Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 3056: Insights

Emery decided to make the most of the few weeks he had.

As his master had said, now that his bloodline had been upgraded, he could once again continue consuming the beast cores and cultivate the Star Beast Refinement Art.

With such high-quality cores, however, the process was far from quick. Each core contained an immense amount of energy, and it would take Emery a day or two of continuous refinement before his body could fully absorb and become saturated with its essence.

While the beast cores slowly burned away, their essence steadily flowing into and refining his physique, Emery devoted the rest of his attention to Ronan’s divine art—the Ninefold Eternal Body Scripture.

He wasn’t particularly confident going in.

It had already been two weeks since Ronan had given him the scripture, yet Emery had barely managed to map out its structure. He understood the general shape of the technique, but he had yet to truly comprehend or cultivate even its first stage.

The scripture consisted of nine folds, divided into nine stages.

The first six focused on refining the body step by step—skin, flesh, muscle, bone, meridians, and organs.

The final three folds were completely different.

They no longer focused on refining individual parts of the body. Instead, each represented an entirely new level of physical transformation: the Seventh Fold Physique, followed by the Eighth Fold Physique, and finally the Eternal Ninth Fold Physique, the ultimate peak of the scripture.

Each stage was more difficult to reach than everything that came before it combined.

Emery certainly didn’t expect to complete all nine folds within the limited time he had.

This time, he brought both of his avatars into the process as well.

The three of them worked together, sharing the same connection as they studied the ancient runes of the scripture. Each avatar focused on a different aspect of the technique, attempting to peel away the layers of meaning hidden within every rune and uncover the principles behind the cultivation method.

Yet every attempt ended the same way.

The runes themselves seemed to resist comprehension.

It was as if an invisible restriction had been placed over them, preventing Emery from seeing beyond their surface.

Instead of giving up, Emery treated the restriction itself as something that could be broken.

He summoned the Astralink Artifact to assist him.

The artifact’s power spread through his consciousness, reinforcing his perception as he once again immersed himself in the intricate runes.

Days passed.

Yet he still hadn’t managed to crack even the first stage.

"This is much harder than I imagined."

Emery shook his head, frustration creeping into his voice.

"Is it because it requires a specific serpent lineage? No... Ronan would have mentioned that."

After thinking it over, Emery could only settle on one conclusion.

A Supreme’s divine art was simply going to be difficult.

The Star Beast Refinement Art, for example, had already taken him years to cultivate, and even now, he had yet to fully master its first three stages.

Compared to that, expecting to comprehend a Supreme-level body refinement art in only a matter of weeks was probably unrealistic.

The next day, while still struggling with his comprehension, something happened as he consumed his third top-grade beast core. The pressure inside his body suddenly became difficult to endure.

The energy from the core was simply too powerful. As it spread through his body, his muscles tightened, and his entire body began to shake.

His body reacted on instinct, his Twilight Transformation activated, helping him control the overwhelming power.

Emery slowly steadied himself.

While maintaining the transformation, he thought of the mysterious ability he had gained during his breakthrough.

The Mark of Divinity.

The moment the golden rune appeared across his forehead, something unexpected happened.

The fragmented scripture before him seemed to suddenly come alive.

Dozens of rune-words began drifting free from its surface, no longer appearing as static markings. They intertwined with hundreds of finer strands that shimmered in a mesmerizing array of prismatic colors, forming a complex web of energy that Emery had never been able to perceive before.

"What is this?"

Emery studied the strange phenomenon carefully.

The Mark of Divinity was doing something similar to what it had done during his duel with Celestial Cloud. It allowed him to perceive spiritual threads directly, tracing the flow and shape of energy in much the same way his ordinary eyes perceived light.

But this time, that perception went far deeper.

It wasn’t merely showing him how the energy moved.

It was revealing the underlying structure of the scripture itself.

Hundreds of threads looped, crossed, and doubled back upon themselves, forming intricate patterns that would have been impossible to decipher with ordinary perception. Each strand carried a distinct color, and as Emery isolated them one by one, he gradually began to understand their individual functions.

His eyes widened slightly.

Nine folds. Nine elements.

The elements weren’t merely referenced within the scripture. They were woven directly into its very structure—fire, metal, earth, plant, water, ice, wind, lightning, and light.

Every major element was accounted for except darkness.

That explained the strange prismatic glow bleeding through the countless strands. The scripture wasn’t simply composed of different elemental Laws; they were intertwined and balanced within its very foundation.

With Emery’s broad comprehension of the Nature Law, he began untangling the complicated web one strand at a time.

Then, Emery suddenly felt enlightened.

While the Mark of Divinity gave him the ability to see through runes and formations, revealing structures and connections that had previously remained completely hidden from him.

He had the Astral Link Artifact to assist him, gave him ways to manipulate and control those countless strands.

Together, the two abilities allowed him to interact with the runes and spiritual threads far more easily, giving him access to a method he had never been able to use before.

"Interesting."

Emery decided to practice this new method—the synergy between the Mark of Divinity and the Astral Link Artifact.

He set the scripture aside and reached into his inner domain, retrieving several items from his collection.

As expected, the Mark of Divinity allowed him to see the threads within magical items as well. Any artifact containing formation runes appeared completely different through his new perception.

He started with his collection of low grade artifacts.

The ones he had already fully refined showed clean, orderly threads. Every knot had already been undone, leaving the entire weave open and accessible to him.

The unrefined artifacts, however, looked much like the scripture had at first glance. Their threads were tangled and knotted together, with each knot forming a small restriction that sealed away part of the artifact’s true power until its wielder had earned the right to unlock it.

Emery continued examining them, moving through each tier and carefully mapping the patterns.

Tier 1 through Tier 4 artifacts barely contained any restrictions at all, usually fewer than three knots. They were simple enough that almost anyone could unlock their full potential with minimal effort.

Tier 5 artifacts generally contained three to six restrictions.

His best Tier 6 artifact, the Willow Sword, had eighteen.

Tier 7 artifacts varied far more than he expected.

The Gravestone Ruler, despite being a low-grade Tier 7 artifact, contained twenty-two restrictions.

His Seven Myriad Mountain Paintings, despite being only a mid-grade Tier 7 artifact, contained forty restrictions—nearly double the number despite being only one grade higher.

Emery had yet to break even thirty of them, leaving him unable to fully unlock the painting’s power.

He turned his attention to his most prized possession.

The Sun and Moon Disc.

It had remained unrefined for more than ten years.

But through the Mark of Divinity, Emery could finally see just how extraordinary it truly was.

There were well over a hundred restrictions woven throughout its structure.

And among those countless strands, Emery noticed something different.

Several silvery thread.

Unlike the other strands, it seemed to contain something profound, something that Emery could actually begin to comprehend.

His eyes narrowed as he studied it carefully.

Judging from the countless knotted threads surrounding it, Emery realized that over the past ten years, he had barely scratched the surface. All the progress he had made had only allowed him to unravel a small portion of the artifact’s restrictions.

Similarly, the same silvery thread existed within Excalibur. The divine sword shockingly had seventy restrictions, and Emery had only managed to break through half of them.

Emery couldn’t help but smile.

With his new understanding, he turned his attention back to the scripture.

This time, he approached it differently.

Rather than trying to comprehend the entire technique at once, he carefully examined each rune and traced the countless spiritual threads hidden within its structure. With the Astral Link Artifact assisting him, he slowly began separating the tangled strands and identifying the restrictions one by one.

After several more days of careful analysis, the scripture’s full structure finally revealed itself.

There were eighty-one restrictions in total, spread across all nine folds.

With this, he finally understood how the restrictions were divided.

The first six folds required him to break through only the first twenty-four restrictions.

The remaining fifty-seven were reserved entirely for the final three folds.

Once Emery separated the scripture into these sections, it no longer felt like an impossible wall standing before him.

With his newfound method, he began working through the restrictions one by one.

Within only a few hours, he successfully broke through the first restriction.

The moment the third restriction shattered, a powerful sensation spread through his body.

The first stage was finally within his grasp.

[First Fold — Eternal Skin Stage]