Chapter 216 - Body Runes

Within the inheritance building, Leon had anticipated it would be a building filled with books on the study of runes, artificer techniques, and everything related to Arden Gilardi's lifetime of research. But what he didn't expect to actually find was a single empty large room.

Neither did he expect that of the ways he would enter the inheritance room, it would be directly through spatial manipulations. Spatial manipulations that were created through the power of runes!

Leon's eyes glowed at the endless possibilities this discovery entails.

If a difficult law of higher-order like space can be commanded through the use of runes, then it should be even more possible for primary laws like fire, water, earth, and the like...

Since an artificer can manipulate the laws with runes, it was also possible to be used for battle and not remain purely as a production-type profession…

After a moment, Leon shook his head with a wry smile. He was profaning an amazing technology with ill thoughts.

Whether it was the past, present, or future, when it came to the introduction of amazing new technology, people would always think about whether it can be weaponized for military usage. Leon wasn't an exception from this, especially when he was currently the prince of a kingdom within turbulent times.

Bringing his thoughts back to the present, Leon felt a little blank and at a loss as he stared around the room. The room was like the starry skies of the night, cold and dark but filled with various tiny spots of light that give color and life to the void.

If not for the feeling of his feet touching the ground, he would have actually thought he had been sent into the outer world, beyond the boundaries of Gaia.

The reason he could tell the room was void of any books or the bookshelves that may contain it was not because he had swept the place with his divine sense, but the tiny spots of light in the room provided him with enough visibility to understand that it was for a fact, empty.

"Where is the inheritance? The books? The knowledge? The research?" Leon frowned. Did he get scammed?

Leon took some steps forward and studied the room of the starry sky. It wasn't something that was seen on the ground, the walls, and the ceiling but in the air as well. It was a three-dimensional starry sky.

If this starry sky was meant to be all the inheritance Arden had to offer for the future generation then it couldn't be as simple as it appears to be.

Although Leon was disappointed that he didn't find books filled with runic knowledge, he didn't dwell on it and began to ponder about the starry sky room.

After a moment, his eyes lit up with a thought. "Could this actually be a star map?"

Leon became excited just thinking about it. He sent out his divine sense and zeroed in one a single spot of light and his mind, that spotlight was enlarged by several thousands of times and found it to be a star with 4 planets orbiting it.

When he focused even further, he found that these projections of celestial bodies were made with runes, runes that didn't require engraving on a runic plate. It was able to exist on its own as a body of energy like a living rune…

Some words could also be found above the celestial bodies.

"Gnabestea Star Realm…"

"It really is a star map! Maybe I can finally find out with part of the universe I've been sent to for transmigration."

Leon had seen multiple star maps before back in the Divine Realm. Whether it was the Eastern Region, Western Region, Northern Region, or Southern Region, he had seen them all. As for the Desolate Region that exists outside the Divine Realm, he had not seen much about it.

But as long as the star map contained even a section that belonged to the Divine Realm, he would be able to recognize which region it was a part of, given some time.

Leon glanced at each spot of light that represented a star. Each star that was capable of nurturing life in its system was called a star realm. Thankfully, the star map was relatively detailed with names listed.

After a while, he scrunched his brows together. He did not recognize any of these star realms nor the region was located in for that matter It wasn't a big star map. There only around 100-star realms in this star map.

"Could Gaia be in the deepest part of the Desolate Region?"

The location of Gaia on the star map, Leon had already found it. It was at his original spot when he teleported inside the room, which was at the outer rims. Gaia was found in the Vandelheim Star Realm.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the center of the star map, which drew Leon's suspicion. Usually, star maps are made with the star realm it made in as its center unless the star map represented an entire starfield with no other star realms within its nearby vicinity.

To Leon's knowledge, the smallest starfield had at least 300 stars, but this one only had 100. Furthermore, at its center wasn't another star realm but a big ball of light that was hundreds of times larger than any other spots of light that represented stars and star realms.

Leon didn't know what it was, but he immediately ruled the possibility of it being a star. No star could possibly be that big. The outer world around it would never be dark with such a large star in existence, but most of all, it wouldn't have gone unnoticed until now. It would have outshined their own sun!

"Since it wasn't a star then what was it? The congregation of energy, a divine realm? Surely not, right?"

"Divine realms were the central region of an entire galaxy, a supercluster. There would be a giant black hole at its center that draws the energy towards it, but this one had no such dark spot."

Leon's hand subconsciously clenched into a fist. If he couldn't even find out where he was, how would he be able to find his way back to the Divine Realm to take revenge for his father?

Leon made his way over to the center of the room to study the big ball of light. However, by the time he reached the center, he accidentally triggered something surprising.

Runic lines lit up on the ground beneath his feet in the form of a formation circle and the star map retracted and disappeared into the big ball of light. The darkroom became a brightly lit one.

Before Leon could comprehend what was happening, the ball of light shrank in size and shot into his. Information flooded his mind and assaulted it like a headache, throbbing with each wave.

Leon could feel his consciousness slipping, but it was times like these when he had to persevere through it. There was a big difference between receiving an influx of information conscious and receiving unconsciously.

Consciously, he would understand the kind of contents transmitted to him and be easier to recall, while unconsciously, if he did not know what he wanted to recall then he would naturally not be able to recall it.

"Dammit, there really was an inheritance." Leon gritted his teeth and endured the influx of knowledge. He was not prepared for this at all. Shouldn't there at least be some heads up or warning!?

However, Leon was shaken by the knowledge flowing into his mind. It wasn't just the star map being engraved into his memory, there was Arden's understanding of the runic knowledge, his artificer techniques, but most importantly his life's research, the secret to his survival.

Leon did his best to digest everything quickly. He began to understand how Arden Gilardi survived the disaster. In truth, Arden had never given up on cultivation even though others had told him that he could not cultivate.

Arden possessed a divine body called the [Astral Tyrant Physique]. If he had been born in the Divine Realm and cultivated the [Astral Tyrant Emperor Technique], he would have become an overlord of an era.

It was an overbearing physique that allows one to directly absorb the astral energy of the universe to temper his own body. Pity he was born in a world that didn't practice divine cultivation and had no access to such a divine technique.

Although Arden didn't know all of this, he never gave up. He had managed to forge his own cultivation path with his rich knowledge as an artificer.

He never had the [Astral Tyrant Emperor Technique], but he understood that his body needed astral energy to improve. As such, he developed a method that would allow his body to draw in astral energy quicker.

By engraving runes on his own body, he managed to borrow the power of runes to draw in the energy from the universe and temper his body to terrifying heights.

It was unimaginable what kind of steel resolve was needed to through themselves through such an experience. To use their own body as the runic plate and carve into their flesh.

Through this method, Arden had gone through untold suffering and pain, but he was also able to gain a body that was vastly more powerful than any other wondrous physique known to man.

Leon's eyes flickered. Strictly speaking, this was a body forging method that belongs to the body cultivation system. He had lamented about not having a body forging method, and now one had suddenly fallen into his lap.

Although the method was unconventional, it was still a body forging method nevertheless.

If he could strengthen his own body through the power of runes, it might not be impossible to endure the Celestial Tribulation. But he was a divine practitioner. He should be worrying about Divine Damnation instead.

Celestial Tribulations bless those that overcome it, but Divine Damnation seeks to destroy those that incur it, both body and soul. After all, divine practice was an act that went against the heavens.

After receiving all the influx of information, Leon spent an unknown period of time to digest it all.