their physical strength unless absolutely necessary, which is actually why a lot of them tend to have very poor Nux control due to a lack of experience.
But considering it was his first time ever having Nux, Minos didn't bother with saving up, wanting to give it a try and see if it was really as miraculous as he had always believed.
Gathering the small cloud of Nux from his Inner Heaven, Minos had it travel up his arm and towards the tip of his finger, before shooting it out.
Because he didn't condense the Nux, it just came out like a spritz of water, causing no damage at all before dissipating into the environment.
Knowing his problem, Minos spent another couple minutes gathering some more Nux before repeating the attack, but this time he focused intently on condensing the Nux before firing it.
This time he was much more successful, shooting off a white Nux bullet that slammed into the wall with tremendous strength.
Despite failing to cause any damage to the wall, Minos was still satisfied, knowing from the sound and impact alone that such an attack was definitely not weak.
"What was that?" Potin couldn't help but ask as he opened his eyes to the sound of the loud bang.
"Nothing, just attacking the wall to see if I can find a weak spot." Minos said.
"It's pointless, even Inner Heaven Cultivators can't do anything to it, much less a Mortal Renewal Cultivator." Potin said, still unaware that Minos had broken through.
While Inner Heaven Cultivators could tell the cultivation of those weaker than them, it still took a conscious effort, and ever since the first time Potin scanned Minos, he didn't bother to do it again, leaving him in the dark.
While Minos didn't have to keep his breakthrough a secret, he was simply used to keeping his trump cards if he could, so he didn't tell Potin the truth.
Instead, now that he knew Potin was watching, he decided to put his Nux control training on the back-burner for the moment, closing his eyes and focusing back on meditation.
Having a large Inner Heaven was both a blessing and a curse, because while his strength was much higher, the time and resources needed for each breakthrough was also a lot larger.
As he cultivated, he also thought about the layers within the Inner Heaven Realm, and how to best go about his future cultivation.
The Inner Heaven Realm was split into Ten Heavens and Four Clouds. The Heavens represented one's quantity, whereas the clouds represented their quality.
The first cloud was the Cloud of Air, then came the Cloud of Water, Cloud of Earth, and finally the Cloud of Fire.
Just like the cloud's name suggests, each element represents the state of Nux, air representing gas, water liquid, earth solid, and fire plasma.
The First Heaven meant that one's Nux reserves are between 0-30%, the Second Heaven would be 31-60%, and the Third Heaven was 61-100%.
For example, both Minos and Potin were at the First Heaven of the Cloud of Air, but Minos knew that Potin's was close to the Second Heaven, his Omniscient Eyes telling him that his Nux reserves were around 26%.
Once one reached 100%, they could attempt to condense their Nux down, allowing it to go through a qualitative change, reaching a new cloud.
The qualitative change would also allow their Inner Heaven to 'evolve' giving them the ability to quickly condense this new higher quality Nux without having to go through the same tedious process.
This was the basis for cultivation within the Inner Heaven Realm, and if one wanted to reach completion as quickly as possible, then it was in their own interest to avoid conflict wherever they could.
But just seeing the state of the world, it went without saying how difficult that was, another reason why a lot of Inner Heaven Cultivators tended to stagnate at the Cloud of Air.
…
With the combination of cultivation and studying, the next few days passed by tremendously quickly for Minos, though Potin was already close to tearing his hair out due to boredom.
Fortunately for him, Minos figured it was about time to leave as well, so the first thing he did was head towards the laboratory with the DNA Extraction Pod and get to work dismantling it.
His spare spatial ring was just barely enough to fit the DNA Extraction Pod and Compo inside it, but he didn't plan on abandoning everything else, instead having a plan in mind.
As for the books, they were useless to him, and he didn't want them to be used by Lilia to further strengthen the Aleph Empire, so after a short struggle, he decided to burn them.
Seeing Minos tossing all the books into a large pile, Potin couldn't help but look on with interest before speaking up.
"What are you up to?"
"Burning these books. Since we can't take them, it would be a waste to leave them behind for Lilia to use."
"Don't you think that's a bit of a waste?" Potin asked, though the books were equally useless to him, but something about just flat out burning such a massive amount of wisdom felt wrong.
What he didn't know was that Minos's brain had long since remembered everything in this library, so this knowledge was actually safe.
"You want to take them?" Minos asked.
"Ugh, I don't have any space. Damn, fine, I guess we have no other choice." Potin said after quickly checking his fully loaded spatial ring.
While Potin's sect wasn't in direct conflict with the Aleph Empire, his interaction with Lilia had soured his heart towards the empire, so he also preferred keeping this knowledge from their hands.
With Potin helping him, the two quickly piled the books into a small mountain before igniting them, watching as they slowly turned into ash and cinder.
"Goodbye…" Minos whispered, as he watched the final book turn to dust.
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