(100 days later, Training Chambers, Time Stilled World, Leo’s POV)
Another hundred days passed quickly for Leo within the Time Stilled World as he stared at the candle burning before him intently while trying to extend his aura to control the flame from a distance of over fifty meters.
*Wobble*
The small light flickered faintly, its gentle glow reflecting in his eyes as he exhaled slowly, feeling the faint ripples of his own presence stretch through the air, touching everything in its path, yet never quite reaching far enough.
He closed his eyes.
The silence around him felt heavy, almost alive, the air saturated with the faint metallic scent of his own sweat that always surfaced when he trained.
His breathing slowed, his mind gradually emptying, as he tried once more to draw out his aura beyond its usual limit.
’Push... Push it beyond your body, let it cover a wide distance...’
Leo told his mind, as the invisible energy pulsed faintly around him, shimmering like heat above a summer road, yet refusing to obey, as it stubbornly clung to his own body.
’Again,’ he thought, his jaw tightening, as he recalled his learnings from these past 200 days.
’Aura does not just respond to mental commands, it reacts to emotions.’
Leo thought, as he took in a deep breath and started to recall some of his life’s most disturbing memories.
In his experience, his Aura clung closer to his body when he experienced emotions such as happiness or sadness.
While it naturally burst outwards when he experienced emotions like anger or determination.
Which was why, to push his aura outwards, he tried to think of disturbing events such as the death of his mentor Charles and the humiliation that his people had to suffer in abandoning their mother lands, which always got him riled right up.
*SWOOSH*
Almost immediately, his aura surged outward like a storm tide, unbound and wild, as though his fury itself demanded to be seen, yet it still faltered at around the forty eight meter mark, stopping just shy of the candle stick he had placed.
’Remember.... Remember how they killed Charles, how Raymond chopped him into many pieces before ending his life....’
Leo thought, as he tapped even deeper into his emotions pool and pushed his aura even further.
*Flicker*
*Wobble*
Slowly but surely, his aura expanded to the fifty meter mark, a new personal best, yet he found unable to extinguish it, for despite feeling a connection with the candle, he could not influence it just yet.
’Remember your promise to your people. You are the Sect Master! You have to do better than this!’
Leo told himself, as he clenched his teeth and channelled all his willpower to force his aura to extinguish that flame.
*Smoke*
Suddenly, the candle flame died, a smoke trail emerging above the wick where the flame once burnt, as in the end, the candle gave out before Leo’s wrath.
*Huff—*
*Huff—*
Leo breathed heavy, sweat drenching him from top to bottom, as he felt genuinely drained by this simple effort.
However, just as he was about to lay down on the floor and catch his breath, the idle Emperor Suppression Manual placed beside him began to glow and shine, as if it wanted him to open its pages.
*Shine*
*Vibrate*
The book trembled in his grip, as the pages opened all by themselves as soon as he gave it a gentle nudge.
*Glow*
A blinding glow hit his eyes, as characters began to appear written in purple ink on the pages.
[ > Congratulations on completing the first stage of the Emperor Suppression Manual, albeit at a disappointingly slow pace.
Your conscious mind has at last grasped what your subconscious mastered many moons ago.
You are no longer a wandering fool without presence.
You can now extinguish lanterns as you pass, and make mosquitoes tremble in your shadow.]
The book began, as Leo felt his eyes flicker in anger at its words.
’Yeah. I finally see where Kaelith found his love for writing cryptic books.... His father was even worse than him.’
Leo thought, as he calmed his blazing anger and focused on the next words appearing on the page.
[ > Your next trial is one of futility and endurance, to defeat a million unique adversaries beneath the weight of deliberate disadvantage, where every battle begins with the universe tilted against you.
Each confrontation must take place under conditions that strip away your certainty, ensuring that your odds of victory never exceed fifty percent.
If your foe is a Master Tier Warrior, you shall descend to his level, bind both hands and legs, cover your eyes in darkness, and forfeit all forms of auxiliary perception.
You will fight as though the world itself conspires for your defeat, and yet, you must prevail.
A million battles.
A million victories.
Not one loss may stain the record, not even a draw.
For if you fail even once, the count shall reset, and you shall begin again from the first opponent, burdened with the memory of your imperfection.
Only through this endless defiance, where triumph is statistically improbable and victory is earned by will alone, will your aura begin to remember its true nature, that of domination born not from strength, but from inevitability.
When the final opponent falls, your spirit will have crushed so many fates that even the universe shall bend before it.
Then your aura shall evolve into that of a King, one who no longer conquers by blade or blood, but by presence alone, capable of suppressing a million without ever lifting a finger.]
The manual guided, as Leo read it, then read it again, before reading it still a third time.
"Defeat a million unique opponents? Back to Back? No losses allowed? WITH A HANDICAP?"
He muttered outloud, each phrase coming out stronger, as he looked completely flabbergasted by what the manual wanted him to achieve.
"What the fuck? Is my whole bloodline a little wack in the head?
Who the fuck trains like this?"
He wondered, as right on time the text changed once more.
[ > If your heart feels daunted by such a simple challenge, then I suggest you abandon the quest to become an Emperor and search for your mother’s tit to suckle on..... ]
The text mocked, as Leo finally lost his cool as he read that last line.
"You.... Motherfu—"