Immortal Kingdoms

The monotonous life in Grace Imperial City under the lockdown continued like a cog in a stable machine.

Everyone was already aware of their respective responsibilities, missions, and tasks to complete their day-to-day lives. Of course, Leonardo's days of cultivation were as stagnant as the world outside.

Repetitive sonic explosions echoed throughout the empty cultivation chamber followed by an exhausted, bloody Leonardo in a pool of his sweat at the end of every day.

By day 7, Juvia was already numb to seeing Leonardo like this because everyone knew that no one could help him when it came to comprehending his own martial intent, not even Aria even if she wanted to.

Unlike House Hestia's bloodthirsty martial intent with thousands of years of heritage and experimentations throughout the successive generations of immortals, Leonardo could be considered the first-generation ancestor to the desolate martial intent, and Nier could be considered secon-generation, and their daughter could be considered the third generation.

Thus, he needs to brave this path and mold it accordingly, one step at a time.

Leonardo knew this fact as well, hence his dedication regardless of the pain and dangers involved. Sadly, with the suppression from Arcadia's will, this task's difficulty could only multiply in folds.

On day 30, an event that broke the monotonous cycle occurred, Pandora advanced to level 51, the first layer of a saint's second-cycle.

Ten days later on day 40, Juvia advanced as well.

Their advancements didn't go as smoothly as one expected, but they provided Leonardo with a much-desired inspiration to contemplate. Thus, he rushed to the cultivation chamber and shut himself in it.

Day 45.

Pandora and Juvia entered the cultivation chamber only to find Leonardo in a lotus position meditating with the sword flat on his knees. Since he wasn't injured, they left him be.

Day 50…

Leonardo was still in deep meditation…

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Day 55…

Leonardo was still in a deep state of mediation.

Day 60…

Leonardo's body twitched lightly, and his aura disappeared entirely. If Pandora was around, she'd be shocked to realize that Leonardo's application of his desolate martial intent was a replica of her concealment arts.

Strictly speaking, this is nothing short of a downgrade. However, this downgrade finally succeeded, albeit barely so.

As expected, when one door closes, another opens.

Although Leonardo was exhilarated, he couldn't lose focus just yet. Ever since Pandora and Juvia advanced, Leonardo was in deep thought as to why would Arcadia allow those two to advance while blocking his growth, as all three of them were practicing the desolate martial intent in one way or another.

If Leonardo could be likened to a tree taking roots in Arcadia, then Pandora and Juvia could be considered as two branches at best. However, the branches are allowed to freely grow while the tree itself was restricted.

Why would it be so?

Then, Leonardo came to the comprehension that his desolate martial intent was as al-encompassing, while Pandora and Juvia inherited but a partial figment of the whole.

The death and nihilism aspects of desolation aren't a direct threat to Arcadia as a whole, only when all factors that beget desolation are aggregated would it invoke the instinctive rejection from Arcadia. Hence, the branches can freely grow while the tree itself was placed under strict surveillance.

Although this knowledge wouldn't allow Leonardo to progress his cultivation base as it is impossible to advance in levels relying on split portions of his martial intent, what Leonardo was attempting is finding a way to slowly break down his desolate martial intent to allow the other forces some leeway.

He came to a sudden inspiration that gradually releasing a stream of muddled water through a narrow channel wouldn't change the nature of the muddled water, but he should instead aim to release the elements that made it into muddled water, to begin with.

This is but a basic purification technique in chemistry that he decided to apply to his cultivation. Thus, for the past few days, Leonardo was attempting to extract the essence of nihilism from his desolate martial intent while keeping the rest in check within his cells, and on day 60, he succeeded.

However, this could only be considered a gradual success as if he were to break out of concentration, the essence of nihilism would be instantly drawn back into his cells to meld perfectly into the complete essence of desolation.

Hence, although this was a milestone of success in his cultivation, it was also another obstacle to overcome.

The good news is that even though his essence of nihilism was exposed to the outside world, he couldn't feel the will of Arcadia trying to suppress or extinguish it, allowing him to let out a breath of relief.

Leonardo placed the sword on the ground and slowly stood up. Then, with his eyes closed, he began to go through successive hand-to-hand stances while maintaining the rhythm of his current circulation of his Immortal Scripture.

His movements were so slow one would mistake him for a mortal struggling to learn basic martial arts. However, it couldn't be helped as any excessive movements would instinctively excite the slumbering desolate martial intent, throwing the delicate balance awry.

Time ticked by slowly, and sweat began to pour heavily from Leonardo's skin under the arduous and slow rhythm. Unknowingly, night descended on the outside world, and the door to the cultivation chamber flung open.

The slight disturbance tossed Leonardo's focus off balance as his desolate martial intent responded instinctively and beyond his control.

Bang!

An explosion erupted within Leonardo's body as Arcadia's will and his erupting desolate intent clashed, tossing his circulating energy into chaos. His skin split open, blood spurted out, and he coughed up violently with blood rushing into his throat.

The sharp turn in Leonardo's state shocked Pandora and Juvia into a panic.

"Daddy!"

"Master!

The two instinctively called out their respective pet names as they rushed to grab onto Leonardo who was quickly descending into a deep sleep. However, a shallow smile was on his face nonetheless.

He was so engrossed in the sensation he lost track of time which was a good sign.

…

Day 61.

After a peaceful night of recuperation and stress relief, Leonardo instructed the two ladies to not disturb him under any circumstances unless the great war erupted. Of course, he meant the war between them and the Elven Royal Family.

Pandora and Juvia didn't wish to accidentally kill Leonardo as a result of deviation in his energy circulation, so they hurried yet reluctantly agreed.

On this day, Leonardo wasn't seated, but he silently stood with the sword to his back. He stretched a hand to the hilt, closed his eyes, and followed yesterday's example.

Except for this time, he separated not the essence of nihilism but death. After dual cultivating with Juvia for so long, his understanding of death is as good as his understanding of nihilism, the only difference is that the latter couldn't be utilized as a primary offensive force, more like an auxiliary force.

As to why he started with the essence of nihilism yesterday? Well, he factored in the possibility of someone interrupting his cultivation session and as expected, that did happen.

If his cultivation were to deviate as he tried controlling the essence of death, allowing that energy to rampage through his body, the result is quite predictable. Since the preliminary tests bore fruit, the practical experimentations could now commence.

Leonardo's cells thrummed as thin filaments of colorless death essence energy flowed outward through the meridians and body and began to surface on Leonardo's skin.

His white robes began to rustle without the influence of wind.

His silver locks of hair swayed along as the energy circled his body from top to bottom and vice versa, looking for an avenue of release. From one thread of death essence to two, to three, and four…

Eventually, the colorless death essence was like interweaving threads that followed along Leonardo's physique and poured into the hilt of his sword.

The scabbard quivered lightly. Evidently, the sword within had began to grow restless from the volume of energy infused into the blade. This is an ordinary sword, meaning the amount of energy it could withstand was limited.

A deliberate limitation Leonardo placed on himself for two reasons.

First, he needed a finite grasp over the output of death essence.

Second, he needed a finite control over the death energy essence already discharged from his cells, as he didn't wish for them to charge back after extracting them.

After slowly guiding the death energy essence one strand at a time for an hour, the sword eventually reached its limits.

For now, Leonardo was tackling the issue of finite control over output and not finite control over circulation. Thus, without hesitation, he decided to unleash the strike of the first stance in order to make room for death energy essence to gather within the sword.

Following a sharp unsheathing sound, the sword hummed audibly as a the space around Leonardo shuddered lightly.

BANG!

A sonic boom echoed as a colorless distortion cut through the air in the shape of a crescent vertical line.

BOOM!

The wall at the other end of the room shook, a shallow three feet tall crescent moon indentation appearing on its surface.

Although this attack exhausted every bit of death energy that Leonardo slowly accumulated during the last hour, leaving him panting and breathless, he was happy nonetheless.

"Success…"

Leonardo whispered, sweat drenching his forehead as his eyes gleamed curiously.