Madeleine awoke in an incredibly weakened state. Although her meridian formation had just barely succeeded under Dyon's constant care, it would take a very long time for her body to truly recover. The shock to her system was too much, and unlike Dyon, she didn't follow the body path to a great height.
Unfortunately, although Amethyst was a beast, much like most beasts who reached great heights, she followed the dual human and beast path. As such, she passively relied on her body's innate strength as a beast while pursuing human endeavors such as a powerful energy path and soul.
Obviously, Madeleine didn't have such a strong innate body as a human. As such, such large-scale reconstruction was too much for her to handle in the short term.
One had to understand that although there were "only" three meridians formed, just those three represented millions of new links. In order for meridians to work efficiently, there were a myriad of connections between all of their counterparts. Although there was only one main connection, there were innumerable sub-connections. Madeleine's body was essentially under complete reconstruction.
"It's alright." Dyon said with a smile. "You don't have to sit up, take your time."
Madeleine, who couldn't see much more than vague shadows at the moment, felt relief when Dyon's large, warm hands wrapped around hers. She knew that she was being reckless, but something told her that she needed to be in order to forge a greater path for herself.
"I did something stupid." Madeleine said weakly.
Dyon laughed. "Yes. Very stupid."
Madeleine sighed. She didn't regret her success, but she regretted the fact she had slowed their progress.
All her life, Dyon had taken risks for her. So, how could she feel comfortable not doing the same? She was certain that even she didn't know the number of times Dyon had risked his life for their sakes.
Lilianna watched this scene silently. Because of Madeleine's weakness, Dyon accepted her into his Mind Eye. She couldn't help but wonder how stupid she had to be to believe that this Dyon was an evil man.
"I'm sorry." Madeleine said softly.
"Stop that. I would be a hypocrite if I blamed you." Dyon caressed Madeleine's greyed hair. Didn't he just risk having his cultivation sealed once more? Had his gamble not paid off, not only his life, but the lives of the beast babies and Flaming Lily Sect disciples would have all been in great danger.
"Plus, I've lost count of the number of times you've taken care of me. It's my turn now."
...
Under Madeleine's insistence, Dyon was forced to continue his journey through the Sky Castle. Rather unfortunately for the Castle Guardian.
It seemed that these castles had themes of their own and this one focused heavily on alchemy and pills.
According to Madeleine, the three visible palaces had no such themes. This made Dyon really curious about what the other indivisible palaces held, but he knew he had to be careful for now. If he stumbled into a castle that didn't heavily lean toward the soul path, then he'd have to really struggle just like everyone else. But, here, he could practically clean everything out.
As expected, though, the first door was a trap. It was human nature to start from the beginning before proceeding to the end. But, in the case of this sky castle, choosing the first door would result in you likely being stuck for years until you were kicked out. But, had you started with a later door, you would have received an easier trial. Although the reward would have been less, you would have at least gotten something.
But, Dyon only smiled at this realization. The so-called 'lesser' rewards were still mostly of the comet and moon grade. And, since it only took him an hour to blaze through the hardest trial, he needed mere minutes to complete these ones.
Under the paled and ugly expression of the red armored guardian, the castle's half-oval wooden doors blackened one after another, symbolizing their completion.
Still, many rewards were useless to Dyon. For example, a few rooms contained Spiritual grade cauldrons or alchemy furnaces. Their functions simply weren't enticing enough for Dyon to waste his time on. But, he saved them for the Soul Rending Peak geniuses. Although he had yet to meet them since they had been in a coma for a very long time, Dyon was certain that they were awake by now. Soon, his empire would have an army of soul path geniuses.
The truth was that alchemy furnaces were very helpful to alchemists. Even Clara had one. Some had functions that boosted the percentage purity of pills, others were capable of storing medicinal effects over long periods of time to allow for success where it would have been impossible, and still others were able to store numerous unique flames in a fashion that surpassed what the human body was capable of.
This second use was especially important. Imagine for a moment that you had 80 of 84 required ingredients for a pill. An alchemy furnace that stored medicinal effects might be able to cover for what you were lacking, allowing you to succeed in what should have been a sure failure. Of course, this was under the assumption that you weren't missing any main ingredients.
That said, although these functions seemed useful, Dyon found them pretty useless. As things stood now, the only thing he found useful about an alchemy furnace was simply the thought of using it to hide the fact he was combining formation theory and alchemy into one. Aside from that, they'd only slow him down.
The pile of useless things accumulated.
In a few rooms, Dyon found the alchemy robes of Comet and Moon Lords. Within them, stores of their life's work could be found. This was something Dyon was certain others would drool over. He could imagine how much the Sapientia Guilds would pay for these. But, again, they were useless to him. He firmly decided to sell these during the auctions as well. Maybe he'd keep a few as rewards for his subordinates as well.
In some rooms, Dyon found array alchemy staffs. Some boosted your soul stamina, others boosted your ability to use your soul strength efficiently, while the best were some combination of both. There were even a few that stored attack and defense formations for quick deployment.
Although Dyon was surprised to find array alchemy materials here, after he though about, he thought it made sense. After all, this Mystical World was trillions of years old. The ban on Array Alchemy was a far more recent endeavor.
Still, these were also useless to him. He'd probably either auction them off, or give them as rewards as well. Although these items were technically taboo, as long as you only used them to boost your soul and not to practice array alchemy, it should be fine to sell.
Considering how difficult it was to soul cultivate the normal way, these items would definitely go for a lot as well.
In line with these useless things, Dyon found many Heaven and Divine Grade soul cultivation and martial techniques. That said, the martial techniques were slightly more intriguing to him.
Obviously, since he had a peak divine grade soul cultivation technique, he didn't need another. But, he only had one soul martial technique: Devour. Well, if you ignore his manifestations that is.
Some of the techniques were simply lesser versions of Devour, so Dyon chose to add these to the bank of available techniques in Soul Rending Peak. Unlike equipment only a single person could use, techniques, especially such high-level ones, were too valuable to just sell off.
However, there was one technique that made Dyon's eyes shine with a bright light, finally ending the streak of uselessness. It was a middle divine grade technique known as 'Soul Aid.'
Its function was incredibly simple, but its usage requirements were incredibly high. However, Dyon had always been able to ignore such restrictions. If he hadn't been able to, then why could he use a Divine Grade soul technique in Devour when he would be able to do the same for an attack-based energy or body technique?
The more Dyon read through its pages, the wider and wider he grinned. Even Madeleine who lay in his arms began to think her husband had turned into a mad man.
