One week later.
Sitting on my bed, drenched in blood, I was patching up my wounds with healing magic and cursing my past self for slacking off during history and theory classes in school. How else could I explain how, after devouring specialized literature on seed life cycles, I managed to miscalculate so spectacularly? I hadn't arrived when the seed was at the Spirit grade-I had dropped right into its ascension to the Soul grade!
Everything had started out smoothly. I calculated the exact timeframe when the seed ought to be at the absolute peak of the Spirit grade. Then I took a quick trip to a parallel reality and bought a few elemental detectors. They were hot commodities-hunters used them all the time to track down natural treasures.
Next, I checked the approximate spatial coordinates of Mount Luyashan, jumping to the parallel world at those exact coordinates and within the computed timeframe. Snow-covered forest stretched out all around me, with a frost-mantled mountain rising ahead. It was a minor peak, historically devoid of high-value resources during this era, which meant no powerful monsters should have been lurking nearby. Still, I didn't let my guard down.
Casting a fourfold Haste spell on myself, I scoured the surrounding area using Spirit magic and carefully moved toward the first of four target points. For convenience, I had divided the mountain into four sectors; scanning each would yield a complete map of elemental particle concentrations.
I reached the first point without a hitch and initialized the scanner. But because the device's operational frequency attracts wild beasts, a trio of Ice Dragon Horses-ranging from mid-tier to high-tier Servants-came charging out of the treeline.
I slammed them with a mental blast of Spirit magic and unleashed the fourth tier of Primary Spatial Magic-Spatial Blade. I modified the spell slightly on the fly, splitting the single rift into three lesser blades that neatly decapitated all three horses at once. There was no need to conserve mana now; if things got dicey, I could always retreat to my home world, recover, and pick up where I left off.
With the first point fully scanned, I pressed on. After completing the second scan, I popped back to my apartment to replenish my reserves. It was a shame my cultivation wasn't yet strong enough to use the Law to restore my mana directly.
Once all four points were scanned and I was fully rested again, I headed toward the dense cluster of Ice element particles I'd mapped out. It turned out to be a cavern.
The moment I stepped inside, two things hit me. First, the seed had recently broken through to the Soul grade and was still volatile, as evidenced by the wildly fluctuating magical field. Second, my Spirit magic picked up the lingering aura of a powerful soul, while out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a dead Ice Dragon Horse alpha slumped in the corner.
Instinct screaming danger, I immediately canceled my dimensional shift spell, but as reality began pushing me back into my world, a Frost Vilyak at the lower-tier Commander level materialized out of thin air and slashed at me with its claws.
And so there I was, back in my apartment, patching myself up. Vilyaks were semi-elemental creatures, capable of merging seamlessly into their native element. If it hadn't been for my active Spatial Shield and protective armor artifact absorbing the brunt of the blow, I'd be a corpse right now.
Apparently, the Vilyak had been drawn by the seed's ascension to the Soul grade. The cavern had clearly belonged to the Ice Dragon Horse alpha before that, and judging by the corpse, the beast had been killed less than a day ago.
Once I was fully healed and rested, my first move was to jump to the parallel city of Bo during the disaster-time to loot resources for quick cash. I wasn't about to go on another excursion like that without heavier armor and a better shield artifact.
A couple of days later, I was walking into that same ice cavern again-only this time, a full week earlier on the timeline. Sure enough, I was greeted by a very much alive Ice Dragon Horse alpha, a mid-tier Warrior-level creature.
Sticking to the proven playbook, I battered its mind with Spirit magic. Before it could recover, I cast the first tier of Intermediate Spatial Magic-Compress-directly onto its hind leg, shattering the bone to splinters. As the beast squealed in agony, I used fourfold Haste to rain down a barrage of Spatial Blades until it collapsed.
When a complete Warrior-grade soul drifted into my pendant, I realized this mountain was going to be my new soul-farming hotspot. I had already netted three Servant souls from the lesser horses and one from their leader-a profit-to-time-to-safety ratio that blew my opportunistic runs in ruined Bo completely out of the water.
With my new farming spot confirmed, I turned toward the glowing blue rock face at the back of the cave-the resting place of the Spirit Seed.
Shattering the stone wall with Spatial magic, I quickly began absorbing the seed, committing what any other mage would consider pure madness. Normally, a peak-tier Spirit Seed is allowed to mature into a Soul Seed so it can be sold for an astronomical sum; the profit is then used to buy a tailored Spirit Seed, leaving at least a hundred and eighty million in reserve. But to someone who can raid parallel dimensions, mere money is meaningless dust.
Once the Spirit Seed was fully absorbed, I immediately returned home to stay out of trouble. Who knew if that Commander-level monster was lurking nearby?
Now my Ice element was boosted by a factor of 3.99… I'll just round it up to four. As established, my math skills are atrocious, so no need to clutter things with extra decimals.
Next on my upgrade checklist was… I glanced sideways at my Summoning element. «Sorry, buddy,» I muttered mentally. «Once I finish my next two plans, I'll definitely focus on you.»
I started with the easier objective. In my past life, I had nearly choked on envy watching Mo Fan's body transform after he acquired the Demon Element. And I don't mean just getting the physique of a gym-rat bodybuilder or gains in… specific areas. I mean raw physical strength capable of going toe-to-toe with monsters a full rank above him.
I had tried back then to find out if something similar was achievable-purely to boost my combat survival odds, of course. But the only thing I found was a vastly inferior alternative, preserved merely as a historical footnote.
Back in the dawn of human magic, before artifact crafting was invented, mages searched for ways to temper their physical bodies so they wouldn't die from a single swipe of a monster's claw.
I found references to a sect near the Kunlun Mountains that had developed and taught a body-tempering technique to anyone willing to learn: the Calamity Tyrant Thunder Physique… Ancient naming conventions truly were something else.
In truth, the name and the fact that it somehow utilized the Lightning element were about all that survived in the records. High mortality rates among practitioners meant few ever dared to attempt the training.
And once artifact crafting emerged-bringing armor artifacts with it-the technique was completely abandoned and swallowed by history. The last mention of it in ancient texts dated back over eighteen hundred years. But for me, I didn't think that would be a problem.
Fortunately, the danger shouldn't be too extreme. I knew the former location of the sect, and they would have cleared out any monsters in their immediate vicinity-at least the strongest ones.
My reasoning was simple: if they taught anyone willing to learn, then in the sect's twilight years, they shouldn't mind teaching one modest Ice mage. And if they refused, I'd just ask them when the sect was founded and jump back to that exact era. When they were actively recruiting disciples, they'd take me in for sure… Or so I hoped.