Chapter 680: Big Bosss Big Wall (1/2)
“The Big Boss what?” Zac asked with confusion.
“The founder once tried to forge a huge axe, but he failed spectacularly and even blew up his forge along with most materials. He got so angry that he went on a rampage and hacked away at the core metal he was planning on using,” the devil snickered.
“Ah?” Zac said with a confused smile, his image of powerful Monarchs somewhat ruined.
“Well, the material was no longer suitable for crafting after that, but it was a unique C-grade metal sheet after all. It stored some of the Founder’s Dao insights. Looking at the scars he left behind can give some inspiration into the Dao,” the devil said. “I finally managed to form my Branch of the Axe after studying it for three months. Crazy expensive, but worth it.”
Zac’s eyes lit up in excitement. He hadn’t made much headway on improving his Dao over the past years, and this might be an opportunity to find some direction. Besides, he didn’t need to worry about accidentally breaking through to Peak Mastery for his Fragment of the Axe and losing a bunch of attribute points. With his odd constitution, he also needed to consume some Dao Treasure to power his breakthrough.
“Where do I go?” Zac asked.
“I’ll take you,” the devil shrugged as he led the way.
The two chatted a bit on the way, and Zac realized that the devil attendant, whose name was unpronounceable but went by Woz, was a Half-Step D-grade wandering cultivator who still hadn’t given up on breaking through. It was actually possible to take that step even with a defective core, but it was far more difficult than forming a core normally.
You needed to completely disintegrate your defective core and immediately form a new one. Fail, and you’d blow up from the rampant energies. Very few people had the guts to make that attempt. After all, if they really had the ambition to become a true Hegemon they normally wouldn’t form the Half-Step Core in the first place. Zac guessed that Woz had encountered some sort of opportunity soon after becoming a Half-Step cultivator, which made him change his mind and give it a go.
Woz was currently trying to accumulate experience and inspiration, and he had become an inner member of the Coliseum to get access to restricted resources. It meant he was giving up most of his freedom, but the Big Axe Coliseum restrained inner members a lot less compared to most clans and sects.
In his case, his employment would last a thousand years, but it would get renegotiated if he managed to break through. Managing to form a Dao Branch was a huge improvement for him, but he still didn’t feel confident since he had already failed to form his core once.
The raucous atmosphere of the arenas was soon replaced by a solemn silence, but the combative attunement in the air just kept getting more condensed until they reached a huge courtyard. A few Hegemon guards were standing by, but they had obviously been informed of Zac’s arrival as they let him and Woz through without a word.
There was not much happening in the courtyard. There were just roughly fifty cultivators and a massive slab of scarred metal.
“What kind of axe was the founder trying to make?” Zac exclaimed as he looked at the enormous sheet.
It was over a hundred meters tall and three times as wide. It was like Zac was looking at a city wall rather than a block of metal meant to be turned into a weapon.
“The Big Boss had a berserker state where he grew to three hundred meters,” the devil said. “The axe needed to match that size in its original form, and then it could simply be shrunk to match his normal size. It would be cheaper to make an axe based on his original size, but then the weapon would become a lot weaker when he grew.”
Zac nodded thoughtfully. It was true, he had noticed a similar issue in his undead form when his axe grew into a 3-meter bardiche. However, the difference there wasn’t too big compared to its original form, and it wasn’t causing a problem. But Billy probably lost some of his lethality with his huge club, though [Bonker’s] true size might be larger than Zac realized.
“So how does this work?” Zac asked as he looked at the fifty-odd cultivators sitting in meditation.
“Those guys can’t hear us. The mats they are sitting on have isolation arrays,” Woz said. “You can walk freely back and forth until you find a scar that resonates with your Dao. Then simply take a seat on a free mat and see what you can gain. Someone will wake you up when your time is up. Oh, don’t bother anyone who is sitting in meditation, and don’t walk forward from the mat.”
“I understand,” Zac nodded and stepped inside.
He didn’t know what made some big-shot donate two weeks in front of this wall, but he wouldn’t say no to this opportunity. Part of him screamed that this was all a conspiracy, but he forcibly stilled those thoughts. The Multiverse was ruthless, but not everything was a plot and not everyone was out to destroy him.
Passing all five trials in the first go wasn't that common, and it was possible that some elder simply wanted to give Zac a good impression of the faction. Perhaps it was that Ogre from before who had taken a liking to him, and Zac guessed that he could easily fork out the cost for two weeks if Woz had been able to study the scars for three full months.
Zac didn’t want to waste a minute of his allotted time, and he quickly walked over to the walkway behind the prayer mats. It was odd, some of the cultivators in front of him were warriors over ten meters tall, but Zac could still see the wall in its entirety as long as he stood on that road.
He slowly walked back and forth, and his eyes lit up as he looked at the wall. It had just looked like a broken mess from where he and Woz stood before, but now it felt like all the scars contained some clues to the Dao of the Axe. A few scars gave Zac an impression of furious momentum powerful enough to split the world in two, others an undeniable bloodlust that made his eyes water in pain.
Other tears seemed to be filled with the fundamental aspects of the Axe. There were Heaviness and Sharpness, the two Daos that he had fused to create the Fragment of the Axe. But there were also a few others. There were a few with hardness, one that Zac felt was related to steel. There were a few that made Zac think of the bloody swirls around Verun’s legs.
All in all, there were over fifty concepts that made up the Big Boss's understanding of the Dao from what Zac could tell. Some resonated with him, and others didn’t. Finally, Zac settled on one particular set of scars. It was two seemingly simple marks that formed an ‘X’ on the metal sheet. They weren’t as deep as some marks, and not as large as others.
But they gave Zac a mysterious feeling, and he felt like he was looking at two clashing armies when he looked at the scars. Luckily, there was no one sitting in front of that particular section of the wall, and Zac immediately sat down on the closest prayer mat.
The moment he sat down a wave of tranquility spread through his body, no doubt the effect of the prayer mat. Zac's mind was crystal clear, but at the same time suffused by the pervasive battle lust in the air. That was just what Zac wanted, and he let the killing intent permeate his whole being as he gazed at the axe scars.
The rest of the universe soon disappeared, and there were only the crossed lines on the metal sheet, or rather the two opposing armies locked in an endless conflict. It felt like the air around him was drenched in the Dao of the Axe, like he was sitting in a purified version of the Dao Chamber Kenzie had constructed for the Dao Funnel.
He soon took out [Verun’s Bite], but he simply held it in his hands for most of the time. Sometimes he slowly swung it in various directions as though he wanted to confirm something, but most of the time he was lost in thought. New impressions replaced the previous in an endless cycle, like an everchanging battlefield in his mind. He had long lost any concept of time, only stopping occasionally to take a fasting pill and go over the insights.
“Brat, it’s time,” a powerful suddenly voice resonated in his mind, startling Zac awake.
Two weeks had passed that quickly?
Zac didn’t tarry, and he quickly got up on his feet after taking one last look at the two scars. He hadn’t broken through, but Zac was certain that he was right at the precipice of pushing his Fragment of the Axe to peak mastery. He just needed to incorporate what he had gained over the past two weeks into his own understanding, and then eat some treasure that could be used as fuel for the breakthrough.