Elias left Lute, leaving him alone in the caves beneath the arena. Lute sat down and began to meditate, clearing his mind of all the information he’d received. Since he didn’t have the power to deal with the Fallen Kings or Hell’s Brigands, it was of no use worrying about them until he was strong enough to do so.

Lute quietly cultivated most of the night. He was calmly absorbing Qi, inching ever closer to the bottleneck of the Nascent Qi sixth level. When he finished the session of cultivation, Lute withdrew his gauntlets and boots from his spatial ring.

He had one week to get comfortable enough to use them in live combat. He began to practice rotating the blades on the gauntlets in rapid movements. He would flick his wrists causing the lock to undo itself, allowing the blade to rotate, pointing outwards and extending beyond the wrist, ready to slash and pierce. Then with another flick of the wrist the blade would rotate once again hiding underneath the forearm where they could be used to defensively.

A few hours later, Lute was moving around rapidly, throwing out fierce punches filled with Qi. Sometimes he would reverse kick, making use of the blades on his calves. Other times he would have one blade extended while the other wasn’t, or he would have both of them extended outwards.

His fighting style which used to be filled with only blunt force attacks consisting of front kicks and punches now had variability. Instead of always punching or kicking, now he could slash and pierce.

With a few hours left before sunrise, Lute put the gauntlets and boots into his spatial ring once more. However, as he was about to put his robe back on over his undershirt and pants, Lute furrowed his eyebrows in frustration.

“I’ll have to adjust the gauntlets. Instead of having those blades rotate outwards as they extend, making it so they can slide into the extended position would be better. This way I can wear them at all times. If I tried to fight wearing a robe as I am right now, the blade would get caught in my robes. One week should be enough to change the functionality of them.”

As he muttered this to himself, Lute once again began to cultivate until sunrise, but the session didn’t last. He felt a jolt coming from his inner body. He’d almost forgotten the peculiar sensation of sharing a body with someone, but now, that feeling once again returned.

Lute felt Isla’s existence strengthen immediately; he was easily able to sense her. But during these four months her existence was so transparent that Lute felt as if she disappeared and he once again his soul was the only one inhabit his body.

Manifesting before him was the spiritual body of Isla. Her looks hadn’t changed and she still arrogantly looked down upon the world, even if she was a spirit body.

“You’ve slept a lot longer than one month. It has already been over four months.” Lute said.

“Whose fault was that? Wait I know whose fault it was… if a certain someone wasn’t so weak-hearted, I wouldn’t have been forced into that situation in the first place.” Isla said in annoyance.

Isla then swept her senses through Lute’s body, taking in all the changes that had occurred over the last four months. She seemed to have a look of approval on her face.

“Your dantian has expanded at an acceptable rate. While it isn’t quite at the level of the young masters and geniuses of the Divine Realm, it’s still quite a respectable size. Your meridians have also grown in size and become more durable. If I am not wrong, you have arrived at the bottleneck to the second level of the Divine Chronicle of the Primordial Way.”

Lute inwardly felt relieved. Ever since he entered the Nascent Qi Realm, he wasn’t sure as to how acceptable his advancements were, especially since he was advancing at a relatively quick pace. For now, it seemed he was a bit better than average in terms of dantian capacity for Qi. As for the Primordial First Physique, he stagnated at the bottleneck to the second level months ago so it wasn’t a surprise.

“That’s reassuring to hear, but…. Master, Disciple has some questions about the future.”

“Speak”

Isla could feel that Lute had turbulent emotions, as to what he was going to ask, there were a few possibilities she could think of.

“Well… why is the path of killing a taboo. The Dao of Slaughter is considered heresy. The world of cultivation is full of bloodshed, and yet, on this world the last person to comprehend the Dao of Slaughter was hated by the whole world and hunted down until he was killed.”

Ever since Lute had learned from Cal that the Dao of Slaughter was considered heretical, he had still maintained the resolve to walk the path of killing. However, it did not mean he wasn’t wary. From what he learned, it caused Lute to have questions, one of which was Isla’s identity and powers, if she had Slaughter Aura which was considered a taboo, then what else would she teach him that was shunned by others.

Isla sighed, this was one of the outcomes she expected, she planned to tell Lute when he was in the Spirit Opening Realm, but the question came out earlier than she anticipated.

The atmosphere in the cavern seemed to change, the arrogance that seemed to embody Isla disappeared, instead the air about her changed as if she was truly a teacher who’d taught many disciples’.

“There is no such thing as a path of killing. That is just a made up term for those who abhor bloodshed and Dao’s that focus on combat and nothing else. But before I explain Daos such as the Dao of Slaughter, I think you need to learn the basis of Daos and Divinity. Your knowledge is limited to what those in the Mortal Realm know.”

“As you know there are Mortal Daos. However that is just the beginning. Dao’s are classified into three tiers. They are Mortal, Heavenly, and Universal. In order for the Age of Immortals to return, someone needs to comprehend a Universal Dao. In legends, it is then said that they will instinctively know how to ascend to godhood. However this is truly going against the heavens, only the most powerful individuals of the Divine Realm have any insights into the Universal Daos, and not a single one of them has comprehended even one fourth of a Universal Dao. Do you at least understand this much?”

Lute barely nodded as he focused on the information at hand. To think it was so difficult to comprehend a Dao when there were only three tiers.

“But why is it so difficult when there are only three tiers to the Daos is the disparity so great?” Lute asked.

Isla pierced into Lute with her gaze, only now did she understand that she left out an important piece of information. “Daos aren’t so simple. Every Dao has what I shall call subsidiary Dao’s. Think of them as Daos within Daos. Take the Dao of Water as an example. Within the Dao of Water is the Dao of Ice. In order to comprehend the entire Mortal Dao of Water, you would have to comprehend its entire subsidiary Mortal Daos.”

Lute’s thoughts shifted to the book that Cal had handed to him. If what Isla said was true, then it compiled all of his insights into the Mortal Dao of Darkness and its entire subsidiary Daos. It was up to him to comprehend its insights, but it was a head-start towards advancing along its path, it would certainly be easier than if he didn’t have it.

With this in mind, Lute looked towards Isla with an expression that thirsted for knowledge. She mentioned that he would learn some information about divinity, what he truly wanted to know. Anyone, even a peak Heavenly Emperor would want to learn of this.

“What about the Divine Path? How does that tie into the Daos?” Lute asked in anticipation.

Isla quickly released her pressure and slammed Lute against the ground in annoyance and then retracted it before anyone in Fallen Tide City would notice.

“You should learn patience, I will beat it into you…. So stop fidgeting whenever you want to learn something, that’s a disgusting habit you formed and I don’t like it.”

Lute groaned slightly as he sat up, it had been a long time since he’d been so easily crushed within a second. Shaking his head slightly and trying to refocus, he waited in silence for Isla to begin speaking.

Finally, after she felt Lute was paying attention, Isla began to speak. “I will not tell you all of the realms within the Divine Path. There is no reason to when you are not even a Heavenly Emperor. But it is necessary to divulge some information that ties into the Daos and to clear this misunderstanding of taboo Daos that you have learned about in the Mortal Realm.”

“I will once again state that there is no such thing as a path of killing. It seems that this planet despises Daos that focus on combat and bloodshed. But comprehending a Dao such as the Dao of Slaughter won’t turn you into a mindless killer. The cultivators of this planet were probably terrified of the Dao of Slaughters might, so they labeled it as something evil and to be avoided.”

Lute deeply nodded, his brows tightened however inwardly he was relieved. He was prepared to use something labelled as evil to achieve his own goals, but knowing that it was a misconceived notion of this planet was a relief. It meant that when he ascended to the Divine Realm, things such as Slaughter Aura wouldn’t be too uncommon and he wouldn’t immediately be a target for extermination. But then, why would it be classified as something devils use in the Mortal Realm?

“Master, previously it was said that the Dao of Slaughter was something that only devils use, is that true,” Lute then looked at Isla resolved to find answers with an unwavering gaze, “Slaughter Aura seems to not be normal either, while it must be more common in the Divine Realm, I find it hard to believe that everyone has it. Is there such a thing as a devilish path of cultivation…? Are you walking that path?”

The atmosphere in the room seemed to drop. The air felt as if it was sharp enough to cut into Lute. When he asked Isla the question, her demeanor changed. Her eyes seemed even crueler than before as she pierced into Lute with her gaze, “What do you think?”

Lute gulped slightly, his pulse increased as well. An instinctive fear seemed to well up from in as Isla coldly asked him what he thought about her origins.

Lute stuttered slightly as he replied, “I D…do not know. I believe that you are abnormal. As for whether you are a demonic cultivator there could be an equal probability whether you are one or aren’t one, I don’t have enough knowledge at hand to make such a judgement with certainty.”

Isla floated about for a moment in silence, seemingly coming to a stance upon a difficult decision. “There are no such things as devils or gods in this era. However, there are cultivators that have the potential to become a god or devil if they comprehend a Universal Dao. You will have to make this choice eventually. It is known as the Soul Splitting Realm.”

“Soul splitting, so I will have to choose whether I want to cultivate the way of the gods or devils?” Lute asked in astonishment.

Isla seemed to reminisce about the past as she replied, “… Yes, when the time comes you will have to choose. I will not influence you in this decision. But I will tell you the advantages of each.”

“The Gods and Devils can be summarized as positive and negative. Gods use positive aligned Qi and Devils use Negative aligned Qi. Positive Qi is denser and cultivators recover from wounds using Positive Qi quicker than those of Negative Qi. Negative Qi is thinner, less dense, and the cultivators won’t heal as quickly. But, Negative Qi can be recovered faster and it is degrading like poison, if you’re infected by Negative Qi, it eats away at your positive Qi until you have none left or you expel it from your body.”

Gods and Devils, humans rise to Divinity and become a god or they could fall to Demonic Divinity and become a devil.

Isla continued to speak, not giving Lute any room to ask questions. “There is one more advantage. Dao comprehension is affected as well. Gods are better at comprehending the Dao of Life while Devils were better at comprehending the Dao of Death. While Gods could master the Dao of Death or a Devil could master the Dao of Life, it would be more difficult. When you split your soul, you will immediately know what Daos are easier and more difficult for you to gain insights into and manipulate. This is why I wished to explain a part of one of Great Realms of cultivation within the Divine Path. What I mean is the Dao of Slaughter is easier for Demonic Cultivators to learn than the God Cultivators.”

What path you chose would affect what Daos you learned? That was a rather important concept that he didn’t know. For this information, Lute as grateful. However, there was one thing still bothering him. Were humans there an equal number of cultivators of both paths? Would demonic path cultivators hate god path cultivators and vice versa?

“Then, how many demonic cultivators are there, also what is their relationship with the god path cultivators?” Lute asked.

“Most choose to cultivate the path of a god. I’d estimate that roughly twenty-five percent of the Divine Realm cultivate the demonic path and have demonic arts and inheritances. As for relationships, it’s a mutual dislike, but that’s about it. It’s not a kill on sight as it was during the Age of Immortals.”

‘To be a god or devil… what do I want to be? As for Master, she’s probably a demonic cultivator. But for me I’ll choose depending on what Daos I focus upon. But for now I shouldn’t worry about such things… getting to the Spirit Opening Realm is the most important thing to do at this moment.’