Chapter 70: A Clear Guide In The Art Of Cultivating Nothingness

Aden didn’t answer immediately. He couldn’t lie, not when she was pressed against him, and not when the metallic coldness of his skin was likely leaching the warmth right out of her.

He looked down at his marble-white hand buried in her hair. The contrast was sickening; his fingers looked like they belonged to a statue in a mausoleum, not a living boy.

“…I’m not,” Aden responded quietly. “But I’ve got it under control, I promise.”

The guilt he had painstakingly tried to surpress hammered against him as he felt Lorelei stiffen in his grip.

His eyes turned conflicted, but there was nothing he could possibly say to erase her doubts. After all, even he couldn’t guarantee that the Entity wouldn’t choose to go on a killing spree when they would be met with another impossible battle.

Aden pulled back just enough to look her in the eyes. The amber in her gaze was steadying, but the fear of the unknown remained. He reached out with his other hand and gently wiped a tear-streaked path of blood from her cheek with a clawed thumb, his touch surprisingly light.

’Hey. Is this form permanent?’ Aden questioned as Lorelei slowly pulled away from him.

’…Yes.’

Aden bit his lips as he stepped forward quietly, just enough for Lorelei not to see his face.

’You turned me into a monster,’ Aden accused.

’It was an inevitable choice. It had to be done—’

’Why don’t you let me make my own fucking decisions, huh?! How about that?’

’…’

Aden clicked his tongue at the cowardly retreat of the Entity. Without sparing him another thought, he reeled in his anger and turned to Lorelei and the rest of the Vassals who had huddled behind her with solemnity in their steps.

His eyes studied them closely. Their numbers had reduced considerably and their individual strengths had dwindled even more.

His jaw clenched as the weight of being a leader finally settled in his heart. Willing or not, these people were his and the responsibility of protecting them lay solely on him.

“Zero,” he called out firmly.

Zero stepped forward, his movements still a little wobbly. “Master…”

Aden looked at his finger. The storage ring that should’ve laid on his thumb had long turned into dust, but the Redwyn ring on his index still remained unscathed, apart from a little dust and smoke patterns that sketched themselves across its surface.

Calmly cleaning it to reveal its gold shine, Aden asked, “How safe is this cave?”

Zero looked upwards. There was a large crack that threatened to fall apart at the next major impact, but there was no trace of panic in his eyes.

“No one… Is after us at the moment, Master. I and the other Vassals can seal this place with our energies. No one will be able to find it.”

Aden looked around for a piece of wood to place between his lips, but couldn’t find any. “Wouldn’t the Princess still be able to find us out?” He asked as he looked searchingly past Zero.

Zero ignored the searching gaze that wasn’t directed at any of them before he picked up a branch that had possibly fallen from a tree above them and handed it to Aden.

Receiving the piece of wood with a brief nod, Aden promptly stuck it between his lips and urged Zero to respond.

“Master’s control over Void Energy is still fundamentally flawed. In his mind, he thinks the Void acted like a Cloak, an empty space that would swallow his presence. That misconception is what led to the Princess and the Saintesses finding us despite their weak realms.”

Aden’s face turned attentive. This was the first time he’d seen Zero speak so coherently, and he would be a fool to let his pride stop him from learning whatever he could from him.

Zero’s face was somehow similar to that of a professor who was lecturing their students on his favorite topic. “Resonance is a frequency; it’s a hum that every living thing emits. The Void, however, isn’t exactly emptiness, it’s the inversion of such natural frequencies.

“When Master tried to layer his Void energy over his own Resonance, he wasn’t masking his signature. He was creating an interference. Instead of a smooth, natural hum that would melt into the natural frequencies, he was causing a jagged sound that any trained tracker could find.”

Aden took a deep breath as he digested the much needed bits of information that didn’t need much deciphering.

’I guess I couldn’t expect the system to tell me all of this,’ he spat out a chewed piece of the stick. ’Come to think of it, I haven’t activated it in a while.’

Pushing that thought to the side for the moment, he chose to learn everything he could from Zero. The rest of the Vassals including Lorelei also used that chance to learn from their Fifth Vassal.

The Nine of them sat in a circle with attentive expressions as Zero continued his lecture solely meant for his Master.

Aden sat on a rock behind the encirclement and the attentive look on his face was briefly mixed with a foreign sense of pride.

As he listened on, another thought surfaced in his mind. ’Was Master not completely right about the nature of Resonance? Or was it that he cultivated it in a more crude manner? Whatever. If he could cultivate both Resonance and Void energy, I’m sure I could do the same.’

As Zero came to the end of his explanation, Aden finally asked the major question that had been on his mind.

“So how do I master control over my Void Energy and increase my proficiency in it while still cultivating Resonance?”

Zero raised two of his fingers. “You’ll have to cultivate them in Parallel. Not as a mixture, but as a dual-stream.”

Aden’s eyes tapped the surface of the rock with hidden unrest. He knew what this meant. His progression would inevitably slow down, and he was certain this new development would require him to forcibly suppress his breakthrough to the next realm of his Resonance cultivation.

But that didn’t mean he was going to pass up a chance in mastering two energies at once.

Aden steeled his resolve and leaned forward with a solemn expression. “Continue.”

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