The Primordial Record

Inside the armor of Tenebris, Rowan observed his consciousness merging, like tiny drops of water returning to a growing sea.

Every shard of the First Supreme Circle that he touched acted as a magnet that pieced together his fragmented consciousness. This process was not automatic since recognizing the shards was just the first step, to merge them required understanding.

What this meant was simple in theory but nearly impossible for anyone to succeed at, without a ridiculous amount of time spent in learning, because every shard was a technique that should take the user to the 9th Supreme Circle.

He decided to call these shards of the Supreme Circle, False Supreme Circles.

Rowan had to not only recognize these shards, but he had to completely understand the technique to such a profound level that it should take him to the 9th Supreme Circle.

Luckily for him, understanding the technique was what was required of him, he did not need to practice them, or it would be impossible for Rowan to make any progress in a short while, and so every single shard of Rowan's consciousness began to analyze the accompanying technique they had seized.

This task was challenging but was not particularly difficult. Each cultivation technique was unique, but since they were all a part of a singular whole, it was possible to see the connection that existed between all of them.

For example, every technique reached the Immortal level at the fifth circle, and although the techniques could be further broken down into multiple parts in the same manner that the Reflections did with the cultivation techniques of Trion, it was still following the same rough standard.

Every technique also focused on various aspects, like the flesh, spirit, or the rare few that focused on the soul, but in the end, they all led to a singular destination which was the path of Will and ascending the Dimensions.

With every shard that Rowan comprehended, his knowledge about the Circles deepened, and he realized that although it was true that every shard was connected, they were still unique, every single one of them gave him a new comprehension of the Circle that was irreplaceable.

He needed every single shard to understand the Supreme Circle in its entirety, and before long, Rowan was lost in the joys of comprehension.

This process was happening quite quickly, as millions of shards were being absorbed into a singular whole with every moment that passed. Still, with the knowledge that each Supreme Circle was nearly infinite, it would take some time for it to be completed, at least a few decades.

Unknown to the excited Rowan, what he was accomplishing was unprecedented. To the elite few who had managed to reach this level, there was no thought in their mind to comprehend the entire cultivation technique, because what was required of them to complete the first Supreme Circle was to learn just the first circle of the shard.

This task was considered nearly impossible and would take billions if not trillions of years to be completed, and at the moment in some corner of the many universes there were geniuses who had retreated from the light of civilization for many Eras as they strived to comprehend the first Supreme Circle.

Rowan's action meant he was not just comprehending the Circles one at a time, but all nine at once!

Such an action was nearly incomprehensible, and even Old Man Seed was not aware that his grandson would ever try such a thing. Rowan was expected to fight against the darkness of the Tenebris armor of centuries if not millennia before he could even begin to comprehend the first level of the Circle.

Presently not more than three weeks had gone by.

Not knowing the waves his actions were about to cause, Rowan was cursing his level of progress as comprehending millions of techniques every second was considered incredibly slow to him, and the thought of spending two to three decades in this endeavor was maddening.

Besides, he also had to take care of an annoying guest with him inside the Tenebris armor.

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In the nearly unfathomable depths of the Tenebris armor, his six Primordial Ouroboros Serpents were curled amongst themselves, at first it would seem as if nothing was happening, but a closer observation would reveal that the mouths of the serpents were open and they were drawing in the darkness.

Since they had not directly manifested from his body that had been crushed to a size that was many times smaller than an atom but was using his consciousness power as a vehicle to manifest themselves, the Primordial Ouroboros Serpents were not in their true bodies, and these here was just a manifestation of their Essence, but to solve this issue, this would have to do.

The six Ouroboros Serpents here were still intrinsically connected to the true Serpents that had been squeezed alongside Rowan, and this made the irritation in their hearts grow to a feverish pitch.

The voice inside the armor had no idea how angry these serpents had become, and its voice was still ringing out in the darkness, the previous fear supplanted by a growing confidence in the strength of the armor.

The fool. Rowan himself would not trigger these serpents, but this voice had gone far beyond their baseline.

The Primordial Ouroboros as Rowan had come to learn could feed on anything, even concepts as ethereal as darkness, they just had to get used to the energy or in this case, concept. The rate of acclimation for the Serpents was incredibly quick, as they not only drew on the knowledge of the energy that was consumed but also the vast fields of power inside of Rowan which were the nascent forms of Bloodline Sources.

Using these two methods, the rate they could adapt and evolve to anything had reached a truly prodigious level.

For the first few hours the rate at which the Ouroboros Serpents were devouring the darkness was slow, a mere trickle, and comparing the amount of darkness inside of the armor and the fact that it could be replenished, then they were hardly making a dent in the overall volume.

A fact that the Spirit inside the armor had announced with glee so many times, as it tried to disguise its disquietness with smugness. Rowan might have chosen to disregard the words of the Spirit, but his Serpents could still be considered newborns, and they took the words to heart.

A silent agreement went through the Six Serpents and as one they unleashed one of their profound techniques—Spirit Burning.

Rowan was surprised at the methods the Serpents exerted themselves to consume the darkness and he finally learned the purpose of why the Primordial Ouroboros Serpents consumed the Spirits of their Prey; it was to use them as fuel.

The Primordial Ouroboros Serpents had varied powerful abilities, and more would be unlocked when they became Immortal, among one of their abilities was a trait that devoured the Spirit of their prey.

Like Rowan, every Primordial Ouroboros had an almost unlimited amount of Essence. They had to, in order to maintain their powerful bodies, but they were relatively deficient in Spirit.

Relatively was an interesting watchword in this situation, because the serpents, even as mortal Creatures of the false Fourth Supreme Circle had more Spirit than even a Rank 7 Archmage, but even creatures as powerful as these could not sustain the technique used in consuming not just a concept as ethereal as darkness, but to wrench that darkness out of the grasp of Tenebris.