MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 1255: Law Comprehension

Anthony’s thoughts were certainly interesting. Yes, he was strengthening his Mirror Dimension with Laws, but that wasn’t the same as infusing Laws into it.

Although Anthony had skipped through the normal bureaucratic process of comprehending Laws, Law comprehension was both special and delicate.

For example, one couldn’t simply sit down within their room and comprehend the Law of Space, the Law of Flames, or whatever Law they wished to comprehend.

How was that any different from normal cultivation?

One had to be in tune with the Law they wanted to practice or comprehend. For example, someone who wanted to comprehend the Law of Flames could go to a volcano where the heat and flames were especially intense.

There, their comprehension could gradually rise, or they could even do something as simple as setting a forest ablaze and watching it burn, observing every aspect of fire as it consumed, transformed, and eventually faded away.

It was the same for other Laws. Take the Law of Wind, for example. One could sit in an open field where the wind, breeze, and air flowed freely and calmly, allowing them to understand what wind truly was. They could observe how it carried life, how it changed direction without warning, how it could be gentle enough to soothe one’s skin yet violent enough to flatten mountains.

It was precisely because of this that the Chaos Betroth wanted to engineer Anthony’s death, as she knew that with his death, The Sword Ruler would undoubtedly go insane and plunge everything into chaos. Within that chaos, her comprehension of the Law of Chaos would skyrocket at an unprecedented rate, allowing her to finally break through the bottleneck that had restrained her for so long.

All in all, the environment one cultivated in could greatly assist their comprehension.

However, it also depended on the specific environment or location.

For example, two people with identical talent could begin comprehending the Law of Flames at exactly the same time, but one was sent to an active volcano that had existed for over a million years, while the other was sent to a volcano that was only a decade old. Naturally, the two wouldn’t achieve the same results, as the volcano that had existed for over a million years possessed a far deeper attunement with the Law of Flames.

One could think of it similarly to how Mana functioned back in the Lower Galaxy. Just as Mana could become extremely dense in one location while remaining ordinary in another, the conditions surrounding one’s comprehension also varied from place to place.

But make no mistake, Laws and Mana, or any other form of energy, were fundamentally different. Mana, Origin Essence, Blood Energy, Chaos Energy, and countless other forms of energy were all ambient by nature, whereas Laws were not.

One couldn’t simply stand somewhere and naturally sense the Law of Flames or any other Law. It didn’t work that way.

A Law first had to resonate and exist in sufficient attunement before it could be perceived. Like the active volcano that had burned continuously for over a million years, the Law of Flames could be perceived there because reality itself had become deeply synchronized with the essence of fire. However, the same couldn’t be said for a volcano that had only existed for a decade. Its connection simply wasn’t deep enough.

Another method of increasing one’s comprehension of Laws was through Law Lands.

A Law Land was a location where reality itself had been deeply imprinted by a particular Law, causing that Law to become exceptionally easy to perceive and comprehend.

For example, the million-year-old volcano could potentially be considered a Law Land because it had remained geologically active throughout that entire period, spending over a million years continuously expressing the principles of Fire: heat, magma, combustion, destruction, pressure, transformation, and even creation. Over such an unimaginably long span of time, reality itself would gradually become engraved with those principles.

In other words, Law Lands could form naturally.

But make no mistake, age alone had absolutely nothing to do with Laws. Just because a volcano was a million years old didn’t automatically make it a Law Land. After all, volcanoes could become dormant, losing the very characteristics that resonated with the Law of Flames. Likewise, merely setting a forest ablaze, as mentioned earlier, didn’t suddenly transform that burning forest into a Law Land.

However, Law Lands could also be formed artificially, albeit in a very different manner.

For example, if an extremely powerful Law cultivator died, their understanding of that particular Law could leave an indelible imprint upon reality itself. Thousands, or even tens of thousands, of years later, people could still travel to that location and comprehend the same Law with remarkable ease simply because of the lingering imprint left behind by that cultivator’s lifetime of understanding.

Such phenomena, however, were exceedingly rare.

All in all, Laws weren’t ambient.

Another method of learning Laws was through teaching.

Someone with an exceptionally high level of comprehension could explain where to begin, point out common mistakes, share their own personal insights, and even demonstrate the practical application of the Law. Such guidance could save countless years of unnecessary trial and error.

However, at the end of the day, Laws couldn’t simply be transferred from one person to another, regardless of what type of Law it was.

Another method was through reading the notes left behind by cultivators who had carefully recorded their own insights and realizations. This was merely another form of teaching, but once again, everything ultimately depended upon the reader.

Think of it like this...

Someone was hiking up a mountain without any form of aid or guidance. Reaching the summit could take many exhausting hours.

Now imagine that same person being given a detailed map. The map drastically reduced the amount of time wasted wandering aimlessly or taking the wrong paths, but it didn’t suddenly transport them to the peak of the mountain. They still had to climb every step themselves, using their own hands and feet. The map merely prevented them from becoming lost.

Law comprehension functioned in much the same way.

Now... comprehension.

Just because one thousand people comprehended the same Law didn’t mean they possessed the same understanding. They would all eventually arrive at the same destination, but the paths they walked and the journeys they experienced would never be identical.

You could ask one thousand cultivators of the Law of Flames what fire truly was, and you would receive one thousand completely different answers. One might say fire represented the endless creation of life, nourishment, warmth, healing, and illumination. Another might say fire existed solely to burn, consume, destroy, and scorch everything in its path. A third might believe that their fire existed to heal wounds, remove curses, cleanse poison, eradicate corruption, and purge evil.

Each answer would be entirely different, yet every single one of them would still exist beneath the same overarching concept that was Fire.

One could think of the Law of Flames as the number ten, while comprehension represented the countless different ways of reaching that number.

Five plus five equaled ten. Seven plus three equaled ten. Nine plus one equaled ten. Eight plus two equaled ten. Even decimals could be used to arrive at ten.

Different equations. Different methods. Different perspectives. Yet every single one ultimately arrived at the exact same destination.

That was the true nature of Law comprehension. The destination remained constant, but the journey was uniquely personal. No two cultivators, no matter how similar their talents or circumstances, would ever walk precisely the same path toward understanding.