Chapter 244 - Conquering Aggression Falls (2/2)

Zero played the long waiting game with the Aggression Falls. Unknown to the teenager, he spent three days underneath the waterfall meditating. If it was a human or another living creature, their bodies would start weakening due to the lack of sustenance with the exception of plants.

The teen persevered and tried to seek out a way of replicating that numbing sensation to understand more about the mystery behind what happens when everything is completely neutralised from each other.

Zero decided to mess around with his accumulated experiences when Aggression Falls didn't respond to his taunts. Even if it was incomplete, Zero wanted to try gaining some clues to support his hypothesis.

The first thing Zero tried to recreate was the physical sensations with varying levels of pain from heat, touch, pressure and even qi accumulation. The young doctor certainly wasn't prepared for a virtual explosion that sent him hurling backwards when he added intense pressure to the volcano bath. From outside of his isolated dimension, Zero was vaguely aware of the repairs his body was making. The realisation that a wrong combination in the isolated dimension could kill him literally made Zero a little more cautious about his next move.

Hua Tuo nearly jumped out of his skin when Zero spat out a mist of blood and rushed over to the teenager's side. thankfully, the internal injury wasn't as severe and Zero's healing magic kicked in automatically.

The array was shaky but soon stabilised once more and Hua Tuo swallowed. Zero was finally exploring the combination of qi energy and finding that balance he needed after being in the acceptance stage for three days. The Sage God decided to be on standby in case Zero's progress takes a turn for the worst. Many cultivators who overcame the first stage often suffered life-threatening internal injuries that crippled their cultivation progress forever after making a wrong move in the second stage.

The physician wasn't too worried about the combinations Zero would try because he taught his student well about magic basics and the six elements. If Zero calmed down and thought rationally, he would be able to overcome this stage without problems.

Zero refrained from doing anything else and waited for his body to complete recovering the damage done. He didn't think that the injury was too serious but the boy now knew better. If there was no risk, he would not progress from this point forth. Thankfully, he was well-prepared for the theory test.

”Light counters darkness but fuels earth and is complemented by water. No wonder it exploded... compressed heat is a combination of fire and darkness that complements each other. It's the opposite of light and water, what was I thinking?” Zero sighed and rubbed his face in the isolated dimension before deadpanning.

”Right, I wasn't thinking. Let's see, what do I try next without risking dumb consequences?”

Hua Tuo slept on the bridge for the next two days while Zero made slow and sometimes painful progress with his understanding of becoming one. On some occasions, Hua Tuo wanted to pat his apprentice on the head but there were times when he wanted to smack the boy with his sandal. Zero was a meditating time bomb in the literal sense. One moment Hua Tuo would swell with pride at a huge step forward and the next minute he would be rushing over to check on Zero's internal injuries with the tell-tale bloody mist spray.

On the other side of the waterfall, Zero thought he was making good progress. As he tried to weave more combinations of elements in his polarity collection and duality blanket together, Zero came to understand the relationship between elements better. At first, he thought that the rule of thumb about complementary elements and neutralising elements applied to everything. While it was difficult to sort them into their respective class and attributes, Zero learnt by guessing and trying. Sometimes it yielded favourable results and other times, it was disastrous.

After a while, Zero saw a more complex pattern when he mixed more than two elements. The rule of elements no longer applied and the results were confusing. Zero gained invaluable knowledge from combining more than three hundred different combinations and was beginning to exhaust his list of four-element combinations. His brain was also hurting and exhausted from the long list of calculations to create combinations. At the same time, Zero no longer heard from the Aggression Falls. He was now completely secluded in his personal dimension and sat in an empty space trying to solve the mystery of his trial. There had to be a reason why he was given an incomplete blanket of duality.

The teenager tried to recall the lessons he learnt. The duality concept was very close to the art of Tai Ji's philosophy and Zero groaned when the five-element combination fizzled away for the seventeenth time. Four-element combinations were tricky but five-element combinations were simply impossible. It didn't really matter what he tried, nothing worked out.

Zero skipped straight away to a six-element combination and was not surprised when nothing happened. It was as if none of the input mattered anymore. Light cancelled darkness, fire cancelled water and earth cancelled wind effectively when Zero put them in equal amounts.

The teenager stared at the results of his experiment and sighed. Why did he come so far only to realise that nothing happened at the end of it all? It didn't really matter now if he collected all the elements missing in his blanket of duality when everything belonged to a category of some attribute. They would simply cancel each other out like the six-element combination and Zero would ultimately be left with nothing.

Hua Tuo was thrilled. Zero was still meditating and it was the dawn on the fifth day when the Sage God felt the atmosphere change. Zero's powerful cultivation base was beginning to awaken and as the sun broke through the rosy clouds, the brunet started exuding a tangible aura of qi that looked slightly wispy for starters. the wind picked up on Zero but the young doctor remained unperturbed. He continued to meditate and started to levitate about ten centimetres above the surface he was seated on.

Zero was fed up. Aggression Falls no longer mattered to him. All he wanted to do was burn the blanket of duality that proved meaningless. After all that suffering it was telling him that the solution to the mystery was nothing? How could it be? What was the point of having different elements when they cancelled each other's merits equally and cease to exist after that?

The best part of it all was how Zero didn't know how to leave the isolated dimension. He knew that Hua Tuo was outside watching over him but he didn't know how to leave his inner dimension. Was he going to be trapped in it forever until he cracked the code?

”Hold on!” the teenager gasped and returned to the blanket of duality. It might be true that when six elements came together, they turned into nothing. However, there was something a little special about that result as compared to the fizzled out five-element combination. Zero couldn't believe he missed out on that earlier and held onto his train of thoughts.

Replicating his earlier experiment, Zero paid closer attention to the difference between the result of the reaction. The five-element combination fizzled out into nothing but not before some friction and struggle for a final victor. On the other hand, the six-element combination completely melded together as if accepting one another before fading out peacefully.

The difference between the way they faded out made Zero think. Was harmony the key factor here? If Tai Ji was built on the concept of complete harmony and balance, it would explain why five elements will not cooperate with each other as well as six elements. At the same time, Zero revised his results with four and two elements of complimenting harmony. He saw a similarity in the result but was dissatisfied with the space they left behind. There were still lingering energy and imbalance in the space for anything less than the reaction between all six elements and Zero wondered if he was looking at it the wrong way.

Perhaps the reaction was a duality in itself! With this thought, Zero decided to investigate further into the reaction that he thought was nothing. The same space that the elements collided in may fool the eye and appear similar but if Zero activated his other senses, he could immediately tell the difference between the few reactions.

To prove it, Zero set up a few combinations to react at the same time. The most significant change was the reaction time. Some elements took longer to cancel each other out and had varying side effects when they met each other. For instance, when fire met water, steam was created before it vanished into nothingness. As a result, Zero didn't think that it was truly nothingness that was created when the neutralising elements met. they simply created a by-product that was easily dissipated.

However, the six-element formation was strange. Unlike the other combinations that took time to react in sequence, the six-element formation fell into the centre and didn't need to find the cancelling element. It seemed to form something like a circle of mixed elements and distribute itself evenly to melt away without side effects. If Zero was looking for perfection in coexistence, this was it.

Hua Tuo was nodding off when the Aggressive Falls was split into half. Zero finally achieved a new breakthrough and had attained enlightenment about the concept of harmony.

In the isolated dimension, Zero didn't stop at that. It was like opening a new door to knowledge when he understood the true meaning of harmony and balance. One by one, his mind was inspired by the finding. He was now able to look at Solo's vast creation with a more profound comprehension. the cycle of life made sense, the flow of time was now within his grasp. Zero also knew how to manipulate energy with his will and suddenly he wondered if this was how Solo felt.

The teenager opened his eyes and looked at the familiar hunched back of his teacher preparing something. They were now back at Hua Tuo's humble hut. Strangely, Zero didn't feel happiness at conquering the Aggression Falls. Instead, he felt a sense of unusual tranquillity as he got up to greet his teacher.

Understanding the mysteries of solo's creation only put Zero in a pensive mood. While many things now made sense to Zero about the world he was exploring, the teenager couldn't help but wonder if this was right. if anything, the new knowledge only served to confuse him more.

”Congratulations, you've conquered Aggression Falls. We can now move on to Progression Falls and Regression Falls. How are you feeling?”

Zero put a hand to his chest and blinked. ”Strangely empty.”

Hua Tuo wasn't too surprised by Zero's answer. He was also disoriented for a few years after his first breakthrough. It wasn't surprising for Zero to feel out of it after taking a little more than a week to overcome the first waterfall. If they had more time, Hua Tuo would allow Zero to wallow in the swamp of new knowledge, questioning the existence of life before proceeding to the next stage. Unfortunately, he received a text from merlin about Truen's progress. The wood elf was progressing smoothly and would complete his training in two more months. Zero didn't have a lot of time to complete his training with Hua Tuo at this rate.

”Don't worry,” he told his disciple and told him to drink up a strange soup.

Zero suspected nothing and drank it in one mouthful as it was a rather small bowl. The moment he did so, he was attacked by an overwhelming flavour that was a cross between hydra spit and heavenly mead. It burned his mouth, nose and lungs. Zero felt the soup awaken every single point in his meridian network forcefully, jolting him awake and his mind was forced back from the trance-like state it entered since the breakthrough.

The new knowledge still bothered Zero but the apprentice was now no longer in that strange state in between reality and his inner dimension.

”Better now?” the Sage God asked and Zero coughed, gasping for air and drinking flask after flask of water to get rid of that taste.

”I guess,” he croaked when the burn died a little. If he ever needed a strong wake-up call, he knew what to do now.

Hua Tuo patted his apprentice on the head. ”Take it easy today, we can start training in the progression Falls tomorrow. You did well. Form now on, it would be an easy ride.”

Zero grinned and regained some of his usual cheerfulness. All confusion aside, the end of the tunnel was now in sight and Zero couldn't wait to challenge the other two waterfalls.