Dyon noticed that eating fish-frog eyes actually helped temper his eyes, while eating its legs made his legs stronger, and its tough outer skin added durability to his skin. But, similar to lifting weights, repeating the same action had little effect in the long run, so switching to different beasts gave better results.

On top of this, Dyon realized that if he honed the blood circulation techniques he had picked up from the bronzed into specific target areas, the results were even better.

His methods were quite crude for now, but in just a few days he had already added 2 million jin to his total maximum weight. If he continued at this pace, he felt that he could reach the 500 000 000 jin mark he was looking for within a year.

Finally, about a week in, Dyon came across a creature that piqued his interest.

As one might expect, it was grotesque. It had a large pink belly that seemed completely out of place. Its arms were incredibly long and bulky in comparison to its shorter hind legs, giving it the gait of a gorilla, not to mention the wrinkled face of one though, much like it's belly, its face wasn't black, but pink. And, lastly, it had a long, rattling tail, a slithering forked tongue, and slit yellow eyes.

It seemed the creatures here only grew weirder. But, this would be the first battle where Ace couldn't hang back any longer.

**

~Days ago.

Dyon's body sat atop the pink clouds of Calming Lake.

He inched forward slowly, not by design of the currents, but rather by his own will power.

His mind latched onto the streams of consciousness, sinking into them and grabbing hold. He was a ravenous beast, tearing his teeth into anything he could get a hold of.

[Your perspective on life is wrong, friend. Let me tell you about my own experiences. Follow my path]

Thoughts of numerous individuals entered him, making his mind's eye their home.

Dyon's nascent soul seemed to have disappeared. In this sort of situation, it would have normally fluttered its eyelashes and shattered everything Dyon was facing, anything that dared to encroach on his mind. However, it was nowhere to be seen. Dyon's mind's eye had reverted to the state it had been in before Lillianna ever tried to take his life.

Dyon had always wondered just how it took him so long to notice his nascent soul. In fact, his master had hidden within his mind's eye for the longest time before the actions of The Entity brought her out for what Dyon thought was one final time. Why hadn't she seen it or spoken to him about it?

Just like all those times before, his nascent soul had disappeared, or maybe it never existed to begin with. In its place was the soul one should have on the mortal plane, a soul without form, a bulb of light that felt like Dyon, but was still missing something fundamental.

[This arrogance of yours isn't the true path of an expert. One must be like water, free flowing and carefree. Only in this situation can you truly reach the state of tranquility the Heavens wanted.]

[It's not our position as humans to combat the skies above our heads. Even transcendents must die one day, even they must conform to the laws that rule us all. This is real truth.]

[To be calm, to take events as they come but not allow them to affect your state of mind. This is what true arrogance is. Your path is wrong]

The stream of consciousnesses seemed to latch on to Dyon's own worries. He too wanted to be calm, he wanted to temper his arrogance, and they exploited this, trying to shift his dao heart to their specifications. They all wanted Dyon to follow their paths.

"What is happening?" Ri frowned as she looked toward Dyon's figure. To now, it had been a few hours since they entered the lake, so many of them had already reached their limits. Even Amphorae would likely only last a day more before she was forced to take a break.

They had descended numerous tiers already, but the Dyon they were so used to excelling in everything he did was still on the weakest tier. In fact, he had hardly shifted a single foot. Even Violet, who had awoken much earlier than them, had made great progress with her newfound resolve, surpassing Dyon and entering the next tier.

Of course, Violet was a crystal dragon although her bloodline was dormant. This place was practically created for her. But, this was too large of a disparity to be explained so simply. They all began to worry for Dyon

"Isn't big brother's body a bit illusory?" Zaire asked. "Maybe it's because he split his mind to enter his constitution's world."

Damaris frowned at these words. "That's impossible. Sect Master ranked first on the Fifth Trial, his dao heart should be stronger than all of ours. Even if he split his mind, that shouldn't be something our Lake can ignore. Even a single finger of his should be enough to outdo us all."

The Fifth Trial of the Epistemic Tower was so important that it could almost directly predict whether one could become a transcendent or not. For Dyon to pass, and without a death count as well It was practically telling everyone in the martial world that he was guaranteed to transcend. Such a person wouldn't be met with failure in this place.

Damaris suddenly trembled. "The currents They're not what are pushing him forward."

After Damaris pointed this out, the group silently observing Dyon froze. With the experience they had gained in the Calming Lake, they understood very well what this meant. They too had reached a point where the current no helped them forward, it was then that their only two choices were to either stay put, or force themselves forward on their own. The issue was that if you wasted your mental capacity on moving forward, your mind was much more vulnerable.

Dyon was already splitting his mind one way. No, for those who understood that the Mortal Alliance was practically being held up by him alone, his mind was split in far more directions that just two.

"This" Damaris bit her lip.