Chapter 232: Vast Wall
As a fan of music, she had naturally listened to plenty in the past, but she had never heard a song that had such incredible power behind it.
Rather than just mortal music that could only slightly affect one's mood, it was more like immortal music that completely transcended the mundane.
"Amazing…" Siar couldn't help but say in a slight whisper.
"I'm glad you liked it." Minos said with a smile, tucking the flute back into his spatial ring.
"I didn't know music was capable of such a thing." Siar said.
"All paths lead to heaven, and music is naturally among them." Minos replied, slightly shocking Siar.
"All paths lead to heaven…" She couldn't help but echo, feeling that there was a profound wisdom hidden within this short sentence.
"Of course some paths are narrower and less traveled, making it much harder for those who come after." Minos explained.
This was something he had understood after all these years of studying, realizing that all things could ascend, some paths were just easier than others.
For example, puppets were a path, alchemy was a path, formations were a path, and even something seen as mundane like music was also a path.
Just like the saying goes, heaven is 50, earth is 49, and man is 1, meaning that everything under the heavens and earths has a chance, as small as the chance may seem.
Of course, compared to the path of Nux Cultivation that had been traveled by innumerable people over uncountable years, constantly refined by sages throughout the ages, other paths were infinitely harder to travel.
"Do you think alchemy can also reach the heavens?" Siar couldn't help but ask.
"Naturally, but it's impossible to do so with a mortal's strength and lifespan, hence why Nux Cultivation is so critical." Minos explained before continuing.
"From what I've experienced, cultivation can be split into two paths, which I call the Ascension Path and the Enlightened Path."
"The Ascension Path is about transcending the body, whereas the Enlightened Path is about expanding your mind and wisdom."
"These two go hand in hand, like the body and the soul. If you lack either one, you will forever be incomplete."
"While at the early stages it may feel that the Ascension Path doesn't need the Enlightened Path, in my opinion, this isn't the case at greater realms."
"Though I'm not exactly sure what those realms have in store, I believe that without enough understanding of the world, it would be impossible to ascend to higher realms."
Hearing Minos's words, Siar nodded unconsciously, feeling that everything he said made incredible sense.
While she came from a place of privilege and had talked with many people of incredible strength, she had never seen someone summarize things so succinctly, making it easy to digest.
"Then people like us have an advantage since we study all day, don't we?" Siar asked.
"Not necessarily, after all alchemy is a path, but so is the sword and the fist. While those regular cultivators may not study books, they instead practice with weapons and combat, which can also be seen as a path of enlightenment." Minos replied.
"I see… It looks like I've been to arrogant in the past, looking down on others and feeling like their ways were 'primitive.'" Siar said with a sigh.
"Arrogance is the graveyard of progress, so it's best you clear it from your heart as soon as possible, and never underestimate others and their ways."
"You're right. I still thought too simply in the past." Siar said sincerely, truly grateful for Minos's lesson.
Smiling, Minos didn't say anymore, just shifting the conversation back to alchemy, which quickly pulled Siar out of her slump.
…
Like that, the two spent the next few days traveling and talking, turning the treetops into their resting place whenever night came.
At night, Minos would leave Siar to sleep, but luckily for him, Siar would always leave him with a book before she fell asleep, giving him something to do.
With the combination of the books he had read and the nonstop conversations with Siar, Minos's alchemy level had reached new heights, of course without any formal practice, it was hard to say just how skilled he was.
Just like all other crafts, the way alchemy master's were ranked was simply based on the strongest pill they could make.
If they could create a Three-Moon pill at their strongest, then they would be a Three-Moon Alchemist, and so on.
Since Minos had never actually made any pills yet, it was impossible to say what his level was, but in terms of theoretical knowledge alone, he was probably already at the Four-Moon level, not far from Siar herself.
Siar was already aware of Minos's demonic nature, so her shock was soon replaced by apathy, having completely gotten used to Minos's scary rate of progress.
Minos was naturally aware that his talent was enough to shock the world, so he reminded Siar not to tell anyone of his progress, which she quickly agreed to.
With his Omniscient Eyes and Heart Path, Minos knew more about Siar then she did about herself, which is why he decided to trust her.
After all, if she was a bad person in the first place, he wouldn't have gone through so much effort to keep her alive, instead he'd have just ignored her from the start.
However, while carrying Siar did bless him with a tremendous amount of alchemy knowledge, it also made traveling a lot harder.
Occasionally, Minos would have to fight a demonic beast that he couldn't avoid, which was much harder to do while you also have to protect someone.
Fortunately, after a week of nonstop walking and killing four more demonic beasts, the static environment finally changed.
…
One day, as the two were walking as usual, Minos's steps suddenly came to a pause, having just seen something interesting from his eagle puppets perspective.
'What is that?' Minos thought to himself.
The recorder quality of his eagle was naturally incomparable to his own eyes, but even so, Minos could make out what seemed to be a wall.
Of course from this distance, he could only see a slightly gray blur, but it's even build made it clear that it definitely wasn't a naturally occurring rock structure.
If there was a wall, then there naturally must be something within it, so Minos's frozen feet immediately burst back out into an even faster speed than before.
Siar was naturally curious as to why he suddenly paused, but before she could ask, Minos started moving again, even faster than before, forcing her to swallow her words back down.
This was the first time Minos saw what seemed to be a human structure since he entered this realm, so he could hardly hold back.
Of course he still moved with caution, making the journey which would have normally taken a short while last a full two days.
As the walls came closer and closer, Minos couldn't help but appreciate just how massive these walls were, which wasn't apparent from far away.
Siar also finally noticed the walls through the dense trees, her pupils shrinking as her heart filled with shock.
"Where are we!"
"I'm not sure, but if luck is on our side, we may have finally found the core of this realm…" Minos said, before controlling his eagle puppet to scale the thousand meter high wall.
After flying for a bit, Minos was just about to peek over the walls with his puppet, but before he could, its wings suddenly froze mid-flap, as if the air around it had solidified.
Without any lift, the eagle puppet almost immediately lost control, descending back to the earth like a meteor.
Fortunately, after falling for a bit, the air turned back to normal, and Minos managed to quickly recover, allowing the eagle to fly back down to him normally.
Siar was naturally aware of Minos's eagle puppet after all these days of travel, so seeing it land back into his hands, she was a little curious.
"What did you see?"
"Nothing. Before I could make it above the wall, the air seemed to freeze, making flight impossible." Minos explained.
"The air freezed? It must be an Air Ban Formation!" Siar said, almost immediately recognizing what it was.
"Air Ban Formation?"
"It's a type of formation that makes flying impossible within a certain range, even our Aleph City has one installed."
"In that case, it looks like we'll have to enter the city by foot." Minos spoke as he looked up at the tall walls that didn't have an entrance in sight.
Sending his eagle puppet back out to travel along the walls, Minos chose a direction at random and began walking.
Since this was likely a city wall, then it must have an entrance somewhere, and they just needed to walk in a circle until they found it.
The only problem was that this city was even larger than Aleph City, and if he had to slowly walk along the walls, it's hard to say just how long this search would last.
But with no other choices in hand, Minos could only secure Siar tightly on his shoulder before beginning his march.
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