Mirror Dream Tree

Two days later, as the sun sets, Merin sees mist shrouding the place where the lake should be.

He already knows the Spiritual Masters have sealed off the area to keep out anyone they do not trust, especially after someone attempted to sabotage the Holy Blood Master's transformation.

Since that attack, a powerful array has blocked access to the Lotus Lake.

Minami steps to the front of the giant eagle, pulls out a token, and raises it toward the mist.

The token glows, casting a beam of light that falls onto the fog.

Merin watches as the light reacts with the mist, slowly parting it to reveal a hidden passage.

The giant eagle glides into the opening, and when it emerges on the other side, Merin sees the blood-colored lake and the massive egg floating above it.

The egg is pulsing like a beating heart.

Merin extends his mental energy and senses the fluctuating power radiating from the egg—it could hatch at any moment.

The Holy Blood Master is about to awaken.

The giant eagle descends, and Merin leaps from its back, landing gently on the ground.

A figure approaches to greet him—Aoi, the Wood Master.

Aoi has recently become a Spiritual Master by evolving his artistic conception of Adaptation into the Rule of Adaptation.

Though Aoi never mentioned this achievement, Merin can now sense it clearly—he, too, has mastered an artistic conception born from the Rule of Wood.

Respectfully, Merin bows and says, "Master Aoi, how are you?"

Aoi replies, "Don't call me 'Master.' Just Aoi is fine. Our strength is the same."

In terms of soul strength, yes, they are equals, as Merin brought with him the spiritual depth of his soul from the main world.

But in this world, his cultivation is still at the peak of the Spiritual Core Realm, while Aoi has reached the peak of the Spiritual Master Realm.

The only thing holding Merin back is the world itself.

So he knows he is no match for Aoi here, and dares not treat him as an equal.

Merin says, "Master Aoi, you must be joking—there's a vast difference between us."

Aoi shakes his head. "Only because you didn't choose the artistic conception of Sleep. If you had, you'd be at my level by now."

It's true—Merin could have reached the Spiritual Master Realm if he had chosen the Sleep path.

But he didn't.

And now, suddenly, Merin freezes, remembering why he chose the artistic conception of Vitality in the first place.

For the past two years, he had forgotten.

Aoi, sensing the sudden stillness and the fluctuating aura behind him, turns and realises it's coming from Kanoru.

Kanoru stands with his eyes closed, his aura rising and falling erratically, and Aoi immediately understands—Kanoru has realised something and is entering a state of enlightenment.

Minami, walking a few steps behind them, moves as if to reach out and touch Kanoru.

Seeing this, Aoi quickly says, "Stop. Step away from him."

Minami freezes mid-step and, without question, withdraws her hand. "Master, what's happening?"

"He's in the process of enlightenment," Aoi replies calmly.

Minami's eyes widen in astonishment, and she moves to stand in front of Kanoru, watching him with awe.

She silently wishes she could trade places with him.

Master Kanoru has entered enlightenment—a state where one's mental energy swims through the fabric of the world's rules.

She has heard stories of those who attain enlightenment often breaking through into the Spiritual Master Realm, or at the very least, gaining equivalent strength.

She has always been envious of Kanoru, who was born with mental strength equal to that of a Spirit Master.

But now, that envy surges to a new height.

For decades, she has been stuck at the peak of the True Core Realm, unable to push her artistic conception of Transformation into the Rule of Transformation.

Yet here Kanoru stands—already powerful enough to rival a Spirit Master—on the verge of ascending further.

And she remains behind, watching him with a dejected heart, wondering how she might reach the same level.

As time passes, others begin to notice the fluctuations of natural energy coming from Kanoru and gather around, watching him with the same envy she feels.

Except for the five Spirit Masters present, nearly everyone wishes they were in Kanoru's place.

Then, she hears Light Master Shironai ask, "Why did he enter enlightenment? What were you two talking about?"

Wood Master Aoi replies, "I mentioned that he would already be a Spirit Master if he had chosen the artistic conception of Sleep."

Poison Master Aruha adds, "So, is he switching to the Sleep path now? Isn't it too late—his magic power is already formed, isn't it?"

Minami hears Masters Haruto and Inari join in, their voices mixing as the discussion grows, each speculating about why Master Kanoru entered enlightenment—and whether he is now attempting to shift his path to the artistic conception of Sleep even after forming his magic power.

As Merin remembers why he chose the artistic conception of vitality found in the human body, clarity returns.

He made that choice because he was already exploring the artistic conception of vitality in wood, and he believed he could merge the two—human and wood—into a unified vitality that governs both.

He even hoped that, in time, he would comprehend the vitality flowing through everything in the world and create the Rule of Vitality itself.

But the true beginning of this path came from his original goal: to create higher realms for the Samurai path, which for ordinary people ends at the Second Turn of the Great Samurai Realm.

Even those with beast blood in their veins shift to the Yao Beast cultivation method upon reaching the Third Turn of the Great Samurai, meaning their path follows a different system and ultimately ends at the Ascendant Realm, unable to step into the Dharma Realm.

Merin's goal was always to serve ordinary humans, but somewhere along the way, he lost sight of that.

After stepping into the Spiritual Path, which already had a complete progression up to the peak of the Spirit Master Realm—equivalent to the peak of the Dharma Realm—he started climbing the steps that had already been built, rather than constructing new ones.

He convinced himself the destination was the same, but how could it be?

His very reason for being born in this world was, and still is, to earn Merit—Merit that can only be gained by offering meaningful aid to the development of the civilisation.

And what better way to do that than by helping ordinary humans grow stronger?

While the Spiritual Path offers strength, it first requires talent in mental energy—something only a few can awaken unless they are born at the peak of high-level Samurai cultivation.

And even then, not all have the intellect or creativity to continue advancing in the Spiritual Path, which demands talent in research and invention.

Even so, having two paths is always better than one.

And Merin knows he will earn great Merit if he succeeds in creating a higher realm beyond the Great Samurai stage.

Now that he has come to understand every aspect of his body, he realises what he needs: a method to enhance vitality itself—the one thing preventing him from advancing to the Three Turn of the Great Samurai Realm.

He already knows he can enhance his vitality by using a specialised elixir, and in his mind, he has already derived the necessary ingredients to create it.

All that remains is to refine the ingredients a few times to perfect the ratio and finalise the formula.

He isn't worried about whether he can refine the elixir, nor does he doubt that others could do the same.

If he were to share the recipe, then within a few years, many ordinary cultivators—those without beast blood—would be able to break through from the Second Turn to the Third Turn of the Great Samurai Realm.

However, only a small number would actually succeed.

And the reason wouldn't be talent, though talent plays a role.

The true obstacle would be the rarity of the materials—some ingredients take decades to mature, and others are nearly impossible to find.

Because of that, only a fortunate few would ever manage to advance using this method.

Merin dislikes this approach—it demands far too many resources—and he can't help but wonder: if breaking into just the Third Turn of the Great Samurai requires such rare materials, what kind of impossible resources would be needed to advance even further?

Now, during enlightenment—when his mental energy is at its peak and in harmony with the will of the world—the answer comes to him.

He doesn't know whether this answer is something he thought of himself or if it was whispered to him by the world, and he doesn't care.

The answer is simple yet revolutionary: to combine the cultivation paths of the Samurai and the Spiritual way.

In the current world, the Samurai path for ordinary people ends at the Second Turn of the Great Samurai, and if they're fortunate enough, they begin the Spiritual path afterwards.

But starting the Spiritual path from the beginning offers only a small increase in strength, barely enough to matter, and more critically, it doesn't significantly extend their lifespan.

Worse still, the Spiritual path is heavily talent-dependent—especially on mental energy—so most ordinary cultivators die before they can experience real growth.

But if he could create a method to transition directly from the Second Turn of the Great Samurai to the middle stage of the Spiritual Core Realm, it would save decades of effort and give them a real chance to reach the True Core Realm.

This would mean that even those starting with the Samurai path could merge into the Spiritual path with a solid foundation, opening a future where both paths enhance one another.

In fact, even those who begin with the Spiritual way might benefit by practicing the Samurai method early on, then using his new transition technique to fully enter the Spiritual path.

Because while the Spiritual path reaches the limits of worldly cultivation, it has one major flaw—its reliance on natural energy.

In a place where natural energy is absent or sealed, a skilled Samurai could easily defeat even a peak True Core Realm spiritualist.

But if cultivators follow the hybrid path he envisions, they would retain the raw combat effectiveness of the Samurai even in places where natural energy is not present.

This hybridization should begin at the moment when a Samurai awakens their mental energy—typically during advancement to high-ranking Samurai and the opening of the Awakening Acupoint—because that is when they first sense the spirituality hidden within the flesh.

Not everyone awakens their mental energy at the beginning, so the transition must be rooted in this key moment of breakthrough—but how?

The Spiritual path begins by sensing the spirituality within the flesh, enhancing control over the body, while the Samurai path begins by strengthening the body itself to develop inner energy, which fully forms at the Middle-Ranking Samurai stage.

Therefore, the method he envisions must begin at the moment when mental energy is awakened—typically during the High-Ranking Samurai realm.

At that point, when one senses the spirituality in their flesh, they should not use it to nourish the mental energy as is done in the Spiritual path, but instead redirect it to form a spiritual machine within the dantian.

In this way, the three core aspects of the body—spirituality, vitality, and inner energy—would be brought together into a unified system.

Merin already possesses a spiritual machine in his dantian, formed from spiritual energy absorbed from the world, but he now realizes he can transform it—rebuilding it using the spirituality of his own flesh.

So he begins, using the body of a Second-Turn Samurai that he fully understands in every detail, and channels the spirituality within his flesh into the spiritual machine.

He senses it begin to shift—its structure subtly transforming—as his true energy itself changes, trembling at the edge of an even greater evolution.