Way of the Knights

Chapter 342 - Preparations

---

After emptying the whole chalice filled with Soul Purifying Water, Raven's soul absorbed all that he drank.

He then gauged the overall strength of his own soul and guessed how much he recovered. Raven figured that his soul made another 5% recovery, pushing his total recovery to 20%. 

The Soul Purifying Water didn't completely cure his soul to a full recovery but Raven wasn't expecting for it to do so anyway. He knew that even if he had more Soul Purifying Water, it was still impossible to cure his soul completely with just this. The effects of the waters will diminish the greater the amount he consumes, there will come a time when it will eventually no longer have any effects on him. Even if he consumed the amount that Venus had, it still wouldn't make any difference at all.

This is why even if he only managed to have 20% of recovery, he's very satisfied. 

His opened his eyes from his meditation and let out a long breath. He then saw Venus coiled around his body, she's currently in a deep slumber. Raven could feel that her aura in a turmoil, he could also sense the changes happening around her body as well. 

Raven soothed her head and whispered: "Persevere, girl. You can do this, I believe in you."

And just like magic, the pained expression in Venus' face changed into a determined one. Raven smiled and felt proud. Venus is currently experiencing her breakthrough, and due to the potency of the ingredient she consumed, a few changes might happen to her. Raven had no idea what those changes might be, but whatever it is, it could only be good. 

He stood up and gently peeled her off from him, he then placed her inside the Spatial Abode to keep her undisturbed and safe before he planned on leaving this room. 

"Hmm." Raven hummed as he pondered about something, "I've got what I needed, which means that I can leave this place already. I was on a hurry before but that's because the flower was wilting, but now that it's safe, I think I could stay a few more days in this place."

"I still hadn't explored it completely and there's also those alchemy ingredients that I left earlier. I could harvest them now since the restrictions on me is gone and I could also practice the Ancient Arts that I memorized a few days ago."

Realizing all of this, Raven made up his mind and decided to stay a little bit longer. At most, he could stay for another week or two and no longer than that. 

***

Raven finished exploring the rest of the Sunken Ivory Castle. He ventured to every single place except for the Master's Chambers. He had found the location of all gem fragments that's needed to open the place but since he had no desire to join the Boundless Azure Sect, he left them be.

He had gathered every single ingredients that's left in here and spent some time practicing alchemy again. His skill hadn't deteriorated that much but he's still long ways to go before reaching the appropriate level to concoct the pill they needed to cure the King and the Queen. 

All he could do right now, is hope that Richard is working hard to raise his skill level so that he could concoct the pill when he comes back. 

He didn't place too much time in alchemy, instead he focused on practicing and refining all of the skills that he learned throughout his journey. 

Inside Raven's core, where the source of his Chaos Force resides, there are some slight changes that had occurred. 

Previously, there's only one large entity in this space, and that is the massive amalgamation of all the Chaos Force that he has which appeared to be a dazzling sun. Most of it are sealed since Raven's body is still not strong enough to handle this amount of Chaos Force. If the seal becomes loose, he will explode in bog piles of goo. This is why he had to release the seal little by little, and he could only do that by constantly pushing the strength of his body to the next level. 

But since learning and practicing the 'Bounties of the Sea', there is a new addition to this space. 

Right next to the massive orb which is his Chaos Force, there is a smaller white orb that's constantly spinning there. Looking closely, there is something linking this small orb to the Chaos Force orb. 

This small white orb is the 'Bounty' he managed to condense upon practicing the 'Bounties of the Sea'. This Bounty is siphoning Chaos Force little by little and storing it up. If Raven ever got into an emergency, he could activate this orb to instantly recover his strength and his supply of Chaos Force. 

What's interesting about this is that, Raven is no normal Knight. Unlike most people, he doesn't necessarily use 'Energies' anymore. What he has is Chaos Force, something that is only possible by combining Energy Essence, Vital Energy and Spiritual Energy. 

According to what he remembered from the Ancient Art 'Bounties of the Sea'. It expands one's Energy Capacity by at least ten times at it's acme, and it also allows one to condense the 'Bounty' inside their bodies, which works off of Energies as well. But since Raven doesn't follow the norm, the technique 'adjusted' to him.

He didn't receive the effect of Energy Capacity Expansion, probably because there's already too much Chaos Force inside of him, albeit sealed. He managed to condense the 'Bounty' orb, but the rate of storing energy is pathetic. He didn't know if this is normal or because he has Chaos Force instead of regular energy. 

Either way, he was on the losing end for this technique as of now but that might not necessarily be the case in the future. For now, he could only observe things and see how it will go. 

As for practicing the 'Breath of Flowing Water', he had some decent progress in it. 

The technique is divided into five levels: Entry, Constant, Motion, Balance and Perpetual. So far, Raven entered the Constant Stage of this technique. 

Reaching the Constant Stage means that it's easier for him to enter the state of Deep Meditation. This helped him a lot on progressing most of the skills that he's practicing. He was even making progress in his Destruction Laws as well thanks to this. The next stage Motion, allows him to enter the state of Deep Mediation while in motion. Meaning that it would be possible for him to do Deep Meditation while walking or even running for that matter. It's a little bit difficult to enter that stage but when he does, even he can't tell how much of a life saver that will be.

Currently, Raven was inside the Spatial Abode. He's in the progress of throwing pills and fluids into a puddle of water while making sure to keep check that it won't turn berserk. The water surged with activity and gleamed with dazzling light. It turned viscous with how much energy it contained, somehow it also gave one an impression that it is filled with little beads of precious pearls due to how vivid and dazzling the water looks. 

Even so, Raven's still not done with adding more into the water. After throwing pills and fluids, he then started throwing in some Demonic Beast Cores that he got during his travels. 

As the cores made contact with the waters, they were immediately broken down and had their energy contents siphoned and mixed into the waters. This sparked violent reactions on the waters, so much so that electricity could be seen slithering on it's surface. The reactions even caused the aura of the waters to resemble faces of demonic beasts that Raven had killed before. 

Of course, Raven wouldn't sit still and watch the waters to turn foul. With a small pulse coming from his soul, he obliterated the remnant traces of berserk will from the waters. With a wave of his hand, he forced the waters to behave and remain completely still. 

After doing this, Raven once again added another batch of beast cores to the waters. This cycle occurred at least three times before Raven was finally contented with the amount of energies present in the waters.

It had to be known that the amount of energy present in this water is enough for someone to blitz through the cultivation stages, all the way to Knight Stage. However, this amount of energies is just enough to secure that Raven won't run out of them during his breakthrough. 

Wiping the sweat that's been accumulating on his forehead, a sigh escaped from his mouth. Raven gave a glance at the slumbering Venus not too far away from him. Although the two week period that he gave himself was almost up, Venus still hasn't woken up from her slumber. 

Raven walked towards her and transferred her into a different room. Once that's done, Raven returned to the room where the waters were. He took off all of his clothes, inhaled deeply and jumped at the center of the waters. 

The 5th Transformation that will take him to the Golden Knight Stage, begins now.