Emperor of the Source

After several years of seclusion within cultivation chambers, Selena finally ascended to the Rule Stage.

She already possessed some knowledge of the arcane concepts underlying Crimson Vital Dominion and hadn't needed to spend decades comprehending them from nothing. Adrian's knowledge spheres had also helped her.

The moment her divine concept stabilised, she opened her eyes. Power coursed through her, not the familiar sensation of arcane essence flowing through her, but something different.

Selena examined the Rule Core within her, sensing its crystalline structure through her consciousness. This new awareness of divine concept felt wrong at first, not in a negative sense, but in a way that violated her previous understanding of reality.

Arcane concepts were limited by their natural boundaries. Fire only burned at a certain highest temperature; one couldn't cross the limits. Each concept operated within constraints. Divine concepts broke past those limits, stepping into a domain above nature.

She could feel it now, the way her Crimson Vital Dominion twisted the rules governing vitality, blood, force, and pressure into something that shouldn't exist. A unified whole that reality itself struggled to contain.

Selena didn't ponder these philosophical implications much. She dismissed her domain, rose from her meditation cushion, and made her way directly to the inscription department within the Azure Garden base.

The building designated for inscribers stood near the outer perimeter of the base, a modest structure compared to the towering alchemy facilities. Selena noted this disparity with quiet irritation as she approached.

Inside, disciples worked at scattered stations, their attention focused on formation diagrams and runic structures. Most ignored her entrance.

Lysandra stood at the central workbench, her hands moving with practiced precision as she adjusted a spatial inscription. She glanced up, "You're finally here."

They moved to a private chamber at the building's rear, where Lysandra sealed the entrance with a simple privacy formation. Through their discussion, Selena came to understand the current state of the department within the Crimson Vital Sect.

"The inscription department was a joke when I arrived," Lysandra said bluntly. "They lacked proper knowledge, and the entire department was underfunded. The disciples here spent more time on just maintaining and repairing the formations throughout the sect. They don't even spend time on practicing their own craft."

"And now?"

"Now that's changed.." Lysandra's tone carried no arrogance, only fact. "First, I challenged every inscriber in the department and beat them all. Established myself as head inscriber within the first few months."

Selena raised an eyebrow, "I assume they weren't pleased."

"They learned." Lysandra gestured toward the sealed door. "I started to teach them proper inscription knowledge, and now, these disciples actually practice inscription. Slowly, more funds had already started to enter the department."

"Great! What are you working on now?"

"Starships." Lysandra pulled up a holographic display showing damaged vessels in various states of repair. "The previous war left most of the sect's fleet in ruins. Adrian is focusing on weapon artifacts, so I redirected the entire department toward repairing the starships. Actually, the disciples here were not that bad; they already had some knowledge, at least in the Arcane space concept, to fix the starships. But before, they would have taken centuries to fix all the starships, but now, with my guidance, we've already repaired eighty percent of the damaged starships over the past few years."

Selena studied the display, noting the intricate formation networks that powered each vessel, "Impressive output."

"It kept us busy," Lysandra admitted. "But starship repair doesn't bring much change here. Even if I had not come here, the inscription department would have worked on the starships anyway. Even though the starships are useful, in actual war, they don't help much other than traveling. So still, alchemists dominate this sect's reputation. Disciples still view pills as the primary path to power."

"You want to change that?"

Lysandra's expression hardened, "Not entirely. There are benefits to the path in alchemy, and I'm not against someone else's paths. More importantly, this sect is an alchemy sect, and we are the outsiders who joined. Just because we are inscribers, we can't force the entire sect to change. What I want is to change their view on the inscription department within the sect."

"As I spent a few years within the sect, I learned a few important things. The entire sect, even outer disciples, know the value of inscribers in general, since they see various technologies created with it. But, a majority of them are focused on alchemy."

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"Focusing on alchemy is nothing wrong, but from what I observed, some disciples, especially a few core disciples, think that alchemy could offer them a solution to all the problems. They basically blindly follow the path of alchemy, and even if they see runic technologies, they don't truly value them."

"What I want to change is that view from the entire sect. Actually, a few things are already aligned in a way to help us. The news of the willforce artifact on the Auction was the first one that broke some disciples. Many thought only Crimson Will Lotus could help recover one's willforce. Witnessing a tool capable of achieving the same effect brought some doubts, and it started to show the reality to them."

"This mindset of disciples is mainly because of the sect's education system and of their ideology. The entire sect pursues transcendence by plant cultivation and alchemy. They view it higher than anything else."

"Honestly, everyone has their own freedom to choose their ideology, but I just don't want them to be as blinded as they are now."

"Now, since we are here, how can we let this situation continue? In a way, letting this situation continue is actually a downside for the sect. It's better to fix it as soon as possible."

Hearing this, Selena felt that same determination within her.

"What do you need?"

Lysandra finally smiled, a sharp, calculating expression. "You arrived at the perfect time. We've just finished repairing most of the starships. Now we can finally focus on something more meaningful, something that will show the sect the true value of inscribers."

Together, the two began working side by side, their combined expertise breathing new life into the department.

Drawing upon their shared understanding of the Arcane Life Concept, they engineered a new artifact, a ring designed to restore lifeforce and provide passive healing to its wearer.

"Pills are consumable," Lysandra said. "Needed appropriate plants with life essence within them. After that, it would only last one use, then be gone. If we create a reusable alternative..."

They worked through the night on this idea, sketching formation structures and testing runic combinations. Unlike traditional healing pills, this ring would function indefinitely, requiring only essence crystal replacements.

The development took only a few days. They didn't need extensive research since this relied on Arcane spells they had inscribed countless times before. Their previous experience in the Milky Way Galaxy provided the foundation.

They achieved this by constructing a new formation and inscribing it into rings crafted from Starlight Jade. The material itself proved relatively inexpensive, costing only twenty thousand UNI-Coins per piece.

"The degradation period concerns me," Selena noted, examining the jade's specifications. "Fifteen years seems short."

"It has limitations," Lysandra agreed. "Fifteen-year degradation period, restricted to low-level divine inscriptions. But those limitations are only for divine spells; it becomes irrelevant under our approach."

Instead of using divine concepts, they inscribed only the Arcane Life Concept, embedding a variation of Adrian's Breath of Life spell into the ring. They deliberately avoided Verdant Genesis.

By avoiding divine inscriptions, they significantly reduced strain on the material. As a result, the degradation period extended to several hundred years, and the rings required only arcane life conceptual essence crystals to function.

Selena said, "This will work! Arcane artifacts, like Adrian's weapon approach."

The overall production cost remained extremely low. Lysandra and Selena handled the inscription themselves and even converted pure mana crystals into the required life essence crystals, eliminating the need for external purchases.

Selena held up the first completed ring, watching emerald light pulse through its structure.

Lysandra, too, watched their first ever created artifact, "I considered this creation earlier, but was hindered by material availability. The required base rings had to be imported from outside the base, and with the time field's distortion, even a single day of external delivery translates to several years here. That delay prevented me from this progress…"

"It's normal. We have to deal with time distortion in the outside world anyway." Selena said as she turned to look at Lysandra.

"Yep, and you've arrived at perfect timing, when we have all the materials." Lysandra met her gaze.

With their combined efforts, progress accelerated rapidly. Within weeks, they had produced hundreds of healing rings, each one tested and verified.

The introduction of the healing ring caused a significant stir within the sect.

Word spread quickly through the local network, and disciples crowded the inscription department building, wanting access to the new artifacts.

But not everyone celebrated.

A few days later, Selena walked past the training grounds and observed a core disciple sitting at the edge of an arena. He had a deep gash across his shoulder. One of his juniors offered him a glowing emerald ring.

The core disciple stared at it for a long moment, his expression unreadable, before shaking his head and taking the ring.

"Growing up believing nature and plants will solve all our problems really seems like I was a fool," he told the junior quietly.

The junior replied, "No, you were not a fool. I, too, believed that, and I still believe it. See the garden around us, it's beautiful, isn't it? What we are facing is just another way of nature. But it doesn't mean the plants can't replicate this. We need to adapt ourselves to the reality we are facing now."

Selena sighed as she heard the conversation. There were many disciples within the sect who were deeply rooted in traditional methods of alchemy to deal with everything. The sect's ideology itself was to pursue transcendence through alchemy, and the disciples' mindset was also shaped towards it.

There's nothing wrong with it, but it cannot blind them not to acknowledge other methods. She and Lysandra did this especially to change their views. In a way, Selena could feel what they were going through. She, too, had complete belief in arcane concepts, and then, the divine concepts violated her previous understanding of reality. It took her time to adapt to it, but she did eventually.

Selena slowly turned and walked back to the inscription department. Like herself, she believed the disciples here would see the actual reality in front of them and adapt sooner or later. They were mature beings, adults and not children; they just needed time to grieve the simplicity of their past.

Gradually, this tension began creating a subtle divide. Within the sect, disciples were split into two sides: those who embraced the new methods and those who were still struggling to adapt to the new changes.