Listening to the Call of the Wind

"Wind is inherently formless."

Karl quietly sensed the breath of the wind between heaven and earth. As his perception deepened, so did his insights.

Wind is formless; it can be a gentle breeze brushing against one's face, or it can be as fierce as a blade.

Over these past few years, Karl's comprehension of the wind had grown layer upon layer. The Wind Element is the foundation of the wind; although its Mysteries are not powerful, they serve as the bedrock for the Laws of the Wind.

With more and more insights, Karl could not do without the help of the system, but over these years, he had gradually come to understand the essence of some Mysteries.

The seven Elemental Laws and the seven Elemental Mysteries are the foundation of each respective lineage; they are the root of everything. Any other Mysteries that exist above them are merely abilities bestowed upon the Wind Element.

"It is just a pity that the Yulan Continent is only a Material Plane. Cultivation below the Saint Realm is still decent, but once one reaches the Peak Saint Realm, the laws of heaven and earth become incredibly obscure, making them extremely difficult to comprehend."

Only when truly relying on himself to comprehend the Mysteries did Karl discover that the power of the laws could not be guessed at as they once were. Before comprehending the laws, for some cultivation, he could still rely on classics or the experiences of predecessors to guess whether his cultivation method was correct. Although Karl rarely used this method, the method itself was not wrong; after all, if one cultivated incorrectly, as long as it was discovered early, there was room for maneuver, and one could even find the only correct path among thousands of errors.

However, this method no longer worked after reaching the Peak Saint Realm.

The Peak Saint Realm requires the comprehension of laws, and even the laws of the same lineage are divided into different Mysteries.

Just like the Laws of the Wind, basically all wind-type Saint Realm experts in the Yulan Continent today cultivate Mysteries with the Wind Element as the core, but they are also more or less tainted with the shadows of other Mysteries like Fast, Slow, or Dimension. Their strength increases, but it is very messy.

"Laws are, by nature, perceptions—formless and imageless. It all depends on one's own understanding of the laws of heaven and earth. If the understanding is wrong, there is no chance of becoming a god."

In Karl's view, this is a type of cognition.

Just as low-level Mysteries are like addition and subtraction—if any number within the scope of addition and subtraction can instantly yield an answer, then the Mystery is considered a great success—then intermediate Mysteries are like multiplication and division, while high-level Mysteries are mixtures, and the Fusion Mysteries above those are multi-faceted combinations.

It is like going from 1+1 at the introductory level to calculus, then from calculus to the algorithms of the Human Emperors, from mathematics to science.

But once a cognitive error occurs, something like 1+1=3 appears. If one believes oneself to be correct, then how could the answer derived from that foundation possibly be correct?

"I must find that place."

Karl felt a sense of urgency in his heart. The Material Plane is too obscure regarding the Mysteries; they only surface occasionally. By seizing this sliver of opportunity, there might be a possibility of advancing the comprehension of the Mysteries, though whether this progress would be in the same Mystery remained unknown.

"Wind is inherently fast." Sensing the breeze, Karl extended his fingertip, and a pale cyan air mass appeared upon it.

The essence of wind is speed; extreme speed brings extreme attacks.

With the system's support, Karl's understanding of the Wind Element was not low. These years of self-comprehension were less about learning something new and more about finally mastering what he should have known long ago.

"The extreme of life is death, and the extreme of death is life. So, isn't the extreme of fast also slow, and isn't the extreme of slow also fast?"

As the foundation of the Laws of the Wind, the Wind Element Mystery contains all the Mysteries of the wind-type laws. As Karl contemplated more, he discovered that the Wind Element not only contains fast but also slow. Even now, Karl could transform into wind to depart or use wind to slice through all things.

Just as Karl was carefully contemplating the Wind Element, the Sky Wind Kingdom also ushered in rapid development. A Saint Realm expert had arrived in person, which could even attract Level 9 experts, let alone Level 7 and Level 8 warriors.

In just a few short years, with Black Stone City as the center, they expanded wildly into the surrounding areas. Now, there were over thirty cities, making it a kingdom-level power beyond any doubt.

In a mountain range near the border of the Sky Wind Kingdom, two men were carefully surveying the geology.

A duchy, a kingdom, or an empire all need to perfect their own sources of economy. This cannot be solved by gold coins alone; it concerns the people's livelihood and the military.

Only by possessing one's own grain fields can the people of a power avoid starvation and not be helpless when constrained by outsiders.

Besides fertile fields and irrigation canals, there is one more crucial thing: mineral veins.

Copper mines, iron mines, silver mines, and even gold mines—different veins have different uses. Beyond the economic value of gold and silver, copper and iron mining are extremely important because they determine whether a power can produce its own military strength.

Before the Sky Wind Kingdom was established, this vast area was plagued by constant warfare and chaotic rule. Perhaps a city was ruled by one person today, only to be replaced by another tomorrow. This resulted in many lords lacking the energy to mine, instead adopting a more direct method: taking from the people.

But when the Sky Wind Kingdom was established—especially since the identity of Karl as a Saint Realm expert had been known to the Radiant Church fifty years ago—the establishment of a small kingdom in the territory of a Saint Realm expert was an act that experts of the same level could tacitly accept.

Under Karl's instructions from a few years ago, geological exploration had never ceased. Those with an affinity for the Earth Element could easily serve in the upper echelons of the exploration department. Over the years, they had indeed found many metal mines, such as copper, iron, gold, and silver, though the sizes of the veins varied.

Among them, they also found some rarer, though less abundant, Black Iron Ore and Thorium Ore.

By mining their own ore, they would not need to purchase certain weapon materials from other countries.

"Captain, the geology here seems a bit special." A man who looked like a skinny monkey squatted on the ground, rubbing the soil in his hands. Through years of experience, he clearly sensed something different.

The man called the captain heard this and immediately squatted down as well. After carefully surveying for a moment, he spoke directly: "Yasuo, let's dig downward. Let's dig deeper and see what's underneath."

"Yes, Captain." The young man immediately took out his tools and began to dig vigorously with the group leader. Although their strength was not very high—the young man was a Level 2 warrior and the group leader was a Level 3 warrior—digging the ground was easy for them.

They dug very skillfully; although the pit was not large, it would not collapse.

"Screech—" A harsh sound rang out, as if they had suddenly struck metal.

"Captain, come take a look." The young man said hurriedly.

The middle-aged man immediately lowered his head to look carefully. It was afternoon, and there was plenty of light coming down the pit; the middle-aged man clearly saw something that seemed to be reflecting light and immediately used his hands to brush away the surrounding soil.

Crystalline, translucent crystals appeared before their eyes.