Power of Runes Chapter 508: The Unconventional Path

{No abnormalities detected.}

{Proceeding to the next phase...}

As Eva moved on to the next stage, she immediately contacted every one of Ash’s combat clones, each of whom possessed 75% of his total strength.

Scattered across different regions and countless light years apart, all ten clones stopped what they were doing the very instant they received Eva’s message before changing direction simultaneously and moving toward their respective destinations without asking a single question.

From the knowledge Ash had inherited from Henry, there were two supreme methods related to World cultivation.

The World Creation Scripture.

And...

The World Tree Universal Scripture.

The first method focused on creating a true Inner World by fusing one’s Energy Core with their Domain before using the Laws of Reality to gradually transform it into an independent world.

The second technique wasn’t actually meant for creating a world.

Instead, it was a nurturing method.

Once an Inner World had been successfully created, an enormous amount of resources would be invested to cultivate a World Tree inside it, allowing the World Essence to continuously stabilize while naturally increasing the quality and growth potential of the entire world.

Among the strongest Families, Clans, and Organizations throughout the Infinite Dimensions, this was considered the standard method for nurturing an Inner World.

Unfortunately...

Ash couldn’t cultivate either of them.

The reason was painfully simple.

He didn’t possess an Energy Core.

His source of power had never been an Energy Core, but a miniature Universe existing in its infant stage inside his heart.

Without an Energy Core...

There was nothing to fuse with the Domain.

Without that fusion...

There could be no conventional Inner World.

That was precisely why Eva had contacted all ten combat clones.

If Ash couldn’t walk the normal path, then they would simply create another one.

Until the clones completed their respective tasks, there was nothing else she could do regarding the Inner Universe.

There were three supreme Body cultivation methods suitable for Ash.

The World Core Physique.

The Titan Body Method.

And...

The Law Tempering Physique.

Unfortunately, just like the World Creation Scripture, the World Core Physique couldn’t be cultivated yet.

The technique required the existence of a true Inner World so that its World Energy could repeatedly temper the body through unimaginably brutal refinement, causing the body to get destroyed slowly.

That brutal foundation was also the requirement for the second technique.

The Titan Body Method.

Instead of directly strengthening the body, it greatly increased the body’s adaptability, allowing every injury, every refinement, and every form of tempering to produce far greater results than normal.

Combined with the adaptation granted by Ash’s Rune of Harmony, the cultivation speed of this method would become nothing short of terrifying.

For now...

Only the final technique remained.

The Law Tempering Physique.

Just like the modified Law Refinement Scripture, Ash had already replaced the Laws required by the original technique with Runes, allowing his body to be tempered through Runic Symbols instead.

However...

Unlike the Soul, the Body lacked several complementary techniques that could work in harmony with one another, making the entire refinement process painfully slow.

Refining the Body with a single Runic Symbol required an entire day.

Eva didn’t mind.

After all, something was better than nothing.

She calmly activated the technique as one Runic Symbols quietly emerged from Ash’s Soul Space before gradually sinking back into a microscopic part of his physique, silently strengthening it little by little.

At the same time...

She assigned the remaining computational power of her mind to three entirely different tasks.

{Simulating Runic Movement Art based upon the foundation of the Runes and other Supreme Movement Arts...}

{Processing...}

{Simulating Runic Weapon Art based upon the foundation of the Runes and other Supreme Weapon Arts...}

{Processing...}

{Simulating the creation of a Skill designated ’Swap’...}

{Processing...}

After evolving into an Akashic Spirit, Eva’s mind had reached a level where processing several completely different tasks simultaneously no longer placed any noticeable burden upon her consciousness.

Even now, she could handle far heavier tasks.

While Ash silently comprehended the endless mysteries of the Runes...

Eva quietly began preparing everything that would one day allow those Runes to display their true potential.

**

REALM OF EDEN

The greatest obstacle preventing Ash from cultivating the World Creation Scripture had never been his talent, comprehension, or resources.

It was his foundation.

The World Creation Scripture required a cultivator to fuse their Energy Core with their Domain before gradually giving birth to an Inner World, which would eventually replace the Energy Core itself and become the source of all future World Energy.

However, Ash had never possessed an Energy Core after his body reformation.

His source of power became the infant Universe residing within his heart.

Because of that, the very first requirement of the World Creation Scripture could never be fulfilled.

When Ash had first studied the technique, even he had believed that this cultivation path was completely impossible for him.

However...

While studying the countless insights of other cultivators on World Creation that Henry left for him, he had suddenly noticed something.

The Energy Core wasn’t actually important.

It was merely the medium used to create the World.

Once the World had been born, the Energy Core completely disappeared after fusing into it.

In other words...

The final result of the technique wasn’t an Energy Core.

It was a World.

That single realization had completely changed Ash’s way of thinking.

If the Energy Core only existed to create the World...

Then what would happen if he skipped that step entirely?

What if, instead of creating a World himself...

He simply obtained one that already existed?

Every God Rank cultivator possessed an Inner World within themselves.

Although an Early God Rank had only just given birth to their World and it was still in its infancy, that World would continue growing and maturing alongside its owner until it eventually transformed into a complete Mature World upon reaching the Peak God Rank.

If he could somehow preserve that World before it completely collapsed after its owner’s death, then perhaps he could skip the World Creation process altogether and directly use someone else’s World as the missing foundation of his own cultivation.

It was only a theory.

A completely unverified theory.

After Ash had explained the entire idea to Eva and she had personally calculated every possibility countless times over the past month, even Eva had to admit that the logic itself wasn’t flawed.

According to her calculations...

The probability of success had been close to 50%.

That probability alone had been enough for Ash to consider the experiment worthwhile.

Unfortunately, believing that the theory could work didn’t mean Eva could accept the method required to prove it.

Every World belonged to a living God Rank cultivator, meaning that before Ash could obtain one, someone first had to lose their life.

Even though Ash had repeatedly reminded her that only his combat clones would carry out the hunt while his real body remained in seclusion, she still couldn’t convince herself that killing others solely to increase their own strength was the right thing to do, especially when those targets belonged to Eden and their deaths would only weaken the Realm they had been born in.

Ash had naturally understood why she felt that way, but that didn’t mean he agreed with her.

Unlike Eva, he held no attachment toward Eden itself, nor did he particularly care what became of the Realm as long as the people important to him remained safe.

If sacrificing a few strangers allowed him to become stronger, then he would do so without the slightest hesitation.

In fact, if no other option had existed, he would have ignored Eva’s objections entirely and still hunted the God Rank cultivators of Eden, because to him, strength had always come before everything else.

Fortunately, another option had existed, allowing Ash to compromise without sacrificing his own interests.

Instead of targeting Eden’s God Rank cultivators, the two of them had ultimately decided to shift their attention toward the Heavenly Realm and the Abyssal Realm, because both factions had already marked Ash as someone who had to be eliminated, making them enemies regardless of whether he chose to fight back or not.

Meanwhile, according to what he knew, both the Heavenly Realm and the Abyssal Realm possessed considerably more God Rank experts than Eden, while the Inner Worlds nurtured by those Angels and Devils were generally much larger because of their racial advantages.

Thus, regardless of whether it was from the perspective of quantity or quality, their Inner Worlds were far better resources for Ash.

There was, however, one more reason behind this decision.

Ash simply wanted to torment both the Angels and the Devils.

He was fully aware that no matter which Realm he chose to target, sooner or later someone far stronger than an God Rank would inevitably intervene.

Once enough God Rank experts started disappearing, even a fool would realize that someone was deliberately hunting them, making a large-scale investigation unavoidable.

However...

Ash wasn’t afraid.

After all, that was precisely why he had created his clones in the first place.

They existed so that he could make mistakes.

Even if every single clone was eventually discovered and destroyed, the only thing he would lose was a little time, whereas both the Heavenly Realm and the Abyssal Realm would be forced to remain on constant alert, making them think a hundred times before daring to make another move against him.

**