"Wind has no form."
Carl quietly felt the presence of wind between heaven and earth. The deeper his understanding grew, the more insights he gained.
Wind had no form, yet a breeze could brush his face, or gusts could be as fierce as blades.
Over the past few years, Carl's understanding of wind had grown layer by layer. The Wind Element was the foundation of wind. Though its Mystery was not especially powerful, it was still the bedrock of the Laws of Wind.
As his insights grew, Carl still relied on the system's help. Yet over the years, he had gradually begun to understand the nature of certain Mysteries.
The seven elemental Laws and the seven elemental Mysteries were the foundations of their respective branches, the roots of everything. Other Mysteries built upon them, granting additional abilities to the Wind Element.
"It's a pity that the Yulan Continent is only a Material Plane. Cultivation below the Saint Realm is still fairly straightforward, but once you reach the Peak Saint Realm, the Laws between heaven and earth become unfathomably obscure, making them extremely difficult to comprehend."
Only after trying to comprehend the Mysteries on his own did Carl realize that the power of the Laws could no longer be guessed at as it once could. Before he began comprehending the Laws, he could still use old texts and the experience of his predecessors to speculate whether his cultivation method was right. Though he rarely used this approach, it was not wrong in itself. After all, if he noticed a mistake early, there was still room to correct it. He might even find the one right path among hundreds or thousands of wrong turns.
But this approach no longer worked once he reached the Peak Saint Realm.
At the Peak Saint Realm, one had to comprehend the Laws, and even the Laws of the same branch were divided into different Mysteries.
Take the Laws of Wind, for instance. Most Wind Saint Realm experts on the Yulan Continent now cultivated around the Wind Element as their core Mystery, yet their techniques also bore traces of other Mysteries, such as speed, slowness, and dimensions. Their power grew considerably, but their understanding was muddled.
"The Laws are, by their very nature, something to be comprehended. They have no form or appearance. Everything depends on how you understand the Laws between heaven and earth. If you misunderstand them, you'll never have a chance to become a god."
In Carl's view, it all came down to understanding.
Low-level Mysteries were like addition and subtraction: if one could instantly work out any answer within their scope, that Mystery was considered fully mastered. Mid-level Mysteries were like multiplication and division, while High-level Mysteries were like mixed operations. Fusion Profound Mysteries, which lay beyond them, were like combining many different operations in multiple ways.
It was like progressing from the beginner's 1 + 1 to calculus, then from calculus to the algorithms of humanity's great emperors—from mathematics to science.
But once your understanding went wrong, you might end up believing that 1 + 1 = 3. How could any answer based on that premise possibly be right?
"I have to find that place."
Carl was growing impatient. In a Material Plane, the Mysteries were too obscure. Insights surfaced only now and then, and seizing those fleeting opportunities might be the only way to make even a little progress in comprehending them. Whether that progress belonged to the same Mystery was still unknown.
"Wind is speed itself." Feeling the breeze, Carl extended a fingertip. A pale green ball of air appeared above it.
The essence of wind was speed. The utmost speed brought the utmost attack power.
With the system's support, Carl's understanding of the Wind Element was already fairly advanced. His years of independent study were less a matter of gaining new insights than of finally mastering what he should have understood long ago.
"The utmost of life is death, and the utmost of death is life. So why shouldn't the utmost of speed be slowness? And why shouldn't the utmost of slowness be speed?"
As the foundation of the Laws of Wind, the Mystery of Wind Element contained every Mystery within the Laws of Wind. The more Carl contemplated it, the more he realized that the Wind Element held not only speed, but slowness as well. He could even transform into wind and depart, or use wind to cut through all things.
While Carl was carefully contemplating the Wind Element, the Sky Wind Kingdom was also developing rapidly. The arrival of a Saint Realm expert had even drawn Level 9 experts, let alone Level 7 and Level 8 Warriors.
In just a few short years, it had expanded aggressively from Black Stone City into the surrounding areas. It now had over thirty cities and was indisputably a kingdom-level power.
In a mountain range near the border of the Sky Wind Kingdom, two men were carefully surveying the geology.
A Principality, a kingdom, or an Empire all needed reliable sources of income. This couldn't be solved with gold coins alone; it was a matter of people's livelihoods and military strength.
Only by owning farmland could a power ensure its people wouldn't go hungry or be left helpless when outsiders tried to hold them in check.
Besides fertile fields and irrigation canals, there was another crucial resource: mineral deposits.
Copper, iron, silver, and even gold deposits all had different uses. And aside from the economic value of gold and silver, copper and iron were also vital, since they determined whether a power could produce its own military equipment.
Before the Sky Wind Kingdom was established, this entire region had been plagued by constant warfare and unstable rule. A city might be under one ruler today and another tomorrow. As a result, its lords often lacked the time or energy to mine. Instead, they took the more direct approach of extracting resources from the people.
But after the Sky Wind Kingdom was founded, the situation changed. The Radiant Church had known for fifty years that Carl was a Saint Realm expert. A Saint Realm expert establishing a relatively small kingdom within his territory was something that other experts of the same rank could accept.
At Carl's instruction a few years earlier, geological surveys had never ceased. People with an affinity for the Earth Element could even easily take senior positions in the surveying department. Over the years, they had found quite a few metal deposits, including copper, iron, gold, and silver, though their sizes varied.
They had also found some more valuable deposits of Black Iron Ore and Thorium Ore, but the quantities were small.
If they mined the ore themselves, they wouldn't need to buy certain materials for weapons from other countries.
"Captain, the geology around here seems rather unusual." A thin, monkey-faced man crouched on the ground, rubbing the soil between his fingers. Years of experience had made him keenly aware that something was different.
When the man called captain heard this, he quickly crouched down as well. After examining the area, he said, "Yasuo, let's dig down. Go deeper and see what's below."
"Yes, Captain." The young man immediately took out his tools and began digging hard alongside the team leader. Neither of them was particularly powerful—the young man was a Level 2 Warrior, while the team leader was a Level 3 Warrior—but digging was easy for them.
They dug with great care. Though the pit was narrow at the top, it wouldn't collapse.
"Scrape—" A sharp sound rang out, as if they had struck metal.
"Captain, come take a look!" the young man called.
The middle-aged man immediately leaned down to inspect it. It was afternoon, and plenty of light reached into the pit. He could clearly see something glinting, so he brushed away the surrounding soil with his hand.
A glistening, translucent crystal appeared before them.
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