Immortal Kingdoms

Day 1.

A cold, silent, blank white room.

A room constructed under the palace in the depths of the lake where the presence is so high it naturally compliments the shockwaves absorption formations inscribed on the interior and exterior of the walls.

This would be the room where Leonardo spends his day cultivating, just like right now as he stood at one end of the room, dressed in white robes and with a sword on his back.

This was Leonardo's day one as a sword cultivator after leaving the Exiled Paradise.

At that moment, Leonardo's eyes were a dull gray color as he stood silently, carefully probing the tiny streaks of lightning in his cells. For some reason, they weren't pale blue, gray, or even crimson red.

In fact, this thunderforce was a peculiar black, just like ink. Furthermore, there was so little of it that Leonardo couldn't find a practical use for it yet.

Elemental-based martial intents require long-term nourishment and plenty of resources the further one wishes to cultivate them. Typically, the five elements of water, fire, wind, earth, and metal are the easiest to cultivate due to the abundance of natural resources derived from these five.

You can find an ocean, a volcano, a storm, a desert, or even high mountains with deep mineral deposits. However, it's not everywhere you can find a thunderstorm, not a natural one at least.

Hence, the second best option is to nurture this thunderforce through the depletion of personal reserves of worldly energy. At that moment, Leonardo was constantly operating his cultivation technique to excite the flow of his energy and nurture the thunderforce.

As Leonardo's primary martial intent is the desolate martial intent, it would naturally surface as the dominant force whenever he's cultivating or circulating his energy according to the Immortal Scripture.

Like a statue, Leonardo stood there with his hand on the hilt of the sword on his back.

Wisps of excessive fluctuation spiraled from his body.

Sometimes crimson and often times dull gray. However, not once was there a discharge of lightning, not even the tiniest of sparks. Although Leonardo could feel an immense destructive nature brewing within the thunderforce, it's all meaningless if he couldn't use it.

Even though he attempted to stimulate the thunderforce by pressuring it between his desolate and bloodthirsty martial intents, there was little to no response whatsoever.

Leonardo closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, his muscles relaxing considerably as he decided to let loose his reins over the martial intents brewing within his cells.

He even stopped circulating his cultivation technique, not even allowing the desolate martial intent to passively conceal the fluctuations radiating from the depths of his cells to the outside world. Typically, these fluctuations originating from a person's energy-accumulating organs are what sells out their cultivation base.

The reason why Leonardo could keep his cultivation base hidden is that the people of Arcadia, and the middle realms by extension, aren't used to probing someone so deeply.

As mentioned beforehand:

A mortal constitution primarily stores energy in the muscles. A saint's constitution primarily stores energy in the flesh and blood, and bones. A divine constitution primarily stores energy in the meridians, and finally, an immortal constitution primarily stores energy in the cells.

By this example, mortals are incapable of concealing their cultivation base because they have nowhere to withdraw their energy from their exposed bodies. As for those with a saint constitution, they could withdraw the energy from their muscles and deeper into the flesh and blood, and so on and forth.

In Leonardo's case, he could release the energy from his cells to the surface of his body; the muscles, and vice versa. As no one is accustomed to investigating someone's meridians, let alone cells, no one was prudent enough in examining Leonardo's cultivation.

Even if they tried, a protective membrane of desolation would block their senses from approaching Leonardo's cells, and an even sturdier defensive membrane was cast on Leonardo's meridians by the Old Servant to confuse people's senses.

After hours of futile attempts at exciting the thunderforce, Leonardo decided to let go and allow things to progress naturally. The moment he relaxed his control, a rumbling sound echoed from the depths of his body.

BANG!

Leonardo's eyes flew open as waves of turmoil danced about in his irises.

Waves red as blood clashed against their black and gray counterparts violently. With a boom, an uncontrollable wave of energy discharged from Leonardo's cells, rushing through his meridians, bones, flesh, blood, and muscles.

Eventually, the chaotic waves blew his white robes to shreds, his skin cracked open, and his blood spilled out in rivulets. Even his eyes bled as pain wracked his body inside and out.

Cough!

Leonardo's body swayed as he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, stumbling on the edge of collapse. However, he allowed these forces to wreak havoc inside his body and find their natural sense of equilibrium. At least, that's what he hoped for.

Unfortunately, barely ten breaths later, and his body's instinctive response to danger automatically circulated the Immortal Scripture, allowing the desolate martial intent to lock down the other two forces within his cells once more.

Thud!

Leonardo's exhausted body fell back on the hard floor, unconscious.

…

Day 2.

A cold, silent, blank white room.

Leonardo's second day of experimenting with thunderforce at the cost of his body. Yesterday was a failure, but an expected failure.

After Pandora's and Juvia's miraculous stress relief sessions, Leonardo was already back in top shape and ready for another experimental session.

Having learned his lesson from yesterday, Leonardo took a deep breath, reached for the hilt of his sword, and began a gradual process of reigning in his tight control over the desolate martial intent.

After a year of passively operating the Immortal Scripture to control it, his desolate martial intent reached the realm of instinctive action. In a sense, to gradually lessen its control means that Leonardo would have to deliberately act against his own instinct, which is much easier said than done.

It's about time to discuss the origins of Leonardo's cultivation technique, the Fourth Dimension Immortal Scripture.

The four dimensions represent four forms corresponding to the four known stages of cultivation; Mortal, Saint, Divine, and lastly, Immortal.

The power gap between the four dimensions is considered negligible at best, as they rely heavily on a cultivator's martial intent, cultivation base, and comprehension of the sword as a foundation.

After his fatal failure, Leonardo began to tackle his issues from the perspective of the Instinctive level. Since he was passively supplementing his Immortal Scripture with the desolate martial intent, then perhaps forcibly tearing them apart was a bad idea to begin with.

That would irreparably damage his cultivation foundation, which resulted in the heavy backlash yesterday. Since he couldn't utilize his cultivation base, Leonardo subconsciously overlooked the fact that he was now a saint, capable of practicing the second form of the Fourth Dimension Immortal Scripture.

However, what are the four forms respectively?

The first form is the moon.

The second form is the sun.

The third form is the stars.

The fourth form is the void.

The first form, the moon, has a total of twelve stances with the first and final stance connecting in a consistent loop.

Leonardo decided to spend his second day of cultivation trying to unleash the might of as many stances of the moon's form as possible.

Clenching his hand tightly over the hilt of his sword, a sharp unsheathing sound echoed as Leonardo hacked down with his sword.

After a moment of silence, a sonic boom echoed as a violent gust of wind rustled Leonardo's clothing. However, the timely released slash of desolation dissipated into the world before it could even reach the other end of the room, disappointing Leonardo.

This was merely the first stance, a clear slash from start to end, unlike the second stance where the sword undergoes two changes throughout the act of drawing and striking, or the third where the sword would undergo three changes, and so on.

However, Leonardo wasn't discouraged.

If he wants to transition from the first form to the second, he needs to find a way around cycling through the twelve stances at any cost.

Thus, overlooking the failure, Leonardo sheathed his sword, stood still, took a deep breath, and struck.

BOOM!

Another sonic blast as the sword sliced through the sound barrier.

As expected, no progress whatsoever.

The webbing between Leonardo's fingers split, blood trickled down, and he panted heavily. However, he didn't care and continued.

Again!

BOOM!

Again!

BOOM!

Again!

BOOM!

As Leonardo's vision alternated between black and white, he fainted in a puddle of sweat and blood.

A few hours later, Pandora and Juvia entered the private cultivation chamber, their hearts clenching at Leonardo's miserable sight.

Juvia's eyes we red and on the verge of breaking into tears, but Pandora had some form of mental fortitude in the face of such torturous practice methods as she knew best about House Hestia's methods.

Quickly and gently, the two brought Leonardo back to the Grace Imperial Palace for yet another stress-relief session.