2 Years Later, Mount Kailash, the Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon
Two years have passed since the escapade in the Underworld and since the time, Valiana arrived at the Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon.
During the past two years, Yhwach wasn't really allowed to leave the Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon due to the situation in the Underworld and spent most of his time at the Mount Kailash.
During the two years, he trained and studied, he reached the limits of Level 3 and was already a Six-Winged Angel, as he had three pairs of wings. In fact, he could have long ago reached the Level 4 Ultimate-Class in the aspect of the Holy Power, but Yhwach was suppressing a lot.
One needed to know that reaching the Minor God Rank was rather hard because it wasn't just about condensing his Divine Energy but also understanding his Divine Authority, which, in his case, was playing against him.
As someone who inherited the [Divine Authority of Destruction] from his father, he had a rather hard time comprehending and using the [Divine Authority of Destruction], while he didn't have low comprehension and understanding of the [Divine Authority of Destruction]...
It wasn't enough for him to ascend to Godhood and become a Minor God from his present Demigod Status. Fortunately enough, he had one huge advantage, the fact that he was Demigod, that heightened his chances of Ascension to Godhood.
The main reason why he was positioning the entire thing was that he still hadn't figured out the methods for fusing the Divine Energy and Holy Power together to create one stable Energy Source.
His father told him the best time to fuse one's multiple types of energies was somewhere around the first three Levels. After one reached Level 4, it could still be done, but it would be much harder because when one reached Level 4, in most cases and for most species, it led to tremendous growth in power.
For the Gods, it was their starting point, the Minor God Rank, and for the Angels, it were the Eight-Winged Angels that were on the Ultimate-Class. When he reached those ranks, it would be especially hard to do something, mainly due to the nature of the Divine Energy and his species as a whole.
The fundamental existence of the Divine Energy and [Divine Authority of Destruction]were interviewed together, and any change that happened to his Divine Energy would have a significant fall on his species and could be as dangerous as hell.
For that, Yhwach was rather cautious, very cautious and was stopping himself from growing further without figuring out the method of fusing the Holy Power and Divine Energy together into something new and something that would work.
Within Mount Kailash, he had his own personal laboratory that was constructed for him, another perk of being the son of the leader of the strongest faction in the entire Draconic Deus Dimension.
Yhwach heard the voice of the [Unique Skill Great Sage], who was fulfilling the task of researching the safe fusion between the Divine Energy and the Holy Power. It was a rather arduous and lengthy task, as the calculations alone were something that the [Great Sage] had been doing for more than one year.
When the formula was finally done, Yhwach found the safe ratio in which he should start the fusion of the Divine Energy and the Holy Power. The entire process was more complicated by the fact that his Divine Energy was far stronger and purer than his Holy Power.
Mainly, due to the inheritance of his father, who was incomparably stronger than his mother, and even though his mother was a very powerful Level 7 True Seraphim, she was still rather far from the level of Shiva, the God of Destruction who stood at the apex of the modern Gods.
Thus, he needed to create the perfect ratio in which the energies could fuse safely without one overpowering the other, which would create an imbalance. And the imbalance would be his death or at least cause him some really severe injuries.
The ratio, if explained in Units, would be 1 Unit of the Divine Energy and 12 Units of the Holy Power, so he would need many times more of the Holy Power to achieve the perfect merger, which in turn meant, that he would need a way to speed up the regeneration of the Holy Power tremendously.
"That is more than initially anticipated... that would require a specific Magic Array that would create the domain of the Holy Power that could be used as supplement means of the Holy Power during the merger. With that, I should mitigate at least part of the requirements of the Holy Power..."
Even with all of this, Yhwach wasn't really confident that it was enough because he suspected that it would require more for a successful project. However, he still had some time before that because he still had a few years until he would be allowed to venture out from the Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon.
Partially, he couldn't wait for the moment when he would be able to leave the Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon to explore the outside world. Due to his heritage and position, he would be a target for many the moment he left the safety of the Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon.
"Continue the simulation of interactions between Holy Power and Divine Energy and find the right configuration for the ratio of the merger. We need to have the precision of 100% and nothing less... everything else could lead to a grievous injury or even death."
Yhwach knew that he was playing with fire because merging any type of energy was a dangerous thing, and in truth, he didn't want to have multiple types of energy in his body because it could lead to unforeseen effects.
Yes, it was true that the people who had multiple types of energies within their bodies were typically stronger and more tricky to deal with. Not to mention, such experts had especially high versatility in combat and, could often be predictable in combat, and were hard to deal with.
At the same time, it was also very high for them to cross through the boundary between the Lower Dimensional Lifeforms and Cosmic Lifeforms, and apparently, from what his father stated, reaching the High Dimensional Lifeform was nigh impossible for them.
For Yhwach, who was hell-bent on rising as far as possible, such a scenario was completely unacceptable, and thus, he needed to find a way how to fuse the two types of energies together.
However, there was also another possibility, which was to create an Energy Equilibrium in his body that would interconnect all types of energies in his body and let them achieve the perfect balance within his body.
That way, one could eliminate most of the side effects that were unwished of having multiple types of energy within one's body, but that seemed to be even harder than merging their energies together.
Appearently, only a few of the individuals managed to do so, and according to his father and mother, only Yahweh managed to do so with the Divine Energy and Holy Power. Still, Yhwach didn't think that this was the right path for him because it would be diverting his attention from the singular power.
He strongly believed in the principles of quality over quantity, and he wanted to have just one source of power that would be capable of suppressing everyone else.
Yhwach heard the voice of the [Unique Skill - Great Sage] as he nodded his head in agreement with the Great Sage's prediction and went to find Valiana, who was most probably training. She was an even bigger training maniac than him because she dedicated every moment she could to the training in every conceivable way possible.
Her efforts were really admirable, and even some of the senior Asuras were amazed by her dedication to the training, especially the physical training, because she was an excellent physical fighter who focused mostly on Martial Arts and close-quarter combat.
It was rather logical because due to her Longinus-Tier Sacred Gear Divine Dividing, she had a really cheat-like advantage when it came to Martial Arts and close-quarter combat. With the abilities of the White Dragon Emperor of Supremacy, she just needed to touch someone physically to Divine his power.
It was really a pain in the ass, because with every hit she did on him during their spars, she would "steal" some of his power and add to her own, meaning she, technically speaking, would never run out of Demonic Power as she could convert his Divine Energy and Holy Power to the Magical Power through the Divine Dividing Longinus, and then absorb the raw Mgicla Power to replenish her reserves.
At the same time, she even learned how to drain the stamina of her opponent, which meant she could fight for an indefinite amount of time, which made her an absolute nightmare to fight against.
Obviously, against him, her abilities were a bit weaker due to his fundamental nature as the Divine Being and her being Half-Devil, so converting his energy was rather risky, and also, the yield was much smaller.
But against anyone else?
She was already going against Level 4 Asuras in the aspect of attrition and defeated af few of them rather easily by wearing them down. Because as long as she could dodge their attacks and had enough time to Divine their power, she could rather easily fight against stronger opponents.
He had to admit that he was very glad that he met her in the Underworld several years ago.
Without Valiana in Mount Kailash, he would have already died from boredom because, aside from training and researching Magic, there wasn't really much to do at Mount Kailash.
Even as anti-social as he was, he too had certain moments when he felt the need to socialize, even though it wasn't that kind often. And in truth, Valiana wasn't a social butterfly either, so they got along rather well.
They had rather similar interests; both of them loved to train and loved to fight. They were also keen on improving their Magic, though this was mostly Yhwach's specialization, but he was also forcing Valiana to learn Magic together with him, and once she realized that she could blow up things with her Magic, she was totally hooked up on it.
Deciding that it was time for the training, he headed towards the training yard at Mount Kailash, where Valiana was certainly already training under their teacher.
***
Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon, Mount Kailash, Training Yard of the Mount Kailash.
With his current power, even though Yhwach was still technically speaking at Level 3, at least in terms of the raw power, his overall power was comparable to the weaker Level 4 beings if he went all out.
He was rather confident in his power that he would be able to defeat even that one Ultimate-Class Devil of the Old Satan Faction who was pursuing Valiana when she escaped from the Old Satan Faction.
Now, he was many times stronger than before and if not for the continuous suppression of his growth in favor of merging the Divine Energy and Holy Power, he would have already long ago reached Level 4 and ascended as the Minor God and 8-Winged Angel and would be able to squash the Ultimate-Class Devil like the one from the Old Satan Faction like bug.
That was already a excellently good performance in his though. With his mastery over Magic that only got better and better during the past year and a half, he was confident even against stronger foes.
Not to mention, if he had taken the computing capabilities of the [Unique Skill - Great Sage] into consideration, then he would have been an even more dangerous opponent. That was mainly because the [Great Sage] could predict the moves of his opponent, which was far more dangerous than anything else.
Another notable thing that he started learning in the past few months was [Senjutsu], something that he was learning alongside with Valiana because it was very beneficial for his combat style.
Senjutsu is the power to control the flow of Life Force, Chi or Ki in living beings. Using it, one can strengthen both their internal and external bodies or even cause vegetation around them to bloom or wither. Senjutsu users were able to sense the Ki and Auras of others, thus allowing them to track targets from far away.
It can be used to see through illusions by detecting the flow of the spirit or ki of others.
Senjutsu was also capable of dealing interior damage to others by targeting their blood vessels and internal organs, and by disrupting the Ki of their opponent's Ki or severing it, it is possible to cause direct damage to their spirit and Life-Force and using this as an attack could result in killing their opponent.
The faction that brought the concept of the Ki to the extreme was the Celestial Court under the Jade Emperor because the Jade Emperor created the concept of cultivation of Qi, which was a unique type of energy created by combining ambient Mana in the environment and the user's very own Life Force.
However, the cultivation in the Draconic Deus was vastly different from the novels he remembered because the cultivators were not really that strong. According to what he knew, the limit they could reach with pure efforts alone was something between Level 5 or so...
Still, they were extremely numerous because even in this age where Mana was scarce, and their entire world was on the decision, cultivators of China were like locusts, almost everywhere in the country.
Still, they were never leaving the territory of China because, due to their arrogant behavior, they offended practically all big factions, and the Jade Emperor didn't really care much about them, as many would predict.
Yhwach knew that for the Jade Emperor, the cultivators were nothing more than just cannon fodder and experimental subjects in his own way to search for the path to the higher levels, nothing more and nothing less.
His father told him that unless someone threatened to exterminate the cultivators as a whole, then the Jade Emperor wouldn't act on their behalf, no matter how many of them were slaughtered.
That was also the reason why he didn't lift a finger when Sirzechs Lucifer massacred them in hundreds of thousands when some of their sects attempted to kidnap his wife because she was beautiful and they wanted to gift her to one of the Ancestors of the Soaring Dragon Sect.
In the end, they were killed to the last one, and during one week, several ancient cultivation sects and cults that lived for many millennia perished to the destruction.
Right now, they were having lessons on the Senjutsu and Touki from their teacher. The person who was teaching them Senjutsu and Touki was no other than the legendary Great Sage Equal to the Heavens, Sun Wukong.
The legendary Monkey Youkai or Dai Yokai, who ascended to the state of Buddha and was comparable to the Gods. He was an elderly-looking man, covered in golden fur and wearing a monk's cassock. He had a wrinkled, creased face and black skin, wearing prayer beads around his neck and a golden headband around his forehead.
He was the master of the Senjutsu and Touki. Touki was an ability that stemmed from the Senjutsu after mastering it to a certain degree. Not to mention, the old monkey was one of the grandmasters in the martial arts in the Draconic Deus.
Touki is, in essence, the external manifestation of one's Life Force, in other words, their Ki, which would be wrapped around them as an aura. Using this, a person achieves heightened offense, defense, and speed.
It also had the added effect of damaging others from the slightest touch and defending a user from a wide array of attacks while knocking their foes back. Touki was one of the ultimate techniques and methods of the Senjutsu; even though Yhwach didn't have the best talent for it, he still needed to learn the art to increase his repertoire of attacks.
However, this time, Sun Wunkong bought together with him his descendant, who was also his inheritor, named Bikou, or by his full name, Sun Bikou. Yhwach had to admit that the boy was an absolute menace who was creating chaos everywhere where he went.
Bikou was... even worse than Sun Wukong was during his youth years; the young monkey was constantly causing problems with his pranks and mischievousness everywhere where he went...
He was constantly pulling pranks on everyone, though Yhwach had to admit that it was in his very own existence as the Mounkey of Mount Huaguo. Still, Bikou's talent for Senjutsu and Touki was something that was seen perhaps once in a few centuries.
Not to mention, when combined with his staff-wielding skills, he was extremely powerful in close quarters. Bikou, even at a young age, was a master of several martial arts, though, on the other hand, he was really lacking in terms of Magic and the ability to cause destruction en masse.
He was the perfect embodiment of the warrior, and what he lacked in ability to blow up things with overpowering attacks or spells, he was making up with the ability to tank such things if he used his Senjutsu and Touki in the right way.
"Now, after you all have started paying attention, start circulating your Chi in the swirling pattern..."
Sun Wunkong shouted as he smoked his pipe while Yhwach, Valiana and Bikou were sitting cross-legged and were doing the exercises that the old monkey was giving them. Practicing the Senjutsu was basically controlling your own Life Force.
This may seem easy, but at the same time, it was also a very arduous thing because one had to start somewhere, and starting the control of the Life Force was a very hard thing. Due to Yhwach's heritage, his Life Force Pool was enormous, like really enormous; the Gods had extremely potent and powerful Life Force because they were basically the master race together with Dragons.
And his second half came from the pinnacle creation of Yahweh, probably one of the most robust and most powerful Gods ever born on the Draconic Deus, if not, then certainly the most brilliant one for sure.
Due to these factors, Yhwach was having a lot of trouble controlling his own Life Force. His Life Force was tremendously powerful, and it didn't want to submit to his conscious control, so he was having an exceedingly hard time controlling his Life Force, compared to the Valiana and Bikou.
Training the Senjtusu was mostly about meditation at the start, something that Yhwach was already accustomed to because he spent a long time meditating when he was learning to control his [Divine Authority of Destruction] that he inherited from his father.
"Why can't we start fighting already, old man?!"
Suddenly, the tranquility of the place was disrupted by Bikou shouting at his ancestor, only to be met with a cane that landed on his head. The old Buddha slash Monkey Youkai just chucked, seeing his descendant being so impatient, because it was his greatest weakness.
Bikou was very impatient and was always battle-hungry just as he was mischievous and liked to prank people. Not to mention, he was also equally bold as his grandfather was during his youth; if not, he would have dared to prank Yhwach's mother, Tashamal, by giving her a potion that turned her hair pink and also colored her wings pink.
Saying that Yhwach's mother was displeased by this would be a severe underestimation.
"Silence... you should learn to be patient."
Sun Wunkong stated as he delivered the second hit on the head of his descendant, as Bikou grumbled in pain while holding his head. It was always like this: he attempted to teach his grandson to be more patient and calm for many years, but the results were...
Subpar, at best, as he could say it like that.
As he continued grasping the basics of the Senjutsu, he heard the voice of the Unique Skill Great Sage in his head. Yokai had an enormous racial advantage when it came to the Senjutsu and subsequently to the Touki, as they could grasp the skill much faster than other species.
Obviously, these skills were not limited to the Yokai. Practically everyone could learn Senjtus and manipulate their own Life Force. Through it, even humans could live longer than their natural lifespan allowed.
Yhwach, as a very powerful Hybrid between God and Seraphim, had tremendous Life Force, and his Life Force was enormous and very potent. On the one hand, this made his abilities far stronger than others, but on the other hand, it made the practice of the Senjutsu many times harder for him.
Valiana had a bit easier time when it came to learning the Senjutsu, but at the same time, she was facing a similar problem as him. Bikou, on the other hand, had the easiest time practising Senjutsu as he was doing it from an early age...
For him, it was as easy as breathing...
"Now, rest for half an hour before two of you brats will start just with your physical abilities alone."
Sun Wunkong stated as he swung the Ryu Jingu Bang forward, indicating the end of the training as all three of them were given half an hour to recuperate before they proceeded to spar using Senjutsu alone.
"Finally, we can fight! I was getting bored as hell from this..."
Surprisingly or not, Bikou was entirely fine, and even Yhwach was eager for some action; while he was not entirely a battle maniac as Bikou or Valiana, he, too, found a good time in a good fight.
Sitting in one place for several hours straight wasn't something for him; after sitting in one place for several hours and meditating, he was also twitching for some good fight like Bikou, and he didn't doubt that Valiana was also barely holding herself.
For her, this was even more excruciating because she hated similar exercises more than anything. Valiana was someone who couldn't really sit in one place for more than one hour and she was basically hyper-energic.
Bikou was even worse....
Seeing that Yhwach and Bikou were going to fight, made the situation even worse because she was now feeling extra grumpy, as both of their compatriots were going to spar while she was essentially forced to watch.
On the other side, Bikou and Yhwach were standing in the training field, facing each other as they awaited Sun Wukong to start their spar. Both of them were holding staffs, though Bikou was holding one specifically for staff fighting while Yhwach was holding it like a spear.
"Start."
Utilizing the Senjutsu, both of them strengthened their bodies to the limits as they clashed against each other. From the very short exchanges they had with each other, it was clear that Bikou had an advantage, as he was more experienced when it came to this area of combat using senjutsu.
Because Sun Wukong allowed them only to use Senjutsu during their spar, Bikou had a tremendous advantage. He was far more experienced, and he used the Senjutsu more effectively than Yhwach.
On the other hand, Yhwach had a far more powerful Life Force than Bikou, so he made up for the disadvantage with quantity and quality. However, even with this taken into account, Bikou had an advantage over Yhwach.
Every single swing and attack conducted by the Bikou was precise and powerful, forcing Yhwach to dodge and counterattack more effectively and constantly push himself further and further.
After half an hour into their spar, Yhwach already felt the first signs of fatigue, more mental than physical ones, because even though Bikou wasn't the strongest person around here, his fighting experiences and mastery over the staff made him a very formidable opponent.
Not to mention, close combat and usage of weapons weren't Yhwach's strongest side because he was more of a mid-range fighter and Magician than a quarter fighter.
Just as he was about to dodge the incoming staff, the inheritor of the Monkey King kicked him into his stomach with full force, enhanced by Senjutsu, causing Yhwach to crash onto the ground.
He struggled a bit to stand up as he spat a mouthful of blood on the grounds of the training field, as his eyes narrowed dangerously at the Bikou, but instead, he grinned because right now it was becoming more interesting.
"Now it's getting interesting."
Yhwach said as he got into the combat stance, utilizing Senjutsu to enhance his physique once more, though this time, it was vastly different because he was using a very similar method of the Senjutsu Enhancement that was created by the Unique Skill Great Sage based on the observation of Bikou conducted by the Great Sage.
This gave his non-existent technique an entirely new dimension, as he reached a new level of strength, speed, and durability, and he immediately attacked the laughing inheritor of the Monkey King at unprecedented speed.
Now, when the playing field was leveled up, even Bikou was showing signs of effort he needed to put into combatting him effectively. Obviously, this wasn't the Yhwach's domain of expertise, and he wasn't really that skilled in the quarter combat; he wasn't Bikou of Valiana, who thrilled in his kind of environment.
Still, due to the [Great Sage], he was even able to keep up with someone as gifted in this aspect as Bikou, though it wasn't enough to defeat Valiana. She was aware that her friend possessed some sort of weird ability to predict the enemy's movement through advanced calculations, and she adjusted her entire combat style to it.
He dodged several punches and kicks that the future Monkey King sent his way, it was rather hard to keep with the young Monkey Youkai, because he was far more agile and dexterous than Yhwach was.
Their combat styles were worlds apart... Yhwach's combat style revolved around using the overwhelming power of his [Divine Authority of Destruction] and Magic coupled with the Spearmanship that was being slowly integrated into his Magical Capabilities.
"You should be increasing the power of your Life Energy; using Senjutsu in this way is really amateurish, even for a Demigod like you."
The Monkey King stated that he took out his pipe and continued smoking while observing the fight between Yhwach and Bikou. It was clear to him that Bikou would win in a few more exchanges because even though Yhwach was very powerful, this close-quarter combat using Senjutsu and Ki wasn't his strongest side.
Not to mention, he lacked an affinity for the martial arts and wasn't a true prodigy in this aspect. Only due to his genius-level intellect and computing capabilities did he manage to keep up with the Bikou and Valiana during some of their spars, using only martial arts and Ki.
Sun Wukong was aware that Yhwach was aware of this too and that of his lack in this area; that was the reason why he was so strongly forcing himself to train in the Martial Arts to not be entirely useless in this aspect.
If such was the case, he would have a tremendous weakness that could be easily exploited during combat. If the Monkey King should say something positive, he would still rank Yhwach into the realm of exceptionally talented people for martial arts and close-quarter combat.
It was just tough; the Fighting Victorious Buddha was comparing him to the heaven-defying prodigies in this area, like Bikou and Valiana, whose talent was even a level higher compared to his grandson.
Compared to the average person, or compared to most people, Yhwach's talent was already very strong, and many would praise him as a genius, but he was also aware that for the young Demigod, that wasn't something that he wanted to hear because he wanted to be at the top of the pyramid.
Nevertheless, soon enough, the fight between the two youngsters was nearing the end when Yhwach failed to dodge the full-power kick from the Youkai Monkey, who sent him crashing onto the ground.
Fortunately for the Demigod, he used his Life Force to stabilize himself amidst the crash, so it didn't end really that fast. Still, as soon as he stabilized himself, Bikou was already standing above him and sending down another kick.
This time, Yhwach was forced to defend against the Bikou's kick, as he was struck down, and soon enough, another punch followed to his stomach, which broke his resistance as Yhwach gave up.
He realized that he lost the momentum when he couldn't keep up with the Bikou's speed, which wasn't that surprising as the Monkey Youkai was especially fast and troublesome to deal with in this regard.
There was no point in prolonging the inevitable.
He would rather choose to enjoy watching how he would be soon enough beaten by Valiana as the girl was too eager for a good fight... as always. There was no time of the day where she would decline an opportunity for a good fight; she was a total battle maniac and also constantly wanted to push herself.
She didn't have many people of the same age who could compare to her, especially in the aspect of the martial arts; there were almost none, as her talent was higher than most, if not all, of the younger generation Asuras.