Still, such a matter was trivial in the face of the benefits. This was because while it took time for Dyon to pull energy from the outside world into his meridians, the energy transfer between his inner world and meridians should be instantaneous!
'I don't have to choose between these energies…' Dyon's eyes sharpened. 'I'll take them all!'
And so Dyon began to cultivate, slowly learning his own limits as he went along.
Currently, his inner world was only 10m by 10m, so there was definitely a limit to the amount of energy it could house. However, Dyon had something other wielders of this technique didn't. In fact, he had two things.
The first point was that his world was far more robust. Normally, with a world his size, he'd be able to fill his meridians an additional two times. Meaning, that if his meridians ran dry, he'd be able to call upon his inner world twice more. However, his world was far more robust than others due to how solid the Primordial Energy made it. Dyon believed that his upper limit was actually five times, a number that would increase as he expanded his world.
The second point was maybe the most important: He had the Energy Core. Never mind five times, even five million times wouldn't be enough.
Unsurprisingly, the energy within the beast dung was too much for Dyon's inner world to handle.
So, the first thing Dyon did was extract energy from his spiritual vein, filling his meridians with the energy he was most familiar with: essence energy.
That said, it acted completely different from normal. Normally it would only take ten profound stones for Dyon to fill his meridians to the brim, but it actually took him almost two thousand before he felt that he was approaching his limit. Such a difference really shook him, causing his mind to go off on tangents for another few hours before he finally refocused himself.
Finally, he began to work on the beast dung. Something was telling him that finding such a ready supply of energy in this world was like finding an oasis in the middle of the Sahara, he had to take advantage.
Because he could be less careful with his inner world in comparison to his meridians, this process was faster despite needing five times the energy.
Dyon slowly parsed the energy, separating them into categories and using his innate Godship over his inner world to keep them separate.
Still, this accounted for less than a fraction of a single percent of the energy within the beast dung. However, Dyon was unwilling to leave anything behind so he began to funnel the rest into the Energy Core. Although he couldn't control it, as he had expected, the Energy Core was like a sponge. It didn't need to be prompted to absorb energy.
It wasn't until almost all the energy within the beast dung was gone that the bull-bird's head snapped upward, finally sensing that something was off.
'My body feels much better now, so why can't I move?' Dyon's frustration was only growing. This was a situation where he had to remain calm, yet he was finding it more and more difficult to do so.
By all logic, since he came here, there had to be a way to go back, but the constant attacks on his mind were making it difficult to keep one line of thought for too long.
'Demon Emperor's Will isn't working… Essence energy isn't working… My wills are pitifully weak… My defensive arrays aren't strong enough to pick up and move my body… What the hell is this nonsense?!'
Dyon thought of spending a few days on a comet grade teleportation array, hoping that it would be enough to get him to a human village. After all, ever since he had stepped into the comet grade, he had never made a single array of that level, it just might serve to calm him mind a bit. Even now that he had broken into the moon grade, he was even more eager to use his abilities.
But, something was telling him that it would work. Never mind whether or not such an array would be enough to break through this space, building such a difficult array when he couldn't focus on one thing for more than a brief few seconds was a pipe dream. And, even if it did work, who said the humans would be welcoming of him?
Every time Dyon told himself to calm down, it was like squeezing more air into an already filled vessel. If he continued to use such a ridiculous approach, he really might explode.
'It's coming up here again?!' Dyon froze, his divine sense focused on the bull-bird. But, by the time he realized what was happening, the speed of the bull-bird had already brought it to the surface.
The bull-bird nudged at the ground in confusion, its comedically proportioned body almost tipping over as a result. It couldn't understand why its once heavenly masterpiece had become so… dull.
It completely panicked. It had spent ten years in pain and endless constipation to form it in preparation for the birth of its babies, but now everything was ruined? How could it accept such a thing?
No, no, no. The bull-bird shook its head vehemently, this couldn't be right.
If Dyon had known the importance of this beast dung to the bull-bird, he would have never risked taking all of the energy. Although Dyon's initial deduction seemed sound, he was missing a very key part of the equation.
Beasts in the era were keenly aware of how difficult it was to deal with the chaotic energy. Although it was more than abundant, it was difficult to use. It was similar to being stuck in the ocean. Sure, if you were thirsty, you'd be surrounded by water. But, what good would the salt be to you?
Knowing this, those species that had survived until this day had to make the transition easier for their newborns. Some allowed their newborns to grow within their bellies to maturity, while others used methods like this bull-bird.
What Dyon had done was the equivalent of killing off the path to survival for the baby bull-birds. Without the gentle and parsed energy in the beast dung, they wouldn't be allowed to slowly adapt to the chaotic energy. Even worse, their mother would be too weak after giving birth to them to hunt and make another pile. In the end, they would die.
KKKKUUUUUAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!
The bull-bird stomped its powerful ostrich-like feet, clearly enraged. Their species could only give birth once in its lifetime, yet it was ruined. All ruined!
Dyon might argue that it was stupid of the bull-bird to "lay" something so important out in the open, but how could he know that the bull-bird had originally intended to have this bowel movement in its den? It had failed to because of the final meal it had. Due to the devastating battle, the bull-bird had been too agitated to hold it in any longer.
The bull-bird lost all rationality, leaving crater after crater in the ground with its powerful hind legs.
It tried to hold back from attacking its masterpiece, hoping against all hope that it had seen wrong, that maybe reality would change the next time it looked over. However… Reality was cruel.
After turning its head and looking back for the 7th time, the bull-bird finally couldn't take it anymore. Its powerful legs charged toward the several meter-high pile of dung.
In the next moment, it swung its hind legs forward in an enraged kick. A blue streak of energy followed the oddly beautiful arc, in strict opposition to the beast's ridiculous appearance.
Within the pile, Dyon could only sigh. He had been here for three days already and all he had accomplished was blindly yelling at himself incoherently. He couldn't do anything efficiently, he couldn't muster any power, and he could only watch as an attack far too powerful for him to withstand hit him squarely on the side, shattering his concealment array like glass and sending him flying.
The air in Dyon's lungs disappeared in one fell swoop, causing his eyes to bulge outward as his body contorted unnaturally.
In that brief moment, the bull-bird's keen instincts picked up on the naked mole rat it had thought was a figment of its imagination. Its small brain churned before it understood. It was its fault! The naked rat ruined its masterpiece!
As Dyon watched the bull-bird charge toward him, his eyes weren't even remotely calm. He wasn't feeling fear, he was simply enraged beyond belief.
How dare this dumb, ugly creature, too stupid to protect what it deems important try to take me away from my loved ones?
His Titan's blood roared, veins of royal blue coursing throughout his contorted body. At that moment, Dyon felt the same way billions of ancient human races felt… Inferior… Inferior simply by virtue of the species they were born into…
However, before he could do much of anything, his body slammed into an object far too solid to be a tree. Yet, that was exactly what it was…
And then… His vision went black.
