He sat cross-legged and held out his palm. A dim, flickering ball of purple mana, no bigger than an egg, appeared above it.
"The mana inside my body has already run dry."
He spoke softly, his face expressionless.
The key was to keep testing, then make adjustments over and over.
He reduced the risk of mana going berserk by following the mana-node pathways on the scroll. If one route didn't work, he immediately switched to another.
By trying different routes, he would find his Ultimate Mana Node.
"So what is my Ultimate Mana Node?"
His eyes shone with intense curiosity. As someone whose soul had come from another world, he couldn't shake the feeling that this so-called Ultimate Mana Node was special.
Why did humans have such a unique mana node inside their bodies? It was a question worth asking.
"Phew—"
He took a deep breath, calmed himself, and began meditating on the mana nodes shown on the scroll.
Without refining it, he drew the natural mana of the outside world through the endless void and gathered it here.
The mana surrounded Aurelian, turning into multicolored specks of light that streamed into his body. He began to glow.
After the year 1000 of the Era of the Human King, the mana native to this world began to dwindle.
To absorb mana through meditation, one had to extend one's spirit into the unknown void.
The void was unknown; no one knew what existed there. Some who meditated on mana became so absorbed that they eventually went mad, babbling incoherently and unable to escape their delusions.
The void was dangerous, but it held an endless supply of mana!
"Ugh!"
He let out a muffled groan and raised his eyebrows, sinking deeper into his meditation.
The mixed, impure mana tormented him. It felt as if insects were gnawing and biting every inch of his flesh.
His body was instinctively resisting, trying to force out the impure mana from beyond.
But Aurelian forced himself to accept it, constantly guiding the mana along the pathway marked on the scroll.
Whenever his body failed to adapt to the mana, he gave up and switched to another mana-node pathway, guiding the mana anew.
This time, everything went smoothly. The mana flowed without provoking any strong resistance from his body.
His furrowed brows slowly relaxed. He hadn't expected to get lucky and succeed on only his second try.
The impure mana flowed freely through him, about to reach the central mana node—
Rumble—
The mana throughout his body suddenly began to boil and ran wild!
"Damn it!"
Aurelian gritted his teeth and hurriedly altered the mana-node pathway.
Gradually, the mana on the verge of running wild settled down.
Though the rampaging mana had calmed, Aurelian's heart remained in his throat.
He now knew that danger lurked at every step on the path to the Ultimate Mana Node. One careless mistake could cost him his life.
He focused again and continued circulating the mana through the nodes.
Meditation was all well and good, but time outside was flying by.
Aurelian had already tried over a thousand mana-node pathways, and every one had failed. A few times, his mana had nearly run completely wild.
If he hadn't reacted in time, he would already be a corpse.
His once handsome, gentle face was unnaturally pale, drained of color.
The longer one meditated, the better it was not. Aside from the danger of going mad, it could also overtax the body and mind.
"My body can't take much more. So I don't become the first person in history to die from meditating too long, I'll try one last time."
He focused intently and slowly drew in the natural mana.
A sudden flash of inspiration struck him. This time, he chose a mana-node pathway entirely different from the rest.
He would work backward, drawing the natural mana straight into the central mana node, then tracing it back through the pathway.
But reversing the flow of mana was absolutely unheard of. No one in this world dared to try it!
Was he trying to get himself killed? Reversing the mana flow meant it would bypass the nodes' checks and run wild without fail.
There was no need to ask why. It was as immutable a truth as one plus one equaling two or the void rejecting powerful beings!
But after so many attempts, Aurelian had suddenly come up with the idea. If the normal way doesn't work, I'll try it in reverse. I'll try everything!
Having come from another world, he wasn't bound by convention. That was one of his greatest strengths.
"I'll give it a try."
It was like walking a tightrope, but Aurelian couldn't suppress the urge.
Just this once.
With that thought, he completely opened his body's mana nodes and let the natural mana surge in ceaselessly from the void.
One barrier after another seemed to open. Unimpeded, the mana began to run wild.
Aurelian trembled all over. Bloodshot veins appeared in his eyes.
It was as if a primordial beast had been locked inside him, battering against his heart. His tension shot to its peak.
Freed from all restraints, the natural mana crashed straight into the central mana node.
The Star Magic gathered there began to grow chaotic. It was as if it had suddenly gained a will of its own, actively resisting the foreign mana pouring in.
The two kinds of mana were like water and fire, ready to clash at any moment!
He was already at a dead end!
But Aurelian had a fire in his heart. He had to keep going.
Perhaps the next step would take him over a cliff into the abyss. Perhaps it would lead him onto a broad, unobstructed road.
His burgundy hair whipped about, and his eyes turned completely blood-red.
"Ah! Charge!"
Aurelian roared at the top of his lungs. The candles illuminating the entire room went out at once.
A burst of intense red light suddenly flared, as if flames were about to set the place ablaze.
The sound of something heavy, like a membrane, tearing apart rang through the room. The red light vanished in an instant.
Silence. Nothing but silence.
"Cough, cough, cough—"
A violent bout of coughing echoed through the pitch-black room.
Aurelian rubbed his chest and stood up.
He held out his palm. A brilliant light of mana, dazzling as the stars, shimmered there, illuminating his handsome face.
His mana flowed without end. He felt as if he were connected to the entire void!
Endless.
"I did it."
A brilliant smile spread across his handsome face.
Some things really could only be accomplished by breaking convention. And that was how he had done it.
Aurelian felt as if he had unblocked his Ren and Du meridians. His mind felt much clearer.
A special mana node had appeared inside him.
That's right, it was the Ultimate Mana Node. Natural mana flowed into it without end, then poured back out.
It was like a floodgate.
"From now on, if anyone gives me trouble, I'll hit him with a Curry Stick!"
Of course, he was joking. With his Lower Rank Magic and his current mana reserves, he was nowhere near being able to unleash city-level magic.
The Ultimate Mana Node was like a faucet, and his body was like a reservoir. Once he used up the water in the reservoir, it could refill; otherwise, the water would overflow!
He stood up, opened the tightly shut door by the light of his mana, and walked out of the basement.
"I wonder how much time has passed outside."
Perhaps a day, perhaps longer.
He opened the iron door and stepped outside.
When he returned to his bedroom, he found that Roundball was no longer on his bed.
Aurelian looked puzzled. Had Jeanne taken Roundball away? In the past, Jeanne had always waited for him by the bedroom door.
Just then, the old butler, Will, walked in with a group of servants, all carrying brooms and buckets. It looked like they had come to clean the room.
"Mr. Will, do you know where Jeanne went?"
Before you continue