[161] Learning A New Path; The Path of the….

Chapter 161: Learning A New Path; The Path of the….

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At the beginning of my current life, I had a few Paths to choose from after I reached the Foundation realm. I ended up choosing Path of the Raging Sky after consideration, both due to its crazy versatility and its ability to heal.

However, versatility aside, it was far from the strongest Path on my list back then.

Path of the Celestial Radiance: A path running on the brilliant nine-colored Qi, a variation of pure Qi but with more destructive prowess. It can earn similar results to the legendary Hollow King path, though the mana-negation part is less focused, in exchange for stronger attack powers. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, your eyes will be transformed into the Nine-Colored Eyes.

Path of the Black Flame: A path running on a mixture of Qi affinities between darkness and fire, turning you into a machine of destruction. Experienced users can demolish a continent into mere ashes with the [Black Dragon’s Dance] attack. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, you’d gain access to partial dragonification, as this is a path derived from a line of Black Dragons.

Path of the Raging Sky: A path focused on storm Qi; a mixture of water, wind, lightning, and cloud affinity. Experienced users can call forth typhoons with a flick of their fingers, and destroy several mountain ranges with another. Users can also heal wounds of their own and others, even spiritual ones; experienced users can even grant spiritual pathways to people who lack them. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, you’d gain access to a passive aura of electricity around you, that’d send slight shivers of relaxation by default but can turn offensive to burn and pulverize any sudden attack or attacker.

Path of the Darkest Sun: A path focused on dark steller Qi; a mixture of star and moon affinity, a variation of Yin and Yang. This provides the fastest growth through Cycling, as there is stellar Qi everywhere in the day, and moon Qi at night. Experienced users can call forth pillars of solar energies from the sky, erasing cities with each, and also devouring darkness that can swallow civilization like the maw of eldritch horror. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, your eyes would transform into the Eyes of the Sun and Moon.

Path of the Hungry Deep: A path focused on devouring Qi; a mixture of blood and hunger affinity. Outside the usual advancement using Cycling Techniques, this allows the users to grow by another means. They can [Devour] the physical and spiritual strength of magical beasts and their latent authority, using them to empower the user. This devour is only usable on monsters and beasts, and is unusable on a humanoid creature due to the fundamental structure of the technique. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, your forearms would be blackened and will give you an urge of constant hunger.

Among these five choices, Path of the Raging Sky was only the fourth strongest Path, if considered by destruction capability. Overall abilities-wise, I’ll put it at the top, but it’s really not the best path to choose if I’m in a battle.

These five are not the only Paths I’ve memorized in my long 9th life, of course, but they’re better for the current me and my current environment. For example, If I were a mercenary in outer space, I’d have chosen something like the [Path of the Starseed].

Other than the five paths mentioned above, another one that’d have been good to train in is the [Path of the Cloud Hammer], which uses Cloud and Force Qi. Due to the similarity in Qi, it’d have been easier to train on, too. I already had a technique that forged a hammer made out of cloud, but with that path, I’d have gained a lot of other abilities.

However, it’s not the best choice. Right now, as well as extra abilities, the thing I needed most was speed. I was Sage, true, but it’ll take me a decade to reach Monarch due to how low the Qi in the air is. So I had to choose a path that’d boost my speed.

In this case, the [Path of the Darkest Sun] has to be the greatest choice for me.

I wouldn’t gain its Gold Signs, as I was past that Rank long ago in my current path, but its base abilities are powerful too. It’s the most powerful path among those five. Ah and, although I say I wouldn’t gain the Gold Signs, it’s not entirely impossible, it’s just hard. I can’t be bothered to try getting it.

I spent the entire day cultivating.

For that, I had to travel to a tall mountain. After guiding the girls to a schedule of what to train for the day, I left for a nearby mountain and landed on its peak. There stood formations and cultivation arrays layered over it that I'd been making for years now.

I've been preparing this for years just for this day, and now it has come. I had to thank Ranefer Phenex for the supply of items which helped me quicken the process.

“Let's see,” I patted the ground with a Qi-infused hand and it lit up like a light work. I smiled and sat down at the center, crossing my legs and taking a deep breath.

Then, I started my cycling technique.

If I didn't have my Grandmist Body, I'd start with creating a 2nd Qi pool now. Thankfully, the Grandmist Body erased the need for it.

A body made from Grandmist energy allows the body's owner to create their own cosmos and establish a universe where their body will start generating Xuanhuang energy; aka the energy of totality. I don't have access to the energy of totality since I haven't made a proper universe inside of me yet—the Void Storage doesn't count. But even so, this body and its capability of holding the energy of totality allows me to gather any type of Qi without needing to make a separate Qi Pool.

Still, I couldn't just do it without preparation in my current rank. I can’t just be in the middle of a fight and absorb some Qi for a new Path. I needed this formation.

My Qi pool was already at Sage Rank, so when registering a new Path, one might assume that I should be reaching Sage too from the get-go. One wouldn’t be entirely wrong in assuming so, but it’ll take some time.

I wouldn’t experience any of the usual blockages of advancement, but I’ll have to start absorbing Dark Stellar Qi in the quantity of Foundation Rank and let my body register it slowly. After a few months, or a few weeks if I’m quick with it, I can start absorbing it at Sage Rank’s quantity and officially register Dark Stellar Qi into my system—and therefore have two Sage-ranked Paths on the tip of my fingers.

I spent the day cultivating, taking in the Stellar Qi during the daytime, and Moonlight Qi during the nighttime. By the end of the night, I officially registered Path of the Darkest Sun on the Foundation Rank. If I use up the little Dark Stellar Qi I gathered, it’ll naturally regenerate on its own from now on.

Tonight was a success.

****

The morning birds chirped outside, a gentle wind filling the house, as I stepped out of the bathroom while ruffling my hair with a windy hand. My hair dried while I walked over to the mirror to get changed.

A wind ruffled my hair; a real wind coming from the window. It seems it will rain today. My phone rang when I was halfway through changing, and I slowly finished adorning myself into a pair of jeans and a white shirt before picking up the call.

“Rias?” I read the name of the caller out loud, and a soft, resigned sigh greeted me from the other side.

“Yep, hi, Aqua. Last night was hectic, you missed out a lot,” she said, and I held back a yawn of boredom. I remembered the same event from the canon timeline, and I’m unsure if anything outside that had happened.

“Ah, really? What happened?” I put the phone on a loudspeaker and fell on my back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Let’s see what she’s so excited about.

The more I heard her speak, my brows furrowed. I cared little for Vali’s betrayal or Azazel’s lost arm, my mind grew busy with the other news. Rias wasn’t supposed to tell me about the discussion of the meeting, but she did so anyway, she trusted me a bit too much, but I wasn’t complaining.

“A Goddess? From… another world?” I muttered in surprise. That was different from the canon timeline, though it did align with the plotline that Indra, the God King, was preparing a war against Shiva, the God of Destruction.

I’m not sure how this will turn out. Is the ‘other world’ in this context the planets that were described in the DxD Light Novels, or some other anime? How curious.

I talked with Rias for a bit more about this and realized that the three factions were as curious as me. So I expect news from Rias about this without researching it myself. That’s good.

“Yeah, that concludes it,” Rias finished with a sigh. “Ah, and the school grounds are ruined and destroyed. Thankfully we're on summer vacation break till the end of August. I’ll miss you.”

“Who doesn’t-? Ah, I mean I miss you too.” I said and she burst out giggling on the other side of the phone. We spent another hour talking, this time about stuff that was not supernatural politics.

****

A few weeks later, the house was mostly empty since all the Idol Trainee girls were out on a work-related photoshoot trip, as well as Asia and Tsubasa. I sent Blue and the two exorcist girls along to keep them safe, but Ai remained home alone with me.

Like my usual routine, I returned from the mountain after cultivation and walked out of the shower with a towel wrapped around my waist. Today also I was interrupted before I could change into clothes, but this time by the ringing of a doorbell.

“Huh…” I turned my head toward the direction of the door, and my Jade Perception caught the presence of the three women standing outside. Three divine deities.

I teleported behind the door, and pulled it open. My gaze met the arrogant purple eyes of a Goddess before a kinder Goddess jumped into my arm. “Aqua~!” Goddess Sakuya-hime hugged me and said, and I hugged her back, nodding at Bishamonten behind her, and then at the white-haired little girl beside her.

“My luck must be really good today to bring three great Goddesses to my doorstep,” I said with an unamused face, raising an eyebrow at Amaterasu who tilted her head to look inside the house.

“Invite us in, we need to talk in private,” she said and Sakuya canceled the hug, smiling at me. I smiled back at her and I stepped to the side to let them in.

"Please, come in then," I said, my voice calm but tinged with curiosity.

They entered, and the soft thud of their steps filled the otherwise silent house. Last time Bishamonten and Sakuya had teleported right inside, but now they had bothered to knock on my doors instead. It was obvious that I’ve earned their respect due to my recent activities.

I led them to the living area, gesturing towards the plush sofas. "Make yourselves comfortable. Can I get anything for you? Although I’m unsure if Divinities would enjoy mortal food." I tried to play the perfect host despite the whirlwind of questions swirling in my mind.

"No, thank you, Aqua," Sakuya-hime responded with a gentle shake of her head. "We won't be long. We have something short yet important to discuss with you. Well, great Lady Amaterasu will be the one to speak."

“I see,” I sat down too. Just as we settled onto the sofas and prepared to talk, eager to learn the purpose of their unexpected visit, the doorbell rang again. “....”

With a puzzled frown, I excused myself and strode back to the door. Opening it, I found myself face-to-face with a grinning blonde. The Dragon Goddess looked me in the eye, her presence was as flamboyant as ever, her vibrant grin a stark contrast to the more reserved expressions of the earlier arrivals.

"Why are you having discussions with other Goddesses without me? Cheater." Quetzalcoatl asked, her tone light so I dismissed it with a shake of my head.

“How did you sense them?”

“I smelled them.”

“Makes sense,” I stepped to the side and gestured inside. “Come in. Let’s see what you lots have to say out of nowhere.”

Little Amaterasu peered around the corner of the hallway, her small form barely visible. At the sight of Quetzalcoatl, her eyes lit up, and we approached her to join the meeting.

My mundane evening was suddenly turned into a meeting place for Gods.

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