"Then what about me?" Dyon's frown deepened. "Did I not also see what I shouldn't have seen?"
Violet's expression twisted and distorted, unable to reel in her emotions.
"Young hero!" The spirit that had remained silent all of this time spoke. "Please help my Legatee. I've stopped her soul from dissipating as a final hope, but I don't have the ability to heal her. Please."
The pleading of the spirit made Dyon remember that there was another victim in all of this.
Arthurian scurried to his feet, running away even as Dyon knelt beside Sophia and checking her status. He didn't bother with Arthurian. Since Violet made it clear how he wanted him to be punished, there was no need for him to intervene. The valley would close soon and a coward like Arthurian wouldn't have any place to go but home. By then, how could he escape the wrath of the Sect Master?
Sophia was still a 9th stage Essence Gatherer. With her cultivation, Dyon was surprised that she managed to become an inner disciple, but he didn't have time to think about this now.
Because she was still an essence gatherer, although her body was more fragile, it was also easier to heal.
Dyon's runic flame appeared in his hand. He wasn't skilled enough to heal his own celestial body yet because runic theory didn't come as naturally to him as array alchemy did, but he had a perfect practice subject here.
It may sound cruel for Dyon to use the life of another to practice, but he would never put her life at risk. He wouldn't stubbornly persist if he knew he failed, he would simply use one of the many lower level healing pills he had. Since he could bring Masako back from the brink of death, why couldn't they do the same from Sophia?
When the spirit saw how powerful Dyon's runic flame was, she was pleasantly surprised. With her experience, she could easily see that it had reached the comet flame level, which meant this young hero actually had a celestial level body! However, she couldn't help but frown when she noticed how poor his control was. Dyon could barely be considered a 1st Common Level Runic Master. His only saving grace was that his master had the memories of being a 1st Master Level Runic Master, which helped him a bit.
The problem was that his master barely spent any time on Runic Vein Theory while she was alive. And, after her death, without a body, how could she produce a runic flame? So, other than the memories about awakening the runic flame, everything else was intangible and theory related, with barely any application memories.
The spirit could only sigh. There was nothing she could do about it, this wasn't the time to be picky. He was the only one who could save her.
Beads of sweat covered Dyon's forehead as he placed his hand on Sophia's bleeding chest.
Dyon's understanding of the human body was deeper than most, simply because of the education system of the mortal realm he was born in. Because they didn't focus on cultivation, of course they spent a lot of time researching what could better the human race.
As a result, the mortal world, especially because their lives were so fragile, had a very deep understanding of the human body that was impressive even in the martial world.
That said, Dyon wasn't a doctor and he didn't spend most of his time in the biological research fields like Clara did with her cancer research. However, it was good enough for what he needed now.
Dyon carefully worked his flame around Sophia lung and heart, feeling out which chambers and vesicles were ruptured.
Then, he slowly stimulated her life force to speed their recovery all while siphoning away some of his own vitality into her as well.
As a man with a Celestial body, his vitality was almost too overwhelming for an essence gatherer, so he had to be very careful.
This sort of job would be far easier with his aurora flames and their healing character, but unfortunately, Dyon's soul was sealed. That said, as far as Dyon understood, Runic Flames were actually more efficient and useful in healing the human body, it was just that Dyon had more control over his Aurora Flames, which gave him the illusion that they were better for healing.
It wasn't long before Dyon realized that Sophia was extremely lucky. It may sound odd to say this to a person who was so close to death, but it was the truth.
When Arthurian pierced her heart, he had done so on a whim. He had looked down on Sophia from the depths of his soul, so he disdained to even use a technique. As a result, the injury itself was quite minimalistic and as long as the chambers in her heart were sealed so that blood could flow properly, in addition to a small reset of her heart, everything should be fine. Of course, all of this was only possible because the spirit stopped her soul from dissipating by taking advantage of their resonance.
The more Dyon focused on manipulating his runic flame, the more he came to understand it. It was only then that he believed Clara when she said he would fall behind her forever unless he spent time practicing his secondary professions.
Dyon had treated runic vein theory like his array alchemy, believing that he only needed to comprehend the theories behind it to improve. For example, Dyon was confident that he could do anything a 6th stage comet level array alchemist could do despite being able to count on his hands the number of pills he had refined in his lifetime.
However, he quickly found that he could not do the same for runic vein theory
Array alchemy, to him, felt like riding a bike. It was as though he hadn't seen or touched or even thought about this bicycle for an inconceivable amount of time, but the moment it was placed before him, riding it came as naturally as breathing did.
Dyon had assumed that was just his level of genius. Of course, learning something new was easy to him, learning anything was easy to him. No matter how much time passed, he was still arrogant to his core, and he believed he was one of the few individuals who deserved to be.
However, runic vein theory was like a massive slap to his face. As for Magic? He was too embarrassed to even bring it up. His talent for the latter was so poor that he could only look at Loki's faith seed as though it was a beauty laying before him with only the tiniest of fabrics covering her supple skin, yet not being able to touch her.
It was a depressing reality, but it was reality, nonetheless. It completely shot down Dyon's dream of combining the three into something new.
The good news was that Dyon's body cultivation talent was very high. Although runic vein theory wasn't intuitive to him, it completely fascinated him. It had been too long since he was given a true challenge and he basked in it.
What good was his sovereign path if he gave up just because he couldn't learn something easily? Wouldn't that be too pathetic?
Dyon's will to fight grew, stimulating his desire to stand above all others in everything.
The wills shackled by his [Inner World: Sanctuary] rattled to life, but then quickly dimmed. It was no question that had they not been sealed, he would have experienced a break through. But, there was nothing that could be done about it.
'I'll take everything step by step. Although master wasn't a runic vein expert, she emphasizes the importance of control. Before I delve into more runic vein theory, I'll first learn to control my runic flame to a level that matches its power.'
Dyon's eyes sharpened, never letting up. It took him almost two days, but in the end, he finally sealed Sophia's heart.
'Ha, how pathetic. A celestial level runic flame took two days to heal a mere essence gatherer. If my flame had been at the essence gatherer level, even ten years wouldn't have been enough.' Dyon laughed at himself self-deprecatingly, sweating profusely, but his will wasn't injured in the slightest. Instead, his eyes shone even brighter as Sophia gasped for air and began to cough.